tech.nocr.at » car

flipSYNC II Charging Fob

Frank — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 02:37:54 +0000

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.

Tiny Computer Looks More Like A Card Reader

Frank — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 03:46:22 +0000

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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Angry Birds Plush Toys

Frank — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 03:03:54 +0000

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.

HowTo: RFID Cat Door

Frank — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 21:55:11 +0000

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.

FlipIt – Never Hog An Outlet Again

Frank — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 05:02:25 +0000

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.

$249.99 For The 3DS Starting March 27th

Frank — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 18:49:12 +0000

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.

U-Socket’s Now Shipping

Frank — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 04:07:12 +0000

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.

Review: eLocity A7 Android Tablet

Frank — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 04:18:35 +0000

I’ve been playing with this surprisingly fast Android tablet for about a week now and so far I am impressed. Stream TV’s eLocity Android 2.2 powered tablet might not be an iPad killer, but it sure puts up a good fight.

The solid 7-inch tablet is powered by NVIDIA’s dual core Tegra 2 processor, comes with Froyo out of the box, is rooted by default and can output a crazy amount of video formats at 1080p via it’s included HDMI port. Although it shows some impressive stats in the video arena, the eLocity does more than that. 4GB of internal storage, a USB port and a MicroSD expansion slot coupled together with the super beefy Tegra 2, the A7 acts more like a powerful computer in your pocket than a PMP.

Not only is the video playback smooth and crisp, this is the only Android device I have ever used that can actually do Flash well. Even when you are on a website with multiple Flash ads watching a video, the A7 came through without a single hiccup. Mix that in with the fact that the device is rooted out of the box, you have one powerful device that is open and free, unlike the “other” guy’s tablet. The only problem I have seen so far is the unit’s battery life. I’ve been able to get about 4 hours out of it with moderate use and only about 2.5 hours of video play. This is more than likely due to the processor as the dual core Tegra 2 could easily power a full size laptop.

The unit doesn’t come with the Android Marketplace out of the box, but a crafty hacker has already created an alternate ROM that offers the Marketplace as well as Ad Hoc networking support. The eLocity A7 is currently WiFi only, by using the Ad Hoc network you can tether your unit to an existing smartphone’s 3G connection. Stream TV is toying with the idea of partnering up with a carrier and offering a 3G model.

At time of print there still is no word on any accessories for the unit, but it does have an expansion port on the bottom that will probably be used for a dock at a later day. A dock would be greatly welcomed, the fact that it can do 1080p without a problem makes this device a perfect addition to your home theater setup.

If your looking for an alternative to the iPad and don’t want to pay a monthly cost for something like the Galaxy Tab, Stream TV’s eLocity A7 is perfect. Priced at $350 it’s a great deal for such a powerful little unit.

[Link to eLocity A7]

Review: eLocity A7 Android Tablet originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/12. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Oxygen Audio’s iPhone Car Deck

Frank — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 05:57:36 +0000

If your car doesn’t come with some sort of built in iPhone control then you know your limited to bluetooth or cable hook-up to enjoy the tunes on your phone. If you want to eliminate the need for all those wires then the O Car stereo deck from Oxygen Audio might be something to consider.

The unit turns your iPhone itself into your car stereo by allowing users to control of the stereo functions right from their iPhone; Internet radio stations, GPS navigation, Google maps and pretty much anything your iPhone can play or do. Your iPhone docks right into the head unit and melds right into your car’s dashboard.

For US$349, the O Car has pre-amp outs, 4×55 watts of power, FM/AM presets and supports the iPhone 3G/3GS/4. The price seems a little steep, but if you want to enjoy streaming apps like Pandora and don’t want all of the clutter on your front seat it’s one of you’re only choices.

Oxygen Audio’s iPhone Car Deck originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/11. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

DIY: Camera Flash Softbox

Frank — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 21:15:10 +0000

Diffusing light is the key to warm, soft shots. If you do a lot of portrait photography then you know how valuable a softbox can be, but the cost can sometimes be prohibitive. You can add a white card to your flash to diffuse light, buy a diffusing cap for your flash or you can buy a Komplement collapsable fabric box from Ikea for a few bucks and build yourself one kick ass softbox.

Crafty hacker Thomas from Denmark picked up one of these fabric boxes (they come in various sizes, he used the 20cm x 20cm one), cut a hole in the side for his flash and using a flash cord had himself a cheap softbox.

He added some support to the cut-outs to hold his flash in place and as you can see from the pictures it collapses down nicely for stoarge.

This DIY camera softbox and the DIY FlashRing are a perfect addition to your photography toolkit.

DIY: Camera Flash Softbox originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/10. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Video Camera Hot Wheels Car

Frank — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 06:41:03 +0000

I’ve tried really hard to stay away from all the CES stuff that has been flying around the inter-webs but this story about Mattel cramming a camera into one of their 1:64 scale Hot Wheels car was too good to pass up.

The idea is for people to get a first person view of what it would be like if you could ride inside a Hot Wheels car. Each car comes with enough memory to capture 12 minutes of VGA video that can be downloaded to your computer via USB or viewed on the tiny screen located on the underside of each car. With such limited memory using this as a spy camera is out of the question, unless something happens really quickly.

They should be available this fall for about $60. I’m sure the novelty of using it to record video will wear off quickly, leaving you with a very expensive small metal car.

[Link via Oh Gizmo!]

Video Camera Hot Wheels Car originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/08. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Open Source HTPC’s That Don’t Suck

Frank — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 21:30:11 +0000

In our next installment of Distros That Don’t Suck we will be looking at open source HTPC software. Sure you can load up VLC or even use Windows Media player, but having a dedicated solution with a UI that is made for a TV is a lot easier and pleasing. I’ve left the PVR-centric software like MythTV and Freevo off the list since their main purpose is to act as a PVR. I’ll be reviewing open source PVR software by itself at a later date.

XBMC – The Xbox Media Center Project started as homebrew software for the original Xbox gaming system and has since been ported to Linux, Windows, OSX, AppleTV and even as a standalone Linux based LiveCD/LiveUSB image. It offers a clean UI, intuitive interface and can play just about anything you throw at it. It offers a plugin system with a huge repository of community plugins to enhance the experience. It’s real easy to setup and it’s configuration is portable across operating systems. If you have an old Xbox laying around this makes a great HTPC that is powerful and best of all cheap.

MediaPortal – This is a Windows based HTPC software so technically it’s not 100% open source since it requires Windows and doesn’t offer a Linux port. If offers everything you would expect in HTPC software; Video streaming, DVD playback, Internet Radio, Picture Gallery and it’s own plugin system. You will need a compatible TV Tuner card to enjoy PVR features and to watch TV but it’s not needed to run the software. If you are a Windows fan and are looking for an alternate to Windows Media Center this is as close as you can get without the cost.

Element – Element is an open source HTPC system that comes pre-loaded with XBMC and the ability to play back just about any media locally or over the Internet. Element also has it’s own framework for offering add-on modules that allow you to play content from services like Hulu, Cooliris, Boxee, Clicker, Amazon on Demand and Youtube. They have adapted the UI’s of popular open source software like Firefox and Pidgin so that it fits the TV experience better than their native desktop versions. They also offer an Android app that allows you to use your Android phone as a remote control; definitely a neat idea for the times you can’t find the remote anywhere.

GeeXboX – A Gentoo based fully functional media center that can be run from LiveCD, LiveUSB, or be installed on a hard drive. GeeXbox is a very lean distro that doesn’t require a lot of processing power so it’s perfect for older hardware. It uses Enna as it’s primary media center application to play your music, videos or look at your pictures. This is the perfect distro for the no-frills experience when you just want to play your media and aren’t looking for any additional functionality.

Open Source HTPC’s That Don’t Suck originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/06. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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DIY: Bike Powered USB Charger

Frank — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 04:43:33 +0000

Here’s a perfect project for the upcoming summer; a bike powered USB charger to keep all of your gadgets charged while you ride.

The USB bike generator works by placing a rotating wheel against the rim of the rear wheel with a heavy spring. The attached wheel turns a stepper motor to generate an AC current that is changed to DC via a rectifier (which is nothing more than 4 diodes). The DC power is then feed into a USB car adapter to charge your gadgets.

It’s a really simple project that produces great results, best of all, it’s really cheap to build and put together.

[Link to USB Bike Generator]

DIY: Bike Powered USB Charger originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/05. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Xtoaster360

Frank — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 05:50:40 +0000

I have seen many mods in my time, but I have never seen anything like this. Modder ncaruso11 yanked out the guts of his toaster and replaced them in epic fashion with the innards of an Xbox 360. Sure it ends up being a lot bulkier than your average 360, but how cool would it be to have a toaster sitting under your TV. If that doesn’t get the chicks I don’t know what will (alright so it won’t get you any chicks or toast actually).

