Posted 11/20/09 at 10:45:44 AM by Paul Lilly

Up to 1 million Xbox modders were pretty pissed to find that they had been banned from Xbox Live following the release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, the biggest launch in entertainment history. The mass ban was intended to prevent pirated copies of the highly anticipated game from spreading, a notion Microsoft will now have to defend in a class action lawsuit filed against the company.

"Although modification of Xbox consoles is arguably against he terms of use for Xbox/Xbox Live, Microsoft 'conveniently' timed the Xbox console ban to coincide with the release of the new Call of Duty: Modern Warfar 2 game and less than two months after the release of the very popular Halo 3: ODST game," says AbingtonIP, the Texas-based law firm who filed th suit.

According to the lawsuit, the timing of Microsoft's widespread ban may have resulted in more Xbox Live subscription sales than if the bans had taken place before the release of Halo 3: ODST and CoDMW2. The lawsuit also claims that some of the bans locked out users who had modded their consoles for reasons other piracy.

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Posted 11/17/09 at 08:30:34 AM by Paul Lilly

If you've ever lost a night's sleep because you couldn't wrap your head around how to build a Real Time Kinematic (RTK) GPS receiver without breaking the bank, then prepare to sleep like a baby. Why? Because researchers Tomoji Takasu and Akio Yasuda of Tokyo University have you covered.

The researchers developed an inexpensive, open source RTK GPS that runs on a beagle board, and better yet, they've posted instructions so you can do the same. And unlike traditional GPS, RTK units measures the shorter wavelengths in the satellite's carrier signal, which ultimately means greater accuracy.

Getting it work right, however, isn't an easy task. That's why Takasu and Yasuda deserve major kudos for printing the detailed instructions, which you can access here.

Anyone plan on tackling this project?

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Posted 11/13/09 at 09:00:07 AM by Paul Lilly

Want to become an instant legend at the park? Master a killer crossover, bust your opponent's ankles, side-step behind the three-point line, and nail the trey. After it swishes through, flash a smirk at your defender and tell him, "it's the shoes" as you point at your custom kicks molded from an old circuit board. This works best if you're also sporting a Commodor 64 t-shirt with the sleeves ripped off.

Unfortunately, you'd probably end up thrashing the custom-made shoes the moment you stepped out on the concrete, but even if you can't wear them, we have to give props to modder shoe maker Gabriel Dishaw, who took an old circuit board and made a pair of "Nike Blazer Pentium 1.0" kicks. And the best news? This is apparently just the first pair of more to come as part of a series of classic sneakers. Rad.

Want to see more? Dishaw's posted a bunch of pics, which you can access here.

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Posted 10/01/09 at 12:42:02 AM by Nathan Grayson

We beat Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2. At least, we’re pretty sure we did. We played it for a while, and then some credits rolled. Sounds like the de-facto recipe for a whipped game to us. Well, except for one teensy problem: There was no ending. Just some quick and sloppy chit-chat -- a thin plank to bridge a gaping hole. That’s where modding group Deadly Stream comes in.

See, KOTOR 2 has all the makings of a great ending. In fact, they’re in the game’s code. So, a couple years’ worth of excavation and reconstruction later, KOTOR 2 has a real ending. And you can download it! Now!         

Got it? Ok, good. Now give us the skinny. How does it all shake out? What’s Mandalore’s true identity? Does HK-47 finally get the hug he so badly needed? Do any Gungans show up? We've always thought the curious absence of such a well-loved species was KOTOR's main flaw.

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Posted 09/28/09 at 08:31:15 AM by Paul Lilly

Earlier this month, we posted a step-by-step guide showing Android G1 owners how to root their phones and install a third party ROM. There are several upshots to doing so, including the ability to overcome the G1's meager amount of memory by installing apps directly to a SD card. Wtih the Android Market now sitting at roughly 10,000 apps strong and third party ROM developers churning out mature firmware, we felt the time was right.

Unfortunately, Google's timing couldn't be any worse. The search giant last week issued a cease and desist order to ROM developer Cyanogen, maker of CyanogenMod, arguably the most popular Android ROM out there.The problem, says Google, isn't that Cyanogen is hacking away at the open-source OS, but that he's also including (and distributing) a handful of closed-source apps, including Market, Gmail, YouTube, and Google Maps.

Hit the jump to find out what the future holds for Android modders.

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Posted 09/25/09 at 02:00:00 PM by Paul Lilly

According to Taylor Wimberly of AndroidAndMe.com, uber popular Android hacker who goes by the name of Cyanogen managed to ruffle some feathers over at Google. From the sound of things, the search giant is none too pleased with Cyanogen distributing their closed source Android apps (Market, Talk, Gmail, YouTube, and others) with his third-party CyanogenMod ROM.

Going by the chat log Wimberly posted on his site, Google has issued a cease and desist letter to Cyanogen, who laments that "CyanogenMod is probably going to be dead." It would be a shame if it came to that, as CyanogenMod is probably the most popular third-party Android ROM out there, and is actively being developed, somewhat of a rarity in the Android ROM community whose only compensation is user donations.

But all might not be lost. Cyanogen said he has opened up a dialog with Google.

"My argument is that I only develop for Google-experience devices which are already licensed for these apps," said Cyanogen. "So we'll see what they say. Maybe we can work something out."

So do we. Otherwise, this could be a blow to the entire Android ROM community, not just Cyanogen.

Save Cyanogen Petition App (free)
How To: Hack Your Android G1

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Posted 08/21/09 at 02:37:38 PM by Andy Salisbury

While the concept of a touchscreen netbook mod isn’t entirely new, it didn’t stop somebody from adding one to an HP Mini 1000. A modder named only as timm.mccoy (but vocally self-referred to as Brian Tim in his video) of the MyHPMini forums added a 10.2-inch resistive touchscreen to his machine, turning it into a pint-sized tablet.

As with most touchscreen mods, the touchscreen panel itself has been put between the LCD and the display bezel, and outputs to a USB connection. That connection is then plugged into an internal USB port (usually the one occupied by the machine’s webcam), and boom – a touchscreen netbook is born.

If you’re interested in seeing more, be sure to check out a video of the machine here.

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Posted 08/12/09 at 05:30:40 PM by David Murphy

At first, I just didn't get it--the Chumby, that is. This little LCD display wrapped in a hug of padding looked like a bizarre cross between my car's antiquated GPS device, the throw-up of an OSX dashboard, and a big plushy hunk of love. To its genius, that's exactly what the Chumby is... and so much more. And did I mention that it's open-source as well?

Contrary to most of the open-source hardware projects I've mentioned on Maximum PC, the Chumby is ready for your attention the moment you pop it out of the box. But that doesn't mean that you can't tweak and tinker beyond its simplistic exterior. Although cracking open the soft, loveable digital toy will violate your warranty, the official Chumby site is more than happy to give you a listing of the device's full hardware--schematics as well. From there, only your conscience toward ripping open friendly, plush, communication devices stands in your way of complete hardware transcendence.

If hardware hacking isn't your thing, however, the second best part of the Chumby is the comprehensive list of software widgets that you can display and interact with on the device. To find these, you can go the official route and download apps directly off of Chumby's main site or you can scour the internet for custom, USB-deployable software to stick into your device.

Just what do these tweaks entail? Click the jump and find out--featuring examples you can play with too!

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