But it could be even better if you can get both Xbox 360, PS3 in one box: A Hybrid. A modder has managed to fit PlayStation 3 fat and   Xbox 360 slim together into one well designed case. Of course the package gives out two video outputs to drive different displays, enabling Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 games to be played simultaneously.

The design is not consumer class, but enough to satisfy modder’s taste. Going by facts, its all well ventilated and cooled knowing the fact that these two machines together can generate a lot of heat. There’s no expensive liquid cooling deployed here, its just a powerful air cooling fan that takes care of spitting out all the heat, without any trouble.

Modder claims that the console temperature doesn’t go above 5 degrees than the ambient room temperature, however, mileage may vary.

While the product is not for sale you can sure learn how to DIY when modder releases the tutorial.

via imgur, reddit

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The same has now been made easier, you can get iPhone Springboard homescreen on non-Rooted Android devices using a new launcher app called Tencent.

Tencent is truly remarkable in the way it mocks iPhone / iOS launcher. It brings most of the features like folders, docking bar, power control switchers and no app launcher.

Checkout the screenshots below:

Icons on Android do not follow any particular design guidelines but it’s all clean and Apple-like. There is also a newer mod of the app that has updated MIUI icons.

Folders are totally revamped in this UI. When you add a folder, it is a blank box. When you open it, you can long-press on the name to change it. Dragging apps on to the icon for the folder will drop them in. This folder also has that same moderate transparency effect when open.

Smooth Experience, Extensive on Features

Actually scrolling from screen to screen is fairly smooth. Since Tencent is all about looking good, it wouldn’t do to have it lag while scrolling through all those icons.

There is a power bar replacement that is actually quite good. It has the usual toggles like Wi-Fi, sync, and brightness, but it also links to a separate screen where you can access ten different setting toggles.

Tencent can be themed to your taste with a number of themes to choose from.

You can get it from Android Market.

Checkout Gallery of Best 3D launchers on Android.

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Windows tablet fan Justin Campana found a couple of  apps and tweaks that can be combined with a few custom scripts to make the Windows 7 touch experience much more appealing.

He describes in detail which all docks, widgets, scripts, and applications he used to create a better Windows 7 Tablet experience, which had been dull and boring. He used a variety of software such as ObjectDock, Fences and Rainmeter along with a bunch of tweaks to make Windows 7 look like it was born for tablets.

The tablet used here to demo the optimizations is a ASUS’ 12-inch Eee Slate EP121. Watch the video after a break and get modding:

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When your LCD screen backlight burn out, you might have to get them replaced or do something even better: DIY Replace LCD with LED backlight. Not only is this solution cheaper, but also easier to find in the market. A sub $10 LED strip could replace the CFL backlight without any trouble.

How to Replace LCD backlight with LED – Transform LCD Display to LED

Warning: If you have no background on opening displays, seekout expert help on this before you unscrew your display.

HowTo: Carefully take apart the screen with clean hands making sure that the LCD, filters, and Fresnel lenses stay clean, untouched. If you happen to touch them, make sure you clean them well afterwards. You might have to use a mild cleaner, don’t use any toxic and/or heavy duty cleaners can destroy the plastic. Use a damp clean paper towel to do the initial wet wipe then use a dry but slightly damp paper towel to dry streaks immediately (using the wax on, wax off technique).

If you do it nicely, the brightness should be close to your existing LCD CCFL display, but only whiter. The only drawback you would get with a LED strip is the bright spots where LED is present and minor darker gaps. But this difference is not all that noticeable as light is diffused nicely on the screen.

credits filear

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This is among the best Kinect hacks we’ve seen so far and to add to the goodness, its Open source and available for you to try with any of the supported applications.

Using your hand gestures, you can flick though photo albums, zoom and pan, and what not. Its like full two hand multitouch, without touching.

The project is called ROS Kinect and source code is available here.
Its not perfect, but it serves the purpose pretty precisely. The detection process distinguishes hands and fingers at 30 frames per second to allow for real time gesture interaction with almost any application.

