The highly customizable keyboard Fleksy has come out with a tool to design your own theme. The editor has several presets and a whole lot of options to create whatever look you may want. After designing a theme, you can submit it to Fleksy to have it voted on and potentially added to their theme store.
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[Prashant Mohta] got hold of a Raspberry Pi, a 16×2 LCD display and got down to writing a simple game in Python. Pretty soon, he realized that it was cumbersome to have the Ras-Pi and LCD connected when all he wanted to do was write the code. So he wrote a simple Python module which renders the LCD on his computer display. A simple, quick, useful hack.
[Prashant]’s code relies on the use of Pygame, a set of Python modules designed for writing games. His code uses just two functions – one to define the LCD (characters and number of lines) while the other draws the characters on the screen by looking up an array. The code is just under 20 lines and available from his Github repo. It will be useful to those who are getting started on Python to help them understand some basics. Python is awesome and writing Python code is pretty simple.
This might draw some flak from the naysayers so if you’re commenting below on the merits, or not, of Python, just keep your comments civil and healthy. In the video below, unrelated to this hack, [Raymond Hettinger] talks about “What makes Python so Awesome”!
Filed under: software hacks 
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With the launch of the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6 Edge Plus drawing close, chances are good buyers interested in last year’s Galaxy Note 4 and Galaxy Note Edge can find a deal on those devices. Earlier this week Samsung started a promotion offering a rebate on the Galaxy Note 4. Now U.S. carrier AT&T has launched their own $200 discount on the devices.
Visiting the AT&T site reveals the discount is only applicable for users willing to jump into a 2-year contract with AT&T. Buying the Note Edge device outright or using the AT&T Next program to make installment payments means paying the full price of $966 while the Note 4 runs $846.
The discount is listed as an “Online Discount” and may not be available if you drop in at your local AT&T retail shop. Pricing details indicate AT&T’s smartphone sale offers are only valid through July 13th, although it is not clear whether that also applies to these discounts.
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With the discount, the Galaxy Note Edge ends up costing $199 while the Galaxy Note 4 can be obtained for only $99.
sources: AT&T (Note Edge), AT&T (Note 4)
via: GSMArena
Come comment on this article: [Deal] Samsung Galaxy Note 4 and Note Edge on AT&T get $200 discount
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At this point, a few months into things, I’m pretty big fan of Android Auto, warts and all. It’s early for AA as a platform, but it’s also what I think is going to be one of the most important improvements in the mobile space, if only because it’ll help get phones out of drivers’ hands. The necessity of that can’t be understated.
That said, there’s one glaring thing that I’d like to see fixed as soon as possible.
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Google seems to be working on a lot of small refinements to their apps lately to help make their use that much easier. A new update for Google Maps on the desktop works with the latest Google Maps update for Android devices to do that by easing the process of sharing directions you look up on the desktop to your Android device.
In the past, users who looked up a location on the desktop would have to do a new search for the same place when launching the Google Maps app on their device. This was not too terribly complicated as the location would appear in the recent history listing. Still, this took some extra steps to get everything loaded up and ready for navigation or providing directions.
In this latest update, users will see they have a new link in the information card that shows on desktop maps “Send to device…” Selecting this opens a small dialog box where users can select which one of their devices to use.
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On the receiving Android device, users get a notification listing the location that was sent. A couple options are available from the notification to either launch straight into navigation or view the directions. You can also tap on the location itself to pull up its information card in the Google Maps app.
source: Android Police
Come comment on this article: Google adds path to send Google Maps directions from desktop to Android device
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There are a lot of ways to measure energy usage in the home, but most of them involve handling mains voltage. Not only that, but sometimes they require handling mains voltage before it gets through a breaker panel or fuse box, meaning that if you make a mistake there are a lot of bad things that can happen. [Yonas] has been working on this problem, and has come up with a non-invasive, safer way to monitor electricity consumption without having to work directly on live wires.
Please note that you should still not be working on mains voltage without proper training, but if you have the required know-how then the installation should be pretty straightforward. The project is based on the Spark Core, and uses clamp-on current sensors to measure energy use. The sensors wrap around the mains cable, meaning you don’t have to disconnect anything to hook them up. The backend runs on a LAMP server which could be a Raspberry Pi if you have one. [Yonas] runs it on a hosted server as a matter of preference.
All of the source code for this is available, and assuming you can get your hands on the current sensors this could be a great way to get started monitoring your energy usage in the house. Be sure to check out the video below for a demonstration of the operation of this device. Of course, if you have a gas line you’ll need this energy monitoring setup too.
