Mac|Life win RSS Feed

Do You Play Favorites? Enter this Month's Contest!

The Mac|Life Staff — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 12:32:41 -0500

Can't Live Without It Challenge!

We're fascinated by Mac software (obviously), in particular the must-have utilities and lesser-known apps that people can't live without. Which got us thinking. What are your favorite apps? Put another way, if you could only install 10 go-to apps on a new Mac, what would they be? Send us your list of your favorites, along with a brief description of what you use them for. We'll choose the most interesting and eclectic collection, and the winner will receive some cool prizes from Just Mobile.

Win This!

Cooling Bar ($39.99) and an XTand Pro ($79.95; just-mobile.com)

Include your full name, email and mailing addresses, and phone number with your entry. Send your list of 10 apps, and a brief description of what you do with them to contest@maclife.com with the subject line "Can't Live Without It Challenge." Deadline for entry: October 31, 2009. Contest results will appear in the Jan/10 issue.

Mac|Life "Do You Play Favorites" Contest rules: The judges will be Mac|Life editors and will base their decision on 33 percent originality, 33 percent creativity, and 33 percent execution. All entries must be received no later than October 31, 2009, with the winner announced around Jan/10 issue. By entering this contest, you agree that Future US, Inc. may use your name, likeness, and website for promotional purposes without further payment. Employees of Sponsor, its respective parent, subsidiaries, affiliated companies, and agents, and foregoing employees¹ household or immediate family members (defined as parent, spouse, child, sibling, or grandparent) are NOT eligible to enter Contest. All prizes will be awarded, and no minimum number of entries is required. If two or more people enter identical designs and that entry is selected as the winner, the entry received first will be awarded the contest prize. Prizes won by minors will be awarded to their parents or legal guardians. Future US, Inc. is not responsible for damages or expenses the winners might incur as a result of this contest or the receipt of a prize, and winners are responsible for income taxes based on the value of the prize received. A list of winners may also be obtained by sending a stamped, self-addressed envelope toFuture US, Inc. c/o Mac|Life Contest, 4000 Shoreline Court, Suite 400, South San Francisco, CA 94080. This contest is limited to residents of the United States. No purchase necessary; void in Arizona, Maryland, Vermont, Puerto Rico, and where prohibited by law.

DonorsChoose Challenge 2009!

Susie Ochs — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 12:48:27 -0500

It's time for the DonorsChoose Challenge! Last year, our Giving Page raised nearly $900, affecting 560-plus students. That's incredible! I know this year we can break $1,000. That's less than the cost of a MacBook!

DonorsChoose.org is an incredible website, letting public school teachers submit project proposals -- anything they need that their schools can't afford to buy for them. If any of you know a teacher, you probably know that this lack of adequate supplies can be a HUGE problem, especially now, with budget cuts affecting schools around the country.

Typically a teacher's choice is to shell out their own hard-earned dollars for these extras or simply go without, but DonorsChoose adds a third option -- asking others for help. Donors (that's you!) choose a project to fund -- part or all of it -- and when the project is complete, the teachers get their stuff, the kids get an awesome educational experience, and the donors get adorable thank-you notes and photos from the happy classrooms. It's been one of my favorite sites, and charities of choice, for years.

Each October, DonorsChoose.org runs a Social Media Challenge, letting bloggers and websites and whatnot set up a Giving Page of project proposals to sponsor. Their readers (again, that's you!) donate to the projects, and DonorsChoose tallies the totals on this leaderboard, for bragging rights and warm, fuzzy feelings, and that sweet sense of self-satisfaction that unites us as users of the Macintosh. (Hee!)

But there's more in it for you besides a chance to be generous, a tax deduction, and the awesome thank-you notes you'll get. I'm holding five drawings, one every week in the month of October, for fabulous prize packages. All you have to do to enter is donate $1 or more to a project on our Giving Page, then forward me the email receipt (susie at maclife dot com). I will email back to let you know you're entered (and tell you how AWESOME you are for donating), and your name goes in the drawing for that week. See the updated FAQ (which holds the official rules) for more details.