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IOIO (pronounced yoyo) is capable of doing almost everything that a Arduino could, including a retro-style alarm clock that can ring when you get messages.

And there’s a Wall Printer which uses seven Sharpie-style market pens hooked up to servos for an old-school printer effect controlled by an Android phone.

These are just some early samples, the potential is huge.

Why Android instead of regular Arduino?

• High cost.
• Complicated. Especially so for complete beginners.
• High latency.
• Low bandwidth.
• Required replacement of the Android device OS.
• Large physical size.

Definitely worth considering if you’re into Android and electronics; you can pre-order the IOIO for Android here, for $49.95.

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However, the stock Android is dull, unpolished & perhaps, the last thing power users would stick with. Android community is fully based on Rooted devices that offers 100s of mods.

As a Nexus One owner, I’ve played with Cyanogenmod, NXSense (Sense UI on Nexus), Meego on Nexus, and few others. They all were good and satisfied my taste buds, well almost.

Something was missing — we never had iPhone UI (iOS UI) on Android. Apple builds great UI, and there’s no second thought about it, that’s why few chinese developers started working on a ROM called MIUI (xda dev) that actually inherits lots of iPhone UI features including the latest iOS 4 features like drag n drop folders, animations, effects, unlimited homescreens and much more.

Video Walthrough of MIUI features (scroll down for more)

Most of the features are identical to Cyanogenmod 6.1, FroYo Miui 0.11.19 Stock Features:

• New awsome UI that mimicks iPhone’s animations, effects
• New Settings.apk with Options for near all New Features
• Switchers: Wifi,Bluetooth,GPS,Sync,CPU,Lock,Flightmode,Reboot Option in the Taskbar
• Apps2ext (in Options)
• 720p Video Recording
• FM Radio
• New Lockscreen with Animated Musik Player inside
• Propeller view of all your Homescreens.
• iPhone like Home icons.
• Add infinite number of homescreens.
• Overclocked to 1.13 Ghz (using setCPU)
• Trackball Wake (in Options)
• Trackball Colors (Settings/Sounds & MMS/Settings)
• Battery Percentage (in Options)
• Backup Apps & System Function
• Fast as Hell (faster than cyanogenmod)

How to get iPhone iOS UI on Android

This guide is essentially for Nexus One but shoudl work on all hTC devices with minor modifications. you can checkout HTC desire guide here.

Rooted users: Skip steps 1 to 3 if you already use a custom ROM.

New Users: Refer to Cyanogenmod wiki for details of Steps 1 to 3.

Warning: This will wipe your phone.

1. Root your Android.
2. Unlock your bootloader: Boot into bootloader mode by holding down the trackball while turning the phone on. You should see a white screen with three skating androids. Connect the Nexus One (or another equivalent HTC device) to the computer via USB. open terminal and run: fastboot oem unlock.
3. Install Clockwork Recovery via ROM Manager (from market) or Amon_RA’s recovery image.
4. Download the MIUI ROM and copy it to your SD card.
5. Boot into clockwork Revcovery and update with zip. The recovery process should begin, reboot when finished.
6. You should boot into MIUI without trouble.
7. Post-installation, change the Timezone in the preinstalled Time Zone Changer app to your country.
8. . Set up the Locale app for your Region in settings.
9. (optional) upgrade the FM radio app Download.

Get Apps2sd fully working by running these commands from PC via adb:

- adb root (needed in some cases)
- adb shell (“su” in Terminal Emulator)
- a2sd check
- a2sd reinstall
- a2sd zipalign
- a2sd cachesd

Video Tutorial:

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These days, the most popular topic is the Xbox Kinect hacks and here we’ve a guide on How to Reverse engineer a USB.

USB is a very complex protocol, much more complicated than Serial or Parallel, SPI and even I2C. USB uses only two wires but they are not used as ‘receive’ and ‘transmit’ like serial, data is bidirectional and differential. What that means is that the data sent depends on the difference in voltage between the two data lines D+ and D-.

