We know it’s a pain in the ass to buy a separate DVD player, especially if you have just bought a Wii.  Here’s  a great Wii hack showing you how to use your Nintendo Wii as a DVD player!

For some reson Nintendo decided not to include the dvd play-back function into the wii.

But it is now possible thanks to some amazing work by Team Twiizers

You Will Need:

A Wii (Duh!)
A Sd Card
A Way For You Wii To run Homebrew

via instructables

Here’s a cool mini-laptop for tough guys.  (J/k, this  is laptop for geeks who work in a tough environment) :-p

• Genuine Windows Vista Business with Service Pack 1 (with XP downgrade option)
• Intel Atom processor Z520 1.33GHz with 533MHz FSB, 512KB L2 cache
• 16GB solid-state removable drive (32GB optional)
• 1GB memory
• 5.6-inch WSVGA sunlight viewable touch screen (1024×600 resolution)
• Antireflective screen treatment
• LED backlighting
• Intel Wireless Wi-Fi Link 5100 series (802.11a/g/draft-n)
• Bluetooth v2.0 + EDR
• Interfaces: USB 2.0, SD Card, Microphone, Headphone, Expansion Bus
• Integrated options include 3G mobile broadband, integrated camera, fingerprint scanner, GPS, barcode or RFID readers
• Optional expansion modules for magnetic stripe reader and serial/Ethernet/smart card are expected in late 2008
• Approximately 9 hours of battery life
• 2.3 pounds (with strap and both batteries)
• 2.2 inches tall by 7.2 inches wide by 5.9 inches deep

via laptop blog

Lol… make sure to check the SD card label before you hook it up to your computer.

Continue reading ‘Eye-Fi - an SD card that catches thieves!’

Comfile Technology has launched their new Touchscreen PLC/embedded computer based on Windows CE called CuWIN3500.

The CuWIN3500 is based on an ARM9 32bit 266Mhz processor with a 7-inch 800×480 pixel touchscreen display pad.

On top of that, the CuWIN3500 supports up to 2GB of SD cards, 64MB of RAM, 64MB of NAND Flash, 1MB of NOR flash, internal mono speakers, and also an option to hook up your stereo headphones.

The whole thing can be programmed via a .NET framework and you can also use Visual Basic to program.

What does it do?

Well, it’s for industrial developers and hobbyists who want a fast color touchscreen module.  You can hook up motors, sensors, etc…etc…  It’s like a touchscreen version of Arduino or Basic Stamp basically.  Get the idea???

I just got a free sample here so I might do a video review and give it out as a contest but in the meanwhile, this little touchscreen device goes for $599.00.

If there’s enough requests, I will hold a contest for the unit I got in couple weeks.  (Leave a comment if you want one!)

Specs:

- 7″ wide color TFT display
- 800 x 480 resolutions, 260K colors
- Touch panel
- Having Cover Case (Front Waterproof)
- SD card supports
- Ethernet supports
- RS232 x 2 / RS485 x 1 or RS232 x 3
- Speaker with Audio output
- Real time clock (Battery backup)
- Visual Basic, EVC supports
- USB I/F (active sync)
- Keyboard or Mouse supports
- ARM9 32bit 266MHz processor
- Windows CE 5.0
- 64MB FLASH, 64MB SDRAM
- Size(WDH) : 220 x 150 x 50mm

Check out this open source EchoMP3 player kit. It look similar to the Make MP3 Daisy player but also supports MMC, not that MMC is used that much these days…

Kinda cool hackable linux powered DVR here.

Features:

• Standalone Linux Based Media Player connects to your TV
• Record from any external analog audio/video source such as a DVD player or Cable box
• Automatically encode video/audio for playback on mobile devices such as PSP and mobile phones
• Playback a variety of media formats on your TV including MP4, AVI, ASF, MP3, OGG, WMA, AC3
• Timed recording feature allows scheduled recordings in advance
• Storage via media cards (SD/MMC and CF) or external USB hard drive
• IR Remote Learning and Playback
• Future Implementation for Network Attached Storage functionality
• Updateable Open Source Firmware
• Linux OS (2.6 Kernel)

[via] thinkgeek

Just in case you haven’t seen this one from Atmel, My new Atmel AVR32 development kit, STK1000 Linux Box!

It loads up great, I haven’t had the time to mess around with it
but seems like it has 2 Ethernet ports, 2 USB ports, bunch of I/Os, push buttons and nice color LCD. The whole Linux runs on a 256MB SD Card, which is kinda cool…

“STK1000 provides a complete AT32AP7000 development environment. The kit has two ethernet ports, a high quality QVGA LCD, a loudspeaker, and connectors for USART, PS/2, VGA, and USB. A expansion header can be used for prototyping.

A pre-installed Linux image on the enclosed 256 MB SD card ensures that the user can boot Linux and start program development directly after power up.

STK1000 is also supported by AVR JTAGICE mkII. With either GNU GCC or the IAR compiler, the JTAGICE mkII supports basic runtime control and a limited trace. “

details from atmel