Author: kenmay

Watch a crab climb out of its old shell like a mutant

Crabs are red alien water tarantulas who can regenerate like a mutant. Just look at this crab literally climb out of its old shell and toss away that used exoskeleton like it’s a dirty pair of pants. So gross but so cool. I kind of wish I could shed skin like this. It’d probably be the most refreshing feeling ever. Read more…        

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Watch a crab climb out of its old shell like a mutant

LED stickers: turn your notebook into a lightshow

Noah Swartz writes, “Jie Qi from the MIT Media Lab and Bunnie Huang of Hacking the Xbox fame have teamed up to make LED stickers! Using adhesive copper tape you can turn any notebook into a fantastical light up circuit sketchbook. I got to play with them myself at FOO Camp and they’re as easy to use as the look, and in the time since Ji and Bunnie have gone back to the lab and made a number of sensor and controller stickerss that give you loads of options of what to make. They’re running a fundraiser to do a big production run of these over at Crowdsupply, and while they have funding I’m sure lots of people will be kicking themselves if they don’t manage to grab some of these while they can.” Circuit Stickers ( Thanks, Noah! )        

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LED stickers: turn your notebook into a lightshow

Dropbox gets an iOS 7 makeover with AirDrop sharing

Dropbox may be late to the iOS 7 app update party , but it’s making up for lost time with an abundance of new features in the just-launched version 3.0 release for Apple’s platform. The refresh brings the expected iOS 7-friendly look and includes AirDrop , making it easy to share links or whole files with nearby friends. It’s also easier to send files to other apps or save videos to the device library, and iPad owners can quickly open files in a full-screen view. If your cloud storage revolves around Dropbox, we’d strongly recommend swinging by the App Store for an upgrade. Filed under: Cellphones , Tablets , Storage , Internet , Mobile Comments Source: App Store

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Dropbox gets an iOS 7 makeover with AirDrop sharing

Hydrobee Lets You Charge A Battery From A Fast-Flowing River To Juice Up USB Devices Off-Grid

We’ve seen fire harnessed to power a phone charger for the great outdoors, with the nifty  FlameStower , now meet Hydrobee: another Kickstarter project aiming to provide an off-grid alternative for charging a battery you can then use to juice your phone. But, as its name suggests, Hydrobee is all about water. There’s two parts to Hydrobee. When wearing its ‘Stream Body’, the gizmo can be placed in a river or dragged behind a boat – so long as the water is flowing faster than 1.8m/s (or 4mph+) – and two to four hours later its battery will be fully charged. A smaller inner unit can also be attached directly to a flowing faucet to charge – so could be used as a back-up power generator for your phone during a power outage (so long as your taps don’t require electricity to pump the water to them). Once Hydrobee’s battery is juiced, you can then plug in a USB device to charge it – a secondary charging process that presumably takes several more hours. Hydrobee reminds me of a CDT project I worked on in school, where we stuck a dynamo on a paddle wheel-bearing rig designed to float in a river and stuck a micro bulb on top that we hoped would be powered by it… Long story short it didn’t work on demo day, but that’s technology demos for you. Hydrobee has clearly perfected the hydroelectric tech better than a bunch of schoolkids managed to. The prototype consists of a tiny hydropowered turbine sited in a can with rechargeable batteries and waterproofed electronics, and a USB 2.0 port – so you can juice up your phone or other USB-powered device. The internal batteries are 6 x 1.2V AA NiMH rechargeable cells of 2,500 mAh capacity, yielding a total of 15,000 mAh. It is still a prototype for now. And Hydrobee’s U.S.-based creator has put a call out for Kickstarter users to give him feedback on the sorts of things they’d like to be able to use the device for to help shape the final product. The campaign is looking to raise $48,000 in crowdfunding, with 17 days left to run. If it hits its funding target, Hydrobees will be shipped to backers next March. The Hydrobee turbine generator, which can be used to generate a charge from water from a running faucet or hose, is being offered to early Kickstarter backers for $24. Or it’s $78 for all the kit, including the floating Stream Body.

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Hydrobee Lets You Charge A Battery From A Fast-Flowing River To Juice Up USB Devices Off-Grid

Decrap Uninstalls All the Bloatware on Your New PC Automatically

No one likes bloatware, especially on a shiny new laptop. If you find wading through the program manager in Windows tedious and annoying, Decrap will volunteer to do the work for you. Read more…        

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Decrap Uninstalls All the Bloatware on Your New PC Automatically

GetCreditCardNumbers Generates "Real" Numbers for Use in Free Trials

Sometimes a free trial comes along and you want to check it out, but in order to do so you have to enter a credit card number. Perhaps you don’t want to share that information just yet. That’s where GetCreditCardNumbers comes in. It creates “real” numbers you can use so you don’t have to give up your actual information. Read more…        

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GetCreditCardNumbers Generates "Real" Numbers for Use in Free Trials

Whoa, This Handheld Router Only Cuts Where Needed To Reveal 3D Models

Researchers at MIT have developed a handheld milling machine that turns anyone into a skilled sculptor. Like with a 3D printer, users start with a 3D model on a computer, but instead of a machine laying down layers of plastic, the handheld mill removes only what’s needed from a solid block of material to eventually reveal a fully formed 3D object. This could basically turn anyone into a Michelangelo when we’re all able to buy one. Read more…        

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Whoa, This Handheld Router Only Cuts Where Needed To Reveal 3D Models

US carriers no longer let premium text message services bill customers

Among the many surprise costs that annoy cellphone owners, unwanted text message service fees can be the worst; they’re hard to stop, and not always worth the effort. Those fees may not irk many US subscribers after today, though — AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile now stop “problematic” premium SMS services from billing their customers. Donations and those all-important talent show votes will still go through. Verizon isn’t part of today’s announcements, although the company’s General Counsel William Petersen tells us that Big Red is already “winding down” premium SMS services. There’s a good chance that these shady messagers will simply change tactics, but they’ll at least have a tougher time scamming phone owners. Filed under: Cellphones , Wireless , Mobile , Verizon , Sprint , AT&T , T-Mobile Comments Source: Vermont Attorney General , T-Mobile

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US carriers no longer let premium text message services bill customers

Palette embraces the buttons, dials and sliders that touchscreens forgot

Gone are the days of buttons, switches and dials. We’re all touchscreen and trackpad now. If you’re among those that miss the tactile sensation and precision that switches and toggles offer and have $100 or so burning a hole in your pocket, however, you’re right in the pitching sweet spot for Palette’s Kickstarter campaign. The module controllers daisy chain in the configuration of your choosing to create a customize hardware interface for a number of different scenarios, including gaming, creative suites and even live DJing. Palette’s also offering up a number of aesthetic choices for the controllers, including brushed aluminum and cherry wood — there’s also built in LED lighting, for those impromptu parties you’re no doubt planning. The team behind the creation is shooting for $71, 674 over on the crowdfunding site. A pledge of $99 will get you the starter kit, which includes four modules. That’s set to start shipping in June. Filed under: Peripherals Comments Source: Kickstarter

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Palette embraces the buttons, dials and sliders that touchscreens forgot