The fact that USB is also very structured makes it hackable, easy to reverse engineer —  Its easy to grab the format of packets agreed upon and you don’t have to bother about checksums, they are pretty much abstract. Since every computer now made has a USB host core, that does a lot of the tough work for you, and there are many software libraries to assist you in doing a lot with USB.

How to Reverse Engineer Xbox Kinect Motor:

First thing first, you will need a Linux or Mac machine to get your first hands on USB debugging. Both these unix environments has a powerful tool called lsusb.

For linux, run lsusb -vv (ultra verbose) for Mac, run system_profiler SPUSBDataType

First thing you will have to grab  is this PID, VID. Every type USB device must have a unique VID and PID. The VID is the manufacturer. In this case, 0x045e is the VID for Microsoft. All Microsoft products will have that VID. Each product has a different PID, so all Kinect Motors use PID 0x02b0 this doesn’t differ between two Kinects, they’ll both have the same PID.

Second thing that goes is the descriptor. A descriptor is a sort of ‘menu’ of what the device can do and how it likes to transfer data. In general, each device has one descriptor.

Learning in detail:

You can read the complete detailed guide at ladyada. It goes into depth on how USB works, how to record the communication, what to look for, how to deconstruct what you’ve found, and how to put it all to use. This is all done with real world data from the Kinect so you could easily follow along at home.  There is source code available so you can download example and see how to control the device as well.

This a great tutorial. I’m sure you can become a good usb hacker by the time you are done reading it.

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The latest and the Best Kinect Hack, Mod comes from a student at MIT. Kinect has been hacked to use camera with a Roomba cleaner to create iRobot KinectBot  that can recognize human beings and respond to their gestural commands. Previously, we’ve seen how a Roomba can be hacked enable you to Google Your Home with Roomba Bot.

The project leverages the Kinect’s ability to map terrain in 3-D and to recognize and respond to human gestures that can be processed combined with aerial drones and rapid-response teams to launch rescue operations.

Watch the video for a closer look at the mod:

The project’s founder, Robbel, calls it a “weekend hacking project.” Imagine what Microsoft’s Robotics team (or some other robotics team) might be able to do with its potential in the future.

The most hackable gadget (Kinect) is actually a $150 deal that opens up the option box for everybody. We can build a full Robot with Kinect eyes that lives in the real world like a human being understanding the dynamics of your living room, learning every bit of it.

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Recently, there have been a number of attempts on hacking Kinect to work with PC. We’ve seen Linux drivers for Kinect. Thanks to the more recent Kinect hacking competitions, we are seeing more and more projects that show PoC for Kinect working with Windows PC.

Screenshot of the Sample WPF Application – 2 Cameras 640×480@30FPS, NUI Motor/Accelerometer and LED Control:

the developer has achieved significant advancements in running Kict onWindows 7, so far progress has been made on :

• Full interface with Accelerometer and Motor Video
• Full Color and Depth sensor access
• Using CV on Depth sensing
• Accurate Color & Depth  sensing

The project is now available as NUI Platform – Kinect. You can download- Kinect Driver and explore the knowledge-base to get started.

To start with, developer has a WPF/C# (.NET 3.5) Visual Studio 2010 Sample Application as well as C API (CLNUIDevice.h, DLL, LIB) and plan on extending the SDK similar to CL Eye SDK which has Samples for C/C++/C#, Java and DirectShow.

Related:

• Xbox 360 Slim hacked to Play Pirated Games

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But, Pandora, just like Hulu, isn’t available outside USA. But like anything else, there’s a workaround that enables you to play Pandora on Android devices, from anywhere in the world.

Related: Watch Hulu outside US without Proxy

Important: You need to Root your Android

Step 1: Download market-enabler to get access to American Android market place. Give it root access and Fake a US phone operator e.g. T Mobile, then install Pandora.

