DIY E-Paper Kit
$3,000, but it’s tempting…E Ink’s Active Matrix Electronic Paper Display (EPD) Prototyping Kit is designed for product designers, engineers and technologists who want hands-on access to a high-resolution paper-like display. The kit includes a production sample of a 6″ SVGA (800 X 600) active matrix display made using E Ink Imaging Film, along with all of the hardware and software necessary to produce a fully functional portable device. The prototyping kit is based around the Gumstix single-board computer, which combines a 400 MHz Intel XScale® PXA255 processor with a Bluetooth transceiver, USB, a serial port and an MMC card reader. For mobile prototyping, the kit also includes two Li-ion batteries with a total capacity of over 4000 mW-h, and an integrated battery charger. [via] Link.
Brother corp Japan has launched the Innovis range of sewing machines which connect to the PC via USB and can be operated via the PC. There are two models the “Innovis M200” and the “Innovis N150” A special embroidery add on can be attached to the N150 for complicated designs. There are preset designs in their internal memory such as Traditional Chinese and Japanese fonts, Patterns, Stitches and Mickey mouse. New designs can be downloaded from the company’s website which will be updated regularly with fresh designs. I wonder if you’ll be able to do your own designs too. [
Bob writes “Cornell student Levi Lorenzo wanted to do a project about MIDI music technology, so the project he came up with was to build a hamster controlled music generator. The hamster controller uses 6 hamsters to control 3 rythmic tones. One hamster controls the “rythmic qualities of the melodies”, and the other controls the note sequence. As the hamsters wander back and forth in their passages, the music created changes according to their position. The music is actually not bad!” [
Brian writes “T-Mobile recently lit up EDGE on most of their network, including my neck of the woods. I picked up a $50 Sony Ericsson EDGE card on eBay, popped my SIM into it, and it works great. I’m getting unlimited EDGE for $20 a month (compare to Cingular’s $80). Here’s my HOWTO in pictures.” 
Here is an overview of MAKE 04 from Mark! “The major projects include an electric cigar box guitar, a kit to take high speed strobe photos (so you can capture a balloon or light bulb in mid-pop), and how to turn kids’ electronic toys into musical instruments. There’s also a guide to a bunch of different kinds of kits (electronic, beer making, robots, etc) and a how-to by Mr. Jalopy on converting a vintage hi-fi cabinet into an LP and CD ripper, burner, and player. David Pescovitz started a new column for the magazine called Proto, which profiles cool makers in corporate labs around the world, and Cory Doctorow weighs in on the Supreme Court’s unfortunate Grokster decision.” [
Joe writes “So I was sitting around thinking of what our soon-to-be-born kid should be for Halloween this year. I thought that an R2D2 costume would look pretty cute, so I decided to make an iron-on for a onsie. It turned out pretty good, so I want to share it. Print this on an iron-on transfer. Iron it on a onsie. Bam! Cheap baby costume.”