“Congo” is the name of AMD’s next “ultrathin” platform, but it’s also the name of one of the African regions torn by violence and poverty. For this reason, AMD is considering using the name “2UT” as a replacement code name for the platform, chief markting officer Nigel Dessau tweeted on June 22.
In a followup blog, Dessau explained that he had heard a presentation at the D7 conference describing the conflict.
Power users running low on desktop space now have some breathing room with the introduction of AVADirect.com and GTR Tech‘s small form factor GT3 case. Despite its smaller size, the case uses the full ATX form factor, ensuring compatibility with a majority of motherboards and components. The case will take up only 25% of the footprint of mid-tower computer cases and will be substantially easier to transport, AVADirect.com said. In addition, the company will be selling full systems based on the new case, as well as the case itself, on their website.
Though the GT3 might be the first full ATX case in a small form factor, Falcon Northwest also offers a small, turbo-charged gaming PC running in a microATX case. Those looking for the smallest case regardless of price would do well to take a look at Falcon’s offering, but if you just want something smaller than you’re used to without sacrificing compatibility, the GT3 might be the best choice. For gamers looking for a little bit more space and portability, the GT3 is available for your next LAN party for $179.20 (chassis only).
Tired of your co-workers barging in your office when you’re on deadline or disturbing you while you’re on the phone? Then I know what you need: the CubeGuard. It’s a retractable banner that displays a message for when you don’t want to be disturbed.
The CubeGuard comes in two varieties, with an assortment of background designs: CubeGuard Standard and Build Your Own. The CubeGuard Standard comes with a preprinted message, including “Please Do Not Disturb,” “Out Of The Office,” and “Working From Home.” Build Your Own lets you create a custom message. Each CubeGuard fits entryways up to 50 inches and comes with Velcro and magnets for easy hanging.
CubeGuard was nice enough to send a few of us here at Gearlog personalized messages for hanging up in our offices and cubicles. Find out what we thought of these banners and how you can win one, after the jump.
“You know, I could build a better phone than this.” We’ve probably all uttered something to that effect in our past in a fit of frustrated rage — some more than others — but are you ready to put your money where your mouth is? If so, you can now part with some cash and cobble together a bunch of modules to create a do-it-yourself Android phone called FLOW — just be aware that it’s probably not going to solve your troubles. At nearly $500 for the bare minimum hardware, you’re not saving any money over a phone expertly manufactured by an Asian OEM, and no offense, sport, but something tells us the OEM’s craftsmanship is in a different league. Putting away the practical concerns for a moment, the project seems like it’d be a blast — so the only trick is finding someone willing to use a phone that looks this clunky and geeky day in and day out. G1 owners, care to step forward?
Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds
FLOW is like the Ikea bookshelf of Android phones originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 21 May 2009 08:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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The Hubble Space Telescope has certainly been in the news this past week. Astronauts from Shuttle Atlantis stopped by for a billion dollars worth of refurbishing, hopefully succeeding in giving Hubble another decade of exquisite observation. Though in-orbit repairs were anticipated and designed into Hubble’s physical structure this mission saw some work no one ever expected–and it looks like it worked!
It’s an incredibly dangerous job which few Gearlog readers would turn down. Imagine a chance to do some fix-it work while traveling at 17,000+ mph at 350 miles above the Earth’s surface. Wow!
Of course most of us will never get to Hubble, but you can build your own. There are instructions to roll-your-own at Hubblesite.org.
Make a scale model of NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope using easy-to-find supplies and our printable materials.
These models aren’t working telescopes – you can’t peer at the sky with them. But they can give you an up-close look at the telescope’s structure and a challenging project to engage your model-making skills.
Detailed instructions are available for models using PVC (low detail, average difficulty) and paper (two sets of plans including a highly detailed but very complex model). Though I am not personally licensed for powertools, a more coordinated builder should be able to take the detailed instructions and build a model of true beauty. It’s the next best thing to being there.