How sweet is that, especially how he moved the interface status lights to the front on the toaster. ncaruso11 says “If I can sell this one then there are sure to be bigger and better ones in the future. Feel free to throw out any ideas.”. I just might consider bidding on this. I need a new 360 for the basement and best of all, I can tell my wife I’m just buying a toaster, and expensive one yes, but still a toaster.

Xtoaster360 originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/02. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Pedal Powered Snow Plow

Frank — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 18:08:26 +0000

Don’t have a snowblower? Need some exercise? The pedal powered snow plow might just be what the doctor ordered. Custom built by Craig, this three wheel bike with a wooden plow is perfect for scraping up that light covering of snow.

The custom 3-wheel bike with sidecar was made years ago, a replica of a bike my childhood friend had. Last winter I added a snow plow accessory. Up to 1 inch of snow doesn’t make it worthwhile to fire up my big 8HP snowthrower. And shoveling my 90′ long driveway by hand can be too much. So my bike plow makes it easy to make a few runs up and down the driveway to make 2 or 3 piles that can then be easily hand shoveled off to the side. A lever pulls up or lets down the plow with a rope and pulley. Pulling the lever all the way back cantilevers the rope and pivot point so it locks in place. The plow blade is hinged with a bungee cord, so hitting a discrepancy in the road allows the blade to flop and give like a real plow. The bike can turn on a dime so raising the plow and returning up the adjacent path is quick and easy. I can do ‘reverse’ by pushing down on the front wheel with my foot to roll it backwards.Totally useless with larger snow falls, but the light ones make snow removal fun. (yes, my neighbors do think I’m odd)

A wonderful way to get the job done without pumping exhaust from a snow blower into the environment.

Pedal Powered Snow Plow originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2010/12/31. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

A Cane With A Hidden Punch

Frank — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 22:45:32 +0000

Just because someone is using a cane to help them walk doesn’t mean that they are defenseless. This not so innocent looking cane packs one massive punch, about a million volts to be exact. If you are some low-life who like to pick on the disabled beware, the next time you pick on someone who you think will be easy prey you might just end up roasted.

The unit comes with a stylish carrying case, charger and a built in flashlight so you can see who you are roasting. The unit will set you back about $90 and is illegal in some states.

[Zap Cane]

A Cane With A Hidden Punch originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2010/12/30. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Open Source Firewall/Routers That Don’t Suck

Frank — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 15:07:18 +0000

Following our list of Linux Distros That Don’t Suck, More Linux Distros That Don’t Suck and Even More Distros That Don’t Suck, we are going to start to narrow our lists to a specific role.

In this installment of our “Distros That Don’t Suck” we are featuring routers/firewalls. Sure you can use your default DLink or Linksys hardware router to preform these tasks but why not bring it to the next level with much more control and features like VPN and bridging?

NOTE: The contained list includes projects that are 100% free and open and don’t charge for additional components or functionality. There are plenty of projects that offer a lite or free version of their solution but charge you for more advanced features.

pfSense – pfSense is a FreeBSD based stateful packet filtering firewall with a whole slew of features. Besides your basic NAT/Firewall capabilites, pfSense offers packages that can enhance it’s feature set like a transparent virus proxy for web surfing and Snort for sniffing packets. pfSense also comes with PPTP, IpSec and Open VPN support baked in and support for OpenBSD’s CARP hardware failover which allows you to have two boxes configured as a failover group. I’m been using pfSense for a few years now and love it. It’s an enterprise grade product with an easy consumer interface. Definitely my favorite.

m0n0wall – Another FreeBSD based stateful packet filtering firewall which is what pfSense is based on. It’s pretty much has the same feature set as pfSense with a few minor exceptions. It’s really stable and is one of the older distros in the firewall/router game. m0n0wall will run on pretty low end hardware and offers an embedded option so you can run it on embedded hardware like an ALIX board. A great option if you want something you can set and forget.

IPCop – Originally a fork of the SmoothWall project, IPCop is a Linux based stateful firewall built on the netfilter framework. IPCop offers a simple update mechanism to install updates and offers many addons that add additional functionality like QoS and virus checking. Geared toward the home or SOHO user, IPCop offers a highly configurable firewall/router that can run on almost and hardware you have laying around.

DD-Wrt – If you don’t have a spare computer laying around to power your router/firewall and would like to take advantage of a hardware WLAN you already own then DD-Wrt is right up your alley. A fork of OpenWRT, DD-WRT is a Linux based alternative firmware suitable for a long list of WLAN routers. If your hardware router is supported a simple firmware upgrade to DD-WRT will add a lot of the same functionality to your hardware that most of the distros in this list offer. A great way to mod existing hardware to squeeze every last bit of performance out of the unit. May I suggest the Linksys WRT-54G-L.

Zeroshell – Zeroshell aims to provide an easy to install and maintain Linux based firewall distribution. Zeroshell is powerful enough for an enterprise load but surprisingly easy to configure with complete set of options like VPN, QoS and VLAN support. Based on Linux and available as a LiveCD or Compact Flash image, Zeroshell falls into the “easy and powerful” category. Great for someone who doesn’t want to screw around too much and just wants something that works.

I’m sure I have missed other great projects that offer a firewall or routing. If you know of a distro that should be in our list let us know in the comments.

Open Source Firewall/Routers That Don’t Suck originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2010/12/30. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Skype Video On Your iPhone

Frank — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 05:31:55 +0000

Sure you have facetime on your iPhone, but wouldn’t it be cool to have video support for Skype on your iPhone? After all, there are only 6 facetime users in the world and billion of Skype users.

Seems that a document that was released a bit too early points to Skype’s CES announcement as being video support for iOS devices with cameras. I’d be willing to bet that the supposed upcoming iPad 2 will also have a front facing camera.

I wonder if the mobile carries will allow these video calls to cross their network or if it will be wifi only, never-the-less this will be a great way to make a video call when your on the go.

Skype Video On Your iPhone originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2010/12/28. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Doorbell Control

Frank — Sun, 26 Dec 2010 23:51:42 +0000

Do you find that your doorbell system lacks that little bit of luster? Tired of it doing nothing more than ringing when pressed? Hardware hacker Nicholas Skinner felt the same way and decided to do something about it. By using the Synapse RD Engine which is easily scriptable by using Python he took his door bell to the next level. His doorbell now does all these cool things:

Sense Bell Press – Allowing for triggering of other events on press, such as additional remote ringers in other parts of the house, computer popup notification and possibly cameras / camera display (e.g. via scart triggering on TV) etc in the future.
Disable Bell Ringer – From either a remote physical switch or PC (for periods when we do not want to be disturbed by doorstep salesmen).
Ring Bell – Allowing the bell to keep ringing for a certain minimum duration even if the button is just pressed quickly to save missing callers who do not hold in the button for an adequate duration.

Nicholas has a complete write up on his site here.

Doorbell Control originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2010/12/26. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Carbon Fiber Toilet Seat

Frank — Sun, 26 Dec 2010 07:15:20 +0000

I’ve alway heard that adding fiber to your diet helps to regulate you, but i don’t think this is what the doctor ordered.

Carbon fiber is one of the great inventions of the 20th century. It’s light, strong and very durable. All things that you would look for in a toilet seat, no? Well maybe not the light part.

So if your the type that like the carbon fiber style/look you can shell out $280 for this carbon fiber toilet seat. My only concern is if you will be able to find matching towels and bathroom accessories.

[Via Dvice]

Carbon Fiber Toilet Seat originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2010/12/26. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Steampunk Optimus Prime

Frank — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 04:47:59 +0000

As someone who grew up in the 80′s there is nothing more I love than some good old 80′s cartoons like G.I. Joe and Transformers. As an older fellow I also have a great appreciation for modern geeky art like steampunk creations. What happens when I find someone who mashed the two together? I run out and try to purchase it.

The Encline Design team did just that, created a very detailed steampunk version of the famous Autobots leader Optimus Prime, best of all is the fact it transformers into a steam engine.

The paint scheme looks awesome; while still maintaining Optimus’s Red and Blue, they managed to add just the amount of buff to it to make it realistic to the steampunk style.

Make sure to check out their site for some more picture and some other great steampunk designs.

Steampunk Optimus Prime originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2010/09/01. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Shogo Linux Powered Tablet

Frank — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 04:45:24 +0000

Looks like someone is trying to de-throne Apple’s iPad. Japanese company Redstar are taking pre-orders on their Linux powered tablet.

The 10″ tablet is multi-touch friendly, comes with 1024×600 resolution and is powered by a Freescale iMX-37. It will also include 4GB of internal memory, 256MB of RAM, WiFi, Bluetooth, 3G and a SDHC memory card slot.

