Artist Michael Tompert (who from these images you wouldn’t take as a huge Jobs fan) hosted an exhibition of his finest battered and mauled Apple products — boy can an iPhone still look beautiful smashed into a million pieces. At Live Worms Gallery in San Francisco, Tompert’s images are enough to make a fanboy weep, showing various Apple products in states of utter destruction. Even though it hurts my very soul to see a MacBook in such a state, no-one can deny these images are fascinating. Whether you think they show our subconscious frustration in the projection of technology on our otherwise free lives, or if you just think someone got bored with a handgun one afternoon — they’re pretty interesting! Anyone fancy nail-gunning this Time Machine?

Article Via Cult of Mac

Macgasm - Apple Tips, Apple News, Apple Everything.

Visa is trialling this right now in New York with plans to open it up to all sorts of payment types, including a collaboration with the Bank of America. We’ve heard of this sort of thing before with Barclaycard’s contact-less payments in the UK, so consumers can pay for the littlest things, like lunch and coffee, without having to count up the pennies. Having it as a way to pay for your public transport seems like a really handy idea, and will definitely make it much easier to keep everything in one place – i.e. your iPhone.

It’s not completely clear whether you have to pay for your usage online before you travel, like topping up a travelcard, or if you foot the bill afterwards, but either way it’s still a brilliant idea. Have a watch of the Visa video and let us know if you’ll be using this app when it’s finally rolled out nationally.

Macgasm - Apple Tips, Apple News, Apple Everything.

Oh yes, command+z. It’s easy to forget Apple’s shortcuts – after all, there’s hundreds of them. So Hu2 have made a handy reminder on the one’s so frequently forgotten so you’re never in a muddle again! You just stick them on the leg of your iMac or even on the front of a Macbook, acting as a little reminder that’s always there.

You can get this for £19 in the UK ($30 at today’s exchange rate) and I have to say, it seems worth it. Saves having all the shortcuts in a text file on your desktop, right?

(I don’t do that….promise…*ahem*)

Via applegazette.com

Macgasm - Apple Tips, Apple News, Apple Everything.

It looks a little strange, a round smiling face which (when you realize it – took me a while) turns out to be a quaver note, looking all cute. You have to move its mouth up and down or pinch its cheeks together to make the sounds come out, then tilt your phone around to change the notes. the iPhone’s gyroscope functionality really comes out in this app, so I’m sure it’ll give you plenty of practice getting to grips with that too. The otamatone will squeak out the weirdest sound, but you’ll get used to that as time goes on! It took me a while to get the hang of tilting to get the right notes, but I think if you’re musically inclined it’ll come naturally and you’ll be belting out the show tunes in no time. I think I managed to get out a quick rendition of Happy Birthday, but I’ll save you the wails — it wasn’t a masterpiece.

You can use the settings to adjust the volume, the octave, and the color of your instrument (only black or white available at the moment though), as well as record your tunes by tapping the yellow bar and starting to play once the stick swivels round to face the other way. It might take a few goes to get the hang of how to use it, but it’s pretty fun to learn! I think all it needs to take it to the next level is to bring in some sort of songbook like Magic Piano or Leaf Trombone, so there’s certain places to hold it and way to tune it – that way you can really learn how to play it through levels and different difficulties.

I enjoyed playing it and think it could also be fun for little kids, simply because they’d find the ‘waah waah’ sound amusing. Recording songs allows you to see your progress as you learn to play the instrument, but it would be a longer investment to have a songbook and those stages to work at getting better at playing.

Have a look at the video, which shows the otamatone in action:

Macgasm - Apple Tips, Apple News, Apple Everything.

Hipstamatic allows you to take photos through your iPhone camera, choose which lens you want, flash, and even film type — there’s even an in-app store (of course) to purchase more styles of each at 59p/99¢ each.

Once you load the app, you’re greeted with that familiar plastic back, bright yellow button and flash slider, as well as a small viewfinder — you’re almost tempted to put your eye up to it! I took a few pictures with the standard setting first, giving me a fifties style picture — light blue and green hues with plenty of shadows. Not being a photography buff, I have to say everything in this app impressed me. After seeing plenty of friend’s pictures in Facebook made by this very app, I wasn’t up for taking any old picture. I wanted interesting photos that really brought out the nostalgia in these old photographic styles.

