iPhone headset socket hijacked to power DIY peripherals (video)

Apple’s proprietary dock connector may keep would-be peripheral manufacturers at bay, but if you want to build your own iOS companion devices, there’s another way. You might have noticed that the Square credit card reader uses Apple’s 3.5mm headset jack to transmit power and data at once, and gadgeteers at the University of Michigan are busy open-sourcing the same technique for all the DIY contraptions you can dream of. Project HiJack has already figured out how to pull 7.4 milliwatts out of a 22kHz audio tone, and built a series of prototype boards (including working EKG, temperature, humidity and motion sensors) that transmit data to and from an iOS app at up to 8.82 kbaud — using just $2.34 worth of electronic components. See the basic principles at work in the video above, and — as soon as the team updates Google Code — find out how to build your own at the links below.

iPhone headset socket hijacked to power DIY peripherals (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 17 Jan 2011 02:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Ars Technica  |  sourceProject HiJack  | Email this | Comments

Macintosh Plus celebrates 25 years by becoming ultimate DJ headgear (video)

Don’t have $65,000 and / or seventeen months to build yourself a Daft Punk helmet? Here’s the next best thing: crack open a Macintosh Plus, add an iPad, an old bicycle helmet and some electroluminescent gear, and get to soldering. Originally a school project for design student Terrence Scoville, this visualizer helmet now sits atop the cranium of DJ Kid Chameleon. Because there’s nothing like a few digital fireworks to celebrate an old computer’s birthday. Video after the break.

Continue reading Macintosh Plus celebrates 25 years by becoming ultimate DJ headgear (video)

Macintosh Plus celebrates 25 years by becoming ultimate DJ headgear (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 16 Jan 2011 17:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceAfterglow Visual Productions  | Email this | Comments

Holy reverse KIRF Batman! Meizu M9 ROM ported to HTC EVO 4G

Some industrious hackers have created a port of the Meizu M9 ROM for the HTC EVO 4G, bringing a little KIRF flavor to Sprint’s favorite jumbo phone. The port is still in the developmental stages, but most of the M9 functionality appears to already be working, with only the port from GSM to CDMA and tweaks to screen resolution left to do. After a little spit-shine to make sure the build is stable, EVO owners can finally see what the Meizu M9 fuss is all about without having to actually buy one. Of course, why you’d actually want to do this to your perfectly functional Android phone is a question that may never truly find a legitimate answer.

Holy reverse KIRF Batman! Meizu M9 ROM ported to HTC EVO 4G originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 15 Jan 2011 05:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Ali Waqas  |  sourceMIUI-Developers, xda-developers  | Email this | Comments

Sony follows up, officially sues Geohot and fail0verflow over PS3 jailbreak

We figured Sony would follow up last night’s temporary restraining order against Geohot and fail0verflow for distribution of the PS3 jailbreak with a copyright infringement lawsuit, and well, here it is. It’s actually pretty straightforward, as far as these things go — Sony alleges that George Hotz, Hector Martin Cantero, Sven Peter, and the rest of fail0verflow are:

  • Violating §1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which forbids bypassing access control measures;
  • Violating the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, which forbids accessing computers without authorization;
  • Guilty of contributory copyright infringement for encouraging and helping others to crack PS3s as well;
  • Violating the California Computer Crime Law, which is the state computer fraud act (think of this as a backup fraud claim);
  • Violating the PlayStation Network’s Terms of Service (which feels meaningless, really);
  • Interfering with Sony’s relationships with other PSN customers (also meaningless);
  • Trespassing on Sony’s ownership right to the PS3 (this one feels weak) and;
  • Misappropriating Sony’s intellectual property (another weak argument, but there in case the copyright argument fails).

Sony’s asking the court to forbid Geohot and fail0verflow from distributing the jailbreak and turn over all computer hardware and software that contain the jailbreak code, as well as unspecified damages and attorneys’ fees. Yep, these boys done got sued — and we’re sure there’ll be some serious fireworks once they lawyer up and fight right back.

Update: And here we go — Carnegie Mellon professor David Touretzky has posted up the first mirror of Geohot’s code as a First Amendment protest, openly challenging Sony to take action. That’s moxie — we love it. [Thanks, Pedro G]

Sony follows up, officially sues Geohot and fail0verflow over PS3 jailbreak originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 12 Jan 2011 14:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceScribd  | Email this | Comments

Logitech Revue hack brings Android Market, requires brute force

It’s not exactly what we’d call a easy jailbreak, seeing as how it requires a soldering iron, a NAND format procedure, and a Logitech Revue that’s never even been powered on, but it looks like it is possible to root a Google TV box after all. GTVHacker has a thirteen-step walkthrough to cracking the Logitech Revue — and physically crack the case you must — after which point custom firmware can let it download, install and run apps from Android Market and bypass pesky television network blockages. Risky? Definitely. Worth it? Depends on how patient you are.

