human interest
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No Comment: Cool iPhone dominoes animation
We don't care that the falling phones are CG animated; we don't even care that they have a hypothetical NFC patch on the back. This is a great video that put a smile on our faces. We offer it to you as today's No Comment. It's done by the same studio that inadvertently fooled an NYC TV station with an iPhone 5 concept video last year. Hat tip: Sachin Argarwal
Illustrated inspiration: Crafting Zac Gorman's 'Magical Game Time'
It's not clear who or what is positioned dead center on a suburban street in the initial overhead shot, but as the panels zoom in to reveal bright-eyed children – two holding hands, stares locked – we consider the written message: "And we never got tired. And we never got old. We just ran through the streets forever. And everything was perfect." The average viewer might see the comic as a charming ode to the carefree naivety of youth; of first loves and curfew-skirting dalliances with neighborhood pals. But for those who recognize the leads of the seminal Super Nintendo RPG Earthbound in the faces and apparel of these rapscallions, the message may suddenly feel highly personal. It's not a specific narrative moment from the game, nor does it utilize familiar dialogue, but its tone is that of how players may have romanticized the adventures of these beloved characters in their minds, or how they imagined they might feel in that setting. Perhaps it's how they felt once upon a time. Whatever the case, the voice feels authentic, and as such delivers an emotional wallop in just four sentences and seven panels. For little more than a year and a half, cartoonist Zac Gorman has strived to locate that little pocket of feeling between the events of a classic game and the emotions triggered in your mind while playing it – and then translate that into one-off comics under his Magical Game Time banner. With subjects as varied as The Legend of Zelda and Costume Quest, Gorman has amassed a fan following by pairing common and universal themes with memorable characters and scenarios.
World of Warcraft is the new Match.com
Are you single? Do you want to be a little bit less single? Are your friends telling you that you should stop spending so much time talking with them online and more time looking for dates? Well, according to a recent infographic, your friends might be completely off-base. Onlineuniversity.net put together a graphic comparing World of Warcraft to the popular dating site Match.com, and the results come out pretty firmly in favor of blood elves. So how does it look? According to the graphic, World of Warcraft has more than 10 times as many people involved as Match.com, and people sink more time into online gaming than any online dating site. There's also a number of factors that suggest slaughtering virtual trolls as a better way to bond than a cup of coffee. So while it's still probably bad form to hit on your raid leader between pulls, maybe you're not entirely off the mark. Unless she's married.
Can you help provide a 'lost iPad' story with a happy ending?
So Greg from Australia contacted me on the tip line with a rather interesting story. While vacationing in Italy, he stumbled across a lost iPad in his hotel. He soon realized that the iPad belonged to Leisha, an American lady in Colorado. He brought it home to Australia so he could try to work with Apple to repatriate it to its owner. Upon calling his local Apple store, he was turned down flat. Apple would not help him ship the iPad back home. So he contacted us here at TUAW. We made call after call to various Apple support arms to see if anyone could help the iPad travel from its Antipodean perch, all the way back home. Each time, we were flatly denied. If he wants to ship the iPad, we were told, he'd either have to do it out of his own pocket or have the owner pay. When you hear that the cost of shipping is almost US$200, you'll understand why that could be a little problematic. You might be thinking "Wait, both of these people had the money to travel to Italy, but they can't afford to ship a package?" Think about it -- there's a lot of difference between a trip you save money for, sometimes for years, and a sudden unexpected $200 shipping bill. Anyway, Apple doesn't seem to have an internal shipping system that allows store-to-store deliveries for parcels like this misplaced iPad -- not even marsupials wearing UPS uniforms -- and they weren't open to our suggestions that Greg could turn in the unit in Australia in exchange for a refurb unit in Colorado. So we decided to open up the situation to our readers. Do you know of a cheap and reliable way for the iPad to ship from Brisbane to Colorado? Could your company sponsor its trip home? Let us know on our tip line. If you can help Greg and Leisha, please ping us! We'd love to see this story of a misplaced iPad get a happy ending. Thanks in advance from the whole TUAW crew.
Kottke: iPhone, Wiimote, Newborn accelerometer smackdown
Babies. Wiimotes. iPhones. Sure, they're all cute but how do they perform in an intense gadget-to-gadget comparison for the best accelerometer? Last month, Jason Kotkke put them to the test. The iPhone was the first to fail. A slow or oddly-angled landscape-to-portrait reorientation was enough to throw its accelerometer out of the running. That left the Wiiremote-Baby smackdown. Sure, the Wiimote showed great flexibility registering tiny movements but it lost out to the baby's Moro reflex, the bit where babies who think they are falling throw out their arms to the side. The baby won on both cuteness and fussy startle reaction.[Via Digg]
Human Interest: Royal Mail workers lose iPod perk
Today's Apple-related human interest story centers on employees of the UK's Royal Mail. MacWorld UK reports that their communal iPod has been confiscated by management. The iPod was provided by the Royal Mail to improve working conditions at a sorting depot in Newcastle. After one worker loaded a "rude spoof version" of "Oops, I did it again" (originally by musical maestro B. Spears[1]), the iPod was confiscated and disciplinary action launched. A Royal Mail spokesman said: "Royal Mail has an absolute policy of respect for all, and total opposition to any form of harassment." I'm pretty sure that being forced to listen to "Oops, I did it again" whether in its original or spoof version counts as musical assault but I don't quite see how it's "harassment". Here's hoping for a speedy return of the workers' iPod. [1] No Köchel catalog numbering for "Oops, I did it again" is available at this time
CPL cancellation "a step backwards"
The BBC reports on the disappearance of the CPL World Tour from an international perspective. With budding British pro gamers having pinned their hopes on the event -- one even giving up a tennis career -- the cancellation comes as quite a blow. Teams that have trained on specific games, maps and rulesets have work ahead to retrain for other events.Philip Wride, manager of Intel-sponsored clan 4Kings, described the move as "a step backwards" for pro gaming. While there are still tournaments in Europe, the UK is left with just a few LAN tournaments that concentrate on fun rather than professional prize money. However, for gamers willing to travel, there is still a substantial amount of cash available to those who play well -- the World Series of Video Games, World Cyber Games and e-Sports World Cup all offer the chance to triumph.
