Playing Xbox Live While Driving Via Google WiFi

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Google, Internet, Microsoft, Mods / Hacks, Transportation, Video Games, Videos,

So, my boy Jake Ludington dropped me an email this morning telling me that if I had been home this weekend and answered my phone, I would have been able to take part in this experiment that he was a part of where a group of people got together down in Mountain View, CA, and got their Xbox Live gaming on in a moving vehicle. Of course, Mountain View is the place where Google has blanketed the city in free WiFi, which is how this was all possible in the first place. In order to get it done, they used a Windows XP computer to connect to WiFi, and had the Xbox 360 pick up the shared Internet connection, thus allowing it to jump online for some Rainbow Six and Uno action. Check the video above for the proof.

The Battery Converter Transforms AA Battery into a D Cell

Posted by Lolita Beckwith Categories: Smart Home, Mods / Hacks,

We wonder if the D-Cell battery suffers from low self-esteem, as it’s never been as popular as rivals AA and AAA. Another blow to D’s self-image is the Battery Converter, a plastic case the size and shape of a D-cell with connectors that allow you to slip in a AA…and use it as a D battery. Ouch. Since both AA’s and D’s have the same voltage, it’s an easy conversion—just don’t expect them to last as long as bona fide D-cells. At $5 USD for two, we think the Battery Converter has potential, especially for your flashlights during blackouts.

Read More | Brando via Shiny Shiny

Horntones FX-550 Customizes the Sound of Your Car Horn

Posted by Lolita Beckwith Categories: Mods / Hacks, Transportation,

We live in a society that loves to customize it’s cell phones and cars. Well the folks at Horntones have ingeniously taken that notion a step further: in April look for the Horntones FX-550, a clever $150 USD device that lets you to customize the sound of your horn using almost any standard audio file. The dashboard-mounted device stores hundreds of different sounds; some are pre-loaded, and more can be downloaded from Horntones.com. Here’s the fun but scary part: you can create your own tones in MP3 or WAV format. Yes, you can have any sound or song clip as your horn, whether it’s naughty, nice or just flat-out obnoxious. A USB thumb drive transfers the sounds from your computer to the player, which never has to leave your car. You can even create your own themes, utilizing the 8 preset buttons on the player. Could be fun, or a complete nightmare on the roads if this actually catches on.

Read More | Horntones via Gizmag

Parallels Coherence With WindowBlinds Is Near Perfect

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Design, Mods / Hacks, PC / Laptop, Software,

If you are using Parallels on OS X and want the smoothest looking interface possible, you may want to consider installing WindowBlinds in your Windows installation. As you can see in the image above, using a WindowBlinds skin on Windows, you can make the applications look almost exactly like standard OS X apps. That means that when you enable coherence mode, you are going to feel like all of your running applications are a native part of OS X. Not bad at all. Hit the link for a higher resolution image.

Read More | Flickr

CES 2007: iRobot Create: A Roomba That Doesn’t Suck (Literally)

Posted by Chris Cardinal Categories: CES, CES 2007, Features, Mods / Hacks, Toys,

Robotic vacuum manufacturer iRobot has always taken a shine to the modders who hack their Roombas in all sorts of new ways. Delivering an open serial port and full instructions on how to utilize it was a great gesture and a very forward thinking move for them, but their latest, the iRobot Create, might really take off. The Create is essentially a Roomba without all of the vacuuming guts. It’s an open platform, with a bunch of expansion and input and output ports on top, and more room to toy with it, since you don’t have to worry about a place to put all that dust and cat hair. Add-on peripherals will be available, but iRobot expects and encourages users to build their own to interface with it, citing a hamster-ball-driven navigation system one test group has already delivered.

The Create is available right now and is selling for the completely reasonable price of $129.99, with an 8-bit command module costing an additional $59.99.

I can see a lot of educational robot teams and the like buying into this, straight away.

Product Page

(A picture of a beer-fetching Create, after the jump.)

Click to continue reading CES 2007: iRobot Create: A Roomba That Doesn’t Suck (Literally)

The Bleeding Edge 065: Sticks and Stones

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Design, Features, Mods / Hacks, Videocasts, Videos,

Read More | The Bleeding Edge

Bleeding Edge 058: Dissecting The Microsoft Zune

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Design, Features, Microsoft, Mods / Hacks, Portable Audio / Video, Videocasts,

Read More | The Bleeding Edge

Gear Live Gallery: Microsoft Zune Dissected

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Features, Microsoft, Mods / Hacks, Portable Audio / Video,

So we have been playing around with a couple of Zune’s here at Gear Live HQ for a little bit, and decided that we would give you all a peek at the innards of Microsoft’s soon-to-launch digital media player. Jump on over to our Zune Dissection Gallery to get a glimpse of each and every piece that is inside the device that you will all be wanting come November 14. We snapped over 40 images of the take-apart process, so we hope you enjoy it. No worries, the Zune wasn’t harmed in the least, and is now back together, fully functional.

Read More | Zune Dissection Gallery

Bleeding Edge 057: InvisibleSHIELD For Nintendo DS Lite

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Accessories, Design, Features, Mods / Hacks, Video Games, Videocasts,

Read More | The Bleeding Edge

Bleeding Edge 056: How To Turn A Human Into A Borg

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Design, Features, Mods / Hacks, Videocasts,

Read More | The Bleeding Edge