Computers & Mobile

The latest DIY ideas, techniques and tools for digital gadgetry, open code, smart hacks, and more. Processing power to the people!

Review: We’re Stuck On This Magnetically-Enhanced Keyboard From Keychron

Review: We’re Stuck On This Magnetically-Enhanced Keyboard From Keychron

By David Groom

David Groom

David bought his first Arduino in 2007 as part of a Roomba hacking project. Since then, he has been obsessed with writing code that you can touch. David fell in love with the original Pebble smartwatch, and even more so with its successor, which allowed him to combine the beloved wearable with his passion for hardware hacking via its smartstrap functionality. Unable to part with his smartwatch sweetheart, David wrote a love letter to the Pebble community, which blossomed into Rebble, the service that keeps Pebbles ticking today, despite the company's demise in 2016. When he's not hacking on wearables, David can probably be found building a companion bot, experimenting with machine learning, growing his ever-increasing collection of dev boards, or hacking on DOS-based palmtops from the 90s.

Find David on Mastodon at @ishotjr@chaos.social and to a far lesser extent on Twitter at @IShJR.

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Manufacturer: Keychron URL: https://www.keychron.com Price: $219 The crossover between makers and mechanical keyboard enthusiasts is significant. Makers’ innate drive to bend technology to their will and customize hardware to their specific needs makes them prime candidates for the deep levels of customization afforded by the mechanical keyboard hobby. And many a mech-head has gone “full maker” in the […]

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Boards Guide 2024: Boards Are Back

Boards Guide 2024: Boards Are Back

By David Groom

David Groom

David bought his first Arduino in 2007 as part of a Roomba hacking project. Since then, he has been obsessed with writing code that you can touch. David fell in love with the original Pebble smartwatch, and even more so with its successor, which allowed him to combine the beloved wearable with his passion for hardware hacking via its smartstrap functionality. Unable to part with his smartwatch sweetheart, David wrote a love letter to the Pebble community, which blossomed into Rebble, the service that keeps Pebbles ticking today, despite the company's demise in 2016. When he's not hacking on wearables, David can probably be found building a companion bot, experimenting with machine learning, growing his ever-increasing collection of dev boards, or hacking on DOS-based palmtops from the 90s.

Find David on Mastodon at @ishotjr@chaos.social and to a far lesser extent on Twitter at @IShJR.

View more articles by David Groom

From Make: Vol. 87: New evolutions in dev boards make this a metamorphic period for Makers.

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Anderson’s Water Computer Springs A Leak and That’s Okay

Anderson’s Water Computer Springs A Leak and That’s Okay

By Dale Dougherty

Dale Dougherty

DALE DOUGHERTY is the leading advocate of the Maker Movement. He founded Make: Magazine 2005, which first used the term “makers” to describe people who enjoyed “hands-on” work and play. He started Maker Faire in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2006, and this event has spread to nearly 200 locations in 40 countries, with over 1.5M attendees annually. He is President of Make:Community, which produces Make: and Maker Faire.

In 2011 Dougherty was honored at the White House as a “Champion of Change” through an initiative that honors Americans who are “doing extraordinary things in their communities to out-innovate, out-educate and out-build the rest of the world.” At the 2014 White House Maker Faire he was introduced by President Obama as an American innovator making significant contributions to the fields of education and business. He believes that the Maker Movement has the potential to transform the educational experience of students and introduce them to the practice of innovation through play and tinkering.

Dougherty is the author of “Free to Make: How the Maker Movement Is Changing our Jobs, Schools and Minds” with Adriane Conrad. He is co-author of "Maker City: A Practical Guide for Reinventing American Cities" with Peter Hirshberg and Marcia Kadanoff.

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Glen Anderson’s created an analog computer that uses water to demonstrate digital logic A computer that uses water instead of electricity? That’s what Glen Anderson and his daughter, Dale, are demonstrating at Maker Faire Bay Area this weekend. He invites kids to fill buckets and dump them into one of four water tanks. On Friday, […]

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From Start To Finish: Making A Professional Looking Space Mouse

From Start To Finish: Making A Professional Looking Space Mouse

By Caleb Kraft

Caleb Kraft

I get ridiculously excited seeing people make things. I just want to revel in the creativity I see in makers. My favorite thing in the world is sharing a maker's story. find me at CalebKraft.com

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If you’ve never heard of a space mouse, the term probably elicited a giggle. A space mouse is an input device like a mouse, but instead of sliding it over a surface, it works more like a 3d point in space. You would typically use it in a 3D program, like CAD. This allows you […]

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Review: Unihertz Jelly Star: Miniaturized Maker Mobile

Review: Unihertz Jelly Star: Miniaturized Maker Mobile

By David Groom

David Groom

David bought his first Arduino in 2007 as part of a Roomba hacking project. Since then, he has been obsessed with writing code that you can touch. David fell in love with the original Pebble smartwatch, and even more so with its successor, which allowed him to combine the beloved wearable with his passion for hardware hacking via its smartstrap functionality. Unable to part with his smartwatch sweetheart, David wrote a love letter to the Pebble community, which blossomed into Rebble, the service that keeps Pebbles ticking today, despite the company's demise in 2016. When he's not hacking on wearables, David can probably be found building a companion bot, experimenting with machine learning, growing his ever-increasing collection of dev boards, or hacking on DOS-based palmtops from the 90s.

Find David on Mastodon at @ishotjr@chaos.social and to a far lesser extent on Twitter at @IShJR.

View more articles by David Groom

Manufacturer: Unihertz Kickstarter Campaign Price: $170 Unihertz Jelly Star: Miniaturized Maker Mobile? I remember my first phone: it was transparent blue, and it … plugged into the wall. But once things became a bit more mobile, I was very excited about innovation in that space too – I recall fondly when phones shrank and shrank, […]

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DFRobot Launches UNIHIKER All-In-One Single-Board Computer Lab

DFRobot Launches UNIHIKER All-In-One Single-Board Computer Lab

By David Groom

David Groom

David bought his first Arduino in 2007 as part of a Roomba hacking project. Since then, he has been obsessed with writing code that you can touch. David fell in love with the original Pebble smartwatch, and even more so with its successor, which allowed him to combine the beloved wearable with his passion for hardware hacking via its smartstrap functionality. Unable to part with his smartwatch sweetheart, David wrote a love letter to the Pebble community, which blossomed into Rebble, the service that keeps Pebbles ticking today, despite the company's demise in 2016. When he's not hacking on wearables, David can probably be found building a companion bot, experimenting with machine learning, growing his ever-increasing collection of dev boards, or hacking on DOS-based palmtops from the 90s.

Find David on Mastodon at @ishotjr@chaos.social and to a far lesser extent on Twitter at @IShJR.

View more articles by David Groom

Products like the Arduino UNO and Raspberry Pi have proven nothing short of revolutionary in the maker community by taking something which already existed in various forms and just doing it that much better that it changed the world. DFRobot may be hoping to spark a similar revolution with their unique new single-board computer (SBC), […]

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