Opening up your brand new HDTV and soldering wires directly to its control board takes a certain type of devil-may-care attitude, but in doing so one new owner found he could bypass HDCP. HDCP is the often-frustrating copy-protection system that insists on a “digital handshake” between DVI/HDMI connected components; however, the InstaPort Fast HDMI Switching system in this “big brand” TV fails to re-encrypt with HDCP in-between the control board and the switcher.
The original TV series of Batman may have over-err’d on the side of tights, but it had a few fantastic gimmicks. This Batman-themed hidden entrance was actually for a school homecoming dance, and was the work of Low Voltage’s Jimmy; he rigged up a reproduction Shakespeare bust (complete with hidden button), disguised door and even a motorized opening mechanism.
Part of Nokia’s challenge to cement the N900 and Maemo is in drawing developers to the open-source platform, and to do that they’ve kicked off PUSH N900, a “unique design, hacking and modding project”. To mark the event – which will see winning proposals rewarded with an N900, funding and support to deliver on their idea – the Finns commissioned four sample projects, inspired by the ’80s and using the N900 in distinctive ways. These ended up including a 3D ViewMaster camera, digital Rolodex, 80’s radio tagger/Last.fm integration, and a Speak and Spell mashup.
If, like me, you’ve always had a sneaking suspicion that computers are powered by tiny animals rather than the “electricity” government conspiracy, then this DIY iMac hamster cage might appeal. Up for sale on eBay – for a whopping $350 buy-it-now, no less – it’s an original blue iMac with the guts removed and mesh walls inserted.
Be still my beating retro heart. Ben Heck has been flexing his awesome mod-skills and produced this incredible Atari 800 laptop casemod, replete with hearing-aid-beige casing, authentic keyboard – which pops-up at an angle – and front-loading cartridge slot.
Video demo after the cut
EFI-X’s OS X hack dongle always seemed too good to be true; according to a new report from Tom’s Hardware, it really was. The adapter promised to take a computer built from standard PC components and allow Mac OS X to be installed on it, without the usual patching and tweaking required for a regular “Hackint0sh”. However, as one EFI-X owner has discovered, it seems the company did little more than repackage Chameleon/Boot-132 bootloader code onto a DRM-encrypted USB stick.
There’s a lot to like about the Nokia N900 already, but integration with Meccano’s robotics kits is the icing on the cake. Unfortunately this isn’t an official app, but the handiwork of one of the Maemo open-source advocates at Nokia, who can now be followed around his house with the robot and N900 playing music.
Video demo after the cut
The plans of many official Android-based netbooks and Smartbooks may be on hold as companies tentatively measure the market, but if you’re desperate for a blast of Google’s open-source OS on your budget ultraportable then there are certainly ways to do it yourself. The latest tutorial we’ve spotted comes courtesy of UMPC Fever, who have put the latest build of Android OS 2.0 Donut onto their Eee PC.
Video demos after the cut
While it may be getting on for a year old now, we’ve still got a soft-spot for HTC’s Touch HD, so it’s nice to see the homebrew ROM community endevoring to bring the latest software to the smartphone. XDA Developers forum member Miri has put together a combination ROM of Windows Mobile 6.5 and the new TouchFLO 3D 2.6 build fresh from pre-production HTC Leo handsets, and you can see it demonstrated after the cut.
Video demo after the cut
We’ve a soft-spot for DIY netbook tablet PC conversions here at SlashGear, so it’s always nice to see a user turn their budget notebook into something a whole lot more interesting. EeeUser forum member Maine_Coon turned his ASUS Eee PC 900HA into a finger-friendly 8.9-inch slate, flipping the display around and adding a touchscreen layer on top.
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