F-BOMB Spy Machine 28 Jan 2012 10:25 PM (13 years ago)

Security researcher Brendan O’Connor has created a tiny machine on the cheap that can be used for all sorts of “spy” like activities.

The F-BOMB (Falling or Ballistically-launched Object that Makes Backdoors) is a PogoPlug mini computer with some flash memory and antennas housed inside a plastic casing. The F-BOMB can be configured to do all sorts of things like send GPS coordinates or look for security vulnerabilities.

Funded by DARPA’s Cyber Fast Track program, this low cost device can be thrown over a wall as an example, and left behind to crack a wifi password. The unit only costs about $40 in parts and is no bigger than a deck of cards, so leaving it behind or losing it isn’t that big a deal.

Since DARPA backed the project, I suspect that this might end up as a military only product, but now that the ideas out there I’m sure we will be seeing all sorts of DIY versions.

F-BOMB Spy Machine originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2012/01/29. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

XDModo Solar Charger 28 Jan 2012 10:04 PM (13 years ago)

Most everyone wants to do their part to save our planet. Cars are becoming more efficient with hybrids and full-electric models, even furnaces now-a-days are super efficient wasting less fossil fuel. What most people don’t realize is that leaving a gadget charger plugged into an outlet, even if the gadget isn’t plugged into it still draws power. This not only trickles down to affect the environment, but also your wallet.

Solar chargers aren’t new, but most people don’t like the idea of having their pricey gadgets sitting in the hot sun. The XDModo plans to change that view. The charger draws solar power through a window where it’s stuck on, and uses the energy to charge up your gadget while is sits safely away from the sun.

The XDModo comes with a standard and micro USB outputs and stores power in a 1400mAh lithium battery – which should be good for a full charge on most smartphones.

You can pick it up for under $70 from Design3000.

XDModo Solar Charger originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2012/01/29. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

SiriToggles: Enhance What Siri Can Do 24 Jan 2012 8:00 PM (13 years ago)

Now that we have a untethered jailbreak solution for iOS 5, we can actually make Siri somewhat useful.

SiriToggles is a Siri enhancer for jailbroken iPhones running iOS5. SiriToggles allows you to launch applications, toggle some system settings and check how much battery power you have remaining. A simple command like “Launch Plex” will launch the Plex app for example, but it can also handle non-linear commands like “Turn of my Bluetooth” or “Set brightness to 30%”. If only it could also handle driving directions for us Canadians, not that i’m bitter or anything.

If you want to run SiriToggles you need a jailbroken iPhone. You can pick it up from Cydia.

SiriToggles: Enhance What Siri Can Do originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2012/01/25. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

AirBeam: Security Cam For Your iPhone/iPad 23 Jan 2012 9:55 PM (13 years ago)

If you have an iPhone or iPad and a Mac then you already have the making of a great security camera surveillance system. Enter AirBean; an app for your iPad or iPhone which turns them into a spy camera which can be viewed on your Mac desktop or laptop.

Setup is super easy — install the AirBeam app on your iOS device and the desktop version on your Mac. The desktop app automatically finds the streams and acts as your viewer allowing you to view each feed separately or view multiple streams at the same time. If you have an older iPad without a camera or an older iPod touch then you will only be able to listen to the audio, but it will still work. What if you don’t have a Mac? Don’t fret, you can use any iOS device to view the feed from another iOS device. The only catch is that all the devices must be on the same WiFi network.

This is some pretty sophisticated software. You can set it up as a motion alarm or trigger it off any audio alert. You can even set it up to notify you remotely so you always know what’s going on even when you are away from the house. The applications for this are virtually endless, like a modern day baby monitor (an expensive one albeit, but a cool one at that) or a surveillance device to see who might be snooping around your office when your not around.

You can pick up the iOS app for $3.99 from the app store and the desktop version is free. Definitely worth the money

[Link to AirBeam]

AirBeam: Security Cam For Your iPhone/iPad originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2012/01/24. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Unchained Reaction: Reality TV For Hackers 23 Jan 2012 9:35 PM (13 years ago)

Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage of Mythbusters fame will star in a new reality TV show on the Discovery Network titled: Unchained Reaction. Adam and Jamie will team up as judges for the six part series which pits two teams against each other to build Rude Goldberg style contraptions. From the press release:

Discovery Channel announces UNCHAINED REACTION, a new series executive produced by Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman of MYTHBUSTERS. The duo also serve as judges for the six-part series, which pits two teams of varying backgrounds against each other to build an elaborate chain reaction contraption. But they’re not creating a mere string of dominoes – teams must utilize ingenuity, innovation and know-how to build contraptions on a massive scale. UNCHAINED REACTION is set to premiere on Discovery Channel in March 2012.
Each week, two teams made up of artists, rocket scientists, animatronic specialists, engineers and even your average Joe, are provided with identical sets of tools and materials and given five days to complete a series of mechanisms based on a specific theme. It’s the ultimate build-off pressure cooker, where refined mechanical movements, pyrotechnics and large-scale destruction are encouraged. Making a refrigerator a pendulum? Totally possible on UNCHAINED REACTION. Catapults? Flying saucers? Guillotines? Anything goes as long as they trigger the next link in the chain.
Teamwork and outside-the-box thinking are what it will take to be the UNCHAINED REACTION winner, as teams compete to see who can achieve the most impressive build in such a short time. Each week, Jamie and Adam are joined by a new guest judge to decide which team impressed them the most with their innovation, energy and how much spectacle they can create.”

Sounds like it will be a hit with modders and hardware hackers. About time we geeks get some decent reality TV to watch

Unchained Reaction: Reality TV For Hackers originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2012/01/24. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Jam A USB Hub Into Your Keyboard 23 Jan 2012 7:45 PM (13 years ago)

Here’s a hack that isn’t only simple to do, but extremely practicle; Adding a USB hub to your USB keyboard.

Most people’s desks are already crowded and having a USB hub laying around can only add to that clutter. Michael decided to take apart a USB keyboard and a USB hub. He wired the USB cable from the keyboard into the hub and then wired one of the hub ports back to his keyboard. What he was left with was three free ports that he could place anywhere in the keyboard.

All that was left was finding a spot in the keyboard housing to cut to accommodate the three new ports. This is an unpowered hub, so you won’t be able to charge your iPhone or smartphone, but adding a powered hub is just as easy!

[Via Hack-a-Day: Adding A USB Hub To A Keyboard]

Jam A USB Hub Into Your Keyboard originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2012/01/23. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Raspberry Pi: Cheap XBMC HTPC 23 Jan 2012 7:29 PM (13 years ago)

XBMC has to be one of the best open source media centre projects around. It runs on everything from Windows, Linux and OSX to the Apple TV and even the original Xbox. Building your own PC to use for XBMC can be expensive, but now you can have a cheap (and by cheap I mean $25-$35) system on a chip to run XBMC at 1080p.

The Raspberry Pi in an inexpensive programmable computer that can output 1080p video via HDMI. The device also supports AirPlay, which makes this a great device for streaming video from your iPhone or iPad as you can see from the video below.

Currently you will have to build XBMC from source to run on the Pi, but from the sounds of it, they will be offering binaries real soon. In the meantime, drool over the following video of XBMC running on the Pi. Soon, you can have 3 or 4 of these awesome HTPC devices running all over the house for less than $100.

[Link to the Raspberry Pi]

Raspberry Pi: Cheap XBMC HTPC originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2012/01/23. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

RIM: Balsille And Lazaridis Out; Heins In 22 Jan 2012 8:17 PM (13 years ago)

After almost a year of investor backlash, Research In Motion is shaking up the top of their food chain. Jim Balsille and Mike Lazaridis, co-founders and co-CEO’s will be stepping down while the current COO, Thorsten Heins will be stepping in.

RIM has been battered and bruised while trying to keep up with the top dog, Apple, and the plethora of Android devices that are littering the smart phone world. The once mighty and powerful Research In Motion has been dragged to third place in the phone wars. Severe backlash from investors who have been trying to force the co-CEO’s out, or at the very least produce something to catch up with Apple and Google, has finally caught up with the co-founders.

First order of business for the new CEO, hire a Chief Marketing Office to polish up the damaged brand. Heins isn’t ruling out licensing out the new Blackberry 10 OS in hopes of bringing honour back to the once top brand. As for the outgoing CEOs? Balsille will become “vice-chair of the board with special duties to examine innovation.” and Lazaridis will become a traditional director.

I sure hope it’s not too late for our Canadian sweetheart.

RIM: Balsille And Lazaridis Out; Heins In originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2012/01/23. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Behringer iPad Mixers 21 Jan 2012 8:33 PM (13 years ago)

Just more proof that vinyl and compact discs are going the way of the dodo bird. Behringer’s newest offering? Three new mixers that leverage the power of the beloved iPad. These units interface with the iPad via a built in dock and dedicated app.

The innovative feature set included in the new XENYX iX Series USB mixers makes it possible to record and mix on a professional level thanks to the built-in, stereo USB audio interface. Connect these mixers directly to a PC or Mac computer via a single USB cable to record any signal source connected to the mixer.

