Just like those isolated soldiers that used to be discovered from time to time thinking that WWII was still on, years after it had ended, there’s a designer hidden deep in the offices of Porsche who thinks we still need to use USB thumb drives. Yes, it looks beautiful, just like Hiroo Onoda’s doubtlessly crisply-pressed uniform, but that doesn’t make it right.
Cloudpaint Is 1984’s MacPaint, In The Cloud
There isn’t much to say about Cloudpaint in the cloud other than it’s MacPaint… in your browser. That’s right – go browse to the site and enjoy the wonders of 1984-style B&W ink and square brushes.
External Optical Drive For New Trashcan Mac Pro [Retro]
There’s something very ironic about an optical drive for the upcoming space-shaped [1] Mac Pro, like adding a fax machine to an iPhone. Better still is the fact that it’s not just any old optical drive, but a bag-of-hurt Blu-ray drive. And best of all is that this USB-connected optical drive is shaped to fit neatly underneath the Mac Pro as if it wasn’t there.
iLuv’s Faux-Leather Camera Case Turns iPhone Into A Vintage Camera
No messing around with iLuv’s new camera case for the iPhone 5. It’s called the Camera Case, and it turns your iPhone into a little Leica-alike.
Beautiful Desk Lamps Made From Old Camera Gear
If you take a trip to the local laboratory supply store, and then follow it up by dropping into the vintage camera shop (or just a thrift store) then you could make your own beautiful lamp, just like those fashioned from dead photo gear by the Taiwanese Ystudio. It sure beats the usual crap you get from Ikea.
The Atherton Is The iPhone Case 1970s U.K. ‘Soccer’ Coaches Would Have Used
The Atherton is — in name and in design — the iPhone case that 1970s- and 1980s-era U.K. football (soccer) managers would have used. Famous for their sheepskin coats, these hard-talking, hard-smoking sports trainers wouldn’t hold truck with lily-livered modern materials like nylon or — gasp — fleece. Nope. The only covering fit for a testosterone-filled football coach was the skin of a dead sheep.
Canon’s Vixia Fisheye Camcorder Would Have Been Amazing… Five Years Ago
Poor Canon. When it comes to compact cameras, its heart is in the right place, but the market is shriveling so fast that sometimes it’s hard to see the point. Today’s example is the Vixia Mini camcorder, a video version of its quirky Powershot N. The Vixia Mini is a square box with a flip-out screen and a fisheye lens. And as a nod to smartphone users, it has Wi-Fi built in. But do we care?
Lomo To Resurrect 170-Year-Old Lens Design
At some point in the recent past, Lomo went from being the resurrector of crappy Soviet-era plastic cameras to a niche manufacturer of some very interesting lo-fi photography kit. Today’s surprise is that Lomo will be making the Petzval lens, a lens invented in 1840 in – yes – Russia.
Lumu iPhone Lightmeter Connects Via Headphone Jack
Hands up anyone who knows what a light meter is? You at the back… speak up… No, it’s not a way to tell how much electricity you use to illuminate your home. Fine, I’ll tell you: it’s what we used to use to measure light and set the exposure on our cameras, back before they were so good at doing it themselves.
Oddly enough, this weekend I found myself in need of one. And then what do I see in my inbox? The Lumu, a light meter for the iPhone.
Use A Camera Connection Kit To Import Photos From A Floppy Disk To The iPad [Video]
We know that the iPad’s dock hole is pretty much a USB port in disguise, and that the camera connection kit is also a stealth adapter which lets you plug in all kinds of USB accessories and use them.
But I never even thought that it might be possible to import photos from a floppy disk this way. Luckily for us, Niles Mitchell wasn’t so short sighted: He grabbed an old USB floppy drive and hooked it up.
Forget The iWatch, Here Are 11 Apple Watches You Can Buy Right Now [Gallery]
When rumors of the iWatch first surfaced, most insiders pegged its launch date for somewhere around the end of 2013 and everyone got super excited that our wrists are going to get blinged out by Apple really soon. However, lately we’ve been hearing that that might not be the case, and we won’t be able to slap Apple’s magical wrist watch on until 2014.
The unreleased iWatch isn’t the only timepiece Apple’s ever made though, so if you’re really desperate to get a watch made by Apple you totally can, but it might cost you more than your iPhone.
Here are 11 of the coolest retro Apple iWatches you can buy right now. We’ll start with the cheap stuff and work our way down:
PhotoExif: Add Metadata To Your Film Photos With Your iPhone
PhotoExif is an app that lets you add EXIF data to photos shot with a film camera. You can dial in aperture, shutter speed, focus distance and focal length, along with notes about your photo, and when you get the photos back, freshly scanned from the lab, you can add the info to the digital images.
