Candlestick phone goes modern.

candlestick3

[Adam Ben-Dror] recently tipped us off to a project that he worked on recently. In this build he gutted an old candlestick-style phone and added modern technology to make it work as a cordless phone. We really liked this project because he married together new and old technology into an elegant package. There are a few hacks that he had to perform to get this to work. One was converting the rotary … [Read more...]

Cellphone controlled retro-radio stores and plays your digital library

cellphone-controlled-digital-retro-radio

[Autuin] was worried about having desirable electronics stolen while on the road with his band. He didn't want to take a laptop along on tour, but he didn't want to be without his music either. To solve this problem, he built a music player inside of a cheap-looking radio. His write-up covers two different portable MP3 solutions, but it's the second rendition that catches our attention. After … [Read more...]

One-click unbrick for Samsung phones

on-click-unbrick

[Adam Outler] has been pretty heavy into mobile device hacking lately. The biggest problem with that field is recovering from back flashes or development firmware glitches. In many cases you can use a JTAG programmer to reflash stock firmware to resurrect a handset. Unfortunately you'll be hard pressed to find a phone that comes with a JTAG header, and soldering to the microelectronic boards is … [Read more...]

External text display for Nexus One

Nexus One External Display

[follower] prototyped a 2-line external display for his Nexus One using an Arduino with a USB Host Shield, and the Android Open Accessory Protocol. There are two basic software pieces at work: an Arduino sketch that handles displaying data sent from the phone, and a lightweight android app to detect the presence of the external screen and send data to it. As shown here, it diplays the time and the … [Read more...]

You can keep your mints safe; we have the technology

mint-tin-alarm-system

After having his mints disappear for quite some time [Quinn Dunki] came up with an idea to get back a the fresh-breath thieves. A bit of circuit design, parts scavenging, and free-form construction led to the creation of his mint-tin burglar system. Here's how it works. Flip the on/off switch in the base of the mint tin before you head off for lunch or a coffee break. When the foul-mouthed … [Read more...]

GPS without GPS

GSMlocalizer

Open Electronics just released a neat little board that can place you on a map without using GPS. The board works on the basic principles of a cellphone network - the 'cell' network is a series of towers that are placed more or less equidistant to each other. Save for the most desolate parts of the country, a cell tower usually communicates with a phone one or two miles away. Usually, several … [Read more...]

Cellphone battery mouse modification

cellphone-battery-mouse-mod

Ever wanted to increase the battery performance in your wireless mouse? [Davetech] shows you the way with this guide for converting a mouse from AA to lithium batteries. We were delighted by his hack-tacular approach that seems to have a nice little work-around at each step in the process. He grinds down the plastic battery housing that is molded into the original mouse body, then uses an old … [Read more...]