Hackintosh netbooks are nothing new, these days, and so the more extreme OS X tweakers move on to more esoteric hardware. We’ve already seen Sony’s VAIO UX-series UMPC running Apple’s OS, but Micro PC Talk user perrin21 has a particularly slick setup: a subtly modified Sony VAIO UX 390 running OS X 10.5.7 as though it just stepped off a Cupertino production line.
Video demo after the cut
One of the slightly less useful – but undeniably cool – elements predicted for the upcoming iPhone third-generation refresh is a glowing Apple logo. Apple’s design team may be disappointed to hear, though, that they’re not the first to do such a thing; in fact, a group of Russian modders spent around $300 last year making the logo on a first-gen iPhone glow.
Video demo after the cut
Taking something very familiar and twisting it into something new, this “Rubik’s Cube Font Generator” adapts the swiveling, rotating form-factor of the classic puzzle and changes it into a printing stamp. The handiwork of Jas Bhachu of the Liverpool School of Art & Design, the cube has rubber stamp impressions on four of its sides, and by twisting it through different orientations can create a variety of characters.
Desk PC mods are relatively rare, but not unseen, but they generally aim to discretely hide the computer into the furniture. Popular Mechanics’ version, however, puts everything very much on show: a water-cooled Intel quad-core PC sandwiched inside clear acrylic and bolted to a custom aluminum frame.
We’ve seen automated guns and remote-control weapons here on SlashGear before, but this Nerf Sentry Gun is particularly slick. Designed and created by Jason Wright and Jeremy Blum as part of their robotics class at Cornell, the sentry uses a webcam to authenticate ID badges; if your name isn’t on the list then, like Finland in Eurovision 2009, you’re shot down.
Video demo after the cut
There are quite a few Rock Band guitar controllers on the market, ranging from the cheap to the surprisingly expensive, but one thing they generally have in common is the plastic strum bar. It doesn’t have to be that way, though; one enterprising gamer has swapped out the plastic for a beam of infrared light which is recognized as a strum whenever you break it.
Video demo after the cut
Most reviewers of the Viliv S5 MID have said that the one thing that would make it the perfect mobile internet device would be integrated 3G. While such a model is available in some areas, US importers are yet to offer it; that leaves adding your own WWAN in, which is just the tricky task jkkmobile is attempting in his latest guide video.
Video overview after the cut
As gaming mods go, adding a mouse to the Sony PSP will either make perfect sense or seem just plain stupid, depending on the type of games you play and whether you do that near a table or not. Either way, it’s a neat trick to fool the PSP (the USB port of which doesn’t support USB-host) into recognizing the mouse; that’s what one gamer has done.
Video demo after the cut
The best hacks don’t necessarily make a gadget any easier to use, or more discrete: they just make them cooler. That’s why this DIY glove phone is so awesome; it takes a Samsung A300 and a leather glove, and crafts a bizarre contraption that you dial by tapping buttons on the fingers, and use by holding your little finger to your mouth and your thumb to your ear.
Mark another one up for the iPhone’s hacking potential: using the cellphone’s accelerometers to remotely control airplanes and helicopters. FliPhone is a home-grown app by Josh Ziering, which allows him to link his iPhone to a Linksys WiFi router onboard the R/C planes.
Video demo after the cut
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