Awesome Do-It-Yourself USB Drive

Modders and do-it-yourselfers would love this project. The picture above might look like a hacked USB cord but it's actually a USB drive. Awesome right? It will surely be a hit with your techie (and maybe non-techie) co-workers.

It's quite easy to make too. Check out Evil Mad Scientist for the step by step instructions.

Upgrade Your Life (by Lifehacker)

Lifehacker's Upgrade Your Life is the ultimate compilation of the best Lifehacker tips and tricks. It's a book version of the best Lifehacker has to offer. While you'll have to shell out dollars to get the book, the online version is absolutely free. There are lots of great tips you can use. Here are the most useful for me...

• Outlook tip: Color code messages addressed only to you - This is extremely useful since I get a lot of email advisories that I don't necessarily have to read asap. This makes the most important emails (the ones addressed directly to me) stand out of the numerous unread messages in my inbox.
• Generate unlimited email addresses with Gmail - I hate, hate, hate spam. Who doesn't? With this tip, you can create "disposable" email addresses for use with websites that require the submission of an email address.
• Future-proof your email address - Email addresses used to be novelties. Not anymore. Now, they are a cruicial part of your social life. That's why it's important to choose an email address that will grow with you.
• Create and customize your own planner with D*I*Y Planner - Electronic PDAs aren't always the best choices in organizing your life. Sometimes, the good old planner is the way to go.
• Power Texting Tips - Text messaging may not just be for kids and teenagers anymore. These tips take you from novice to power texter.
• Create your own virtual private network with Hamachi - If you've got multiple computers at home, creating your own VPN makes it a whole lot easier finding and accessing files from other machines.

Check out Lifehacker's Upgrade Your Life for many other useful tips.

Awesome iPod Nano Video Enlarger Plus Speaker

Think your iPod Nano's screen is too small? Then check out this do-it-yourself iPod Nano video enlarger. It's made out of an old 35mm slide viewer, hacked to include portable speakers. Very cool.

Laptop DIY

If the price of your new laptop has left you all broke and laptop accessory-less, then DIY! Here are a bunch of do-it-yourself projects for all sorts of laptop accessories that will surely make you the envy of all your friends. Ok, maybe not, but they're still cool projects! :-)

• Foam, foam, foam! There's no better and cheaper material to encase your laptop in than foam. This step by step tutorial shows us how to custom make a foam case for your laptop.
  
  



• If foam doesn't float your boat, then cardboard and duct tape might. Check out this instructable for creating your very own cardboard and duct tape laptop case.
  
  

  
• This PVC laptop stand is cheap, easy to construct and definitely cruicial if you use your laptop on a regular basis. Your back will definitely thank you.
  

Keep Your Love of Gadgets from Making You Broke

Gadget freaks, relax. When every new gadget makes you whip out your credit card, it's not a good sign for your wallet or your bank account. Your love of gadgets doesn't have to mean going broke from credit card debt. Put Things Off has a great article on how to curb your anxiety everytime a new gadget is announced.

Then again, when you've got the money to blow on gadgets, go ahead. No ones stopping you from being an early adopter. Just don't complain when the prices are lowered a few months later.

Ever Tried Googling Yourself?

Do you like what you find? Being the somewhat paranoid person that I am, I've always used an alias for all my online interactions. Add to that the fact that I've never made the news, so I have a tiny, almost non-existent online footprint.

However, some of you might be not so lucky. And chances are, someone might be Googling your name right now. It may be a prospective employer or secret admirer but one thing's for sure, you will be judged by the information that's available on Google about you.

Lifehacker has a great article on how to "have a say on what Google says about you." It basically shows you how to setup your own website and make it somewhat your online calling card so people can easily find you online. It also gives ideas on how to link up your site so it appears high on Google's search results.

It's a nice article, but it won't tell you how to remove any incriminating information about you online. I don't think it's possible to do that anyway. Tough luck.

Great Ways to Use Your Domain

So you bought your own domain. What now? Building your own website from scratch and getting it hosted can be too much trouble for some people. Instead, why not take advantage of the numerous great services out there and create your own web site complete with your very own email accounts, blog, etc.? Lifehacker shows us the many great ways to set up a "complete domain name backend for free."

Here are my top 3 "domain-friendly" free services:

Blogger.com - This is a very very very popular blogging tool hosted by our very own Google. It's very easy to set a blog using your own domain here instead of the generic blogspot.com domain. I'm using this service and I'm quite happy with it so far.

