FoundFootage posts

Plato said, "Necessity is the mother of all inventions." He must have been talking about the guys at One Block Off the Grid, which is a cooperative of sorts for buying photovoltaic solar panels at a group discount. One of their staff members was running into issues trying to run Adobe After Effects on a slower Mac, so they had another staff member -- Kalvin -- build a fast hackintosh in the Amazon cardboard box that all the computer parts came in.

That price doesn't include the labor involved in putting it all together, and it originally had a rather odd power switch, which was a standard jumper stuck on the end of a plastic cable tie. The computer itself has pretty good specs, with a 2.66 Intel Core i5 CPU, a 1 TB hard drive, 8 GB of 1333 MHz DDR3 RAM, and an XFX Radeon HD 5770 1GB DDR5 Graphics Card. To run Snow Leopard on this computer, Kalvin used iBoot and MultiBeast.

As noted on the 1BOG blog, "this procedure may potentially violate Apple's End User License Agreement for Mac OS X." On the other hand, it's a great way to get a fast computer and not spend a lot of bucks.

Nerds squealed with delight last night as the geekiest comedy on American television, The Big Bang Theory, featured a cameo by Steve Wozniak. The Apple co-founder played himself in a brief scene with the gang from the show (Is that his daughter next to him at the table?). He was pretty funny and seemed comfortable on camera. In fact, Steve is an old hand at TV by now, having appeared on Dancing With The Stars and My Life on the D-List.

In case you missed it, you can watch it above (sorry about the audio quality -- we'll keep an eye out for the official version). Good job, Woz!

Apple's advertising for the FaceTime video chat feature on the iPhone 4 is emotional and effective, and now the ads are making it to the European market. All of the ads are backed with the universally-known voice of Louis Armstrong singing "When You're Smiling," and there is no audible dialog, so these ads can be used in just about any European market. So far, they've made it to the U.K., Italy, and Spain.

The ads are sponsored by carriers 3Italia, Vodafone, and Orange. Click the Read More link to view the videos.

[via Macstories.net]

Although my Apple addiction usually means that I have to run out and buy whatever new shiny thing has flown out of Cupertino, I've been able to resist getting one of the new iPod nanos. My iPhone plays music and movies, and I don't wear watches, so I really haven't been impressed.

Until now, that is. tipster Huey from Smack Dab Studios sent us a link to the video you see above. It's a simple idea; create name tag images, move them to the nano, then play them in a slide show while the nano is clipped to your pocket or lapel. The result? Something that will definitely capture the eyes of people you meet.

It's certainly an attention-getter, and it's a lot better than those sticky "HI, My Name Is Steve" labels that they love to hand out at meetings and get-togethers. Of course, you could buy a lot of sticky labels for the cost of an iPod nano, but they just aren't as cool.

A site called Letem Svetem Applem has put together some performance comparison videos with the iPhone 4 and the new iPod touch, and the results may surprise you. In the startup speed test, the iPad actually beat all of the other iDevices, and the new iPod touch barely beats the iPhone 4 (but all of them were faster than last year's iPhone 3GS, so your upgrade was not in vain). The iPod touch's camera looks slightly darker than the iPhone 4's, and perhaps most interesting, the displays of the iPhone 4 and iPod touch look pretty different. The Retina Display on the iPod touch looks just as sharp, but without the in-plane switching tech found on the iPhone and the iPad, the sides of the display are slightly muddier.

Some of the YouTube comments on the speed video claim that if your iPhone or iPad is stuffed with music, documents, or apps, the speed will be affected, but I'm not sure how much of a factor that actually plays on startup (not to mention that we're talking seconds here -- not nearly enough to judge a purchase by). But Apple's claim that the iPod touch is sporting the same Retina Display as the iPhone appears to be missing the mark a bit. Watch all of the comparison videos right after the break below.

[via AppleInsider]

Update: It appears Newsday has had to pull the video (embed left for posterity below). Rumor has it Apple forced them to do it. Which is sad.

There are certainly advantages to having your morning newspaper in iPad format: dynamic media, rapid updating, search and more... but not every aspect of the new digital age is an improvement over the old ink-on-dead-trees approach to the news.

We wouldn't want to spoil the fun of Newsday's ad for its new iPad app, so we'll simply give you the video with No Comment.

[via Silicon Alley Insider]

This video has been around for quite a long time, but my guess is that you haven't seen it. It posits how future computers will used for education and literacy. Watching it you'll be taken by how much they got right and how other concepts got short shrift. One surprising thing is that it focuses almost totally on voice input and doesn't mention the concept of a touch screen interface. Instead it displays a trackball-type device with four buttons that doesn't presage multi-touch devices. A good deal of the footage was taken from 1987's Knowledge Navigator video which got a lot more play at the time.

Project 2000 includes interviews with:

• Steve Wozniak on the start of computing in education and personal agents
• Diane Ravitch, the past director of the Encyclopedia Britannica, on using computers to motivate students and the challenges of adult literacy
• Alan Kay on computer simulation and visualization
• Alvin Toffler, most known as the author of Future Shock, on text translations
• Ray Bradbury on a variety of subjects

The most talked about topic is hypermedia, the most integrated concept in modern computing and a major building block of the World Wide Web which was six years old at the time, however the WWW isn't mentioned. Oops my mistake. The World Wide Web starting with the Mosaic browser didn't happen until 1993.

