Archos 5th Generation Hacked, Bigger Drive Possible

Over at the ArchosFans.com forums, [grond] has posted some screenshots of his cracked archos 5th generation. Using a custom bootloader, they’ve unlocked the ability to swap hard disks as well as some hidden plugins. The plugins seem to be used mainly for dev tools, like core dumps and screenshots, but this opens the door to possible future homebrewed plugins.

[via Engadget]

Control Your Camera Remotely With A DS

Using a custom built cable connected to the lower GBA slot and a copy of Canon’s SDK, [Steve Chapman] has come up with a very clever way of taking pictures remotely with a Nintendo DS Lite.

Currently the software supports bracket shooting as well as bulb mode. [Steve] points out that he is currently testing an audio based trigger system using the mic built into the DS and the software is still a work in progress.

While the weight saving benefits of using a DS instead of a notebook are obvious, there are things you do give up going this route. Traditionally, when you tether a camera to a computer the photos are saved directly to the computer where you can view the image on a much larger monitor. With the DS, it seems all you can do is remotely trigger the camera. Given the size and resolution of the screens maybe that’s all it can do.

[via Boing Boing Gadgets]

Multi Platform Plug’n’Play System Update

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22yI_nk09Fc]

[Bacteria] sent us this sweet video of the Multi Platform Plug’n’Play system running his new GameBoy Advance module. He’s made an addon for his unit that allows him to play his GameBoy Advance cartridges as well as GameBoy ones. Watch the vid for the details and some views of the insides.

MioPocket 2.0 Release 27

Miopocket Screenshot

GpsPasSion forum member [Ospray] has released a new version of MioPocket. For those of you that don’t know, MioPocket is a great unlock kit for GPS units. It basically unlocks the hidden potential of your GPS so you can access the built-in functionality of a PDA as well as retaining the GPS software. This means you can play music, watch video, play games, read and write office documents, and many other things with the once single-purpose device.

Originally written for Mio brand devices, it has been successfully used on a couple other brands. We’ve seen it on a Navigon 2100 using a modified install. This software can run directly off the SD card, so it can easily be updated or removed.

The fun part is fiddling with the scripts to get the newest releases to work on the Navigon and Magellan devices.

Pac-Man Portable


This is another fine project to come out of the benheck forums. [sam_thornley] built this portable game system last Fall. It uses the guts of a JAKKS Namco TV arcade stick. The composite signal from the board is connected to a 2.5″ Intec screen with a CCFL backlight. Four rechargable AA batteries are in the case for 2.5 hours of play. It doesn’t have sound, but he says the TV games’ sound pales to the original anyway. It’s certainly a nice compact build in a regular project box.

[via Engadget]

GP3X To Be Released In October


You should be able to get your hands on your Wiz as soon as October. The Wiz, also known as the GP3X is the highly anticipated follow up to the GP2X, a handheld game system that runs linux. Sporting a 533 MHz ARM processor, 64 MB of RAM, a 2.8 inch OLED display, 5 hour battery life, and 16 GB of storage, its a heck of a deal. Where else can you get a portable with those specs, bundled with Flash player 7, DivX, Xvid, and MPEG playback for $179?

These units are supposed to be as hackable as the previous version. We’ve seen GPS and USB ports added as well as qtopia and Windows 95 run on them.

Correction: the 16GB of storage on the Engadget site is a typo. This unit comes with 1GB.

[via Engadget]

Hack Guitar Hero DS Into A Guitar Controller


[Eric Ruckman] sent us this awesome Guitar Hero hack. He wanted to get a more “true to the series” game play out of his DS when playing Guitar Hero: On Tour. If you’ve seen the adapter that comes with it, you’ll understand his desires. He found a wireless PS2 Guitar Hero controller on EBay to hack.

He’s cut a hole in the controller and removed all the guts. In the picture above the DS fits in the hole to allow strumming in the correct position. The controller buttons are connected to the DS by wiring into the adapter. He’s added an FM transmitter to the controller so he can play the sound through his home sound system.

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