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Turn your steamer into a WiFi antenna
Now that cantennas are, um, illegal in some parts, you're probably looking for a new method to boost power to your WiFi adapter on a budget. Well, start by getting mom's vegetable steamer, the one that always reminded you (us) of a spacecraft as a kid. Then, jam your USB adapter up in there (don't worry, it ain't too hard). Ah, what a wonderful combination, dear friends. Witness as Instructables shows you how to fully transform a lonely implement of better nutrition into a device you're slightly more likely to get some use out of. And when you're done you can use some of that money you saved on a real high-gain antenna to take yourself out for some fast food. Go ahead, y'earned it.[Via MAKE: Blog]
Breakfast Topic: To Addon or Not to Addon?
I spent a while on the test realms yesterday checking out all of the new goodies in the 1.12 client. Some of these, like the new floating combat text feature, have come directly from popular community-created addons. I think, in may ways, I prefer the addons that are integrated game - that way, come patch day, the features I use regularly simply work, without need to tinker or download new code. However, custom addons provide a level of flexibility that's not present in Blizzard's own UI. With floating combat text, specifically, I may continue to use the original addon - Scrolling Combat Text - because I prefer being able to customize a little more than Blizzard's addition allows me to. And what about all of you? Do you like to use addons - or even the sort that can't play when their addons aren't working right? Or do you prefer the low-maintenance of the default UI? And, whichever side you're on, do you like or dislike these new additions to the default UI?
How-to overclock your Nintendo DS
If you've gotten just a little too good at your Nintendo DS games and are looking for more of a challenge -- and also looking to void your warranty -- now there's a way to hack your console for making everything run almost twice as fast. A Japanese modder has just posted step-by-step directions (in Japanese, unfortunately) for re-wiring a DS Lite to perform at a claimed 1.7x speed, complete with a toggle switch in case you decide that turbo mode isn't appropriate for all occasions. It looks like you have to be pretty handy with a soldering iron to tackle this particular project, so if you've got the skillz and about four hours to waste on tinkering around with your DS's sensitive circuitry, then accelerated performance -- and funny-sounding audio -- will be your reward.[Via Maxconsole]
Let your chrome glow
It looks like the long awaited chrome controller shell from Team Xtender is nearing production. More than just a shell, this mod puts LEDs in each button, making your controller glow like radioactive skittles. Who wouldn't want that?See a nice glowing shot after the break.
The LED Pong hat
If for some reason you feel the need to sport a set of obnoxious LED displays on your head, you might as well go all out and embed them in the ugliest hat you can find. Iain over at LushProjects is one person who felt such a need, and spent over six months designing and building the, um, unique piece of headwear you see pictured above -- which besides displaying the text message of your choice, also throws down a pretty mean game of Pong or simulated Space Invaders. To liven things up a bit, Iain even tossed in a microphone and amp, so that fellow concert-goers need only glance over at his creation for a graphical representation of the music blasting at a show. We're not sure if the hat actually lets you play a real game of Pong or not, but even if it does, having strangers stand inches from our face while tugging on our ear flaps doesn't sound all that appealing - we'll stick with our Pong clock for now, thanks.[Via Make and Hack-A-Day]
Kotomi's Ninty case mods are the cat's pajamas
Kotomi is a French case modder, and the above are three of his more recent creations. First, a pair of DS Phats so beautiful, you'll forget all about their new, slimmer sibling. The Zelda DS features a custom paint job, and a Triforce etched in relief on the cover. The next is a Sega Mega Drive-themed DS painted in black featuring the defining "16-BIT" text on the front, strange, ugly font intact.Most impressive is his NES casemod. Now, before you all start screaming about how he used an Imperial Japanese flag and how insensitive it was of him, hear the guy out. Clumsy machine translated text follows:"Inspired by Japan and the famous flags of the kamikazes, it takes again the graphic style of it..."Entirely smoothed, it is seen cut out of a circle covered with a red plate above, a small vent to replace the original and thus to air the system. The circle, which represents the sun, is illuminated when the machine is on by a circle of light manufactured for the occasion."Sacrebleu! This guy's console canvases are beautiful! What's next, Kotomi?[Via Aeropause and TechEblog]
Ben Heckendorn's new, improved nPod
Never one to rest on his laurels,the great Ben Heckendorn has taken his already-stylin' nPod portable 8-bit Nintendo console and reworked it around a smaller "NES on a chip" to come up with a unit that's even more polished and compact than the original. Like the nPod 1.0, this new version is only slightly bigger than those bulky plastic cartridges it plays, yet still manages to include a headphone jack and convenient sliding battery pack powered by four regular AAs. As usual, the talented Mr. Heckendorn is happy to part with the prototype (for the right price), but this time around he's also seeking feedback to gauge the market for a potential limited production run of these devices. If the NES emulator on your smartphone just isn't doing it for you anymore, then head over to Ben's site and let him know how much you'd be willing to throw down for one of these -- he may even equip them with such niceties as a system link and TV out if that's what his adoring public demands. Keep reading if you want to catch a tantalizing glimpse of the nPod 2.0 from behind...[Via Make]
More liquid cooling goodness
Liquid cooling is the new black it seems. The boys at Xbox-Scene give us the first glimpse at a do-it-yourself liquid cooling kit for the Xbox 360. While it may not be as "cool" as the internally cooled 360 we covered last week, this kit from Koolance promises to keep your 'box frosty for the incredibly affordable price of US $394.99. An undertaking of this magnitude can be very difficult and Koolance warns that it is "not for the faint of heart." Let me ask all the modders out there: for that price, how cool does your 360 need to be?
