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Hardware Idle

The Ultimate Geek Christmas Card 122

Posted by samzenpus from the when-you-care-to-send-the-geekiest dept.
An anonymous reader writes "CNET reports on the world's most geeky Christmas card, and also the most expensive. The card is made out of a 1st gen iPhone, hacked into a Christmas card using cardboard, paper and glue. The card includes a virtual 'bauble' which uses the iPhone's accelerometer to recreate Christmas decorations that bounce and move with the card. The makers of the card say that because of the iPhone's battery life 'you probably don't want to post it anywhere it will take more than 3 days to arrive.'"

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The Ultimate Geek Christmas Card More

The Ultimate Geek Christmas Card

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  • > you probably don't want to post it anywhere it will take more than 3 days to arrive

    Assuming that it makes through the postal system and that it is not flagged as some kind of potentially explosive devise ! ;-))

  • Does the hack (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward

    break the iPhone warranty?

    Yours In Petrograd,
    Kilgore Trout

  • Of all the things to post about, and we get stories on how to waste technology? Insert joke about the phone having a 'paperweight mode' here...

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Lumpy ( 12016 )

      It's like we turned into Hack-A-Day... look I glued this to a piece of paper!

      • No joke. What's next? "Next on Martha Stewart: How to line your walls with giant lcd screens. You'll never have to wallpaper again, just change it on your computer. It's a good thing."

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by mdwh2 ( 535323 )

      But, but, but ... it's an Iphone! It's on the Iphone! It's some trivial activity, but it was done with an Iphone, so it's front page news!

      You see, it's not a slow news day, it's just that they couldn't find anything else for today's Daily Iphone Slashvertisement.

      Anyhow, I approve - best use I've seen for an Iphone.

  • Iphones are not very geeky (Score:3, Insightful)

    by moep ( 1132491 ) on Tuesday December 08, 2009 @02:22PM (#30368996)
    I remember a friend of mine signing a birthday card with a handwritten gnupgp signature ... thats geeky those fancy fanboy phones are not.
    • Next time to uuencoded his christmas message. Maybe with a picture of a 20 sided dice and quote from Star Wars.

  • Good idea (Score:2, Funny)

    by Kenoli ( 934612 )
    Yes, just pop it right into the mailbox.

  • Seems more like an advert (Score:5, Insightful)

    by thetoadwarrior ( 1268702 ) on Tuesday December 08, 2009 @02:24PM (#30369022) Homepage
    This article (and the cnet one to be fair) seems more like an advert for for a boring little iPhone app.
    • On top of which, the guy who made the card also happens to be the guy who wrote the bauble app (only 59p).

      Nice way to promote the app (but shame on the /. editors).

    • Re:Seems more like an advert (Score:5, Funny)

      by wizardforce ( 1005805 ) on Tuesday December 08, 2009 @02:43PM (#30369294) Journal

      Indeed. There's no real skill involved in the making of this "geek card" either. Looking at the title you'd expect to see a story about some geek building the thing from scratch and programming it to do whatever task was required. Instead we get two links about some random app with the Iphone glued to a piece of cardboard. The thing looks like a crafts project for the local elementary school.

      • Actually the submitter is the one that turned it into something "geeky". The original article doesn't contain the word "geek" at all and just said it was the world's most expensive christmas card.

      • I went to the local newsagency and bought a whole SHEET of cardboard, then cut out the middle and drew christmas trees and smiley faces, and stuck it around my computer monitor. Then I navigated to a web site with christmas imagery and video and stuff. I brought my wife in and said MERRY CHRISTMAS from your geeky husband. It didn't impress her. I didn't get any. In fact she wants me to see a nice doctor tomorrow, who's going to give me a free special white jacket. I don't understand! No one appreciates geek

    • New here much?

    • Be fair though, everyone knows that before Apple came along with this Iphone card, no one was able to send Christmas cards to each other. Sure, Christmas cards existed, but but - well Apple did it better, in a way that I can't actually explain, so therefore it is Apple who invented and popularised the Christmas card.

      In fact, even Christmas as we know it wouldn't exist without the Jesus phone.

      Therefore it's as newsworthy as every other Daily Iphone story we get here on Iphonedot.

