The MacBook Pro is never going to be an impulse purchase, not for most people, but you can rely on Apple to offer the sort of upgrade options that will make even the well-heeled pause for thought. An 8GB DDR3 upgrade is now available for the notebook, but it’ll set you back a cool $1,200.
It’s been a while since we saw the first video demo of a completed pre-production Pandora open-source gaming handheld, and now a Stormtrooper-white version is here to show off its 60fps Quake skills. You’re still not looking at finalized hardware, but all the buttons, D-pads, LEDs and keys are doing what they should.
Video demo after the cut
Still no sign of the new color options for the ASUS Eee PC 1000HE that were leaked late last month, but if you want a somewhat more usable upgrade option for your netbook then how about a touchscreen? ASUS are yet to launch their T91 touchscreen convertible netbook, so until then dust off your screwdrivers, thoroughly ground yourself and check out this three-part video tutorial to fitting a touch-panel to the 1000HE.
Tutorial videos after the cut
As lust-inducing modernized versions of classic German audio hardware go, this ReBraun MP3 player from Bootleg Objects is at the top of its game. Based on the 1962 Audio 1 Kompaktanlage, the ReBraun swaps the radio gauges for twin LCD displays, plus there’s WiFi for audio streaming.
We saw a DIY Segway all the way back in August 2007, but it’s taken a little longer for wheels to evolve into legs. The Cajun Crawler was built by a team at the University of Louisiana, with the platform design of a Segway but moving on legs rather than a pair of self-balancing wheels.
Video demo after the cut
Musical Bra. Not, perhaps, two words you’d expect to see together, but somehow hypnotic now that you do. Take one bra, add to it the guts of a cheap electronic musical toy – such as the $1 toy keyboard used in the original Instructable – and then hit the streets asking strangers to palpate your tuneful chest.
Based on the open-source Uzebox project, the Fuzebox is a DIY 8-bit console kit where you not only build the hardware but write the software too. Titles can be written for the Fuzebox in C, plus there’s an emulator available to test them out.
A netbook might not be much cop for video editing, but it’s certainly clever enough to act as the brain of a robot. That’s the attitude robo-makers RoBe:Do have taken, with their first two software-ready autonomous robots, each delivered full-assembled and just waiting for your Eee PC (or similar) to drop in and control things.
Video demo after the cut
In the right hands, a calculator can be not a force for mathematics but a source of endless fun. I’m not just talking about writing rude words upside-down, either; how about loading Super Mario on the TI-84.
The new Mac mini is all well and good, but anybody hoping for gobfuls of extra capacity will come away disappointed. Apple’s entry-level mini gets 120GB of storage, and it costs $175 to take that up the official 320GB maximum. Happily iFixit decided to step in and take matters into their own hands, with a nine-page pictorial guide to fitting your Mac mini with 1TB of storage.
SlashGear Japan