All iX mixers include the new dual-engine KLARK-TEKNIK FX processor with 32 editable, studio-grade presets such as reverb, chorus, flange, delay, pitch shifter and multi-effects. In addition to literally thousands of apps, the iX mixers use the iPad to control the new KLARK-TEKNIK FX Processor App, enhancing the mix by allowing the user deep control of EQ’s, compressors and reverbs and a full spectrum analyzer.

The iX series mixers also feature high performance XENYX mic pre amps, which represent a major step in the evolution of audio technology. Comparable to far more expensive, stand-alone mic preamps, XENYX preamps offer a staggering 130 dB of dynamic range, with a bandwidth that extends from below 10 Hz to 200 kHz for transparent, crystal-clear performance.

XENYX mixers’ 3-band channel EQ is based on the same circuitry used in British consoles that allows users to create signals with incredible warmth and detailed musical character. Additionally, “one-knob” compression is available on all mono channels. Dial in the perfect amount of compression for instruments and vocals, creating powerful mixes with punch and clarity.

Behringer iPad Mixers originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2012/01/22. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

NES Controller MP3 Player 20 Jan 2012 2:46 PM (13 years ago)

Some might say that it is a mortal sin to mod vintage hardware, but when you can take said piece of hardware and make it functional again it’s forgivable. Such is the case with this NES controller that has been repurposed as an enclosure for a portable MP3 player.

Quite a bit of modding was needed to cram the MP3 into the enclosure. The case had to be cut to accommodate the headphone jack, USB port and the LCD screen. The buttons on the controller have also been patched into the controls on the MP3 board, not only making this one slick mod but a functional one as well.

All-in-all this is one slick and clean mod. I would like to see a built in rechargeable battery that can be charged via the USB port.

[Link to NES MP3 Controller]

NES Controller MP3 Player originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2012/01/20. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Arduino Powered Espresso Machine 19 Jan 2012 9:00 PM (13 years ago)

Geeks and coffee go hand and hand, and now geeks who love espresso can have some hackable tech in their coffee (or at least in the device that produces their coffee). This Arduino powered espresso machine has become the sixth highest funded project on Kickstater.

If you know anything about brewing a great cup of espresso then you know the key is constant pressure and precise temperature. These two key things are what make machines complex and therefore expensive. Gleb Polyakov and Igor Zamlinsky are looking to change that by using an Arduino and a PID controller.

Their machine, using simple off the shelf parts, maintains these two key components via the Arduino at a reasonable cost. Their machine will retail at $400, but if you jump in on the Kickstarter project now you’ll get it for $300.

They have raised over $341,000 (their initial target was only $20,000) and they plan to build and ship their units in March of this year

[Link to PID Controlled Espresso Machine]

Arduino Powered Espresso Machine originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2012/01/20. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Golden Zelda NES Case Mod 19 Jan 2012 8:26 PM (13 years ago)

How can you be a geek and not love the 8-bit classic Zelda on the greatest gaming console of it’s time, the NES. Gamer/Modder Ryan Fitzpatrick took his love of the classic game and console to a whole new level.

As you can see from the video below, Ryan paid tribute to the classic game by painting it with an automotive grade clear coated gold paint job with silver and red accents, reminiscent of the original Legend of Zelda gold cartridge.

If you yourself have come up with a great console mod, or know someone who did, drop us a line so we can feature it here on tech.nocr.at

Golden Zelda NES Case Mod originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2012/01/20. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

iOS 5 On Your Older iPhone 19 Jan 2012 7:39 PM (13 years ago)

Missing all of the cool iOS 5 features on your iPhone 3g or 3gs? Well, you no longer have to feel left out. Thanks to whited00r you can now experience some of those features without dishing out the cash for a new iPhone.

Apple fans with those classic handsets can now experience app folders, multi-tasking, iCloud-ish functionality via Dropbox, reminders and more. Unfortunately you won’t get notifications or iCloud itself, but there are thirds party apps that help you work around that. You won’t be able to access the App Store directly, but you can always install Cydia and access the App Store via a Safari Bookmark.

It’s not exactly iOS 5, but it’s the closest you will probably come without shelling out the cash for an iPhone 4 or 4S. The process is quite simple and you can find detailed instructions on whited00r’s website.

iOS 5 On Your Older iPhone originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2012/01/19. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Intelligent Flashlight Will Show You The Way 17 Jan 2012 6:00 PM (13 years ago)

Why use an old fashion flashlight when you can use one that will show you the way. This is the Way-Go Torch, an intelligent flashlight developed by Sriranjan Rasakatla. Not only will it light up a path for you, it will overlay useful data on how to get where you want to go.

The unit has a pico projector mounted in the front that projects data on the ground as you walk. Using a digital compass an GPS, it can show you your coordinates and guide you on your way. The crazy thing is that it works, and works well as you can see in the video below.

I can’t imagine that will all those components the battery would last very long, and it looks big and cumbersome. Over time, now that there is a concept laid out, a smaller, lighter one could be built. I can see it now, SmartLight 2.0

[Way-Go Torch]

Intelligent Flashlight Will Show You The Way originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2012/01/17. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

iPhone 4S Jailbreak 17 Jan 2012 8:28 AM (13 years ago)

The jailbreak for the A5 processor based iPhone and iPad is just around the corner. Chronic dev team member @DHowett has posted a video that shows an iPhone 4S running jailbroken and unthethered. In the video you can see Cydia running and the phone being reset without the need to connect it to a computer.

Pod2g, @planetbeing, @MuscleNerd and @p0sixninja, who are all working on the hack have confirmed that the video is real. This those us iPhone 4S owners a bone that the jailbreak can’t be too far around the corner.

[Via The Verge]

iPhone 4S Jailbreak originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2012/01/17. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Super Mario Bros. Crossover 17 Jan 2012 7:59 AM (13 years ago)

Is there anything better than good old 8-bit gaming? Sure you can always immerse yourself in ultra real world gameplay, but nothing beats the hissing of old school game music and 2d side sculling fun. Plus, you don’t need multiple graphics cards chained together to enjoy this one.

Super Mario Crossover is a flash based fan created game that allows you to play the NES Super Mario Bros. game as a variety of characters. Created by Jay Pavlina and Zach from Exploding Rabbit, Super Mario Bros. Crossover offers a whole world of cheats and fun easter eggs. You can get more info from their wiki or jump right in and play the game now.

Super Mario Bros. Crossover originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2012/01/17. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Steampunk MP3 Player 11 Sep 2011 7:44 PM (13 years ago)

pocket-music-library-steampunk-mp3-player-by-will-rockwell.jpg

If you’re a fan of the steampunk style, then you already know who Will Rockwell is. This time around Mr. Rockwell has blessed us with what he calls the “Pocket Music Library”. You probably already guessed that it’s an MP3 player, since it’s in the title.

Inside this amazingly crafted case lives an Archos Vision – an MP3 player that is also a video player, flash drive, voice recorder and has an FM radio. The Vision isn’t modded at all, instead the case is made to fit the Archos; a smart idea if the Vision ever breaks and you need to replace or repair it. Even though the MP3 player within isn’t modded, the Archos can be fully controlled from the stylish buttons on the case.

The unit isn’t cheap, for $350 you get the Pocket Music Library, headphones, USB connector and a fancy tin case.

[Link to Pocket Music Library]

Steampunk MP3 Player originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/09/11. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Add A Solar Charger To Your E-Book Reader 8 Sep 2011 8:06 PM (13 years ago)

E-Book readers have really revolutionized the world. You can now fit a virtual library in your briefcase or purse. Let’s not forget that it has gotten most of us geeks to go outside from time to time to read thanks to their awesome e-ink displays.

One of the key differences between an e-book reader and a good old fashion dead tree book is that you require electricity to power the reader. We’ll since you’re heading outside to catch up on some reading why not kill two birds with one stone?

Instructables user Flapke shows us how a simple hack to his Kobo reader yields some solar juice for the battery. Although the how-to mainly focuses on the Kobo, the concept is universal; Make some room in the back panel for some small solar panels, solder in a few capacitors and an IC and you’ll be rocking an e-book reader that never needs to be changed via a cable (if you do venture outside or read right by a window that is).

[Link to Solar Charginig E-Reader]

Add A Solar Charger To Your E-Book Reader originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/09/09. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

PS3 & 360 In One Unit 7 Sep 2011 8:35 PM (13 years ago)

We have featured a multiple gaming console hack before, but I haven’t seen one that does it with modern day consoles.

Reddit reader Timofiend found a slick way of cramming his Xbox 360 and PS3 into a single PC case to minimize the footprint. This isn’t as pretty as some of Ben Heck’s mods, but if you are looking to consolidate space this is a cheap and easy way to go about it.

Currently both machines can run simultaneously. I don’t think that would wear well on the hardware without some sort of liquid cooling. Both os those units running at once generates a lot of heat, a RROD just waiting to happen.

Maybe Ben Heck could take a shot at making a custom case for it or how about cramming a Nintendo Wii in as well. Could make one awesome gift for a gamer.

PS3 & 360 In One Unit originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/09/08. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

S3 Krypton Laser – Will Fry Satellites 7 Sep 2011 8:11 PM (13 years ago)

The Spyder 3 Krypton laser is the world’s brightest handheld laser, Currently under review by Guinness World records, the S3 is over 8000 times brighter than the sun. I’m not sure why you would want a laser than can travel 85 miles besides the fact that you might want to fry UFOs that might be sniffing around our atmosphere.

