Hasta La Gadget!

If you’re in the market for a smartphone case and looking for something a bit different than all of the others out there, you might want to check out the JimmyCASE.

The JimmyCASE offers the stylish looks of a wooden case, but also the practicality of a wallet case. The case combines a silicone bumper with a genuine mahogany backing to protect your phone. Wrapped over the wood back is a stretchy piece of custom-designed elastic which can hold credit cards and money.

In my experience, I was able to stack my license and three credit cards, as well as a few dollar bills under the elastic without a problem, and with even a single credit card, it held securely. And even with the wallet loaded up, the iPhone’s camera and flash are completely unencumbered.

The sides of the case offer a nice textured grip to them, and there are openings for the charging port, speakers, headphone jack, microphone, and mute switch. Volume and power controls are hidden beneath silicone, which keeps stuff from getting into them, but still providing enough tactile feel to be usable.

Of course, the JimmyCASE is about style too, so you can choose from four different elastic fabrics at this point, including the navy blue and black striped of my review unit, gray/orange, navy/orange, and a preppy kind of pink with colorful stripes. In addition to the iPhone 5/5S variant, it’s can be had in iPhone 4, iPhone 5C and Samsung Galaxy S4 models.

The JimmyCASE is available for order now, and sells for $39(USD).

This gorgeous wooden table, designed by Ruben Beckers, is called kleinergleich5—which means "less than five"—because it weighs 4.5 kilos, just 10 pounds. What the hell?

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Cell phones are great, but they aren’t always cheap – especially after you get wrangled into a service contract. If you want all of the basic functions of a phone, but don’t want phone manufacturers to get your money, just make one yourself. Sure, it won’t have all of the bells and whistles of a real phone and it won’t look as polished, but at least you had a neat project and created something.

This do-it-yourself cell phone by David A. Mellis really works. It will make and receive calls, send out texts, and display the time. No mobile gaming on this phone, but for homemade, it’s not bad. It builds on the hardware and software in the Arduino GSM Shield but extends it with a full interface, including display, buttons, speaker, microphone, and more. You can choose from a grey LCD or red LED dot-matrix display. Plus, you can decorate the wood case pretty much any way you’d like.

The main circuit board will cost you $60(USD), but the completed phone will cost you about $200 in parts. Okay, so it isn’t cheap after all, but it will be a fun project and maybe you will learn something along the way. Go all get the details here, and check out more photos of the DIY cell phone’s various incarnations on Flickr.

[via This Is Why I’m Broke]

Motorola has officially teased the addition of a wood backing option for its Moto X smartphone. The option has long been rumored to debut at some point before year’s end, with the first estimates of Thanksgiving being a bit quick on the trigger. A revised, Q4 release date range for wood backs surfaced around then, […]

One of the truths about being married is that some days you want to choke your loving spouse. Not kill them mind you, just leave them unconscious on the floor where the dog can chew her hair into a matted mess, not that I have considered that. Not too long ago my wife sold my Star Wars wampa rug without me knowing it, and then spent the money. That’s grounds for divorce in some states.

I’ve been thinking of what she could do to make it up to me and this Millennium Falcon Bookcase on Etsy is the ticket. The Falcon bookcase comes from Whittled in Wood, the same artist that made the AT-AT bookcase that we talked about before. All the little compartments inside the bookcase can hold your books and other Star Wars junk you collect, at least until your spouse sells it off while you’re out of the house.

It’s made from plywood and birch with lots of wood screws and dowel rods. Unfortunately, it’s not cheap at $915(USD), but it is awesome. For that price, you still have to paint it yourself, as it comes in unfinished wood. Plus, there’s the $175 or so in shipping charges on top of that. But I figure that’s more than a reasonable trade for disposing of my $100 wampa rug.

[via Nerd Approved]