Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals

Some dedicated hackers have finally managed to get the PSP and Microsoft’s Xbox 360 Chatpad typing. There are still a few kinks to smooth out, but the hard part seems over, with l0rdnic0 managing a tiny bit of soldiering using a PSP remote cable and some software from the Open Keyboard Project. It’s all still pretty nerdy at the moment, and we’re still miffed at that Logic 3 getting cancelled way back when, but we suppose this will have to do.

Continue reading PSP and 360 Chatpad are a match hacked in heaven

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Filed under: Desktops

Okay, so maybe those all-in-one PCs have their positives, but seriously, who really looks forward to paying good money for something that’s so impossible to upgrade? Tim Schellekens sure doesn’t, and rather than biting the bullet, he chose to snap up one of VIA’s EPIA motherboards, an old school 15-inch LCD and a bit of fiberglass. The four pages waiting for you in the read link detail the transformation, and while we personally wouldn’t have gone to such extremes (buying two monitors to get one?) just to craft our own web surfing desktop, we definitely admire the dedication. Behold, i-EPIA.

[Thanks, Ewan]

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Filed under: Laptops

Here you go modders and Eee PC lovers: Dell Mini 9 tear-down gore courtesy of the boys from Round Rock themselves. The Dell service manual has been posted on-line and reveals the Mini 9 as a modders paradise. So go ahead, impress us, we’d like some extra memory and disk space by the end of next week, k thanks.

[Via jkkmobile]

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Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals

Remember that fad where everyone had dining room tables of their favorite Disney character? Or the age in the 70s where tables were shaped like lava lamps? No? At any rate, the modders over at SCAD Inc. have spent all summer crafting a fully-functional Super Nintendo controller-table, which reminds us an awful lot of the fully-functional NES controller-table we saw in May of this year. So, which geek is gonna take on the N64 controller table? Or better yet, the Virtual Boy?

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Filed under: Desktops

There was no shortage of case mods at NVIDIA’s NVISION conference, but this one in particular managed to snag the majority of the spotlight. Created by Richard “DarthBeavis” Surroz, the Blade-themed DayWalker actually houses three separate computer systems; two are for playing games, while the other acts as a server. Conceptually, at least, the rig is designed to enable two users to play against one another, and given the “50+ fans” and triple SLI GTX 280 GPU setups (among other things), it’s no shock to hear that it’d cost around $18,000 to $20,000 to build again. ‘Course, that’s chump change when you’re stuffing away millions of dollars owed to the government — just ask Snipes… oh, wait.

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Filed under: Handhelds

Sony’s VAIO UX UMPC is definitely one of the sexier handheld PCs out there, but it’s never been accused of being a rocket — even the latest models only offer a lonely single-core 1.2GHz Core 2 Solo for your $2500, and since the chip is soldered onto the board, swapping it out for a Core 2 Duo isn’t exactly easy, requiring an infrared soldering station and plenty of experience swapping chips. Nevertheless, it can be done, and Anh Nguyen from the Micro PC Talk forums pulled it off, upgrading his unit to a 1.2GHz U7600 Core 2 Duo with no ill effects or excess heat — just some better benchmarks and hardcore modder bragging rights. Check out benchmarks after the break, and hit the read link for more.

[Thanks, Logan]

Continue reading VAIO UX gets hot-rodded with Core 2 Duo mod

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Filed under: Displays, Handhelds

Oh sure, we’ve seen a limited number of hacks surface for the hotly selling (but still unsightly) Amazon Kindle, but we’ve yet to see a hardware mod of this magnitude. We’ve always heard that desperate times call for desperate measures, and evidently said mantra is very true. After having the display in his Kindle smashed around 8 months ago (thanks, kid sister…), blakebevin set out to perform an unprecedented surgery. With an unwanted Sony Reader LCD in hand and a badly broken Kindle on the operating table, he attempted to give the latter unit new life with a few pixels from a cross-town rival. We’ll warn you — this one’s not for the rookies in attendance, and even Mr. Bevin (it is Mr. Bevin, right?) had some “nagging button issues” once the thing was sewn back up. Give the read link a look if you ever find yourself in this admittedly peculiar situation.

