Its Electronica

Posted Feb 7th 2008 10:28PM by Joshua Topolsky
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

While browsing the ‘net recently, we came across three separate DIY / mod articles (all stemming from our friends at Make) related to musical instruments, and realized that if combined… it’s almost a band (or at least the White Stripes). The first is a step-by-step guide to making your own Rock Band-esque drum triggers that can interface with your PC, allowing you to perform freestyle — though you can still bang away at games with them. The second experiment lets you add USB to a standard electric guitar, thus enabling you to record directly out of your Firebird (or other axe) straight to disk, reducing your time in the studio and freeing up your schedule for rehab. Finally, if you’ve got a USB guitar, you’ll probably want some effects as well — we suggest making them yourself using the handy kits in the link below. Okay, so it’s not technically a band quite yet, but with a little elbow grease, questionable hairstyles, and a cash-embezzling manager, you’ll be on your way to a Behind the Music (or passing reference on Pitchfork) in no time.

[Via Make, Make, and Make]

Read - Electronic Drum Set with Controller
Read - How to Build a USB Guitar
Read - Build your own effects pedal

Patick Collison coded an offline Wikipedia app for the iPhone over his Christmas break because he likes “the warm fuzzy feeling of having the sum of all human knowledge in his pocket”. For the same reason that we do not own an iPhone yet, he wanted to prevent online Wikipedia users to go nuts over the slow EDGE connection.

The app takes 2.2 GB and I am not sure if iPhone users would like to spare the storage space for it. If you do, watch Patrick’s tutorial video on YouTube about the installation.

Posted Feb 7th 2008 5:47PM by Nilay Patel
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

We’ve seen some pretty out there solar installations, but JAXA, the Japanese space agency, is about to get really far out with its latest project: a space-based solar array that beams power back to Earth. The agency is set to begin testing on the microwave power transmission system on February 20th, with an attempt to beam enough power over the 2.4GHz band to power a household heater at 50 meters (164 feet). That’s certainly not the sort of large-scale sci-fi power system we were hoping for, but fret not — if the tests are successful, JAXA’s plan is to eventually launch a constellation of solar satellites, each beaming power to a 1.8-mile wide receiving station that’ll produce 1 gigawatt of electricity and power 500,000 homes.

Top 13 of the USB mice - Part 1

Feb 07, 2008 Why don’t you want to choose a pretty, outstanding mouse for you computer or laptop? The wide variety of different modern mice shocks. That’s why, be cool and stylish and check out the following top.

Number 13. Let’s start with the most classical variant. Genius Traveler 515 Laser Mouse is a great representative of mice. It has laconic and not unusual design, but its features are great. It is nice for advanced PC users. The gadget delivers ultra smooth working performance and better surface coverage than the regular optical mouse, which means you won’t have any problems while working with it. A hyper speed scrolling function was created to make the use of it very comfortable.

Number 12. USB Travelmate Mouse has its own unique advantages. At first, it is unbelievable compact and light, that is great for traveling. Then, thanks to retractable USB cable, you can keep and take it everywhere with you. You should agree with me that tangled cord is not the most pleasant moment.

Number 11. Casio USB Label Mouse Printer is a fresh look on the mice design. The gadget performs two functions. On the one hand, it is a great mouse for your PC. On the other hand, with its help you may leave messages for somebody. The use of label printouts as self-stick removable notes for messages, phone numbers, and memos is the second function of the mouse.

Number 10. There also exist cute mice for children. I bet your child wants to have its own pretty funny mouse for PC. Penguin Optical Mouse looks amazing. It will bring more pleasant emotions to your child. Who knows, maybe you will like this cute bright mouse as well. Don’t worry about the shape; it perfectly fits your hand.

Is the world’s most prolific mobile processor designer finally cozying up to Google and its Open Handset Alliance? It certainly looks like it. According to Reuters, we could be getting our first official glimpse of what an Android-based smartphone can do next week at the Mobile World Congress wireless show in Barcelona.

Sources say that ARM — a company that designs processor cores found in the iPhone, the Nintendo DS, various Blackberries and basically every other popular mobile device — will demonstrate new prototype phones next Monday, all running Google’s open source Android operating system.

To date, ARM has been one of the more notable holdouts from Google’s OHA. In fact, Samsung, Marvell and Texas Instruments (all companies that actually manufacture the ARM-based processor cores) are already a part of the handset alliance. And even though the Linux-based Android already theoretically supports ARM-based processors, development can be a headache, especially if developers want to create software that works consistently across phones from multiple manufacturers.

[via Reuters]