Hasta La Gadget!

Band of Outsiders released a line of Atari-themed apparel this Holiday season. The clothes might as well be adorned with pixel art or random colored blocks to younger gamers, but their dads and moms see cowboys, aliens and car chases there. Unless you look at the Super Breakout sweater, in which case what you see is what you get: a paddle, a ball and a wall.

I chose to feature this sweater not just because I think it looks great but also because it’s not just for Atari or Super Breakout fans. It’s for both Apple fans and haters too. The game you see here wouldn’t exist without Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs, the same people that led to the iPhone and iPads, which are now home to bite-sized arcade style games in the vein of Super Breakout. If you already know that trivia then this sweater also serves as a reminder of Steve Wozniak’s talent and Steve Jobs’ business acumen, i.e. ruthlessness.

The sweater even has an Apple-like price tag: Band of Outsiders is selling it for $395 (USD). You could do worse: the Super Breakout beanie costs an insane $175.

[via Albotas]

Okay, okay, I kid. The Xbox One doesn’t look that much like a VCR, but it still is about a big as one. But leave it to an enterprising console modder like James “DarkUncle” Terry to solve that problem, by transforming an Xbox One into a laptop.

What you’re looking at here is what I’m reasonably certain is the very first Xbox One laptop mod. The Console measures only two-inches-thick when closed, and that includes the size of the LCD flat panel built into its lid. That’s even more impressive when you realize that the Xbox One normally measures almost three inches-thick. The top of the console has a matte black finish, with an integrated touch power control and a gloss black shell around the outside. He also added custom buttons for controller sync, eject, and audio volume. Between its additional cooling fans and the standard Xbox One heatsink, James says it stays nice and cool too.

The laptop has all of the regular ports from an Xbox One, but also added an audio line-out connector, which Microsoft neglected to include on the console. Check out the build in the video below:

Great job, James! Now all you need to do is figure out a way to build the Kinect into it, and shrink down Microsoft’s power brick, and all will be right with the world.

If you’re interested in having your own custom Xbox One laptop built, head on over to Dark Uncle Custom Gaming to get in touch with James.

We’ve seen robots that move about using wheels, two legs, four legs and even ones that slither like snakes. The Cubli can move despite being just a cube. Actually it does have wheels, but they’re inside its body.

The Cubli was developed by researchers at the Institute for Dynamic Systems and Control of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, led by Gajamohan Mohanarajah and Dr. Raffaello D’Andrea. It has three wheels powered by a small electric motor, a three-axis accelerometer, a three-axis gyroscope, a servo for braking and a STM3210E microcontroller.

By taking advantage of angular momentum and torque reaction, the 5.9 cu.in. cube can jump from a stable position, then stop and balance itself on one of its edges or even one of its corners. It can keep balancing even if you push or disturb the surface that it’s on. It can also be commanded to fall in a particular direction. By performing all three actions successively – jumping up, balancing and falling – the Cubli can be made to move around. It cannot speak though. At least not yet.

Read the researchers’ paper (pdf) on Cubli or head to RoboHub to find out more about the robot.

[via ETH & RoboHub]

Add a bit of Christmas pun to your tabletop gaming sessions with this neat D12 made by dice maker Eric C. Harshberger. It’s the items enumerated in The Twelve Days of Christmas in dice form, based on the artwork of Xavier Romero-Frias.

Eric will make you one for 4 colly birds $4 (USD) each. Check out his website to find out how to place an order.

[via Boing Boing]

Yeah, there’s a computer in here somewhere. This is Japanese designer Hiroto Ikeuchi’s award-winning casemod, which is basically a toy diorama that erupted over a PC. According to Wired, Hiroto calls the diorama his “secret base.” It’s filled with soldiers, mecha and guns along with gadgets, electronics and trinkets made to look like weapons or heavy machinery.

You can see more pictures of Hiroto’s casemod on photographer Rakutaro’s blog. You should also check out Hiroto’s website and his blog to see more of his work.

[via Wired via Ubergizmo]