Instructables user jvalal didn't like the look of his Powermat inductive device charging station, so he stripped out the guts and "re-skinned" it with a handmade wooden case.

If you own an older Android phone and were curious about Google Maps Navigation, but were afraid to ask, here's instructions to get it running. [via AndroidCentral]

Our buds at iFixIt wanted to see a teardown of a new Motorola Droid, so they offered a $300 bounty to the first person who'd field strip and document the deconstruction of their Droid. Dr. Wreck answered the call. Here are the results of his investigation.

Kyle, of iFixIt, writes:

The phone was quite a handful to take apart, having a multitude of hidden screws and latches. Interestingly enough, the sliding mechanism consisted of two rails that were imbedded within the screen portion of the device, providing a simple and effective method to slide out the keyboard. Sadly, no aliens or hidden messages to Princess Leia were found inside.

Motorola Droid Teardown

This has to be the coolest car mount for any mobile device out there. Originally designed for home use, maker remington870_20ga from the everythingpre.com forums wired a stock Palm Touchstone Charging Dock to run directly off his car battery using off-the-shelf components. Not only do you get an unencumbered view of the screen, your mobile device gets a chance to charge itself without all the messy cables.

Hot on the heels of the recent release of a mobile image editing app for the iPhone, Adobe unveils its photoshop.com mobile for Android. [via phandroid]

This novel approach to cellphone microscopy from Dr. Aydogan Ozcan from the University of California, Los Angeles, foregoes bulky lenses and magnifies electronically.

For this electronic system of magnification, inexpensive light-emitting diodes added to the basic cellphone shine their light on a sample slide placed over the phone's camera chip. Some of the light waves hit the cells suspended in the sample, scattering off the cells and interfering with the other light waves.

Far From a Lab? Turn a Cellphone Into a Microscope [via picturephoning]

More:
Cameraphone microscope extension revisited
Cell phone camera turned remote microscope

Master iPhone unlocker George Hotz aka GeoHot has done it again. Apparently the current iPhone 3G/3GS baseband has been successfully cracked and new unlock code titled blacksn0w will soon become available through the blackr1n jailbreak. [via iPhoneSchool]

Android hacker Akia Harada has successfully ported the latest version of Android to the T-Mobile G1/HTC Dream. It's an early build that needs optimization, but it does boot and gives those brave enough to install it a glimpse of the new Android 2.0 operating system. [via AndroidGuys]

Check out this cool Android-based head mounted display. Andrew Lim of recombu.com used an HTC Magic running Google Street View, safety goggles, and some cardboard to fashion one of the coolest HMD this side of Lawnmowerman. [Thanks, Andrew!]

This ad for Vodafone New Zeland is an impressive technical feat. They loaded up 1000 cell phones with ringtones for single instruments, and then built a system to send text messages to them in the correct order, to get them to perform a portion of Tchaikovsky's 1812 overture. Considering the amount of delay that I usually notice when sending messages, I was pretty surprised that they claim to have performed this over their regular cell network. [via gizmodo]

Motorola's new Android UI has been ported to the HTC G1. The accompanying video of the unofficial build shows off many of the user enhancements shipping with the newer Motorola Android based phones. [via Android and Me]

A number of folks have been working determinedly at getting video recording capabilities functioning on the Palm Pre since it's debut. Well, it would seem that the long wait is over. The recently released software is homebrew and a little rough around the edges, but apparently does record 320x480px@30fps. It doesn't take full advantage of the Pre's hardware, but it's a start.

[via IntoMobile]

Layar, the augmented reality app for the Android platform will be incorporating 3D capabilities into the application in November. They've released a tech preview this week for PICNIC '09 in Amsterdam. The preview, which is available from the Android Market (and only works with-in and around the PICNIC festival) is a significant improvement over flat pins on a map and hopefully encourages people to further investigate the use of augmented reality.

[via androidworld.nl]

If you've ever tried to watch a movie on your phone in bed then you'll definitely appreciate this free-standing phone stand hack from Andrew over at Recombu. There's never been an easier way to get your lazy on. Enjoy.

[via recombu]

If you've ever been stuck on a cross-country flight and needed something to prop up your mobile while you watched a movie, then you'll love this clever adjustable folding stand from the creator of the iPhone Paper Clip Stand. The design itself is ripe for modification. Laser-etched business cards anyone?

[via iPhone Atlas]

What's the first thing that comes to mind when you're handed a N900 and told to connect it to another object? That's what was asked of design studio Tinker.it in preparation of a promotional contest recently launched by Nokia. Tinker.it collaborated with London agency Hyper to devise and build four example objects "inspired by the 80's".

