Posts Tagged ‘hacking’

The Body of a Tank, the Brain of an Android [Android]

Posted by: Gadget Boy in Gadget News, Technology on March 7th, 2010

We've come across plenty of robots that were controlled by phones before, but usually those phones were being controlled by human hands. Some California hackers, however, are building bots that put Android to work for their robo-brainpower.

Their first creation, the TruckBot, uses a HTC G1 as a brain and has a chassis that they made for $30 in parts. It's not too advanced yet—it can use the phone's compass to head in a particular direction—but they're working on incorporating the bot more fully with the phone and the Android software. Some ideas they're kicking around that wouldn't be possible with a dinky Arduino brain: face and voice recognition and location awareness.

If you're interested in putting together a Cellbot of your own—can you even conceive of a cooler dock for your Android phone?—the team's development blog has some more information. The possibilities here are manifold; mad scientists, feel free to share your Android-bot schemes in the comments. [Wired]

Image credit Miran Pavic / Wired.com



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Milestone multitouch browser ported to the Droid by a user-made patch (video)

Posted by: Gadget Boy in Gadget News, Technology on January 4th, 2010

This little nugget of software is itself still in beta, but if you can't wait for the full Milestone firmware port to climb out of alpha development, it's a good alternate route to getting your Droid dancing in the "pinch to zoom" party. Once again produced by the good folks over at AllDroid, the patch substitutes the Droid's default browser with the Milestone's multitouch capable one -- and from the feedback we're seeing it does so very cleanly and painlessly, whether you're running Android 2.0.1 or 2.1. You'll still need to root your device first, and some background reading is advisable before jumping in, but then you should be clear for take-off into the world of multitouch browsing. Video evidence after the break.

[Thanks, Steve]

Continue reading Milestone multitouch browser ported to the Droid by a user-made patch (video)

Milestone multitouch browser ported to the Droid by a user-made patch (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 04 Jan 2010 05:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hardware accelerated ‘Doom’ comes to the Pre

Posted by: Gadget Boy in Gadget News, Technology on December 31st, 2009

Pre homebrew has certainly come a long way in its short but happy life -- and now it's just gotten another little notch in its belt. Apparently, with the release of webOS 1.3.5, Palm has included a software library called SDL (or Simple Directmedia Layer) which allows developers low-level hardware access -- like the kind needed to tap into accelerated 3D graphics. With a little bit of elbow grease, webOS hacker extraordinaire zsoc was able to put together a port of Doom which can be run within a card in the OS, and completely functions (including keyboard controls). You've got to get your hands a little dirty with the Terminal app to make things happen right now if you want to try it for yourself, though the experimenters promise an easier solution in the coming days. Exciting stuff for webOS users hungry for a little more horsepower... now let's see if Palm puts this into play come CES.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Hardware accelerated 'Doom' comes to the Pre originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 11:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourcePalm Infocenter  | Email this | Comments

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Nexus One rooted already?

Posted by: Gadget Boy in Gadget News, Technology on December 30th, 2009

No, you still can't have one (not yet, at least), but we've received a number of tips directing us Modaco forums, where admin Paul claims to have rooted Google's not-so-mysterious Nexus One. We can't validate the "superboot" file works, but the adjacent picture has popped up from another forum member as apparent anecdotal confirmation. Instructions for Windows, Linux, and OS X users can be found along with the necessary materials. What do you say, hacker community, any chance we can get multitouch loaded into the device before it ever becomes official to the world at large?

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Nexus One rooted already? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 30 Dec 2009 17:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Redmond Pie  |  sourceModaco  | Email this | Comments

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Xbox 360 laptop brings retro looks to an eBay near you

Posted by: Gadget Boy in Gadget News, Technology on December 24th, 2009

If you thought only a semi-deity like Ben Heck could splice consoles into laptop-shaped cases, here's some evidence to the contrary. This week, CollinE from Ben's forums put the finishing touches to his own, rather professional looking, Xbox 360 laptop. Adorned in a red and black color scheme that features a throwback giant X on the top lid, his 360 stays true to the original console in almost all respects -- including the "wind tunnel" noise generated by Collin's five fans. The fact he also consulted our guide on how to do this is just a cherry on the top for us, and you can find a video tour of the hardware after the break. Should it take your fancy, the machine's now on auction with all proceeds going to the "make Collin's Christmas merrier" foundation.

