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iPhone Archive: iPhone

November 16, 2009

iPhone home button earrings

Symbology befitting a Dan Brown novel exudes from these handcrafted iPhone home button earrings. Do they imbue the wearer with mystical iPhone powers? Does wearing two buttons break Apple's Human Interface Guidelines? You'll just have to acquire a pair to find out. [via iPhoneIndia]

November 13, 2009

iPhone controlled bipedal walking robot with multi-touch gestures

Most of the iPhone controller hacks I've seen tend to use the accelerometer along with on on-board camera. Walky is a bipedal walking robot that's controlled using a natural gestural interface. [via GeekyGadgets]

Yuta Sugiura and his colleagues at the Graduate School of Media Design, Keio University, have developed a new control scheme for robots and virtual characters called Walky for the iPhone. Rather than using a cumbersome game controller or keyboard, which may pose a problem for novice users, they can use Walky to control walking, turning, jumping, kicking, and other actions through simple finger gestures on the iPhone's touch screen.

November 9, 2009

Driving a car with an iPhone. A freaking car. For reals.

John Boiles, who earlier this year showed us how to control an RC car using an iPod's internal accelerometer (and also how to control the lights on a dance floor in more or less the same way), is a member of Austin, TX, based engineering collective Waterloo Labs, who have up-gunned his iPod technology to control steering, brakes, and acceleration on a full-size automobile. Definitely not the safest hack I've ever blogged, but probably the most impressive. Great work, lady and gents. [Thanks, John!]

November 3, 2009

iPhone 3G and 3GS unlocked with blacksn0w

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]

October 20, 2009

iPod-accelerometer-controlled dance floor lights

John Boiles, he of the iPod-controlled RC car, also produced this sweet wirelessly controlled light dimmer, which he demonstrates in this video, controlling different sets of X-mas lights by shaking his iPod. See it work around 1:40, then be sure to check out the dance party at 2:40. The iPod is enclosed in the "law book" prop everyone is shaking around, together with their booties, while they rock out to vintage Bon Jovi, et. al.

iPod-controlled RC car

More Dorkbot Austin goodness! John Boiles demonstrated this radio-controlled car steered using his iPod's built-in accelerometer via its built-in WiFi transmitter. All you have to do is tilt the iPod, and the car goes. It starts to move around 1:10.

October 17, 2009

Hacked iPhone API takes AR to the next level

From ReadWriteWeb:

An international team of computer scientists has created software that lets anyone perform on-the-fly analysis of live streaming video on the iPhone. Used alongside existing methods of displaying data on top of the camera's view, this new functionality signals a fundamental change in the kinds of Augmented Reality (AR) that iPhone developers can create. Existing AR apps, like Yelp, Layar, Wikitude and others display data on top of a camera's view but don't actually analyze what the camera sees. This new development changes that.

The video is pretty amazing. I can't wait to see where this tech goes from here...

Devs Hack iPhone API for True Augmented Reality

October 15, 2009

iPhone PS/2 keyboard interface with Arduino

It's tricky getting a keyboard working with an iPhone. Why is that? Does Apple go out of their way to make the two incompatible? It sure seems like it. With such an awesome touch interface you'd think they'd have the keyboard thing figured out. Luckily there are folks like maker Ben Kurtz who go out of their way to scratch an itch. Using an Arduino Diecimila, breakout board, female PS/2 connector, and sundry components Ben has built an interface to connect a full-sized keyboard to his jailbroken iPhone. It's a bit circuitous, but it gets the job done using easily resourced parts.

How To Connect a PS/2 Keyboard to the iPhone [via hackaday]

If you're interested in building a jailbreak-free keyboard interface for your iPhone, check out chapter 12 in iPhone Hacks.

In the Maker Shed:

October 14, 2009

Coffee sleeve iPhone stand

The onslaught of DIY iPhone stands continues. This time around we find ourselves in a cafe with a warm beverage and the need to watch BMX stunt videos. Luckily we remembered to bring along our nice utility scissors and the Barista was kind enough to include a cup sleeve with the drink. The overall execution and reuse of recyclables on this project should gain high marks for those keeping score at home.