No pricing information or shipping date has been set yet, but I know as a happy hacker I can’t wait to get my hands on one, especially since it will run Linux. Imagine all the possibilities. If you know Japanese, then you can hit their website to get more info, otherwise, check the video below of the unit in action.

Shogo Linux Powered Tablet originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2010/08/30. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Magstripe Hacking

Frank — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 04:12:19 +0000

Is there anything an Arduino can’t do? Instructable user sketchk3tch built this Arduino Magstripe Emulator which can spoof a card reader into thinking a card has been swiped. I can’t even begin to list the possible uses for this tool. Can you say “Hollywood style hotel door hacking device”. Not that we are encouraging that type of behaviour, but it would be fun to write some code that would quickly cycle through all of the possibilities. Check out the video of it in action after the break.

Magstripe Hacking originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2010/08/24. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Hardcore Portable Dreamcast

Frank — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 04:15:32 +0000

Although the SEGA Dreacast wasn’t the most popular console on the market hardcore geeks everywhere hold it near and dear to their hearts. It took a nose dive shortly after being launched, but due to the fact that some of the games that were released for it are just short of awesome and the fact that pirating said games is super easy it lives on.

Modder Techknott took his Dreamcast and decided to cram it into a portable unit he could carry around. The unit holds the discs in the back, features a colour screen that was ripped out of a PSone and uses all of the original Dreamcast controls. It even has A/V output so you can still enjoy the game play on your TV.

It’s one-of-a-kind so you won’t be able to run out and buy your own, too bad.

[Link to Portable Dreamcast]

Hardcore Portable Dreamcast originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2010/08/23. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Affordable P1 Jr Pico Projector

Frank — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 20:10:12 +0000

Projector technology has really come a long way from the days of lugging 30 lbs projectors around. In recent years we have seen the advent of some really small units but nothing that was ever affordable, until now.

Claimed as “the world’s smallest LCOS pico projector” the P1 Jr comes with it’s own battery, external AV connectors so you can hook up a DVD player or iPhone and it has an SD card slot so that you can use it’s built in mp4 player to watch some video.

With it’s 10 lumen LED light source you are only going to be using this thing in a very dark room, but for $119 you really can’t ask for much.

[ AAXA Technologies P1 Jr Pico Projector ]

Affordable P1 Jr Pico Projector originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2010/08/19. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

iPhone Spy Stick

Frank — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 19:27:08 +0000

How scary is it to know that something as simple as a USB stick can pull data from your iPhone (with some limitations). You really don’t need to be super scared just yet since the iPhone Spy Stick will only run under Windows and will only work with iPhones running iOS 3.2.1 and earlier, but the company claims it will have an iPhone 4 version sometime in October.

How it works is simple, you pull the stick and iPhone into a machine and run the included software. You can grab deleted texts, calendar events, pics, and contact info. You can also grab locations tracked via GPS, voice memos, recent map searches and your web history.

The supplier boasts that it “Looks like an ordinary USB flash drive – no one will suspect that it’s a professional grade forensics tool.” Maybe some one should tell them about the “iPhone Spy Stick” logo that’s on it.

If you want one it will cost you $199

iPhone Spy Stick originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2010/08/19. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Transforming Thomas

Frank — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 13:20:05 +0000

As a father of a small child I know all to well who Thomas the Train is. My little guy has a really cool train table with 100′s of trains (I step on the stupid things all the time). Although I do enjoy the morals that the show teaches my child, I often wonder what ever happened to the awesome violent cartoons of my childhood. Show’s G.I., Joe, Thundercat’s and Voltron?

Well, now you can mix the two and enjoy play time with your kids.

This awesome Chinese knockoff brings the joy of Thomas and mashes it with the awesomeness of Voltron. I’m sure if you head on down to your local Chinatown you’ll be able to pick one up.

Transforming Thomas originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2010/08/18. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Arduino Powered RC Lawnmower

Frank — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 04:04:25 +0000

As a male who owns a home with a lot of grass there is nothing more I hate then cutting the grass on a hot sweltering day. Since my son is only three and he can barely reach the mowers handle I’m SOL with getting him to do it.

Maybe I should build this awesome radio controller Arduino powered lawnmower? I can just sit in a lawn chair and drink a beer while the Lawnbot 400 does all the heavy lifting for me. I would quickly become the envy of all the males who live on my street. Check out the video of it in action after the break.

This instructable will show you how to make your Arduino into an R/C interface that you can use for just about anything requiring remote control. I will also show you how I built an R/C lawnmower using my Arduino, a cheap R/C transmitter and receiver pair, and a couple of electric-wheelchair motors from Ebay. I have used this interface to control anything from basic LED’s to Bipolar stepper motors, mini-robots, lifeless R/C cars from the thrift store, and even a 100lb lawnmower (all with appropriate motor controllers). It is very flexible and easy to change and very simple to set up.

[Link to Lawnbot build tutorial]

Arduino Powered RC Lawnmower originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2010/03/18. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Allegro Portable Internet Radio

Frank — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 05:04:12 +0000

Let’s face it, terestrial radio is all but dead. Who wants to wade through all the commercials and limited avalability of the FM or AM dial? I listen to internet radio all the time, when at work at my desk and even on my iPhone when in my car and this little baby while now complete my internet radio experience.

The Grace Allegro Wi-Fi internet radio can run for about 8 hours on six AA batteries and streams over 16,000 radio stations from the likes of Pandora, Sirius and Live365. Is has built in 802.11b/g/n support and even has an iPhone remote control app so you can change stations without walking up to the unit.

You also get MP3/WMA/Real Audio/WAV/AAC/AIFF codec support, alarm functions, built-in speaker, 4-line display, standard remote control.

The unit will cost you $170 and is available right now from Grace Digital Audio

Allegro Portable Internet Radio originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2010/02/25. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Nintendo DSi LL Here On March 28th

Frank — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 04:32:04 +0000

Nintendo fans rejoice, you too will be able to cash in on the DSi LL on March 28th of this year. The fuller DSi comes at you with a larger 4.2-inch screen and a full-size pen stylus as compared to the is original brother.

Nintendo has also added support for eBooks. Although you will be able to flip the unit sideways and use it in a traditional book format you won’t be able to read those book unless you plugin a special DS cartridge.

The new DSI LL will hit store shelves on March 28th for $190. The eBook system will come at a later date with a 100 Classic Books title shipping around June 15th.

Nintendo DSi LL Here On March 28th originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2010/02/24. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Nintendo DSi LL Here On March 28th

Frank — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 04:32:04 +0000

The new DSI LL will hit store shelves on March 28th for $190. The eBook system will come at a later date with a 100 Classic Books title shipping around June 15th.

Nintendo DSi LL Here On March 28th originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2010/02/24. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Glow In The Dark Toilet Paper

Frank — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 05:10:07 +0000

How many times have you been in the bathroom taking care of business when suddenly the lights go out? Never you say? Well I have, once. Trust me, when you are caught in a situation where you are in complete darkness the only thing you want to know is where the toilet paper is, and when the lights are off you have no idea.

Enter the glow in the dark toilet paper. If you are ever caught in a situation like I mentioned above you will be thankful that you spend $8 a roll (ya that’s right, cleaning up you business with glow in the dark toilet paper is expensive).

You can grab you very own roll at I Want One of Those

Glow In The Dark Toilet Paper originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2010/02/22. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Photoshop On Your iPhone

Frank — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 05:41:54 +0000

10 years ago most of us would struggle with not only the cost of Photoshop but the cost of the hardware needed just to run it let alone do anything with it. Amazingly enough in todays day and age you can now carry Photoshop in your pocket.

Alright, alright, it’s not CS3 or anything it’s actually 1.0, but it’s still super cool on the geek factor scale. This demo was released to about 50 people who recently attended the Photoshop 20th anniversary event and will never see the light of day on the app store. Doesn’t mean that I want it, I want it bad!

Check the video out after the break of Photoshop in action on an iPhone.

Photoshop On Your iPhone originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2010/02/21. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Vega Tablet With Android 2.0

Frank — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 21:57:00 +0000

With all the hype surrounding the “maybe possibily” release of the Apple tablet, other possible tablet like devices have been over shadowed. Take this uber sexy looking Innovative Converged Device called the Vega.

The Vega will be offered in 7, 11 and 15-inch models and will all run Android 2.0 software. The largest of the bunch will have a 15.6-inch resistive screen that supports a resolution of 1366 x 768, come with a Tegra processor, 512MB DDR DRAM, 802.11b/g Wi-Fi (no N), and Bluetooth 2.1. The built-in 512MB NAND Flash storage can be expanded via MicroSD cards. It’ll weigh about 45 ounces and have a battery life of around 4 hours.

