Sony Vaio UX 64GB Solid State Upgrade

December 16, 2008 by Caleb Kraft 26 Comments

sony_upgrade

This Sony Vaio UX50 came with a 30GB hard drive from the factory. This hacker wanted to do an upgrade and move to solid state, so he started hacking away. He ended up with a total of 64GB of solid state storage crammed into the computer. The hard drive was replaced with a 4GB compact flash drive and the rest is spread through out the device. Apparently any crevice or crack in the Sony UX50 can have memory shoved into it. He managed to somehow get 60GB of storage in there through various USB extensions and adapters. Notice the sticker on the inside of the case. Is this the latest fad? Decorating the inside of the unit where only you know it exists?

[thanks Jorn]

IPhone 3G Unlocked

December 16, 2008 by Caleb Kraft 21 Comments

yellow_snow

iPhone dev team is at it again. They claim to have finally hacked the iPhone 3G. Originally codenamed “yellowsn0w”, it is targeted to be released on December 31st. This should free you from your locked in carrier as long as you have version 2.11.07 or earlier.

[via Engadget]

Twittering Toaster

December 16, 2008 by Caleb Kraft 31 Comments

[nothans] felt that there were enough people curious about his toaster’s status that he built a system to update the world via twitter. Using the ioBridge module and a switch on the toaster, the world can now know when [Hans] is making toast. We recently saw someone use the same unit to feed their dog remotely.

Rideable Hexapod

December 16, 2008 by Caleb Kraft 22 Comments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuRT9gC0CGs]

Who hasn’t fantasized about riding on a hexapod robot? With these detailed instructions, you very well could be living out your fantasy very soon. As you can see in the video, they opted for connected legs instead of 6 independent ones, so your dreams of riding the dancing Lou Bega bot may have to wait for another day.

[via Hack N Mod]

A Welcome Train For The Holidays

December 15, 2008 by Caleb Kraft 9 Comments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnFyI0a-55s]

[Eric] was charged with the task of setting up the train to welcome people on the porch. The train had been in the family for a long time, so he didn’t want to modify the train itself. Luckily, it has an IR port. He recorded the IR signal from the remote and used a home made pressure sensor to signal the train to start.

Lazy Knitting

December 15, 2008 by Caleb Kraft 19 Comments

yarn

As much as we love crazy prototype style hacks, we really enjoy seeing things that get used after their creation. [Marcus] sent us the information about his automatic yarn winder. Noticing that his friends who knit had to go through the monotonous process of winding a ball of yarn each time they started the process, he sprung into action. After finding only a few commercial solutions, which were out of his price range, he decided to build his own. He found a hand cranked version and gutted it to add a motor. Now, they simply need to get it started and walk away. Great job [Marcus].

Orbita Mouse

December 15, 2008 by Caleb Kraft 30 Comments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qCwlw9DO7g]

The Orbita mouse seems to be finally coming to production. After watching that video, it seems that the mouse could be quite nice actually. We’ve seen several people build jog wheels for their computer and others try to make scrolling more ergonomic, and this product seems to add both decently. Well, it could probably be more ergonomic, but it is a start. At less than $100 it isn’t cost prohibitive either. The question is, have any of you built an alternative? Using a puck shaped device seems like it could get bothersome on the hand, how would you improve the design?

[via Engadget]