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That's one curvaceous media storage unit
Need a place to store your video games, but can't find anything that represents your inner fanboy? How about a giant Xbox 360 replica for your storage woes? Over at im_mcclain's Flickr page he posted a few pictures of his custom created Xbox 360 storage tower. The curvature looks spot on, the color palette looks to be fine, and it's even decked out with a glowing ring of light. We only hope that this isn't an exact replica of the 360, because it'd end up sounding like a 747 flying overhead when you turned it on.[Thanks, Mike]
Don't you wish your Xbox was hawt like mine?
Flickr account holder 'g3n3101' has posted a mighty collection of Xbox 360 case mods, highlighted by this WWII-themed diorama assembled atop a Call of Duty 2-plated console. Microsoft has long touted 360 as a customizable unit, and fans have taken that theme and run wild. Think that extended warranty is still valid? Think again.[Via Gaming Bits]
It's so dark, 100% custom black 360
Last week we showcased a how to guide to turn your white 360 controller into a dark black beauty. And once again, someone has taken it to the next level. Cruising Flickr we came across brienw's fully blackened Xbox 360 (voided warranty included) using the same vinyl-die-paint used for the controller customization. He also posted a step by step picture tutorial at the beginning of his photostream, so you can see how he completed it. Remember, your warranty will be nullified and if you suck at spray painting ... then you just screwed up your 360. No pressure or anything, but black is sexy.
Make your own talent tree
If you haven't seen this yet, it's pretty funny. A site called Unleashed Gaming has broken out a nifty little feature: it's a javascript setup that allows you to create your own talent trees. Now you too can not only create your own specs and share them with others, you can actually create all new talent trees.A few of them have been popping up in different places. Linde offers a Hunter's wishlist tree that's chuckleworthy (the 51-point Marksmanship talent is called Swoop: "The next item you loot costs 0 DKP"), and Menae has made a much more cynical (and therefore hilarious) Priest talent tree. Finally, Priests are able to get Holyform (the tooltip says that the talent was really put in place just to shut the forum QQers up), and my favorite is probably (one of) the 51-point Shadow talents: with Improved Shadowform, "Your character is replaced with a Warlock."Unfortunately, just like the WoW Item Creator, there's no way to track what other people are making-- I'd love to see a list of the "ten most-viewed talent trees," just to see what people are coming up with. But this thing is definitely a lot of fun to play around with, whether you're trying to perfect what Blizzard does, or just mock them. If you come up with a good one, post it below.[ Thanks, Ootah! ]
Make your own colored Xbox 360 controller
Sister site Xbox 360 Fanboy posted this very nice custom black Xbox 360 controller created by reader Alcaron. His site has step-by-step instructions on how to create the controller using vinyl dye to actually dye the shell itself. After you do this, it stays forever. Unlike spray paint this stuff isn't just a coating. The best part is that any vinyl dye will work, so you've got many color choices -- wait, not best part, the best part is that the mod costs about $5.The vinyl dye is available at almost any auto supply store and finally having a controller to match your favorite Xbox 360 faceplate is nice. It's the perfect project to do with the kids (offspring, sibling, niece or nephew) in your life over the holiday. The vinyl dye is toxic so adult supervision is strongly recommended and make sure to follow the detailed instructions.
Color your iPod
ColorwarePC offers a distinct way to create a personalized iPod. They'll color it for you. For $74, they'll tint your iPod from their palette of 28 colors. Pick one color for the click wheel, one for the front housing, one for the back. Some of their colors are flat. Others have embedded metallic flakes that shimmer under bright lights. Don't have an iPod? They'll sell you a nano or a video model with custom coloring from their in-house stock of new iPods. Unfortunately, it's already too late to order one of these by Christmas. If you placed an order today, it would arrive early-to-mid January, meaning that you'd have to stick an IOU into someone's stocking. The coloring service, where you supply the iPod, is US-only. However, new purchases can be made from around the world. Contact the company to see whether they ship to your area.
Custom soundtracks in Excitetruck?