As you can see from the video, this isn’t your average meeting pointer laser (unless your plan was to burn a whole in the wall) so be careful with this kids. If your wondering how dangerous this laser is, Wicked Lasers advises:

Warning: This laser’s brightness is potentially hazardous to pilots’ vision and satellite sensors. NEVER point it at an aircraft or a satellite. The S3 Krypton is too powerful to be used as a laser pointer or a gunsight. Never point it at another person, an animal or a vehicle.

They might want to add: tress, buildings, concrete, helicopters, appliances, furniture, well, you get my drift. If you still feel like living dangerously be prepared to fork out about $300 for this and probably a red flag with the Department of Homeland Security just for purchasing one.

[Link to Spyder 3 Krypton Laser]

S3 Krypton Laser – Will Fry Satellites originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/09/08. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

5 Must Have Rooted Android Apps 4 Sep 2011 9:45 PM (13 years ago)

If you rock and Android device then you already know about the multitude of apps that are at your finger tips. For the sake of keeping you safe, manufacturers ship Android locked up without access to the full potential of the device. By throwing caution to the wind and rooting your device you open up a whole new world of apps, apps that can take your phone from a surfing and messaging device to a computer in your pocket.

Go ahead, unlock the full potential of your phone the install these 10 apps then you will quickly wonder why you haven’t done it sooner.

Titanium Backup Pro – This is hands down the most complete backup solution for your Android device. It allows you to easily backup and restore all of your apps, system settings, Market downloads, contacts, SMS/MMS text messages, and more. It has built in scheduling so you can schedule your backups and can even sync those vary same backups to Dropbox. If you want a powerful “set it and forget it” backup solution then this is the only way to go.

Root Explorer – This is the ultimate file manager. Just like the name says, you can explore, edit, mount, delete, and do everything else to your filesystem. If you have been looking for a way to get rid of that bloatware on your phone then look no further. Remember, this is a very powerful app and can cause some serious damage so be careful with it.

Widget Locker – This is a lock screen replacement that gives you control. Widget Locker allows for multiple sliders that can be customized to launch directly into an app like the Messaging or Dialler App. You can also add Widgets or app shortcuts directly to the lock screen bringing the power of your phone directly to your lock screen.

Tasker – Tasker allows you to perform sets of actions based on contexts like events or gestures. You can have your phone do all sorts of things based on conditions. For example, you can have a menu of your favourite media apps pop up when you plug in your headphones or you could set your phone to silence every time you have a calendar event. Its like a powerful scripting language for your phone. Although you don’t need root access to run Tasker, its probably one of the most versatile and powerful applications in the market.

Rom Manager – If you flash custom ROMs on your rooted device then Rom Manager is a must have. You can make NAND backups of your device, manage your collection of ROMs, receive notifications of ROM updates and more. There is no glitz and flash in this app, just ease of use and power.

These are only a few of the great apps for rooted Android devices. Let us know in the comments what your favourites are.

5 Must Have Rooted Android Apps originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/09/05. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

DIY: Cut The Cord With Sick Beard And SABnzbd 3 Sep 2011 6:00 PM (13 years ago)

Disclaimer: This How To is written to automate the process of downloading legal TV shows from newsgroups. We don’t encourage or condone downloading of copy written material.

I decided to cut the cord a few months ago after going over our expenses. We had 3 different cable boxes in the house and no one ever used them. We also watched all of our local broadcasts via an ATSC HD antenna I put up. Add those two together, mix in Netflix and iTunes, and we really had no need for cable at all.

I spent some time looking for alternatives that would download episodic shows automatically for us as soon as they aired (or at least shortly there-after) and came across a great one two combo; Sick Beard and SABnzbd.

Sick Beard bills itself as “The ultimate PVR application that downloads and manages your TV shows”, think of it as a PVR for newsgroups. It runs in the background and watches for new episodes of TV shows that are posted to Usenet. It doesn’t download the actual binary files for you (that’s what SABnzbd is for), but it does rename, generate metadata and keep your library organized.

SABnzbd makes downloading binary files from Usenet as easy as possible. All you have to do is feed it an .nzb file (which Sick Beard will do automatically) and it will download, verify, repair (if need be), and extract the file for you.

Both of these excellent programs run under Windows, OS X and Linux, but for the purpose of this How To we will be using Windows. The only other requirement you will need is access to a Usenet provider that carries binary files. I use Giganews myself.

Step 1. Download SABnzbd and install it and follow the directions on the setup wizard. For more information on the wizard options, visit the SABnzbd+ Wiki.

Step 2. Fire up your browser and head over to http://127.0.0.1:8080. Set things up the way you want paying close attention to the post-processing scripts folder. This folder will contains scripts that are run when downloads are completed. We’ll use this later to have Sick Beard organize our episodes for us.

Step 3. Download Sick Beard and install it. Much like SABnzbd, Sick Beard is configured within your browser. Open up http://127.0.0.1:8081 and click “Config” and “General”. Play around with the various configuration option so that they suit your system and needs. You will need to change “NZB Action” to “SABnzbd” so that Sick Beard uses the SABnzbd+ API to queue downloads. Fill in your SABnzbd+ information in the lower-left pane of the page. You can find the API key in the SABnzbd+ configuration on the General page. For the category, enter “tv” and for the IP and port, “127.0.0.1:8080″.

Step 4. You are going to need at least one NZB search provider since this is how Sick Beard finds the actual files. Start by picking one or two of the supported search providers and creating an account with them. You can get your UID and hash from the RSS feed URLs at the search provider.

Step 5. Now it’s time to make them work together. Remember the post-processing scripts folder from Step 2? copy all of scripts from Sick Beard into that directory. Edit the autoProcessTV.cfg script so that it looks like this:

[SickBeard]
host=localhost
port=8081
username=your SickBeard username
password=your SickBeard password

Now we have to tell SABnzbd to use the sabToSickBeard.py script for downloads in the TV category. Open up SABnzbd, go to “Config” and then “Categories”. For the “tv” category, change the script drop-down to “sabToSickBeard.py” and the processing drop-down to “D” (this tells SABnzbd to repair broken files, extract them and delete the RAR files).

Step 6. Now all you have to do is add a show. Open up Sick Beard, click “Add Show” and follow the prompts. The show will show up within a few minutes in your Show List.

Hopefully this will help you out with a over the top/over the air solution to cable. I’ll do a write up soon on adding in Couch Potato which keeps track of movies for you.

Here are some additional resources to help you along the way.

DIY: Cut The Cord With Sick Beard And SABnzbd originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/09/03. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

DIY: Rechargeable Battery Tester 3 Sep 2011 5:07 AM (13 years ago)

Rechargeable batteries are a blessing, especially if you own a ton of electrical devices that use AA’s. The problem with them is that they don’t last forever. Like every other battery, NiMh or NiCd batteries loose some of their capacity with every charge/recharge. That can lead to some headaches, especially if you’re relying on some juice only to find out that you only have 5 minutes of it.

You could sit around with a multimeter and check each battery every time you use it, but then again you have a life, or could build yourself and automated battery capacity tester like Instructables user BrianH did and make your life a lot easier.

BrianH has a full write up chocked full of details on building this simple circuit that drains any AA battery, 3 at a time, and records it’s useful capacity in milliamp hours. All packaged up in a nice wooden case.

[Link to Automated Battery Capacity Tester]

DIY: Rechargeable Battery Tester originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/09/03. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

ProgressQuest – The Fire And Forget RPG 2 Sep 2011 8:08 PM (13 years ago)

I love me a good RPG, especially an online one, but in todays super fast moving world who really has time to dedicate to one. Who has the time to sit around and interact with other people who share the same interest, who has the time to perform the menial tasks required to build up wealth and skill?

Enter ProgressQuest; the greatest MMORPG I have ever seen. All you have to do is roll up your character, walk away and let the game progress. All you have to do is watch the progress meter go, no interaction, no mining, no nothing. The game was originally developed by Eric Fredricksen in 2002 as a parody of EverQuest and quickly caught fire, so much so that almost 10 years later it’s still being played by thousands of people around the world. They even have online servers that you can join, adding the MMORPG aspect to the gameplay.

The client is Windows only, but a dedicated fan has created a Chrome App that will allow you to play the game under any operating system that runs Google’s Chrome browser. If you decide to play and are looking for a guild to join, think about the “Slogs of Hatred” (Guild tag +SoH+) in the Spoltog realm and fight along side my Level 57 Inner Mason.

[Link to ProgressQuest]

ProgressQuest – The Fire And Forget RPG originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/09/03. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Magic Numpad For Your Magic Trackpad 2 Sep 2011 2:57 PM (13 years ago)

If your like me, a member of the Cult of Steve, then you too probably rushed out to buy a Magic Trackpad the minute they were released. Since I don’t own an Apple desktop machine and work mostly on my MacBook Pro with a built in trackpad, purchasing one was, err, well stupid. Now, thanks to Mobee and their magical Numpad films you can breath some new life into that flat yet oh so sexy device.

For $29 you get a set of films that allows you to transform your Trackpad into one of three different numeric keypad layouts. Add in some software for enabling an on-screen calculator and setting macros you can be crunching spreadsheets in no time. The Magic Numpad is available for pre-order now and should be shipping this coming October.

