Make: Online: iPhone Archives

iPhone Archive: iPhone

June 27, 2009

iPod birthday cake

Looking for the perfect birthday cake for an Applephile? You couldn't go too far wrong with a cake like this cake from April Julian. No screen polishing needed here.

June 26, 2009

How to make a cheap tripod mount for the iPhone 3GS

Cheap iPod Mount

C.K. Sample III (author of PSP Hacks) just posted his technique for making an iPod tripod mount; he used the form-fitting packing material that came in the box as the basis of the holder. You could probably extend his technique to a lot of other gadgets, too:

I was thinking about this tonight, and remembered the nice little white holster of plastic that came in the box of my iPhone 3GS and cradled it so nicely. So, I took that, took a 3/16 drill bit and drilled a hole where the camera is and another where the recycle symbol was on the back of the plastic holster. I shaped each hole slightly wider using the drill. The recycle symbol hole was just the right size to be a bit tight for the mounting screw, so that the screw itself could tap its own path tightly in the plastic hold...

How to make a cheap tripod mount for the iPhone 3GS

June 19, 2009

iPhone motorcycle installation

RocketJohn rigged up his motorcycle and iPhone together to keep his phone charging while being able to listen to music (with a Bluetooth headset, I'm guessing), via @joepemberton.

Granular synthesis on iPhone

CDM points out this vid from m~fischer exploring sounds created from varying pieces of a sample -

the strange agency made this great little granular synthesis iphone application called curtis. it's named for composer, author, granular synth advocate curtis roads. this is just a quick little thing i recorded using a captured bit of sound from a thumb piano. pretty fun little application to play with.

I've always found the concept of granular synthesis compelling in theory but a bit unwieldy in practice. Being able to manipulate the sample parameters via touch would likely improve results - just wish Curtis had a way to transfer samples over to desktop audio software.

June 18, 2009

iPhone as sketch pad

Media player, mobile phone, Internet device, gaming console... sketch pad? It would seem that not only is the iPhone up-ending the mobile and gaming industries, but it seems to be making inroads into fine art as well. What had seemed like a novel concept for contemporary magazine cover art has turned into a global phenomenon. iPhone users across the world are producing fantastic works of art with little more than their index finger, a paint app, and a 3.5" screen.

By far, the top dog of the iPhone paint apps is Brushes. Its simple interface is both welcoming and direct. You get a canvas, brush picker, color picker and that multi-touch interface the iPhone is famous for.

What are you lookin at? by Susan Murtaugh

Circus (left) and Stinker by Mike Miller

Amazing iPhone Art [via digg]

June 16, 2009

Upcycle CD iPhone Dock

So you've got a pile of spent CDs you'd rather not toss into a landfill and a shiny new iPhone 3GS in need of a dock. What are you going to do? Well, if you're like Jules over at Geeky Gadgets you're going to do the green thing and fabricate an upcycle dock using available materials, a little all purpose adhesive, and the ever-popular Dremel rotary tool.

[via GeekyGadgets]

In the Maker Shed:

In the Maker Shed: iPhone Hacks

June 3, 2009

DIY iPhone Stylus

With such an elegant interface that begs to be touched, you might wonder why anyone would bother using a stylus with an iPhone, but there are times when such an implement comes in handy. When you find yourself in such a situation don't bother grabbing your old PDA stylus. You'll need something that works with the iPhone's capacitive touch screen like this handy DIY iPhone/iPod touch stylus pen.

May 28, 2009

Audio breakout cable for iPod/iPhone

Jesse Rutherford writes:

Have you ever wanted to plug in a professional studio mic to your ipod touch/iphone? There may be a commercial solution, but I couldn't find one. Even if there is one, I figured I could build one cheaper than a ready-made one. You could also use this for a line-in (my original reason for the project), but the source really needs to be taken down to mic level from line level for good sound quality.
The hardest part was finding the 3.5 mm 4 conductor plug (found it at Jameco). The soldering to the plug was a bit tricky too. I needed a cable with at least 4 conductors inside, and I wanted to build this for next-to-nothing, so I used some CAT5 ethernet cable I had. CAT5 has 8 conductors, so if you know of any other common cable with at least 4, you can use that.

Audio breakout cable for iPod/iPhone

May 26, 2009

The New Yorker cover art produced on iPhone

Jorge Colombo created the cover artwork for the June 1st issue of The New Yorker using an app called Brushes on his iPhone. The image was produced in about an hour outside Madame Tussuad's Wax Museum in Times Square.

"I got a phone in the beginning of February, and I immediately got the program so I could entertain myself," says Colombo, who first published his drawings in The New Yorker in 1994. Colombo has been drawing since he was seven, but he discovered an advantage of digital drawing on a nighttime drive to Vermont. "Before, unless I had a flashlight or a miner's hat, I could not draw in the dark." (When the sun is up, it's a bit harder, "because of the glare on the phone," he says.) It also allows him to draw without being noticed; most pedestrians assume he's checking his e-mail.

The video below, captured using the Brushes Viewer app, shows the technique Colombo used to produce the June 1st cover. He's also selling limited edition prints of his iPhone-produced work online.