1970s PanAm Life Rafts Repurposed As iPhone Cases
Last seen wrapping the iPhone in chopped-up fire hoses, the folks at Station Supply Co have expanded (pun most definitely intended) into recycled airliner life rafts. That’s right: now you can cover your iPhone or iPad with a swatch snipped from a genuine 1970s-era PanAm life raft.
New 35mm Film Back Offers Fresh Prints From Belair
Lomo’s awesomely handsome Belair camera has some retro-tastic styling, and a clever-and-classical bellows system to allow it to fold flat for your (oversized) pocket. The rub was that it used 120 roll-film, the kind used by medium-format cameras in the olden days.
120 is great, and the big negatives give amazingly sharp and detailed prints. But 35mm film is both cheaper and easier to process. To address this, Loma will now sell you a replacement 35mm back for your Belair.
Hotline Miami Crashes Its Retro, Violent Way Onto The Mac
Hotline Miami, a retro, top-down, hyper-violent shoot-em up is finally on the Mac, via Steam and Gamer’s Gate.
Don’t be alarmed: the game is full of bizarre, hipster characters, animal masks, brutal weapons, and truly immense amounts of 16-bit blood and gore. Making it through the punishing difficulty of the game is a point of pride. Sounds like a good time, right?
Pixel-Tastic Classic Nintendo Wallpapers For iPhone 5
Everyone’s favorite recalcitrant Scottish blogger, programmer and whisky drinker Matt “Legend” Gemmel has made available these fantastic iPhone 5 wallpapers, ready for your retro-tendo reminiscences.
Matt made the set of five tall-papers (what I somewhat annoyingly just decided to call the iPhone 5’s tall wallpapers) to commemorate his new-found love of Nintendo gaming on the Mac.
Reuse An Old Cassette Case For A Retro-Fun iPhone Dock [Image]
Those of us over a certain age (ahem) remember the days, after the LP and the 8-track, but before the CD, when cassette tapes were all the rage. I belonged to a couple of different tape clubs back in the day, and still have quite a few of these bad boys in a case under my house, somewhere.
Not Pacman: Pacman Meets Inception Meets Fun On Your Mac [Review]
This is not Pacman. No. It looks like Pacman, it sounds like Pacman. But it’s called Not Pacman for a reason: it’s not Pacman.
How does it play?
Like Pacman. A bit.
Got A Spare Five Bucks? Grab FTL For Your Mac On Steam This Weekend
We told you about FTL back when it came out back in September of 2012, added it to Day 9 of our Awesome 2012 Advent Calendar, and put it in uur Editor’s Picks For 2012’s Best iOS And Mac Games article. Can you tell we love this game?
That it’s a full 50% off again on Steam is icing on the cake, so we wanted to let you know where to spend that spare $4.99 you might be sitting on.
2012-Era iPhone 5 Bike Mount With 1980s-Era Style
If you have been trawling the internet for an iPhone 5 bike mount which looks like it was beamed forward in time from the 1980s, then stop! Your search is over. Better still, the case even has a numeral-heavy 1980s-style name: The M550.
Dean’s Dragon Dream Is More Like A Nightmare [Review]
Roger Dean is famous for his fantasy world artwork, which graced many a record sleeve and book cover during the 1970s and 80s. His work is iconic and instantly recognisable to a generation.
This app – Dragon’s Dream – is an unfortunate foray into iOS. It fails to do justice to Dean’s skill as an artist, and fails to offer iOS gamers an experience worth five dollars.
Neat USB Hub Almost As Handsome As Your MacBook
In the age of tiny, efficient Thunderbolt and Lightning ports, stuffing a full-sized USB plug into a Mac now seems so very very old fashioned. Still, USB is still the oversized and awkward norm, and stuff them into our Macs we must.
Which is where Satechi’s “Premium 4-Port Aluminum USB 2.0 Hub” comes in.
Remote Shutter Release For iPhone Looks Like a Roll Of Film
Gizmon’s remote shutter release for the iPhone is simple, effective and cheap. But its novelty styling in the shape of a roll of film is likely to baffle much of its potential audience.
Get The Best Thing Bill Gates Ever Made For Free [Daily Freebie]
Ah, the ’80s — back when a Tab was something to drink, not deride, and Members Only wasn’t exactly an exclusive club. Reliving (or living, for those born after 1979) those days is as easy as tracking down a six-pack of Tab on the Internet, or purchasing this purple number.
Those who’d rather not deal with their friends’ hysterical laughter or horribly wilted taste buds can simply download a faithful recreation of DONKEY.BAS, probably the best thing Bill Gates ever made, onto their iPad or iPhone.
Lomo Belair, A Retro-Tastic Medium-Format Film Camera
Lomo has launched yet another gorgeous new film camera, and this one looks as lame as all the rest. It’s called the Belair X 6-12, and it’s medium format.