Look for them to hit tier one cell phone carriers sometime in early 2010. No pricing is available on them yet, but the company does say that they intend to let them go for little cost, so it looks like the carriers might be subsidizing them.

Vega Tablet With Android 2.0 originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/11/13. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Drive A Car With Your iPhone, Again

Frank — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 13:25:06 +0000

A few weeks ago we showed you how some smart peeps got together to write some custom software and hardware to control a minivan via an iPhone. They did all of that for the Darpa Urban Challenge and all of it will probably never see the light of day. Now the guys over at Waterloo Labs have decided to jump into the whole “control a car with your iphone” thing with both feet and actually show us how they got their iPhone to control the steering, brakes and acceleration on a full size car.

I don’t suggest you actually go out and do this, especially not the surfing on the top of the car while controlling it with your iPhone. That could end up really bad for you. Check the video out of all the crazy action after the break.

Drive A Car With Your iPhone, Again originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/11/13. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

mPower Illuminator: A $250 Flashlight

Frank — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 06:59:06 +0000

You might be wondering why you would spend $250 on a flashlight, especially since you can pick up a cheap one at a dollar store for, well, a dollar. There are two reasons you would do so. One would be because you are filthy rich and really don’t care how much you spend and Two, hmmmm, well you decide for yourself.

The mPower Emergency Illuminator was designed by the Porsche Design Studio (so far not worth the $250).
It comes with what the company calls “groundbreaking battery technology”. The unit has dual battery barrel’s. One barrel holds you run-of-the-mill batteries and the other holds the “mPower Reserve Battery” that has a minimum shelf life of 20 years from activation. The user chooses when and where to active it. (still can’t see why I would pay $250)
A built in USB port for charging other gadgets (Maybe. Actually, nope. Still not worth it)

So as you can see, you’ll have to be filthy rich to justify this purchase, or just an idiot.

[Via DVICE]

mPower Illuminator: A $250 Flashlight originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/11/12. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

NCube: Portable Gamecube Goodness

Frank — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 06:46:38 +0000

I’ve seen my fair share of portable Gamecube systems, but this has got to be one of the slickest I have ever see.

Designed and hacked together by a Ben Heck apprentice, the NCube is a beautiful creation. The case is a seriously modded Datamax Kid’s Delight and the screen is an unmodded Zenith PSone display. The unit also has a 2-way switch so you can choose to run off batteries or AC, a memory card slot and a rear-mounted disc drive.

You can read up on the 90 hour journey to create this or just skip right down to the end of this article to see it in action.

[Link to NCube Design]

NCube: Portable Gamecube Goodness originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/11/12. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Snegenes-P

Frank — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 04:54:31 +0000

What the hell is the Snegenes-P you ask? Snes + Genesis + NES – Portable. If you’re the hardcore 8 or 16 bit gamer and refuse to use one of those fancy handheld emulators like the Gemei X760+, then why not build yourself one of these?

Modder Trstn18 smashed together components from all his favorite consoles into this custom see-through case so that you can see all of the messy goodness. Coming in at 8.6-inches wide, 5.4-inches tall and 1-inch thick, it’s not really portable in my opinion. Powered by 6 2600mAh batteries, this beast should get you somewhere between 5 to 7 hours of game play on a single charge. It also has composite video and stereo outputs so you can enjoy all of your 8-bit goodness on your TV.

As you can clearly see, the back of the unit is a bit of a mess. I’m not too sure how comfortable this thing will be when you hold it with a massive cartridge sticking out the back.

[Via Ben Heck Forums]

Snegenes-P originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/11/10. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Turn A Dead 360 Into A PC

Frank — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 04:45:55 +0000

Got a dead 360 laying around that you can’t fix? Turn that sexy piece of hardware into a fully functional PC. The guys over at Hack N Mod have posted a detailed mod which converts a 360 console into a fully functional PC. Best of all, no red ring of death on this one. Check out the video after the break.

The main challenge with an Xbox to PC mod is fitting everything inside the cramped space of an Xbox 360. The CPU and the power supply have different sizes and line up differently. Innovation is the name of the game as electric0ant shows through careful planning and his project illustrations. Check out a few below. The complete step by step is given on his project page.

Now if only someone could cram a fully functional quad core into an altoids tin, that would be awesome.

[Link to Resurrect a Dead XBox 360 into a PC]

Turn A Dead 360 Into A PC originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/11/07. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

A Cell Phone For Grama

Frank — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 06:07:55 +0000

With the massive amount of multi-function “smart” phones out there people tend to loose the focus of what cell phones actually are; phones.

My mother couldn’t care less if her phone plays mp3′s or if it’s got a twitter client. All she wants is a phone and a super easy one to boot. As she starts to approach her twilight years (still love you mom), this generic brand mobile phone with oversize butons with a screen that can be read from across the room might just be perfect for her.

The oginal idea was to design a phone for seniors who aren’t very tech savvy, but you can also use it if all you want is a really simple cell phone.

The 6380 Senior Mobile Phone does actually carry a few handy features, including a flashlight, a massive “SOS” button on the back the can auto dial a pre-set number and emit a loud warning tone (if you think pocket dialing people is bad, just imagine this in your pocket), a phone book, SMS messaging, a calendar, alarm clock and an FM radio. The display is kept to a bare minimum with a massive font and, ready for this, a whopping 128×60 screen resolution.

The 6380 only works in the 900/1800 GSM bands, so it will work everywhere except for North America (sorry mom). If it’ll work on your home network, expect to pay $74.99 for one.

[Link to 6380 Seniors Mobile]

A Cell Phone For Grama originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/11/06. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Hacker Hacks Jailbroken iPhone

Frank — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 04:55:51 +0000

We all know the dangers of running a jailbroken iPhone. No tech support, the wrath of your carrier, and simple exploits as demonstrated by Dutch hacker. With a little bit of port scanning to find jailbroken iPhones with SSH running he sent users a message that read “Your iPhone’s been hacked because it’s really insecure! Please visit doiop.com/iHacked and secure your iPhone right now! Right now, I can access all your files.”

The URL directs people to Paypal and requests €5 in exchange for instructions that explains how to remove the hack. How did the Dutch hacker get in? All jailbroken iPhones have a default root password, if you forget to change it your left wide open to this kind of attack.

This is more of an annoying attack than anything else. With root access to the phone a lot more could have been done. Remember, if you jailbreak your phone, for the love of God, change the root password.

Hacker Hacks Jailbroken iPhone originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/11/05. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Fuel Cell Charger

Frank — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 05:25:28 +0000

We have all heard about how fuel cell technology will revolutionize the world of power since they are instantly recharged with a small shot of methanol. Toshiba finally releases a practical fuel cell charger for real world geek use; a gadget charger.

Toshiab’s Dynario charger uses as little as 50 ml of methanol to recharge itself in about 20 seconds. This really is the first stab for them at consumer commercial fuel cell chargers and they have only created 3000 units that they plan to sell for $328, plus another $34 for 5 cartridges.

This is still a far cry from being affordable for common use, but it is a first step in easing power issues for all of us geeks.

[Link to Toshiba's Dynario]

Fuel Cell Charger originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/11/04. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

iPhone Safari Bug Could Cost You Cash

Frank — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 03:25:23 +0000

Here’s one thing you don’t hear of too often, a serious bug in Apple’s iPhone version of Safari that could end up cost you, the user, some serious cash.

Although it’s not a very common bug but thanks to someone who probably spend countless hours trying to poke a hole in Apple’s mobile device, all iPhone users might avoid being hit with extra operator costs.

Estonian Apple site AppleSpot discovered the bug in question. If an iPhone user visits a site which uses Motion-JPEG (usually found on websites that show live feeds of web cams) in Safari, Safari will continue to use up bandwidth even after it’s closed. Safari is one of the few apps on the iPhone that is allowed to run in the background. So let’s say you have a web page up that uses Motion-JPEG streams and even if that site is in another tab or worse yet, Safari has been closed, the stream will continue and if your on a mobile carriers network then bandwidth will continue to rack up.

Now just imagine you were traveling outside your home country where you would be nailed with international data roaming charges and you decided to visit that ~~sexy nurse pay live stream~~ nature wildlife live cam, you could easily rack up some serious charges. The guys at AppleSpot have claimed to rack up over 740 MB in silently streamed bandwidth in one hour of testing. That would cost something like $3,000 in international roaming charges. Yikes!