Selecting the lenses, the standard choices are John S, Jimmy, or Kaimal Mark II — with the extra options being Helga Viking, Lucifer VI, and Roboto Glitter (that one sounds interesting). I had good fun finding out the different styles of these, eventually settling with Jimmy as my favourite — producing a real old style 70’s effect. Then with the Flash you only get two standard options — Standard (there we go, pretty self explanatory) and Dreampop which adds even more colour into your finished photo. The extras include a bigger range of gels and a Berry Pop multi-coloured pack including a lens and film. The films are a bit less exciting. There’s Blanko, Ina’s 1969, and Kodot Verichrome as standard, then Black & White, SuperGrain, Pistil, and Float as extras. I tended to stick with the Ina’s 1969 as I really liked its polaroid style.

Once you’ve picked your bits and pieces, you’re ready to bring all the memories flooding back. A notice states the camera is ‘warming the transistors’ before you get to slide the flash on and I noticed when you first open the app you’re greeted with ‘wiping off the lens, please wait’. Oh iPhone, I’m not used to you being so…dated! Then after taking your picture you have to wait for it to be “developed and printed,” which I did get quite impatient with. It’s not like your classic iPhone camera where it’s instantly in your gallery. You have a wait a couple of minutes for it to “develop” the photo into your library. From there you can share by emailing or posting to Facebook, as well as creating albums to separate all your styles.

For me the app is a bit of fun but I’m pretty sure I’ll get bored with it soon, after its novelty has worn off. For the more serious of fans, you can enter a monthly contest to win prizes for your best HipstaPrint at their community.

The app is, of course, not as good as the real deal but it’s certainly cheaper than buying a hipster cam in a trendy store and a handy way of keeping your prints together to upload in batches. We’re all tired of scanning polaroids aren’t we? Hipstamatic is available on the App Store for $1.99.

Macgasm - Apple Tips, Apple News, Apple Everything.

When I got the email announcing they were going to sell the deal of the century, unlocked and SIM-free iPhone 4s for £99, I sent it round to my colleagues, family and friends – well done Groupola, you got them to sign up for an account with their emails. An 80% saving isn’t going to repulse anyone, and their great reputation led many to believe this kind of deal would be a blast, including The Guardian who ran a story on the deal that same day. So on Friday 2nd July, we and, according to Groupola, 5 million other people tried to purchase the new iPhone for £99 from their site — if we could get on it. People started to get angry. People started shouting they only had 3 iPhones. People started wondering if this was a legitimate deal at all. They took to Facebook and Twitter in their frustration, creating hate groups and asking Groupola to make a statement to reveal if they ever had any iPhones in the first place.

By this time it all started to click into place. They had just created the biggest hype for their company as well as Apple and gained (according to their figures for the number of users entering their site that day) millions of emails from new users. Even though the hype backfired and many tried to unsubscribe from the company, I’d be interested to know the stats for the providers selling the new phone in the UK as to whether they got more visitors whilst the offer was going on, and what Apple has to say about the hype. I knew that Apple would never have agreed to sell the phones with Groupola at such a discounted price, which started off my concerns that the deal was a little fishy. I worked out that with 200 phones sold (as they claim) Groupola was working off a 90k loss at the start. Wow, risky!

What seems to be the most interesting is how they managed to get 200 iPhone 4s in their possession, or perhaps they’ll be handing out vouchers to the lucky buyers instead. The limit of 2 per person by Apple would have taken a while, so I’m interested to hear from anyone who was lucky enough to get one from Groupola – if they even exist in the first place. I ended up not being lucky enough and like 4,999,800 others I’ll be hanging around my provider for an upgrade. Even if it doesn’t save me 80%.

Macgasm - Apple Tips, Apple News, Apple Everything.

Wait, what?

Yes, a bookend. Brought to you as a concept by Dominic Wilcox on he site Variations on Normal, this seems like a very ‘novel’ way of using your brand new iPad in the home (sorry, couldn’t help that). He states that:

My idea this week is an accessory to transform the whizzbang iPad into a simple practical object that may be useful around the home, in this case a bookend.

Just think about it. You’ve finished browsing and sorting your photos, had a little go on Star Walk and now you’ve noticed all your Dean Koontz’s are all wonky. Best way to sort that is making your new iPad into a stylish new bookend to sort all your paperbacks into one shelf of tidy books. Amazing.

If you look at it on the one hand – what a spectacular way of wasting money, but on the other hand it’s a particularly interesting way of making a brilliant new tool just a notch more handy than it already is. Let’s make this a real product already!

Macgasm - Apple Tips, Apple News, Apple Everything.

