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Update that seems to fix a lot of the issues with the 650 folks have been reporting…Should I update? We highly recommend you take the time to update your smartphone. You will receive direct benefits in memory handling; in most cases, your data will occupy less memory, freeing up more storage space on your smartphone. Additionally, when you’re making phone calls, you should experience improved voice quality using the handset or a Bluetooth headset. [via] Link.

Awesome hack. You send a text message from your mobile phone to your POP email account. Your text message should containg the keywords of a song title (and possibly an artist name) that you want to hear. DittyBot finds that email (he checks Mail every 45 seconds) and copies the song name into a text file. The song name is then copied into iTunes and a playlist is created from your search. Next, DittyBot loads Skype (the internet telephony app) and begins calling your mobile phone. Your mobile phone rings and when you pick it up, you should hear your song start playing in all its compressed glory. Link.

What do you get when you mod an original My Scene Barbie with new paints, fairy wings, costuming, swords, elf ears and more? Really amazing looking D&D style figurines. These modded Barbies look like they’ve just stepped off the set of the Lord of the Rings. The Warrior ones are my favs. And here’s how the artist makes them.

A little open source book action…This book is an attempt to provide an introduction to reverse engineering software under both Linux and Microsoft Windows©. Since reverse engineering is under legal fire, the authors figure the best response is to make the knowledge widespread. The idea is that since discussing specific reverse engineering feats is now illegal in many cases, we should then discuss general approaches, so that it is within every motivated user’s ability to obtain information locked inside the black box. Link.

Starbucks in your PC. René G. from Munich, Germany, is one of these individuals, a tinkerer and inventor to whom performance and visual style alone have long ago ceased to be sufficient. As a passionate coffee drinker, René G. set a difficult goal for himself, one that took him nearly 80 hours to achieve: through laborious and precise work, he was able to convert a coffee maker into a standard PC shell. A case of extreme modding, if you will. He invested over $3,000 into the components alone. Link.

…ribbon controllers are touch-sensitive strips that let you control pitch continuously (i.e., not fixed to the pitches of a keyboard). The original Martenot instrument of the 1920s had an early ribbon controller, but rocker Keith Emerson probably gets the most credit for popularizing the design.. Here are some DIY instructions for building your own ribbon controller. These aren’t just any old ribbon controller, either: not only are they much cheaper than commercial models, but they can play two notes at once. Link.

A black iPod photo with red wheel mod. This is my iPod U2 Photo Mod (aka Alk3 iPod). When buying a U2 Face make sure you get one with a working click wheel and has been tested. I didn’t use the U2 back plate because there wouldn’t be enough room for all the parts. These pictures were taken in reveres order so I already have the U2 face plate on it. [via] Link.