Hasta La Gadget!

There are but two days left (including today) for all you makers and would-be entrepreneurs to submit your projects for our Insert Coin competition for Expand NY. And, you may be wondering, who, exactly will be judging the worthiness of your work? Well, MAKE Magazine Editor-in-Chief Mark Frauenfelder will once again be helping present the five finalists on stage, and we’ve got quartet of tech industry insiders who will decide which project gets our $10,000 Judge’s Choice prize. (There’s also a $15,000 winner chosen by you, our dear readers.) Our judges are:

• Ryan Block, VP of Product, Aol; Editor Emeritus, Engadget
• Ben Heck, Master Modder on element14’s, The Ben Heck Show
• Hilary Mason, Data Scientist in Residence, Accel Partners
• Peter Rojas, VP, Strategy, Aol Brand Group

So, if you’ve got a bright idea, but haven’t already signed up for the chance to put it in front of our judges panel, what are you waiting for? Head past the break for all the pertinent info, then fill out this form — YOU could wind up winning!

Filed under: Announcements

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Darkmatter’s portable open source Xbox 360 project may have hit Kickstarter with bad timing, but it looks to be drawing crowds all the same. The laptop-like console is available in fully finished or kit form for the Xbox 360, thanks to a 3D-printed, laser-cut casing, 15.6-inch 720P widescreen LED display, capacitive Arduino-based touch interface, a headphone jack and support for all native features, like WiFi, 4GB storage and DVD compatibility. Addressing concerns about the lame duck console it’s working with, the group said in an update that it should be able to adapt the Xbox One’s motherboard as well, though it’s obviously never laid a hand on it yet. Any future-proofing concerns didn’t dismay those who saw the device at Maker Faire, however, as most seemed enthusiastic about the project, including Ben Heck, who’s been known to mod a device or two 75. You can pledge $499 for a full DIY kit (without the required Xbox 360 Slim 4GB), while a fully assembled and tested Darkmatter Xbox Laptop will run $999. Check the video after the jump or hit the Kickstarter page at the source link to ante up.

Filed under: Gaming, Laptops

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Source: Darkmatter (Kickstarter)

Love pinball? So does professional modder Ben Heck — he’s building a ghost hunt-themed pinball machine, and needs it to sound just right. Luckily, a local musician is happy to help, provided Heck can rejigger his midi controller into a guitar. Challenge accepted. With the help of his musician friend, Heck spends the first episode of a two-part Ben Heck Show disassembling the instrument, desoldering its components and reassembling them in the desired pattern — stitching together a few undersized circuit boards along the way. Ben lays out the key pattern too, which will dictate how large the axe’s case will need to be. It’s classic hardware modding, and a darn fine break to the deluge of CES news. Check out the first episode in the series after the break.

Continue reading Ben Heck mods midi controller into guitar enclosure, scores pinball soundtrack in return

Filed under: Misc

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Source: The Ben Heck Show

Gadget modder extraordinaire, Benjamin Heckendorn, has returned with season 3 of The Ben Heck Show. Along with new segments such as news, viewer questions and rants, you’ll find that Ben has whipped up a creative solution to the problem of texting while driving. Using the ShopBot CNC router, Ben carves out a chastity belt of sorts — his words, not ours — to form the casing of a system that will sound an alarm whenever one’s car is running and their phone isn’t in the protective dock. The anti-texting system also logs its status to an SD card, which can then be reviewed at a later time. It won’t be until next week’s episode that we get to see the final product, but all the geeky bits that make this project possible can be found in the season opener, which you’ll find right after the break.

Continue reading The Ben Heck Show kicks off season 3 by clamping down on texting while driving (video)

Filed under: Cellphones, Misc, Mobile

The Ben Heck Show kicks off season 3 by clamping down on texting while driving (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 05 Nov 2012 21:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s great to see Ben Heck focus his efforts of do-gooder projects like that foot-controlled wheelchair, but we’ll always have a soft spot for the modfather’s more nostalgic undertakings, like this BASIC pocket computer. Heck created the device for the latest episode of his web show, and if you’re following along at home, you’ll need the Chatpad from an Xbox 360 controller, an Arduino Uno and a LCD display — a Hitachi HD 44780, in this case. The modder-turned-host is quick to point out that the project’s purpose isn’t solely nostalgic — you can also use it to control real world objects, which in the Heck’s case means a ghost on a pinball playfield. Check out a video of the invention in action after the break.

Continue reading Ben Heck fashions a pocket computer with an Xbox Chatpad and Arduino Uno

Filed under: Misc

Ben Heck fashions a pocket computer with an Xbox Chatpad and Arduino Uno originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 10 Sep 2012 22:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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