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?
It’s hard to deny that Macs and Legos are two of a typical geek’s favorite play things, so when you combine the two, nerdgasms are sure to occur.
Inside of this full-sized Mac Pro replica is a PC running OS X, as well as a Mac Mini, and the outside is 100% Mac as well, compete with a Steve Jobs minifig looking out from atop the Apple logo.
Specs include 2,588 Lego bricks, a 2.4 Ghz Core 2 Duo Hackintosh, and a 1.66 Ghz Core 2 Duo Mac Mini.
Hulger’s PAPPA*PHONE brings a touch of class to the VoIP telephone.
Cut from a single solid piece of American walnut (so that the grain of the wood flows from the handset to the base), each PAPPA*PHONE is handmade by Furni, and also incorporates a piece of solid hand-polished brass into the design, as well as laser etched details.
Since it works with all VoIP services (Skype, iChat, GoogleTalk, Vonage, Yahoo, etc.) and is plug-and-play compatible with both the Mac and PC, it’s as easy to use as it is beautiful.
Antec’s Skeleton is a fantastically futuristic looking PC case that claims to be the world’s first open air case.
With a unique design that allows for unprecedented airflow, a front 92mm fan, and a top three-speed 250mm fan with multicolor LED customization, the Skeleton goes utterly unmatched in stylish cooling. Factor in the layered component trays for top-notch convenience, as well as the rackmount quality side rails, and you have a case truly without equal.
Though it definitely won’t blend in under your desk, this frag factory isn’t designed to, and if you’re the type of person that builds and customizes your machine so that you can get props and respect at the local LAN parties, then this might be just what you were looking for to dominate the competition.
In addition to Apple’s product roll-out, they also took the wraps off a new ‘out of the box’ banner ad featuring Mac and PC:
I’m actually a huge fan of advertising like this, and I hope that more companies follow Apple’s lead and start to expand their thinking into new and unique areas so that users will actually want to watch their ads, rather than them just forcing ads down our throats at every stray click.
Here’s a simple video with a neat little twist: Hulger makes Skype phones for the Mac and PC, so to show you what their phones actually look like, they have created a few 3D Vimeo videos for you to check out.
To get the full effect, you have to look at the screen with a piece of cardboard between your eyes (yes, this will make you look like a dumbass, but stick with me here) and just like a Magic Eye trick, the image will suddenly start to pop off the screen.
Give it a try:
To view the rest of their ‘catalog’, just visit the Hulger.tv site.
Dell’s new Studio Hybrid line of computers is a rather interesting offering.
Designed to be an “anywhere-you-want-it-desktop”, the pint-sized PC comes in six colors, as well as bamboo, features an ultra-compact design with Intel mobile technology performance, a slot-load DVD, HDMI, digital/analog TV tuner, and optional Blu-ray for home entertainment duties.
In addition, the Dell Hybrid helps to preserve the planet as Dell’s greenest and most power-efficient consumer desktop (75% less printed documentation, 70% less power usage, Energy Star 4.0 compliant, and packaging made form 95% recyclable materials).
A good-looking computer that’s good for the environment and performs too?
Stick Arena lets you “jump online and take on the world from any PC!”
Frag friends and foes anytime, anywhere in this revolutionary multiplayer flash game.
Take down your opponents with the Katana, AK-47, Sledgehammer, Shotgun, Baseball Bat, or Glock.
Battle it out in Offices, Construction Yards and Sewers.
Create a free account to customize your character, save your combat stats and earn higher Ranks.
Climb the leaderboard in a bid for 1st place; Can you go all the way to the top?
And be sure to check out the trailer for Go Ballistick, and expansion pack that will feature “6 devastating new weapons, epic new arenas, and an all-new currency system”.
The Nimbus Cloud Computer “works like a PC” only it’s “better than a PC” because it’s free. Instead of paying for the Nimbus, you simply allow them to show you an ad while using the computer, and it pays for itself. If you don’t want the ad, you can also pay a monthly fee to use the Nimbus ad free, but where’s the fun in that?
A Cloud Computer is a re-imagination of the idea of a computer. We think that an ordinary computer is too expensive, too complicated, and too much for what most people want to use a computer for. What we did is put all of the costly and complicated pieces of hardware and software into our data centers. You then use a smaller, simpler, much less expensive device that’s always connected to the internet to control your computer. We think this is a much better way for you to do just what you want with a computer.
The computer comes with a keyboard and mouse, and you simply provide a monitor and Internet access, and you’re on your way.
Buzzword is “the first real word processor for the web”.
Though this description sounds rather boring, the site itself is rather impressive.
Basically an online version of Word, it’s built in Flash, so there’s plenty of fancy features, and the online interface means you can use it on either a Mac or a PC.
Another advantage of online applications: No need to install. Traveling and in need of a word processor? No problem; Just fire up Buzzword and away you go.
Having your documents online also means it’s easy to share with friends, family and co-workers, co-editing and co-writing something through its path to perfection.
Lastly, it’s owned by Adobe, so there’s definitely no lack of support, and the chance that this winds up in the dead pool is slim to none.
It’s definitely worth a try, so click the link and see what’s buzzing.