[Thanks, Jason W.]

Continue reading Logitech Revue hack brings Android Market, requires brute force

Logitech Revue hack brings Android Market, requires brute force originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 08 Jan 2011 12:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceGTVHacker  | Email this | Comments

PSP Go hacked to play UMDs, slightly increase its desirability (video)

For Sony, the homebrew community is both enemy and friend — at the same time hackers are exploiting the living daylights out of the PlayStation 3, they’re making the experimental PSP Go moderately interesting again. Here it is running UMD disc images directly from flash storage, letting it play games like Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, formerly off-limits since it was released on a physical disc. Sure, we’ve seen it play Sega CD games before, but this looks like the real deal — working, user-installable ISO loaders for PSP Go backups and homebrew. Not to mention the skull-and-crossbones-clad elephant in the room. Perhaps these aren’t exactly Sony’s friends, on second thought.

PSP Go hacked to play UMDs, slightly increase its desirability (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 Jan 2011 04:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Ars Technica  |  sourceWololo (1), (2)  | Email this | Comments

PS3 custom firmware lets you ‘Install Package Files,’ piracy not allowed

Well, that didn’t take long! Just one week after hacking collective (and chr0nic misspellers) fail0verflow revealed a hack that delivered the PS3’s private cryptography key on a platter, another hacker going by the MoNiKeR “KaKaRoToKS” has taken the next step, delivering tools that will convert your plain ol’ vanilla PS3 firmware (yup, even the latest security-minded 3.55 patch) into a fancy new custom firmware. One capable of running signed and encrypted executable .PKG files … not unlike the ones that Sony itself uses to distribute PSN games. But this custom firmware isn’t all about piracy. KaKaRoToKS writes, “Since the kernel is left unmodified, this means that this custom firmware is really meant for future homebrew installation, and it will not allow piracy. I plan on keeping it that way.” We suspect that myriad other, less scrupulous hackers don’t share that sentiment. If you want an “Install Package Files” option the Game section of your XMB, PS3-hacks.com has a guide just for you. Peep a video of a custom firmware installation after the break.

Continue reading PS3 custom firmware lets you ‘Install Package Files,’ piracy not allowed

PS3 custom firmware lets you ‘Install Package Files,’ piracy not allowed originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 06 Jan 2011 11:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Joystiq  |  sourceKaKaRoTo’s Blog  | Email this | Comments

Bug Labs gets cozier with Verizon, announces LTE module for speedy DIY devices

Not satisfied with the smattering of LTE products announced at CES thus far? Why not build your own with Bug Labs‘ modular components? Yes, the open-source hardware manufacturer has teamed with Verizon to offer pre-certified wireless modules once again, though this time they take advantage of the new LTE hotness rather than Verizon’s EV-DO network. No word on when we’ll be able to sign up to prototype our own phones nor how much they’ll cost, but know that even just the base platform will slurp $500 out of your wallet. PR after the break.

Continue reading Bug Labs gets cozier with Verizon, announces LTE module for speedy DIY devices

Bug Labs gets cozier with Verizon, announces LTE module for speedy DIY devices originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 05 Jan 2011 18:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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DIY telepresence robot uses PrimeSense Kinect drivers for extremely awkward push-ups (video)

From enhancing your WoW game to putting you in Tom Hanks’s shoes, DIYers the world o’er really do seem to love Kinect. And what do we have here? Taylor Veltrop’s Veltrobot remote telepresence ‘bot uses the PrimeSense open source Kinect drivers for tracking the user’s skeleton, with a modified Kondo KHR-1HV mirroring the operator’s movements (which are received via 802.11n WiFi). Right now he is only controlling the arms, but with any luck we should be seeing complete control over all the robot’s movements soon enough. Once the thing is finalized, Veltrop plans on releasing an open source development kit. And then? That’s right: robot avatars for everyone!

Continue reading DIY telepresence robot uses PrimeSense Kinect drivers for extremely awkward push-ups (video)

DIY telepresence robot uses PrimeSense Kinect drivers for extremely awkward push-ups (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 03 Jan 2011 14:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Engadget German  |  sourceTaylor Veltrop  | Email this | Comments

CyberNotes: Opera Tips, Tricks, and Keyboard Shortcuts

This article was written on March 21, 2007 by CyberNet.