Their rings were attached to 1st Gen iPhones, wrapped in silver and red ribbon, and their vows were written on Letterpress cards with ‘I love you more than this:’ and a picture of an iPhone below it. (Incidentally, you can buy those on Etsy if you’re quick enough). Plus, they had their own Steve Jobs minister dressed in jeans and black turtleneck! Most interesting wedding of the century? I think so!

Apparently, the couple met at that same store whilst buying iPhone cases (or iPods some are reporting) and so saw it fit to return to that same place to take their relationship to the next step. Congratulations Mr & Mrs Li! Watch the youtube video below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LQNNv7MFLE

Macgasm - Apple Tips, Apple News, Apple Everything.

January is the month of fresh starts, new beginnings, out with the old and in with the new. But, if you didn’t get a shiny new Macbook Pro for Christmas, here are my top tips for detoxing your overindulged Mac.

Disk Space

Just like de-cluttering my wardrobe, I often find my laptop is full of little bits floating around that I either never use because they’re so out of date or I had no idea they existed in the first place. So to solve the problem of a computer full of crap (e.g. that Coldplay album I downloaded, got lost in iTunes and eventually got forgotten about) taking up valuable space, there are plenty of apps about to do all the dirty work for you. Disk Inventory X uses what they call ‘treemaps’ to show you visually what your computer has been chomping on, and allows you to see where all the unwanted files and folders are lurking so you can quickly ban them to the trash. You still have to do a lot of sifting about with this app, making it a bit of a jumble sale at times, but the handy selection list lets you see all files of a specific kind, so you can work out if there’s too many files in a certain area doing the clogging. The best thing about this app is that it’s completely free, but of course you can donate via paypal to say thanks for their hard work.

If you’re looking for a one-click type of solution to tech spring cleaning, CleanMyMac is a two-click helper (almost…) with no sorting or sifting of numerous files, making it the perfect solution for the type of Mac user who simply wants everything done for them. Much like having your own maid to dust around your chair whilst you sit watching comedy show re-runs (admit it, we all want that), CleanMyMac is a welcome helper whose easy interface makes it super-easy to dump all those files you never even knew you had. For 6 months cleaning, you pay $14.95 and for a lifetime commitment (you’ve gotta make one someday) it’s $29.95. Not bad for something that does everything for you.

The cutest of all disk cleaners is DaisyDisk, an app promising to find and delete big, useless files. By far the easiest visualization of your computer, DaisyDisk shows you your files in a sunburst map where segments are proportionate to the file’s size.This way you can click on an individual segment, reveal in finder, and trash away. A truly mesmerizing interface greets you upon opening and the flash of colours gets you straight in the mood for cleaning once the scan is over. If DaisyDisk were a pinup, she’d be Bettie Page for sure. At $19.95 for a download, it’s a bargain but if you want the CD version, you’ll have to cough up an extra $14.95 for the priviledge.

Another fantastic app for getting rid of unwanted files is App Zapper, which Josh wrote about recently. Read his great post here.

Icons and Backgrounds

After the upgrade to Snow Leopard my macbook began to look a little lacklustre due to the losing of my saved background. This still hasn’t changed, but the best way to perk up a dull desktop is to whack an interesting picture on it. I usually use one of my own photographs, or I trawl through Flickr for a seasonal picture. Sometimes opening my laptop to be greeted by the smiling faces of my family can be the best pickup, and can start conversation in a cafe. Plus, it looks a hell of a lot better than Aurora!

The best app I’ve found so far for icons is Candybar, which allows you to customise and organise all your icons in one easy programme as well as your dock. Some great free icons can be found at InterfaceLIFT, and are all generally well designed with the most simple black and white packages being quite popular. I’m a fan of the crisp and clean look, not too many colours or garish animals peeking out, but liked customizing my hard drive icon with a love heart. Main folders, namely my CV folder and Portfolio, were appropriately twinned with love heart icons to make them stand out instantly. If you’re not too keen on the love hearts, there are plenty of less-girly icons for you to choose from! CandyBar can be bought from the site for $29, or you can download a free trial and register to use the services later.

The Outside

One of the best bits about owning a laptop is being able to customise it, not only on the inside but on the outside too. With the white macbooks, you’ll often find a quick clean with wipes and spray restores grey smudges to their original bright whiteness, and then you’re free to add anything you like. People often go for stickers of their favourite social sites or brands, but there’s also the option to invest in some real art to show off with. Urbanretro and Etsy sell some great vinyl skins including this Little Big Planet and exploding dog art. If you’re like me and know you’ll get bored easily with one-use only stickers, you can go for the hard case option, giving you a variety of colours to pick and choose from. And, if you have a bit more money than sense and aren’t afraid to show it, there’s always Colorware to give your Macbook or iMac a full makeover paint job.

