Based on a LEGO NXT computer Peter Cocteau’s 8 bit sample based LEGO Drum Machine is finally complete. Now this DIY is a clear example of what can be done with a NXT catch up with more on this project over at Hacked Gadgets.

The new gyroscope sensor technology and the Retina Display in iPhone 4 have not been tested for their potential so far apart from the Augmented Reality browser app that created ripples in the App Store. Since then many Gyroscope sensor apps have made it to the App Store and four apps out of those are worth mentioning here.

# Gyro Guitar

This amazing iPhone 4 and iPad app gives you the freedom to move around the fretboard in any direction, giving you the feel of playing a real guitar. Hands-down, Gyro Guitar is probably one of the best guitar apps that I have seen or heard of thus far.

# Rubik’s Cube

This is the only Rubik’s Cube phone app approved by Erno Rubik, inventor of Rubik’s Cube game. Combining the classic playing method with some really amazing variations in play, this app is a must-have for all iPad and iPhone 4 owners.

# MotionX GPS

Along with the gyroscope support, MotionX GPS app boasts of a really smooth multitasking feature. The app can do anything that’s related to GPS elements like maps integrated direction, downloading or storing maps and live navigation. A great to have handy while hiking, cycling, sailing or doing any other adventure activity.

# Augmented reality browser

This augmented reality app comes in very handy when you have to navigate nearest locations, restaurants or any other points of interest. The locations can then be shared with friends via Facebook, Twitter and email. The acrossair Augmented Reality app finds restaurants and bars via Google, Qype and Yelp in one place, and also gives Twitter posts, Wikipedia articles, Flickr and Panoramio photos that are nearby.

I will have a full-blown feature on such kind of apps that are exclusively made for iPhone 4, iPad or iOS4, so stay tuned in the coming days.

iPad and 3D display demonstration don’t seem to mix well together or sound probable. But blokes over at Aircord Labs have a good reason to contradict my statement as they have done just that. Using Plexiglass sheet for making a glass pyramid with semi-reflective sides for reflecting the image of the iPad’s screen fitted above creates an amazing 3D spectacle when viewed from side to side. Pretty intuitive concept, I tell you, and worth giving a try, that is if you have an iPad or any other LCD display screen to go ahead with this DIY experiment.

Via: Hard OCP

A couple of days ago I told you about a Windows 7 trick on how to rename many files in a folder with a nifty little shortcut trick. In that article I mentioned that the trick won’t work on Windows XP OS, but thanks to a Lifehacker reader’s tip, the trick works for Windows XP operating system too.

Delirium came up with a script to make this shortcut tweak work on Windows XP, which looks something like this:

If you don’t know much about the working of this script, download this renametab.exe link to make the tweak function right away.

Via: Lifehacker

Technology changes at such a rapid pace that you can’t resist trying out new gadgets and cell-phones are one of those electronic gadgets that get changed by the user very frequently. So where does the old cell-phone go when you eventually dump it? You probably don’t even remember where is, if I’m not wrong. That old cell-phone will come in very handy if want to make an induction charger for your cell-phone. Derek Hughes an avid DIY’er decided to hack a wireless induction charger for his HTC HD2, from a Palm Pre Touchstone inductive charging kit. This way he could wirelessly charge his HTC HD2 phone by placing it on a charging dock. The most comforting part about his DIY hack is that it won’t void your phones warranty. Check-out the detailed video after the jump.

# You can also check-out the video below for further reference on this project

* Also read on Resonant Energy charging method for tips on how to increase the distance of the wireless induction charging.

Via: Hack A Day

Looks like the 3D wave is catching every digital media content available; whether it be the products or online services. Carrying momentum forward with new feature additions to its services, YouTube has opened the flood gates for 3D video content streaming. The new 3D mode lets you activate 3D mode for viewing any video using 3D glasses. To enable 3D viewing mode for a video you’ll have to write “yt3d:enable=true” (without quotes) at the end of the YouTube video URL. Consequently you can configure other options like aspect ratio or coordinate settings by further adding the following codes.

