Computers & Mobile

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

Morse For The Hard-Core: Replace Your Keyboard with a Key

Morse For The Hard-Core: Replace Your Keyboard with a Key

Here’s a fairly radical way to motivate yourself to learn Morse, from Australian Ben Buxton. Got to agree with tipster Alan Dove, who described the build as, “a project involving Arduino programming, a mint tin, a USB interface, and International Morse Code, resulting in unassailable geek cred.” The USB key interface is built into a mint tin and provides a dual input port for a standard USB keyboard to access non-Morse characters. A numeric display on the tin displays your coding speed, and tapping out “SOS” without letter spaces brings up the settings menu. Software, schematics, and build notes at Ben’s site. [Thanks, Alan!]

Continue Reading Sean Michael Ragan6
Motorola Atrix Teardown

Motorola Atrix Teardown

The newly released Motorola Atrix is the fastest Android smartphone to date. With its blazingly fast Nvidia Tegra 2 processor, generous memory, and innovative accessories, the Atrix is shaping up to be one heck of a mobile. Receiving a 9 out of 10 repairability score, the folks at iFixIt.com say, “This is also the most-repairable smartphone we’ve ever taken apart!” Let’s take a look, shall we?

Continue Reading Adam Flaherty
Cup Holder Smartphone Stand

Cup Holder Smartphone Stand

The multitude of cheap plastic cup holder smartphone mounts is staggering, yet the majority of them are either overly engineered, cheap flimsy plastic or proprietary. I’m surprised that we don’t see more commercial designs similar to the stand in this video by the Mechanical Mashup crew. Heck, there’s even room to coil up a loose power cable inside the cup.

Continue Reading Adam Flaherty8
Make: Projects – Peel ‘n’ Stick Disc Storage

Make: Projects – Peel ‘n’ Stick Disc Storage

These stick-on CD/DVD hubs are marketed to publishers who want to include an optical disc in a book, card, folder, or other printed matter. They cost pennies apiece and, with the aid of our handy print-and-cut template, are easily arranged in a hexagonal grid on any smooth surface you might want to use for disc storage. Discs stored this way are easy to browse at a glance, without flipping pages, and don’t take up space on a table or shelf.

Continue Reading Sean Michael Ragan14