Bunnie Huang building an open, ARM-based laptop, might even sell you one if you ask nicely

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/12/17/bunnie-huang-is-building-a-laptop/

How do you follow-up creating Chumby, exposing illicit microSD card production and building an open-source radiation detector? If you answered "go to Disneyland," then you aren't Andrew "Bunnie" Huang -- who is now designing and building his very own laptop. Powered by an ARM Cortex A9 and running Linux, the hardware is NDA-free and as open as he can make it, with documents already online for you to study. He's expecting to finish validation and testing in the next few months, and may even offer a few for sale on Kickstarter -- although he does warn that it won't come cheap, so if you're looking for a machine to noodle around on, just get an EeePC.

Filed under: Laptops

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Via: Boing Boing

Source: Bunnie Huang

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Create Your Own Lytro-Style Changeable Focus Photos with the SLR You Already Have

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5968678/create-your-own-lytro+style-changeable-focus-photos-with-the-slr-you-already-have

Cameras like the Lytro are great because they let you snap photos and then adjust the depth-of-field and focus after the photo's already been taken. It does this by collecting all of the focus data it needs at the time the photo is taken, which is great, but Lytro cameras are close to $400. If you already have an SLR you love, there's a way to get the same effect right now without buying anything extra, thanks to the folks at Chaos Collective.

The trick is to use your SLR to take video of the space you want to capture, slowly changing the focus on your camera as you go. This way your camera collects the same data the Lytro does, just over time. The Lytro works because it actually takes tons of images at once thanks to its micro-lens array, and each of those images includes different focus and DOF data, so you can refocus the image whenever you want, long after you've taken the photo.

Chaos Collective notes that the best cameras for the job here SLRs and lenses with wide apertures, and walks you through the process of collecting your video and uploading it to their tool at the link below. You'll probably need a tripod, but aside from that, if you have the camera already you're good to go, and the process takes just a few seconds—much better than dropping $400 on a shiny new camera. Hit the link below to try the tool out, and see examples of the kinds of images we're talking about.

Camera HACK: DOF-Changeable Photos with an SLR | Chaos Collective via TechCrunch

Photo by Lai Ryanne.

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Will Wild OLED Installations Like These Be The Light Fixtures Of Tomorrow?

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5968779/will-wild-oled-fixtures-like-these-be-the-lights-of-tomorrow

OLEDs have a lot of potential for awesomeness, like putting a flexible screen on your holiday sweaters. Well, maybe that's a bad example. These prototype light fixtures developed by Philips, on the other hand, are significantly better ones.

As Dietmar Thomas of Philips Lumiblade explains:

OLED is the first light source that is a surface light source. All other lights sources are point light sources, starting with the flame, the candle and going up to the light bulb and the LED. For the first time you don't need a system to spread the light. The system is built-in.

And that fact, along with the thin form factor allows for all kinds of weird installations you couldn't (or wouldn't want to) make with strandard light bulbs. Everything from pulsating light walls to fixtures that actually are your ceiling.

For the moment, OLED lights tend to be prohibitively expensive, especially if all they're doing is acting like a light bulb and looking cool, but Thomas is confidant the prices will fall quite a bit in the next five years, making these kinds of setups far more affordable. The sooner we can all get trippy, flashing light displays for living room raves, the better. [Dezeen]

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How to Get Siri to Provide Google Maps Directions, No Hack Required

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5968968/how-to-get-siri-to-provide-google-maps-directions-no-hack-required

Ask Siri for directions, and by default she'll throw up an Apple Maps solution. Which means you'll get lost. But it's actually really easy to get her to give you directions using Google's maps—and it doesn't even require a hack.

As JailbreakNation shows in this vide, adding the phrase "via transit" to the end of your Siri voice command forces the software to use Google Maps instead of iOS's native cartographic car crash. So instead of saying "take me to the nearest [INSERT DESTINATION]", just say say "take me to the nearest [INSERT DESTINATION] via transit", and you're golden. Easy! [YouTube]

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Homemade self-balancing unicycle uses an Arduino to keep upright

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/12/16/homemade-raptor-unicycle-uses-an-arduino-to-keep-upright/

On the whim of a coin flip, Nick Thatcher once decided between building a homemade Segway, or a self balancing unicycle. Even though the powers of fate chose the former, Thatcher's thirst to build wasn't quenched -- he built the one-wheeled scooter anyway. The Raptor looks a lot like a Ryno unicycle built from spare parts -- a chain driven wheelbarrow wheel powered by a 350w geared motor, a pair of batteries wired in series, some PVC and polycarbonate, an IMU gyro and an Arduino UNO -- all hobbled together to form a one-wheeled electric mount. Thatcher says the scooter can push 10mph safely, but faster speeds tend to outpace the gyro's corrective efforts. Still, the bike promises between 90-120 minutes of face-plant free fun, provided the rider is at least a little balanced. The motorized unicycle isn't for sale, but peek on over to Thatch Industries for a parts list, or scoot on past the break to see the bike in action.

Filed under: Misc

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Via: Hackaday

Source: Thatch Industries

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