NAS-based transcoding facilitates security cam viewing on iPhone

security-camera-iphone-transcoding

[Zitt] has a security camera which will send him messages any time it detects motion. However annoying this might seem, we're sure he has his reasons for needing this much immediate feedback. The real problem comes when he goes to view the feed on his iPhone. His solution is to turn the camera's notifications off, and use his own script to transcode a clip and shoot off an email. As you can see … [Read more...]

Make your own custom iPhone back glass

custom-iphone-back-glass

[Jake von Slatt] is at it again; putting his own artistic spin on ordinary items. This time around it's the glass on the back of an iPhone. It kept breaking and after a few replacements he wanted to try to replace the glass with a piece of etched brass. But part way through that experiment, he figured out how to use toner transfer to develop these stunning custom iPhone glass back plates. The … [Read more...]

Autonomous robot uses an iPhone for its brain

ibot

At the beginning of the school last year, [Ryan] needed to come up with a project for his master's thesis. Having a bachelor's in mech. engineering and doing his graduate work in software engineering allowed [Ryan] to do something really cool for his thesis; he decided to turn an iPhone into an autonomous robot with live video streaming, remote control, and  object detection. [Ryan] started … [Read more...]

HTML based AVR compiler aims to make Arduino development on iOS possible

html-arduino-ide

It's surprising what lengths people will go to in order to bring functionality to their smart phones. In this case, [Tadpol] wanted a way to develop for his Arduino on an iOS device like an iPad or iPhone. He figures it's possible to rewrite the IDE as HTML5, but since that's a pretty large mountain to climb, he started by building a browser-based AVR compiler. It's an interesting concept, and … [Read more...]

Accelerometer-based game control using an iOS device courtesy of HTML5

html5-accelermoeter-control

This game of Space Invaders is played by tilting your iPhone to the left or right. It's a demonstration of HTML5 used to link devices in-browser. The only setup that's required is for the base device to load up a webpage, then the control device scans a QR code (or just types in a link) to connect with the game. You can give it a try right now if you want. It only works with iOS devices but we … [Read more...]

Circuit Playground – An electronics reference app from Adafruit

datasheetviewer

It’s not everyday that we review software around here, but the folks at Adafruit recently put together an iOS app that I figured might be of interest. Their iPad/iPhone compatible application is called “Circuit Playground”, and it includes all sorts of handy electronics reference tools. For the context of this review, it should be noted that I paid for the application myself, and that I have … [Read more...]

WiFi garage door opener makes forgotten keys a thing of the past

wifi-garage-door-opener

[Tod’s] daughter has a habit of forgetting to take a house key along with her, so he was looking for a way to make accessing the house easier in a pinch. He had tried wireless garage door keypads in the past, but their performance was so-so at best. After scouring the market for commercial solutions and checking out the work of other hackers, he decided that he needed to craft a custom solution … [Read more...]