Both practical and not-so-practical applications for the Wiimote have been around since Nintendo’s console launched, but this latest hack is quite possibly the oddest thus far. Ken Moore, tinkerer extraordinaire, has inexplicably converted the controller into a new-fangled theremin. By coupling IR-infused gloves with a JV-1080 synth and the Wiimote’s built-in Bluetooth, he’s been able get his PC to recognize the left hand position as volume, and the right hand position as pitch. Once the IR camera in the Wiimote sends the positioning info back to the PC, MIDI sends it to the synthesizer to create sound. Now, you could just pick up a copy of Guitar Hero or Rock Band if you wanted to casually riff on some classics, but if you’ve got an intrinsic urge to perform a rendition of the original Star Trek theme, this might be your speed. Peep the setup in video action after the break.
[Via Joystiq]
Continue reading Wiimote repurposed into theremin, Vincent Price’s ghost perks up
Filed under: Gaming
Wiimote repurposed into theremin, Vincent Price’s ghost perks up originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Dec 2008 10:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Admit it. You’ve got an old GameCube from yesteryear laying around, and the slow economy (and fear for your life) is holding you back from running to your nearest brick-and-mortar to pick up a Classic Controller for your Wii. You know you want to play Super Mario 64 to work off that turkey, but you can’t justify laying out the cash. Fret not; YouTube user marcan42 has you covered, courtesy of a PIC18F4520 microcontroller and makeshift GameCube connector, along with a chopped off Nunchuk extension cord. Of course, you could just pick up a different model, but that would be way too easy. We didn’t say it was pretty, but if you’re still intrigued, check the full vid after the break.
Update: As a bunch of commenters have pointed out, this can be done already by plugging the GameCube controller directly into the Wii. However, this mod lets you do it wirelessly — err, if you don’t count the big microcontroller and mess of wires.
Continue reading Man hacks GameCube controller for the Wii with tremendous effort
Filed under: Gaming
Man hacks GameCube controller for the Wii with tremendous effort originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 29 Nov 2008 12:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Following hot on the heals of the
Sega Saturn case mod we saw last month, the gang from Akiba PC in Japan are back with the Dreamcast PC. This machine sports a Sony NEC Blu-ray drive, an AMD mini-ITX mainboard with 780G Chipset and ATI Radeon HD 3200 Graphics, HDMI output, 4GB RAM and 160GB storage. We thought that the four USB ports (previously the console’s controller ports) were a particularly nice touch. Manufactured for ¥100,000 (roughly $1,045), the machine is unlikely to go on sale any time in the near future, but if you’re so inclined feel free to take the long weekend and jet over for a look yourself. Be sure to tell ‘em Engadget sent you. And mourn for
Shenmue.
Filed under: Desktops, Gaming
Dreamcast PC features Blu-ray, nostalgia for the late 1990s originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 27 Nov 2008 08:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Some good news for iPod touch owners: one enterprising individual going by the nom de mod timmyj9 has figured out how to enable the Street View functionality in the media player’s version 2.2 firmware — albeit with some glitches. If your iPod touch is jailbroken, and if you enjoy this sort of illegitimate activity, feel free to hit the link below for some thrilling step-by-step directions. And if that wasn’t exciting enough for you, we’ve just espied a video that pits the original iPhone and the iPhone 3G against both a first and a second generation iPod touch in a fight to the death (or more accurately, TouchSport Tennis). Admittedly, this is not the most scientific of benchmarks, but the clip (after the break) clearly shows the 532MHz second generation iPod touch rocking the 3D graphics faster than its 412MHz iPhone 3G counterpart. As expected, neither the original iPhone nor the first generation iPod fare nearly as well as their siblings.
Continue reading iPod touch gets Street View, beats iPhone 3G at tennis
Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds
iPod touch gets Street View, beats iPhone 3G at tennis originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 24 Nov 2008 06:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Filed under: Laptops
You know good and well you were instantly jealous of the multi-finger gesture support announced for those minty fresh new Mac laptops, and if you’re finally ready to ditch that envy you’ve been harboring and just get even, have a look. Without even resorting to gangsterism, users of pre-October 2008 Apple laptops can get the four-finger Exposé and Application Switching working — all’s that required is the install disc from a unibody MacBook, a little tweak of the registry and a pinch of patience. We can’t say for sure how far back this hack will go (we’re guessing your PowerBook G3 is out of luck), but we do know that it works just fine with a January ‘08 MacBook Air. Give it a go if you’re a risk taker, but don’t blame us if your atoms start to melt.
