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Breakfast Topic: How do you show your WoW?
Wandering around outside of Azeroth, in the so-called real world, you'll see a lot of World of Warcraft players. Some you'll spot with class t-shirts, others drive cars with alliance or horde window stickers (or even custom license plates), some may wear WoW-themed jewelry, and some even have WoW tattoos. But not everyone feels the need to show off their WoW fandom in an obvious way -- or even at all. So what about you, readers? Do you have a WoW-themed t-shirt collection so you always have the right shirt for the occasion? Or is there some subtler way you like to show off your WoW love? %Gallery-20183%
Get your Engadget tee at our CES vending machine: a guide
Hey you, wandering tech obsessive. Want a t-shirt with some white outlines that prove you attended CES this year? Then you'd best make your way around to the Engadget stage (between North and Central halls) here in Vegas, because we've got many hundreds of t-shirts to give away all this week. Along the side of the stage we've got a vending machine filled with them. But there's no cash slot. So what do you do? It's not all that complicated. Approach the machine, and you'll be asked to tweet your most beloved gadget of 2012, alongside the mandatory #engadgetces hashtag and a size-code. Seconds later, a freshly packed t-shirt, given the nod by editor-in-chief Tim Stevens himself, will be yours to walk away with. A visual guide follows.
TshirtOS is web-connected, programmable, 100 percent cotton (video)
An LED display, camera, microphone, speaker and accelerometer all packaged into a t-shirt and controlled via your smartphone? That's the concept behind tshirtOS, a wearable platform for "self-expression" that currently only exists as a prototype. It can show off tweets, play music videos, capture belly-height photos and send them off to Instagram, and pretty much do anything except play percussion. CuteCircuit, which came up with the idea in cahoots (inexplicably) with Ballantine's whisky, says it's about to conduct product tests and will mass produce the smart-shirts if enough folks register interest. There's no Kickstarter page, definite specs or pricing for any of this, but based on CuteCircuit's history and the video after the break we're inclined to believe TshirtOS is more than just viral marketing stunt for the sake of a dram -- click onwards and judge for yourself.
Inside the Apple t-shirt collector world
The Wall Street Journal has a short but interesting piece on the world of Apple t-shirt collecting. There are two types of Apple t-shirts. The first are those shirts that the general public have access to via giveaways at Apple retail stores, such as the t-shirts at an opening of a new Apple Store. The second type are t-shirts that are only available to Apple employees -- often at the retail level. As the WSJ article points out, Apple strictly forbids employees from selling, donating, or giving away the shirts. However, that's doesn't stop them from showing up on eBay from time to time. I myself have a small collection of shirts from my years at Apple. You can check a few of them out in the gallery below. %Gallery-141649%
ThinkGeek Drum Machine bangs out block-rockin' beats wherever you go (video)
Here it is -- the final piece in your all fabric New Order cover band. This $30 wearable drum machine brings a much needed edge to ThinkGeeks existing collection of soft-circuit "instruments." You can choose from seven different drum kits, including the ubiquitous 808 and a palette of chip tune effects. The T-shirt's integrated recorder lets you build loops up to three minutes long and endlessly layer on the sounds. Just keep piling 'em on until your old-school hip hop homage has become an impenetrable wall of noise that washes over you as you walk down the street, proclaiming your geekdom in rhythm. And, of course, the included mini amp cranks all the way up to 11. Check out the videos after the break to see MC Lars and Dex Fontaine demo the capabilities of the personal percussion pullover.
Sphero shipments delayed due to high demand, won't be here-o until January
Our hearts were aflutter with anticipation when the Sphero went up for pre-order last month, but that excitement has since been supplanted by a big knot of disappointment, because the smartphone-controlled robotic ball won't be hitting the market until after the holiday season. In a letter published yesterday, Orbotix CEO Paul Berberian attributed his company's setback to a fundamental economic quandary. "Demand has been greater than expected and our production capabilities are slower than we planned," Berberian wrote. "What that means is only a handful of orders are going to be fulfilled before the holidays and the majority of orders will be fulfilled in January." Writing on behalf of the manufacturer, Berberian went on to accept full blame for the delay, with rather admirable honesty: "We simply underestimated the number of units we'd need to make and, more importantly, we miscalculated how long it would take to bring up the production line." To make up for it, Orbotix is offering free expedited shipping to all customers who pre-ordered the device in time for the holidays, along with a free Sphero t-shirt.