Talk about a geek in training. This lucky baby has her very own iPhone! It’s made of wood, of course, but hey, it’s an iPhone! Plus, it won’t suffer any serious damage should she get the urge to chew on it. And that, my friend, is exactly the point.
Flickr-user cjonesgo, who carved the toy–which he has aptly named the iPhoney–by hand, explains:
Some good friends have a teething baby and there is nothing she wants
more than to get her hands on Dad’s iPhone. This is an attempt to find
an acceptable substitute…All in all it took about 4 hours to
make. I probably could have done it in less, but I had a very
discerning client. Everything had to be perfect!It’s all
natural, nearly indestructible, and just a neat thing to have around.
The best thing about this project is, of course, the smiling baby. The
worst thing is that I don’t even have a an iPhone of my own and this
has given me a serious case of iPhone envy!Now I have to make one for myself, because I am jealous of a baby.
See the whole series of in-progress shots in cjonesgo’s iPhoney Flickr set.
[via Robots and Dinosaurs]
It’s easy to get HD content on your home theater PC, but as soon as the content becomes encrypted–which increasingly more and more of it is–you’ll need a CableCard-based PC. And CableCards only come in new PCs. In other words, to get HBO on your PC you’ll need to buy a new PC. Thank god for DanITMan, who’s devised a way to hack the BIOS on your PC to make it CableCard-compliant, letting you add one of the tuners to your current PC. The technique ain’t easy, however, so we point you to EngadgetHD’s Ben Drawbaugh. Drawbaugh, who also wrote pretty much the definitive guide to downloading and importing HD into Windows Media Center, just posted a great story on how to install a CableCARD tuner in your DIY Media Center.
Drawbaugh notes, “This doesn’t really require any hacking, or anything illegal for that matter–we’re not lawyers–but it isn’t cheap. The internal version of the ATI Digital Cable Tuner pictured above can be found new on eBay for about $195, or new from PC vendors like Cannon PC for just under $300.” In my eyes, replacing your PC’s BIOS with something else to add a verboten feature is the definition of hacking, but I’m not one to quibble. If you have an HTPC and you feel up to the challenge, follow his step by step guide and let us know whether you’re successful.
Our ubergeek cousins at ExtremeTech just picked a winner in a very cool competition. Case mods give DIY techies a chance to let their inner artists take the reins, and the top 4 entries really proved that out. Taking top honors was video editor Will Urbina of Novato, CA: His CinematographHD case mod, shown above, combines amazing design with very useful function–it’s a customized, all-in-one machine created specifically for his profession. As Urbina wrote:
What makes this system special is that It not only houses a full sized ATX motherboard as well as up to 5 3.5″ Hard drives, but it also houses 2x 22″ LCD displays, 10W stereo speakers, 5.25″ optical drive, and even has a storage area to transport its keyboard and mouse. The only thing you will need to find at your new work area is an electrical socket.
Check out ET’s slideshow of the CinematographHD and check out the other winners at ExtremeTech.com.
[Via Make]
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Portable Audio
DIY spring reverb from cassette player brings noise, nostalgia originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 28 Apr 2009 19:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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UPDATE: The links to the Russian site aren’t working; sorry! Hopefully the site will come back up.
This, hands down, is one of the most involved–and amazing–case mods I’ve ever seen. Originally posted on casemods.ru, few details about the project are available to those who don’t read Russian. (Google Translator to the rescue!)
Completely hand-built in just 18 days, this amazing mod began when a man named Valeri watched Wall-E, Disney and Pixar’s 2008 animated hit:
I was impressed by the
image of a small, very lonely robot who is struggling alone with a
whole army of fellow that I decided to make a computer corpus of my
favorite hero.
So he headed to the machine shop and got to work. There, he cut, milled, drilled, and filed every piece of the lovable little robot out of metal, paying remarkable attention to even the tiniest of details. The resulting 19 pages of in-process photographs show the truly astounding craftsmanship that went into creating the final piece.
Perhaps for his next project, an external-drive Eva is in order?
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
