Has the damaged economy managed to crush your new gadget budget?
Instead of sitting around and complaining, why not make your old things new again with a few “creative” hacks?
To help you along the path to recycled gadget goodness, Gizmodo has put together a guide to Zero-Cost Gadget Upgrades, including turning your Xbox, PC or Apple TV into a genuine media center, hacking your iPod with Rockbox, converting your PC into a Mac, flashing your crappy router’s firmware with DD-WRT to turn it into a top-of-the-line piece of hardware, downloading new maps for your old GPS, jailbreaking your iPhone for Wi-Fi Internet tethering, and modding your Wii to create a free emulation machine.
Who said the next great depression had to be so depressing?
[Gizmodo - Zero-Cost Gadget Upgrades For The Next Great Depression]
Given the current economic crisis, Bloomberg’s iPhone Easter egg seems rather appropriate.
In the bottom corner of the left monitor on their iPhone application’s loading screen, Bozo the Clown stares back at you from the blackness.
To see it, just snap a screenshot and play with the levels until he appears.
At least someone’s getting a laugh out of the situation.
[Via: TUAW]
If you’re wondering what kind of capabilities and unique features iPhone Apps are going to have, look no further than OmniFocus and Schmap.
OmniFocus is a professional-grade personal task manager that taps into the iPhone’s GPS to provide you with location based task lists.
At the store?
OmniFocus automatically pops up with the grocery list that you put together when you drive up.
Back at work?
OmniFocus automatically switches over to your list that you put together with work related tasks.
Neat, huh?
The second application, Schmap, which is actually a currently available web application, though it will no doubt be something that takes advantage of becoming a native App as well, uses the iPhone’s gyro sensor to automatically change the view based on how you are holding the phone.
Hold it vertical, and a list of available destinations pops up; but switch and hold it horizontal, and you’re automatically presented with a map of locations and additional information.
What will they think of next?
[OmniFocus]
[Schmap]
Foofbags and Foofpods are fantastic looking cases, sleeves, covers and pouches for laptops, iPods, iPhones, and other gadgets in need of protection.
Each Foofbag or Foofpod is ethically handmade in Australia, and comes in a variety of fantastic finishes.
The insides are lined with either Sherpa fleece or polished satin, and the included padding keeps your gadgets safe from the bumps and bruises of everyday use.
[Foof]
Didn’t get enough Steve Jobs in your life yesterday?
Then make your own!
Toy-A-Day is a year-long project where the creator will be constructing and posting a new paper toy from a basic template each day for one year, and to help celebrate iDay, he created a little Steve Jobs that comes with his own iPhone and iPod.
Simple print it out, fold it up, and display it for all your friends to see.
A lack of a neck makes it difficult to show off the trademark turtleneck in this mini mock-up, but considering the fact that this is an accurate representation of his Steviness, you can trust that it’s in there somewhere.
[Toy-A-Day - Steve Jobs]
The Blogosphere got in a tizzy recently after Google decided to change its favicon (the little icon in your address bar that’s unique to each site).
To address those that demanded answers from the big G, Google has written a post about the new favicon, and explained that “the reason is that we wanted to develop a set of icons that would scale better to some new platforms like the iPhone and other mobile devices”.
Personally, I’m not a fan of the little G, and would have preferred that they stick with the big G, but apparently they’ve got some goals in mind, since they “tried in total more than 300 permutations”.
Apparently they wanted something distinctive and noticeable, as well as something that embraced the colorfulness of the logo, yet wouldn’t date itself, and considering the amount of feedback they received from people who noticed the change, I think they succeeded.
Rest assured though, if you can’t stand the new favicon, let them know, because they “really value feedback form users and want to hear your ideas”.
[Official Google Blog]
Food for thought: Despite the fervor surrounding Apple’s announcement today, and the thousands of rumors that have surfaced as a result, the biggest change to the iPhone is going to be an already announced feature: Apps.
Many of these apps are going to be games, and so far, it looks like many of the major game manufactures are on-board and developing for the new platform, which got me thinking; could these partnerships develop into full gaming support for Apple’s full-sized computers as well?
Gaming has long been a missing aspect of the Mac experience, but a few key converts could change all that, meaning the iPhone Apps could be a door for Apple to use to enter the lucrative gaming market that it needs if it’s going to continue its growth and market share acquisition.
Makes you wonder…
[Apple - iPhone]
AT&T will soon offer free Wi-Fi to all iPhone users at their more than 17,000 Wi-Fi hotspots in the U.S., including all Starbucks stores.
If you’d like to get in on that action, but don’t yet have an iPhone, then check out UNEASYsilence for a guide on how to use Firefox’s User Agent Switcher to trick hotspots into thinking you’re on an iPhone, and then granting you full access to their tubes of Internet.
[UNEASYsilence - Trick AT&T To Give You Free Wi-Fi At Any Of Their Hotspots]
Think you can do it better than Apple?
iLounge wants you to prove it, and is offering up next gen iPhones and iTunes gift cards to the people with the most creativity and artistic talent as part of their Design the Next iPhone contest.
To enter, just submit a brand-new artistic rendition of what you think the next iPhone should look like. Originality is encouraged, and they will be picking winners in the “advanced”, “simplified” and “funny” categories.
Let’s see what you’ve got.
[iLounge - Design The Next iPhone]
If you’ve always wanted to have your own soundtrack, then check out SynchStep for the iPhone and iPod Touch.
SynchStep taps into the iPhone and iPod Touch’s motion sensor, and matches your music library to your pace. The result is that “every step you take lands in-time with a drum hit, a bass pluck, a piano chord”.
Unfortunately the beat that follows your feet is only available in “sucktacular beta” for now, but when the SDK goes live, prepare yourself for tons of fantastic apps just like this one.
[SynchStep]
[Via: Advertising Lab]
