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Lego Minecraft arrives, sudden drop in productivity expected when the UPS man gets here
Minecrafters, commence running through the streets screaming "It's here!, It's here!" as Lego's homage to the world-building game is now available to buy. The Cuusoo-developed project features Steve, a Creeper and 480 bricks, including plenty of 1x1 tiles to recreate the pixelated landscape we know and love. It costs $35, with a proportion of the profits off to a charity of Lego's choosing -- enabling us to turn our attentions to getting Ladyada's workshop the 10,000 votes necessary to press it into production.
Adafruit unveils Lego Ladyada's Workshop, vote for it to become a reality
If 10,000 of you go and vote at Lego Cuusoo, we could soon have a Ladyada Lego Workshop. The concept, whipped up by Limor Fried and Phillip Torrone, was a direct response to the borderline offensive Lego Friends set that was marketed to young girls last year. The seemingly unnecessary line of pastel-hued bricks inspired Fried to hire renowned Lego artist Bruce Lowell to help create a set of blocks that told girls it was ok to aspire to more than good hair and gossipy friends. Ladyada's Workshop is an ABS celebration of hacking, tinkering, strong women and all things DIY. Now all that needs to happen is that enough of you head on over to the Cuusoo site when the set goes up for vote. Hit up the source link for more images of what could wind up being the very first Lego product based on a company that sells DIY electronics kits.
Hacker reveals how Apple artificially restricts iPhone chargers (video)
Most cell phone manufacturers have charging standards these days, even if they can't always agree on which version of USB to use, but as the hair-tearing message above shows, third-party renditions of Apple's proprietary dock connector haven't always been universal solutions for iPods and iPhones. Now we know another important reason why -- secret resistors placed on the data lines in connectors for each iDevice. Minty Boost creator ladyada recently reverse-engineered the chargers for a variety of Apple gadgets, and discovered that iPhones in particular don't draw electricity until they detect 2.8V and 2V signals when they attempt to charge. At that voltage, the handsets suck down about one amp, leading to a rapid filling of your device's Li-ion belly, but by adding additional resistance to drop the voltage further, the iPhone can be coerced into accepting 500mA instead -- perfect for the set of AAA batteries you stashed away in that Altoids tin. Video after the break, full explanation at our source link.