PlayStation Rewards beta testers recieve 'thank you' T-shirts
Sony is sending out thank you cards and T-shirts to some of the most active participants in the PlayStation Rewards beta that ended on March 31. According to the card, the "exclusive" tee is "only for Beta testers who reached one of the Tiers" in the loyalty program. "Wear It Proud," declares a bold statement at the top of the note. Coincidence or not, the shirts are arriving as both Sony and its PlayStation brand face a customer loyalty crisis. Having its most faithful followers out rocking PlayStation apparel might be just the street team campaign the company needs to augment the bigwig apologies and consumer protection promises. Of course, the "PlayStation" lettering is perhaps illegible (it's in Japanese!), and "the shirt is pretty lame" otherwise, notes one recipient on BigBadBob's Blog. As for PlayStation Rewards, its public launch remains in doubt following an unspecified delay. "We remain committed to providing the best overall consumer experience for our users," a representative said in late March, "and we will be refocusing our efforts in the near future to further developing PlayStation Plus and our other network services." No kidding. [Image credit: BigBadBob113; thanks, Xakdublin]
Voting opens on EVE t-shirt design competition
In mid December, geeky t-shirt manufacturer J!NX announced an exciting art competition for fans of EVE Online. Following on from the popularity of CCP's earlier DeviantArt ship design contest, J!NX and CCP Games gave people the opportunity to design their very own EVE t-shirt. The deadline for submission has now passed and public voting is now open on the 85 submitted entries. The creators of the three best shirt designs will each receive $750 US dollars in cash, $250 dollars worth of J!NX store credit, a full year's subscription to EVE Online and a whole pile of items from the EVE store. Perhaps more exciting is the fact that the best designs will be also be turned into t-shirts for sale. The choice of which shirts make the cut will be based on both the public vote and input from CCP and J!NX. If you're looking to expand your wardrobe with some internet-spaceship-themed clothing, now's your chance to pick your favourite designs from the hoard of entries. Voting will be open for all J!NX account holders until January 10th, with the winners announced one week later on January 17th.
New hoodie and Cataclysm designs from SwagDog
Online apparel company SwagDog is pleased to announce the arrival of the zip-up hoodie to its selection. SwagDog has always been famous for its WoW-themed apparel -- more notably, the fact that you could get anything screenprinted onto these shirts. Favorite class? Guild tabard? Why not grab an embroidered hat of your chosen profession? Now you can add more than just a regular short-sleeved tee to your wardrobe. On sale now for $44.99 US, you can purchase a comfortable, long-sleeved, zip-up hoodie version of the classic black guild tabard shirt. Now you can proudly show off the might of your guild, all while staying warm this holiday season. SwagDog has also announced the arrival of both worgen and goblin-themed clothing as well. Since they're now part of the World of Warcraft designs, you can root for Gilnaes or cheer for the Bilgewater cartel. Make sure to head over to SwagDog.com to see more of this great merchandise.
ThinkGeek's synth shirt brings a new wave to your wardrobe
Looking for a new wearable instrument now that you've finally worn out your bongo drum t-shirt? Then you might want to consider ThinkGeeks' new synthesizer shirt, which packs five different sampled instruments, full polyphonic sound, and a handsome "wearable" amp. Head on past the break to get an idea of what the shirt's capable of, and look for it to start shipping on November 29th for $29.99 to $32.98 depending on the size.
T-shirt modded to let you know when you have new emails, won't tell you why your friends are avoiding you
You probably don't have enough reminders that you're always a little behind, right? Well Chris and his wife Madeline decided to make one more for themselves: a t-shirt that lights up when you have new emails, and also tells you the number in your inbox. Using an Arduino Lilypad microcontroller, a few LEDs, conductive thread, and a Bluetooth dongle to communicate with an Android phone nearby (which has access to the inbox), Chris took a custom printed shirt and rigged up this badboy. It's actually pretty good looking as far as these things go, but we still don't know if we need this in our already alert-ridden lives. Regardless, the video's after the break if you're thinking about cobbling together your own. [Thanks, Juergen ]
Get your current weather from Outside
Outside [iTunes link] is a new, personal weather app for the iPhone/iPod touch that provides a visual forecast with some paid options for push notifications. I like the idea of the app; it has some nice graphics and a fresh approach to weather information. The GUI is based on a metaphor of looking out a window: you can get the current conditions or a five-day forecast, if you want to glance into the future. For the relevant stats, like humidity, cloud cover and winds, you just flick up the screen, and it'll tell you everything you need to know. The app also features an interesting pay model: when you buy the U.S $2.99 app, you get 30 days of push notifications for free. Then it's $0.99 for the notifications every three months. Notifications include letting you know if rain is in the forecast, the UV index when it goes above a set level, a warning if the temperature goes below your preference, and a notification that the weather is OK to wear a T-shirt. There are a few things that would make this app better. First, it'd be nice to reduce the need to flick the screen so often. The five-day forecast could be placed on one page, not five. And the notifications are unique, but a bit strange. I'd much rather be notified of upcoming storm warnings rather than T-shirt weather, but there is no such option -- especially since the notifications are so pricey (getting them for a year costs more than the app itself), it'd be nice to have some more options. And if you want weather from a different location, you have to enter that location manually. There is no list of favorites. I think weather junkies would be better off with the Weather Channel app [iTunes link], which is free, Weather Channel Max for $3.99 [iTunes link], or MyWeather [iTunes link] mobile which provides very detailed info for a one-time $4.99, and includes (free) push notifications for severe weather. There is some clever thinking behind Outside, and it's a fresh approach to a function that's seen its share of rainy days. But I wish it had more information on the individual screens, and it wasn't so expensive to get notifications.