• yt3d:aspect=3:4 Sets the aspect of the encoded video.

• yt3d:swap=true Swaps the left and right sources.

• yt3d:left=0_0.1_0.5_0.9 and yt3d:right=0.5_0.1_1_0.9 These tags are very provisional and most useful for fixing up old videos. They set the source area for each eye as pairs of co-ordinates x1_y1_x2_y2. The scale of these coordinates is 0,0 for the top left down to 1,1 for the bottom right.

Picture this scenario; you stumble on to a website that has some video in .flv format that you really want to download. But neither does the video have any download link nor any hyperlink to the video resource provider. In that situation there is a very nifty trick that only a few know, and that trick you are going to learn today. When I first got acquainted with this technique for downloading any video format file from any website, the surprise element was the tool used for this trick. Yes, Opera web browser is the tool that makes this download trick possible and you can learn it too by taking a jump.

• First of all let’s have the link to a webpage having the video, for example the given below link:

http://videocopilot.net/tutorial/energy/

• Open this link in Opera web browser and click the Play button to buffer the video.

• Now when you hit the play button have a look at the text that appears in the status bar for 3-4 seconds. Remember this address or note it down for later.

* In case you miss it once, you can have a look at it again by stopping the video playback and then hitting the Play button again.

• Then open a new tab, type opera:cache in the address bar and hit Enter.

• This will open a list of cached items and one of these entries is the download link for video you just buffered.

• Look for the download data address that you noted down earlier and search for the cached item in the Opera Cached items list.

• In this case the item to look for is videocopilotdata.net

• Click on the Preview button for this cached item link, and you’ll see this window opened in a new tab having the .flv video download link.

• Click on the link and you’ll be prompted to save this item

• There you have it, the video is now downloaded.

Sure nixie tube numeral display or a simple nixie tube display looks uber cool, but would you venture out on making one yourself? [Aleksander Zawada] was definitely up for this challenge, and set-out on making a nixie tube display on his own. Although this nixie tube make is not a stroll in the park kind of DIY project, but hardcore electronic DIY project followers are going to love the opportunity. Coming on to the make, Aleksander used standard pure neon gas and glass soda pipe enclosure for storing the gas.

Filling the glass pipe with neon gas at right pressure, and then firmly sealing the tube requires plenty of patience and the right technique. The nixie tube illuminates when current between 280 V and 430 V is applied. Aleksander is still hard at work into fine tuning the components of this DIY, so for complete details have a look at this PDF file.

Via: Hack A Day

Facebook has added a new feature that allows for hassle free deletion of your profile account completely. The only catch at this point is that the feature is only available for a select few users who have been chosen randomly for a test phase. The “Delete” option is more viable option when it comes to completely erasing your Facebook profile, rather than going for “Deactivate” option. Apparently Deactivate option keeps your profile info and the account is deactivated completely only after 14 days.

For those who are skeptical about the introduction of this new feature in Facebook, a recent update by a Facebook representative confirms this fact. So head right over to your Facebook Account Settings to see if you have the Delete option for your profile or not.

Via: Slash Dot/The Next Web

Mozilla Firefox is a web browser that uses more memory than any other web browser available like Google Chrome or Opera. Firefox interface is such that it utilizes loads of memory space when more than 10 tabs are open in one window. And to top it all the visual enhancement add-ons and themes eat-up even more memory space. Users having RAM and virtual memory allocation limitations eventually switch to browsers like Google Chrome and Opera for this very reason.

If you are a Firefox web browser user then it will pay-off if you use Firefox add-ons/extensions that reduce Firefox memory usage. This saves you from all the frustration when your web browsing session is reduced down to snail’s pace due to too many open tabs or windows. Memory Fox 3.3 is an add-on that will help you immensely in reducing Firefox memory usage as you can see from the screen-shot below.

Image

Another add-on worth installing for Mozilla Firefox is BarTab 2.0 that puts all your currently not usable tabs in your bar tab. These tabs can be loaded anytime you want, thereby saving memory usage.