Mac Hacks

257 Articles

G5 Alarm Clock

March 5, 2005 by 8 Comments

g5 alarm clock

a couple of days ago, an engadget reader posed an important question:

Does a non-fugly cd-alarm clock exist? It is the Holy Grail of gadgets. How Sony can make a gorgeous T1 or T3 digital camera and still make clocks that look like ass confounds me.

now there is hope for fugly alarm clock haters.  anders lundberg has solved your problem and built an alarm clock into a mac g5 case.

the howto is written in swedish, but it’s also well documented in the universal language of jpeg.  it looks like he was able to create a custom led array that fits the hole pattern of the case, while using the guts from an every day alarm clock to drive it all.  thanks for the link, gary!

update: a reader over at tuaw has translated the howto to english

Continue reading “G5 Alarm Clock” →

Homebrew Mac Mini Dock

February 25, 2005 by 11 Comments

mac mini dock hack

hackaday reader lazzwaldo writes:

I’m too impatient to wait for someone else to come up with this, so here’s a quick’n’dirty (working) prototype of a Mac Mini Dock so I can use it in my truck or Jeep as a CarPuter, then be able to unplug it and take it elsewhere.

It consists of milled aluminum stock (perforated for ventilation), ProPoxy formed around the connector ends, and soft/”female” velcro to give a firm but smooth slide on the sides.

What it doesn’t have is a good way to UNplug it yet; I will install a tug strap to be able to disengage it. All connectors are present except for the phone/modem line.

there have been concepts, but i believe this is the first ever real life mac mini dock.  nice job!

Continue reading “Homebrew Mac Mini Dock” →

Shuffle Array

February 8, 2005 by 19 Comments

shuffle raid array

i saw this just moments after posting yestrday’s article, so i’ve been itching to get this one up before everyone has read it already (apologies to those that have).  here’s a quick howto that shows you how to make a raid 0 array out of 4 ipod shuffles.  is it just me, or does this one look an awful lot like that weird boomerang from krull?

the basic setup is applicable to normal usb flash drives as well.  it’s not super fast, but it does allow you to use several devices as a one single, larger drive.  there’s really nothing stopping you from making a software raid array out of anything.  take the floppy disk array as an extreme example.

Continue reading “Shuffle Array” →

Hack Your New Mac

January 19, 2005 by 45 Comments

mac mini

it’s begun.  you may have seen news of the ipod shuffle disassembly on engadget earlier this week, and now the mac mini is subject to hacking as well.

to begin hacking an ipod shuffle, follow the disassembly photos here.
to begin hacking a mac mini, view how to safely open the case here.

regarding the shuffle disassembly, i’d recommend you don’t remove the navigation pad if you ever intend to reassemble the device.  as for the mac mini, supposedly opening and servicing the machine won’t void your warranty.

unless you break something.

happy hacking and make sure to send us your creations.  we’ll be posting our own, so it only seems fair.  if you can’t find the time to create, send in any ideas you have and we’ll put our team of highly skilled hackers to work.

here are some examples to get the ideas flowing:

  • mac mini media player

  • external battery pack for the shuffle

  • integrated shuffle or mac mini car audio or navigation system

  • the most mini mac mini

Continue reading “Hack Your New Mac” →