[Link to AppleSpot]

iPhone Safari Bug Could Cost You Cash originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/11/03. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

In Case You Missed It: Week 43 Round Up

Frank — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 13:35:51 +0000

In case you missed anything last week; we have everything from Metallica on your iPhone right through to a $1200 Mouse. Enjoy

Gadgets

Remote Controlled Tissue Box
Electronic Guitar Shirt
Sucker Alert: $1200 Mouse
Sucker Alert: Wattgate 381 “Audio Grade” Socket

Gaming

Nokia Kills The N-Gage – Are You Shocked?
Nintendo DSi Get’s Bigger
Quickdev16: SNES Developers Cart
Soccer Hero

Hacking and Security

Use Your iPhone To Control Your Car
Mr. Wake – The Uncatchable Alarm Clock
Crush Your Cans With Electricity
3D Video With One Camera
DIY: Tesla “Spooky Spirit” Radio
Phaser Boasts 300mW Laser
iPhone App To Crack Combination Locks

Mac

Tap Tap Revenge Metallica For The iPhone

Tech News

XBMC on ARM
Install 59 Apps Quickly And Easily
Water Drops At 2000 FPS

In Case You Missed It: Week 43 Round Up originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/11/01. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Use Your iPhone To Control Your Car

Frank — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 02:11:47 +0000

You knew it was bound to happen. With the iPhone already having apps to control everything from your iTunes to a remote computer you knew that someone would come up with an app to control a car.

The Spirit of Berlin team have developed an iPhone app that remotely controls a minivan. They developed the app for the 2007 Darpa Urban Challenge, so the likelihood of you getting the app from the app store is slim to none.

The iPhone connects with the driving circuitry via WiFi and offers a button for gas and brake as well as a wheel to turn the vehicle. The camera mounted on the front of the minivan transmits video to the iPhone in real-time.

In the video below you can see the operator in the camera’s view on the iPhone. It seems that the top speed of the van is limited (thank God!). This is every big kids dream, a real live RC of an actual car, problem is that this can be extremely dangerous. Plus, WiFi? I hope that their is some sort of kill switch if the van goes out of range or else there can be some serious consequences. Check out the video after the break.

[Link to iPhone RC]

Use Your iPhone To Control Your Car originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/10/31. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Tap Tap Revenge Metallica For The iPhone

Frank — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 04:29:07 +0000

So I went to the Metallica concert the other night here in Toronto (it’s my 15th time seeing them live. Yes, if you are asking, I am a fan!) and decided that maybe I was having an early mid-life crisis and wanted to walk down the path of my early life as a dedicated hardcore Metallica fan. As a dedicated fan I scoured the band’s website to catch up on the happenings with the metal legends and stumbled upon their iPhone app, TapTap Revenge: Metallica.

Tapulous, the company famous for it’s addictive line of TapTap games has worked with the band to release a Metallica themed version of it’s TapTap Revenge games aptly called: TapTap Revenge: Metallica. The dedicated version of the game allows users to poke through 10 tracks of some of the bands most famous songs like “Enter Sandman” and “One”.

The game gives you the option to play in a fast-paced arcade mode where you are challenged with bombs and other objects. Career Mode allows you to work your way through the track list and there is even a Bluetooth battle mode that allows you to challenge other players via Bluetooth.

I’ll be honest, if your not a hardcore Metallica fan you might not enjoy this, but if you consider yourself a member of the Metal Militia then what are you waiting for? It’s only $4.99, it’s worth it if not for the music alone.

[Link to TapTap Revenge: Metallica]

Tap Tap Revenge Metallica For The iPhone originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/10/29. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Quickdev16: SNES Developers Cart

Frank — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 05:25:43 +0000

If you are a true hardcore 16bit gaming geek and have always wanted to whip up your own homebrew games then you might be interested in the Quickdev 16. The unit is a cartridge for the Super Nintendo system that comes with everything you will need to develop for the platform, including the Atmel AVR Atmega644 with boot loader, USB connection for putting your code on the cart, 16 megs of SRAM, and an RS232 converter for a debug terminal. It’s available for Windows, Linux and the Mac.

Homebrew for the SNES was quite rare back in the hay day of the system so if you think that spending all your time coding for the same system 20 years later will bring you anything more than some geek cred then you are sadly mistaken. On the other hand, if your a hardcore emulator playing monkey, then whipping up your own game for the SNES platform might be fun!. For $120 I’m not sure if the cost justifies all that fun.

[Link to Quickdev16]

Quickdev16: SNES Developers Cart originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/10/27. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Phaser Boasts 300mW Laser

Frank — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 04:15:23 +0000

Since you can’t walk into to your favorite weapons store and pick up a phaser just yet, hacker Luke decided to build his own. He picked up a toy phaser from Amazon for about $20 ripped out the internals only choosing to reuse the trigger, top switch and battery pack.

The phaser contains two laser diodes which were pulled from a 6x BD-R burner. I sure hope that the burner was broken since purchasing a unit just for the sake of pulling the diodes out to put in a toy gun is very expensive. The two diodes are mounted on a swiveling carriage which can be turned 180 degrees to switch between the diodes. A boost driver is used to bump up the 3v that the batteries provide to 7v to drive the diodes.

Although you won’t be killing Kingons with this unit it does make one cool looking toy. Remember, don’t go firing it in peoples eyes, that will hurt. Check out the video after the break.

Phaser Boasts 300mW Laser originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/10/26. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Asus Keyboard PC

Frank — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 04:14:53 +0000

The long awaited modern day Commodore 64 look-a-like is delayed once again. The Asus Eee Keyboard PC is a self contained pc inside of a keyboard. Remember the old Commodore 64, 128 and Amiga 500? Well this is essentially that with modern day hardware and options.

One of the reasons Asus held back the release of the Eee Keyboard PC was to further develop it with 720p/1080p HD output. This cool gadget will turn out to be the perfect Home Theater PC. I only hope you can cram a pci card in there so you can add your own DVB-T or DVB-S video capture card.

With still no official announcement as to when you will be able to pick up your very own Eee Keyboard PC here at the very least is a taste of the unit in action.

Asus Keyboard PC originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/10/22. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

B&N Nook Officially Released

Frank — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 03:30:16 +0000

Barnes and Noble today officially revealed today their e-book reader, the Nook. So what does it have to offer? It measures 7.7 x 4.9 x 0.5 inches and it weighs only 11.2 ounces. It comes with two screens, a 6-inch grayscale e-in display and a 3.5-inch colour touchscreen that sits just under the main screen. It’s got 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi connectivity as well as AT&T 3G support. It comes with 2GB of internal storage (that doesn’t sound like a lot, but in reality that should hold about 1500 ebooks), microSD card support for additional storage, what they claim is a battery that only takes 3.5 hours to charge and will give you 10 days of usage, headphone jack, USB connectivity and MP3 player support.

Not only does the Nook let you read your favorite books but it also lets you take notes, highlight passages, listen to music, and create your own screen savers. They will also offer e-book lending and free Wi-Fi when your inside a Barnes and Noble store.

All of this sounds like a Kindle killer but there is one small problem. Not only do we not have Barnes and Noble stores here in Canada, it doesn’t look like the device which can now be pre-ordered for $259 will be offered to us Canadians. Looks like i’ll have to make a trip into Buffalo to pick mine up once they hit store shelves.

[Link to Nook.com]

B&N Nook Officially Released originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/10/20. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Open Source DS Bluetooth Adapter

Frank — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 02:58:31 +0000

Gordan Savicic and Gottfried Haider of DSbrut have just released their open source bluetooth adapter for the Nintendo DS. The adapter will allow the DS to interface to other bluetooth devices like GPS units and keyboards. This should really open up the homebrew scene.

Almost two years in the making, we’re happy to finally release our DS Bluetooth adapter. The tiny Slot-1 cartridge allows you to hook up the Nintendo DS wirelessly with other devices such as GPS-receivers, robots and so forth. Today we’re making all materials of the project openly available, including the schematics and a GPL-licensed software library for the Nintendo DS, because we believe in open hardware design and want to encourage collaboration in the hardware hacking community.
In our design, we use a tiny ATmega168 microcontroller to make the Nintendo DS speak to the RN-41 Bluetooth SMD module by Roving Networks. Using this piece of hardware the Nintendo DS can scan its neighbourhood and establish connections to other Bluetooth devices (supporting SPP). The module can also be remotely connected to, allowing for a range of interesting applications. We also developed a software library for the Nintendo DS, making it easy to use this new Bluetooth interface.

[Link to Open Source Bluetooth DS Adapter]

Open Source DS Bluetooth Adapter originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/10/20. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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PS3 Laptop

Frank — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 03:25:09 +0000

Our favorite gaming console modder, Ben Heck, is back at it again. We have already seen his Xbox 360 Elite Laptop mod and more recently his NES Cartridge mod and now his brings us this super sexy PS3 Laptop mod.

As light or as small as a netbook it is not but it’s still impressive how he managed to integrate a 17-inch HD display into the whole thing. Ben says that he could have made it smaller but wanted to use as large a screen as possible while still making it portable. Check out the video of the PS3 Laptop below.

