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aquarium posts

Filed under: App Review

MyReef 3D Aquarium puts a realistic aquarium in your pocket

I've always thought aquariums as screensavers were a no-brainer. Most are lacking, limiting themselves to small fish you'd find in just about any aquarium, freshwater or salt water. MyReef 3D Aquarium [iTunes Link] isn't going to shake up the genre, but it is certainly the most realistic, smoothest and most relaxing "fish simulator" I've used so far. It serves no purpose other than to completely mimic the function of a real aquarium: to sit there and look pretty and be relaxing. And it does a good job.

You can add many types of fish, some aquarium decorations and plants, and feed the fish or tap on the glass. You can pinch to zoom in, seeing quite pretty 3D fish. These are not 2D sprites flopping around a flat screen, these are real, OpenGL graphics and they look terrific. In fact, something I love about this app is the attention to detail. Fish behave as their species would behave, including group behaviors and dorsal fin indicators. Those small touches will really appeal to any fish fans out there -- and there are plenty.

If you're an aquarium hobbyist you will love this app. If you want a pretty thing to look at or mess around with or relax to, MyReef 3D Aquarium is quit nice. It doesn't "do" a lot, but what it does it does well. I think it's a fair value at $2.99.


Filed under: Hardware, Humor, Video, Odds and ends, Internet Tools, Found Footage, iPhone, iPod touch

Found Footage: New & improved TankedCam, now with even more iPhone


Remember Pete's FishCam? Just before Christmas of 2008, we did a short post about Pete Raumann's web app that he developed that allowed him to watch his fish tank, turn the light on and off, and even open and close a treasure chest in the tank.

Pete's now presenting the newly renamed TankedCam to the world, and you get to be in control! While he still won't let you feed his fish (he doesn't want them floating upside down in the tank), you can now get in on the fun of watching and annoying the tank population by heading to either http://www.tankedcam.com or the iPhone / iPod touch-friendly http://m.tankedcam.com.

In his latest hit video, Pete uses an iPod touch and the latter link to control the tank that's in the background. I was playing with this last night while watching TV and trust me, the fish tank was much more interesting than the show. Pete has added an air stone that you can turn on and off, a dinosaur tank ornament with a mouth you can open and close, and one cam that you can pan left and right. A tap on your iPhone screen brings you to a stationary upper camera with a scuba diver that you can control in real time, another air stone controller, and a water pump that you can use to add water to the tank.

If you think that the latter control is going to let you flood Pete's office from your iPhone, you're wrong -- the system is set up with a level controller so you won't be able to add water beyond a certain level in the tank. This is a fun demonstration of remote control via iPhone, so be sure to give it a try. I've included some screenshots from last night's eerily-lit iPhone fish-bothering session, as well as some shots in the light of day. Enjoy!

Gallery: TankedCam

The front pageEerie night scene!More controlNow shut your mouth!In the light of day

Filed under: Hardware, Humor, Peripherals, Odds and ends, Found Footage

Found Footage: Pete's FishCam

Remember the remote-controlled dog treat dispenser from a few weeks ago? Now Pete Raumann has come up with Pete's FishCam, which comes complete with an iPhone interface so that he can remotely watch his fish swimming around in a nicely appointed aquarium.

It's more than just a webcam, though -- Pete can also turn the lights on and off (both tank and accent spotlights), pan the camera left and right, and open and close the "treasure chest" in the tank. Pete used the same equipment and web-based applet generator from ioBridge that was used to create the dog treat dispenser.

Note to Pete: your next assignments are to build an aquarium-cleaning robot and fish feeder that you can control from the iPhone. The video below shows how the interface works on the iPhone, complete with narration by Mr. Raumann.

What are your ideas for something you'd like to be able to watch and/or control from your iPhone? Put it in a comment, and please remember to keep it clean!

Filed under: Hardware, Hacks, Cult of Mac

Top 10 strangest Mac mods


Behold, ladies and gentlemen: the Top 10 strangest Mac mods at TechBlog. Johnathan Ive's blood would surely boil if he were to feast his eyes on such mutant Mac modifications as the NecroMac of the PowerMac G4 Aquarium!

I know we've linked to a few of these in the past as we heard about them, but it's nice to see them all in one big list - and ranked.

Tip of the Day

Use Spotlight as a reference tool. Type any word in the Spotlight box and one of the top entries will be a definition. Click on it, and it will bring up the dictionary application to check the word in either the dictionary, thesaurus, Apple database, or Wikipedia.


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