It’s taken them over 500 pages of hacking, but earnest tweakers over at xda-developers have managed to get Android 1.6 Donut running on the hitherto Windows Mobile 6.1 HTC Diamond. The first-gen Diamond has a compact 2.8-inch resistive touchscreen running at VGA resolution, and the hacked Android ROM is reportedly responsive together with offering support for both WiFi and GPS.
Video demo after the cut
Android is slowly but surely appearing on a number of UMPCs and MIDs, but if you actually want to buy one – as opposed to just read about it – your options are still pretty limited. Over at jkOnTheRun our friend Kevin C. Tofel’s patience has expired and so he’s loaded Android 1.6 onto his Samsung Q1UP UMPC, courtesy of the Android-x86 project.
Dell’s Mini 9 netbook may be a little old in the tooth these days, but its angular casing makes it a great donor machine for a netslate project. That’s just what MyDellMini forum member Rob did (to his Dell Vostro A90, the business-rebrand of the Mini 9), adding a touchscreen layer, flipping the display and relocating the power button.
NES console mods are cool, HTPCs are pretty cool, and nettops with NVIDIA Ion graphics are darned cool too, so when you put all three elements together you’ve got a recipe for something with a whole lot of cool potential. Modder drumboog has been video documenting his work transforming a NES into an Atom 330 based Blu-ray HTPC with GeForce 9400M graphics, and while it’s not quite complete yet, it’s certainly 99-percent awesome.
Video after the cut
A page of CrystalMark benchmark results may not be the most interesting image to lead with, but when you’re showing the overclock results of pushing Sony’s VAIO P not-a-netbook from its stock 1.86GHz up to 2.3GHz, then we’ll take notice. EeeUser Forum member Cerano was responsible for the modifications, and in fact got his VAIO P cranked up to 2.4GHz (though he didn’t benchmark it at that speed).
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.
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
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
JP
