Category: DIY + Hacks

I came across this nifty concept for an electronic plaything earlier this week and thought I’d share it with you guys. Steve Gilbertson’s interactive color cube uses a 3-axis accelerometer to detect movements and relays that information to a grid of brightly colored LEDs to create a portable light show in a box.

Here’s an amazing Xbox 360 that looks like it just crawled its way out of the Everglades. The alligator-themed 360 is covered with a lizard-textured skin, and even has an realistic alligator eyeball in place of its power switch.

Back in its day, the design of the classic iMac was pretty groundbreaking. Sure, by today’s standards, the original iMac was a little bulbous, but did it really deserve this punishment? The mutant offspring of an old G3 iMac and a VHS deck, Cory Baker’s iVHS casemod is one of the ugliest Mac designs I’ve ever seen.

These replacement covers for the Sony PSP give the portable console an ethereal glow. Just place your PSP in daylight for a few minutes, and then switch off the lights and watch your system glow. The XCM Magic Night Glow face plate attaches onto the front of your Sony PSP (slim model only), and look totally different when the lights are off than on.

Looking for an easy way to give your Playstation 3 a cool new look? This add-on cover plate lets you put a shiny new face on your gloss black PS3. XCM’s Smart Face Plate snaps onto the top of your PS3, giving it a new facade without major surgery.

This awesome NES casemod manages to squeeze a fully-functional Nintendo 8-bit console into the body of one of the system’s own game cartridges. The Fami-Card started out its life as an original Super Mario Brothers cartridge.

While it’s common for casemodders to go to great lengths to convert their desktop systems into portables, It’s not often that I see laptops transformed into desktops. But in this case, the end result is truly a major improvement over the original.

Looks like our favorite god of mods is at it again. This time, Ben Heck has really outdone himself with this amazing feat of engineering — cramming an entire Playstation 3 into a laptop. The portable PS3 features a slick, glossy black case, and a nice big 17-inch LCD screen running at 720p resolution.

Want to score a really cool, original laptop? Then get your checkbooks ready. On Monday, May 12, PC Magazine is launching an online charity auction (on eBay) of nine custom HP laptops lovingly embellished by famous U.S.

Almost a year ago a RedPost made news with their hackable Linux picture frame, the RedPost/Kit. Today, the guys at RedPost announced Kit’s better, faster, stronger kid brother, the Signbeta. While it certainly can be used as a digital picture frame, RedPost’s real mission is to replace wasteful paper-covedred bulletin boards with an electronic version.

If I saw this brightly glowing motorcycle coming down the street, I’d definitely have to stop and stare. Alas, it’ll never get out of the starting gate. This heavily modded, liquid-cooled PC is strictly for use while parked (unless you want to strap a monitor to your lap while riding, and connect a really long extension cord).

A while back, I showed you guys a cool metallic shell for the Xbox 360, but as is the issue with many of these replacement shells, there’s no way to use it with the newer 360 Premium or Elite models which have an HDMI port.

Every day, I come across all sorts of cool homebrew robot projects, but never thought I had the skills or patience to make my own. Now, thanks to a generous member of the ‘bot building community, even the most novice builders can crank out their own little robots with ease.

Google’s Android platform might be designed for mobile devices, but that didn’t stop this guy from making an Android-inspired desktop computer. Built by software engineer (and self-proclaimed geek) Eric Burke, the Android PC is inspired by the green ‘droid head on the Android logo.

Can’t get enough of the classic arcade games up on Xbox Live? Then you probably know how miserable it can be to play most of the old school arcade games with the 360’s modern controller. I guess that’s why this one-of-a-kind custom 360 arcade controller has me green with envy.

I’m as addicted to Rock Band as the next gaming geek, but I still wish the strum bar on the game’s Fender Stratocaster felt more like a real guitar string. Now you get your hands on a mod kit which will let you swap out the plastic strum bar with an actual metal guitar string.