PS3 Laptop originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/10/19. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Hard Drive Lock Pick

Frank — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 07:06:03 +0000

If your like me then you also have a huge pile of hard drives sitting in the corner. You know, the drives you really should through out but your waiting to build your massive multiple terabyte raid array with a whole bunch of 20 gig drives. Well, why not put one of the hard drives to use as a lock picking device? Yes, you heard me right, a LOCK PICKING DEVICE.

The Spanish guys over at sorgonet.com have done just that. By taking an old hard drive, an old mouse, a power supply and some screw drivers they built an impressive, yet odd looking, lock picking device. Take a look at the video after the break to see just how fast this thing works.

Lock picking has become a very addictive sport over the years, but remember it’s just a sport. Don’t build one of these things and use it for no good. Plus, I’m sure you’ll get some weird looks walking down the street carrying one of these.

[Link to translated How To Build A Hard Drive Lock Pick]

Hard Drive Lock Pick originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/10/18. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Sega Gen Mobile

Frank — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 05:36:30 +0000

Do you remember the Nomad? Sega’s first attempt at a portable gaming device that allowed you to play Sega Genesis games? No? Let me refresh your memory. It was big, bulky, had terrible battery life and cost almost $200 and that was 10 years ago.

In today’s world you can pick up the Genmobile for under $60. It isn’t made by Sega but the AtGames Gen Mobile is fully licensed. As well as playing classic Genesis and Mega Drive cartridges, the Gen Mobile comes with 20 built in games including Sonic Spinball, Golden Axe and Altered Beast. It also has TV out so you can play all of these classics on your TV.

If your not into the tiny 2.5-inch screen you can also grab the Gen Core. It’s by far the smallest complete Genesis system ever.

You can head on over to Stone Age Gamer and pick up the Gen Mobile for $54.90 or the Gen Core for $39.99. If you want to expand your 8/16 bit game horizons why not look at the Gemie X760+.

Sega Gen Mobile originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/10/17. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Jailbreak Resistant iPhone

Frank — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 05:15:12 +0000

Reports are flying around the internets that Apple is now shipping iPhones with a new bootrom that is resistant to the 24kpwn exploit that was used by the iPhone Dev-Team to jailbreak the iPhone. To be really honest with you I’m surprised it took Apple this long.

MuscleNerd, who is a Dev-Team member, has confirmed that the latest bootrom, iBoot-359.3.2 makes jailbreaking the iPhone impossible for the time being. People thought that the original iPhone would never be jailbroken when it was released too.

There has always been a cat and mouse game between manufactures and hackers. Take Nagravision, the company who creates the client access cards for the parent company of Dish Networks, Echostar. Hackers and Nagravision has been playing this game for years. A new encryption is release and shortly (some times not so shortly) there-after the encryption is broken. I’m sure it will only take some time and some crafty hacker will find another exploit that can be used to jailbreak the iPhone.

Jailbreak Resistant iPhone originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/10/17. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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DIY: Front Door Opener

Frank — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 04:39:41 +0000

Ever wish you could open your front door the same way you open your car door? With a small key fob? This crafty (maybe even lazy) college student did just that.

We are talking some serious ass hardware hacking required to pull this off, but it’s one fun project to build, maybe not the nicest looking, but cool never-the-less. As you can see from the video it works well. I just wonder how safe this is. I use to have a car with a key fob that opened a neighbors garage. It was funny as hell. I’d lock my car and his door would open, i’d unlock it and his door would close.

[Link to Add a key fob to your door]

DIY: Front Door Opener originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/10/16. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Unlock Your Car With Your iPhone

Frank — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 03:22:56 +0000

Car alarm company Viper (which is owned by Directed Electronics) is unveiling a new app for iPhone users that will let customers control certain aspects of their Viper SmartStart-enabled vehicle from their iPhone or iPod Touch.

The app, which is called Viper SmartStart, acts as a virtual keychain which can do things like lock/unlock your car, open then trunk, enable the alarm or start your car. The app uses the iPhone’s data connection which allows you to control your car from anywhere you have a 3G or EDGE connection.

The only problem I have with this app is what do you do when your somewhere that doesn’t give you 3G or EDGE service like an underground garage? If you can deal with that then you can pick up the app for free. As for the SmartStart module for your car, well that’s gonna run you $499 for a new install or $299 for users who already have a Viper alarm system installed. You will also have to pay for a subscription to Viper’s SmartStart service.

Sounds like too costly for nothing more than a glorified key fob. I’ll keep the little box on my keychain and save the loads of cash.

Unlock Your Car With Your iPhone originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/10/13. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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NES Cartrige Casemod

Frank — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 04:30:16 +0000

What better to jam inside of an old NES game cartridge than, well, an NES. Okay so it’s not really an NES in there it’s an emulator but this mod does use the original buttons, plays NES and gameboy games, has an mp3 player, movie player, an FM radio reciever and best of all, the video out still works so you can hook it up and play on the big screen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJXPfznWLPU&feature=player_embedded

This is just one of the dozens of NES casemods we have featured here on tech.nocr.at but this is definitely one of the cooler ones we have seen.

[Link to NES Casemod]

NES Cartrige Casemod originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/10/13. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Hack A Master Lock

Frank — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 04:35:36 +0000

We all remember those Masterlock pad locks we had in high school. Some of us even remember trying to figure out how to get the combination for them. Some people would try everything from listening carefully to clicks right to pulling hard on it while spinning the tumbler hoping to feel a click.

Now mathematically we know that their are 64,000 possible combinations but what I didn’t know is by using this simple formula above (go ahead and click on it to take a closer look) you can drop that number to 100 or less. I agree it’s not the stuff that most professional lock picks have but it sure beats trying all 64,000 possibilities.

Hack A Master Lock originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/10/08. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

DIY Image Stabilizer

Frank — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 05:03:59 +0000

A crafty Instructables users has figured out that by using a pair of spining hard drives you can create the same gyroscopic effect that the pros use to keep their cameras nice and steady. A camera stabilizer is perfect for taking those steady shots when your conditions might be less than favorable for doing so, like driving in a car or running (think paparazzi).

Although I wouldn’t say this is a beginners project, it’s not too hard to pull off and your materials list can probably already be found around your house.

Needed: 2 discarded harddisks (HDs)
Some old discarded computer, or parts
The part in the old computer which holds floppies en HDs at a 90 degree angle…
A wooden box or plywood etc..
A hand grip
One or two strips of aluminum
A camera screw
3 or 4 car USB phone chargers
A 12 V power source (lead acid cell, a discarded NiCd cell, or (rechargeable) batteries)
Some rubber washers and a piece of inner tire
Contact glue

A little bit of soldering experience, some free time and $50 in parts you too can build yourself this image stabilizer. Just remember, if you plan a career change and decide to become a paparazzi, everyone else around you will give you some weird looks if you run around with this thing.

[Link to Gyro Image Stabilizer]

DIY Image Stabilizer originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/10/07. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Mini Lighter Cufflinks

Frank — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 04:21:23 +0000

Seriously, you’d have to be a cast member of the TV Show Madmen to be able to pull off something like these mini lighter cufflinks. Seriously, who smokes any more (besides me. I know I know). Not even the modern day super spy would want to be caught with these things, they’d opt for the mini laser cufflinks.

If you still think that walking around with something attached to your very flammable shirt that can easily catch fire since it carries flammable fluid inside, then you can head over to Etsy and pick them up for $40 off of YougNeek.

Mini Lighter Cufflinks originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/10/07. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

iPhone Coming To Telus, A CDMA Carrier

Frank — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 13:45:24 +0000

Looks like Apple and Telus will break the exclusivity bond here in Canada as Telus is now reporting that they will be offering the iPhone 3G S here in Canada in November.

Funny thing about all of this is that Telus is a CDMA carrier. Could this signal the end to the GSM only iPhone? Could people in the US possibly see the iPhone on other carriers like Verison as well?

Pricing and availability still haven’t been posted, but as soon as we know more details we will pass them on.

Vancouver, B.C. – TELUS and Apple have reached an agreement to bring iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS to Canada this November.
Additional information about pricing and availability will be shared in the coming weeks.
Customers can sign up for more information and updates at telusmobility.com/iphone.

More information on this can be found at telusmobility.com/iphone

iPhone Coming To Telus, A CDMA Carrier originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/10/06. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

NirLauncher – The Ultimate Thumb Drive Toolkit

Frank — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 20:12:28 +0000

For those of you who love to carry with you everything you might ever need to fix a friends system NirLauncher is the right product for you.

You get over a 100 utilities included right out of the pop and it even gives you the ability to tweak it and add more. You can easily build one killer flash drive with everything you might ever need to fix (or dare we say it, sniff) someone else’s machine. If you more into the later of that bracketed comment you might be better off picking up the awesome security based distro Back Track.