[Via MacRumors]
Four-finger gestures hacked into older MacBooks originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 15 Nov 2008 16:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Filed under: Desktops, Laptops
When we first laid eyes upon the slick box pictured above, we were struck with an eerie feeling of déjà vu. Now, it all makes sense. After receiving an all-but-completely-dead MacBook, one particular modder decided to rip the motherboard out, break out the soldering iron, throw in a few replacement parts and shove everything into a Macally G-S350SUA aluminum hard drive enclosure. Wanna know why? Because he had a peek at this — a Mac Pro Mini mod that popped up here in March. Talk about taking inspiration and improving upon it.
[Via Hack-A-Day]
MacBook innards crammed into makeshift mini Mac Pro tower originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 15 Nov 2008 12:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Filed under: Gaming
The SNES has certainly proven to be one of the most popular consoles to get the portable treatment among those go-getter console modders out there, and it looks like it’s not showing any signs of losing that status, with this so-called SNEP (Super Nintendo Entertainment Portable) only the latest to pop up on our radar. As you can see above, this one is a tad less portable than some
other handheld SNES mods we’ve seen (it also apparently needs to be plugged in), but it does at least do better job than most at staying true to the SNES’s (or, more accurately, the Super Famicom’s) instantly-recognizable appearance. There’s no plans available for building your own, unfortunately, but you can check it out in action in the video after the break.
[Via Nintendo Wii Fanboy]
Continue reading New SNES portable is heavy on the SNES, light on the portable
New SNES portable is heavy on the SNES, light on the portable originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 10 Nov 2008 16:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Filed under: Cellphones
It looks like the long, slow road to a domestic street date for the
XPERIA X1 could be coming to an end with the phone’s recent entry into the inventory system over at Best Buy. Of course, we’re taking all of this with the proverbial grain of salt, but looks like the X1A (as it’s known in North America) might actually hit the shelves on December 7 of this year, with a retail price of $799.99. There is no word on a possible contract price yet, and with all of the other options out there (Touch Pro and G1 come to mind) SE might have a tough time selling this one to consumers whenever it does see the light of day. We’ll have to wait and see.
Sony Ericsson’s X1A surfaces in Best Buy’s inventory originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 10 Nov 2008 16:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Filed under: Home Entertainment
We’re sorry you lost your fortune in the global financial crisis, but we’ve got some news to cheer you up — you might still be able to plaster your living room wall with HD video. Epson just launched the PowerLite Cinema 700, a 720p home theater projector that it claims is the first to retail at $799. Sure, they’ve made this kind of claim before, and it’s true that if you look hard enough you’ll probably find a couple other 720p projectors at that price, but we’re not gonna make a fuss — this 3LCD projector is a decent deal, what with it doing 2,000 lumens and having a 2,000:1 contrast ratio. It’s already available in Epson’s online store — or, at least it would be if it wasn’t sold out at the moment. Guess some other economically depressed folks thought it was a decent deal, too!
Epson PowerLite Cinema 700 costs only slightly more dollars than its horizontal line count originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 10 Nov 2008 15:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Storage
Instructables user grybaz has joined a special crew today with his masterful design, and that would be the oft-unappreciated DIY clock crowd. By utilizing a drill, screwdriver kit, pliers, a basic quartz clock movement and a dozen or so old hard drives, he was able to piece together something truly worthy of den placement. Handymen aren’t apt to find this one any more difficult than fixing that pipe that one time underneath the sink, so if you’re looking to do something useful with all of those 4GB 3.5-inch HDDs you’re still hanging onto from college, roll up your sleeves and hit the read link.
[Via Unplggd]
DIY’er constructs artsy wall clock from spare HDD parts, tells all originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 09 Nov 2008 10:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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