[Link to the Magic Numpad]

Magic Numpad For Your Magic Trackpad originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/09/02. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Der Kritzler – The Drawbot 2 Sep 2011 12:26 PM (13 years ago)

Alex Weber of Hamburg Germany has created this awesome drawing robot. Der Kritzler (which means “the Scribbler” in German) is a super cool drawing robot that can lay ink down directly on a piece of paper or even a window as you can see from the video below.

Using some stepper motors, gears, pulleys, suction cups and other various parts Alex has put together a simple yet effective drawing robot. By the looks of the outline on his blog, it doesn’t look like that hard a project for all the weekend hacking warriors.

[Link to Der Kritzler]

Der Kritzler – The Drawbot originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/09/02. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Alleged iPhone 5 Case 2 Sep 2011 10:12 AM (13 years ago)

The closer we get to a product refresh of iPhone hardware the more the rumour mills start turning. Italian Mac site Macitynet has what it claims is a case for the possibly upcoming iPhone 5.

If these are genuine pictures then we can expect a phone that is not only wider and longer but also thinner. Gone is the boxy design with a back that appears to taper on the corners. Volume buttons also resemble the forth-gen touch and the mute button has been moved to the right side.

The new iPhone is expected to be announced at Apple’s annual September music event with an actual release of October.

You can check out all the pics of the alleded case at Macitynet.

Alleged iPhone 5 Case originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/09/02. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Neo-Victorian Cell Phone 2 Sep 2011 6:58 AM (13 years ago)

Are you no longer turning heads with your ultra-modern smartphone? Maybe not, since they are so common in todays society, so why not whip out this retro-styled gem.

What once started life as a Sagem X-5m cell phone is now this neo-victorian calling gem. It’s got a handmade wooden case and has been modified to use the brass buttons for dialling and the LCD screen has been set behind a green window which gives it a nice glow that fits with the design.

If you have $350 laying around you can pick it up off Etsy, just make sure your provider supports the GSM 900 / 1800 bands.

Neo-Victorian Cell Phone originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/09/02. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Crowd Buster Backpack 1 Sep 2011 8:44 PM (13 years ago)

If you ever see someone coming at you wearing one of these I strongly suggest you turn around and run as fast as you can.

The Crowd Buster can blast pepper spray 150 feet in either a fine mist or the deadly pellet fire mode. Not only will this make you cry more than the day your puppy was hit by that car, but it will also tag you with a dye that sticks with you four up to 3 weeks; allowing whoever is using it to identify you weeks later.

Don’t get any crazy ideas for those family re-unions. It requires two people to operate and is only available to law enforcement.

[Via Law Enforcement Mall]

Crowd Buster Backpack originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/09/02. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Wind Up Batteries 21 Feb 2011 8:29 PM (14 years ago)

We have seen many green projects around these parts and wind up energy products like flashlights are nothing new, but why not wind up batteries to power any gadget?

Designers Yeon Kyeong Hwang & Mieong Ho Kang have come up with this concept design for a battery that can be recharged by twisting the battery itself. By using a built-in spiral spring wrapped around a generator, friction is created which in turn is converted to energy for the built in Ni-mH battery.

While the idea of free energy is great, you would have to twist this thing a whole lot to build up enough juice, not really practical. Maybe if there was a kick-out crank for leverage, but until then I’ll stick with my solar charger.

Wind Up Batteries originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/02/22. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Dude Plays Super Mario Kart In Real Life 21 Feb 2011 7:49 PM (14 years ago)

I have spent many hours playing Super Mario Kart on my kids DS. This French dude has taken it to the next level by playing the game in real life. French humorist Rémi Gaillard drove a real go-cart through city traffic while dressed as Mario.

As you can see from the video, Mario tosses banana peels at the cars following him and collects power-ups. He even stopped at a grocery store to pick up some extra bananas.

If your considering giving this a try, don’t. Super Mario had a run in with some local traffic cops who weren’t too happy, not to mention, bumping a car in real life with a go-cart will get you killed.

Dude Plays Super Mario Kart In Real Life originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/02/21. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Lightsaber Knows What Side Of The Force You Are On 16 Feb 2011 8:35 PM (14 years ago)

It doesn’t matter if you are a Jedi Knight or a Sith Lord, you still need a Lightsaber. This “Build it yourself” Lightsaber will detect which side of the force you sit on. Perfect for those of you who are sitting on the preverbal Force fence.

As you start to assemble your Lightsaber, place the saber in your hand. If it glows blue you are a member of the Jedi order and if it glows red you must bow to the emperor. I’m not sure how it decides what side of the force you are on, but I’m willing to bet it’s just the luck of the draw. I wonder if it would glow pink if you have no force at all.

If your interested, head on over to the Star Wars Shop and pick one up for $14.99

Lightsaber Knows What Side Of The Force You Are On originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/02/17. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Thunderstorm: Battery Powered Super Soaker 15 Feb 2011 6:04 PM (14 years ago)

Sure, a good old water gun fight can get the blood pumping. Nailing someone right in the head with ice cold water is a great stress reliever. The only thing that can put a damper on all that fun is the pumping action that is required to keep the enemy at bay. The Thunderstorm aims to change that.

The Thunderstorm Super Soaker uses 4 AA batteries to provide a continuous flow of water without the need to pump. Simply pull the trigger and work on aiming, not pumping. It also makes reloading easier. The unit comes with “magazine clips” that store ten ounces of water. Load up on a few clips and you are ready to smell the sweet scent of victory.

The Thunderstorm should hit store shelves this coming spring and will run you about $15. Each additional “magazine clip” will ding you around $4.

Thunderstorm: Battery Powered Super Soaker originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/02/15. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

M16 Golf Ball Launcher 14 Feb 2011 11:08 AM (14 years ago)

Have a really bad golf game? Can’t quite get your drives down where you want them? Well, if you have a spare M16 laying around you can launch your golf balls much farther than you ever could with a driver.

The $20 add-on to the barrel of an M16, M4 or AR-15 allows you to chuck golf balls at incredible speeds. By loading the magazine with blanks, gasses from the blanks will shoot the golf ball out of the end like a cannon. The ball is good for as much as 400 yards and you can shoot the thing about 200 yards with 5-10 feet of drop.

I like to golf myself but am more of a traditionalist; Alcohol on the golf course and semi automatic weapons just don’t seem like a good idea to me.

[Link to ARR-225]

M16 Golf Ball Launcher originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/02/14. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Powertrekk Fuel Cell Charger 13 Feb 2011 7:27 PM (14 years ago)

Sure, you could build your own solar powered battery charger, but that’s only good when the sun is shining. If your conscious about our environment the Powertrekk Fuel Cell Charger allows your to charge up your USB gadgets with an incredible small impact to the environment. Plus, no need for the sun, just some H2O.

Drop a tablespoon of water into the fuel cell and your good to go. The Powertrekk will charge up anything that can be charged via USB. It’s not the smallest charger out there, but it is one of the greenest we have seen.

Currently there is no price or retail locations announced, but check out their site for updates.

[Link to Powertrekk]

Powertrekk Fuel Cell Charger originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/02/13. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Angry Birds Bento Box 12 Feb 2011 10:42 PM (14 years ago)

I love Angry Birds just as much as the next guy, but Angry Birds sushi, I think not. But if you consider yourself the uber-fan and already have all of the plush toys and a real life Angry Birds set in your backyard then you must try the Angry Birds bento box. I hear it’s tasty

The edible creation was made by the guys at mymealbox. They guarantee us that no birds or pigs were harmed in the production of these bento boxes.

Now all you need is to create a slingshot for the birds and have someone launch them into your mouth. Just make sure they have some good aim.

Angry Birds Bento Box originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/02/13. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

DIY: Solar Battery Charger 12 Feb 2011 10:32 PM (14 years ago)

Here is a super easy and super cheap way to build a solar battery charger. You will need nothing more than 2 solar panels, a battery holder and a blocking diode.

The project is dirt cheap, usually running you no more than 3 or 4 bucks and is a great way to experiment with solar power. The unit will trickle charge your NiMH rechargeable batteries and can usually charge 2 AA’s fully with about one full day’s worth of sunlight. With some tweaking you could add a USB port to the design so you can keep your iPhone or other gadget that uses a USB connection fully charged all the time.

Check out Instructables for a parts list and a complete project breakdown.

DIY: Solar Battery Charger originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/02/13. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Tiny DreamPlug PC 11 Feb 2011 10:11 AM (14 years ago)

Shrinking these is all the rage. Why not shrink your PC as well. This wall-wart looking device has a full PC crammed inside of it, not quite a full on gaming machine, but perfect for a small file server.

This all in one wonder will only run you $150 and comes with some surprising specs. A 1.2GHz Marvell Sheeva ARM processor, 512MB of DDR-2-800MHz RAM, 1GB of microSD storage for system files, two gigabit ethernet ports, two USB 2.0 ports, an eSATA 2.0 port, SD card slot, Wi-Fi b/g, Bluetooth and a headphone jack. The company also claims that it can save up to 96% on energy costs compared to a standard desktop PC.

This is perfect for small applications like a file server or for cloud computing expansion. Imagine having a power-bar with a few of these plugged in.

