Hot Hacks, Mods & Circuitry Posts
News: Super Tiny (And Cheap) DSLR Intervalometer for Time-Lapse Photography
If you're lucky, your digital camera has a built-in intervalometer that lets you operate the shutter regularly at set intervals over a period of time. Why would you be lucky? Because you can create some very awesome time-lapse videos, like the horribly beautiful eruption of a volcano or vivid star trails in the night sky. You can capture the stunning display of the northern lights or even document the rotting of your favorite fruit.
News: Holy Pac-Man! DIY Light Painting Saber Is Pure Awesome
A few months ago, we showed you a pretty awesome light painting project that visually captured invisible Wi-Fi signals around town using a Wi-Fi detecting rod filled with 80 LEDs. With some long exposure photography, the results were pretty amazing. This project was inspired by those crazy Norwegians, but this build lets you do something even more amazing—capture pictures of colorful written text and drawn images, frozen in midair.
Cocktail Couture: Robotic Booze Generating Dress
Meet DareDroid: sexy nurse, geek couture and mobile bartender, engineered into an all-in-one technologically advanced garment. Created by fashion designer Anouk Wipprecht, hacker Marius Kintel, and sculptor Jane Tingley, the team calls themselves the Modern Nomads (MoNo), and their series of garments fall into Wipprecht's invented family of "Pseudomorphs". Pseudomorphs are tech-couture pieces that transform into fluid displays—which is exactly what DareDroid does.
News: Electrical Shock Could Make You a Better Musician by Possessing Your Hand
Looking to be the world's best violinist or fastest banjo player? If you didn't start practicing when you were a kid, learning a new stringed instrument is extremely challenging. But an upcoming device may change all of that, if you don't mind being shocked by 28 different electrodes.
News: Digital Picture Frame Snatches Photos from Public Wi-Fi Networks
You're sitting in your favorite café enjoying a hot cup of joe, then you open up your laptop or turn on your tablet computer to get to work, but as always you get sidetracked and head straight for Facebook. Someone just tagged you in a photo, so you check it out, then you see it out of the corner of your eye—your Facebook picture digitally displayed on the wall in a nice, neat digital photo frame.
How To: Hack any Android device to run Netflix
Want to watch Netflix Watch Instantly on your Android device? Watch this video and follow these instructions to learn how to hack any rooted Android device with an APK to work with Netflix. Watch thousands of streaming movies and TV shows with your hacked Android tablet or smartphone.
News: The Latest and Greatest Kinect Hacks
Nobody could predict the success of Microsoft's Kinect, not even Microsoft themselves. So, it was quite a surprise when it ended up earning a Guinness World Record for fastest-selling consumer electronics device, and an even bigger surprise to see people buying one that didn't even own an Xbox 360.
News: Schoolboy Invents Burglar-Deterring, Post Office-Friendly Doorbell
He may have just started his teenage years, but Laurence Rock's future is looking pretty good after inventing an ingenious doorbell device called Smart Bell. He's already sold 20,000 units to telecoms giant Commtel Innovate, and is securing a second deal with an unidentified company that will land him £250,000. That's over $400,000!
Hack the News: Build Your Own Media-Altering Newstweek Device
At first, it seemed like a clever art installation housed on the web, but now we're not so sure... the Newstweek hack may indeed be legit.
How To: Calibrate your mobile device for better battery life
Learn how to recalibrate the battery reading of your mobile device, so that you don't get stuck with a dead battery. This video explains how and why to calibrate your phone, music player, tablet, or laptop. Watch and learn how to improve your battery life.
How To: Cheat benchmarks in Quadrant using the HTC Hero
This video will show you how you can manipulate the benchmarks captured by Quadrant on an HTC Hero. Watch this video to learn how to cheat benchmarks on your Android smartphone. Any software can be modified, which is why Quadrant doesn't always accurately rate hardware performance.
How To: Jailbreak an Apple TV 2G for Mac or Windows
Check out this video to learn how to use Seas0nPass to jailbreak your Apple TV 2G. This mod works on either Mac or Windows. This jailbreak is for Apple TV with firmware 4.2.2. Once you've jailbroken your Apple TV2 you'll have administrator access to all files on it.
How To: Turn a Chromebook into Google TV
The Google Chromebook may be simple, but it is not limited. Watch this video to see how the Chromebook works as a kind of rudimentary Google TV when hooked up to a large monitor. This easy mod will let you enjoy your Cr-48 Chromebook in a whole new way.
