Diy Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

RC car modded with Arduino, controlled by iPad

by Mike Schramm (Jan 3rd, 2012)

This is great -- developer Wannes Vermeulen has hacked a toy remote control car with an Arduino board and hooked it up to an iPad to drive it around. You can see video of the project in action over on Vimeo right now. It's not anything too special these days, as you can buy lots of RC vehicles ...

iTat tattoos up the back of your iPhone

by Mike Schramm (Oct 28th, 2011)

"iTat" is a questionable name for a product, but the actual effect of these "iPhone tattoos" looks pretty good. iTat is a system for etching on the back glass panel of the iPhone, which, on the black iPhone, looks like a sort of tattoo. The whole process is being offered by a company called ...

Capacitive touch brush stylus made from conductive thread

by Mike Schramm (Sep 29th, 2011)

Artist Margarita Benitez really wanted a Nomad Brush for her iPad but didn't have the cash for the actual thing, so she did the next best: she made one herself. Using an old brush handle and some conductive thread, she was able to assemble a working brush, and says it works better than ...

iPhone case has cross-stitched back

by Mike Schramm (Jul 14th, 2011)

A confession: For a short time as a kid, I was actually into cross stitching. Not that far into it, but I did enjoy the routine that turned into art, the pattern-following that, when combined with the right thread or yarn and the correct stitches, turned into a nice piece of handmade art. ...

Make your Mac, iPhone or iPad 2 transparent

by Kelly Hodgkins (Jul 11th, 2011)

Photojojo details an easy set of instructions that will let you create eye-catching photo-in-photo transparent images like the one shown above. You don't need a fancy camera or expensive software. All you need is a few extra gadgets, some creativity and a helper to snap the photos. The ...

DIY breakout dock looks to get professional sound out of iPad 2

by Mike Schramm (May 31st, 2011)

The iPad is an excellent device for creating and editing sound, but sometimes, just using that headphone port isn't enough. For that, DIY musician Qubais "Reed" Ghazala built this custom-made iPad dock, which plugs the iPad into a whole row of various sound-related ins and outs, from a line ...

How to make a custom wooden 'antique' iPad case

by Chris Rawson (Apr 6th, 2011)

Gary Katz, the same DIY guy behind this cool iPhone shoebox theater, has crafted a delightfully retro-looking case for his iPad 2 out of "about $20 worth of materials." Calling it "An iPad Case from 1945," Katz used a bill of materials that just about anyone might find in their garage or ...

Cool custom-made iOS device stand

by Chris Ward (Mar 19th, 2011)

Design student Andrew Kim has produced the very cool Polyply to avoid having all his iOS devices strewn around his desktop like so many expensive paperweights. Made from acrylate polymer (acrylic plastic), birch plywood and birch, it has cutouts for his iPad, iPod touch Classic, iPhone and ...

Video: Replicate Smart Cover sleep mode with a simple magnet

by Erica Sadun (Mar 14th, 2011)

If you're looking for that awesome Smart Cover functionality but don't want to spend forty bucks on a case for your new iPad, it's really simple to add a low-power magnet that will trigger the Smart Cover functionality. All you need is a small strip of flexible craft magnet, available at any ...

Turn an iPod touch into an iPhone with its own packaging

by Dave Caolo (Feb 4th, 2011)

Here's a nice bit of ingenuity. Lifehacker reader Kevin explains how he used a VoIP app (Viber and Line 2 are two nice options) with his iPod's packaging and earbud speakers to create a DIY handset. After smoothing the edges of the plastic backing and wearing a groove to hold the earbud wire, ...

Make your own iPhone/iPod dock from a tree branch

by Megan Lavey-Heaton (Dec 19th, 2010)

Anthropologie has developed a new way to destroy trees by offering a US$98 iPhone dock created from a round of hickory wood with branches attached, ... and that's pretty much it. No speakers. No clock. It's enough to make you want to go out, scavenge a couple of dead tree limbs and make one for ...

Mark Frauenfelder on maker culture, openness and Apple

by Michael Rose (Dec 3rd, 2010)

I'm attending Respect The Internet in NYC, a one-day Ketchum conference highlighting the sometimes tenuous and touchy relationship between online culture and traditional marketing/media. Among the morning's star presenters was Boing Boing founder and MAKE magazine/Maker Faire standard bearer Mark ...

iMac turned ant farm for sale on eBay

by Mike Schramm (Nov 29th, 2010)

We've seen lots of interesting ways to use old Macs, including the great Macquarium that pops up every now and again. But I think an ant farm is a new one -- that's what this 17" G5 iMac has been turned into. An eBay seller in Hawaii says he emptied out the Mac's insides and built a custom habitat ...

iPad portrait light array for photographers

by Dave Caolo (Nov 9th, 2010)

Here's an interesting way to use 9 iPads. Photographer Jesse Rosten mounted the set on several pieces of plywood, maxed out the brightness on each and had assistants move then around while he shot his model. In fact, the iPad arrays were the only light sources for this particular shoot. Was it a ...

Found Footage: iPhone costume update includes working 40" LCD

by Victor Agreda, Jr. (Oct 29th, 2010)

In 2007, we saw the first generation iPhone in some comically large costumes (video on the next page). Last year we brought you the footage of Reko and John sporting giant TV screens with jailbroken iPhones powering the costumes. They used "updated" iPhones, but still sported square edges and no ...