[Link to DreamPlug PC]

Tiny DreamPlug PC originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/02/11. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

eLocity A10 Up For Pre-Order On The 15th 10 Feb 2011 9:01 PM (14 years ago)

The big brother to the popular eLocity A7, the A10, will be available for pre-order later this month on the 15th.

The A10 will feature a NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor, 512 MB of Ram, 10.1-inch 1366×768 multi touch screen and will ship with Android 2.2 (Froyo). Following in the A7′s footsteps, the A10 will also include HDMI, a USB port, and a microSD slot to extend it’s storage by 32GB if you so choose to buy that big a card.

If it’s anything like the A7 it’s sure to be a hot ticket. As soon as I can get my hands on one i’ll pass on my likes and dislikes as usual.

Pre-orders start on the 15th of this month. They will be available in 3 models: The A10 4GB (A10.004), 32GB (A10.032) and 64GB (A10.064) with the 4GB units starting at the discounted price of $399 for early orders, the 32GB model retailing at $599.99 and the 64GB at $699.99.

Check out elocitynow.com for more info.

eLocity A10 Up For Pre-Order On The 15th originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/02/11. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Sony Gets Geohot’s Hard Drive 10 Feb 2011 8:07 PM (14 years ago)

Seems like the Sony V. Geohot saga continues. According to Wired, U.S. District Judge Susan Illston has order George Hotz to hand his computer over to Sony so that they can search his hard drive. This comes after the court’s previous decision to grant Sony a temporary restraining order against Hotz.

Geohot’s attorney objected to the order saying “by allowing Sony access to Mr. Hotz’s computer they would be able to see the contents of his client’s files”. Judge Illston replied with “That’s the breaks”.

“Here, I find probable cause that your client has got these things on his computer,” Illston said. “It’s a problem when more than one thing is kept on the computer. I’ll make sure the order is and will be that Sony is only entitled to isolate … the information on the computer that relates to the hacking of the PlayStation.”

Sony sure is throwing it’s massive might behind their case against Hotz. One must wonder if they just want to make an example out of him in an attempt to deter other would be hackers from hacking their products. I’m not sure what they expect to achieve; we all know that once something is on the internet it lives forever.

Sony Gets Geohot’s Hard Drive originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/02/11. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

DIY: Boost Your Laptop’s WiFi 10 Feb 2011 4:43 AM (14 years ago)

Even with the hardware of today you can still experience horrible wireless reception. Dead spots have become all too common and if your wifi access point happens to be on another floor, you know how much of a pain it can be to stream media when your signal sucks.

Sure you could go out and buy some massive transmitter that could cook bacon, but not only is it dangerous it’s also really expensive. By using some velcro, an MC card connector and a Dremel, you can create this Frankenstein of signal boosters for your laptop. You can easily ~~steal~~ borrow the wifi signal from your neighbours place.

If your not crazy about building something like this and want something easier then check out the wifi wok.

[Link to Hook Up]

DIY: Boost Your Laptop’s WiFi originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/02/10. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Etch-A-Sketch Computer 9 Feb 2011 5:04 AM (14 years ago)

Who needs a touch screen when you can have you very own etch-a-sketch computer. Modder Martin Raynsford created this etch-a-sketch computer with some MDF and a few bottle caps. There is actually a little more involved than that, but it definitely is a cool mod.

By reusing the X and Y axis rollers, the LED and opto sensor of a trackball mouse the bottle caps can be used to move the mouse. The left and right click sensors were also places behind the bottle cap knobs.

It probably won’t get you many girls, but it will raise your geek-cred. Check out Martin’s site for a complete write up on the project.

Etch-A-Sketch Computer originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/02/09. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Put Windows Phone 7 On Your iPhone, Sort Of 8 Feb 2011 5:03 AM (14 years ago)

454f136fa088584a1ad1c674cfe078a0368750bd21ed621cb6f6593aab916ad96g.jpg

Are you just itching to put Windows Phone 7 on your iPhone? Me either, but if for some crazy idea you want to make your iPhone look like it’s running Windows Phone 7 you now can.

Take one jailbroken iPhone and Wyndwarrior’s “OS7” and you can give the appearance that your iPhone is running Windows Phone 7. It’s currently under beta and I highly doubt Apple will ever let it step foot in the App Store. If you wish to ~~be mocked by your friends~~ do it yourself, a full write up is available on modmyi.com or here are the basics of getting it going:

1. Install Backboard from Cydia.

2. Make sure you have created a “Default” backup; if not, press the add button in Backboard and give it a name.

3. Go on your device and click on this link: backboard://http://wyndrepo.googlecode.com/files/OS7Beta.zip

4. Press “Yes” and wait for it to download. This may take a few minutes depending on your internet connection.

5. Select OS7 from Backboard. Press Install. Respring.

Put Windows Phone 7 On Your iPhone, Sort Of originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/02/08. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

DIY: Macro Lens 7 Feb 2011 5:07 AM (14 years ago)

Macro photography can be beautiful. Close up shots of tiny objects, their detail shines through so crisp and vibrant. The problem is that you aren’t going to pull off those incredible shots with your iPhone, you won’t even be able to pull them off with your standard DSLR lens. Special macro lenses can be quite expensive, usually well out of the reach of amateur photo-bugs.

Instructable user Sneipiller has a great write up on how you can build your own macro lens on the super cheap. You won’t actually be building a lens, but a tube extension for you current lens. By extending the focal point of a standard lens you can achieve some great shots like this one:

The project is super easy and all you really need is a tube (like a gift wrapping paper roll), a Dremel, black electrical tape and a hot glue gun. A full write-up on the project is over on Instructables.

DIY: Macro Lens originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/02/07. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

RoboEarth: More Evidence Of Skynet 3 Feb 2011 8:14 AM (14 years ago)

Remember the SkyNet like hand we featured earlier this week? Well here is more evidence that SkyNet is upon us.

RoboEarth is a project being worked on by Phillips, the University of Eindhoven, Stuttgart, München, Zaragoza & Zurich. Its goal is to have a central location of instructions and navigation for robots. Robots can then download these instructions and execute them. They have managed to get the TechUnited AMIGO robot to download all the information it needed for a specific task and then carry out the task autonomously.

As you can see from the video, the task was quite simple; serving a drink to someone, but, if I remember my Terminator mythology this is exactly how SkyNet started. Yikes!

RoboEarth: More Evidence Of Skynet originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/02/03. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

DIY: Infrared Light Converter 2 Feb 2011 8:12 PM (14 years ago)

Infrared lights can come in handy. Trying to be discreet when shooting video in a dark place is the first example that comes to mind. Purchasing dedicated IR lights can be very expensive. By using some old floppy disks or a roll of film you can convert an average flashlight or incandescent light bulb to be a very powerful infrared light source.

As you can see from the video above, video passes through the given materials almost flawlessly yet any light source passing through it is almost invisible to the naked eye.

You can find a full write up on the experiment and examples of creating your own infrared lights at lucidscience.com

DIY: Infrared Light Converter originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/02/03. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Wireless Dominoes Fall Without Contact 2 Feb 2011 11:41 AM (14 years ago)

As a kid I loved creating massive domino chains and knocking them down. I would spend hours laying them out in the living room only to watch them all fall. These “Esper Dominoes” developed by Jarashi Suki and the IAMAS Ubiquitous Interaction Research Group allow for all the same fun, but they use wireless technology to knock the next one down.

As you can see from the video, when one domino falls it wirelessly triggers the next one to do they same. You can build the same old school chain, but they never have to touch each other.

They are currently on display at the Japan Media Arts Festival and I’m afraid to say they might never see the light of day. They were developed over 2 years ago and if they were to have been mass produced and sold, they would have done so already.

[Via Make]

Wireless Dominoes Fall Without Contact originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/02/02. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Is There A Rootkit In The PS3? 1 Feb 2011 6:34 PM (14 years ago)

There is a nasty rumour floating around the interwebs. Seems that Sony might have very well put a rootkit in the latest rev of the PS3 firmware, 3.56. Granted this is nothing more than a rumour, but less we forget the Sony-BMG rootkit of 2005. Remember when they decided to install a rootkit on everyones machine by way of their music CDs.

The rumour first came to light on the website jailbreakscene.com :

Essentially Sony can now remotely execute code on the PS3 as soon as you connect. This can do whatever Sony wants it to do such as verifying system files or searching for homebrew. Sony can change the code and add new detection methods without any firmware updates and as the code executes remotely there is no reliable way to forge the replies.
Whilst it is possible to patch or remove this code from the firmware this will likely mean the end of playing CFW online (as PSN can just check before login that this is active) or at the very least mean it will be even easier for Sony to detect and ban users.

I can agree with Sony wanting to keep the Playstation Network clean and honest. A lot of people took advantage of the homebrew key hack to cheat their way to the top, but the thought of installing a rootkit to take full control of a machine is crazy.

I hope it’s not true, but I wouldn’t put it past Sony to do something this dirty. I hope someone from Sony is reading this, all you had to do was allow Linux to be run on the PS3 and none of this would have happened.

