If you like watching TV but hate paying the monthly cable bill (add me to that list) have a look at Boxee. It can be loaded onto any computer however the Apple TV is an ideal platform for its magic. Boxee allows you to access all of your media that you have on your local network but includes movie reviews, song lyrics and much more to enhance the experience. You can also have it setup so that you can see what your friends are watching, I am not sure if this is a good feature but if you are on Facebook many hours a day this will probably be a welcome feature. 

"Boxee is the developer of the first “social” media center. boxee plays media from your computer and other devices in your home network, as well as connect you to various Internet sources that allow you to stream or download movies, tv shows, music and photos."

Via: Apple TV Hacks

A new type of phone directory that provides access to reverse phone number lookups offers users the ability to lookup the name associated with an unrecognized phone number.
For quite some time now, computer users have been able to use online versions of the Yellow and White Pages to look up personal and business listings, but what sets reverse cell phone searches apart from these traditional directories is the fact that they can be used to lookup phone numbers when a person does not have a mysterious caller’s name available.
These very specialized searches are not much different form a normal query performed on an internet search engine. To perform a search, a user must enter a 10-digit phone number into a reverse phone directory’s search field and press enter to retrieve a report containing the phone owner’s name and any extra available information.
The reason why reverse phone search directories are such an effective tool in the battle against unwanted and unsolicited phone calls is that they lift the veil of protection from anonymous callers so that real name and alternate contact information can be gathered immediately.
If you’ve ever tried to call back a telemarketer by dialing the phone number that appeared on your caller identification box, you have probably gotten a recording, or in some cases, the call probably didn’t even go through. By performing a reverse cell phone search on that number, users can find out who the number belongs to before answering the call.
If you have tried to contact a telemarketing firm without the necessary information before, you know how frustrating it can be to remove yourself from call lists. They always claim they will remove your information in a few days, but the calls never seem to stop coming, often times even more frequently than before. However, when you know the name of the company responsible and you have their direct line, you will likely notice a quick end to unsolicited phone calls.
If you are already listed on a Do Not Call list, the unsolicited calls you receive are considered illegal and the company responsible could be subject to large fines. In these cases, a reverse cell phone directory can play a major role in helping to screen your calls effectively.

The title lies a bit, this clock can keep track of all sorts of time zones and events. Sometimes having some extra hardware around looking for a purpose leads to cool gadgets. Have a look at how the Mars Clock was made. Code, schematics and everything else you need to make your own is provided.

"You are probably thinking "There are hundreds of PIC clocks on the Net – do we need yet another one?!" Well, this one is a bit different:

• It has 16 timers that can be independently paused and restarted, and can run forward or backward.
• There are 16 alarms with configurable sounds and actions.
• Timers can show Earth, Mars, Jupiter, etc. times at the same time.
• How about sidereal time, Moon phase, Jupiter’s Great Red Spot transit time, and anything periodic in general?
• Simultaneous 24-hour and Julian-time decimal display.
• All changes in configuration can be done from the device’s keyboard – no computer necessary.
• External AC power with built-in rechargeable battery, so you can take the clock around.
• High on the geekness scale."

My daughter seems to have everything that has a Hannah Montana brand on it but I haven’t seen this photocube yet. It’s probably a good thing since after reading about this Hacked Hannah Montana Photocube I would probably have it in a bunch of pieces on my workbench. 

"A 1Mb A29L800( datasheet ) flash chip and a micrcontroller hidden behind a big black blob along with the LCD, buttons, USB port and an on-off switch. With some reading on Sprite’s blog and modifyng his script a little, I was able to verify that the microcontroller was indeed a ST2205U. If you browse through main.c, a function is_photoframe checks if the controller is a ST2205U. So I inserted a printf(”Response : %s\n”,buff) to verify if the chip gave back the correct string, which it did."

The next installment of the Suzuki Electric Bike Build is up for our enjoyment. You probably remember that last time the motor was getting rebuilt.There is lots of progress being made and as usual there is a video that will take you along the process. Hopefully it will open your eyes to some creative part building techniques. Below is just a bit of the experimentation that was needed to make the custom duct that is used to cool the motor.

"Some PVC 4" sewer pipe, resin, fiber glass cloth, 1/8" hobby plywood, steel strapping, a pair of matching 12Vdc fans, and some cardboard (pop cases) to make templates. It was tricky to mold the manifold against the motor to approximate the angle of air-flow relative to the slot. It had to be done twice, because I used engine oil on the surface of the motor to act as a releasing agent. But the end result was that the resin couldn’t harden, as if the oil was a neutralizer on the catalyst. The second attempt was successful by masking the CLEAN motor surface with Duct Tape."

(more…)

Next time you see someone looking down at their cell phone you’ll have to ask yourself who sent the message. Was it a simple text message from their friend, an automated spam email or could be a break in alert sent from their home monitoring system via Twitter!

"My alarm panel is somewhat isolated in the house with no nearby Ethernet connection, so I added an Xbee wireless module capable of sending data to another room in the house with Ethernet available. The Arduino spends its time monitoring the alarm output pins and sending the latest status over the air. Of course an SMS is ultimately the best way to send an urgent message like an intruder alert, but the Twitter updates are useful for posting less important status updates. As well as the intruder alert signal, the module can read a bunch of other status signals from the alarm and post those signals only to Twitter."

Next time you have a great idea for the next big iPhone game you might be able to have Ding Wen develop it in his free time between homework and bedtime. This is a great story of a father and some team who wrote Doodle Kids, a free artistic app for children. If you are thinking that the father is just looking for publicity you may think again when you learn that Ding has been programming since he was 7 years old. His languages of choice are ActionScript and JavaScript, but he also can code in Applesoft BASIC, GSoft BASIC, Complete Pascal, Orca/Pascal and a little Objective-C.

Via: Wired

"Upon opening, the user is presented simply with a black screen. When you touch it – a shape appears and as you drag your finger along the screen it draws a line of that shape in different colors. To change the shape you lift your finger, and re-touch the screen. Multitouch will also change the screen color, and while there is no built in functionality for saving the images you can take a screen shot using the iPhone built-in screen capture function (holding down the home button, and pressing the sleep button)."