Made You Stare » Technology

Crazy iPhone Blender Destruction!

Stewie — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:50:18 +0000

Click here to view the embedded video.

Are you ready for a bit of senseless anarchy? Ever been curious to know what exactly happens when you introduce a brand new iPhone to a high-speed blender? Then check this funny clip out. The tagline is that the iPhone can do so much but will it blend? The white-coated boffin in charge of the experiment is called Tom Dickson and he takes out the iPhone, puts it into the blender and presses the smoothie button. As you’d expect, the little gadget is completely destroyed as a subtitle reading ‘Don’t try this at home’ appears. We are treated to a close-up action replay during which we see every tiny piece of the broken iPhone get churned up into even tinier pieces, it’s screen shimmying off, its buttons all spraying against the blender’s walls. This process goes on and on until the destroyed cellphone is ground down into a very fine black powder. When Tom lifts the lid off the blender, nasty acrid smoke leaks from out the top of it and Tom declares that we shouldn’t breathe this in. No shit Sherlock. He then puts the black powder into a smart-looking bowl as if he’s going to serve it at a dinner party. The answer at the end of the clip is,as you would expect, ‘Yes it blends!’ No one has suggested that this might be a total waste of time and money probably because it’s so damn funny to watch. Apparently this clip was made in response to a strong demand from YouTube viewers for such an experiment to be filmed. This might make you think that there are some pretty weird people out there with peculiar notions about entertainment, or maybe there are just plenty of people who hate Apple and want to see broken iPhones at the click of a mouse. Who honestly knows why? Who cares? What else does this Tom Dickson dude get up to in his spare time? Slow-cooking laptops in microwaves? Feeding PSPs into industrial shredders? Baking webcams in breadmakers? I bet he has a lot of friends.

T-Mobile Spectacular Mass Dance-Off at a Major Train Station

Lou — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 15:32:58 +0000

Click here to view the embedded video.

Nowadays everyone is too businesslike, always in a rush, no time for fun. Places like train stations are associated with boredom and stress but this advert by T-Mobile turns that on its head as we see maybe a hundred people dancing to a succession of classic songs, among them ‘Since You’ve Been Gone’ by Rainbow, ‘Shout’ by Lulu, and ‘Don’t Cha’ by the Pussycat Dolls and Busta Rhymes. The humor in this sequence lies in the fact that the last thing you expect while boring yourself rigid at a train station is a bunch of wannabe Michael Jacksons taking to the stage and showing off their funky dancing. The real surprise here is the way the dancers are totally synchronized with each other, bowing and jiggling and pirouetting at exactly the same time, as if this whole thing had been painstakingly rehearsed. There’s a bit of smoke and mirrors here because all the dancers are dressed as if they are the usual commuters – in suits and ties or hoodies or overcoats – but it’s clear enough they are trained pros as soon as they start shaking their booties. They subtly adapt their dancing styles to each genre of music as it arrives on the P.A., so they are happily waltzing along to Mozart one second and then disco dancing to ‘Get Down On It’ by Kool and the Gang the next. The tagline of the commercial is ‘Life is for sharing’ and this is backed up by the shots, about halfway through, of other commuters filming the whole event on their camera phones or grinningly phoning their friends about what they have just seen. Oh isn’t commercial-world so much more cheesy than the real world? But then this clip kind of mixes the two because you can see the shock on the faces of real commuters when all this staged funky dancing kicks off and a sort of publicity stunt has been pulled. Perhaps this would have been funnier had completely untrained dancers been employed to do their thang, being all clumsy and making total jackasses of themselves. Just a suggestion for a sequel, that’s all.

Xbox 360 Project Natal – You Are The Controller!

Stewie — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 16:45:23 +0000

Click here to view the embedded video.

Dueling with ninja to the death, driving an Indy car to victory, rampaging through New York City as a monster – these are all situations that computer gamers will be familiar with. However, in this clip showcasing the new Xbox 360 Project Natal, all these experiences can be had without a controller, so that you can simply move your body and directly influence the action on the screen. There are some hilarious moments when a family playing the Natal are all sat down on their sofa moving invisible steering wheels which a neighbor might construe as a sign of madness if they weren’t able to see the Xbox 360 or the screen at the far end of the room. Project Natal can also be used like a personal organizer or hi-tech cell phone, with a girl in this clip videoconferencing with her friend and choosing outfits for her to wear on-screen. Families in the same neighborhood are also shown competing against each other in Xbox 360 Project Natal versions of well-known game shows, with such intellectually demanding questions as ‘How many push-ups can Chuck Norris do?’ seemingly the order of the day. With simply a wave of the hand, you can watch movies, listen to music, read documents and look at pictures, which clearly makes life easier, removing the need for keyboards and other such appendages. There is a reassuring level of personalization to the Project when one of the kids in the clip is addressed as ‘Ian’ before he begins a bout of extremely violent karate. In a racing game, Dad looks slightly ridiculous jumping up to mime changing the tire on a pro racing car as fast as he possibly can. But realism doesn’t always look slick and cool. The tagline of this Project Natal advert is ‘The only experience you need is life experience’ which is clearly aimed at trying to overturn the accusation that computers make people unsociable. It certainly seems that the best times on this new Xbox 360 generation will be had alongside other people and not just by yourself. Contrary to the laziness required in most computer games, the Xbox 360 Project Natal seems to promote a lot of exercise which can only be a good thing in this age of chronic obesity.