Unboxing an Apple employee t-shirt
A little while back we posted about the unboxing of an Apple job offer, and now here's another unboxing having to do with becoming an Apple employee -- Mac Rumors has shots up of an unboxing of one of the t-shirt giftboxes recently given to AppleCare call center staff, and once again, even in something that the public was never really supposed to see, this company shows just how much care and attention they put into their design. From the way the t-shirt's folded, with the stark three word design sitting perfectly centered, to the embossed gift note and company stickers, clearly this is a company that believes presentation is important. In fact, it almost makes me want to go over to Apple's Jobs site and start looking for myself. Apple, any interest in hiring a witty, sarcastic and cynical blogger? I'll work for peanuts!
Bongo drum t-shirt: how did you ever live without one?
We've seen and ridiculed music-playing clothes before, but that doesn't seem to have discouraged the makers of the electronic bongo drum t-shirt. This party-rocking piece of geek chic comes with four distinct sounds and can be had for the low low price of $49 plus shipping. Then you can pair it with your special edition Guitar Hero peripherals for the ultimate in instrument-free music creation.[Via OhGizmo!]
Bebot turns your iPhone into the cutest instrument ever
I don't think I've ever fallen in love with an app as quickly as Bebot. Not only is it a pretty darn powerful synthesizer with an interesting touchscreen interface, but that robot. That robot! He makes you want to play something, anything, with those cute little closed robot eyes and that dashing tux and that knowing smile. If you just want to make funny robot noises, that's easy enough, but for the musically inclined, there's a really surprising amount of features under the hood, including analog filters, a delay/looping effect, chorus and overdrive effects, and even an autotune system. Oh, and because of the multitouch screen, you can play up to four waveforms at a time. In the hands of someone who knows what they're doing, this thing can be really impressive.It's available from a company called Normalware (any app with that robot in it has basically sold me from now on -- there's even a t-shirt of the guy) on the App Store right now for $1.99.
World of WarCrafts: Mojo tee
Every Thursday, Shelbi Roach of The Bronze Kettle guides you in creating WoW-inspired crafts using real world mats with World of WarCrafts.There's just never enough Mojo to go around. Fortunately, this tee will let you show off your love for Mojo without having to get lucky with your hex stick.The method can also be applied to bags, hats, or even shoes. And if by chance you don't fancy Mojo, you could always mix it up and make a shirt with a huge Willy. Here is what you will need: T-Shirt Glue-on Jewelry Beads Fabric Glue Cardboard Click on the images below to view a gallery of step-by-step instructions. %Gallery-36236% Want to print the step-by-step instructions? Copy and paste the instructions below.
Tuesday morning misery on a T-shirt
Jenny posted a t-shirt design on WoW Ladies that I just thought was too good to pass up. You can't actually buy it yet, but apparently she's entered it into a contest over at SplitReason, and if enough people vote for it, they'll offer it as a real t-shirt. You don't have to vote for her or anything (I have no idea who she is, except that she posts on WoW Ladies and made this funny shirt), but if you like the shirt as much as I do, feel free to show your support.Is it just me or are there a lot of WoW-related t-shirts over there? Must be something about you guys and voting for t-shirts.
MacRadio opens beta for new design
MacRadio, the home base for a few Mac-related podcasts, has announced they're going to facelife the entire site, and instead turn it into a hub for all sorts of Mac podcasts-- a "podcast portal for the Mac world," as they say. I sure thought that was the Podcasts tab in iTunes, but maybe that's just me.Anyway, to kick off the redesign, they're offering a beta, in which you can give feedback and help them build the site the way you want it. There's a FAQ up on what's happening, if you're interested, and they mention that they're looking for people running all OSes and browsers. Oh, and apparently everyone who tests the beta gets a free t-shirt, as well as a chance to win more prizes. Pretty slick. Help MacRadio become better and win stuff![ via IMG ]
Daring Fireball feed goes free
John Gruber's Daring Fireball is probably my favorite Mac blog out there (save for the ol' TUAW, of course)-- it was one of the first I started reading, and he consistently provides not only great insight on Apple products and policies (and journalists' treatment of them), but a strong, often funny voice in the community. We're big fans here at TUAW, and that's why we were so happy to hear that even more people will have a chance to read Gruber's work. Because as of today, he's releasing his full RSS feed, free to anyone.Previously, he had a plan where you paid a membership fee (included when you bought a T-shirt from him) and then got access to the full RSS feed. A feed was available for free, but it was partial content only. Now, he says, confusion about which feed is which, and RSS readers without HTML authentication (most notably Google Reader, and the .Mac reader for iPhone that David loves so much-- what's up with these popular readers not providing a feature that supports the content producers that supply them?) have convinced him to try out a free full feed for a month. Additionally, the free feed will be supported from week to week by sponsors.If you haven't signed on to DF's feed yet, now's your chance. And if, like us, you find it interesting and informative, might as well put a couple bucks in the bucket and pay for it anyway-- Gruber's definitely earning it.
Make PaRappa tee, win $2,000
PaRappa <3 Threadless.The trendy t-shirt site is now running a contest where designers can create t-shirts inspired by Sony's classic music game. The Grand Prize winner will get $2,000 in cash and various PaRappa prizes.This Master Onion tee is just one example of what a Threadless regular has created. Will you design something?