Thanks to some new screenshots of the upcoming launch title Excitetruck, it now indeed looks as though we called it. That's right: if the picture here is any indication, the arcade racer will be able to read .mp3 files from your very own SD card and insert them into the game, a la the Xbox and Xbox 360. It's a nice little feature, and the ability to rock out to our latest find on Pandora while catchin' some air is quite enticing indeed.Does this feature matter to you guys? More importantly, how many games are actually going to support it? Only the flying spaghetti monster time will tell.
Custom Robo custom commercial action
Over at Nintendo's Touch DS media gallery are 3 commercials for the upcoming DS installment in the Custom Robo series. The commercials show some of the augmentation available to the player as well as a brief glimpse at some of the action the title promises. As for the augmentation, both firearms and jump-jets are shown, as well as some different leg combinations. Also, the third commercial shows quite a bit of action by simulating wireless head-to-head gameplay. The gameplay looks fast and furious, causing this to be one of the staff's most-anticipated titles coming to the DS.
Confirmed: Wii has MP3 playback support
In the most recent "Iwata Asks" interview, Iwata talks with Kouichi Kawamoto about the Photo channel for the Wii. Aside for some basic Photobooth functionality, Kawamoto mentions an interesting tidbit: MP3's stored on the SD card along with the photos will be played in the background during a slideshow. While this seems horrendously not cool, consider the fact that this functionality is in fact very similar to the Xbox 360's ability to play personal tracks during gameplay. In fact, a developer could most likely easily implement this functionality into any game they desire, so keep on the look out. If nothing else, it's an easy cop-out if Nintendo wants to add an extra "music channel" to expand functionality.
Custom Rockstar Table Tennis 360
Give Llamma.com credit for coming up with a Rockstar-commissioned Table Tennis case mod that goes beyond the usual paint job and faceplate. One of these babies is destined for a future give-away, but if you have the time and desire to build your own ping pong prize, they provide a list of supplies and directions.[Thanks AoE]
Sony releases FJ290 customizable, colorful notebook line
Although Sony's new colorful notebook lineup lacks the class demonstrated on the wooden laptop we've seen, the personalized approach is in full effect with the FJ290 series. The laptop comes with one of five different lids -- Pink Feather, Orange Flower, Green Flower, Orange Burst, and Blue Burst -- reportedly designed to "reflect an individual's personality." Sony also allows you to engrave up to two lines of text just above the keyboard on the inner casing, just in case you really want to destroy any and all hope for resale. While we know the bright colors are the real draw here, the FJ290 rocks a modest 14.1-inch WXGA display, Intel Pentium Celeron (or M) processor, 512MB of RAM, 40GB hard drive, DVD+R dual-layer burner, built-in webcam, and 802.11b/g, but since the specs are as customizable as the paintjob, you can mix and match the innards to fit your needs (and budget). The oh-so-vivid base configurations are available now for around $1,449.[Via Notebook Review]
Edit Mac OS X's custom spelling dictionary
Mac OS X's built-in spell checking abilities are fantastic, but what if you need to edit the custom list of words you've been building, or you want to nail a few birds with one stone by adding a collection of words in one fell swoop?Christopher Breen at Macworld has a good tip for just such a case. It turns out that once you begin adding custom words to your dictionary (by right-clicking them in most Cocoa apps and choosing 'Learn Spelling'), a folder aptly named Spelling appears in your Home user folder. In there is a file that I believe is named after your particular language; in my case - English.Opening this file in something like TextWrangler (or possibly OmniOutliner?) will allow you to edit the dictionary, including adding your own words a little more efficiently. Check out Macworld's tip for the details on how the rest of this works, including a basic method for (sort of) synchronizing your dictionary between Macs.
Get your custom hand-painted faceplate
Professional artist Pavel Dolgov is selling custom hand-painted 360 faceplates on eBay. Send him an "inspiration picture" along with $100 and you'll get a one-of-a-kind piece of art to grace your console. Provide the blank faceplate yourself and save $17. Of course, you could always head down to the craft store and make your own masterpiece, but it's tough to enjoy the post-mortem appreciation when you're the one who has to croak.
