Hasta La Gadget!

The Arduino Due features an ARM-based microprocessor. Image: Adafruit

Makers and motherboard-modders rejoice! One of the most popular open-source computing hardware companies recently debuted new hardware offerings for gadget geeks, including a beefier project board that will allow makers and hobbyists to create more complicated embedded computing projects.

Arduino announced three new products at Maker Faire NYC this weekend: The Arduino Due, which features a souped up ARM-based microcontroller, the Arduino Leonardo and the self-explanatory Arduino Wi-Fi.

Straight from the company of the same name, an Arduino is an open-source prototyping board that houses a single microcontroller (basically a programmable CPU) and allows for input-output with a number of ports, so you can connect a variety of sensors, LEDs, wires and whatever else you want to your project. The Arduino platform has been a favorite of the DIY community since it’s inception in 2005, and until now, all other models have been 8-bit.

The new Arduino Due sports a considerably beefier set of stats, incorporating a 32-bit ARM-based microcontroller that can run up to 96 MHz. For comparison, standard Arduinos normally have an 8-bit, 16 MHz processor. It has 256 KB of flash memory and 50 KB of RAM (SRAM, to be precise). This more advanced processor should allow hackers and DIYers to create more advanced projects than have been possible with Arduinos in the past.

Or as Wired’s editor in chief Chris Anderson put it to us: “Basically, Arduino just grew up.”

“It’s more than just 32-bit power,” says Anderson, who founded maker site DIYDrones. “It’s also debugging, a real-time operating system, native USB,” and a host of other mod-friendly attributes that appeal to the tinkering crowd.

The Arduino Due isn’t the first of its kind to include an ARM-based processor (which are used in a number of smartphones and mobile devices). The Beagleboard beat Arduino to the punch, but a higher price, smaller community and a relatively more complicated nature kept the Beagleboard from getting big.

But a more complicated product, like the Due, means that developing for it will also get a bit more tricky. The Arduino Due platform won’t be quite as beginner-friendly as the company’s other boards, so Arduino has taken measures to ensure that it doesn’t end up in novice hands, at least initially.

The Arduino site — along with DIY destinations like Instructables, Hackaday and Wired.com’s How-To Wiki — offer a wealth of project ideas, step by step instructions and sample code for those who want to get into the Arduino scene.

The Due will first roll out to developers, rather than immediately being released to the community at large. The company plans a final, tested release by the end of 2011.

The Arduino Leonardo should be available late October for a pocket-friendly $20. The Arduino Wi-Fi will also be available in October.

The StayLocked Bicycle is unridable when the locking mechanism is broken. Photo courtesy of Andrew Leinonen.

No matter the gauge of the U-lock or the metallurgy of the chain looped around your frame, the lock securing that vintage Miyata to the parking meter will not stop a determined thief with the right tools. Enter the StayLocked Bicycle.

The StayLocked secures the bike by making the lock part of the bike. If it’s broken, the bike is unridable and, parts aside, valueless. Andrew Leinonen, a Toronto-based industrial designer and cyclist, created the prototype bike after years of the security anxiety that comes with being an urban rider.

“A few weeks ago, my girlfriend’s bike was stolen,” he says. “Out of our own alleyway.”

The locking mechanism comprises a section of the seatstays — the two tubes that extend up to the seat from the rear wheel. Leinonen installed a universal joint at the junction of the tube and latches in the stays to secure it to the frame.

The locking section of the frame swings to secure your bike to a meter, post. Should an ignorant criminal break the lock, the chain stays — those tubes extending from the rear wheel to the crank — won’t support a rider’s weight. The bike will collapse as the thief tries to ride off with the plunder. Unfortunately, whether the culprit realizes the destruction before or after breaking the lock, all parties are left without a bike.

Since the lock fits in an integral part of the frame, Leinonen had reconfigure some key parts of the bike. The seat stays take a lot of the pressure during a ride, and Leinonen has outfitted the locking area accordingly.

“The shackle is inserted four inches into the stub tubes, so there’s a great deal of clamping area,” he says. “For additional peace of mind, a notch on the shackles latches over the quick-release binder bold to ensure that it can’t slide.”

He also put the brake caliper on the chain stays, down at the wheel’s 3 o’clock position.

Thought the bike is still a prototype, Leinonen is looking to produce the frames for large-scale sales.