  • No, I didn't RTFA, so flame away. But wouldn't a 1st gen touch be cheaper, and do the job?

    • If it's cheaper, then it won't be the most expensive expensive Christmas card. Thus, it doesn't do the job.

    • I think the "reuse" factor of this is that you'd actually have an old Gen 1 iPhone sitting around doing nothing.

      I suppose if you happen to have an iPhone gen 1 lying around not being used, it could still be useful to the recipient once Christmas is over. After all, it still holds music, and you could probably get a prepaid SIM for it and have a pretty awesome prepaid phone, though of course it couldn't do data, etc. Can you still use an old iPhone to access WiFi and do everything like an iPod Touch could

  • Wow, you have an iPhone (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 08, 2009 @02:25PM (#30369038)
    Dude, you used an iPhone, that is definitely such a geek thing to do. Because there is nothing else on the planet that could possibly make you a geek more than an iPhone; geeks are cool.

    (Fuckwits)

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by rocket97 ( 565016 )
      I have always wondered why having an iPhone makes you geeky? I know plenty of people who own them that can't even operate a standard desktop.

      • You can't use your thumbs to type on your desktop keyboard - I mean you can, but that would be awfully silly.

        *Anyone who posts, "Some of us type using our thumbs, you insensitive clod", would be mercilessly ridiculed.

        • But I have a spacebar you insensitive clod!

          Seriously, that's the closest "fingerish thing" to the spacebar and everywhere I've seen touch-typing classes they teach you to use your thumb to hit the spacebar.

    • Dude, you used an iPhone, that is definitely such a geek thing to do. Because there is nothing else on the planet that could possibly make you a geek more than an iPhone; geeks are cool.

      Its now cool to be a geek. We are just too geeky to be allowed to be called geek anymore, those bastards. I am sticking with the 1337 title.

    • Now I would be able to mail chritmas greetings from my iPhone itself.............Go geek!!!

  • Cool Idea (Score:3, Insightful)

    by b0bby ( 201198 ) on Tuesday December 08, 2009 @02:26PM (#30369050)

    This actually seems like a great way to give someone an iphone or touch for Christmas - way cooler than just leaving it in the standard box. Plus since you'll have already charged it up it's ready to go right away.

    • ...Yeah but them you won't be able to open up the package fresh! Isn't that half the fun?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by nizo ( 81281 ) *

        Even better if you are giving someone a used iphone!

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by hmar ( 1203398 )
          If you do this right, you can cover any blemishes on the phone with cardboard and glitter glue, and never admit that it was a used iphone in the first place. Did that for my daughter when we bought her a gamecube from "Santa" a few years ago. The nice old guy set the thing up, put the pokemon skin on it and everything, and she never new it wasn't brand new.

    • Plus since you'll have already charged it up it's ready to go right away.

      As long as you charge it up the night before, just before you wrap it. Leaving an app like this running on it would discharge the battery pretty quickly, and turning it off would mean that this app isn't running and you'd have to grab it from them and fire up the app as soon as they unwrapped it.

      And, trust me, you don't want to get between a geek and their new shiny thing. Keep arms and legs clear of the machinery, folks.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by b0bby ( 201198 )

        Yeah, maybe not for a geek, but if you were getting one for a spouse or kid it would be fun.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by adolf ( 21054 )

        I don't know if this app is dramatically different, but:

        On my iPod Touch, which I only use these days to run SplashID for password management, the thing will run for weeks between charges with the app loaded.

        To resume, I just press power, slide a finger, and (no great surprise) the app is just sort of right there.

        Am I missing something? I'm sure that the craft-project Christmas card app is smart enough to know that it's supposed to, you know, stop doing stuff when the device is sleeping...isn't it?

        • Not sure, I think the idea is that the thing is supposed to be lit up and shiny as soon as the card is opened, so the recipient doesn't have to press the power button and slide the unlock. But I could be wrong.

  • Ha, hint to my wife (Score:3, Funny)

    by elrous0 ( 869638 ) * on Tuesday December 08, 2009 @02:29PM (#30369094)
    Sure beats the hell out of those damn annoying cards that just play music.

