Yesterday, I had a distraught customer come into the store and lay the remains of a black MacBook (13-inch Early 2008) on the front counter. My immediate thought was that the machine had been trashed and was just at the shop to be recycled.

I asked the customer what happened and he explained that it had been run over by a car. At this point I thought to myself, "Yikes, there's gotta be a story behind this one." As it turns out, it was just an unfortunate accident of forgetfulness. He just returned home from a road trip and set the machine down to bring in a load from the car. After being inside for a bit, he came out and decided to check his mailbox, which was just down the road. He stepped into the car, backed up and... CAR-NAGE!

What's most amazing here isn't the accident, but what he discovered when he tried to power up the MacBook. Even after having a car completely crush it, it still worked. When the customer told me this, I couldn't believe it. I opened the display -- which you can see is absolutely smashed in the picture -- and pressed the power button. To my excited surprise, the machine turned on and booted into Leopard.

After running a full suite of diagnostics on the machine, I found it needed a display assembly, optical drive, and optical drive bezel (the part of the inner frame that the discs go through). All of that was cheaper than getting a new machine, so I went to work. It took me a couple hours and some frame bending here and there, but after all was said and done, I gave the customer back a machine that would pass any warranty inspection at the Genius Bar. See the gallery for more pictures!

Disclaimer: The Unofficial Apple Weblog cannot and will not be held responsible for any damage done to your computer by cars. Just because we think it's cool that it may survive doesn't mean you should go out and crush your MacBook.

While the iPod nano is being called fragile, the iPod touch is ready to demonstrate its toughness.

A user at the iPod touch Fans forums posted pictures of his touch after being run over by a pickup truck. The glass screen is shattered but intact, and the back of the case is dented. However, it still works. "It worked perfectly, the touch screen, the music, the wifi..." writes forlorn owner spongyiq.

He claims that siding a finger across the busted display "...doesn't hurt," but we'll just take his word on it.

While we're on the subject, here's a few other pieces of Apple hardware that met a cruel fate:

• Nano meets highway traffic, fares poorly
• Great balls of PowerBook fire
• iPod sets man's pants on fire
• Shattered iPhone, still works

Of course, we'd be remiss if we omitted the granddaddy of them all: Does the iPhone blend?

[Via Gizmodo]

The iPhone's home screen works just fine with 16 application icons on the main screen and four more on the dock at the bottom. It still works well with another screenful of 16 more apps on the adjacent screen.

But, says Chris Devers, as you start adding more apps, the home screen UI doesn't scale well to cope with them. Flicking across five screens of apps to find the one you want is time-consuming. And moving an app from screen five to screen three is chaotic, unless you've left "gaps" on each screen as you went along - in which case you'd have six to juggle, not five. And even then, it's still chaotic.

OK, so not everyone is going to be collecting that many third party apps. But for people who do, says Chris, there needs to be a better solution than this. He's posted a set on Flickr to illustrate his point.

What might work? A Quicksilver- or Spotlight-style app, where you type some characters from the name of the app you want and it gets launched? Or a gesture launcher, where you "draw" what you're looking for?

What's up with MobileMe email? In recent days we've been hearing from a lot of very unhappy MobileMe subscribers. They're unhappy because their email accounts have been inaccessible.

David told us: "Some MobileMe mail users have been without mail access for four days straight now."

At the time of writing, the MobileMe status report says: "1% of MobileMe members cannot access MobileMe Mail. We apologize for any inconvenience."

But TUAW reader Drew told us: "Just got off the phone with AppleCare and they tell me MobileMe email is going to be down for 2-3 days, and that it's the whole system, not just the 1% as noted on the support site. Those of us that use .me as a work address are hosed. Normally I wouldn't care but I have 2 photoshoots to coordinate Sunday. Is it me, or does this feel like a M$ launch?"

Well, readers, you tell us. How has MobileMe mail been for you over the weekend?

Thanks to everyone who contacted us about this issue.

Shame on you, EA! Shame! Back at WWDC, you promised to release four of your franchise games simultaneously on PC and Mac in July. But July came and went, and we saw (and played) nothing.

And now EA has told Apple Insider that Mac faithful shouldn't have held their breath on those promises-- Madden 08 was the big release on Tuesday, but while it did appear on PC, the Mac version has been officially delayed until "September or October" (which means late December, in videogame-release-speak). Additionally, even EA doesn't know what's going on with its own games-- they claim that Battlefield 2142, Command and Conquer 3, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and Need for Speed Carbon are all in stores, but when asked which stores they were actually in, EA didn't have an answer.

I can't say I'm surprised-- for all the talk at WWDC, the Mac isn't quite the platform of choice for most game makers, and who knows who would have actually bought any of those games on Mac if they had been released (I wouldn't have). But the fact is that EA stood on stage at WWDC, and got lauded for it. Don't talk the talk if you can't walk the walk, Electronic Arts.