Built using the Arduino platform, they were extremely intriguing: a Speak and Spell which was used to text a message to a member of the audience, a Rolodex which identified a contact's details after being manually spun and automatically pulled it up on the phone, an FM radio hack which identified any '80's musician texted to the phone and then connected to Last.fm to pull up the relevant cover art as you tuned the radio to a station playing the selected artist's music, and finally a View-Master which used the phone to create custom 3D photos.

Hacking 80's Gadgets with the Nokia N900: PUSH N900 London Launch

[via psfk]

Stephen "Doc" Combs of Bricks in my Pocket fame pieced together this fully functional LEGO rotating dock for an iPod/iPod touch. Besides watching video in landscape mode it's perfect for use with an alarm clock app.

As I began to create this little contraption I said to myself, "How could this be a bit cooler and more functional?" The answer was to make it a rotating dock so I could watch movies and apps in landscape mode.

[via hackaday]

Poking a hole in his commercial iPhone window mount with a Dremel tool was all it took for Tim Cox to be the proud owner of a brand new dash cam. Goes to show that not all good hacks need to be complicated. Sometimes all it takes is finding the right spot and poking a hole to see what's on the other side.

Got a Palm Pre and would like an on-screen keyboard, but didn't want to bend over backwards to get it installed? You're in luck. The WebOS Internals and preware.org folks have packaged everything needed to install the on-screen keyboard into a patch for their Preware app installer, making it a relatively painless process.

[via Gizmodo]

@brady mentions some of the noteworthy tech coming to this year's Burning Man festival in this article over at O'Reilly Radar. Items of interest include local SMS and Burning Man Earth online directory, API, and beta iPhone app.

Burning Man Gets an API (and a Whole Lot More)

Using a couple computers, a PhidgetInterfaceKit with RelayBoard, and a bevy of client/server software, Matthias Wagler and friends from Intuity Media Lab built a Rube Goldberg XMPP messaging system to frob a light using an Andorid-powered mobile device. Check out this behind-the-scenes video detailing set-up.

[via hackaday]

Speaking of 'Making Things Talk"...

This is an follow-up to an earlier post about yanking the lens from an old DVD player and using it with a cameraphone to take close-up photos.

It just so happens I have a need for a macro lens for something other than snapping picts of coins and PCB's. I'm working on a project that involves QR codes and thought this might help me out when dealing with fixed focus cameraphones. Alas, the focal length of DVD optics are meant for things measured in millimeters, so it isn't going to work for barcode scanning. Fortunately, after doing a little digging around, I found this handy Instructables project that uses the lens from a viewfinder of a disposable camera, a cheap rubber case, and a paper fastener, that seems like a viable solution.

[via Instructables]

There are numerous DIY iPhone tripod mount projects out there, but this modified design by Jason Quinn is quite slick. His introduction of a silicone case to replace rubber bands in an existing design and good attention to finish pay off in overall aesthetics. It's a good riff on a great hack. [via sampletheweb]

Even if you've got a newer phone with an auto-focus lens you may still be able to take advantage of this resourceful macro lens hack. Disassemble an old DVD player for the lens, fabricate a lens holder out of cardboard, and place it before the standard lens with some poster mount, and you've got yourself a decent DIY macro lens.

[cnflikt via DIYphotography]

Using a custom APK file you can root your Android phone with relative ease. Once rooted, you're free to install one of the latest custom Android ROMs on the phone and enjoy new features still in development or scratch that itch the standard SDK won't facilitate.

Android Rooting in 1-click [via RyeBrye & Hackaday]

Some N97 owners find the integrated GPS doesn't perform as well as they'd like, so they've taken it upon themselves to render a proper fix. Using a copper wire attached to the existing antenna, Symbian Freak contributors Bruno and Teo have greatly improved their signal strength and can go about geocaching with fewer dropped signals.

[via Symbian Freak]

If you own a N97 and think the UI could use a little eye candy, you should check out this detailed tutorial by Vaibhav Sharma. In as little as five minutes you could be up and running with these custom transition effects.

[via TheSymbianBlog]

Here's something for someone that has everything: a personalized MakerBot-printed iPhone/iPod dock. Made to order, the doc features a sturdy lower housing made from 5MM plywood and a custom top housing personalized with your initials or, if you choose, the standard "BotMade" logo.

[via Etsy]

In this video David from theunlockr.com shows us how to root the Hero, HTC's latest Android phone. With a rooted Hero you can do all kinds of fun stuff like run apps and swap space from an SD card in addition to running apps as a privileged user. Overclocking also becomes a possibility once you pwn your phone. Remember folks: If you can't open it, you don't own it.

[via phonedog]