Our favorite new iPhone hack, the duiPhone, will let you know for sure whether you should hand the car keys to a friend after a long night in the bar…
.Via Tellart
Accessories
Your iPhone As A Numeric KeyPad
As much as you may love your MacBook, you have to admit that the lack of a numeric keypad can sometimes be a pain in the ass, especially when typing credit card numbers or playing around with Excel.
A simple yet brilliant solution is now available so you can use your iPhone or iPod Touch as a wireless numeric keypad. First you will have to install the Balmuda's Numberkey Connect software on your Mac, and then download the Numberkey app [iTunes Link] from the App Store.
This is only available for Mac so far but I can see it coming to a PC near you soon enough...
[TechnaBob]
Hand Grip iPhone Charger
I say it's a fake but I might be wrong. Look at the shape of the iPhone. Mine doesn't have such rounded corners. Also look at the time... 4:20! What do you say? Real or fake?
DIY iPhone Speakers
These speakers could have easily been designed by MacGyver but it's designer Dmitry Zagga who came out with this brilliant, yet simple idea. Made out of 2 cups, 2 toothpicks and a set of earplugs, these DIY iPhone speakers won't compete with your real speakers but it will certainly increase the volume of your earbuds; the sound being magnified due to the shape of the cup. More pictures after the break.
iPhone Video Projector Coming Soon… This Time It’s Official!
We've had our share of rumors and hopes about a mini projector to work with your iPhone or iPod Touch but it seems that something is officially on its way. Engadget reports that Texas Instruments' DLP Pico Projector will launch on December 1st for sale in Apple Stores in Japan. The miniature projector allows you to display a 60-inch 480x320 video image from up to 8.5 feet away.
David Pogue of the NY Times reviewed the device and seems to love it:
You’d have to be a jaded gizmophile indeed not to be impressed the first time you turn on this tiny, shiny black box. In the center of the short end, there’s a very bright light-emitting-diode lamp. Inside, there’s a miniaturized Texas Instruments digital-light-processing (D.L.P.) chip, similar in principle to the ones that drive some full-size HDTV sets. Together, they produce an astonishingly bright, clear, vivid video or still image. That’s right -- from a projector you’ve pulled from your jeans pocket.
The DLP Pico Projector will be priced at about $500 in Japan and there is no word of when this long-awaited device will be available in the US.
DIY iPhone Landscape Stand
Inspired by Nathan Barry's iPhone alarm clock stand, gbzphoto decided to create his own DIY alarm clock stand. The result is pretty amazing. gbzphoto has more images on his Flickr account.
iPhone Bluetooth Making Progress
According to an iSpazio article there has been a significant breakthrough on unlocking the iPhone bluetooth. What does unlocking the iPhone bluetooth mean? It means that the iPhone will be able to detect other phones, and the other phones will be able to detect the iPhone.
According to the article, an iSpazio user named MeDevil, has been working on a project called The iPhone Bluetooth Project, to unlock the iPhone's bluetooth. So far they have made significant progress by an application developed by MeDevil, and the terminal. Using this application they were able to find two other devices a Sony Ericsson phone and an Hackintosh phone, from the iPhone.
MeDevil has provided images.
iPhone 3G Gets External Keyboard
If you've been complaining about the lack of external keyboard on the iPhone, rejoice! Well, don't rejoice too much as this hack is very close to being useless but I guess what's interesting is that some people spend time on that kind of stuff.
It seems that the person behind this hack is running some type of Ruby code on a jailbroken iPhone and plugged and external keyboard via USB. You can see the final result in this boring video.
DIY iPhone Alarm Clock Stand
In the DIY series, we had the paperclip iPhone stand, the iPhone binder clip dock, and now we have the iPhone alarm clock stand. Nathan Barry, the creator of this cheap alternative to an iPhone stand, used the plastic packaging that the iPhone 3G came in and used a sharp carving knife to craft it. Nathan says:
I'd been after a nice looking digital clock for the bedroom for ages, so I was pleased with the 'Digital Clock' app from the iPhone App Store. It's quite customizable (colour, brightness and digit style) and auto-rotates. Only problem is you have to leave it on all night - which used to drain the battery almost flat, until I discovered the 'Airplane Mode'!
You can see his pictures on Flickr, here and here.
iGPS360 module ready for order
Orange Gadgets, the folks behind the still awaited iControlPad, announced today on their blog that their iGPS360 add-on module for iPhone and iPod Touch is available for order for $75.
This state of the art module, as Orange Gadgets calls it, is supposed to bring full GPS capability for your iPhone and iPod touch. We have yet to see a video demo of this accessory. There is no word about it but I assume this will be available for jailbroken iPhones and iTouches only.
Looking at the company's website and blog, I wouldn't feel safe to pre-order this product, but maybe I'm just too carefull... From Orange Gadgets' blog:
The current expected ship date for the module is 10/22/2008 (which is still subject to change depending on the arrivals of the housings). Keep in mind that not all 1000 modules will be ready by that date as they come out of production bit by bit. So please be patient after you place your order. We will send you a confirmation email once your order is packed and ready to ship.
If you want one, hurry up as they have only 1,000 in prod right now... Would you feel safe pre-ordering from an unknown company anyways? Let us know in the comments.
Learn Something New Everyday
So maybe I'm an idiot, and if I am, then Sebastien will be sure to let me know. But I had no idea the iPhone headphones were so versatile. I knew that you could click and double click your way through songs, but I had no idea that 3 quick clicks would take you back a song. This is very handy for when you can't access your iPhone's GUI right away (jogging, squished in an an airplane seat).
The folks over at macosxhints.com said this was just added in 2.1, so I can't be that far out of it.
Also another interesting fact about the wonderful iPhone headphones, (these are always good ice breakers at awkward get togethers) , they are compatiple with the new macbook line Apple launched today. They will be able to control iTunes via the "clicker" and offer another input with its built in microphone.
Underestimating the Power of an iPhone/Netbook Combination
It's all over the web that OLO Computers is going to launch a netbook that allows the iPhone to be inserted into the keyboard to be used as a touch pad. I've seen some sites say that it will be iPhone powered and other sites say that the MAC OS on the display is confusing. There are all sorts of doomsday warning point to past integration efforts. Â But what if these expectations are making it too complicated? What if they are just creating a netbook that just leverages your iPhone. Â I mean that the computer is a Netbook in its own right, but just has a great iPhone docking mechanism that could trigger all sorts of automatic connections between the two.
Things that would be cool would be:
Allow me to automatically tether my netbook to my iPhone so I could use it to wireless connect to the internet anywhere. I can do this now, but what if they made it automatic upon docking? Use it as a plug and play drive so I can access the data on my iPhone. Use it sync my iPhone with iTunes. Use it as a secondary interface. Besides using it as a touch panel, I could have game controls or hot keys or specialty buttons on my iPhone screen that interact with the software on my Netbook. Use it with all sorts of client apps that allow you to expand the functionality of an iPhone App. Â For example, I use a health app to track my workouts, when I dock it, that app is available with visualization features (charting and reporting) and import/export functionality on the Netbook. Can you think of any other ideas?