Finger Painting [via iPhoneSavior]

May 21, 2009

Illuminated Apple logo iPhone case mod

This stylishly impractical backlit logo iPhone casemod involves a Dremel and apparently doesn't affect battery life. I'd be curious to see if there was any material on the build process as the video only shows the end result.

via Cult of Mac

May 20, 2009

Laser matrix projector for iPhone

Check out this iPhone-controlled 5x7 laser matrix built using 35 laser pointers, a PIC16F722 microcontroller, some miscellaneous parts, and a custom iPhone app.

Make a Laser Matrix Projector for the iPhone

May 19, 2009

Bacterial Orchestra uses iPhones to create "viral music"

Debuting at the Volt Festival (site in Swedish) on June 6th in Uppsala, Sweden, the latest incarnation of the Bacterial Orchestra - Public Epidemic No 1 - will be unleashed on a participating public. Organizers speculate impending world-wide sound pandemic.

What do you get if you gather hundreds of iPhones and let them play with each other? A huge musical organism that is not only self-organizing, but also evolving with the sound environment.
Enter the new generation: Bacterial Orchestra - Public Epidemic No 1 (2009).

Bacterial Orchestra (2006) is a self-organizing evolutionary musical organism. The installation consists of several audio cells. Every cell listens to its surroundings and picks up sounds, trying to play together in a musical way. The musical material comes from the background noise, people talking or sounds played by other cells.

Public Epidemic No 1 (2009) is a generation of the installation where each cell lives on an Apple iPhone (it can be ported to any mobile phone, but the iPhone was chosen because it's popular and the centralized App Store makes it easy for the epidemic to spread...

Bacterial Orchestra [via TUAW]

May 14, 2009

iPhone Hacks webcast

The authors of iPhone Hacks will be having a webcast Friday, May 15, 2009 at 10am PDT.

Register here to participate in this live event.

This webcast will focus on the last two chapters of iPhone Hacks, involving hardware and software development. We'll focus on some of the hardware and software development you can do without having to go through the app store, for personal or jailbreak community release. You'll learn various ways to get hardware connected to the iPhone, without having to go through the 3.0 approval process. We'll include several specific hacks on how to connect keyboards and serial devices to the phone.

Effortless podcasting on iPhone with Audioboo

Record iPhone audio directly to the cloud with the intuitive Audioboo app and have it automatically update facebook, twitter, and iTunes for effortless podcasting fun.

AudioBoo Makes Podcasting With iPhone Dead Simple [via Mashable]

May 13, 2009

How-To: Use SlingPlayer iPhone app over 3G

Folks looking for a little tube time with the new SlingPlayer iPhone app whilst bounding about outside of their Wi-Fi comfort zone can breathe easy again. Sebastien over at iPhone Download Blog has posted a short tutorial explaining how to get the SlingPlayer app to run over 3G and Edge networks. It's assumed you've already purchased all relevant products and services and don't mind taking the extra steps necessary for true ownership.

Use a SlingPlayer over 3G

May 10, 2009

iPhone controlled LEGO robot

BattleBricks posted awesome building instructions on how to get your own iPhone controlled LEGO robot working!

This is a demonstration of iPhone to Lego NXT Robot communication via the Safari browser and Lego's Light Sensor. To build this, you'll need a laptop, two iPhones, and a Lego NXT Robotics Kit. First, build your robot. Second write some Java LeJOS Robot code. Third write some Google Web Toolkit web application code. Fourth, plug in your iPhone into the robot, and use either a browser or another iPhone to drive the Lego Robot!

May 8, 2009

iPhone-controlled full-sized R2D2

Check out this detailed R2D2 reproduction. Using the accelerometer or OSC slider control on the iPhone makes this R2 unit's dome whirl back and forth. There are also buttons that control banks of sounds for different moods. Eventually more controls will make it over to the iPhone. Right now it's taking its first steps forward.

Astromech R2D2 [via ApplePhoneHacks]

May 7, 2009

How-To: Make a solar iPod/iPhone charger

Building on the original MintyBoost USB charger kit, this Instructables how-to will walk you through the steps of adding a Lithium Polymer battery pack and small solar cell. The extra capacity and added convenience of solar make this modification a must have for off-grid mobility.

MightyMintyBoost [via Gizmodo]

May 5, 2009

Using Skype over 3G on iPhone

Here's a simple tutorial on how to make Skype and other VoIP calls using 3G on a jailbroken iPhone:

Yet another reason why I am glad to have a jailbroken phone. Yup, this one is limited to those who are jailbroken, or willing to jailbreak. Anyway, it is possible, even easy to make VoIP calls on the iPhone using a cellular connection, which in my case is AT&T's 3G network.

[via iPhoneFreak]

May 1, 2009

GPS on iPod nano

Using a GPS reference board and an Atmel ATMEGA324 microcontroller, engineer Bengamin Kokes has created a prototype GPS peripheral for his iPod nano. To display coordinates, the device uses Advanced iPod Remote commands to send a 4-color image to the iPod screen, a technique Kokes picked up after seeing it implemented in an Alpine car stereo.

iPod GPS [via Hack a Day]