NirLauncher is 100% free and is for Windows only.

NirLauncher – The Ultimate Thumb Drive Toolkit originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/10/05. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

$150,000 In Amazon Fiasco

Frank — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 04:32:25 +0000

We have all heard of the fiasco Amazon caused when they took it upon themselves to reach into peoples Kindle and delete books. Well it has finally come around to bite them in the ass. When Amazon decided to wipe purchased copies of 1984 from peoples devices they also took a kids homework with them.

What did this kid do about it? Naturally what anyone who has grown up in the age of the internets, sue Amazon. Although Amazon has decided to settle out of court it ended up paying out $150,000 to make this go away, by far the most expensive homework assignment ever.

That’s not all. To top it all off and to really seal this deal as a win for the little guy, Amazon will not be allowed to do anything similar again. Here’s what the statement says:

Amazon will not remotely delete or modify such Works from Devices purchased and being used in the United States unless (a) the user consents to such deletion or modification; (b) the user requests a refund for the Work or otherwise fails to pay for the Work (e.g., if a credit or debit card issuer declines to remit payment); (c) a judicial or regulatory order requires such deletion or modification; or (d) deletion or modification is reasonably necessary to protect the consumer or the operation of a Device or network through which the Device communicates (e.g., to remove harmful code embedded within a copy of a Work downloaded to a Device).

Good on them. This should teach some of the other massive companies out there that they can’t just do what they want when they want.

$150,000 In Amazon Fiasco originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/10/03. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

VMWare Fusion 2.06

Frank — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 03:53:56 +0000

VMware rolled out another update today to their uber popular virtualization software for the mac, Fusion. The update, which was officially released yesterday, includes multiple fixes for running Fusion in a 32-bit Snow Leopard environment. Besides the usually assortment of bug fixes the release also includes enhancements for better 3D performance on Macs with Nvidia cards who run Snow Leopard.

Registered Fusion users can grab the hefty 289 MB update here. Users should note that VMWare Tools on the guest OS doesn’t upgrade automatically when you install the update. You will have to install the tools for the menu bar manually.

VMWare Fusion 2.06 originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/10/02. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Linux Distros That Don’t Suck

Frank — Fri, 15 May 2009 20:44:43 +0000

I, much like every other hardcore geek on the face of the earth, have multiple linux based distro iso’s laying around. Some of them are for testing and some of them contain tools that I use on a daily basis. I have had many people email me about the best distro out there. The only answer I have for them is “depends on what you want to do”. I have spent sometime working on a list of Linux distros and what they are good for.

Now, before I start. Discussion distro’s with people is like discussion religion. Everyone has one and everyone feels something different towards other people who aren’t of the same faith. I just want to remind everyone that this list is just what I see, and how I feel about each distro. It’s definitely not a “what’s right and what’s wrong” type of list. Enjoy.

Knoppix – The one that started it all. Knoppix was the first major LiveCD based distro to hot the scene and open up a whole new world of bootable operating systems. This is probably the best known and most complete LiveCD distro out there. It contains everything you need to act as a full production replacement system. Word Processing, graphics editors, media players, browers, mail clients. You name is, Knoppix has it.

SystemRescueCD – This one I keep with me all the time. SystemRescueCD is a massive collection of tools to help you get out of a bind. It aims to provide an easy way to carry out admin tasks on your computer, such as creating and editing the partitions of the hard disk. It contains a lot of system tools (parted, partimage, fstools, …) and basic tools (editors, midnight commander, network tools). It is very easy to use. Plus, it can also be booted via a USB flash drive. A must for anyone’s collection.

Dynabolic – Billed as a complete media distro, dyne:bolic is shaped on the needs of media activists, artists and creatives as a practical tool for multimedia production: you can manipulate and broadcast both sound and video with tools to record, edit, encode and stream, having automatically recognized most device and peripherals: audio, video, TV, network cards, firewire, usb and more; all using only free software!. Just boot off the CD and your ready to go.

BackTrack – The king of all penetration testing and security distros. If you’re worried about security or exploits then this is the one for you. With more than 300 different up-to-date tools which are logically structured according to the work flow of security professionals. This structure allows even newcomers to find the related tools to a certain task to be accomplished. New technologies and testing techniques are merged into BackTrack as soon as possible to keep it up-to-date.

NimbleX – This is one of my favorite all around LiveCD based distros. It’s full featured but a lot smaller than something like Knoppix. With everything you need to act as a Desktop replacement in a 200 MB CD image, what more can you ask for.

Gentoo – The hardcore Linux distro. What makes Gentoo unique compared to other distros is the need to manually compile every part of the OS. I know that their are gui installers now and pre built packages for the mindless, but having the ability to tweak and optimize every aspect of the OS will not only give you a stable system, but one hell of a quick one too. Mind you, all of this compilation could easily take you days before you have a base system, especially when you make Xorg and a windows manager like KDE or gnome.

Debian – My day to day OS. Debian is one of the oldest and most stable distros around. The core to a bunch of other distros like Knoppix and Ubuntu. If your looking for something that will give you no headaches and carries a very stable branch of applications, Debian is the distro for you.

Ubuntu – Ubuntu is Debian to the next level. It’s a fork of Debian that has quickly become the most popular Linux distro in the world. It’s easy to install, easy to use, and is probably the best Windows replacement OS that is Linux based. Ubuntu’s software repository contains applications that are more recent than say Debian, but the down side to that is the fine edge you walk on when it comes to stability.

Fedora – The big boy on the block, and by big boy I don’t mean popularity, I mean in size. Fedora comes chalked with what seems like every application ever made. Although to some this might be nothing more than bloat, to others it’s a full and complete experience. Install Fedora and you pretty much have every open source application that is useful at your finger tips. If you have never experienced Linux before this is a great distro to get your feet wet with.

I know there are other great distro’s like Slackware, DSL, and OpenSUSE, this list is just a collection of distro’s that I find useful or that I have had experience with. Feel free to add your recommendations in the comments.

Linux Distros That Don’t Suck originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/05/15. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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GFI Backup – Free Backup Software

Frank — Fri, 15 May 2009 04:31:56 +0000

We all know we should do it. We have all said it enough times. Backup backup and backup. There is no better way to ensure that all of your pictures or documents will carry on if you don’t back them up. Well you really have no excuse now do you.

GFI Software just launched a free backup and recovery client for home users. The app gives PC users a few different options to safe guard your data like synching it with a remote location via FTP. Most other backup software uses propirtary compression algorithms which forces you to use their software to restore a backup. Not with GFI Backup Home Edition, it uses the uber popular zip format to store backups.

Give it a whirl, what’s the worst that can happen, you don’t like it?

[Link to GFI Backup Home Edition]

GFI Backup – Free Backup Software originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/05/15. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Pedal Powered USB

Frank — Thu, 14 May 2009 12:23:25 +0000

Most people who own gadgets that are USB powered have a billion different charging cables. A USB cable to use with your computer, a few wall warts to change your stuff at home or at the office, a car USB charger, hell, some of us even have battery powered altoid tins to charge our iPod’s and Cell Phone’s. What about the poor folk who ride their bikes everywhere they go? Do we have something for you.

Now you can build this not so easy and somewhat complicated device that will charge your gadgets as you pedal around town. Originally created by a group of guys using a grant from MIT. The device, which was originally planned to charge your mp3 player as you run ended up evolving into a bicycle based charger.

If you want to attempt this yourself, you’ll need about $275 and some advanced knowledge of electronics. Although this project isn’t for the faint of heart, if you ride a bike all the time you can charge everything you have on you. Plus, it’s super green and allows you to do your part to help mother nature.

Pedal Powered USB originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/05/14. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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The Retro Mini

Frank — Thu, 14 May 2009 04:56:54 +0000

Got $49.99 burning a hole in your pocket? If so then you can spend it on the Retro Mini. Running off 4 AA batteries, the Retro Mini gives you an outstanding 8 hours of NES goodness. You can pick up old NES cartridges for pennies a pop these days so why not relive your childhood with this portable unit.

NES gaming on the go, the cartridge is bigger than the unit, but at the very least you can have some fun on the bus play Punch Out.

If you have your heart set on 8 bit gaming goodness, you can stop by ThinkGeek and pick yourself up one.

The Retro Mini originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/05/14. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

UPDATE – Beatles Make It Into Rock Band

Ryan Yewell — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 19:35:40 +0000

At the time of this post, further details were yet to be announced, but it appears official, Viacom and MTV Networks (owners of “Rock Band”) have licensed Beatle songs for their Rock Band game.

This is a pretty big deal, since even major players like iTunes don’t even have Beatle songs yet. In fact, no subscription/download service has landed the Beatles yet, so this is a first. I’d say this is just another sign that gaming is becoming a big deal.