Water + 360 = Cool
Behold the internally water cooled 360. As noted by Xbox-Scene, there have been other -- more Frankensteinian -- water cooled 360s, but this is the first to be completely internal. All the hardware is inside the case itself. No easy task, to be sure. Dano2k0, creator of the mod, explains his inspiration: "It had been talked about in the past about having a complete internal watercooling system and everyone doubted it would ever be possible due to the lack of space. This is when i got the idea of pulling off the impossible, and it hit my requirements perfect, a completly [sic] portable solution with the cooling needs i was after, in the exact same original sized case." One time, I tried to cool my 360 by pouring water into the disc drive ... it didn't work. [Thanks Revadarth and GP2S]
Rig of the Day: iMac + T.P. dispenser
We've seen the Atech combination iPod dock/toilet paper dispenser before, but not mounted on an iMac. Good job, Meester Nik. You've mastered divergent thinking.If you'd like to see your own rig featured here, simply upload photos into our group Flickr pool. We select one image to highlight each day, and crown a Rig of the Week on Sundays.
Rig of the Day: Tune your cycling
Don't you just get bored to tears while exercising? Well, you've got two options: First, you can do what I do...don't exercise. Or, you can follow OndraSoukup's lead and strap a Powerbook to your stationery bike. Just don't jostle that thing too hard, ok?"Powerbook & Bike - winter edition" posted by OndraSoukup. If you'd like to see your own rig featured here, simply upload photos into our group Flickr pool. We select one image to highlight each day, and crown a Rig of the Week on Sundays.
Devil in the details for 360 modchip
Devil360 may have generated enough hits to crash their site after bragging about a working 360 modchip (Supposedly unrelated to the known DVD firmware exploit), but they haven't generated much faith in the modder community. Most eager chipsters are taking a "show it or shut up" approach to the Devil's claims of hacking glory:The Devil360 will be a modchip for the Xbox 360 console, the 'small' security hole has been found! This device is in no way related to the DVD firmware exploits - it's a totally different approach. However we did not manage to get the product ready for today (6/6/6), because we are working hard on improving it to:* Try to protect it from any type of update* Make it programmable via PC* Boot unsigned code* Allow to swap HD with larger drive with a special interface between the 360 and the HD (all types IDE/SATA).After the ICE modchip fraud, nobody is going to believe this blather without concrete proof. The cutesy Devil-6/6/6 correlation doesn't help. Still, the prospect of unsigned code (Read XBMC360) is enough to make your inner geek self-delude for a moment, no matter how low your tolerance is for shady mod squads.
Video: Water-proof 360 controllers
Anyone else surprised that Mad Catz hasn't tried to market this idea for $19.95?