Bored with Mail.app's icon? Roll your own
Are you getting tired of other good icons? Hawk Wings, obsessed with all things Mail.app, has tracked down a Photoshop template for creating your own Mail.app icon. Courtesy of John Godfrey, this Photoshop template contains instructions for inserting your own images into a Mail.app icon, and Tim Gaden also recommends rotating your inserted image to 11.2 degrees counter-clockwise, as well as using an 85 x 90 size to get just the right fit.But, "how do I turn an image into a Mail.app icon?" you ask. Hawk Wings has a solution for that step too: img2icns is a Universal Binary freeware app that can convert JPEGs, PNGs, TIFs and GIFs to the ICNS format, ripe for using a previous (and simple) TUAW Tip for replacing Mail.app's icon with your much more exciting new creation.
Going to grandma's house is no longer boring for the Shaw family
I used to get so bored at my grandparents house. Who didn't (or doesn't) The best thing most people had to play with was some random plastic toy from the '60s but not the Shaw family from Connecticut. These loving, and understanding, grandparents built a 12,000 square foot barn for their 20 grandkids. This thing is loaded! Check this out: a 20-seat home theater, basketball court, a stage, a bowling alley, a golf simulator, a game room, a gym, lounge, an ice cream bar, a master suite, seven bathrooms, a kitchen and boys and girls bunk rooms. Amazing. We have included the pic of the theater that seats 20 and has a 130-inch screen. The picture is generated by a Digital Projection projector and paired with a JBL Synthesis II audio system. It is all controlled by a Crestron system and the entire "barn" is wired for audio with Bay Audio speakers. ElectronicHouse.com has a few more pictures of this place and you really should go check it out. The third pic is of the gym that really shows the scale of this place.[thanks for the tip Julie]
iTMS does storefront customization for radio websites
Two hip-hop radio stations, Power 106 in LA and HOT 97 in NYC, have signed on the dotted line with the iTMS to offer an integrated, customized version of the store right in their own websites. The radio stations can design the store any way they see fit, and feature any artists, recent releases and playlists they want. From some quick browsing, I was able to find the iTMS integration at HOT 97's site, but not at Power 106's.hypebot, the blog where we found this, was quick to point out the vast potential this kind of partnership with the iTMS has for any kind of niche markets, businesses and organizations you can think of: "From skateboard sites selling radical tunes to a museum's site selling period music that matches their exhibitions, this could be a very exciting development for niche and indie music marketers". Indeed, this is a great example of that iPod expansion post Scott had yesterday; it sounds like Apple has plenty of tricks up their sleeve for the iPod and iTMS.
CustomFlix burns HD-DVD, Blu-ray on demand
So you're a small content producer who wants to release high definition video, but can't pick a format for fear of alienating half your customers? No problem. CustomFlix (who also just announced deals to provide DVDs of niche TV shows) will store a digital copy of your content, and burn it onto Blu-ray, HD DVD or WMV-HD disc whenever a customer wants to buy one. They also provide services for customers who choose their own set of clips from the database, and burn a DVD with whatever you want on it.You can already buy some HDNet programs from Amazon via this service, with the other two formats to be added "soon". Hopefully this type of service can alleviate the situation detailed in The Clicker, where smaller providers are locked out because they can't afford to support HDTVs.
Customizable iJacket case for iPod
Brainchild Products, LLC offers a new spin on the iPod case with the custom iPod iJacket, a customizable silicon jacket for "all version of Apple's iPod," though the latest 5G version is not on their list - yet. They offer a slew of interesting and fairly unique pre-designed cases for the iPod 4G/photo, nano, mini and shuffle, while also offering a fairly robust customizing service that seems geared towards organizations and companies who want a custom design in bulk packages of at least 50 cases. A six-step customization process is outlined with a choice between downloading a DIY design template or having Brainchild Products, LLC design the case for you. For now pricing on custom jobs is only available by phone, but pricing on individual pre-designed cases starts at just $12.99.[via iLounge]
J&R offers custom painted iPod Minis
So, you like the dramatic color of the Special Edition U2 iPod, and you wish that the iPod Mini were available in a color other than silver, green, blue or pink? Then you're in luck. J&R is offering iPod Minis in custom colors, including Ferrari Red, Lamborghini Yellow and Smoke White. All custom Minis are the 4GB model and will run you $249.88 USD. Who wouldn't want to have the only blazing red iPod on the block?