Inventables: A Store for Superheroes & Hackers
Founded by Zach Kaplan, a "serial entrepreneur" with a B.S. in mechanical engineering, Inventables is a futuristic online hardware store based out of Chicago. The company sells innovative materials at much smaller quantities than typically available—largely to artists, inventors, developers, and researchers. If you've got a brilliant idea and cash to spare, careful, you just may go hog wild. My premature "Dear Santa" wishlist-in-progress:
News: Wearable Electronic Displays Coming to Your T-Shirt Soon
E Ink technology is nothing short of amazing. It recently contributed to the world's first bend-sensitive flexible smartphone, and now it's capable of something even cooler, not to mention astonishingly simpler—flashing digital displays on cloth.
How To: Recycle an Old Vinyl Record into a Warped 'Salvador Dali' Analog Clock
This recycling project would surely make Salvador Dali proud. Kipkay outlines the process, from old vinyl record to cool analog clock. Just pick out an appropriate record, place on cookie sheet and soften inside the oven. Then take the clock mechanism from an old cheap clock and attach to the record. This may not fit with all of your décor, but who cares?
How To: Find out if you can jailbreak your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad
This video will introduce you to a couple of websites that will let you know whether or not your Apple I device- iPhone, iPod, or iPad can be jailbroken. Check out this site or this site if you are interested in jailbreaking an iPhone 4, iPod touch, or iPad 2.
How To: Give Your Camera Phone a Powerful Macro Lens by Hacking a DVD Drive
If you've got an extra DVD drive laying around not being used, watch this video and learn how to give the lens new life—as a powerful macro lens for your camera phone! You'll be able to take incredible pictures on your camera phone using this clever mod.
News: The Revolution of the Hacked Kinect, Part 4: The Future Is YOU
Our hacked Kinect series has demonstrated amply how the Kinect is changing the worlds of business, art, medicine and robotics. But where does it go from here? That will be determined by the thousands of dedicated DIYers out there doing work like you've seen here over the last week.
News: The Revolution of the Hacked Kinect, Part 2: Even MBAs Gotta Have One
It's remarkable that a gaming device (from Microsoft, no less) designed for geeky gamers has incited broad innovation in medicine and robotics. But that Kinect has captured the imagination of hackers-with-MBAs-in-mind is downright amazing.
How To: Put your magnets to use around the house
Magnetism is one of the most incredible forces in the world. Did you know you can use magnets to get more out of a number of household appliances- from screwdrivers to electric toothbrushes? They're also great fun, so check out this video to learn how to make magnets work for you!
News: MyndPlay Gives Mindf*** Movies a New Meaning
Were you horrified when Gwyneth Paltrow's head ended up in a box in Se7en? Do you share Harrison Ford's opinion that Han Solo should have died in Return of the Jedi? Think Kurt Russell could have handled aliens better in The Thing? Well, sorry—you're out of luck. There's nothing you can do to prevent William Wallace's beheading or Carrie's mayhem. But thanks to MyndPlay, controlling the plot to future films is totally possible.
News: Amazingly Complex, Yet Simple LEGO Contraptions in Rube Goldberg Fashion
Back in the '80s, I was just a kid with a LEGO hobby. I remember building castles and floating boats, spaceships and monster trucks, even a working LEGO train powered by battery, lights and all.
Altruistic Hacking: The Rise of the DIY Radiation Detector
Understandably, the tragedy in Japan has substantially risen the level of worldwide radiation-related hysteria. So much so, as an alternative to stampeding health food stores for iodine tablets, crafty individuals and organizations are hacking together personal radiation detectors. Rather than relying on the government, the creation and modification of handheld Geiger counters provides a self-sufficient solution to today's questions regarding radiation. Profiled below, three admirable organiz...
News: Become Your Own Souvenir
As a kid, my favorite thing to do at the Natural History museum was a midday stop, when my family strolled past an antiquated looking vending machine in the museum's musty basement. The Mold-A-Rama machine was oddly shaped, George Jetson-esque, and spewed out made-to-order, brightly colored plastic dinosaurs. There was such joy in watching the liquid wax pour into the mold, and then eject a warm, custom toy—well worth the dollar or two demanded. A version of this tradition was recently elevat...
News: Truck Driver Reverse Engineers Atom Bomb, Rebuilds Little Boy
You're walking down the street, minding your own business. Then you see it—a large, bright fireball in the near distance. A tremendous heat wave speeds towards you at one thousand miles an hour, and before you can think, before you can even blink, the extremely heated wind pushes right through you. Your skin melts, your eyes liquefy—your face disappears into the wind. Before you know it, your pancreas collide with what’s left of the person next to you, your duodenum is dissolving faster than ...
News: Creepy Theremin Utensils Howl the Pain of Slaughtered Ghost Chickens
One of the creepiest musical instruments ever is undoubtedly the theremin, a device originating from the early 20s that emits eerie sounds with a just a wave of the hand. If you've seen the original movie The Day the Earth Stood Still, you know what I mean—freakishly creepy. Playing the theremin can be off-putting for some, since it's a relatively pricy gizmo, but a new geek gadget called the EaTheremin aims to make all of us professional, dinnertime theremists.
