My thoughts on the iPhone 4 death-grip

by Andrew on July 3, 2010

Back in 2006 hrmpf revealed a patent filed by Apple detailing a bezel control system; essentially integrating touch sensitive bezels into its iOS-based products to allow for dynamic button assignments within Apps.

Well here’s a thought…

<conspiracy> What if the now fabled iPhone 4 death grip is just a poorly hidden implementation of a cool new bezel control system?

That lower left-hand corner certainly seems very sensitive to touch!

</conspiracy>

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Inexpensive external portable power

by Andrew on January 3, 2010

Using Systm episode 57 from Revision 3 as inspiration, I wanted to build an inexpensive portable power source for my Canon A590IS. I use this point-and-shoot camera for timelapse projects as it’s one of the many Canon cameras which can run the alternate firmware CHDK. The Canon Hacker Development Kit opens up loads of cheap cameras to a whole new world of possibilities, one of them being timed scripting; check out the CHDK Wiki for more information.

The video you can see to the right of this article was taken using the cameras’ only portable power sources which comes in the form of 2 AA batteries. The video is short because (in the cold) the camera only made it to 340 shots before expiring its full charge. I needed something portable, but with a lot more power. USB power was ruled out as my model of camera doesn’t support it, even so, USB battery solutions are often low capacity and comparatively expensive. The final solution is based around a 12V 12Ah lead-acid battery, and while lead-acid is very old (heavy!) technology – it is cheap. Here’s my solution based off the power pack devised by Systm, using parts available in the UK.

  • 12V 12Ah Sealed (Rechargeable) Lead Acid Battery ~£30 from eBay
  • 12V DC Car Power Accessory Outlet £3 from eBay
  • Universal 3A DC Power Supply £10 from Maplin
  • Cramp-on quick connects £0 from Dad’s shed

[click to continue…]

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Bypass the Spotify invitation process

January 2, 2010

Spotify is an application for Windows and Mac which allows you to stream the back catalogues of some of the biggest music labels including Universal, Sony BMG and EMI.  The application is free and music streams instantly, so what’s the catch? Well, if you’re not willing to pay £9.99 per month for the service you [...]

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