Augmenting A Cheap Android MID

June 7, 2010 by Mike Szczys 20 Comments

We’ve been on the prowl for a low-cost Android MID that, you know, works well. We were originally excited by the Eken M001 but early reports about poor battery life, coupled with the fact that it only runs Android 1.6 soured our interest. [Carnivore] didn’t let those things turn him away, instead he modified the M001 to meet his needs. He added a USB hub and flash drive inside as well as a few additional connectors for external devices. He’s also inserted a front-facing camera and improved battery life from a 1600 mAh capacity up to 5200 mAh. This means he can now depend on 7-12 hours of use depending on the power saving features he chooses. This does come at a cost, he had to add room inside the case so he annexed a project box for the back cover. As you can see above, he did a beautiful job of making it look right, but it’s lost that thin-sexiness it once had. See [Carnivore’s] feature walk through after the break.

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Wii Remote Connectivity For Android Devices

May 13, 2010 by Mike Szczys 42 Comments

[Pikipirs] developed an app that lets you connect a Wii remote to an Android phone. After the break you can see it used with a Sega emulator. The button presses seem very responsive, making for a nice gaming addition if you care to carry around the Wiimote in addition to your phone. It certainly seems to work better than the Wii remote + iPhone hacks we’ve seen. Pick it up from the Android store or download the APK from the thread linked at the top. This is an alpha version so don’t be shocked if it’s buggy.

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Adding RAM To The Nexus One Without Soldering

May 5, 2010 by Mike Szczys 19 Comments

Want 21 megabytes more ram in your Nexus One? [Coolbho3000] worked out a way to tweak the kernel and remap memory usage to free up some resources. That means this comes as a custom kernel image requiring no hardware alteration. Try it out and share your experiences in the comments. But if you don’t need more ram you can just upgrade to the most recent kernel.

[Thanks Juan]

Report From ESC Silicon Valley 2010

April 28, 2010 by Phil Burgess 10 Comments

Ah, the heady aroma of damp engineers! It’s raining in Silicon Valley, where the 2010 Embedded Systems Conference is getting off the ground at San Jose’s McEnery Convention Center.

ESC is primarily an industry event. In the past there’s been some lighter fare such as Parallax, Inc. representing the hobbyist market and giant robot giraffes walking the expo. With the economy now turned sour, the show floor lately is just a bit smaller and the focus more businesslike. Still, nestled between components intended to sell by the millions and oscilloscopes costing more than some cars, one can still find a few nifty technology products well within the budget of most Hack a Day readers, along with a few good classic hacks and tech demos…

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I Am Root! – Alex EReader

April 27, 2010 by Mike Szczys 20 Comments

The Alex eReader has been rooted. This little handheld was the belle of the ball at CES 2010 when it came to eReaders. Now that is has been released into the wild it takes its place next to the heavy hitters that have already seen root access. If you’re unfamiliar, this device boasts a six-inch e-ink display and a 320×240 LCD touchscreen interface. Now that you can make it do your bidding, what are your plans for the $350 tablet? Let us know in the comments.

[Thanks Richard]

Android On The IPhone

April 22, 2010 by James Munns 40 Comments

[youtube= http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yO2KQHkt4A%5D

Android, on the iPhone? We’ve covered iPhone Linux before… and if you look back, we mentioned the possibility of porting Android to the iPhone (even way back in 2008!). Well we are proud to announce that The Future is Now! The details are a little slim so far, but the iPhone is seen running a stock Android 1.6 install (Donut), and has support for Wifi, GSM networks, and even uses openiBoot to dual boot to the regular iPhone OS if you aren’t particularly committed. Right now the developers are considering it an Alpha version, and have provided all you need to perform this particular brand of Cult of Apple heresy. One catch though, the developers say that they only have it working on the 2G models, so sorry all you 3G(S) folks (for now). Dont get too down, and keep an eye open, something like this is bound to attract new talent to push the movement.

Anyone out there with a 2G and some free time? We would love to see some users showing off Hackaday on their hacked up iPhone!

Follow-up: Hacking OnStar

March 16, 2010 by James Munns 22 Comments

Reader [regulatre] has provided us with his furthering of hacking the OnStar system in GM cars. Previously, we wrote about some initial attempts to gain access to the system that OnStar uses to monitor and control cars called GMLAN. [regulatre] has managed to create an adapter between the GMLAN connector and a standard OBD2 plug, which should allow a number of standard readers to be able to retrieve data.

This method details using a bluetooth OBD2 reader, and passing the data onto a linux machine. It looks as though the writer of this method is looking to integrate OnStar reading and writing into an Android App which currently is an OBD monitor.

We love seeing follow-ups like this, because it puts everyone one step closer to full control of closed devices. As always, let us know if you take any of this in a new direction.