How-to create backup copies of your Xbox 360 games
Now that you've flashed your Xbox 360's firmware to enable the playing of backup discs, you probably want to start actually backing up those expensive games you bought in case they get scratched or perhaps even melted by your toasty 360. And luckily for you, CleverMod has posted just the step-by-step instructions you need for ripping your games and then burning the images onto dual-layer DVDs -- but keep in mind, you're voiding about a million warranties with all of this flashing and ripping and such. Basically, CleverMod's method involves disassembling a DVD drive so that you can switch discs without hitting the eject button, and then installing a program called WxRipper that finds a so-called "magic number" from any regular 8+GB dual-layer DVD. The program then uses that data to unlock a substituted 360 disc and dump a RAW copy onto your hard drive, which can be burned onto a blank disc and presumably played using the Commodore4Eva hack on Toshiba-Samsung drive-sporting 360s. And just to be super clear, if you don't own a copy of the game you're ripping, then you're not allowed to do this (i.e. Blockbuster, GameFly games are off-limits).[Via digg]
MacMini Portable: the next generation
So instead of folding up his computer and going home like some of our more negative commenters had suggested, inventor, composer, and all around resilient guy Peter Green has been hard at work on the second version of his MacMini Portable. As you'll recall, MMP rev. 1 was basically Apple's diminutive PC stuffed inside a custom enclosure, attached to an LCD, battery pack, trackpad, and thumb board, and occupying a footprint smaller than even the most compact laptop. Well now Green is back to silence the critics who questioned the utility of his first project with the MacMini Portable MkII, which makes numerous improvements upon its predecessor such as mounting the thumb board flush with the case, significantly reducing the overall size of the device, and generally making it look more like something you'd want to take out in public. So once again Mr. Green, we salute you, and encourage you to continue ignoring the haters (and refine your creation to the point that they're forced to come around). Make sure to check out the "Read" link to peep video of the MMPMKII in action, complete with a soothing Green-composed soundtrack.Update: Full website now available; click here for the video, and hit the "Read" link to collect more ammo for your flame war.
Top 10 strangest Mac mods
Behold, ladies and gentlemen: the Top 10 strangest Mac mods at TechBlog. Johnathan Ive's blood would surely boil if he were to feast his eyes on such mutant Mac modifications as the NecroMac of the PowerMac G4 Aquarium!I know we've linked to a few of these in the past as we heard about them, but it's nice to see them all in one big list - and ranked.
Now that you've turned your Mac into a PC, turn it into a Mac again
So you've done the formerly impossible and unnecessary: installed Winders on a Mac. Cool, best of both worlds. But there you are, staring at that awful primary color, jumbo crayon, sickly plasticky XP theme. Yeah, you could use one of the many mods featured on Download Squad (please, feel free). Or you could turn your XP rig back into a Mac. At least, you can make XP look a lot more like a Mac. Engadget did this nearly 2 years ago, although Aqua-Soft is still updating their content. Or why not go old school with an OS 9 flavor? Ah, that's better.
The ladies of Oblivion drop their tops
Modders are already hard at work on bending the code of the recently released PC version of Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion to their will. Early success: topless mod FTW! Before everyone jumps in and criticizes the mod's author for being a lonely, sophomoric h4x0r, you should read what he has to say about the mod:"Please note, this is a realistic nudity mod, not a pornographic one. The file included removes the bra welded to the skin of females of all races, showing things as most people know they are in the real world after removing upper body clothing. It will not show every female in the game as topless. I do this because I hate government/society/whatever forcing companies to 'protect our innocent population from seeing those evil dirty things 50% of them posess personally anyways' not because I'm trying to turn it into a porn game."Regardless of intent, there are boobs in it, so use your best judgment before checking out the uncensored (NSFW) video after the break, or go here if the embedded video doesn't work for you ...
Oblivion: let the modding begin!
Now that you've been playing Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion for one week straight, you might find that despite the game's appeal, there's just something missing. If only you could ride a unicorn that has greater speed and leveling abilities than the typical Tamriel steed. Maybe you need a cure for a bad case of Vampirism, or want to go all Riddick on the unsuspecting populace with your Vin Diesel Redguard.There is already an extensive library of Oblivion mods at Planet The Elder Scrolls to satisfy even the most discriminating fan. You can try the new Champion and Wanderer classes, hire specialized mages and mercs to travel with you, and if you like Boromir, you can even make Martin look like Sean Bean. Some of these modders must sell real estate or practice interior decorating on the side because I found some cottages and beachfront homes available, fully furnished. It's a great time to be fighting demonic invasions.
Add-Ons and Patch 1.10, Revisited
When the test server first came up, I made a post regarding the numerous add-on problems people were seeing. Well, now it's patch day and there are a number of mods that won't be in working order when the servers come back online - including favorites like CT Raid Assist and Decursive. European community manager Aeus has made a post, presumably as an attempt to calm the flow of complaints before they start, reminding everyone of possible add-on issues. While I'm hoping this won't be as bad as it sounds, patch days are usually a tumultuous time of fixing and tweaking for those of us that use any UI mods. Since the servers are down, now's as good a time as any to check for updates to your favorite UI mods - so get at it!