Is There A Rootkit In The PS3? originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/02/01. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Bing Piggybacking Off Of Google’s Results 1 Feb 2011 1:24 PM (14 years ago)

Bing just got caught with it’s hand in Google’s cookie jar. Some Google employees decided to create a honeypot of sorts. They found a search term that returned no matches on both Google and Bing, created a “honeypot” page manually that returned results for the term, and they then had a bunch of people click the top link using IE with with Suggested Sites and the Bing toolbar.

Within two weeks a handful of the 100 or so “honeypot” results started to pop up in Bing. So it seems that Bing has decided to take a few shortcuts on the back of Google’s work. Nice one Microsoft.

Bing Piggybacking Off Of Google’s Results originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/02/01. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Nanocade: Netbook Friendly MAME Cabinet 31 Jan 2011 4:41 PM (14 years ago)

If you have $349 and a spare netbook or mini-ITX motherboard laying around you too can have your very own mini arcade cabinet.

The Nanocade is a kit being offered by designer Rasmus Sorensen. It enables you to use a spare netbook with a 10-inch display as a small tabletop MAME cabinet. With a sweet MAME frontend like mgalaxy, you could have hours of fun play some of those old arcade classics. The price is a bit steep since the kit sans netbook costs more than the actual netbook, but if you don’t have the patience or time to build your own this might be your only option.

Kits should be ready to ship sometime in March.

[Link to Nanocade]

Nanocade: Netbook Friendly MAME Cabinet originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/31. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Scientists Develop Terminator Like Hand 31 Jan 2011 11:51 AM (14 years ago)

Scientists at the Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics at the German Aerospace Center have developed a robotic hand that resembles the hand of the T-800 robot from the Terminator movies. Scarily, the robotic hand’s strength and durabliity is right out of the Sci-Fi franchise.

The hand has five articulated fingers that are powered by a web of 38 tendons which in turn are each connected to an individual motor in the forearm. The robotic hand can control it’s stiffness and the web of tendons allow the hand to absorb violent shocks. So much so that it survived a 66 G impact from a baseball bat.

As you can see form the video above, the hand seems to be able to take a beating. You heard it here first kids, the dawn of SkyNet is upon us.

Scientists Develop Terminator Like Hand originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/31. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

DIY: EgoBox To Monitor Web Hits 30 Jan 2011 8:09 PM (14 years ago)

As the owner of a website sometimes you just want to sit back and watch your traffic numbers go up, but to do that you have to stare at your computer screen and constantly refresh your browser. If you want to keep yourself productive and still watch your traffic why not build yourself an EgoBox.

Bogdan’s EgoBox is a standalone ethernet enabled box that displays website hits. The build is simple, an ENC28J60 ethernet control chip access a text file that contains the number of hits and displays them on a seven segment display. Some code is added to the header of the tracked website to increment the number stored in the text file. Very simple and effective.

You can see a full write up on the build and the code that’s used to keep track of the hits over at www.electrobob.com

DIY: EgoBox To Monitor Web Hits originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/31. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Android 3.0 Running On A Nook Colour 29 Jan 2011 2:40 PM (14 years ago)

The Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) SDK has only been released for a few days and enterprising hackers have already created a ROM for the Nook Colour. It’s not exactly fast, but it is a hack after all.

The crafty hackers combined the Nook’s kernel with the SDK to come up with a “zombie”. Hardware acceleration is a big part of getting Honeycomb’s UI to be nice and snappy and hacker dhoshman over at the XDA forums says that he will be working on it over the weekend.

I’d like to see 3.0 for my Elocity A7, and since I know for a fact they will only be releasing it in the upcoming A10, I sure hope someone smarter than me will put a ROM out for it.

If you haven’t seen all of the Honeycomb goodness yet, check out our sneak peek here.

Android 3.0 Running On A Nook Colour originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/29. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

The PS3 Has Been Pwned, Again 28 Jan 2011 9:07 PM (14 years ago)

Wasn’t it just yesterday that we reported on the new firmware for the PS3 that was suppose to stop all the jalbreaking? Well it seems that we we can now safely answer the question of whether or not it would stop people from unlocking their units for good.

A few mere hours was all it took to pick apart firmware 3.56. Hacker Youness Alaoui (aka KaKaRoToKs) announced on Twitter that he had successfully unpacked the new firmware and published it’s signing keys, paving the way for people to create custom firmware based on 3.56 and allowing hacked PS3s to regain access to the Playstation Network.

And the cat and mouse game is-a-foot. No doubt that Sony will release another security fix in a few days and that will be hacked as well. This reminds me of the old satellite hacking days where the big direct to home satellite providers would change their keys almost daily. Not with the intent of stopping hackers since their keys had been cracked, but with the intent to annoy the average person to the point that they stopped doing it. Now that they keys are in the wild I think that Sony’s only chance to stop this will be with the release of the PS4.

The PS3 Has Been Pwned, Again originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/29. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Charatter Bear Regurgitates Your Tweets 28 Jan 2011 4:27 PM (14 years ago)

It can be a chore to keep up with your twitter feeds, countless hours of following people’s daily minutia can quickly chew up your day. This is where the Charatter bear comes in – it synchs with your Twitter account and reads back to you all of your incoming tweets and not on a small screen but out LOUD. How’s that for really annoying, especially if you follow 1000s of people.

The company behind the USB add-on says that sales are exploding. A simple app for your iPhone or PC translates all of your tweets into sound which is then sent to the Charatter bear. Although the novelty of the bear is cute, it can quickly turn annoying. Imagine a co-worker with this on his desk yelping out loud “LOL” or “WTF” every 20 seconds. If would easily drive you to destroying the poor USB bear.

If you lead a really lonely life and want a USB bear to keep you company (and drive you insane) you can pick up the Charatter bear for $28. You will also have to travel to an electronic retailer in Japan to pick one up.

Charatter Bear Regurgitates Your Tweets originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/28. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Shinobi III On Your iPhone 28 Jan 2011 12:35 PM (14 years ago)

I spent many an hour and many a quarter on Shinobi back in the day and now I can spend just as much time (but not as much money) playing it on my iPhone.

Sega has just released the great Genesis/Mega Drive classic to the App Store. The controls as great and the game play is responsive, not much more you can ask for really.

You can grab the iPhone version for $2.99 or you can also grab it for the Wii Virtual Console, The Sega Genesis Collection for the PSP & PS2, Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection for the 360 & PS3 or on Steam.

Shinobi III On Your iPhone originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/28. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

flipSYNC II Charging Fob 27 Jan 2011 5:37 PM (14 years ago)

I bet if you reached into your computer bag right now you could easily pull out multiple USB cables. You know what I mean, that birds nest of cabling consisting of multiple iPod/iPhone cables and USB mini variants.

Scosche aims to change that for you with their flipSYNC II fob. Much like the key fob of a car, the flipSYNC is a USB cable that folds up nicely into a keychain fob.

The currently offer two models; one with an iPod/iPhone 30-pin connector and one with dual miniUSB/microUSB. They are sleek, small, and durable and will run you $20 a piece. I already have a nice Lacie USB key on my key chain and will soon add one of these cool units.

[Link to flipSYNC II]

flipSYNC II Charging Fob originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/27. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Sony 1 – Geohot 0 27 Jan 2011 5:13 PM (14 years ago)

Remember the decision from a few weeks ago where a judge didn’t think they had jurisdiction to decide on the fate of jailbreaker George Hotz, aka Geohot? Well, Sony has finally seen their day in court and has managed to win a restraining order against Geohot.

We all know that once you put something on the internet it lives forever; the restraining order against Hotz only prevents him circulating the jailbreak. Sony would have to go after every single person who has the keys up to have any chance of stopping the spread of their keys. They can’t be that stupid, can they? Of course not.

Sony also released firmware version 3.56 today. Will the new firmware bring us new goodies? Not a chance. The purpose of the upgrade is to put a stop to all of the jailbreaking that has been running wild. We have confirmed that the update does indeed prevent jailbreaking, the question that remains is will it do so for good. After all, we do remember the cat and mouse game that went on for years with the PSP modding community.

Sony 1 – Geohot 0 originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/27. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

A Look At Android 3.0 – Honeycomb 26 Jan 2011 4:17 PM (14 years ago)

Google gave everyone a sneak peak of the next version of Android (Honeycomb) at CES earlier this year. Today they released the SDK for the upcoming tablet geared OS. Here’s a look at what we all can expect from Honeycomb.

The biggest change is the UI. Older versions of Android weren’t geared towards tablets, Honeycomb changes all of that. You will now have more space on your home screen to accommodate more widgets and icons. As you can see from the image above, you will be able to fit all sorts of things on your home screen(s)

Home Screen(s)

The layout of the screens look much like older versions. There is a new 3D look to all of it that might cause problems with older hardware, the new Tegra 2′s should be able to handle it without much effort.

Notification Bar

The notification bar has been moved to the bottom ala Windows and they have added some new buttons that work like the capacitive hardware buttons on most Android devices. They have also added a recent apps button that will show you the current state of apps running the background.

Keyboard

The new keyboard is a great improvement over the older iteration with larger reshaped keys. They also include keys like “Tab” which should make the transition for desktop users easier. Copy and Paste has also seen some change. Much like iOS, a long press will select a word and you can drag the selector to choose more text.

Over all it looks like a great improvement, especially if you are running 2.2 on a tablet currently (like I am). A welcome upgrade if I ever saw one.