Market-Enabler is an application to fake the phone’s location and access markets from other countries. Android market is separated into regions (country and carrier specific) and some apps are just enabled for a specific country and not available to the other countries.

Step 2. Download Orbot from Android market give it root permissions and reboot.

Orbot is a Tor client for Android. Tor is the most advanced, anonymous proxy solution for Desktops.

Step 3: Configuring Orbot.

• Goto Orbot application settings and enable “Transparent Proxying”, then “select apps” and choose Pandora.
• Enable Orbot.

Step 4: Account Creation: Goto Pandora.com and signup for an account using a US ZIP code e.g. “55008″ or use Google for more.

Important: You might get unlucky sometimes when your end Tor node lands up to be in a country through which the access isn’t allowed. If this happens,  Just deactivate and reactivate Orbot a few times unless it starts working.

via 99bits

Some nasty mods keep on coming like the one that transforms your iPod TOUCH INTO IPhone. This time, usbfever has brought this interesting Dual SIM mod for iPhone 4. Of course, it wont run both networks at the same time, but the purpose here is to hold both the  SIMs and switch between the two trays for calls. Switching the network/SIM IN_USE is as easy as going into  Preferences > iPhone > SIM Applications can choose the card want at any time.

Needs no software hacking, no Jailbreaking, no extra applications, just works out of the box. Also, if you are using an unofficial network (unlock), this adapter helps you insert SIM natively without having to cut SIM into Micro-SIM size.

Features:
- Holds two SIMs for iPhone 4.
- No need to cut your SIM CARD
- STK Menu (see installations below)
- Comes with Crystal case to protect the dual sim card and your iPhone

This accessory is compatible with:
- iPhone 4G (Firmware 4.0.0)
- iPhone 4G (Firmware 4.0.1)
- iPhone 4G (Firmware 4.0.2)

Set-up inside your iPhone:
- Home ==> settings ==> Phone ==> SIM Applications: select your desire SIM card
(If you don’t want it to select SIM card for you when the signal is low, please don’t select “auto/SW)

Note once you’ve chosen to another sim card, it will have a message “No SIM Card installed”, please wait 1 or 2 minutes, it needs aound 1 ~ 2 minutes to search, during this time, “No SIM” will appear in the top right of your iphone’s screen.

The Dual sim adapter costs $ 28.99 and can be purchased here.

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The real credit for making it possible to have 720p HD video recording on Nexus One goes to Charan Singh. He worked with Cyanogen to get it to work on Nexus One Froyo.

So in order to get 720p video on your nexus on,e you will have to have to have CyanogenMod 6.x with froyo radio. Apart fromt his, there are plenty of goodness embedded in CyanogenMod that is worth checking out.

Few key Improvements over stock Froyo:

• Enhanced UI Tweeks, hacks
• Inbuilt Root, secure Super User access.
• Deskclock extra settings
• ADWLauncher 1.0.1 – A highly Themeable/customizable launcher, Themable user interface elements
• Music app enhancements
• Phone mod V.30, WyContacts 1.2
• MMS enhancements, Improved RTL text rendering
• FLAC playback support
• Lockscreen enhancements
• Long-press home options
• Modify Homescreen icons layout, rotation.
• OpenVPN support
• Browser incognito mode
• Customize notification LED colors, frequency
• JIT toggle, configurable heapsize, compcache support
• Adjustable haptic feedback -
• Notification area hacks : Colors,  Battery percentage display, Signal dbm display
• Trackball wake, trackball unlock, menu unlock
• Surfaceflinger night mode and effects – Jeff Sharkey, widget
• Reflow webviews on pinch option
• Enhanced accelerometer settings
• Browser fullscreen mode and other enhancements
• Long press volume buttons to skip songs
• Accelerated ARMv7 JPEG decoding, Skia acceleration on ARMv7
• Bluetooth HID support – Erin Yueh @ 0xlab
• Mouse pointer support
• Install apps to SD, move anytime.
• Dual camera support
• Lockscreen music controls – Kmobs
• Audio DSP support (equalizer, virtual room, compressor effects)
• N1: True 720P encoding support
• + more..