This is illuminative viewing and if you haven't seen it, I'd recommend you do so. The differences between what the speakers saw as the future and how things turned out is quite enlightening.

Thanks Eric for sending this in.

We're all busy people, and I'm sure that many of us missed the iPod/Apple TV SteveFest on the first. Once again, Neil Curtis, master of cutting to the chase, has created a three-minute version of the 75-minute presentation. Previously, Neil did a very short version of the adjective enhanced iPad rollout; he's very good at this sort of thing.


This little video (making wonderful use of music) only mentions stores "with people" in them, the new iPods, the Game Center, Ping, and the underwhelming new Apple TV. I've been through the full video a number of times, and nowhere does Steve mention just what resolution he's talking about when he says HD. In my opinion, this is a bag of hurt...but maybe that's just me. There's also some Lady Gaga in the video.

So, don't expect anything about iOS 4.2 or anything iOS related. It's worth a look and will probably give you a chuckle or two.

Keep up the good work, Neil.

Nobody ever claimed that the iPad was weatherproof, but that didn't stop news anchor Chuck Scarborough from taking his tablet out to the seashore. Reader Michael Neumann saw the veteran NYC broadcaster using his iPad to show weather radar during Hurricane Earl's race up the US east coast. He could have saved money on that case, though.

Chuck's app of choice looks to be the Weather Channel's iPad offering, but we've seen lots of TV-centric solutions for the magical and revolutionary gadget. If you have a favorite clip or featured appearance of the iPad on the tube, drop a link in the comments below.

Thanks Michael!

As a Dropbox fan, I am always looking for new uses for the ubiquitous cloud storage service. Matt Fisher, whose videos have been featured on TUAW before, has produced a new video chock-full of great Mac OS X Dropbox tips.

In this 10-minute clip, Matt shows:

• How to copy the Mac clipboard to a Dropbox text file by creating an Automator service
• A demo of AirDropper, an excellent way of securely requesting files from others and having them delivered via Dropbox
• How to email files to Dropbox using Habilis
• A quick way to access your Dropbox using a Chrome Extension (also available for Firefox)
• Start torrents from any computer or device connected to Dropbox
• Add PDFs to iBooks
• Edit files from anywhere using Droptext

Some of these tips are rather straightforward, while others are incredible "why didn't I think of that" ideas that can really help make you more productive. What are your favorite things to do with Dropbox and your Mac? Leave us a comment.

Now I've seen everything. To give lie to the meme that there's an app for that, perhaps a new and upcoming meme will be that there's a case for that.

The iBottleopener (US $19.99) is a case for an iPhone 3G or 3GS that has a bottle opener on the back. The video, that you've probably just seen, sets a new standard for cheesy adverts. The tagline of the ad campaign is "a party in your pocket." At least they didn't use "a party in your pants," which shows that the manufacturers do have a modicum of restraint.

I'm sure that The iBottleopener is the perfect back to school gift for any college student. And iPhone 4 owners won't be left out of the party, or the pants for that matter, since a case to fit the newest iPhone is on its way.

For adding a beery note to your iDevice lifestyle, this case deserves a hearty No Comment.

Thanks Zack (I think) for sending this in.

How we love the ingenuity of Apple fans. This enterprising musician took some scissors and a roll of oh-so-useful duct tape to an iPhone 4 box to create the awesome guitar cam you see above.

Inside the iPhone 4 box is a section of plastic that separates the phone from the accessories. There's a hole in the center that allows a small tab to peek through. Gleeful new owners pull that tab to remove the booklet and get at the headphones, USB cable and wall adapter.

Our musician friend took that piece and cut it flat on the bottom and removed the top to make room for the iPhone's display. He then duct tape'd the daylights out of it to mount it to his guitar's head. The result can be seen above: a rock-steady guitar cam that stares down the neck.

Well done! We love it.

Thanks, Dylan!

Case-mate has decided to promote its new iPhone and iPad case-making site (one tip, Case-mate: Don't create an iPhone case site that requires Flash) with some videos, and rather than put together images of how great the cases work or how good they look, the ad people decided to just jump right into the deep end of the insane pool.

As you can see above, the first concept involves some kind of mystical girl in the mountains who can create objects with her mind, and has six arms, and ... well, just watch it for yourself. I already have a case on my iPhone (and it's not a Case-mate, I just use the iSkin Revo), but honestly, I prefer some crazy ads like this to, say, the FaceTime commercials. I can only take that "Baby, it is so short" commercial so many times.

Case-mate tried to tell us that the second commercial they made wasn't quite as nuts, but man, it's even crazier. It's also kind of not-safe-for-work, too (some mild gore and implied nudity), so I'll just link to it by name: Living With Steel Wool Hands (How I Lost My Nipple). No, really. Watch if you dare. I don't know what they're putting in the water over in the marketing department, but maybe they should splurge for bottled.