Mods Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

Apple G4 turned into a mailbox

by Kelly Hodgkins (Jan 17th, 2011)

We love mods of older Apple hardware and the resurgence of this oldie but goodie is no exception. Spotted and photographed in the Te Atatu suburb of Auckland, New Zealand, this classic mailbox features a gutted G4 that has been modified into a ...

Metal cover serves as DIY iPhone backplate

by Steven Sande (Oct 19th, 2010)

Worried about the glass back of your iPhone 4 getting smashed? If you have $13 and a few minutes, Hong Kong manufacturer CNN (Cellular Nationwide Network) can supply you with a nice looking aluminum backplate to replace the glass. According to the ...

Finally -- multi-windowing under iOS

by Steven Sande (Oct 11th, 2010)

I'm sure that all of us have had this dilemma at one time or another. You want multiple windows open on your iDevices, so you get 'em all going at once, laid out on the couch around you. You're watching a movie on your iPhone and surfing the web on ...

Found Footage: The $900 'Mac Pro' in a cardboard box

by Steven Sande (Oct 5th, 2010)

Plato said, "Necessity is the mother of all inventions." He must have been talking about the guys at One Block Off the Grid, which is a cooperative of sorts for buying photovoltaic solar panels at a group discount. One of their staff members was ...

Hacked MacBook reborn as a tablet

by Dave Caolo (Oct 4th, 2010)

Here's a clever repurposing of an older MacBook. Matt of Enigma Penguin took it upon himself to convert the MacBook into a touch-based tablet with interesting results. After taking the MacBook apart and removing non-functional hardware, Matt ...

Apple Newton to be reborn as iPhone case

by Dave Caolo (Sep 9th, 2010)

Isn't it nice when siblings get along? Here's an idea for using a dead, hollowed-out Newton Message Pad as an Phone case. Case hacker Charles Mangin has had success with other projects, like the Mac Plus G4, the Mac mini stuffed into an Apple Disk II ...

Overclocked, liquid-cooled Mac Pro trades noise for speed

by Keith M (Aug 27th, 2010)

I wonder if it's only a matter of time before Apple decides to go to a liquid-cooled solution rather than keeping with bigger and faster fans. In any case, one technically adept person over at Asetek didn't want to wait for that day. He went about ...

Apple Trackpad hacked to use USB

by Dave Caolo (Aug 20th, 2010)

The aesthetics and convenience of wireless devices add to their appeal, but buying batteries (no matter how special) is a bummer. MacRumors forum user MarkBog felt so strongly about buying all of those batteries that he hacked his Magic Trackpad to ...

Command key USB stick

by Dave Caolo (Jul 2nd, 2010)

Here's an awesome little tidbit. Apple fan Laurent Bourrelly, who runs pomme-c, was rooting though his pile of Apple goodies when inspiration struck. Why not build a USB flash storage device out of a spare key? The result is the gizmo you see at ...

How to: Get your 1984 Mac running Snow Leopard

by Mike Schramm (Mar 8th, 2010)

Because of that, his instructions get a little technical (he actually replaced the innards rather than just trying to fit a Mac mini in there or something similarly easy). So this isn't a very good project for a first-timer for sure. But if you've ...

iPhone modded with titanium back

by Mike Schramm (Feb 24th, 2010)

Everyone's saying that the next version of the iPhone will have a case upgrade, but Martin Schrotz couldn't wait -- he encased his iPhone 3GS in titanium, and Engadget has a gallery of pictures of the ubercool mod. I thought he had actually put the ...

Turn that old Mac into a functioning clock

by Aron Trimble (Feb 22nd, 2010)

Let's say you have a Mac collecting dust in the corner of your garage. Rather than succumb to your spouse's demands and send the old friend to computer heaven, why not re-purpose that Mac into something both functional and beautiful? Cult of Mac ...

Found Footage: Bose headphones grafted onto Apple inline remote

by Steven Sande (Jan 6th, 2010)

Our buddies over at Engadget turned us on to this short video, in which modder Freddy Deeble created a sonic hybrid -- a pair of Bose headphones using an Apple inline remote. If you're handy with a pair of wire cutters, a small screwdriver, and ...

iLove the iMac iLamp

by Mike Schramm (Jan 1st, 2010)

Happy New Year, everybody! It's 2010, and that means we're all riding around in flying cars, shooting laser guns at each other, and we all have robot servants to do all of our work for us. Oh wait, that didn't work out as planned, did it? At least ...

Power Mac G5 turned time-teller

by Mike Schramm (Dec 31st, 2009)

This is great, and highly appropriate for the tick-tocking away of the year -- Japanese modder Nobon had an old Power Mac G5 (case, it looks like, though this would be cool on a working Mac as well) sitting around, and he wanted to know what time it ...

Combination Mac mini, coffeemaker and subwoofer stuck in an iMac

by Mike Schramm (Dec 23rd, 2009)

That's why, we're guessing, tinkerer Klaus Diebel put together this incredibly useful device that will make your coffee, play some thumping tunes, and do your computing tasks as well. He tells us it was something like that -- he really enjoyed the ...