We asked to see your Apple-themed Halloween costumes, and you delivered. As Mac fans everywhere head off to Halloween parties, it's clear that TUAW readers have created some great outfits.
We saw iPods (both classic and Touch), iPhones and more (including this cool pumpkin). We picked a few favorites for the gallery below. Take a look!
It's Halloween again and nothing says frightful quite like a bodyless animated head singing dreadfully on your desktop. Yes, Freeverse's digital Jared makes the perfect workspace companion for a spooky day like today. Let him serenade you...and frighten away all your annoying visitors.
Keep some ibuprofen on-hand--and check out Jared's Wikipedia page.
These guys didn't actually send these costumes in for our Halloween costume gallery, but if they had, we would definitely have put them in it. They actually have LCD TVs strapped to them (using PVC pipe and ratchet straps), and apparently those TVs are hooked up to real video iPods-- they edited the display video themselves. The suits also weigh about 60 pounds, which is about how much candy you'll probably be able to get if you really do go around the neighborhood in one of these.
And it's a pretty good representation of the iPhone, too, even if it is a little... bulkier than the real thing. These guys are award-winning, too-- one of their Myspace pages brags that they've won the "Guavaween costume contest," whatever that is. Congrats!
Halloween is just around the corner, and you know what means: spooky Macs! Tim emailed us to share his instructions for making a Mac-o-lantern out of a Mac Classic. Some tape, a can of spray paint, and a graphic later you have the geekiest Halloween display I have seen all day (though the day is still young, my friends).
Don't forget to send in pictures showing off your Halloween costumes for our gallery on Wednesday.
We asked for it, and even though I'm kind of regretting it, we got it. On the left is young readers Ben and Austin, dressed for the part (I can't believe no one threw red paint on them) at the Leopard launch this afternoon in Holyoke, MA. And on the right, in the, errr, eMac, is reader Geir Arne from Norway. Boy, do they loves them some hilarious Mac costumes in Norway, because as of this posting, he's on the front page of one of their biggest tech news sites.
Oh man, I can't stop laughing, not just at how crazy these guys look, but just at how extremely happy they are to be dressed up like that and buying Leopard. You guys crack me up. All of these guys (and you, if you send us a picture) will be sure to appear in our Halloween costume gallery on Wednesday, so keep sending those pics in! Sure, you could spend hours on a great costume and show it off to one Apple store in the country, but why not take a pic, send it here, and be seen by all the world?
Leopard isn't the only fun we'll have this weekend. Wednesday is Halloween in the US, and Apple lovers everywhere will spend the next few days constructing their Apple-themed costumes. If you're planning to make one, we want to see it!
Will you be "iPod Family," with poppa iPod Touch, Mom iPod Classic and nano kids? Maybe you'll grab a black shirt, jeans and New Balance sneakers. Perhaps you'll be a giant Sad Mac or a vintage bomb icon. So scary!
Whatever you create, send a photo to us at the address below. We'll pick our favorites and post a special gallery on Halloween (Oct. 31th). Now get busy! We can't wait to see what you've made.
PLEASE NOTE: Be sure to read and complete our little photo release. Complete "rules" (this is not a contest or giveaway of any kind, but we still gotta have some rules) after the break.
If you listened live to our TUAW talkcast last night (and you should have, because we were on fire, if I may say so myself), you heard us doing the same thing all Apple fans are doing this week: speculating on the (hopefully impending) release date of Leopard. Most of us still hold out hope for October (and we did realize that coming out around Halloween would make for some excellent Apple-related Halloween costumes), but personally, I'm still betting on October 26th. As we said last night, not only would that make for a weekend full of Leopard-y goodness, but the full moon is on the 25th, so the stars will be aligned just right for Time Machine.
And Thinksecret agrees with me (that's awfully nice of them). Their sources (although I can tell you that I wasn't asked) say that Leopard is still on track for an October 26th release. I said last night that I expected Apple to actually announce a release date this coming week, but apparently it's still too early for that-- a new (and final) Leopard build is expected this week, and once that gets final approval, Thinksecret says October 26th is the day.
However, time is definitely running out. Let's not forget that Apple announced Tiger a full 17 days before release, and that deadline passed last week. If they're not done debugging Leopard, there's a good chance we won't see it in October at all anyway. Not even the witches and goblins of Halloween will make Jobs do something he doesn't want to do.
Since it is Halloween here in the States we couldn't resist sharing another Mac themed Jack O'Lantern. First it was the Mac-O-Lantern and then the Pumputer and now we have the iPumpkin. Spooky scary, huh?
More Halloween hacks for you - check out the Pumputer, made by Brenda and Adam. They say "The Pumputer was conceived of to bring home the company's carving contest award for the Information Technology department. A 1990 Macintosh Classic computer was obtained and carefully dismantled. After insertion into a large pumpkin, it's peripherals were color coded to adhere to the Pumputer 1.0 model standards, and connected via VineBus, a very advanced serial connection."
Before you check out the pics - let me caution you. There are some serious power tools involved! Not for the faint of heart or collectors of Mac Classics.
Who doesn't love a clever mod? I still have yet to see a deep-fried Mac, but looks like the Halloween festivities were too much for one warranty-killer, and have yielded the Mac-O-Lantern. It's a Mac mini stuffed inside a medium-size pumkin. Some fun tidbits include a speak in the mouth, a webcam in the eye and a splash of color thanks to those little faux neon cords the kids love these days. The little glowing Apple logo on the side makes me want to do that with all my computers... Clever mod or too much time on someone's hands? You be the judge. And is it just me or does this guy look a little like the original HHGTTG Marvin?
Quicksilver is also sporting some Halloween influenced touches. This is why I enjoy using software from Mac developers, they have a sense of humor. I don't imagine Microsoft will be updating Office with holiday themed icons any time soon.
To continue helping you get into the Halloween spirit, just in case the iTunes Halloween Essentials playlists aren't doing it for you, Nitrozac and Shaggy posted a how-to on making your own Mac O'Lanterns on Joy of Tech. They've posted a bunch of pics of some rather creative efforts to carve a number of Mac notables and general geek personalities. There's a pumpkin head Pogue, Ellen Feiss, a Woz O'Lantern and a truly frightening Steve Balmer amongst other classics like the Happy Mac O'Lantern. Maybe it's just me, but that Megan Morrone pumpkin looks an awful lot like a young Hillary Clinton.
If you've carved out your own creation, post a pic on Flickr or your other favorite photo sharing site and leave a link in the comments!
Is $40 is a little steep for your iPod to be fashionable this Halloween? Yeah, probably. When I grew up moms or grandmas made all the costumes (except for those creepy William Shatner masks). So why not craft yerself a little iPod costume? Let's face it, dressing up an iPod isn't that hard. I used a marker, a tissue, and my iPod dock to create the lovely ensemble you see here.
I also discovered the little hats that come with Mr. Potato heads fit my 4G iPods! I don't have a 5G, so YMMV. I've included complete instructions for the ghost outfit, plus a pic of my iPod as R2D2 after the jump. Feel free to share your own creations!