Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Gaming

Joining the nearly endless amount of Nintendo DS hacks already in the wild is TobW‘s DS Sampling Keyboard, which “uses the DS’s microphone and touchscreen” to interface with a software-based sampling keyboard. A close contender to join our Music Thing series, this wonderous hack takes advantage of the wee machine’s excellent X / Y-axis controls as well as its built-in WiFi to beam the MIDI commands wirelessly. The program has been tested with Wifi, GBAMP, and M3, so “it should work on pretty much anything,” and provides a much less expensive alternative to those dedicated offerings. While musical gizmos are always more effective when seen heard rather than just heard about, be sure to click on for a front row seat to the YouTube demonstration.

[Via MusicThing]

Continue reading Nintendo DS doubles as wireless MIDI keyboard / controller

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time

Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

If you’re looking for a minor practical joke to play on your family over the Thanksgiving holiday or are searching for something fun do do when you’re off work on Friday but are strung out on turkey and stuffing, look no further than this rockin’ apple mod. Our pals at Instructables have put together a series of steps on how to build a USB-powered apple (Apple Computer optional) that will vibrate when someone tries to reach for it, and will stop when the person backs away. This mod doesn’t appear all that difficult, but you’ll need to get a “capacitance sensor chip,” some copper foil, a vibrating motor and a few other things. Still, if you know your way around a circuit board and a soldering iron, you could probably put this together in an hour or two with no problem — that is, assuming all the apples in the house haven’t already been turned into apple pie.

[Via MAKE: Blog]

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time

Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Desktops, Robots

Sure, those infernally cute desktop-bound Mac minis might get all the ladies, but this here Mobile Mac mini bot hopes to make something of himself in the big city. His wheels are made for rolling, and that’s just what he’ll do, but he’s also got a free-roaming video camera for beaming grainy webcam shots back to mission control. Along for the ride is a 7-inch touch screen, spiffy headlight, and IR range sensors to keep from bumping into things. The bot can be controlled via WiFi or Apple IR remote, and while there isn’t much AI to speak of yet, there’s plenty of potential with that plucky Mac mini at the helm.

[Via Hack-A-Day]

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Filed under: Gaming, Handhelds

If you’ve tossed around the idea of modding your DS, but never bit the bullet due to the ridiculous amount of loopholes you had to jump through to get your homebrew game on, DS-Xtreme has got you covered. While the precise details of how this thing works its magic are a bit scarce, we do know that the company claims this wonder-working cart will allow you to not only run your favorite homebrew applications on your DS without any software / hardware hacks or workarounds whatsoever, but it also rocks a built-in GUI that interfaces with Windows XP via USB 2.0 for some remarkably easy drag ‘n drop action. All this sounds mighty impressive, especially compared to the PassMe alternative that required a old fashion GBA flash card, linker, and a DS game just to get you up and running; the DS-shaped cartridge features 512MB (4Gb) of built-in storage space, USB 2.0 connectivity, a full sized onboard EEprom “complete with some serious custom engineering,” and a snazzy GUI that apparently makes managing your apps a breeze. If you’ve been fantisizing over an easier way to get homebrew material on your Nintendo DS or DS Lite, the DS-X flash cart appears to a dream come true, but considering there’s no specific release date nor price, we’re forced to play the “wait and see” game on this one.

[Via MaxConsole]

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Filed under: Gaming

If you’ve got a flair for retro gaming, or you just hate the design of the Xbox 360 controller, you’ll be interested in this clever adapter project that give your old Sega Saturn pad, which is revered by fans of 2D fighters, the ability to control your brand new 360 games. The job required a gutted wireless 360 controller – that’s right, it’s wireless – a few common electronic components and about 2.5 months of work. From the video provided in the thread, it looks to function solidly, avoiding expected problems like the nightmarish button lag that could’ve rendered the whole thing completely useless. We know not many of you are going to be rushing to your workshops to try this, but every 360 mod we see gives us a little more hope that the hack (and accompanying tutorial) we’ve all been waiting for is coming sooner than later. But, until then, you’ll have to watch out for this guy and his new rig on Xbox Live Arcade — unless you have one of these on your coffee table.