Tumblr.com - Instead of the usual textey and imagey blogs littering the nets, Tumblr features blogs that are short and simple. Got a link you want to share? Post it! Got a picture? Upload it! With Tumblr, there's no need for lengthy dissertations or introductions. Just post and go.

Google Apps For Your Domain - Google has done it again. They have released an amazing service that's sure to be a hit with the tech savvy people. With this service, you can host your very own versions of Google Apps right on your own domain. You could set-up your homepage to display your Google start page, and set-up up to 50 e-mail addresses that you can access using the Gmail interface.

Tired of Your Usual Mostly Text Blogs? Scrapblog!

I've just discovered a great web app. Check out Scrapblog.com and I'm sure you guys will like it too. This isn't an endorsement and I'm not being paid to say this, but I really like Scrapblog's concept.

Instead of the usual text-based blog apps, Scrapblog allows you to create scrapbook-like flash blogs that almost literally pops out of the page. You can post pictures and text like you would on a scrapbook using an very intuitive interface.

They also have loads of templates to choose from. Or if you're really creative, you can create your own designs from scratch. You can even post your creations to your flickr accounts.

The only problem I have with it is that it's a tad slow on my dsl connection. I expected the web-based app to be a bit quicker that it actually is. I really don't know if it's their server or my internet connection but it seemed like I was staring at the screen waiting for it to render more often than I would have liked.

Despite this, I would still recommend this service. Try it!

BUG Labs

These are probably the most interesting things ever invented. They modular electronic devices, otherwise known as BUGs. In a nutshell, they're like lego pieces for engineers and techies. And since it's hardware and software are open source (yay!!!), the things you can build (if you are technically inclined) are virtually unlimited. I like this idea so much that I can't wait to get myself one of these. I just hope they're not too expensive.

Anyway, for more info about BUGs, check out these links:

• Bug Labs Website - lots of info about BUGs here
• Video 1
• Video 2
• Video 3 - In these three videos, Robert Scoble interviews the folks from Bug Labs. A lot of interesting stuff were discussed here, including what BUGs are and the future of BUGs.

Make Your Own Cheap 5.1 Surround Headphones

This is pretty cool. As we all know, headphones can be pretty darn expensive, expecially those which are especially made for surround sound systems. Babblin5 had this great idea to create his own surround headphones out of a cheap headphone and 2 pairs of earphones.

I'll be honest, I was a bit skeptical about this at first. However, after reading the comments about it, it seems like people are pretty pleased with their do-it-yourself headphones. Not bad for a cheap hack-job. Check out the instructional video below...

5.1 Surround Headphone Hack! - The best video clips are here

Turn Your Old Highlighter Into a Flash Drive Case

Check out this great idea from Instructables.com. Here's a disclaimer though: it comes with really crappy pics. However, at least the instructions are very easy to understand. So you've been warned.

The instructable shows us how to somewhat camouflage and disguise your flash drive to make it look like an ordinary highlighter. I can't count how many times I've lost a flash drive. Who knows which hands my important data will land into? At least if my flash drive is disguised into a highlighter, nobody will give it a second look if ever I leave it somewhere. Now all I have to remember is not to put it in my pencil case along with every other highlighter I have.

Link: [Instructable.com]

2 Great Web Apps

In these times when websites are all integrated and everyone's crazy about Facebook, YouTube and Digg, finding these two great sites gave me a huge breath of fresh air. Both are very useful and painfully simple to use. Check these out...

• drop.io - This is a file-sharing service minus all the complications. Just upload your file, type in a name for your "drop," add an optional password, set an expiry date, and "drop it." Its that simple. No sign-ups, no registrations.
  
• Vector Magic - This is an online tool that creates vector graphics from your .gif or .jpeg files. Everything is done on the site, there are no software downloads and no required sign-ups. But the best thing about this site is, the conversion results are surprisingly accurate.

Paint Your iPhone Black

Mark Hoekstra disliked the bling factor of his iPhone. Yup, it was definitely a conversation starter, but not with the people he wants to talk to. So what's a guy to do? His solution is to paint his iPhone black. You might want to do the same, even for a different reason.

Of course you just can't cover the screen in masking tape and paint the thing black or you might just end up with a black brick. Painting your iPhone requires the talent of an artist and the skills of an electronics enthusiast. If you're missing both, Mark's got an in-depth walkthrough at his site which shows you everything you need to know.