  • iPhone geeky? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 08, 2009 @02:30PM (#30369102)
    Since when is the iPhone "geeky"? It's mainstream AND against any software developer who needs an open environment to create and run applications. So it's an anti-geek christmas card.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by gblfxt ( 931709 )

      apparently its based on BSD, so falls into the geek category? got nothing.....

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by garphik ( 996984 )
        Getting iPhone is geeky? I think not, it means you are a gadget freak. Now if you compile the iPhone kernel on the iPhone and use it boasting that its much faster than your regular kernels, that definitely qualifies you as a geek.

  • Deprecation of the word "geeky" (Score:4, Interesting)

    by fliptout ( 9217 ) on Tuesday December 08, 2009 @02:30PM (#30369106) Homepage

    So, anything remotely involving technology is considered geeky these days. I'm sure lots of people would be tickled to receive an iphone Christmas card, but the only hack involved is creating the actual paper card part.

    In the past, I've made birthday "cards" with PICs and monochrome LCDs. Now that is geeky.

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by Foxxxy ( 217437 )

      But they cut paper and used glue... I bet they had to calculate the proper amounts using a complex model and ensured that the colour scheme was to the recipient's liking. It's not like they just cut paper, spread glue and jammed a phone in the middle like my 2 year old does.......

      wait......

    • Geeks by definition (or at least what used to be the definition...) were socially inept but good at some narrow technical or artistic field. For some reason, there came a sort of "geek" identity which (maybe due some movies?) became "cool". And then suddenly people who have nothing to do with the group of people described above call themselves "geek". And that's how you get this...
      • There were no clear definitions for the words Nerds, Geeks, Etc. They were insults from "popular kids" to "un-popular kids" and were interchangeable; Nerds, Geeks, etc., created a classification system in their Nerdy-Geekdom. Somewhere along the line, people started taking pride in the names they were branded with and further down the line being "un-cool" became "cool" and people that would have never been called a Nerd, Geek, etc., were calling themselves one.

      • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

        by DragonWriter ( 970822 )

        Geeks by definition (or at least what used to be the definition...) were socially inept but good at some narrow technical or artistic field. For some reason, there came a sort of "geek" identity which (maybe due some movies?) became "cool". And then suddenly people who have nothing to do with the group of people described above call themselves "geek". And that's how you get this...

        By what used to be the definition when the word first entered the English language, "geek" seems to have meant "fool", so the us

    • In the past, I've made birthday "cards" with PICs and monochrome LCDs. Now that is geeky.

      Bah! Neither of you are true geeks, since you have friends/loved ones to send cards to.

  • Hint to slashdot editors (Score:5, Informative)

    by joeflies ( 529536 ) on Tuesday December 08, 2009 @02:30PM (#30369108)

    if the hack doesn't actually involve fabricating or soldering, then it's not really a hack worthy of the front page.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward

      if the hack doesn't actually involve fabricating or soldering, then it's not really a hack.

       
      Fixed that for you.

    • Re:Hint to slashdot editors (Score:5, Funny)

      by countSudoku() ( 1047544 ) on Tuesday December 08, 2009 @02:51PM (#30369408) Homepage

      Indeed! And it sounds like it's just duct taped onto the back of the card. Some hack. I'm so inspired I'm gonna "hack" the bottom of a movie theater popcorn container and then when the mood is just right... I'll offer some to my date. Damn, I'm smooth!

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Lord Lode ( 1290856 )
      Apparently glueing some paper around an iPhone is frontpage material these days :(

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by mdwh2 ( 535323 )

        Indeed - someone could spend 10 years constructing by hand a custom new smartphone from scratch, to build into a Christmas card that had its own AI to greet the recipient, and it would get lost in the Firehose. Yet take some double sided sticky tape thing you made earlier, put the magic words "With An Iphone" on it, and bam, instant Front Page News. I'm surprised the BBC haven't picked it up.

  • Oblig (Score:2, Funny)

    by SnarfQuest ( 469614 )

    The inside writing?

    "Imaging a Beowulf cluster of these"

  • Guinness Book disagrees about this (Score:3, Informative)

    by qazwer00 ( 1152449 ) on Tuesday December 08, 2009 @02:39PM (#30369244)
    Most Valuable Christmas Card The most valuable Christmas card was sold at an auction in Devizes, Wiltshire, UK in 2001 for $20,000. The card was hand-colored by illustrator John Calcott Horsley. The card was originally sent by Sir Henry Cole of Bath to his grandmother in 1843.

