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Retro iPhone speaker looks like a classic 1980s Panasonic tape player
02.06.2014
11:55 am
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Retro iPhone speaker
 
When I was 11 or so, I had a portable mono Panasonic tape player. It was the first cassette player I ever owned, and I played that thing to death. Standout albums for me at that time included The Beatles, 1962-1966 and 1967-1970; Billy Joel, The Stranger and Glass Houses; and the the original cast recording for the musical Barnum (it’s really very good!).

When I was at camp one time, another camper surreptitiously stuffed some grass into the little hole at the top of the cassette and recorded the inspired phrase “My name is Bob Hope!” over a section of “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant”—I never did find the bastard who did it. To this day, I can’t hear that song without “hearing” the extra overdub when the appropriate section comes up.

Such fond memories are very much the point of the iRecorder Retro Speaker for iPhone 4/4S/5 (or, should you be too young to have such memories, perhaps you simply have succumbed to the allure of long-outmoded technologies). At $40.47, the item is priced to move—I may buy one of these suckers my own self.

Here’s a picture of the real thing:
 
Panasonic cassette recorder
 
It has a USB power socket and working buttons that let you play/pause, rewind and fast forward, and increase/decrease the volume. (The word rewind is rapidly becoming one of those words that will not have any intuitive meaning for anybody.) The handle does slide out for easy carrying, just as with the original model.

Here’s Bow Wow Wow and their ode to the cassette tape—reputedly the first “cassingle”—“C30 C60 C90 Go”:
 

 
via Das Kraftfuttermischwerk

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
All Tiny Creatures: Cassette collage memories
The mundane beauty of blank cassette tape insert cards

Posted by Martin Schneider
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02.06.2014
11:55 am
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Weird silicone child’s hand attaches to iPhone
08.03.2011
03:35 pm
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I’m not exactly sure why anyone would want or need something like this? I can’t imagine a severed silicone child’s hand attached to your iPhone would somehow enhance your communication experience. I’m totally stumped here.

The Dokkiri Hand Case for iPhone 4 will be available in late-August, but it looks like they’re taking pre-orders now. I’ll jump right on that… 
 

 

Posted by Tara McGinley
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08.03.2011
03:35 pm
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Add flames to your high school yearbook photo this year
12.08.2010
06:44 pm
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Tough guy alert! Why was I not aware of this trend?

Here’s another delightful flame yearbook photo here.

Awkward School Pictures

 

Posted by Tara McGinley
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12.08.2010
06:44 pm
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iPhone4 vs HTC Evo: “I don’t care!”
07.08.2010
01:52 pm
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WARNING: Not for Apple fanboys!

Thank you Sean Fernald!

Posted by Richard Metzger
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07.08.2010
01:52 pm
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The Best Architecture of the Decade
01.26.2010
03:08 pm
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Mammoth reports on the best architecture of the decade. Some excellent stuff in here, from the Large Hardon Hadron Collider to the iPhone. Dig it!

The end of a decade inspires a lot of list compiling; in that spirit, mammoth offers an alternative list of the best architecture of the decade, concocted without any claim to authority and surely missing some fascinating architecture.   But we hope that at least it?

Posted by Jason Louv
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01.26.2010
03:08 pm
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Stupid iPhone Apps
01.05.2010
08:54 pm
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Maybe David Letterman should retire his “Stupid Pet Tricks” segment in favor of a new one called “Stupid iPhone Apps.” Is it just me or are the below apps pointless time (and money) wasters? And a couple of them seem highly likely to cause actual damage to your iPhone. Apparently Apple sells 350 apps per minute from the iTunes app store—over 3 billion since it launched—but surely, soon, we’ll all be suffering from “cute” novelty burnout when the useful ideas have been used up ... or maybe not. Never underestimate the American consumer, eh?
 
Exhibit the first: Happy Dangy Diggy. This whimsical app allows you to blow virtual kisses to the object of your affection cyber-stalking. Although this might’ve come in handy were we in the midst of a full-blown H1N1 pandemic (you know, like the one that was supposed to happen), in the absence of a public health crisis, it’s just plain goofy. If you need an iPhone app to flirt, well, dude, you’re pathetic!
 
Next up: the iSteam app, which will fog up your iPhone with realistic digital fog. Someone showed me this at a party recently and I just shook my head in bored disbelief. You can simply breathe on your iPhone for free to fog it up, but at least that’s all that the app costs anyway. It’s gratis for now from the developer—which is about what it’s worth, if you ask me. Cute? Sure, but who cares?
 

 
Moving on, we have the iPhone Blower, which will push air out of your iPhone speaker. Enough to extinguish a candle. Big whoop. Watch the demo video:
 

 
If you don’t think this will cause damage to your iPhone ... then move on to the next two, the iHandWarmer (who thought that name up?) and Pocket Heat. The iHand Warmer actually kind of works by using up 100% of your CPU and draining the battery, but does it give off enough BTUs to really warm your hands? Doubtful. Pocket Heat, on the other hand, is admittedly mostly just a gimmick that’s meant to look like a space heater, rather than perform like one. Now that’s really pointless.
 

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Via Gizmodo, Krapps and Brand X

Posted by Richard Metzger
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01.05.2010
08:54 pm
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Take a walk on the blind side: Lou Reed has his own iPhone app
12.23.2009
06:31 pm
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You have to hand it to Lou Reed. For five decades, the guy’s been on the cutting edge of the cutting edge, from the avant-garde rock of the Velvet Underground to ... developing his own iPhone app?

Yup. Reed, perhaps rock’s most decadent artist of all, has just released his Lou Zoom app and it’s available at the iTunes store and his website. What does it do, you ask? Well, it’s not really for rock and roll animals; it’s more an app for old people. The Lou Zoom basically zooms in on your iPhone contacts list, turning it into the high-tech equivalent of one of those large-number telephones your grandma has. The price: $1.99.
 
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Posted by Richard Metzger
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12.23.2009
06:31 pm
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