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Filed under: Digital Cameras, Misc. Gadgets

Oh sure, you’ve been able to buy digital camera-equipped binoculars for years now, but finding one that does video (particularly with the camcorder you already own) has been a continual struggle. Thanks to one engineering soul, you can forge ahead with your plans to video all sorts of sights by adding a CCD eyepiece to any ‘ole set of binoculars. Once installed, you simply hook up your camcorder (hope it has video in), mash record and get to gazing. Be careful what you look for, though.

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Filed under: Desktops, Gaming

Call us biased, but we still prefer Ben Heckendorn’s portable ColecoVision over this one, but that’s not to say we don’t deeply respect the immense amount of work that went into the mini ColecoVision. The seller of the unit stripped a ColecoVision PCB from an original casing and got to modding; when all was said and done, the miniaturized version still operated fine and required a lot less floor space. ‘Tis a shame the bidding just ended — now you’re stuck with Atarimax’s oh-so-similar (but not nearly as satisfying) MulitCart as you embarrassingly attempt to relive the past.

[Via technabob]

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Filed under: Gaming

This one isn’t quite as dodgy as they come, but the very notable limitations really keep this from being the whiz-bang hack that it appears to be on the surface. Hacker StreetskaterFU had no trouble getting confirmation from others that his method of running Blu-ray games from the PlayStation 3’s hard drive was indeed legitimate, but it is only confirmed to work with select “older titles” including Warhawk, MotorStorm and Call of Duty 3. To make matters worse, instructions are sketchy at best, but at least there’s a video of the process working after the break. Let us know how things go should you give this a whirl.

Continue reading Hacked PlayStation 3 reportedly runs Blu-ray games from HDD

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Filed under: Laptops, Storage

Oh sure, you’re pretty 1337 if you can say you’ve got an SSD within your laptop, but if you’ve a need to store more than, say, 8GB of files, a bit more room may be desired. tnkgrl’s Aspire One mods began earlier this week with the addition of Bluetooth and extra RAM, and today she’s showing the world how to swap the built-in SSD with a 1.8-inch 60GB PATA drive. As expected, this one’s remarkably easy to complete once you’ve torn the thing open, but she also explains how to best put it all back together once you’re done. But you’re not, because she’ll be producing a how-to for adding internal 3G in the coming days / weeks.

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Filed under: Cellphones

Sure, this video feels like it might veer into creepy snuff-film territory right at the beginning, but luckily it just reveals a fairly sweet looking iPhone mod. Apparently some Russian iPhone fans have replaced the regular, boring Apple logo on the back of an original iPhone with an eye-piercing, glowing version. There’s not a lot of detail on how this is done — and the video is in Russian — but the source link claims it’s just a matter of, “removing the aluminum ‘fruits’ and inserting the glowing ones.” We’ll see about that. Eerie video included after the break.

[Via Hack a Day]

Continue reading iPhone mod turns the Apple logo into a mini-flashlight

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Filed under: Laptops

Netbooks have come a long way since the Eee PC 701 hit the scene. Gone are the square miles of emptiness surrounding the screens and keyboards as manufacturers start to put every inch to good use, but that seems to have little impact on folks bent on hacking these mini laptops to pieces — with the Acer Aspire One the latest subject of such work. Tnkgrl has stuffed a miniscule USB Bluetooth 2.0+ EDR adapter under the palm rest and upgraded the RAM while she was in there. Next up is a hard drive upgrade and then the all-important “how to put the computer back together again.” No real show stoppers, but if you’ve been waiting for reports from the other side before you put your own Aspire One under knife, here they are.