The final product looks sweet. He even covered the button at the front with a retro Apple logo. I don't have an iPhone but if I had one and if it were up to me, I'd keep the retro logo but instead of black, I'd paint mine hot pink.

Cool Geeky Furniture

Ok, I admit it, I'm a gadget geek. My room is literally littered with gadgets and their respective chargers, usb connectors, and accessories. However, I also hold a degree in interior design, and although I don't work as a designer right now, I just love looking at furniture on the net. So, the best of both worlds would obviously be geeky furniture. PB Teen has come up with a great line called "Smart Technology" which features furniture with a geeky twist. Here's a couple that I really liked...

Cushy Speaker Console Lounge:

What's best about this is that it's made out of modular elements. This means you can actually combine and arrange the different pieces (there's an armless chair, a corner piece and an ottoman) in a way that best fits your space. But what make's it especially great is the iPod-friendly speaker consoles that also feature audio controls and even cup holders.

iChair:

Use this great retro-looking chair while gaming or watching dvds to enhance your sound experience. High-quality built-in speakers are strategically positioned near your ears, and a subwoofer sits under your seat for maximum bass. Your games and movies will never sound the same again.

Of course, there are severeal other really great stuff on their site. Check out PB Teen's other offerings here.

Geeky Halloween Costumes

Here are some crazy Halloween costumes for geeks and techies. Here's a disclaimer though, not everyone might get it. Still, it's no biggie since Halloween is supposed to be all about mystery anyway right? So what are you waiting for? Dress like one of these and get ready for a whole night of fun and "what are you supposed to be"s...

• Hey, it's a YouTube video! This costume features a live footage and even allows people to leave their comments. Be warned though, no matter how great your "footage" is, there will be nasty comments. It's just the way it is. Hmmm, I wonder how he's going to sit down with that costume on.
  

• Halo fans need not look further for costume ideas. Why not dress like Master Chief? This site shows you how.

• Here's an homage to our favorite geeky cliche, the "blue screen of death." This is probably the easiest costume to make. Just write on a plain blue shirt with a white-out pen and you're all set.

citizenM High-tech Hotels Rock!

While lazily surfing the net, I came across a great concept for hotel construction and management... modular high-tech hotels, called citizenM. An RFID card lets you control your entertainment center, wireless, and ambient mood lighting. You can even set your preferences remotely, so your room will be perfect upon your arrival. The best thing of all? Free wifi! I've been to so many hotels that charge an arm and a leg for internet access, that this is such a breath of fresh air for me.

This hotel project, called OneStarIsBorn, is all about cheaper hotel bills without the grimy bathrooms and generally unappealing accommodations. I've stayed in my fair share of budget hotels and I can't wait to try it out. Check out this interview with Michael Levie, CEO of OneStarIsBorn.

The first citizenM hotel, will be located near Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport. More are planned in major European cities such as London, Barcelona, Glasgow, Berlin, Stockholm, Brussels, Milan, Copenhagen, Moscow, Paris, Istanbul, Warsaw, and Budapest to name a few. But I'm guessing pretty soon we'll be seeing several of these sprout in the world's busiest cities.

I love their wacky publicity video, also shown below.

Links: [YouTube] [citizenM] [OneStarIsBorn]

Make Your Own Noise Eliminating Headphones

Have you ever tried using the stock iPod earbuds in an airplane? It's torture. Even with the volume up to maximum, I had to cover my ears with my hands just to understand what I'm watching. Not a great experience.

In this situation, I would have killed for a pair of noise eliminating headphones. But the cheapskate in me just can't spend more than a hundred of dollars just for a pair of headphones. This Kipkay hack blew me away. It makes me think, why didn't I think of this before? Check it out and you'll see what I mean.

Headphone Hack! Make You Own Noise Eliminating Headset! - Watch a funny movie here

Brilliant Laptop Docking Idea

I can understand why we needed docking stations for out laptop computers several years ago. Back then, it simply wasn't practical to place all the necessary input and output devices and ports in the chassis of the laptop itself. However, present technology has made laptops more versatile and feature-packed, even to the point of being at par with desktop computers.