How to Install CyanoGenMod On Nexus One

Warning: This voids your warranty

For First timers

Note: You can checkout CyanogenMod Wiki for detailed, step-by-step installation instructions. Below instructions are for experienced users. It shouldn’t be hard at all, you can ask questions @taranfx in case you get stuck somewhere.

1. Unlock your bootloader/root your device and install Clockwork Recovery via ROM Manager or Amon_RA’s recovery image
2. Do a Nandroid backup!
3. Update your radio if necessary
4. WIPE
5. Install the ROM
5. Optionally install the Google Addon

Upgrading from previous CyanogenMod
1. Do a Nandroid Backup!
2. Install the ROM (your Google apps will be backed up automatically)

- Downloads -

• CyanoGenMod 6.0.0-N1-RC3 Download | Mirror
• Google Addon: HDPI-20100814 Download | Mirror
• Radio Firmware: 4.0.6.00.12_7 (froyo radio) Download

Enjoy True 720p Video recording on your NExus One plus bunch of other features.

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You can grab a WiiMote from eBay for cheap and use it for Gaming with Windows PC, Mac OS, Ubuntu and, even with Android, iPhone.

If you’ve got an iPhone or Android device that you use with a Wii remote when gaming, this quick hack will give you the third hand you need to manage all of that hardware for just a few dollars in parts. . A small square pad sticks onto the back of any device and mates with a base. He cut off the unnecessary parts of the base and glued it to the back of the wheel.

Step 1: Mod your Android device to use WiiMote with iPhone or with Android (method below).
Step 2: Find a cheap Wii Remote steering wheel and insert the phone into the universal mounting bracket.
Step 3: MacGyver an universal mounting bracket or something

How to connect WiiMote with Android

1. Install Wiimote Controller and Run it with Bluetooth turned ON.
2. Enable “WiiControllerIME”. This is only needed once right after installation
3. tap the first button and at the same time put your Wii remote in discovery mode by pressing “1″ and “2″ simultaneously
4. wait for the “Connected” message to appear. The first LED will turn on on the Wii remote
5. back in WiimoteController tap the second button and select WiiControllerIME. done. The Wii remote is connected. Go enjoy!

To Disconnect

1. to disconnect a single Wii remote, hold the power button on it
2. don’t forget to set your favorite IME back or you won’t be able to type (or check Preferences to find an option to do that automatically)

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One of the things I had been thinking of was remote Surveillance (with motion detection), which is still under the works. Another one was to use it as a Internet radio by interfacing with an older music system with decent audio output.

Pandora and Stitcher together make-up a Full  streaming Radio (Podcasts and music on demand). But the real problem is controlling the Android Phone. How do I change channel, it can’t be done from remote!

The solution is already there, needs a very basic setup and you will be all set to go. All you need is an app that lets you remotely control Android Phone using any computer: Mac, Windows PC, Linux (all flavors), and even another Android phone , Cool isn’t it?

Whether your Android Phone is kept at a distance and you are lazy sitting on your couch, grab another device thats near to you and control your Android Phone remotely.

Method I: Android VNC Server

The app lets you connect to your Android device remotely via WiFi or USB. Connecting via USB requires port 5901 forwarding from device to PC using the following adb command –> adb forward tcp:5901 tcp:5901, then connect to localhost:5901 from your VNC client.

Features of Android VNC Server include:

• GUI to start/stop server and set password
• Set password to access
• Input events are handled by uinput (no need to manually set devices)

Requires you to Root Android device.

Few Quick Tips on using Android VNCServer:
- Right click acts as “home” button press
- Escape on the keyboard acts as the “back” button
- Cursor keys work fine.

The app is available to download free in the Market.

Update: You can use Droid Vnc Server (market) as well.