A Look At Android 3.0 – Honeycomb originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/26. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Tiny Computer Looks More Like A Card Reader 25 Jan 2011 6:46 PM (14 years ago)

This is one small computer, actually it looks more like a memory card reader than a computer. Don’t be fooled by it’s incredibly small size, this thing is more powerful that my netbook. CompuLab’s TrimSlice packs one hell-of-a punch for such a small unit.

NVIDIA Tegra 2 Dual Core ARM Cortex A9 1GHz

Integrated ultra-low power GeForce GPU

1 GB DDR2-800 RAM

ATA SSD (up to 64GB)

WiFi 802.11n + BT

DMI 1.3 full-HD + DVI (dual head)

Stereo line-out, line-in, 5.1 digital S/PDIF

4 USB Ports

Serial Port

Full size SD and Mirco SD reader

The unit comes in a solid metal case that can take some abuse, doesn’t need a fan to keep it cool and uses only 3 watts of power. CompuLab will be gearing this unit to the HTPC market and hasn’t announced an OS for it yet, but I’m sure the modding community will jump all over this once it’s released. This would be great for a small server connected to your TV running something like XBMC or a MythTV frontend.

No official pricing has been announced yet, but CompuLab is aiming for a sub-tablet price and it should be shipping sometime in April.

[Link to TrimSlice]

Tiny Computer Looks More Like A Card Reader originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/25. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Winner: iPod Nano Twiiter Contest 25 Jan 2011 6:27 PM (14 years ago)

Congratulations to @MikeFancy on Twitter, he won the tech.nocr.at Twitter contest and a shiny new iPod nano is on it’s way to him. When we informed him that he was randomly chosen from the list of re-tweeters, he posted this to his twitter account:

“I won an iPod Nano, just because I follow @technocrat_blog! A great surprise after getting a $1,500 repair bill for my van!”

Maybe we should have been giving away a gift certificate to a mechanic instead. I hope he enjoys his new little toy

Soon we will be digging through our draws to see what we can come up with next. Not sure on the contest theme yet, maybe a Facebook challenge, or another Twitter contest. Let us know what you think we should do for our next give-a-way and what you would like to see us give away (let’s keep it reasonable folks).

Winner: iPod Nano Twiiter Contest originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/25. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Angry Birds Plush Toys 25 Jan 2011 6:03 PM (14 years ago)

You must be living under a rock if you haven’t heard of Angry Birds. The game is been one of the hottest mobile platform games ever pushing over 12 million installs to date. You can play it on just about every mobile phone platform and there is even talk of a movie about those damn birds and the pigs that try to steal their eggs.

An etsy seller from Manilla is selling 100% hand-swen Angry Birds characters made from felt for the true addicts . The detail of these plush toys is suburb with careful (and I’m sure painstaking) detail applied to their facial features. You can pick them up myook’s etsy page for only $12 each. Time to start building your collection.

[Via etsy]

Angry Birds Plush Toys originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/25. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

DIY: Wind-Up Cellphone Charger 25 Jan 2011 8:18 AM (14 years ago)

Here is a great project that will keep your cellphone going when you have no outlet to charge it with. Ben Heck from the Ben Heck show took a cheap wind-up flashlight, added a small diode, resister and a female USB port to make a hand-crank charger for devices that charge via USB.

I wouldn’t recommend using this to completely charge your phone as it would take hours of continuous cranking to get it there, but you can easily get enough juice for a call on a cell phone with just a few minutes of cranking. Its perfect for emergencies.

[Link to The Ben Heck Show]

DIY: Wind-Up Cellphone Charger originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/25. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

HowTo: RFID Cat Door 24 Jan 2011 12:55 PM (14 years ago)

Sure you can go out and buy an automatic car door that opens when your cat gets near it, but that requires your cat to wear a special collar and you need to keep the batteries in the collar in check. Since most pet owners already have identification RFID chips injected into their cats, why not take advantage of them.

By using an Arduino and some inexpensive parts, Instructables user landmanr put together a cat door that reads the cat’s RFID tag within 4-inches and unlocks the door. The code can distinguish between different RFID tags and can act accordingly. It’s simple, effective and well built. All he is missing is an enclosure to protect the internals.

[Link to RFID Cat Door]

HowTo: RFID Cat Door originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/24. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Super Mario Bros – Backwards 23 Jan 2011 5:52 PM (14 years ago)

As a true gamer you must have already finished the original NES version of Super Mario Bros. You have probably already finished it in a variety of ways like fastest game, collecting all the coins, or killing all the turtles. Why not try beating it in reverse as well.

Much like reading in the western world, the original game was played from left to right. Hacker JJ decided playing Super Mario Bros the traditional was was boring and went about reversing the horizontal deflection coil wires of an old CRT TV which produced a mirror image.

Play the game backwards wasn’t enough, he also swapped the buttons on his NES controller just to get the full experience. I wonder if this is how people play games in the UK

[Link to Backwards Mario]

Super Mario Bros – Backwards originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/23. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

AirPlay On Linux 22 Jan 2011 6:55 PM (14 years ago)

Apple’s AirPlay is a great technology. It lets you stream music and video wirelessly to Apple products like iPods, iPhones and to the Apple TV. It also can be used to stream to Apple approved hardware like speaker docks, AV receivers and stereo systems. The problem with it, like most Apple technology, if your not on the “Apple approved” list your SOL.

The thought of AirPlay being supported in open source software is unheard of, until now. The Totem media player, which installs by default on most Linux distributions, now has an unofficial plugin that will let you stream media via AirPlay.

Instructions

Clone the git repository

git clone http://git.sukimashita.com/totem-plugin-airplay.git

Move the files you just cloned (make sure you create the appropriate directories if needed)

mv * ~/.local/share/totem/plugins/airplay

That’s it. Start up Totem, enable the plugin and start to enjoy streaming media from any other AirPlay capable device. Now that the open source world has nailed down the AirPlay standard, it shouldn’t be too long before we start to see it supported in things like XBMC or Android.

[Link to Totem AirPlay Plugin]

AirPlay On Linux originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/22. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Bus Shelter Video Gaming 22 Jan 2011 8:21 AM (14 years ago)

Waiting for a bus will never be boring again if you live in San Francisco. Yahoo has just installed giant touchscreen panels at 20 San Francisco bus stops. The giant multi-touch screens not only allow you to play games, but allow you to play against people at other bus shelters.

Top scores for each neighbourhood are kept and the bus shelter that rakes in the most points will will a block party featuring OK Go.

I’m actually surprised that something like this hasn’t happened yet. Living in the age of “always connected” and with interactive media already the norm, something like this should have happened a while ago. Kodos to you Yahoo, great idea.

Bus Shelter Video Gaming originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/22. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Duke Nukem Forever And Ever 21 Jan 2011 8:13 PM (14 years ago)

Duke Nukem Forever is probably the best known game that has never been released, as a matter-of-fact, some don’t even think it was ever written.

Duke Nukem Forever was supposed to be a highly anticipated sequel to the 2D classic Duke Nukem, but most people have spent half of their life waiting for the release. Now we finally have a firm release date; May 6th 2010.

How well will a 2D 90′s first person shooter character hold up against the massive games of today? I don’t really know, but having built up 12 years of hype around the release, it’s definitely some big shoes to fill.

Here’s to sneaking a floppy into your workplace to play Duke Nukem on a 386. Now just sit back and wait for the release of Duke Nukem Forever 2

/me ducks

Duke Nukem Forever And Ever originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/22. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

XBMC Launches On Apple TV 2 & iOS 21 Jan 2011 5:26 PM (14 years ago)

The second generation Apple TV suddenly looks a lot better as a home theater PC. XBMC, the open-source media center software that is the driving force behind projects like Boxee and Plex has just launched for jailbroken second generation Apple TVs.

The Apple TV iOS port uses Apple’s “VideoToolBox” private acceleration API. This gives XBMC access to the built-in hardware video acceleration included in Apple’s A4 chip, allowing for non-Apple approved HD video playback. You heard me correct, full 1080p video playback on the tiny $99 box. Video playback isn’t the only thing you get, most of the core apps that are in the Desktop or Xbox versions are there as well.

Since the second generation Apple TV runs iOS, developers didn’t stop there. They added an iPhone and iPod touch port which can be installed on jailbroken devices via Cydia. Not a remote application, a full blown XBMC system on your iPhone or iPad. The iPad version tends to be less frustrating to use than the iPhone version, but I’m sure they will work on that.

I hope Apple can see the benefit of XBMC on their devices, it would be an instant hit if it ever hits the App store.

[Link to XBMC for iOS]

XBMC Launches On Apple TV 2 & iOS originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/21. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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FlipIt – Never Hog An Outlet Again 20 Jan 2011 8:02 PM (14 years ago)

If you spend any time in hotel rooms then already you know how vauable a resource and outlet can be. If you don’t carry a power bar around with you your gadgets have to compete for the one or two outlets that may be free in your room. Nothing is more annoying that swapping around plugs just to make sure you charge up all of your gadgets.

FlipIt is a brilliant design to help you with just that. The idea it quite simple, a normal plug slips through the slots in the FlipIt, allowing both cords to be connected at the same time and using up only one outlet.

