Folks looking for a good looking stylus for their tablet/smartphone will love this variation on the standard capacitive touch stylus. Designer and mobile UX pro Craig Villamor whipped together this handsome stainless steel sharpie mod by gutting the refill housing with a drill bit and cramming a Pogo Sketch stylus in the remaining cavity. Conceivably one could forego the additional stylus and just use some conductive foam.
Thanks to maker DannyBR, with the addition of a quarter-inch hole, the ever useful binder clip has acquired a new talent: smartphone tripod mount.
North Carolina area Etsy member GreenTape’s iRock Dock for the iPhone/iPod is an elegant, zen-like functional sculpture worthy of the most discerning and savviest of users. Improvements over the classic model include inlay Paduak cradle and USB charging cable. Groovy pet carrier packaging not included.
Tokyo-based wireless hacker Akiba of FreakLabs sends word of their latest project, the Freakduino-Chibi, an Arduinoid with open source 802.15.4 protocol stack and integrated radio.
A robot army’s got to start somewhere, right? Not quite an army yet, but definitely in the minion category, Squirt, from cellbot hacker Michael Winter means business. Pesky vermin beware!
While walking the show floor at the PayPal X Innovate 2010 developers conference today I came across this cool PayPal vending machine prototype. Ray Tanaka and his crew at PayPal Labs hacked together the multi-part system using a mechanical candy dispenser, a couple of Arduino Duemilanove, a WiShield, relay, proximity sensor, and LED display. The end result allows you to scan a QR code, make a payment, and acquire munchies using a smartphone. As you make your payment, the machine will tweet your purchase and notify a payment confirmation display.
The holiday buying season is around the corner. What do you get that certain someone who has everything? Why, grilled sausage scented iPhone soap, of course! Talk about a gift giving trifecta. Combine supernatural gadget lust with a cardiac inducing appreciation of grilled meats, through in a little improved personal hygiene, and you’ve got one heck of a stocking stuffer.