Step 1. Download and Install VNC server apk on your Android Phone OR from Android Market
Step 2. Install VNC client on your Computer. There are wide options to chose from: Real VNCViewer, Tight VNCviewer, or any other.
Step 3. Determine Android Phone’s IP address and configure your VNC viewer to connect to that IP address.
Step 4. Connect and control.

VNCServer Compatibility List:

Method II: Android Screencast

Android Screencast is n desktop app which lets you control an Android device using Mouse & Keyboard through USB. If you wish to keep your Phone connected all the time, this would be a better option.

Pre-requisites:

• Android Phone should be Rooted (for controls, view only works as is)
• Download Android SDK and extract it

Step 1. Connect phone to USB & ensure that you have Android debugging enabled, and then check connectivity via “adb devices” (If you use eclipse, this should be easy, else run that command from extracted directory/tools.

Step 2. Install JRE (Java runtime environment) if not already, Download and launch JNLP file. Clicking ont hta link should auto-launch it. If it doesn’t, save the JNLP into a folder and run it from command line using “javaws <jnlp file>”.

Step 3. A New window should popup that lets you control your Android using mouse & keyboard.

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Thanks to the sven.killig.de, the project has been ported to support Nexus One Host USB

How to Install Ubuntu on Nexus One / Android

Prerequisites

• Hardware
  • Nexus One
  • Micro USB OTG cable
  • USB Dual Power Cable
  • Powered USB 2.0 hub (charging works)
• Software
  • Android 2.2 Froyo OR 2.1
  • ConnectBot
  • Debian loop fs
  • Binaries
    • boot.img or zImage
    • Modules
  • Building
    • android-msm-2.6.32 kernel source
    • Patch (No device mode, Andrew de Quincey’s work not ported yet.)
    • .config

The future of Mobile PCs

In 5-10 years, we’re all just going to be carrying around cell-phone sized devices that connect wirelessly to monitors or physically to ‘docking stations’. We’ll just have our stuff running android on the device screen when unconnected, and when we dock we’ll just get blown into a full X session with all our apps and settings carried with us.

Last year when I first built my Hackintosh Laptop, I seriously missed one thing: The Bright White Glowing Apple Logo on the back of my HP Notebook. I looked around for a proper DIY guide to do it, there was one but it eventually went down.

Luckily, I took an offline copy of it, while I was trying to build it. So here I present the exclusive tutorial of Creating Glowing Apple Logo Mod for your Notebook/Netbook.

Original work by EdsJunk from the MSI Wind Forums (link seems to be down)

So if you have Installed Snow Leopard on PC with our Hackintosh guides, this thing would add to the grace.

What you need

1. A Crystal clear Apple logo possibly made of crystal (you can find it off an old iBook, or even sol seperately on eBay in some countries. If it ain’t available in your country, try getting a plastic-glass cut in the exact shape.
2. A diffusion type material (Most Apple logos already have this at their back)
3. Dremel tool and or files to smoothen-out surfaces.
4. Masking tape.
5. Spray paint ( of the color of your Notebook) (optional)
6. 800-1000 grit WetsandPaper (optional)
7. A good Adhesive: superglue, elfy, quickfix etc.
8. Misc: Tools to remove lid
9. That’s it, no LEDs or Wiring required, we would light it from the LCD’s back-light source.

First thing first, here is the Apple glass Logo we talked about in 1.

Step 1. Removing the Lid

Method of removing the lid could differ from manufacturer to manufacturer, but here is something very generic.

Remove the 4 rubber pieces on the screen bezel, beneath them are screws, remove them. Carefully pry up the bezel. Next, remove the final two screws that hold the screen to the hinges. When done, the LCD and lid will be separated. Go ahead and remove the LCD connection, unplug it and put your LCD to the side. If your laptop has a camera, mic, carefully remove them. Also what needs to be removed is the antenna wires that are used with the inbuilt wifi. Carefully remove them and keep them aside.

