Mods, hacks and weird stuff from Macworld (photos)…
MAKE pal Zapwizard sent word that his wooden iPod would be at the FastMac booth at Macworld where they showcased a lot of Macmods – here they are, great hacks! – A cursed wooden Mac case, a Madmax style Powerbook, this thing is awesome (here’s the story of it too), a solar station for charging batteries, an iTablet (Tablet version of a Mac made from an iBook), and the wooden iPod. UPDATE: Make sure to check out MacMod, they’re the folks who put the hacks together!
That was quick: here’s a new Intel iMac dissection, looks moddable too – “One can notice that the processor is not soldered to the motherboard, but via a socket. So, it will be potentially possible to change it in the future, if Apple does not prevent such modifications by some hardware or software trick.” [
Tom made a pretty spiffy Ubuntu (Linux) home media center. He writes – “Like a lot of people nowadays, I have a growing collection of digital media. My digital media is stored on a home Linux server. Most of the digital media players available today do not support protocols to connect to a Linux server, which make them unsuitable for my use. I realized the best way to connect my digital media library with my home theatre was to build my own Linux home media center (LHMC)…” [
Keylock has an interesting post about cell phone ownership in other countries in response to the Verizon crippling of our phones – “In Qatar I pay a security deposit and then my mobile phone is billed like a landline phone. I pay for the calls I make–no limits and full access to all my Nokia 6230’s features (like bluetooth) without being billed for it. The coverage in Qatar is good (albeit a small country) but it is also an all digital network. The USA is a mix of analog/digital because the companies that put up the analog towers are trying to wring every dollar out before they have to replace them. The USA is behind in the cell phone market considerably…don’t believe me? Check out 
Jeff at Palm addict writes – “Somehow tonight I stumbled on something I’ve never heard of. It seems that Google has a page that will optimize any website for viewing on a mobile phone or PDA, similar to Skweezer and IYHY. All you see when you load the page is what shows in the included graphic. No Google logo, no explanation, nothing. But simply enter a URL and you recieve a quick-loading mobile optimized version of the page you requested.” [
Good round of motherboard upgrading tips on Extremetech – “…motherboard upgrades can be either difficult or straightforward. It all depends on how you approach it and how you prepare. We’ve upgraded motherboards quite often over the years, so we’ve learned a few lessons along the way. We’d like to share our knowledge, so that when you tackle this, you encounter minimal hassles. Our pain over the years is now your gain.” Thanks Star! 