Swiss folk hero William Tell and his apple sharpshooting get a 2.0 update with this game using Apple iPhones.
The brainchild of artist johannes-p-osterhoff, who we last saw adbust an iPad ad with porn, the game is pretty simple.
Each player straps an iDevice on their head (osterhoff, who prefers a creative lowercase, seriously, crafted the sturdy holders) and your opponent tries to hit your Apple device (or logo if you’re wearing a shirt) with a soft ball. Whoever hits the most times, wins.
Ok, here at CoM we know Apple makes must-have technology. We really do get it. But c’mon people: don’t get yourself thrown in jail to prove Apple makes coveted gadgets that people will sometimes maim other people to get.
Case in point: Tyanthony Devon Dunbar, 28, now sits in jail slapped on an attempted murder charge after allegedly shooting his 26-year-old cousin Antonio Maurice Harley following a morning scuffle (no, not shuffle) involving an iPod. The incident took place in Colleton, South Carolina; the report doesn’t mention what kind of iPod it was.
Does anyone ever get into this much trouble over a Zune or a Blackberry?
Via Post and News
Argentina’s capital Buenos Aires is being rocked by a crime wave according to recent reports, including a shootout at an Apple reseller where one alleged thief was killed by police.
The story comes to us from CoM reader Stefano Cavallaro in Argentina who tells us that after a pair of thieves attempted to raid Apple reseller Mac Station, in the city’s chic Palermo neighborhood where expensive iGadgets must have seemed an easy target, a police officer opened fire to stop them.
“There was a police officer outside the Apple store (when two armed robbers attempted to steal from the store)…The thieves and police started to shoot and one thief was gunned down while the other got away on a motorcycle…The police officer was not shot and did not sustain any injuries.”
A local internet news source confirms the story, saying that the police are still searching for the accomplice. This isn’t the first time an Apple store robbery gone wrong has lead to gunshots — in 2009 an Apple employee was shot during an armed robbery in Virginia — but it may be the first time a person has been killed attempting to steal Apple’s must-have electronic devices.
It was a busy day for police in Argentina’s capital who also had to deal with the shooting of a policeman, a hostage situation and a kidnapping.
According a recent study of US national health data, your average teen today doesn’t hear as well as their Gen-X counterparts.
Teenagers with hearing loss (and we mean not just ignoring your parents) grew by a third between between 1988-1994 and 2005-2006. Back when Guns n’ Roses were in heavy rotation on teen Walkmans, 15% of 12-19 year-olds suffered some kind of hearing impairment, now that percentage is 19.5%.
But for once, iPods are not found to blame. A team who studied data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey and published findings in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that music may not be the only thing that can be damaging kids ears.
Other salient factors include diet and nutrition and environmental factors such as exposure to toxins. Poverty also plays a role, researchers found that kids in lower-income families without adequate nutrition may have problems in auditory system development.
The iPod has been accused of hearing loss off and on since its 2001 debut. This probably won’t be the first or last time it is implicated in hearing loss or impairment.
Rock on?
Via Time
The robber who ripped off a man’s pinky to steal an iPad is now accused of trying to organize a hit on the victim from jail. On June 29, Brandon Smith sent a letter from jail to a crony to wipe out victim Bill Jordan. Here’s what the letter said:
“YOU GET THIS DONE! AND I GO ON ANYTHING I’ll rob a bank if you want me too. Just do this for your boy and I got you for sure. You know how we do it.”
“That’s the address, so handle it A.S.A.P.” He concludes the letter by saying: “I really need this otherwise it’s a wrap!! If you do this, case is dropped. NO WITNESS.”
Jordan’s son says that detectives and Witness Protection agents were at Jordan’s house 20 minutes after the threatening missive was intercepted. Jordan has considered changing his name and moving out of state.
Jordan, 59, had part of his finger amputated after Brandon Smith wrested a just-purchased iPad from him in the parking lot outside Denver’s Cherry Creek Mall store in April. The Apple bag was looped around Jordan’s hand and the thief jerked hard several times to get it off — so hard that flesh came of Jordan’s left pinky. A surgeon later had to amputate part of the damaged little finger on his dominant hand.
There are many questions still unanswered about the case. A big one: if Smith was arrested in part due to parking lot surveillance video, how did he think killing Jordan would resolve his case?
Via Denver Post
Factory workers at Foxconn stepped off the assembly line today and crammed into a stadium for a pep rally to boost morale following 12 worker suicides this year.
AP reports that some 20,000 of these workers at the factory complex where Apple, Dell, Hewlett Packard and Sony produce must-have electronic gadgets for the international market sported fanciful costumes, waved pompoms and shouted pro-company slogans.
The stadium is part of the complex in Shenzen where sleeping quarters, restaurants, hospitals, supermarkets and swimming pools are packed into 2.3 square kilometers (about 0.9 square miles) and roughly 300,000 workers live.
This cool iPhone 4 wallpaper — fully optimized for Apple’s groundbreaking Retina Display — gives you a look at the inner circuitry of the iPhone every time you use it.