October 12, 2009

How-To: Make an easy iPhone alarm clock stand

This has to be my favorite iPhone stand to date. Its simple one piece design is easy to fabricate and lays flat when not in use. Follow along with this Instructables as maker jonpoate steps through the process. [via lifehacker]

Photoshop on the iPhone

Adobe has released a version of their Photoshop.com Mobile app for the iPhone. It's not the full-featured professional software known for it's reality altering effects, but rather a slimmed-down version compatible with their photoshop.com service. You'll have the ability to perform basic operations on your images like crop, rotate, and flip. You'll also be able to do basic color correction and apply simple filters and effects.

After making personalized edits, users can upload photos from their iPhone to their Photoshop.com account to view and retrieve their images at a later time from any Internet-connected computer. In addition, Photoshop.com Mobile for iPhone provides the ultimate digital photo wallet, giving users access to their entire Photoshop.com library directly from their iPhone.

October 7, 2009

iPhone headphone mod

I've come across some pretty cool headphones, but most of them lack the mic and remote of the newer Apple earphones that come with the iPhone. This mod is pretty much what you'd expect, but sometimes a good visual cue helps trigger the creative process. In the accompanying video Andreas Ødegård walks through swapping out the inferior Apple drivers for a set of Sennheiser CX300 drivers from a broken pair. Not only does this create a superior product that could never be purchased in a store, but it re-uses something that would otherwise have been thrown out with the trash.

October 6, 2009

Build iPhone apps with Flash

It would seem that Adobe has squeezed Flash onto the iPhone. It is not in its usual guise as a browser plugin, but rather as a method to build full-fledged apps downloadable from the iPhone App Store. This should come as good news to folks familiar with the popular content creation software. In one fell swoop Adobe has lowered the barrier of entry to developing for the iPhone.

October 5, 2009

Wooden hand crank iPhone dock automata

This wooden hand crank iPhone dock automata by Murtaza Lakdawala is equal parts form and function. Turn the crank and watch the gears mesh as the automata changes the iPhone's orientation from portrait to landscape.

[via Gizmodo]

September 28, 2009

Notepod prototyping notepad

If you're designing a user interface for an iPhone app the appropriately named NotePod seems like it would be perfect for knocking out a quick sketch. The full-scale die-cut 100pp pad features rounded corners and the familiar minimalist iPhone interface.

[via swiss-miss]

September 24, 2009

Recumbent mobile media stand hack

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]

September 23, 2009

Heads-up iPhone AR navigation system

Tokyo-based Ubiquitous Entertainment has built the iPhone ARider, a portable head-mounted navigation prototype. It attaches to a standard bike helmet and is capable of delivering visuals via a Scalar Corporation T3-A retractable HMD. With the glut of AR apps hitting the market you'll likely see a lot more HMD projects showing up in the near future. If you know of or are working on an AR physical computing project and would like to share, please leave a comment.

21th Century "Chonmage" ARider [via zikkir]

September 21, 2009

Foldable mobile device stand that fits in your wallet

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]

September 16, 2009

Mobile Art and Code is November 6-8th in Pittsburgh

Interested in the future of mobile computing? Have a killer application or art project that incorporates a wireless element, but don't know where to get started? Then you don't want to miss the Mobile Art && Code Symposium, which is taking place this November in Pittsburgh. Unlike traditional conferences, this one is aimed at anyone who has an interest in the subject, young and old. From their website:

ART && CODE is an event series and online community dedicated to the democratization of computer programming for artists, young people, and the rest of us.
This November 6-8, we continue our successful workshop/lecture series with MOBILE ART && CODE: Mobile Media and Interactive Arts - a symposium on the aesthetic and tactical potentials of mobile, networked and locative media. The three-day event will feature intimate, practical, arts-oriented programming workshops for popular mobile platforms (such as the iPhone, Android, Nokia S90, PBX telephony systems, and SMS hacking) along with an all-day series of free lecture presentations that contextualizes the use of these technologies in a variety of contemporary critical, artistic and design practices.

Conference registration is not yet open, but will be soon.

[photo by Golan Levin]