Filed under: home hacks
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When it comes to picking out high-end fixtures and appointments for your bathroom remodel, there are tons of choices out there these days. Sure, that double-slipper tub or $2500 stainless steel toilet can make a statement, and even the local Big Box Home Store has some pretty unique stuff. But for a one of a kind sink, follow [The Samurai Carpenter]’s lead and carve a sink out of a boulder.
Starting with a stone he found off the porch of his house, [Samurai Carpenter] was able to rough out the shape of the basin with a diamond-bladed cutoff saw. A few plunge cuts within a hand-sketched outline gave him the room needed to hog out most of the material with a cold chisel and hammer. A diamond wheel on an angle grinder, along with a chisel bit on an impact drill, got him down to the final smooth finish. After the break there’s a video showing the final installation, including drilling out the drain hole and mounting the sink to the vanity, which is a beautiful rough-cut slab of what appears to be locally sourced wood. The whole installation looks fantastic and appears to function well; our only quibble is there’s no overflow in the basin, but it’s hard to see how he could have provided one without significantly complicating the project and potentially ruining the aesthetic.
Although they may not fit in with the natural vibe of his remodel, either this or this tricked out mirror could complete a high-end bathroom remodel.
Filed under: home hacks
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There is a strange clock in the waiting room of Lord Vetinari, Patrician of Ankh-Morpork. While this clock keeps accurate time overall, the ticks and tocks are out of sync, occasionally missing a tick altogether. The net effect is one of turning one’s brain into a sort of porridge.
Yes, a Vetinari Clock has made its way into The Hackaday Prize. This isn’t a clock that’s random yet accurate over long time spans; this is a complete replacement for run-of-the-mill clock movements you can find at any craft store.
In addition to the Vetinari Clock, [Nick Sayer]’s Crazy Clock can be programmed as a sidereal clock (3m 56s fast per day), a Martian clock (39m 36s slow per day), and a tidal clock (50m 28s slow per day), as well as some ‘novelty’ modes that still have 86400 ticks per day ranging from subtle to ‘clown car’ levels of craziness.
[Nick] is gunning for the ‘best product’ category for the Hackaday Prize, and for that he’s designing a board to be a direct replacement for the board in a Quartex Q80 clock movement. With this new board, [Nick] can replace the electronics in this movement in just a few minutes. Being built around an ATtiny45 means it’s infinitely hackable. A clock with this movement would be a great product, although judging from the video below, not one we would want to be around all day.
Filed under: The Hackaday Prize
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Welded steel safety cage? Check! Polycarbonate blast shield? Check! Vacuum cleaner motor wired to an inviting red button? Double check! Stack of CDs to dispose of as destructively as possible? [Firas Sirriyeh] has got you covered with his CD Terminator 1.0.
While [Firas’s] build log is a little short on descriptive text, there’s really no need for it. His pictures tell the tale. The combination media shredder and interactive performance art piece is a stoutly constructed affair, which you’d want anything capable of flinging razor-sharp plastic and Mylar shrapnel to be. [Firas] has displayed his CD execution chamber at the Jerusalem Mini Maker Fair 2015 (in Hebrew; English link) and the Musara Mix Festival where the must-see video after the break was shot (mildly NSFW language). Some CDs give up the ghost very quickly, but one held out for a remarkable long time before finally exploding; you can see it flexing and warping in a way that almost appears to be slow-motion.
For those who’d rather not fuss with all that bothersome safety, there’s always this automatic CD launcher to play with.
Filed under: misc hacks
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We usually see numbers, sales, and financial reports of big companies. Almost every quarter, we learn of figures released by tech giants in several earnings calls. Some companies choose to be quiet though but when it comes to the “Fake Android Market” we’re interested to know how the extent of how this is destroying the legit mobile market.
You see, we’ve been hearing dozens of stories of fake Samsung and Xiaomi phones–all coming from China. It’s very unfortunate that there are still people being duped for hundreds of dollars because the phones really look like the original models that it’s hard to tell sometimes. There was this man who bought a nicely crafted fake Galaxy S6 for less than $500 and another one who purchased off Craigslist in Canada. And who can forget that fake Xiaomi being tested by Bluebox Labs which resulted to a Xiaomi Mi 4 getting low scores?
Xiaomi started cracking down on fakes last April because they’ve been losing millions of sales. It’s not only Samsung and Xiaomi that are victims of the fake market. Even Huawei is losing money because of the fake phones.
Benchmarking app AnTuTu managed to track how many fake phones have been tested during the first six months of 2015. The data is based on smartphones that run AnTuTu and it was found out that Samsung and Xiaomi already account for about two-thirds (2/3) of the knock-off Android market. Huawei follows in third place but with only 3.97%.
The most popular clones are the Xiaomi MiNote, Xiaomi Redmi Note, Xiaomi Mi3, Samsung Galaxy Note 3, and Samsung Galaxy Note 4.
VIA: gforgames
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