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MaKey, MaKey turns the whole world into a keyboard
The litany of exciting Maker Faire products continues with MaKey MaKey, a device that turns anything capable of conducting electricity into a controller. Developed by MIT Media Lab students Jay Silver and Eric Rosenbaum, you simply run an alligator clip from the board to an object and hold a connecting wire in your hand. Connecting over USB, it's entirely programming-free, but if you find your interest piqued, you can flip the board over to use the Arduino module baked into the hardware. It's already surpassed its original $25,000 Kickstarter goal and when the run begins, you'll be able to pick up everything you need for just $35 -- but if you can't wait that long, head on down to the Bay Area this weekend. [Thanks, Ryan]
Visualized: Arduino gets super-sized ahead of Maker Faire
This is Make's John Edgar Park, manfully clutching his Arduino Grande. The oversized device isn't just for show though, it's a fully working unit for those projects where a standard sized PCB just won't do. He'll be taking excited modders though the process of building it at Maker Faire on Saturday, just head over to the demo stage at 5:30pm with your pre-written Super Size Me jokes close to hand.
Research suggests Apple could afford to build iPhones in the US
According to reports, Steve Jobs told President Obama about Apple's plan to manufacture its devices in China, saying, "Those jobs ain't coming back." But a new report argues that making Apple devices in the United States is at least feasible. A publication from the University of Manchester says that if Apple brought its operation back to the United States, it would be able to still make a gross margin of at least 50% on the iPhone. The catch? That's less than Apple's making right now, and the company would need to pay US wages for the eight hours of labor it takes to make each iPhone. So it's a question of priorities -- at this point, Apple has no problem sending more money overseas, as long as it can keep its huge margin on hardware sold. The report concludes that, while the current arrangement is great for Apple and its stockholders, the company's cash hoard doesn't bode well for the US economy as a whole, and only marginally benefits China. After building such a profitable manufacturing plan, it's doubtful Apple will reconsider and think about bringing iPhone factories back to the US. But it would certainly be better for this country and its economy in the future.
Apple now the number one buyer of microphones in the world
Apple purchased a whopping 349 million micro electro mechanical systems (MEMS) microphones last year to put in all of its various iOS devices, which means it is now the biggest purchaser of such microphones in the world. That number grew 173 percent from 2010 to 2011, putting Apple up over Samsung for the most microphones bought (and presumably installed and used). These specific microphones represent the three microphones found in each iPhone 4, 4S, and iPad 2. One of the mics is found in the headphone cable included with each device, and two are on the device itself, with one of those used strictly for noise canceling. This is why Siri works so well at "hearing" even in relatively crowded environments, because there's an extra microphone on board to listen for noise to remove from the incoming signal. It's also worth noting that the iPad doesn't have this third mic, which might be one reason why earlier generation devices haven't been marked for Siri use. The next-gen iPad will have all of these components too, so Apple isn't done buying up these parts. In fact, if we see both a new iPhone and a new iPad in the next year, Apple could cause yet another spike in the sale of these mini microphones and move even higher up the chart of consumption for this specific part.
Gold Capped: Epic gems must be in patch 4.3
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Gold Capped, in which Basil "Euripides" Berntsen aims to show you how to make money on the auction house. Email Basil with your questions, comments, or hate mail! Now that we know that patch 4.3 will be the final Cataclysm content patch and contain the means with which to kill Deathwing, we know beyond reasonable doubt that epic gems will be released in that patch. It's unreasonably doubtful that Blizzard would introduce epic gems before 4.3, and aside from not introducing epic gems at all, that's the only option that would lead to my prediction being wrong. That said, there's tons of stuff we don't know about how this will work. Here's a big one: Where will epic gems come from? If we knew that, intelligent auctioneers would start stockpiling ages before the patch in preparation.
Gold Capped: Earning gold for absolute beginners
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Gold Capped, in which Basil "Euripides" Berntsen aims to show you how to make money on the auction house. Email Basil with your questions, comments, or hate mail! Aaron wrote in the other day to say: Despite having played WoW for years I'm a complete gold-making newbie and my characters are all dirt-poor because of it. I decided it was time to start playing the gold-making meta game so I've been reading through issues of your Gold Capped column, and while I've really enjoyed what I've read I'm afraid I'm still at a loss as to where to get started. Obviously I don't have a lot of upfront capital to jump-start my endeavor, either. I was wondering if you've ever written or would consider writing an article for complete, absolute beginners such as myself. Unless you started the game with rich friends, this is something that everyone has to go through. People getting into earning gold from scratch often don't have any clue where to start, and they often have a bunch of incorrect ideas about what they need to get going.