  • Hrmmmm, time to revoke (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Overzeetop ( 214511 ) on Tuesday December 08, 2009 @02:42PM (#30369264) Journal

    samzenpus's geek card, if you ask me.

  • Is there an "ohnoitssamzenpus" tag yet? There should be, every story he posts is awful.

  • A real geek christmas card (Score:5, Interesting)

    by bl8n8r ( 649187 ) on Tuesday December 08, 2009 @02:49PM (#30369370)

    would have:
    - matrix screensaver on the the front
    - 20-project electronics kit on the left inside flap
    - "happy holidays" would start with: 48h 41h 50h 50h 59h ...
    - picture of the original star trek cast (with Redshirts)
    - it would have a blue led on it that works as a flashlite
    - ..and when you open it, it would play the screeching noise you
    get out of your pc speaker when you accidentally dump core
    to 0xA000

  • Next week on some 'news' site... (Score:5, Funny)

    by fridaynightsmoke ( 1589903 ) on Tuesday December 08, 2009 @02:56PM (#30369456) Homepage
    "Some bloke has made another tedious iPhone app: iWank.
    Using the iPhones cool features such as the unique touchscreen and accelerometer, you can literally wank Steve Jobs to orgasm. Simply make the appropriate motion with the iPhone, and see a naked Jobs on the screen. His expression changes according to the speed and rhythm of the motion. To finish the job, simply rub the on screen impression of Jobs' tumescent empurpled member and watch him ejaculate.
    There have been rumours of a 'cheat mode', where Jobs can ejaculate in seconds after the user inputs a URL leading to another iPhone PR stunt on some news site. Apple has refused to comment.
    SPONSORED LINK: Get your amazing super-hip iPhone HERE"

  • Seriously (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward

    I'm getting a bit sick of this site being one big rolling advert for a certain fruity multinational company and occasional OS developer.

    It'd be absolutely fantastic to have a day, no in fact maake it a WEEK where it gets not one mention.

    IANBG (work it out)

  • Why isn't this in idle, he loaded an app onto an iphone and tapped it to some cardboard drawn on with crayons, I don't think it counts as Hardware.

    • Beceause samzenpus knows that everyone has blocked idle stories so he posts his crap into other boards to get hits.

  • Tag (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Someone tag this "slashvertisement" because that is all it is.

  • Oh, it's a CNET story. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Minwee ( 522556 ) <dcr@neverwhen.org> on Tuesday December 08, 2009 @03:53PM (#30370128) Homepage

    Just because there's a battery powered object in it doesn't mean it's geeky. Hardware hacking involves a little bit more than just cardboard, paper and glue. The whole 'hack' here is "Cut a hole in the card, put your iPhone in the card, make her open the card".

    A true hardware geek would be ashamed to own up to this kind of cheap hack. Leaving the whole thing running on battery power non-stop while it's in the mail is just painful. To do the job right you would have to remove the case, fit the LCD panel properly into the card frame, add a switch to keep the whole thing powered off until you pull it out of the envelope, and probably do a little firmware hacking to ensure that the display is up and running the moment it powers up. For bonus marks, source your hardware somewhere other than the Apple store and save yourself about a hundred bucks.

    But then again it's a CNET article. You can't expect too much.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by SirSlud ( 67381 )

      hey everybody! lets cut the last tree off of easter island!

      I mean, I'm all down for hacks, but damn is that wasteful and I can't see how that is any more emotionally meaningful than a paper card .. some hacks are fun, this is just stupid and wasteful.

  • This isn't taking advantage of using an iPhone; it could just as well used an iPod Touch.

    A real geek card using an iPhone would have modulated the GSM carrier so that the nearest speaker would buzz to the tune of a Christmas carol.
  • Wanted to beat that bloke senseless by the end of that. I know I was bored, but I figured a "geeky" card might have been interesting. Thoroughly dissappointed (should I have expected anything different, I don't really consider having an iPhone in the least bit geeky)

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