How To: Hack Frequent Flyer Programs
Screw the airplane man. Ticket prices are too high. Competitive consumer choices are pretty much nonexistent. And need I go into the pain of being crammed into those tiny seats, elbow-to-elbow, thigh-to-thigh with a perfect stranger? Even your average Richie Rich winces at the astronomically high prices for a First Class seat.
News: 3D LEGO LikeLight Shows You Facebook Likes in Real Time
Matt Reed, a web developer at Nashville interactive ad agency Redpepper, built a massive, real life Facebook Like "button" out of Legos, which lights up whenever someone clicks Like on his Facebook page. The programmer loves LEGOs, and draws an affinity between the legendary building blocks and engineering: "[Legos] are great for prototyping physical objects. I don’t manufacture things, but I do click blocks together. Plus, most things I deal with on a daily basis are pixelized. Legos are som...
News: New Ultra-Realistic Android Scares the Crap Out of Everybody
Holy… Lord, help us all—this isn't CG, it's for real. Meet Geminoid DK, the latest spawn from Osaka University Professor Hiroshi Ishiguro's legion of ultra-realistic Androids.
News: Insanely Epic Resident Evil Biohazard Case Mod
If you dig case mods and Resident Evil, it's fair to say you'll find Ron L. Christainson’s nothing short of epic. Inspired by the renown video game and movie, Ron—an artist and PC tech from Seattle—has already spent a year constructing the mod from scratch, and still has a couple months of work ahead of him.
News: Hacked Wristwatch Connects to Facebook
Too lazy to take your phone out of your pocket? If so, then here's a must-have: a customizable inPulse wristwatch that can check into Facebook Places. Created by inPulse designer Eric Migicovsky, the hacked watch uses Bluetooth to pull Facebook Places from a connected Android smartphone. The app sends real time latitude and longitude stats from the smartphone's GPS to Facebook, which then transmits nearby places to the watch, navigable by a one button interface.
News: Control a Video Game by Swapping Spit
Once there was Spin the Bottle. Then there was the embarrassing adult version of Spin the Bottle—on Wii. And then there was artist Hye Yeon Nam, who decided to skip all pretenses and go straight for the spit-swapping, no foreplay necessary. Hye Yeon Nam devised a method for controlling a bowling video game by French kissing. It works like this: "One person has a magnet on his/her tongue and the other person wears the headset. While they kiss, the person who has the magnet on his/her tongue, c...
How To: Understand capacitors and replace broken ones on circuit boards
The capacitor is one of the most recognizable and important electronic components, and a part of nearly every electronic device. This video will teach you the basics of capacitor theory and then teach you how to replace a faulty or broken on on a circuit board. This skill will help you fix all sorts of devices you thought were dead forever; try it out!
How To: Use a transistor or N channel MOSFET to turn any device on or off
The transistor is the most basic and important part of electronics, allowing small changes in voltage to turn things on and off. On, off. 0, 1. There's electronics. The grandaddy of them all is the N channel MOSFET, the most important transistor. This video will teach you how the MOSFET works and how to build some example circuits. This video is an absolute must-watch if you are interested in electronics at all.
How To: Use a function generator to make waveforms for electronics projects
A function or signal generator is an electronic device that can create different types of waves and send them through a circuit without building oscillators. This video will teach you how they work and how to build a basic LED dimmer that uses one as an example.
How To: Build a PWN circuit to control power that can dim an LED, control a motor etc.
Many types of circuits are useless and less useful if you cannot control the amount of power going through them. For that, you need a PWN (pulse with modulation) switch. This electronic component will let your control the power going through the circuit, enabling you to dim LED lights, control the speed of a motor, and other useful tasks. This video will teach you all PWN switches and how tom make your own.
How To: Craft a Homemade Digital Music Box with a Cheap MP3 Player
Musical boxes are best known for their kitschy designs and somewhat trivial renditions of musical masterpieces. They tend to frequent the dresser of young girls or elderly woman hanging on to their youth, and for the most part, they remain cutesy and harmless, but when featured in movies like The Silence of the Lambs and Black Swan, they become downright creepy.
How To: Take apart an old broken power supply and turn it into a battery charger
Do you have an old uninterruptable power supply you're not using or that's broken? Most people have scads of them these days, and they contain all sorts of useful electronics parts, including all of the stuff to make a little batter charger, which you'll learn how to do by watching this video and checking out the circuit diagram here.
How To: Build a laser tripwire that can trigger anything out of a photoresistor
This video, incredibly short for it's massive content, will teach you how to make a laser tripwire that, combined with a photoresistor, can trigger just about any device. You can make traps, alarms, awesome party decorations, and all sorts of other awesome things with this easy-to-make device, provided you have a soldering iron and a local electronics store to buy some parts.