Gallery: Xbox 360 laptop mod

Continue reading Xbox 360 laptop brings retro looks to an eBay near you

Xbox 360 laptop brings retro looks to an eBay near you originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 Dec 2009 08:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceBen Heck Forums  | Email this | Comments

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Why Is This Hacker So Miserable Looking? [Image Cache]

Posted by: Gadget Boy in Gadget News, Technology on December 22nd, 2009

I wonder what's going through Mitch "oorange3" Adair's head in this picture. Is he annoyed that someone made yet another joke about hacking the Gibson or did he just lose the US Cyber Challenge? Either way, that's one unhappy-looking hacker.

The US Cyber Challenge in which Adair participated is a huge competition with the goal of hacking your opponents' computers while defending your own from attacks. It's not just a silly game for the sake of showing off either: The competition is designed to find talented individuals and recruit them to defend our country, companies, and computers from evil-doers' cyberattacks.

Neat competition, but I still wonder if Adair's frustration was because he didn't win or because of a lame joke. [CNN]




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Nook 1.1 doesn’t affect hacks, root still possible

Posted by: Gadget Boy in Gadget News, Technology on December 21st, 2009

The NookDevs team hasn't wasted any time poring over the recently-released Nook 1.1 update, and there's good news: 1.1 can still be rooted, and rooted 1.0 devices will stay that way after the update. In other news, nookdevs team member robbiet480 just sat down with Nookaholic for an interview, and he dished a few tidbits: the Nook's Android build is called "Bravo," the internal WiFi had to be tweaked to stop turning itself off every three hours, and Bravo itself is basically Android 1.5. Nothing major, but we're definitely getting the feeling the Nook is going to be leading a double life as both a mom-friendly ebook reader and a happy-hacker hardware playground from here on out, you know?

[Thanks, Cameron]

Nook 1.1 doesn't affect hacks, root still possible originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 Dec 2009 16:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceNookDevs, Nookaholic  | Email this | Comments

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Iraqi insurgents using $26 software to monitor Predator video feeds

Posted by: Gadget Boy in Gadget News, Technology on December 17th, 2009

We can't say we've ever heard of a $26 Russian program called SkyGrabber before, but it's about to get famous real fast -- according to the Wall Street Journal, Iraqi insurgents have been regularly using the satellite-snooping software to monitor live Predator video feeds. Apparently the Predator transmits video over an unencrypted link, so there's no major hacking or security breach going on here, but it's obviously a huge issue -- and we'd say the bigger problem is that Pentagon officials have known about this flaw since the 1990s, but they didn't think insurgents would figure out how to exploit it. Way to underestimate, guys. The WSJ says the military is working to encrypt all Predator feeds from Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, but it's slow going because the Predator network is more than a decade old and based on proprietary tech -- too bad it's not proprietary enough to keep prying eyes out of it.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Iraqi insurgents using $26 software to monitor Predator video feeds originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 17 Dec 2009 10:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceWall Street Journal  | Email this | Comments

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Barnes & Noble Nook torn down and rooted — but still respected

Posted by: Gadget Boy in Gadget News, Technology on December 14th, 2009

Barnes & Noble might be pitching the Nook to the literary set, but it turns out the Android-based dual-screen reader is pretty hacker-friendly as well: both the OS and filesystem are stored on a microSD card. That means the newly-formed crew at nookdevs has already managed to root what they describe as the "generic" Android 1.5 build that's hidden under the Nook's navigation UI, and they say the device can do "everything a rooted Android phone can do." That's certainly intriguing, especially since the Nook has a data-only AT&T 3G modem and WiFi to go along with that capacitive touchscreen and E Ink display -- can you say "potential"?

[Thanks, Andy]

Barnes & Noble Nook torn down and rooted -- but still respected originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 14 Dec 2009 01:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink RobotSkirts  |  sourcenookdevs, nookdevs Twitter  | Email this | Comments

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HTC Hero gets a leaked Android 2.1 ROM with Sense

Posted by: Gadget Boy in Gadget News on December 1st, 2009

We just saw some leaked shots of a Hero running Android 2.1 with HTC Sense a couple days ago, and now it looks like you can get in on the action yourself, thanks to a leaked ROM now up on XDA-developers. Installation appears to be pretty straightforward, but there are some steps involved, so make sure you backup and set aside some time to get things right -- and let us know how it all goes in comments!

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

HTC Hero gets a leaked Android 2.1 ROM with Sense originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Dec 2009 12:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceXDA-developers  | Email this | Comments

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