Step 2. Cutting the lid

Now that the lid is nice and lonely, you need to cut a hole through the foil/black padding. Normally, it depends on the size of the Apple Logo you are embedding, a 3″ x 3″ square is enough for most cases.

Next we trace the apple logo on the lid using masking tape. Keep it upright and centred. Msot important thing is that your trace should be mirrored, since it will look 90degrees apart from the outside.

Next up we do the toughest task, cutting it to the trace. Best practce would be to drill out of center and then use files to match the trace’s shape. Spend alot of time on this, if you do this wrong, it would look ugly with grooves visible from outside and there’s no way back. Try to keep a small margin from the traces so that you can push hard and stick the glass log in.

Keep putting the clear logo up to it to make sure your filing out the right parts. And when you are satisfied, stick it in with a glue. Don’t worry if leave minor grooves, those can be fixed by painting the glass-back black (or the color of your notebook) with sharpie markers (or any others).

Step 3. Wetsanding, Painting (optional)

At this point, you can wetsand the outside surface, and paint it again, but I didn’t really feel the need for it.

Step 4. Diffusion Material at back (optional, good to have)

Next, apply the diffusion material over the back of the clear logo. This will cause you not to see shadows or the LCD wiring. You can even threw colored plastic in there to get a different color apple!

Step 5. Getting the Light source

The backlight for the logo can messup the illumination of your LCD screen, so we need to isolate it. Cutting away the plastic and foil that keeps the back light from shinning threw the back of the LCD.

So grab that LCD screen, lookout, there is going to be some tape foil towards the bottom covering up the circuitry. Cut away all that you dont need, just leave enough to cover the circuit board. Go ahead and tape off any openings and the connection because you dont want any dust getting in there. Now you gotta cut out a good portion of that white plastic cover(dremel with cut off disk would do). Towards the top of the LCD the white palstic cover kinda clips onto the metal frame. Carefully unclip the two, you will notice you dont get much play room. I got enough room just to lift the white plastic cover up a little bit so i wouldnt cut threw my screen. Now carefully cut about a 3″ x 3″ square (same as what you did previously) out of the plastic. You will get a alot of dust if you are using a dremel. As long as you mask everything off, it’s all good.

Block it using a silver foil.  You gotta remove a square of foil and you will get light. IMPOTANT: You need to be careful. This foil is directly adhered to the material used to distribute and even amount of light to your screen! It comes off easily but, it will take some time. Cutting through the white material under the foil would leave very dark spots on the screen. It can be fixed back, the hard way. Simply stating, just take enough time and carefully peel away enough foil. (removing just the foil does NOT affect your screen at all, just make sure you don’t remove White area). After the foil is removed, the light is all yours Apple! Bright and attractive.

Step 6. Putting things back

Now go ahead and put all of the stuff you removed back into the LCD lid. The antennas, camera and mic back on the bezel, route the wires nicely and screw it all back together. For almost all screens, screen goes onto the lid then the hinges ontop of that. And while stuffing things back, make sure hinges don’t hurt your wires. Reinstall the bezel and then clip the hinge covers back on. Now the glory is yours, and the Apple shines.

Before:

After:

And now thinking of modding my Sony VAIO

Only trouble is the logo is way too huge to be altered.

But wait a minute.. Why cutting the screen Baklight area, why Not use LEDs instead?

If you happen to use LEDs, chance s are (like 99%) that you would get un-even distribution of light over the logo giving you bright and dark spots, spoiling the fun. Secondly, it would need extra power source that will eat apart of your battery. When its fed from LCD screen, there’s almsot no effect on luminance of screen and you end up consuming the same battery that you did earlier. And the thirdly, the best part: It will turn OFF and ON whenever your screen is ON or OFF — just like an Apple MacBook would do. And lastly, no wiring mess. I feel it’s worth the extra mile.

What’s next? Try DIY Keyboard Backlit Illumination

P.S. Similar hack can be applied for iPhone glowing apple logo. but its much harder to implement.