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Filed under: Gaming

It’ll take some DIY muscle, but if you’re tired of sending your Xbox 360 back to Microsoft after suffering yet another Red Ring o’ Death seizure then this custom case is for you. Designed specifically for the Xbox 360, the $150 PC-XB01 chassis from Lian Li is now shipping globally with the promise of a silent, vibration-free, and cooler running gaming experience. And really, besides a bag of chips and 100mg of Guarana, what more could you ask for? Oh right, a warranty extension.

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Peripherals

Had enough Wall-E mods yet? Really, you have? What, you some kind of whiskey-drunk, bunny stuffer? This is Wall-E, the Disney robot sent to save us from ourselves and apparently, beige computers. This latest mod drops a a trio (hey, why not) of DVD drives into Wall-E’s trash compacting belly. Add cardboard, aluminum, toy bulldozer parts, and some fancy Dremeling and this is the result. See him in action after the break.

[Thanks, John]

Continue reading Video: Wall-E’s DVD duplicator mod directive

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Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment

digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/nintendo/The_Wii_finally_gets_DVD_playback_no_thanks_to_Nintendo’;
Carrying on the rich hacker tradition of picking up the slack for companies that are unwilling or unable to provide the functionality users need, a team of Wii coders have given the console what Nintendo could not: DVD playback. By installing a small, hidden channel on a system, this package blesses the console with a libdi file (DVD access library), and allows you to watch your favorite videos with the MPlayer application, an open source media player. The install file will run on modded and unmodded systems, and the software is also capable of playing media from SD cards (though it’s experimental right now). Finally Wii owners can join the ranks of, well… pretty much everyone else.

[Via TehSkeen; Thanks, brakken]

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Filed under: Gaming, Laptops

Granted, we’re biased, but it seems to us that Ben Heck’s PS3 Laptop could teach this young pretender a thing or two. That said, this here 3 month project by PS3HaX modder “Pirate” utterly unscoffable, and certainly wins some points for that LED-lit window up front. He’s hoping to build another version now that he’s worked out the kinks in the 1st gen model, and plans to work in more portability and slimness into the new version. Hey, maybe he could slap on a cellphone and a touchscreen while he’s at it? Just riffing here. Video is after the break.

Continue reading Another PS3 laptop hits the scene, but can it stand up to the master?

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Filed under: Displays, Gaming, Handhelds

A certain jube808 has launched a quixotic quest to add a myriad of features to the PSP that he believes should’ve been there from the start, including beefed up battery life, a better control pad, and touchscreen support. Think what you will of his aims, he certainly seems to have some hardware chops, as he’s got a touchscreen up and running on the handheld. So far he’s just got a proof of concept keyboard, which works with a finger or a stylus, but the hope is to provide full touchscreen support for homebrew gaming. Let us know how that goes, jube. Videos are after the break.

[Thanks, Craig]

Continue reading Man inexplicably brings touchscreen to the PSP

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Filed under: Cellphones, Gaming

Call it off Sony, no need to throw any precious man hours into making your perennially #2 handheld into some sort of amazing featurephone hybrid, some hacker has already done it for you. Through the amazing wonders of modern thinphone technology, soldering irons and probably a bit of glue, some hacker has managed the slap a Haier touchscreen phone onto the back of his PSP — killing the UMD drive in the process, but we’d say it was well worth it.

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Filed under: Robots

Oh Pleo, it’s been far too long since we’ve seen you out and about! Thankfully, we’ve stumbled upon a handful of Pleo news all at once, so we hope you’re ready to catch up with your favorite dinosaur. First up is a pair of useful hacks from GRIP: a spy cam hack — which transmits images from the pet to a PC sans wires — and an XBee hack, which allows users to monitor Pleo’s sensors and control its servos in real time. For those looking for less work and more laughs, you’ll definitely want to venture on past the break. Wondering what’s there? Pleo visits the day spa — need we say more?

Read - Pleo hacks
Read - Pleo’s day spa adventures

Continue reading Pleo roundup: spy cam / XBee hacks, dino visits the day spa

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