Currently they only offer a USB charging device, but hopefully we will see universal AC cords with this brilliant design at the end so we can charge our laptops or other devices.

For $15 you really can’t go wrong, head on over to their site to order one.

FlipIt – Never Hog An Outlet Again originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/21. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Eric Schmidt Stepping Down As Google CEO 20 Jan 2011 7:49 PM (14 years ago)

In a bit of a shocker, Eric Schmidt announced today that he would be stepping down from his CEO role at Google.

Why would someone at the helm of such a super power decide to step down? Simple, Larry and Sergei have grown up and are ready to lead Google. The company is as strong as ever. The stock price is up 32% in the last three months, the search end of the business is as strong as ever and in Q4 of 2010 the company made $8.4 billion in revenue.

Larry Page was once CEO, before Schmidt. In 2001, three years before going public Schmidt was named to the post. Wall Street dislikes young CEOSs and being only 29 at the time, Page wasn’t thought to be ready to lead Google. Schmidt was the perfect choice, a former computer scientist who made a name for himself while at Java, and was to later be CEO of Novell. During his his decade long tenure, Schmidt ran the company with Larry and Sergei at his side, never making a single decision with out them.

So now the Schmidt is gone and we may possibly never see Jobs back at Apple, will the two companies kiss and make up? You never know. One other possibility is Steve Jobs and Eric Schmidt getting together to start a new company. I know it’s a far stretch and I’m hoping that Job’s medical LOA isn’t anything serious, but together, no matter what they did, would be awesome.

Eric Schmidt Stepping Down As Google CEO originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/20. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

iDos Returns To The App Store 20 Jan 2011 9:36 AM (14 years ago)

If you have been holding on to the original iDos app that was released last year before being yanked from the App Store you can breath a little easier now that it’s back.

The new version has been updated and simplified and comes with some freeware classics like Wolfenstein 3D and the original Duke Nukem (the awesome 2D version). Adding additional software isn’t as easy as before, but you can still move stuff into the /Apps/iDos/documents folder and run them from there.

Maybe it’s time to dust off the old floppies and find my copy of Renegade BBS. The first BBS completely self contained in a mobile phone, how cool would that be.

iDos Returns To The App Store originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/20. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Motorola Tells Modders To Go Elsewhere 19 Jan 2011 7:43 PM (14 years ago)

Android by it’s nature is an open source platform, a platform that is open to anyone and any changes as long as they comply with the Apache 2.0 license. So why have manufacturers like Motorola and HTC spent so much time fighting against people modding or creating their own ROMs? That might be a question that will go unanswered for a while, but today a rep from Motorola spoke out publicly and quite harshly against a custom ROM user on YouTube – leading Motorola to apologize to the Android community by way of their Facebook page.

Motorola has taken some heat from the Android community for including locked bootloaders on their devices. Today, a modder voiced his displeasure with Motorola’s policy via a comment to a YouTube video on Motorola’s channel, somebody using Motorola’s account wrote:

if you want to do custom roms, then buy elsewhere, we’ll continue with our strategy that is working thanks.

If you have ever spent any time reading YouTube comments then you would know that a comment like that wouldn’t be well received. A number of anti-Motorola discussions started to pop-up like weeds today all over the Internet in response to the YouTube comment which lead Motorola to apologize to the community via their Facebook page.

We apologize for the feedback we provided regarding our bootloader policy. The response does not reflect the views of Motorola.
We are working closely with our partners to offer a bootloader solution that will enable developers to use our devices as a development platform while still protecting our users’ interests. More detailed information will follow as we get closer to availability.

A Tiger’s stripes never change and neither will Motorola’s. I’m sure we will never see them “enable developers to use our devices as a development platform” or see “More detailed information”. I stand behind the fact that companies who use open source software in a commercial product should allow it to be open and free, not locked down.

Motorola Tells Modders To Go Elsewhere originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/19. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Kensington’s PowerLift Backup-Up Battery 19 Jan 2011 1:33 PM (14 years ago)

I was just talking to someone from Steam TV Networks about the need for a sturdy dock that can hold up a tablet or phone, something that keeps the device propped up when using it to watch video. Kensington has release just such an item built for the iPhone.

Kensington’s new PowerLift is a sturdy dock that also contains a 1,200 mAh lithium-ion polymer backup battery. This bulky yet small unit is perfect for those long flights; prop it up on the fold out tray and you can enjoy countless hours of media goodness. 20 additional hours of music playback, 5 additional hours of video and even an extra hour and a half of FaceTime.

The unit also has a built in USB cable, perfect cable management, and it has some LEDs to let you know where the charging level is at. Its up for pre-order on Kensington’s site and will run you about $50.

Kensington’s PowerLift Backup-Up Battery originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/19. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

$249.99 For The 3DS Starting March 27th 19 Jan 2011 9:49 AM (14 years ago)

If you have been holding back placing a pre-order for Nintendo’s upcoming 3DS then you will be happy to know that Nintendo has finally announced that the upcoming 3DS will be hitting North American shelves on March 27th and will run you $249.99.

The unit will be available in Aqua Blue and Cosmo Black and by June there should be about 30 titles for the unit including an updated version of PilotWings, Nintendogs+Cats, a new Kid Icarus and of course a 3D version of the Nintendo mainstay Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

$249.99 For The 3DS Starting March 27th originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/19. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Official Kinect SDK Coming Soon 18 Jan 2011 9:02 PM (14 years ago)

Balmer let the world know during CES that Microsoft would be releasing an SDK for their popular Xbox 360 add-on the Kinect. Sources say that Microsoft may be preparing the release of the SDK sooner than they anticipated, in just a few months. “Sources familiar with the plans” told WinRumors that an official SDK and drivers are being prepped for a beta release “in the coming months,” potentially arriving with an upcoming XNA update dubbed the “Community Technical Preview.”

Ever since the release of the Kinect, hackers have been having a field day with it. Unofficial USB drivers for the Windows environment have already been developed and there are countless hacks out there from X-Ray vision to controlling World of Warcraft.

Now that Microsoft has acknowledged the popularity of the product and will be officially releasing the SDK maybe we might see another revolution in PC gaming, one that could rival the early 90′s.

Official Kinect SDK Coming Soon originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/19. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

AA Battery / USB Flash Drive 18 Jan 2011 8:48 PM (14 years ago)

Are they batteries or are they USB flash drives? OR are they both? These clever batteries also double as USB flash drives. The neat thing is that they charge the battery side of the mutant while using the flash drive.

Now, the next time you need a flash drive you can reach for your batteries or the next time you need some batteries you can reach for your flash drives. I know, it’s like a modern day Spork!

At this point these are nothing more than a concept, a good one at that, but still a concept.

[Link via Yanko Design]

AA Battery / USB Flash Drive originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/19. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

U-Socket’s Now Shipping 17 Jan 2011 7:07 PM (14 years ago)

For those of you who have been waiting patiently for their U-Socket’s to ship rejoice, they are on their way. FastMac’s U-Socet is a wall socket that offers your standard dual 110V outlets alongside dual USB ports to charge your multitude of gadgets.

For under $20 you can equip each outlet in your house with these valuable USB outlets. Imagine not having to cary around multiple USB bricks to charge your iPhone or Droid, simply plug the USB cable into any outlet and you are good to go.

The retail site says that delivery time is about three to four weeks. The sooner they can crack the big box home improvement store’s like Home Depot the sooner everyone will have USB jacks-a-plenty to charge gadgets.

[Link to U-Socket]

U-Socket’s Now Shipping originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/17. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Yet More PSP Phone Leakage 17 Jan 2011 10:29 AM (14 years ago)

In probably the worst kept secret of 2010 and 2011 the Sony Xperia, or PSP Phone has seen more press time than any other product I can remember and it hasn’t even been officially announced or acknowledged yet. This isn’t new for Sony – remember the PSP Go or the PS3 Slim that hit the interwebs months before Sony announced them?

As we see in yet another video of the soon to be announced (we hope) Sony Xperia PSP Phone; it looks just the same as all of the other videos we have seen. The only difference is that this one is outside and not on some Chinese assembly line or in the basement of some blogger.

It’s no long hype Sony, everyone and their brother have seen this phone. Time to put up or shut up and give us some good Android/PSP goodness.

Yet More PSP Phone Leakage originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/17. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Steve Jobs Taking A Medical LOA 17 Jan 2011 8:47 AM (14 years ago)

The almighty Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, is taking an unexpected Medial leave of absence from the company he co-founded. In an email sent out to all Apple employees today Jobs said …

Team,
At my request, the board of directors has granted me a medical leave of absence so I can focus on my health. I will continue as CEO and be involved in major strategic decisions for the company.
I have asked Tim Cook to be responsible for all of Apple’s day to day operations. I have great confidence that Tim and the rest of the executive management team will do a terrific job executing the exciting plans we have in place for 2011.
I love Apple so much and hope to be back as soon as I can. In the meantime, my family and I would deeply appreciate respect for our privacy.
Steve

This isn’t the first time Jobs has taken a leave of absence due to his health, I just hope this is just a leave to get some rest and catch up on some reading. Tim Cook will head up the day-to-day operations and I’m sure Jobs will be in the loop of all the decisions and vision. Get well soon Steve.

Steve Jobs Taking A Medical LOA originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/17. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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