Macgasm - Apple Tips, Apple News, Apple Everything.

The pack contains all 20 standard icons (SMS, calendar, mail, safari etc.) and comes in a handy little tin shaped like an iPhone! Trinkets like these can brighten up a room or desk-space of the most die hard mac fan, and Bear Duck Designs advise you cover your fridge, lamp, garbage can, or anything metal.

Like the paperclips, these magnets are made from strong materials like neodymium, so you won’t see anything falling loose from their grip. Measuring 13mm square and standing 3mm tall, they’re perfect for holding up the shopping list, and since it’s that time of year they’re ideal as stocking fillers!

If you don’t fancy owning all 20 of the icons (but I really don’t know why…), Bear Duck Designs offer 4 icons of your choice from the 20 listed for $8 (£4)

Macgasm - Apple Tips, Apple News, Apple Everything.

First Impressions

We’ve come to expect nothing less than ‘sleek’ and ‘shiny’ from Apple, and the Magic Mouse is no exception. Clean lines and a crisp shade of white makes the mouse stand out from its counterparts. The weight feels no heavier than the Mighty Mouse yet it manages to make itself feel more robust, proving to feel less plastic-like than its predecessor. Compared to other mice on the market, the Magic Mouse definitely looks to be the flattest, which has its pros and cons. It can make for easy movement, helping your wrist sit without the discomfort of long periods of bending, or it can prove difficult when scrolling without a nice sized curve to take the force of your fingers.

Multi-Touch

I was looking forward to trying out what is now, very basically, a handheld touchpad. Of course, Apple like to make things the easiest they could possibly be so this mouse without the ‘nipple’ should be far simpler to use. One thing though…after being so used to holding the Mighty Mouse so firmly in my hand in order to scroll without budging itself off the desk, I’m tempted many times to use the Magic Mouse much like the trackpad and just rest my hand on it lightly. Because of its light weight and flatter body, budging was at its maximum and I had to keep reminding myself to keep holding on whilst I scrolled! Here the flatness compared to the Mighty Mouse caused some unnecessary problems. It was quite hard to position my hand in the right way in order to keep hold of the sides and scroll whichever way without needing to re-position or without the mouse moving, not a major problem but one that makes my wrist want to lie loyally with the Mighty Mouse.

The two-button click is as normal, and it’s always helpful to have that left-handed assignment if needed. I do like it when companies have all their users in mind. Two-finger swipe is also pretty simple, making it easy enough to pass back to previous history and forward again, though I’m not a huge fan of putting too much into one very sensitive product. 360 scroll seems really handy compared to the stickiness of the Mighty Mouse, which frequently irritated me. The loss of the ‘nipple’ makes for a smoother experience, albeit quite a flat one. If you’ve got big hands, beware!

Overall Rating – 4/5

Whilst I’m all for Apple’s obsession with smooth and shiny, I can’t get fully on board with their insistence on making everything thinner and flatter. It might be the way forward with technology becoming more slimline, and the constant competition on who can make the smallest of whatever, but a satisfactory browsing experience must be at the comfort of your hand. The flatness was almost too much for my wrist to cope with, forcing me to keep re-positioning my hand at every scroll and my fingers to release the mouse instead of holding on. This, to me, was its only con. Overall, browsing Macgasm has never been so easy ;)

Macgasm - Apple Tips, Apple News, Apple Everything.

1) iHome iHM77 Stereo Mini Speakers – $49.95

Small but powerful, these mini speakers are a perfect match for your Macbook, iPod or iPhone. They magnetically stick together to make portability an easy task, and separate and extend to get maximum usage and sound. If your Macbook is starting to sound a little tinny and weak then these might be for you as a starter to build up that awesome party feeling. If their friendliness towards portability wasn’t enough, they also come with built-in rechargeable batteries, vacuum bass expansion, USB charging, and a carrying case! Also, they’re available in black, silver, purple, and red. These are a true testament to size not being an issue, after all, it’s what you do with them that count.
2) iHome iP41 Rotating Alarm Clock – $79.95

First off, you don’t have to play Lady GaGa through these speakers (and really, we’d rather you didn’t) even though that would be a shock to wake up quickly to. By docking your iPhone or iPod, you can safely charge and listen to music or watch videos by rotating the dock itself. If you’re a late riser and need a little boost to get out of bed in the morning, this alarm clock is sure to give you plenty of musical warning with its iP41′s Reson8 speaker technology and EXB expanded bass circuitry. It’s sleek and sophisticated, and you don’t have to rob a bank to get your hands on one.
3) iHome iP71 Computer Speakers – $129.95