Mac developer Casey Fleser made it available onflickr for your iPhone decorating endeavors. The circuit wallpaper comes in two flavors: lite, with just the CPU over a circuit board, and rococo with the resistors, caps, traces and stuff.
The plainer version is probably easier on the eyes in the long run, but it’s hard to resist the siren call of all that complex circuitry. Which do you prefer?
Via Redmond Pie
The robber who ripped off a man’s pinky to steal an iPad is now accused of trying to organize a hit on the victim from jail.
Bill Jordan, 59, had part of his finger amputated after Brandon Smith wrested a just-purchased iPad from him in the parking lot outside Denver’s Cherry Creek Mall store in April. The Apple bag was looped around Jordan’s hand and the thief jerked hard several times to get it off — so hard that flesh came of Jordan’s left pinky. A surgeon later had to amputate part of the damaged little finger on his dominant hand.
Fox 31 reports that the Denver District attorney plans to file new charges against Smith today for trying to arrange the murder of his victim.
Smith reportedly thought his theft case would go away if the victim was ‘eliminated.’ Smith has been in jail for a few months after being charged with theft and assault.
Monday morning’s court appointment was like something out of a movie: Smith’s lawyers showed up ready to discuss a plea agreement only to discover that prosecutors had new charges to file against him.
Details about the alleged plot are scarce but Jordan and his family are reportedly fine.
More as the story develops.
Via KWGN
If you can’t remember how much you’ve had to drink — or have the bad luck to go out with people who never want to pay — this pub in Manchester has come up with a clever solution.
At Taps, the tables have built-in beer taps and an iPod Touch keeps tracks of just how many pints of the two kinds of beers have been glugged from each spout.
Reader Grzegorz over at Access Advertising sent us these pics of the iPod tab in action, noting that it’s also nice for parties: “You can top up the app at the bar and when your beer runs out, the app will close the tap. You have to go back to the bar to top it up.”
While it’s not fool proof (note the folks at the table drinking wine and what looks like stout — not available from these two lager taps) but it might be a way of avoiding runaway bar tabs.
The iPod tab runs via an app called DraftMagik one of DraftServ’s “point-of-pour” solutions for bars.
The iPad version of a book featuring photos and recipes favored by Italy’s fascist dictator Benito Mussolini sits at the number two spot of the top paid apps in Italy’s iTunes store.
Titled “A Tavola con Il Duce” (literally: sitting at the table with Il Duce), the €0.79 ($0.99) book is currently available only in the Italian language but can be purchased in the US and other international iTunes stores.
Promising never-before published anecdotes and pictures from Mussolini’s daily life, it is the iPad version of the 2004 book written by Sophia Loren’s sister, Maria Scicolone, who was married to il Duce’s son Romano Mussolini.
If you can buy it before Apple pulls the sale, you could snap up a 3G iPod prototype with camera.
You’ve still got a day to bid the 32GB iPod, at this writing there were 34 bids and a ceiling of $449. However, this isn’t the first time one has cropped up on eBay, the last one for sale in April was pulled shortly after it made news.
The iPod with camera prototype will probably be a museum piece, but you may have trouble using it — the device doesn’t come with the as-yet unreleased camera software. (duh).
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2YsSLcGJPw
If you can’t imagine facing your daily commute without an iPod, you’re in good company.
Katie Spotz set a world record for being the youngest person ever to row the Atlantic Ocean solo from Africa to South America. She credits the iPod for keeping her motivation levels up as she paddled her way across the waters.
On her 70-day 2,800-mile journey, Katie brought along six iPods — four nanos, an iPod shuffle and an iPod touch so that she could watch a movie once a week.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nqlhzve4BOw
Electric Pig editor and lucky duck James Holland gives us a walk through Apple’s store in Covent Garden before it opens on Saturday, August 7.
Some of us at Cult of Mac weren’t too convinced of the store’s aesthetic appeal from the pics we posted yesterday — but on further inspection this new retail outlet is, well, stunning.
The store has two, count ’em two, of Apple’s signature glass staircases, one spiral and one square, nicely offset by the exposed brick.
We also especially like London’s “largest pigeon magnet!”
Via Electric Pig
The crowds have to wait until Saturday, August 7 to swarm into the new Covent Garden store but here’s a sneak peek — thanks to at what may be Apple’s most stunning retail store to date.
Sure, you may prefer the majestic Regent Street location also in London or admire the posh new Paris Opera store, but Covent garden is the largest in the UK and is said to be the most expensive Apple store to date.
These photos snapped by James Holland at Electric Pig show that Apple’s latest must-see retail spot is a three-story triumph of exposed brick of a restored 1870s building in the heart of London.
At just four months old, the iPad is preparing to go off to college.
Apple’s “magical” device, which launched April 3, will be handed out during fall 2010 orientation to college students at a number of US campuses, though the tablet computer won’t be replacing old-fashioned notebooks or pencils any time soon.
Stanford is the most prestigious university to announce an iPad program so far. All first year medical students and Master of Medicine students will be provided with an iPad.