Rock Band and Guitar Hero are currently battling it out in your living room and on your entertainment consoles, so this could help cement Rock Band as the winner, we’ll just have to wait and see.

As mentioned, I’ll have more details later today on as many of the specifics as I can (i.e. what songs, if they will be downloadable, or a stand-alone disc, etc.) At that time there should be official press releases from both MTV and the Beatles record label.

UPDATE: As promised, here are some more details on the Beatles Rock Band deal.

First and foremost (and maybe obvious), this project has the full blessing of, and input from, surviving members Ringo Star and Paul McCartney, as well as from Yoko Ono (on behalf of John Lennon) and Olivia Harrison (on behalf of George Harrison). Hopefully that means great vibes/design all around for when you’re playing Beatles music on your plastic instruments in front of your TV.

Also, the Beatles music will be in a stand-alone game (not via downloadable content, at least not for now) and most likely won’t be in your hands until sometime late 2009 (i.e. just in time the holiday season, surprised?)

The official press release states “the game will be an unprecedented, experiential progression through and celebration of the music and artistry of The Beatles”.

So, it appears the game will span the entire Beatles legacy, taking select songs from start to finish. As a bit of a side note, it looks like the music created by the members of the Beatles when they went into their solo careers will not be in the game, so no “Imagine” for us… At least not this time around. For those keeping score, the Beatles disbanded in 1970… Wow, nearly 40 years ago.

With all the hype, and legacy, that is the Beatles, I really hope Harmonix makes something at least borderline bleeding edge, because just slapping a coat of paint that is the Beatles onto a game design that is a few years old won’t do this project justice. We’ll all just have to wait to see how it turns out.

UPDATE – Beatles Make It Into Rock Band originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/10/31. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Homebrew Channel Back Up And Running

Frank — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 02:25:03 +0000

The Homebrew Channel, which broke when Nintendo rolled out an update on October 23rd, is back up and running and better than ever. Not only did the crafty guys mange to subvert Nintendo’s efforts to put them out of business, they managed to squeeze in memory card and SDHC support too.

You can grab the updated firmware here and install it via these easy instructions:

Instructions: Simply load one file, then the other. It does not matter in which order you load them. Use any method. If using tona’s build, simply run the single included DOL to install. You will need to create the meta.xml and icon.png files if you choose a build other than Matthew_8’s Homebrew Channel friendly package.

[Link to the Homebrew Channel]

Homebrew Channel Back Up And Running originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/10/27. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

iPhone 3G Baseband Almost Cracked

Frank — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 02:16:32 +0000

In true iPhone-Dev Team fashion, the iPhone 3G baseband has almost been cracked. What does this mean to the average user? Carrier independence. Cracking the baseband allows for hacked code to run at the telecomm level. This is exactly how the iPhone-Dev team brought freedom to the first-gen iPhone last year.

Sadly you still have to sign up for an AT&T contact on site before you can get your hands on the 2nd-gen iPhone, but with the ability of “ulocking” available, it shouldn’t be too long before we see used iPhones making their way onto Ebay.

[Link to iPhone-Dev Team]

iPhone 3G Baseband Almost Cracked originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/10/27. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Margarator – Make Margaritas In Your Car

Frank — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 17:15:47 +0000

How many times you been cruising down the road when the craving for a nice tasty cold Margarita? I know I never have, but if I ever did the Margarator MSB-585 would come to save the day.

The blender was clearly created for on-the-go drinkers. IMHO, drinking and driving is a really bad idea. Making a drink while your driving in an even worse idea, but this 12V cigarette lighter powered blender could come in handy while your on a camping trip. Just don’t even get pulled over by the cops with one of these in your front seat plugged in, you’ll be in for a big surprise.

You can pick up your own Margarator for $110 from BarWare

Margarator – Make Margaritas In Your Car originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/10/25. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Is Your Printer Spying On You?

Frank — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 01:21:26 +0000

Seems that all of those forensic based TV shows were right all along, police can track the make, model, and serial number of a printer just by looking at a piece of paper that came from that printer. Scary stuff. Good to know that the guys at the EFF are actually trying to do something about this.

You can help the project by sending in prints from your printer. The larger their collection, the larger the possibility of them cracking the code. You can visit the EFF’s printer dot project here

Is Your Printer Spying On You? originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/10/23. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Evo “Smart Colsole” Is Linux Based

Frank — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 01:08:55 +0000

When was the last time you say a gaming console released that didn’t come from one of the big three? A while a bet. So you might be happy to know that Envizions Computer Entertainment will be releasing the Evo “Smart Console”. The interesting spin on this new console is that it’s nothing more than a Linux-based computer. It’s not a new concept, Linux has been powering many desktop products from your WiFi router to your Tivo, but gaming?

The unit includes an overclocked Athlon 64×2 5600 processor and an ATI Radeon 3200 graphics card. Development will be geared specifically to the Evo unit so no built in MAME emulator or anything of that nature, but this does open up the world of Linux gaming development.

The new console is set to ship on November 20th with a hefty price tag of $600

Evo “Smart Colsole” Is Linux Based originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/10/23. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Wirelessly Eavesdropping On Keyboards

Frank — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 04:02:19 +0000

Seems that every time you press a key on your keyboard a small burst of electromagnetic radiation is let out. So what you say? What if I told you that the radiation can be captured and decoded. Yes, some crafty hacker can sit near quietly and capture your key strokes without every touching or installing software on your machine.

11 different keyboards were tested and they were are vulnerable to at least one of the four different methods of attack. Tests have also shown that the data can be captured through walls and up to 65 feet away. It’s scary to think that someone could be be in the apartment beside you and logging everything you do without any type of attack. Think of it as a hack right out of the box.

They don’t list what keyboard are affect as they are finishing their paper on it, but as soon as get more info we will pass it on.

Wirelessly Eavesdropping On Keyboards originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/10/21. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Is Your Cell Phone Safe From Hackers?

Frank — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 05:52:10 +0000

Looks like we are being told to be afraid of hackers again, this time they are going after our cellphones.

Security experts at Georgia Tech are telling us that hackers could soon turn their attention toward creating botnets out of our cellphones. With more and more smartphones making their way into consumers hands and with every generation of phone becoming more powerful it’s a serious possibility.

These botnets could be used to send spam or other malicious attacks. A user could go out searching for ringtones for their phone only to download something with a nasty payload that could take your phone and turn it into a zombie. Now before people start panicking, this is all speculative at this point, but quite possible. Remember that most cell companies have yet to plug the hole in the bluetooth stack that leaves your phone vulnerable to a snarfing attack.

It’s a scary though to have millions of infected phones that are almost always on and just waiting for a command. I wonder what a DDOS attack vie edge or 3g would do.

Is Your Cell Phone Safe From Hackers? originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/10/16. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

USB Monitor

Frank — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 02:46:51 +0000

This monitor is small. I mean really small. It measures 77mm x 127mm x 17mm, with a 4.3 inch backlit WVGA (800 x 480) display. So what is so special about a tiny monitor anyways? We see them all the time in our gadgets and in our cars. This tiny unit is 100% USB powered. That’s right, no power cables, no VGA cables, just a single USB cable does it all.

The idea is not to have this act as your main monitor (although I guess you could if you were using something like an NSLU2) but to use it to house a chat window or a widget so that it doesn’t get in the way of what you are working on. For $200 you get the unit with a built in kickstand to keep it upright. Yeah I know, $200 is a tad expensive, but if you don’t want to deal with all of the extra cords then you will have to pay the price.

[Link to USB Monitor]

USB Monitor originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/10/13. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Baffle WiFi Leeches With An Upside-Down-Ternet

Frank — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 02:11:29 +0000

Have you ever had someone leach off your Wi Fi? You could always encrypt it or use any multitude of tricks to hide your network, but why would you do that when you can have some serious fun with them. Blur their images, or flip them upside down to get them really scratching their heads.

Essentially what you need to split up your net block so that you have a trusted block and an untrusted one. That coupled along with a few snippets of code will lead you to a wealth of possibilities. Imagine all the fun you could have with those neighbors who decide not to pay for their own access and ride the carpet on your hard earned dollars. Plus, it’s a whole lot of fun.

[Link to Upside-Down-Ternet]

Baffle WiFi Leeches With An Upside-Down-Ternet originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/10/07. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

250GB NES Cartridge

Frank — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 01:32:52 +0000

This one is perfect for all you retro gaming fans. NES Cartridges have been repurposed to be many things; ash trays, gaming consoles, even coasters, but now a crafty modder has jammed in a 2.5″ 250GB SATA drive inside with a usb controller. Although this isn’t the worlds smallest portable hard drive, it is one of the coolest.

If you want to bump up your geek cred then you can actually purchase this one for $180 on Etsy

250GB NES Cartridge originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/10/06. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.