WEEK 1 PRIZE: Snow Leopard Family Pack! A $49 value, the Family Pack will put Apple's newest, raddest OS on up to 5 Macs (Intel only) in your household. Remember, this is a short week, so enter by this Saturday to be eligible! The official deadline is 11:59pm PDT on Saturday, October 3, 2009.

I've updated our FAQ for the 2009 Challenge, and our new Giving Page is live. Any questions? Just email me. Now go forth and give!

Got a Hidden Talent? Enter this Month's Contest!

The Mac|Life Staff — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 14:44:04 -0500

Look At Me! Challenge!

Andy Warhol claimed that everyone will be famous for at least 15 minutes. And with YouTube and all the other video-sharing sites--not to mention blogs, Twitter, and everything else--it seems to be coming true. So now’s your chance. Send us a link to a video showing your hidden talent. Whatever silly, entertaining, astounding, or just plain stupid human tricks you can do, the Mac|Life editors want to see them. We’ll pick our favorites, and the winners (there will be three) will get some excellent prizes…so get to it!

Win This!

Xtand for iPod touch ($39.99, www.just-mobileonline.com)—perfect for watching online videos—plus a Mysterious Box of Mystery, containing cool schwag hand-picked by the Mac|Life editors (priceless). We promise, it won’t all be empty Fresca cans from Robbie’s desk. We’re talking good stuff! But we’re not telling what it is yet, so if you want to know, you’ll need to win to find out.

Include your full name, email and mailing addresses, and phone number with your entry. Send a link to your online video (links only, do not send video files) to contest@maclife.com with the subject line "Look At Me! Challenge." Deadline for entry: July 31, 2009. Contest results will appear in the Oct/09 issue.

tPhone For The Win!

Mac|Life Staff — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 06:00:00 -0600

Bagel Fridays are everybody’s favorite day here at Mac|Life HQ, when the line for the toaster stretches dozens long. So while we were surprised that none of our contestants this month went the bagel route—maybe it’s the hole in the middle—we were awed and amused by all of the culinary creations that came in response to our Art of Toast Challenge. “Anti-PC” was a popular theme (Apple ad guys, are you listening? This is a million-dollar idea here...), and we received several variations on the classic red slash “No” symbol, rendered in earthy brown toast tones—both white and wheat. And then there was the ToastBook, a re-creation of an Apple laptop in toast.

But it was the tPhone that won the hearts of the Mac|Life editors. Or maybe it was our stomachs. Either way, David Nichols’ faithful recreation of an iPhone Home screen in toast is the winner of our Art of Toast Challenge. For his outstanding accomplishments in Toaster Arts, we’re awarding David some awesome disc-burning software from Roxio, plus some coin to spend in the iTunes store.

David's Prize

Toast 9 Titanium ($99.99, www.roxio.com), plus a $50 iTunes gift card

Video: Air Guitar Tutorial

Roberto Baldwin — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 17:37:52 -0500

While rummaging through a co-worker's desk looking for loose change, I happened upon this film. Since we have an air guitar contest going on right now, I thought it would great for the first time air guitarist. So after gathering a whopping 73¢, here it is!

Don't forget, your 2 minute or less, air guitar video needs to be submitted no later than September 24th. Rock on!

REQUIREMENTS: QuickTime 7.0 or later.

To download this video to add to iTunes for viewing on an iPod with video, click here. (Note: To uncompress the file after downloading, double-click it.)

Create Your Own Time-Lapse Movie Challenge Winner

Mac|Life Staff — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 13:14:48 -0500

Jarbas Agnelli gets around—and he brings his Canon 20D and a tripod with him. Time-lapse photography is a hobby for Jarbas, who travels regularly for business from his home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to New York and Brazil. He created his winning entry, “Lightwaves,” using more than 10,000 still shots from a variety of locations (including Miami, Hawaii, and São Paulo, Brazil). Check out his winning time-lapse movie.

Judging for this challenge was tough, and we have two standout honorable mentions: John Purcell’s submission featuring a soothing skyscape was created entirely using the iSight camera on his MacBook Pro. And Thomas Douglas brought us a slice of middle America with three scenes from a Midwestern summer’s day. We wish we had three Pentax K10Ds to give away—we hope the runners-up won’t be too disappointed with their Mac|Life T-shirts.

Don't forget to checkout the Mac|Life contests page for your chance to win.