I bet you’re thinking we really like iHome aren’t you? Well, yes, when it comes to value for money iHome have got it in the bag. When you’ve spent all your Summer pocket money on penny chews and cans of mountain dew there’s not a lot left for audio gadgets. Boasting ‘premium sound’ and an iPod/iPhone dock, these Reson8 computer speakers sound great with 15 Watts of stereo power output. Whether you’ve connected them to your Macbook Pro to watch a movie or are listening to the album of a catchy new band you just discovered, the quality of sound will truly catch you off guard.
4) Harman Kardon Soundsticks II – $169.95

No speaker run-down is complete without a set of these bad boys. Not only are they aesthetically beautiful, but once you play the first song on them you’ll discover sounds you never heard before (particularly if you play Imogen Heap, Harman Kardon only add to her genius). Sleek and advanced, we’re not ashamed to call these speakers sexy, and if you’re looking to splash out on something special as well as good-looking these are it. You can thank computer-optimized multi-band parametric equalization for the excellence of these speakers, and you can also thank the designer for the ease of use. Simply plug in the stereo jack and you’re away. Easy.
5) Razer Mako 2.1 THX Speaker System – $299.95

Another set up where size doesn’t matter, and if you’re a gamer these speakers will really make you tremble. This 300-watt, THX-certified system has omnidirectional speakers to make surround sound really reach the far places. Developed by audio scientists (oooh), these speakers deliver rich audio that make your desktop experience a cut above the rest. Fed up of distortion from the mini plastic iPod speakers you bought last year? Well, distortion is a thing of the past when it comes to these. The price tag leaves a lot to be desired but really if you’ve got the money to spend, you’ll be wise to spend here. Featuring classHD digital amplifier technology with digital DSP control, a downward-firing design with optimized acoustic enclosure, and an all-in-one remote control pod with touch-sensitive LED dial, these speakers will deliver the goods with authority as well as sitting pretty on the desk.
6) Bose SoundDock Series II Digital Music System – $299.95

This is the big one, the Godfather of all music systems. Don’t let this one out at night, really. In fact, it’s worthy of a few bullet points…

Featuring:

Don’t say we didn’t warn you! If that was a lot to take in just breathe deeply and have another read. Oh, and have another deep breath if you want to peek at the price! (we’re having palpitations over here). However, Bose are known for their amazing products and amazing quality so to be completely honest, if you’re thinking about blowing the budget on this music system, congratulations. You’re in for a hell of a sound experience.
So thats it, the countdown of the best speakers from a low price to a high (yeah, pretty high) price. Trust us when we say there’s nothing like experiencing a well crafted album through a fantastic pair of speakers, the world sounds so much better.

Macgasm - Apple Tips, Apple News, Apple Everything.

With the tag line ‘out of sight, but not out of reach’, you can pretty much gather what the intended purpose of this gadget is, and a very good gadget it is indeed. If you’re like me and prefer your workspace clutter free and clean, with plenty of room to swing whatever you like, then the BackPack™ might just be your savior. Use it to hold external hard drives as an easy place to keep whilst backing up, leave your iPhone sitting pretty, or keep a secret stash of moonpies on it if you really wish (Twelve South recommend Transformers).

I’ll leave the technological talk to the folks at Twelve South to explain how the shelf works:

The BackPack rests on the back of the desk stand on flat-screen iMacs and Apple Cinema Displays using gravity and two simple, adjustable clips. This allows you to position the sporty shelves at the perfect height without a screw ever touching your iMac. Because the BackPack uses gravity to stay in place, it will not leave any scratches or marks on your machine.

Easy. Available from Twelve South‘s website for $29.99 or from the Apple Store itself for $29.95 (plus shipping), this simple technology can make the world of difference to a workspace.

via Geeky Gadgets

Macgasm - Apple Tips, Apple News, Apple Everything.

Macgasm - Apple Tips, Apple News, Apple Everything.

Made from the creative material that is Fimo clay, a complete pack consists of icons for:

- Camera
- iPod
- Weather
- YouTube
- Text

and can be used as a general paperclip or even as a bookmark. Created by Bear Duck Designs, they arrive in a little decorated matchbook and can be bought from the Etsy store for $8.00

Macgasm - Apple Tips, Apple News, Apple Everything.