Cellphones

SparkFun at Android Open: IOIO Untethered and Meet the Electric Sheep

One of the projects featured at the Mini Maker Faire was Ytai Ben-Tsvi’s IOIO, an Android hardware accessory kit that predated the Open Accessory Development Kit (ADK), and is a bit simpler to use: there’s no need to do any programming on the microcontroller, you can load firmware updates from the Android phone, and the Android programming side is pretty darn easy, too. On top of that, the IOIO supports a lot more phones than the ADK does: while the ADK requires Android 2.3.4 or greater, the IOIO will talk to a phone as old as the G1!

Continue Reading October 30th, 2011 Brian Jepson4

Prosthetic Arm Smartphone Dock

Somerset catering manager, Trevor Prideaux, found that he was having trouble texting ever since he upgraded his handset to a smartphone. Ultimately, this didn’t stop Trevor. The resourceful Mr. Prideaux enlisted help from device manufacturer Nokia and professionals from the Exeter Mobility Centre to help design and fabricate a prototype prosthetic arm that could hold his smartphone while he typed. The result, developed in just five weeks by prosthethist Steve Gallichan, technician Les Street, and undergrad Sara Bennett looks like a natural fit.

Continue Reading October 28th, 2011 Adam Flaherty12

Access Android Sensors from a Scratch Program

Users of the Scratch visual programming language can now add an Android handset to their arsenal of plug and play tools. Using the Scratch Sensor app on your handset will get you access to the accelerometer and compass data over the Scratch networking protocol, turning the device into a readily available data acquisition module.

Continue Reading October 21st, 2011 Adam Flaherty2

DIY Case for iPhone 4

Yes, you can cross-stitch your own artwork onto this nifty iPhone 4 case. What got me excited about it was that you could just as easily cross-stitch soft circuits on it with conductive thread. With a little extra effort you could barrow a little power and networking from the handset to give your project that extra kick. Or maybe you’ve always wanted a self-portrait done as a miniature latch hook rug. The possibilities are endless with this DIY case for iPhone 4 available from ThinkGeek.

Continue Reading October 19th, 2011 Adam Flaherty2

Galaxy S II-Powered CubeStormer II

First Chess, then Jeopardy, now the Rubic’s Cube. Mike Dobson and David Gilday’s CubeStormer II Rubic’s Cube solving robot successfully beat Australian Feliks Zemdegs’ 5.66 second record by solving a cube in a mere 5.352 seconds. The feat was accomplished using four LEGO Mindstorm NXT kits controlled by a Samsung Galaxy S II smartphone. The Singularity is near, I tell ya.

Continue Reading October 18th, 2011 Adam Flaherty4

iPhone 4S Teardown

Once again, it would appear that the folks over at iFixit have let all of the magic smoke out of the latest iPhone. This time around they were confronted with the eerily familiar iPhone 4S. On the outside it looks and feels like an iPhone 4. On the inside they were confronted with a different phone altogether. Dual-Core A5 processor, 8 MP rear camera with new optics, Bluetooth 4.0, Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE + Dual-band CDMA/EVDO radios.

Continue Reading October 14th, 2011 Adam Flaherty

Find My Twin: Mated Compasses Seek Out Each Other

Danish art collective Illutron, who we mentioned earlier this week, has another video showing a cool project that might be described as mated geocache boxes that direct participants to find the other box. As fun as this project is, even better is the strategy on Sony-Ericsson‘s part to create a buzz by giving hackers toys […]

Continue Reading September 15th, 2011 John Baichtal8