CyberNotes
Web Browser Wednesday

While I have a tendency to use the Firefox browser most of the time, I do use Opera quite a bit as well. Opera is kind of my casual browser because it is slim, efficient, and yet powerful while Firefox offers the extensibility that I need when plowing my way through hundreds of different sites I visit everyday. I don’t really get around to playing with all the different tweaks that lie under-the-hood of Opera, but I think I have some that you may not yet know about.

I’ve already covered some speed enhancements for Opera in a previous article, so the focus here is is going to be a little bit different. I’m going to dive into the opera:config which is similar to Firefox’s about:config screen. In both browsers that is where all of the hidden gems lie that most people are afraid to tinker with, and as a result you could really miss out on some great tweaks.

In my opinion Opera’s opera:config screen is a little more formal than what Firefox has to offer. To get to the configuration screen you simply have to type opera:config in the address bar and there you’ll see a bunch of categories that can be expanded to reveal corresponding settings:

Opera Config

It’s easy to get the hang of, and if you ever mess something up you can always press the “Default” button next to an option to return that setting back to its original value.

A short description for all of the settings listed on the opera:config screen can be found here, and you’ll notice on that page that all of the settings are hyperlinked. Those links will only work in Opera because they will take you directly to the that option on the configuration page. The few tweaks that I mention below also use hyperlinks to help you find the setting quickly.

—Add Thumbnail Previews to Ctrl+Tab Window Cycle—

Opera ThumbnailsThis is probably one of the cooler features for switching tabs, and for some reason it isn’t enabled by default in Opera. If you want to switch tabs in Opera you can use the Ctrl+Tab key combination to do so. It will pop open with a tab switcher that is purely text-based. The screenshot to the right was taken after I enabled a setting in opera:config to show thumbnails along with their corresponding titles.

The thing I like about this is that it only shows three thumbnails on the right-side of the list so that it doesn’t get too cluttered. The thumbnail in the middle is the one that you currently have selected, and the one above and below it are the tabs before and after it, respectively.

The thing that I don’t like about it is that there is no border at all around the tab switcher. It only has a white background that can make it a little more difficult for your eyes to visualize the boundaries.

To turn the thumbnail preview on for the tab switcher all you need to do is enter opera:config#UserPrefs|UseThumbnailsinWindowCycle into the address bar, and then check the corresponding box.

 

—Disable Opera’s BitTorrent Client—

I recently saw this configuration option over at Opera Watch, and many Opera users that I talk to say that it is nice having a BitTorrent client built-into the browser but it doesn’t work nearly as well as a standalone program. For that reason there is an opera:config setting to prevent Opera from handling BitTorrent downloads itself:

To disable the BitTorrent client in Opera:

  1. Copy and paste the following into the address bar (the URL bar): opera:config#BitTorrent|Enable
  2. Unselect “Enable”
  3. Click “Save”

To use another BitTorrent client with Opera:

  1. Go to Tools > Preferences > Advanced > Downloads
  2. Unselect “Hide file types opened with Opera”
  3. Type “torrent” in the Quick find box
  4. Double-click the line that looks like this: application/x-bittorrent torrent
  5. Select “Open with default application”
  6. Click “OK”

 

—Opera’s Keyboard and Mouse Shortcuts—

  • Ctrl+H sends Opera to the System Tray.
  • Holding down the right mouse button and using the scroll wheel will bring up the tab switcher that is mentioned above. This makes is really easy to switch between tabs!
  • Going back and forward in Opera is really easy. To go back just hold down the right mouse button and then press the left one, or to go forward just hold down the left mouse button and press the right one.
  • Pressing the period (.) key will initiate a Find As You Type search feature just like in Firefox.
    Opera Search
  • Shift+Left Click on a tab to close it.
  • Ctrl+B will paste a URL an already copied URL onto the clipboard and press enter for you. Thanks for the tip ResearchWizard!
  • Ctrl+Z will undo the last closed tab.

 

—Cascading/Tiling Windows—

This is one thing that Firefox will never be able to do because Opera is built using a Multiple Document Interface (MDI) that lets you cascade, tile, and minimize windows all from within the window. There is an extension for Firefox that tries to replicate this feature, but it doesn’t quite cut it for me.

Actually, this is one of the biggest reasons that I use Opera in my casual browsing. If I come across two items that I want to compare I can put them side-by-side very easily with tiling. To use this feature just right-click on any tab, go to the Arrange menu, and choose the option that you want to do:

Opera Cascade

Here is what it looks like when I tile a few different windows:

Opera Tile

 

—Overview—

Opera is full of all kinds of tweaking goodness that is just waiting to be exposed. I’m sure some of you have used Opera more than me so if you know of any great tweaks please make sure to mention them in the comments so that we can all benefit from them! I’ll go ahead and leave you now with a few sites that may help you on your journey for finding more tips and tricks:

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