The Touch Bar on the new MacBook Pro may be functional, but it can be fun, too. Henry Franks makes that point perfectly with his Pac-Man clone, called Pac-Bar, for the Touch Bar. It’s just like the classic arcade game, complete with Pac-Man and his “wokka-wokka” munching sound, ghosts, and music. The maze is a little limited since you can only go left or right, although the intersections do jump you to either end of the Touch Bar. You’ll need to use your MacBook Pro’s arrow keys to play—sorry, no touch controls here. Click the Clone or download button on Henry’s Github page get Pac-Bar.
Turn Your MacBook Pro Touch Bar into a Piano
Turning your new MacBook Pro’s Touch Bar into a piano may not be practical but it is pretty cool, and that’s exactly what Touch Bar Piano does. The app lets you choose between 128 different instruments, and you can play chords, too. Touch Bar Piano is a free download, and while it isn’t the same as using an actual piano, it’s a cool example of the creative ideas developers are finding for the Touch Bar.
Apple Posts 4 New Commercials for Apple Watch Series 2
Apple has four new commercials for Apple Watch Series 2 (AWS2): Apple Watch Series 2 — Go Play, Apple Watch Series 2 — Go Run, Apple Watch Series 2 – Go Dance, and Apple Watch Series 2 – Go Out (below). Each has a theme of “go” do something, and each features Apple Watch being opened as a present. It’s a sharp, fast, double jab of a message. The ads also feature music with aggressive beats, and they’re probably aimed at a younger audience. Unlike other recent branding spots, these ads feature a lot of shots of AWS2 being used to do something. Play music, buy with Apple Pay, activity tracking, Breathe, receiving iMessages, and more. For those keeping score at home, my favorite song in the four spots is Realligator by MagnusTheMagnus.
Shigeru Miyamoto Playing Super Mario Bros Theme is the Coolest Thing this Week
If you don’t know the Super Mario Bros. theme, odds are you’re in one of those South American tribes that hasn’t ever had contact with modern man, which also means you’re missing out on one of the most awesome thing of this week: Super Mario Bros. creator Shigeru Miyamoto playing the game’s theme song. He teamed up with The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon’s band, The Roots, and it’s more fun than a bag full of Koopas. Check it out, and if you aren’t smiling along with Shigeru then you’ll probably fail the Voight-Kampff test, too.
Cool Stuff Found
Colin Furze Built a Giant Star Wars AT-ACT in His Backyard
YouTuber colinfurze did what any Star Wars fan would do: he built a 5.5 meter (18 feet) high AT-ACT in his back yard. I love all the projects this nut job builds—he’s awesome—and this one is truly spectacular. It’s a scale model of a scale model on the outside, and on the inside it’s a Star Wars fan club house. In the video below he gives us a great tour, and he also has a behind-the-scenes video of how he built it.
Find Everything You Want to Read on NPR's Book Concierge List
Staying on top of all the great books coming out is pretty hard, which is why we’re glad when NPR’s Book Concierge list comes out each year. The 2016 list is out with more than 300 titles worth checking out. The book suggestions are divided into categories such as Biography & Memoir, Eye-Opening Reads, Kids Books, Funny Stuff, and more. Be sure to check out Staff Picks for a great go-to list of book suggestions. Each title includes iBooks and Amazon, local library, and independent book store links so you don’t have to go hunting. Links to previous Book Concierge lists are there, too, in case you want even more suggestions.
Super Mario Run Demo in Apple's Stores Today
Super Mario Run launches next week on December 15, but you can try it out in Apple’s retail stores now. A demo version is running on iPhones and iPads in the stores starting Thursday morning so you can get a sneak peek before it hits the App Store. Nintendo made the announcement on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, and he got to play a level on the show. Super Mario Run is the first mobile game to feature Mario. It’ll cost US$9.99 and you can sign up on the App Store to be notified when it’s available.
GoPower Plus Battery Space Gray Has Built-in Charging Cable
The Kanex GoPower Plus Batter Space portable battery. What I like about it is that it has a built-in charging cable. The main cable is a microUSB cable for Android users. But it comes with a Lightning adapter that slips over that microUSB plug, and both just tuck away in the body of the battery. It comes in Space Gray or Gold and has a capacity of 8,000mAh. It’s $59.95.
Amazon Snowmobile is a Giant Truck That Can Move 100PB to the Cloud
Amazon’s servers provide the backbone for much of the Web, and while upload speeds are improving, what happens when you need a few dozen petabytes backed up to the cloud? Enter Amazon Snowmobile, literally a giant truck with a mobile data center capable of physically moving up to 100 petabytes of your data to Amazon’s cloud servers. The concept is the evolution, both in name and function, of the company’s “Snowball” service, which ships customers data units with capacities up to 80TB. As for price, it’s in the “if you have to ask…” category, although Amazon says it aims to make the Snowmobile cheaper than any network-based data transfer which, even at gigabit speeds, would take a while.
Cool Stuff Found
Latest Apple Campus 2 Drone Shot Looks Star Trek
Apple’s spaceship campus is looking more impressive as construction gets closer to wrapping up, and TMO’s latest drone pic really drives that home. Taken Wednesday, our intrepid drone pilot’s flying skills let you see the roof solar panels are nearly all installed, landscaping is starting to come together outside the massive building, and the giant courtyard in the building’s center is taking shape, too. The building really looks like something from JJ Abrams’ Star Trek. Apple Campus 2.0 isn’t finished yet, but is moving along well enough that the company will likely start moving in some time in 2017.