Vermont-based blacksmith Jim Fecteau uses his 17" MacBook Pro as a business and teaching tool, and he fully intended to have it handy at a smiths' meeting in Rhode Island... however, one teensy problem, he left it on top of his truck as he drove away from home. Oops. After fruitless searching on the home end, he chalked it up as a loss.

Enter Small Dog Electronics, longtime Mac vendor in Burlington, VT. A good Samaritan turned the laptop in and SD contacted Fecteau, who came to pick up the patient. Unfortunately, the laptop had been run over by his trailer, and we all know that's gonna leave a mark. A good chunk of the screen is unusable, and the DVD drive has played its last, but the machine is still operable (!) and could be repaired to full working order. Fecteau would like to go for one of the new Santa Rosa machines, and who can blame him?

You can see several more examples of "Mac meets immovable object" physics experiments at Small Dog's 'Maccident' Flickr pool.

[via Small Dog Barkings]

Thanks Doug

We get a lot of email to the TUAW tipline: scores of product recommendations, polite and not-so-polite suggestions, and "Won't you post about my new website?" press releases. When we get five consecutive emails, all within a few minutes, all from the same person promoting the same iPod purchasing online service... well, let's just say that it doesn't put us in a mood to post about your site, capice? (Oh, OK, fine. BuyMyBustediPod.com just opened and will buy your busted iPod. There, I did it.) Hopefully this guy can still get a few bucks for his iPod.

It wasn't until I saw these emails, however, that it occurred to me: I've got a couple of broken iPods around here somewhere, and certainly friends and family have more... which service should I recommend for monetizing them? Back in December, both Ars Technica and WallStreetFighter listed some extant sites for second-hand sales, including:

http://www.beyondthepod.com/
http://www.ipodmods.com/sell.htm
http://brokenpod.com/

We even posted about BrokenPod back in February of 2006 -- and of course, there are the perennial options of Craigslist and eBay, or you could, I dunno, get it fixed or even try to repair it yourself. What we really need now, however, is your help: have you sold your broken iPod via any of these sites? Did they pay you as promised? Was the process easy and straightforward? Let us know your experiences; that way I can recommend a site with confidence and a clear conscience.

Update: After all that, I got the original site's URL wrong -- it's http://www.buymyBROKENipod.com -- oops!

Before reading this article, I kind of knew that there were services out there that bought back broken iPods. I was aware that there were people out there interested in using them for parts or refurbing them to sell on eBay but I might not have thought of all these possible outlets. iPod ResQ is probably the best known of the bunch, and there's always eBay, but would you have known about iPodMods or NextWorth? Pop by and read the whole article, the author gives his insights into the reliability of the services and whether you'll want to do business with them.

If you're a user of the recent Adium 1.0 beta releases, and you've been having issues connecting to AIM, you're not alone. According to reports in the official IRC channel and from developers, AOL did something to change the connection protocol, specifically involving the new joscar connection protocol, connection rate limiting, and buddy icon requests. Users experiencing problems have three options:

1. Take a break! Enjoy your newly found freedom from the constant barrage of instant messages.

2. Use a web-based IM service such as meebo.

3. Replace your Adium beta with the older .89.1 build.

Note: AOL responds to the rapid connections this problem causes by locking out your account for a few minutes. The more you try and connect while you're locked out, the longer the lock stays.

JC at Mac Geekery has come across a potential solution to the iPod hard drive's 'click of death' that many owners will likely experience at some point or another (After all it's a hard drive and you walk/run/snowboard around with it all day. It has to throw in the towel some day).

After hurling a dead 4G iPod off a 3rd story balcony to test an iPod case, JC discovered that his iPod was suddenly working again - but only for an hour at a time or so. This odd turn of events prompted him to investigate by opening up his iPod, in which case he discovered that his click of death (not necessarily everyone's) was a result of nothing more than an unseated hard drive cable. After putting everything back in its place, JC's 4G iPod is back on top and jamming again.

Check out JC's post for more details, but just in case you're in a similar boat, remember: I'm pretty sure opening your iPod is like tossing your warranty out the window and then running it over repeatedly with an SUV, so attempt this stuff at your own risk. If your warranty has already r-u-n-n-o-f-t, however, then you don't have much to lose.

[thanks William!]

Got a broken iPod and don't know what to do with it? You could sell it on eBay and hope for the best, or pay to have it repaired. Or you could sell it to Brokenpod.com, a clearinghouse that'll buy your broken iPod in almost any condition. Dead HD? Smashed screen? Click wheel that won't turn? No problem. Did your iPod attempt suicide by jumping into your toilet? No problem.

I imagine what Brokenpod.com does is strip the broken iPods for parts and then reassembles broken iPods into working iPods. Even if you get only a little bit of money for your broken iPod, it's better than filling the landfill.

We've not tried Brokenpod.com as a service and would be interested in any feedback from readers. I believe this is a new company/service and a quick search turns up very little about the company. As always, caveat emptor.

Update: Their website seems to have gone dark. No idea why. Perhaps they also receieved a letter from Apple Legal about the use of "Pod" in their name.