We write about Latest in tech, Google, Do-it-yourself (DIY), iPhone, Gadgets, Open Source, Programming. Grab them all @taranfx on Twitter or below:

All of the transformation packs are straight forward and easy to install.

Note: We recommend creating a restore point or backing up the files manually before attempting any of these transformations (list of files affected can be found on the author’s page)

Update: Transform Windows 7 to Snow Leopard

Transform Windows XP to Mac OS X Leopard

Download – The Pack is developed by kampongboy and does a beautiful job at tranforming your Windows XP SP2 to Leopard. The author recommends applying transformation in safe mode.

If you need any assistance in customization, you can reach us @taranfx on twitter.

Additional software needed to get the exact look as in the screenshot: Windowblinds, ObjectDock and IconPackager.

WindowsBlinds Theme: Leopard Glass by ~neodesktop
Wallpaper: Leopard Wallpaper by ~vsdigital
Dock Skin: OS X Leopard for ObjectDock by ~reverse84

Transform Windows 7 to Mac OS X Leopard

Download – Developed by alkhan, is relatively easier. All you need to do is install the transformation pack and then use ObjectDock for the Dock at bottom. [Dock Skin: OS X Leopard for ObjectDock by ~reverse84]

Transform Windows Vista to Mac OS X Leopard

Download. Developed by Hydrattz, this Transformation pack lets the Vista’s pathetic glory go away in minutes. I remmend using the same dock: ObjectDock for the Dock at bottom. [Dock Skin: OS X Leopard for ObjectDock by ~reverse84] though you are free to choose your option. Do checkout optional things you can do with this theme at author’s page.

Related: Transform Ubuntu to Windows 7

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Mac machines don’t come any cheap. But with this one heck of a mod, which will cost less than half that price (around $1300) you can have a super cool Mac machine housed inside an Xbox shell.

Willudesign creates what they call a “OS Xbox Pro“.

When the mod is dealt with, you’ll have the High end configuration you thrive for. The current video tries to make a beast from  Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550S 2.93GHz processor, NVIDIA GeForce 9800GT graphics, 8GB of RAM, 16GB SSD drive and four traditional hard drives (for Windows 7 OS, Snow Leopard OS and other two for video editing).
Watch the Video:

We all are fascinated by Robotics. IT can be surprising at moments when people come up with amazing things. sometimes it they are pathetically dumb. Luckily this one is NOT! “Do Robotics” has rolled its latest software-ready autonomous robot off the production line at its Colorado home base. Like its first two robotic offerings, RoBe:Do’s third robot, aptly named “Three”, comes fully assembled and ready and waiting for you to add the netbook of your choice to act as the robot’s brain.

Three is RoBe:Do’s greenest robot to date thanks to a simplified design that results in less aluminum, electronics and rechargeable batteries. A three-sensor digital infrared navigation array option also minimizes required electronics, while detecting objects within 10-inches.

The netbook “brain” sits atop a sturdy aluminum mount and connects to the robot via USB. If bigger brains are your thing then you might want to opt for the optional larger robot chassis, which can accommodate 6+ pound laptops. The chassis sits atop two 6.7” tires powered by 2 x 120 RPM gearhead motors, with a third, smaller multi-directional rear wheel adding support.

All of RoBe:Do’s robots can be controlled with a Linux, Mac or Windows PC using various software languages and tools such as C, C++, C#, Flash AS3, Java, .NET, Python, VBScript and Visual Basic to name a few. Three comes with attachment mechanisms to facilitate the addition of USB plug-and-play sensors, I/O controllers, actuators or cases to expand the capabilities of the robot.

This means making and delivering popcorn is just the tip of the iceberg for Three. If nothing else it could act as your personal netbook caddy.

RoBe:Do’s Three stands 6.5-inches tall, measures 12-inches long and 12-inches wide and tips the scales at 4 pounds. It is custom built and is available now from the regular price of USD$439.

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