Contraption Archive

  • PosiMotion Helix iPhone / iPod touch gaming grip now available at Best Buy

    PosiMotion Helix iPhone / iPod touch gaming grip now available at Best Buy

    PosiMotion certainly announced this one well enough in advance (all the way back in December), but it looks like its Helix gaming grip for the iPhone and iPod touch is now finally available, and at Best Buy no less. In case your memory needs to be jogged a bit, this $20 contraption promises to be ideal for "virtually any game," and let you use your iPhone or iPod touch in either portrait or landscape mode -- it'll also keep your headphones from getting tangled up for good measure. Still not convinced? Then perhaps the video after the break will change your mind -- chains not included.

    Continue reading PosiMotion Helix iPhone / iPod touch gaming grip now available at Best Buy

    PosiMotion Helix iPhone / iPod touch gaming grip now available at Best Buy originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 31 May 2010 10:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  • DIYer combines iPhone 3GS with Show WX for pico projected gaming bliss (video)

    DIYer combines iPhone 3GS with Show WX for pico projected gaming bliss (video)

    digg_url = 'http://digg.com/gadgets/Worlds_First_Pico_Projector_iPhone_Camera'; The Moject project proved that smartphones and pico projectors do indeed have a thing for one another, but Ethan Janson has taken things one step further with an unnamed contraption that holds his iPhone 3GS, a Microvision Show WX and an "ancient" point-and-shoot camera. Put simply, the handmade thingamajig allows him to play his iPhone games on a far larger screen, and since the Show WX continually autofocuses regardless of distance from walls, there's never a blurring issue when flailing about in order to control the gameplay. The full skinny is down there in the source, but shortcut takers can head straight past the break for a video.

    [Thanks, Ethan]

    Continue reading DIYer combines iPhone 3GS with Show WX for pico projected gaming bliss (video)

    DIYer combines iPhone 3GS with Show WX for pico projected gaming bliss (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 17 May 2010 13:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  • Monami, the hard drive concept with a leather top hat (kinda)

    Monami, the hard drive concept with a leather top hat (kinda)

    Yeah... How much thought do you put into your hard drive purchase? Like, zero seconds? I mean, you check out the specs—capacity, cache, speed, etc.—and then off you go. Do you care what it looks like? I certainly don't, but then I'm probably not the "demo" for this deal. Then again, it's not even real, so I don't even know what's going on anymore.

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  • AquaAntics Water Bomb Factory is genius, should win an international peace award

    AquaAntics Water Bomb Factory is genius, should win an international peace award

    I guarantee that the outside water spigot at my mom's house has weathered rings left over from water balloons. There just isn't a fool-proof way to fill up the balloons on a naked spigot. Sure, there are those little nozzles that thread on, but those don't work well either. But the AquadAntics Water Bomb Factory is just what the name implies: a venerable water balloon factory. You have to see this thing in action. It's set to revolutionize summer time. Click through for the video.

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  • “This Is It” commemorative hard drive

    “This Is It” commemorative hard drive

    Nothing like a commemorative hard disk to remember one of the greatest pop stars of all time. At least, that’s exactly what Samsung was thinking when they thought up this one. Now when people ask you what that gaudy gold contraption on your desk is, you’ll have an answer other than censored from last night. Under [...]

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  • Video: Castrol machine kicks soccer ball 200+ km/h, makes Cristiano Ronaldo jealous

    Video: Castrol machine kicks soccer ball 200+ km/h, makes Cristiano Ronaldo jealous

    It was established at some point that Crisitano Ronaldo, the Portuguese international who gets red cards for Real Madrid, can kick a soccer ball at around 130 km/h. People keep track of this for some reason. This here robot… thing can kick a soccer ball at more than 200 km/h. Somewhere, Mr. Ronaldo is quietly [...]

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  • iPhone camera mod for magnification: because you can

    iPhone camera mod for magnification: because you can

    We've thought before how nice it might be to have some powers of magnification on the iPhone's cam... but are we going to go out and mod our unit? Probably not, but that doesn't mean we can't admire someone else's work. Taking various lenses and attaching them to the lid of a jar, the modder quite carefully built a contraption that looks a little "hobo Steampunk" to us, but we're still fairly impressed with this little gadget. Hit the read link for full, detailed instructions and more photos if you'd like to make one of your own.

    iPhone camera mod for magnification: because you can originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 Nov 2009 18:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  • Honda makes the ultimate Paperboy gaming system

    Honda makes the ultimate Paperboy gaming system

    Bicycle safety wasn't an issue for me growing up. I lived in a quiet suburban subdivision on a cul-de-sac. Plus, my mom is an insurance agent and so she made sure that I always had the latest safety equipment. (E.g. shin pads, wrist pads, elbow pads, helmet, gloves, and a cup) It's a damn good thing that Honda didn't make this bicycle simulator back in the Eighties. She would have shipped the thing in from Japan, and I would have never been able to leave the house.

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  • New thermal maps show the Moon gets damn cold

    New thermal maps show the Moon gets damn cold

    The LRO has already provided us with a lot of fascinating high-res photos of the Moon's surface. But photos are just the start. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter also has more instruments aboard and one of them, the Diviner Lunar Radiometer developed and operated by the California Institute of Technology Jet Propulsion Laboratory, is sending back some wild info about the Moon's surface temperature.

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  • MIT students build $150 space camera

    MIT students build $150 space camera

    If I had $150 dollars (I don't), I would probably buy a new hard drive. But I'm not MIT quaility. You see, two MIT students decided to spend $150 "to see what the world looked like from the sky." And apparently they didn't want to use this thing called the Internet. So they assembled a contraption made up of a weather balloon, helium, Styrofoam cooler, hand warmers, a cell phone, and a camera. Short story: it worked.

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  • DIY balancing scooter will make you the envy of geeks everywhere

    DIY balancing scooter will make you the envy of geeks everywhere

    diy-balancing-scooterI admit it: I would love to have a Segway. Yes, I realize they're not really all that practical for everyday life in Columbus, OH. Yes, I realize they make you look like a total nerd. I'm prepared to reconcile both of those facts against what I perceive as the unadulterated fun of riding such a contraption. Unfortunately, I don't have the cash to buy a Segway. If I had bothered to take shop class in high school, though, maybe I could make this DIY balancing scooter to fulfill my Segway lust.

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  • Just try to relax … this won’t hurt … much.

    Just try to relax … this won’t hurt … much.

    artificialleechWhile sitting in my dentist's chair recently, I marveled at just how scary looking many of the implements on his tray were. And don't get me started on that contraption I put my face into at the optometrists! It's hard to believe that these implements of modern medicine will some day appear as quaint -- and arguably as effective -- as instruments of yore, like the "artificial leech" pictured here.

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