“The iPad allows students to view and annotate course content electronically, facilitating advance preparation as well as in-class note-taking in a highly portable, sharable and searchable format,” the Stanford University School of Medicine announced on its blog. “Students will be able to easily access high-quality information at any place, at any time…and replacing printed syllabi with PDF’s is in line with the Sustainable Stanford initiative, which aims to build sustainable practices into every aspect of campus life.”
This Olay skin cream commercial (in Hind-ish?) features two Bollywood actresses video chatting about beauty tips — the younger one asks the big star what potions she uses.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e16gkiRaGxk
Star Katrina Kaif doesn’t have use just any old computer to deliver her skin advice — about lightening cream, ugh! — but converses with her pal Adah Sharma using video chat on an iPad.
Too bad the iPad doesn’t have a video chat feature, it could come in handy for everyone from porn services to far-away grandparents.
Via Sawf news
The iPad may be magical, but do you want your taxes to pay for city councilors to have them?
That’s what citizens in Leicester, England wonder after the local council there drew up plans to provide all 54 city councilors with Apple’s tablet device.
Equipping all of the local politicos with iPads by May 2011 will cost around £40,000 or about $63,000 for the 64 gigabyte models, sparking critics who note that the council is spending for shiny gadgets when it has to cut some 1,000 jobs due to budget issues.
Apps-on are Post-its that look like the iPhone 4, made to help people who design and develop apps plan out the various stages quickly and easily.
The paper stickies match the exact specs of an iPhone 4 — width, height, display area — and have a dotted grid system that lets you sketch accurately but doesn’t show up if you photocopy or scan the post-it.
The iPad can be a handy to have on your next vacation, whether you need to research flights for a quick escape from your cousin’s wedding, keep the kids entertained on the plane or figure out which road is the least congested in a strange city.
Here are five free iPad apps we wouldn’t leave home without.
Kayak Explore + Flight Search
Kayak is the Ferrari of cheap flight search info — and a lot of users (including me) think the search engine works better in the iPad version than it does online. One thing is certain: the roomy iPad screen makes it easy to search for your flight, drilling down results by airline, number of connections, airport, times and price.
And, in the latest version, if you’re trying to figure out just how many miles you can put between you and your ex with the cash wadded up in your pocket, there’s a handy budget/distance calculator that will tell you just that. The caveats: hotels and car rental info is provided through Safari and you can’t book flights directly from the app.
iPhone and iPod owners have been jailbreaking — or unlocking the operating system to run applications not approved by Apple — since at least 2007.
Why bother?
There are a number of reasons to consider jailbreaking your iDevice, whether it’s to create Wi-Fi hotspots with MyWi, get tweaks and added functionalities, many that weren’t previously available (multi-tasking, Bluetooth access, tethering), and the freedom to use third-party apps that haven’t been approved by Apple, whose family-friendly content restrictions have occasionally bordered on absurd.
Apple doesn’t like jailbreakers because of the loss of revenue and control over the devices, but the US Copyright office recently ruled that jailbreaking your Apple device does not violate the DMCA and is legal. Keep in mind that Apple still voids your warranty if you jailbreak, but now they can’t threaten to slap you with a $2,500 fine.
Cult of Mac has put together a Jailbreak Superguide to get you busted out and moving on.
Now that the US Copyright Office has ruled that jailbreaking your phone is not a violation of the DMCA, you can go ahead an tinker without crossing over to the wrong side of the law.
Tell us whether you will jailbreak your iPhone now or not and why in the comments.
The iPad has been called magical, but now it’s also mystical: at least one priest has used the latest and greatest Apple device to say holy mass.
A Catholic priest in Italy recently employed an iPad to perform an outdoor mass in the place of a heavy bible.
After a string of early morning burglaries at Apple stores, police are looking for links between the crimes.
The idea is simple: thieves smash Apple’s signature glass windows, then grab whatever gadget goodness they can.
The latest smash-and-grab looting hit the Apple store in Suburban Square, Pennsylvania on July 14.
At 5:18 am, crooks smashed the glass front window and harvested $22,000 of merchandise, including 11 laptops and three iPods plus iPhones, including the iPhone 4. An alarm sounded, but by the time police arrived there was no trace of the thieves.
To make applying for a free Bumper or case for the iPhone 4 process easier, Apple launched the Case Program app, offered gratis on iTunes in nine languages.
Once you download and install it, you’ll need to sign in with your Apple ID and select a Bumper case or iPhone prophylactic of choice.
While the Case Program states that it can take from three to five weeks for the cases to arrive, a few people have said Apple has promised that they might arrive sooner (three to five days).
Let us know in the comments what Apple told you about great bumper expectation times when you applied for the case.
Via The Apple Blog
There were a few of our readers (but not many) who thought Steve Jobs’ attitude at the iPhone 4 “End of Antennagate” press conference was a little arrogant, defensive or condescending.
Here’s a video translation in plain words (a few mildly NSFW) of what he was “really” saying for everyone else, starting with “We’re not perfect. We’re better than you, but not perfect.”
I got a few guffaws out of it, especially the translation of his attitude towards the press (“Gizmodo, how’s your signal now?”).
Via lindenitzan