Gold Capped: 5 addons for profitable buying, selling and crafting
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Gold Capped, in which Basil "Euripides" Berntsen aims to show you how to make money on the auction house. Email Basil with your questions, comments, or hate mail! You can make gold in World of Warcraft without addons. You can also PvP and raid without addons; however, for the vast majority of people, that would result in lower performance. Unlike PvP and raiding, however, there is absolutely no way to use the default UI to be as productive in the auction house as you would be with addons. The default Blizzard UI for professions and the AH was not built for making money. I divide gold addon users into two groups: the people who want everything to be as efficient and streamlined as possible, and the people who simply want to be able to do basic tasks without as much hassle as the default UI imposes on us. Let's call them "power auctioneers" and "retail auctioneers." What addons are available now, and how can you use them to accomplish your goals?
Novation Twitch touchstrip DJ controller makes the scene at Musik Messe 2011 (video)
We're not professional musicians by a long shot, but when we do get a chance to break away from the relentless torrent of cellphones and tablets, nothing quite hits the spot like a little music appreciation. Of course, when done Engadget-style this usually means a gadget of some sort -- and we'd be lying if we didn't say that Novation's newest didn't whet our appetites for some after-hours beatmatching. Twitch is essentially a full-figured DJ controller, but instead of some sort of round jog wheel (which the current reviewer has always found to be extremely counter-intuitive) the company added a touch strip, which can be used for everything from finding the beat to zooming in and out of the waveform display (after watching the video, it's hard to believe we've been beatmatching without pinch-to-zoom for this long). This bad boy also boasts a full compliment of controls for Serato, Traktor NI, and Ableton Live. You're probably interested in seeing how it performs in the real world, but unless you're in Frankfurt for Musik Messe, you're going to have to settle for the video after the break. Look for it in July for a street price in the $500 range.
Gold Capped: Engineering isn't so useless after all
Gold doesn't matter, right? It's just gold, and you get more than enough for your needs through dailies and the occasional mining spree. Why even bother getting Gold Capped? It's not like you'll ever be able to spend it all! Wait a sec, how does that bank alt have a single Ulduar clear and have Mimiron's head? Every week, check in with Basil "Euripides" Berntsen, also of outdps.com, the Hunting Party podcast and the Call to Auction podcast, as he attempts to mold all the random information jostling for cerebral space into a coherent, readable post about how to make gold in the World of Warcraft. In real life, engineers are brilliant and dedicated individuals who work together with tradespeople to accomplish some of the technological marvels of the modern world. Historically, these are the people who built the pyramids, the boats that brought Europeans to the new world, and the spaceships that took mankind to the moon and back. In World of Warcraft, engineers are a bunch of goofy characters who speak in childishly high voices and have a tendency to blow themselves up by accident in humorous ways. Anyone else sense that whoever did the concept art at Blizzard for gnomish and goblin engineers flunked out of engineering? Anyways, while engineering is an amazing profession for certain parts of the game, it's dead last when it comes to making money. There are only really a few things engineers can do to make cash. Wryxian In general, we want Engineering to remain a tradeskill mainly focused on creating fun or useful gadgets for the engineer, but we are exploring options for items that can be sold to other players for profit. source This quote was from the Cataclysm profession preview we posted about earlier. Engineering is currently barely ahead of farming in terms of income potential, and it's nice to see that Blizzard acknowledges this and might fix it. Not all hope is lost, though. A savvy player can eak out a living if they focus on the right markets. First off, the elephant in the room: selling epic ammo.
The Daily Grind: What are you proudest of crafting?
Crafting in MMOs is a fairly impersonal thing most of the time. Even with a complex system such as those found in Fallen Earth, Star Wars Galaxies, or Final Fantasy XI, a larger portion of what you can craft has been determined by the structure and programming of the game before you ever start up your efforts. But that doesn't mean there's nothing personal about what winds up happening, nor does it mean that you don't find yourself attached to the process. The feeling of "I made this" is just as strong, even if all you're talking about are a pair of pants you won't be wearing for more than two levels. Considering the time of year, most of us are probably placing a high premium on craftmanship these days to find the ultimate gift for our loved ones. So today, we ask you: what in-game crafted item are you most proud of? Was it a high-end piece that no one else you knew could craft before you? A silly low-level item that was your first taste of effective crafting? Or something else entirely? Do you still have it, or have you long since sold it or reduced it to component parts?
