The latest DIY ideas, techniques and tools for digital gadgetry, open code, smart hacks, and more. Processing power to the people!
I don’t know about you, but there’s something that delights me about using old and new technology together. Things like USB typewriters, twittering Teddy Ruxpins, and PayPal-accepting vending machines just really make my day. This morning, I was gleeful to discover that Justin Ouellette hooked up an old VT220 serial console to his Mac running […]
NASA recently upgraded their Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites (SPHERES) with Nexus S smartphones running Android. The upgrade add the intelligence and hardware needed for units to become remotely operated robots.
The smartphones NASA uses on missions to conduct experiments are the same smartphones that can be used to control your next hobby robotics project. Android robotics enthusiast, Tamlyn, used a IOIO board and a reclaimed RC tank chassis to create this Android powered robot tank.
Leading off this week’s MAKE Flickr Pool round-up is amateur chemist Hayden Parker’s high-speed shot of a glass blown apart by the high explosive silver acetylide, which Hayden prepared himself. Don’t try that at home, kids.
Jonathan Stark, author of Building iPhone Apps with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, has not only posted his Starbucks card for all to see, but he’s using it to conduct an interesting experiment in social sharing.
OK, in point of fact, this cool gadget from Matt Bitz of Liquidware could be used for pretty much any type of marksmanship training, but “sniper” was a pretty hard headline to resist. It couples Liquidware’s TouchShield Slide, an Arduino Duemilanove, and a lithium battery-pack in a camouflaged aluminum case for a handy range-gadget that records hits on a target—just tap the touchscreen with the tip of a round to mark a hit—and calculates accuracy and precision in real time. [Thanks, Jake!]
Motorola’s high-end Atrix 4G Android smartphone swept the awards at CES 2011, where it was introduced, taking home media awards from CrunchGear, IGN, Laptop Magazine, Maximum PC, MSN, Notebooks.com, Popular Mechanics, and Popular Science, as well as CNET’s prestigious Best of CES 2011 in the “Smartphones” category. At the time it was introduced, the Atrix was the most powerful smartphone on the market.