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Filed under: Robots

We're not entirely sure it jibes with the guide to robot ethics, but there's no denying that the flamethrower add-on is one of the most impressive Robosapien hacks we've ever seen. The folks at Evosapien.com must've sensed our enthusiasm, because they posted a step-by-step tutorial showing how the potentially home destroying bot was built. Because of the incredible risk involved, we don't recommend anyone actually build their own, but we encourage you to read along as a barbecue lighter and some cheap electronic parts transform an otherwise friendly robot into the ultimate enemy of eyebrows. Just hope some overzealous enthusiast doesn't teach his Lego brained bot to read internet tutorials, as that could be very bad for humankind as we know it.

Filed under: Peripherals, Portable Audio, Wearables

Okay, so it should have been pretty obvious that not everyone interested in indulging in the Nike+iPod Sport Kit would be shelling out for a brand new pair of (Nike) kicks. If you’re are one of those folks perfectly satisfied with the shoes you’ve already invested in, you’ve probably been chewing on ideas to get your kit to work effectively. Well, we’ve got good news, the answer is here and the solution is cheap and so easy it’s almost unimaginative. If you have even the smallest hint of the “handyman” gene in you, this project should have you up and running in no time: by securing a small piece of Velcro on your shoes of choice, you can affix the wireless bug to your shoe without emptying your wallet at Niketown. Although this solution may not seem exactly ingenious, it looks to work fairly well, and hey, it can’t hurt to give it a run-through.

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Filed under: Home Entertainment, Laptops

Some of the best do-it-yourself projects are ones that give you the functionality of an expensive commercial product on the cheap, and such is the case with RafkeP’s MoMoLight “Movie Mood Light” mod, which lets you endow your laptop or PC monitor with the same type of peripheral lighting found in Philips’ Ambilight displays. Unfortunately, also like many of the best DIY projects, this one requires no small amount of electronics knowledge and programming skills, as you have to modify your own micro-controller, procure and install your own cold-cathodes or LED strips, and then tweak the necessary software to get the effects synced with the on-screen action. Luckily RafkeP has taken at least some of the hard work upon himself and posted the directshow filter he wrote for real-time analysis of on-screen colors, making the build a lot easier once you’ve assembled all of the hardware components. It’s still not gonna be a cakewalk to get everything functioning properly, but when you consider that a real Ambilight set costs several thousand dollars, being able to get similar results for under $90 is probably enough incentive to give this project a shot.

[Via Hack-A-Day]

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Filed under: Handsets, Nokia

Some people have quite a bit of spare time on their hands, some have an undying obsession with all things Apple, while others profess their appreciation of the customizability of Symbian devices. Apparently these all came to a head in the Mac phone, the resulting collision producing quite a little hack on the 6680 if we ever saw one. Ok, now who’s gonna make us a Windows phone? Oh, wait.

[Via Bienvenue a Kyoto]

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Filed under: Handsets, Peripherals

While mobile companies are doing their best to make cellphones as sleek and futuristic as possible, retro junkies keep taking them apart and turning them into ironic, yet functional, pieces of art like these. The first mod, from Grooveking.com, makes an old Motorolla DynaTAC 8000X or “Zack Morris phone” into a Bluetooth headset, that’ll get 8-times the juice of a normal battery. The second project, from DIYHappy.com, takes an old NES controller (which has already gotten the Bluetooth treatment in the past) and fills it with the guts of a Nokia 3200 – yes, the American Idol phone. You need a little technical know-how to make these for yourself, but after you get the hang of it, all of your gadgets might end up crammed into NES controllers. Sadly, the Nokia 3200 doesn’t have Bluetooth so you won’t be able to use these two devices together, but we look forward to the future when our Xbox 360 controllers and Treos are turned into seemlessly-integrated retro kitsch.

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Filed under: Gaming

This guy is just out of control. After taking a brief break to work on his own independent film, Ben Heckendorn is back to his old hardware hacking ways, this time cramming a portable NES system into form factor barely larger than the cartridges it plays. Titled the "nPod," his new creation has a 3.5-inch screen, runs on four AA batteries, and is based on one of those "NES on a chip" joysticks. It's obviously about as small as a unit can be and still manage those beastly plastic game carts, but we're sure Ben will find another way to display his leet hacking skills before too long.

[Thanks, ThinkRandom]

Filed under: Laptops

In the tradition of "The Crash" feature on Japan's Impress Watch site, we present this very sad case: a PowerBook that has seen much better days. However, as shown here, it still runs when hooked up to an external keyboard and monitor. So, don't feel sorry for this Mac's owner. Just think of him as the ultimate case modder, who managed to turn an old laptop into a desktop using nothing but a Hummer H2.

[Via TUAW]