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.

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]

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.

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

Kipkay's Battery Hack

I'm an Electronics Engineer but the thought of opening up batteries never came to me before. I mean, I know theoretically what the basic components of a battery are and how it works. I just don't know what exactly lies underneath the smooth metalic packaging of a regular 12 volt battery.

What Kipkay discovered inside these basic consumer batteries certainly surprised me. How can eight $4-$6 batteries equal to one $2 battery? It's absurd! However, now that I think of it more, packaging, shipping, and marketing does add up. Talk about not getting what you paid for. The proof lies in the video.

12 Volt Battery Hack! You'll Be Surprised... - video powered by Metacafe

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5 Great Instructables Projects

I love projects. Finishing a project and admiring the product of my hard work just gives me great satisfaction. Not to mention showing it off to my friends (although I have reason to believe that more than once the enthusiasm they showed was less than heartfelt, haha).

Instructables is a great resource for all types of do-it-yourselfers. The projects range from piece of cake to what the heck?. Check out these great project ideas (great reasons to dust off your soldering iron).

• The Barbie Box: This is a camouflaged case/boom box for your mp3 player. I'm not sure what the inspiration of the author of this was, maybe the Hide-a-pod? Although, if it was up to me, I would definitely choose a different theme. I'm not a Barbie type of girl after all.
• LED Throwies: These are gorgeous in the dark. You can use them to decorate your garden or house for a party, or just throw them around for fun.
• NES Controller MP3 player: Another great mod idea for an mp3 player. The author of this instructable used a fairly cheap mp3 player and it looks very easy to do.
• Use an LCD Monitor as a TV Without a Computer: This is such a great idea. LCD monitors are considerably cheaper than LCD televisions it makes sense to try to use them as a tv display. Why didn't I think of this before?
• Turn Your Old Monitor into a Fishtank: So you've got an old monitor? Rather than throwing it to the dumpster, why not turn it into a fishtank?

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Color Your iPhone

If you'd like an iPhone but hate that it only comes in one color, you can now get yours in almost any color combination you might like from ColorWare. I said almost because technically, they only come in 29 colors which you can combine whichever way you want. But hey, that's a whole lot to choose from already. You could go crazy with your color combinations. They've got a nifty design studio that lets you try out different combinations before picking your favorite.

Ok, so it sounds great right? There's a catch of course. It's so damn expensive. This custom combination I did would cost the price of the iPhone plus an additional $219. Whew. I think I'll stick to the black and silver.

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Hide-a-pod... An iPod/iPhone in Disguise

The Hide-a-pod is a product (albeit fictional) that claims to keep your iPods or iPhones away from theft by encasing it in a (brown) Zune. Am I the only one who thinks that this is totally mean? Although, I can't help but laugh too.

This is from their FAQ...

Can I choose my Zune color?

Sorry, no. We only use brown Zunes for the maximum anti-theft protection.

Haha. I'm really sorry but although I love the Zune and am planning on getting one if the iPod does not release a 6th generation soon, I agree that the brown one looks terrible. The red one looks great though.

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