Hasta La Gadget!

If you’re the proud owner of a Samsung Focus or Omnia 7, you can scratch a pretty major item off the list of basic features missing from WP7: USB tethering. A couple of sites have come upon a quick and relatively easy hack to enable using your handset as a 3G modem on Microsoft’s new platform. You’ll need to dial up ##634# to get into a diagnostics menu, switch over to a “Modem, Tethered Call” mode and deal with a few more prompts along the way, but the end result is that you’ll have a pretty much automated USB tether setup on your hands. Our own testing on HTC’s Trophy and LG’s Optimus 7 hasn’t been quite so productive, perhaps because those devices require a different route to achieving it, but it seems like Windows Phone 7 is perfectly capable of performing the USB tethering task. Let us know how you get along in the comments below!

Windows Phone 7 USB tethering uncovered on Samsung phones originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Nov 2010 04:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This is a little confusing, but it looks like there’s another Kinect driver out in the wild, and this one is actually available for download. The folks at NUI Group, who posted results first, are working on an SDK and Windows driver for all the capabilities of the device, which they plan to release as open source once their $10k donation fund is filled up. Meanwhile, hacker Hector Martin has performed a quick and dirty hack of his own (three hours into the European launch, no less) and has released his results and code into the wild. Sure, pulling data from the IR and RGB cameras and displaying it is a lot different than actually making sense of it, but if you’re just looking for a way to plug your Kinect into your computer and squeeze some fun visuals out of it (and you’re smart enough to deal with some pretty raw code), it looks like Hector is your man of the hour. Peep his video proof after the break.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Continue reading Open source Kinect camera driver now available for download

Open source Kinect camera driver now available for download originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 10 Nov 2010 12:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink AddictiveTips  |  Open source Kinect driver  | Email this | Comments

Man, Microsoft really isn’t keen on having you swap out the microSD card that ships within its Windows Phone 7 devices, eh? After finding that the HD7’s card could be replaced if you threw caution entirely to the wind, we’re now seeing that the same is true with HTC’s 7 Mozart. But unfortunately, you’re still facing the same dilemma — should you seriously risk destroying your phone forever just to get a capacity bump from 8GB to 32GB? One Andy Hamilton answered that with a definitive “yessir,” and in the source link below, he proceeded to initiate an iFixit-level teardown in order to unearth the deeply concealed 8GB SanDisk Class 4 microSD card. He made a few mistakes along the way that you’ll want to pay attention to if you end up tossing your own mobile on the operating table, but seriously, watch where you slide that X-Acto knife.

[Thanks, Michael]

HTC 7 Mozart gets its microSD card swapped, but only after an intense teardown session originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Nov 2010 22:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Yes, Microsoft’s Kinect has already been cracked, as you’ll see on video after the break — the motion-sensing depth camera now nods its head on command and displays real-time accelerometer data on one lucky hacker’s PC. We tracked down the son-of-a-gun who did it — as it happens, the same NUI Group member who hacked the PlayStation Eye in 2008 — and found to our disappointment that he doesn’t necessarily intend to unleash his new exploit on the world. The $2,000 prize Adafruit is presently offering for open-source Kinect drivers isn’t his aim, though he does have big personal plans for the device, as he hopes to integrate it into his company’s commercial visualization suite CL Studio Live. It seems that work is progressing fast, as he’s already gotten video streams from both cameras to output to his computer, and he plans to upload a far more convincing video soon. Here’s hoping he has a change of heart about sharing his rapid accomplishments.

Update: Second video after the break!

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Continue reading Kinect does hacker’s bidding, but not for fortune or fame (update: more video)

Kinect does hacker’s bidding, but not for fortune or fame (update: more video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 07 Nov 2010 19:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Gizmodo, Adafruit  |  NUI Group  | Email this | Comments

HTC HD2 owners have been trying to shoehorn Windows Phone 7 onto their hapless devices practically since day one, but it looks like a port won’t make it into the wild before the platform’s formal US launch. That doesn’t mean you should give up hope, however, because one variant seems to be at least partway done, winding its merry way from boot through the splash screen and deep into the speedy UI in a far more convincing video demo than the last one that hit our inbox. Though no apps are actually demonstrated nor so much as a basic phone call (pretty please?), multitouch pinch-to-zoom appears to work just fine, and we’ve little doubt any remaining quirks will be worked out in due time — if not nearly as soon as new HTC HD7 owners migrating from the HD2 might have liked. Video after the break.

Update: Here comes a new, 5-minute video of the purportedly WP7-equipped HD2 (via XDA.cn / Pocketnow), this time side-by-side with the Surround and with expanded functionality — Office, Zune, and more. Video is also, as you might’ve guessed, after the break.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Continue reading HTC HD2 runs Windows Phone 7, makes us yearn for more (video)

HTC HD2 runs Windows Phone 7, makes us yearn for more (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 06 Nov 2010 23:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Pocketnow  |  XDA.cn  | Email this | Comments