So are we to assume that laptop docks have died a natural death and just bury them beside our VCRs and dial-up modems? Designer Yong-Seong Kim seems to disagree. He thinks that we ought to revive them, or at the very least give these old and dying accessories a makeover. In this case, his docking solution involves a desktop computer with a slot behind the LCD monitor, where a laptop could dock onto. I would assume file sharing would be automatic, wherein the desktop computer would treat the laptop like an external hard drive. The laptop's screen in docking mode also becomes a second display in portrait mode.

Personally, I think his idea is brilliant. A laptop is fine when I'm on the road. But at home or in the office, a desktop pc is much more practical. This seems like a perfect and most visually appealing way to sync data between the two.

SOURCE: YankoDesign

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Make Your iPhone Contacts Smooshed

Most phones, including the iPhone, allows you to take a picture of a person and assign it to a contact in your phonebook. It's not a new thing, this feature has probably been around for a couple of years now.

Stillframe thought of a fun twist to the usual contact photo you might take of your friend. It's easy too. Just stick your friend behind a pane of glass (maybe a glass door or glass window) and make them smoosh their face against it and click away to capture a "trapped in an iPhone" kinda look. This also makes great background pics for other phones.

Now I just have to persuade my friends to smoosh themselves against my glass door...

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The Prettiest iMac? (Photo History of the iMac)

Ever since Apple released the original bubble gum iMacs of the late 90s, iMacs have grown in popularity not only because of it's non-Windows (and therefore less crashy) OS, but also because that they're just so pretty. Now almost ten years later, we have the enth edition of the iMac, still looking as stylish as ever. I give my most sincere props to the iMac product designers for their continuously evolving and so-damn-cool designs.

Let me take you back in time to see the how the iMacs have progressed design-wise from the yummy candy colors to the sleek brushed aluminum...

1998

Announced in May 1998 and shipped in August, the brand-new iMac was Apple's computer for the new millennium. Next to the blah looking beige PCs of the nineties, the iMac looked so cool with it's colorful plastic exterior. They certainly caught the attention of kids, teenagers, even adults who never even used Apple computers before. And to be honest, I was one of them. Before this iMac came out, I didn't even know Apple computers existed (what an ignorant little teenager I was back then).

1999

New flavored iMacs were relased in 1999 which brought us brighter, more dazling new colors... blueberry, strawberry, lime, tangerine and grape (they even sound yummy). Personally, I love the strawberry. The iMacs also went from a tray type to a cooler looking slot loading CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive.

2000

In contrast to 1999's fruity and candy colors, the year 2000 brought us iMacs with shiny, almost jewel-like exteriors. Personally, I like the previous colors better, although I'm sure some guys would think otherwise. These colors look too masculine for my taste.

2001

In 2001, Apple chose to get rid of Sage and Ruby in favor of "Blue Dalmatian" and "Flower Power". According to Apple-History.com, these two new patterns were molded into the case using a technique which took Apple 18 months to perfect. However, I do think that they should have thought of nicer designs, maybe took on popular graphic designers to do the designs for them. I mean seeing that they spent a lot of time perfecting their technique they should have put a lot more thought into the designs themselves.

2002

Next to the latest design, this is my favorite iMac design. It's the first time Apple introduced a flat screen iMac and boy does it look fantastic. Steve Jobs proudly announced, when this new iMac was released, that "The CRT is officially dead." I completely agree. I love the combination of the thin monitor with the spherical cpu and speakers. Apple also went all white this time, which I think is certainly a breath of fresh air. Pretty, pretty, pretty.

2004

In 2004, Apple got rid of the extra lump at the bottom and completely integrated the processor and the rest of the computer's innards in the monitor casing, which they managed to keep just two inches thick. This streamlined new iMac is great and all, but I still prefer the 2002 design because of the screen's ability to rotate and change angle's easily. This two inch screen seemed too clunky in comparison to the last design.

2007

The latest iMac is a redesign of the 2004 model. They did a great job design-wise, if I may say so myself. The basic design is still the same except that everything is just so streamlined this time. The cpu and monitor is now so much thinner and is now made of anodized aluminum. Even the keyboard looks a whole lot better. This is my favorite design so far.

Apple iMacs have certainly made a lot of breakthroughs in the computer design department. They took risks, but all these (except maybe for a certain flower inspired iMac) certainly paid off. I no doubts that they will come up with more amazing designs in the future. But right now, I'd say their latest design is almost perfect. I say almost because let's face it, nothing is perfect. This one however, comes as close as it can posibly can.

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