“I’d be flattered if Giant or Trek were interested,” he says.

Whether criminals are smart enough to be deterred has yet to be determined, but the satisfaction of the StayLocked Bicycle’s retribution is inarguable.

The idea is cute, and the execution flawless in Kirsty’s Camera Desk Lamp. Photo Kooyootoo/Flickr

What would make the perfect work lamp? A firm, steady base which can be adjusted to any height, and any surface? A multiply adjustable light which can be locked into any position? A big, bright lens which can throw the light wide or narrow?

The answer to all of these is “yes,” and all of them are a available if you put a light inside camera on a tripod.

This is just what Kirsty of Kootooyou did, ending up with this amazing lamp fashioned from a tripod, an old Cosina 35mm film SLR and a light bulb. Kirsty isn’t letting on about the details of the design — she’s readying the plans for sale next week — but as there is no visible cable, and the light is nice and warm, I’m guessing that there’s an old-fashioned, tungsten-bulb flashlight tucked inside the camera.

It seems a little mean to call something so handsome (and clever) a novelty, so we’ll just call it what it is: a fantastic maker project. Get down to your local Goodwill, charity shop or op shop (depending on where you are in the world) and grab the ingredients now.

Camera – light – action… [Kootooyou via Make]

See Also:

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It was only a matter of time before the hacks for HP’s now defunct tablet started to roll in.

Android-modding group CyanogenMod released a video of its popular aftermarket software running on HP’s TouchPad tablet, a product which normally runs webOS — not Android — as its primary operating system.

“Our ultimate vision is to create a multiboot solution where the end user will be able to boot into WebOS, Cyanogenmod, and/or other OSes,” the CyanogenMod team said in a statement to Android-enthusiast blog RootzWiki. Essentially, the team wants the TouchPad to be a blank slate, so to speak, able to run multiple operating systems indiscriminately.

Since HTC first released its flagship Android phone, the Dream, the CyanogenMod team has been hard at work trying to get its software onto every Android device on the market. The software isn’t a radical departure from the Android operating system: It’s basically a mod that allows a user more control over his or her phone. From overclocking your processor to customizing your wallpaper, the mod enables subtle tweaks popular with the geeky, detail-oriented crowd.

While getting the Android software to run on the TouchPad has taken relatively little time (the device was released two months ago today), the team says its progress has been slowed due to a lack of development devices. At $100 a pop, TouchPads have been flying off the shelves since HP announced recently it would be discontinuing its mobile hardware and slashing prices on remaining inventory.

“We have talented and experienced developers who cannot contribute effectively due to a lack of hardware,” the team wrote in its statement, asking for spare TouchPad contributions from the community to help spur development.

As the group has gained in popularity, updates on the official CyanogenMod software have slowed. Original founder Steve Kondik was recruited to work for Samsung earlier this month, and team member Chris Soyars recently left for music-appmaker GrooveShark.

But a recent bounty on getting the TouchPad to run Android may have incited CyanogenMod team members to code faster (though the group denies it in its statement). Hardware-modification web site Hacknmod.com offered as much as $2,000 to those who first slapped a copy of Android onto HP’s tablet.

The version of CyanogenMod on the TouchPad (video below) is a highly unstable alpha, but the team says more features and better stability are on the way.

If you can’t beat them, assimilate them. This seems to be the message coming from Apple, which has just hired JailBreakMe.com author Nicholas Allegra as an intern.

Allegra, aka Comex, Tweeted the news today (or yesterday, depending on where you are in the world). “So, the week after next I will be starting an internship with Apple,” he wrote.

JailBreakMe is a browser exploit which lets iOS users jailbreak their iDevices simply by visiting a cleverly crafted web page with that device. It exploits an error in the PDF display code in specific versions of iOS, gaining root access and installing an alternative app store, Cydia. If that sounds scary, its because it is. Apple released patches very quickly in each case.

Ironically, until Apple fixed these exploits, the only way to protect yourself was to Jailbreak your iPhone and install a patch from Cydia.

Now, it looks like the poacher has joined the gamekeepers. Good luck, Comex! I hope Apple hires you.

See Also:

• JailbreakMe Unlocks iPhone 4, iPad With Your Browser
• Apple Blocks Jailbreakme.com From Stores, Pranksters Undeterred …
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