Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

It seems we are not even going to have to wait for the Inspiron Mini 9 to get in the hands of consumers before we begin to learn about the inside. Dell has gone ahead and posted a the service manual for the Mini 9, and it contains more than a few pictures of the internal guts. And judging from what we can see, the Mini 9 is going to be fun to play with, and seemingly easy to upgrade on your own.

Just by removing a simple panel from the bottom, users will have access to the SSD, Wi-Fi card, the RAM and even an unused mini PCIe slot. Of course we also see that SIM card slot located behind the battery. Keep reading to check out some of the images, courtesy of Dell…

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Certainly one of the most unique computer mods that I have seen to date, by far not the most interesting but perhaps practical. With more and more people looking to have an “internet appliance” in their kitchen, the latest modded PC is Toasy, and as you can likely guess its made from a gutted out vintage toaster.

Aside from the fact that this seems like a very strange choice to use for a PC case, it could have some potential benefits, perhaps most important it will offer a kitchen like look and not stick out like a sore thumb, but more important it may be a perfect mod to confuse any would be thieves.

Toasty, the toaster PC includes a C 3600MHz processor, mini-ITX motherboard, 2.5-inch hard drive, a DVD-ROM drive, and a full sized wireless router. Keep reading to check out a few more images…

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The latest mod to come the ever-hackable Eee PC seems like one that should have been done a long time ago. For just about $15 you can somewhat easily add a backlight to your keyboard. The mod is estimated to take about 3 hours and requires you taking your keyboard off as well as some soldering. After all your work you will indeed have a nice backlit keyboard that will allow you to comfortably type at any time of day or night, sadly the light is powered by an external battery back that runs on two AAA-batteries. While a nice little trick, it would be much cooler if this could be powered internally. Personally I would opt for a cheap external USB light as opposed to having a battery pack stuck to the top of my Eee. Keep reading to check out another pic of the battery pack, and click the Read link below for the full set of instructions.

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While we certainly cannot argue that the $3,200 price tag is worth the money, I am sure the hard work along with the necessary parts would justify the cost, we cannot help to think that its just an Eee PC. Sure its a great little notebook, but that is where it stops, part of the glory about the Eee, is that it is not only fully functional (for most people) out of the box, but it is also very affordable.

The latest highly modded Eee PC to land on eBay has just about everything you could want. Feature wise it is packed and includes a 32GB Patriot XT drive in addition to the standard drive, 2GB of RAM, upgraded Intel Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, an Air Play FM radio transmitter, GPS, Bluetooth, two USB hubs and a custom copper heatsink to help the overclocked processor. The Eee PC also has a touchscreen display, that while is still the original 7-inch size it has a 1024 x 768 resolution and is running Windows XP Professional SP3. Best of all its all crammed in without any addition to the external case and it still weighs just under 3.5-pounds. The auction with about a week still left, currently has no bids with a starting bid of $2,800 and a Buy-It-Now of $3,200. Keep reading for the complete specs…

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Benjamin Heckendorn, or mostly known as Ben Heck, is a legend for his semi-godlike ability to recreate and modify electronic devices. Among those popular devices are the Xbox laptop and the popular reincarnation of Atari 2600. Ben started all with all of these “crazy” ideas from his basement, warming up by modding the Atari 2600 – taking the first gaming console and reviving it back in the form of a handheld console.

As he goes on with his hobby, his professional on modifying has captured a lot of attention and in turn he gets just about any request you could imagine, some of which he goes on to complete just because “it sounded so weird I did it.” There’s even an Iraq soldier who lost an arm in the war who has asked Ben to build him a one handed gaming controller. Ben goes on to say that while “no offers to throw bundles of money” at him have come he does get some offers and has been gotten the attention of people from Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo and is even working with a peripheral maker to sell a packaged product that came from the previosusly mentioned one handed game controller.

Read [Ben Heck] Read [Reuters]

We saw the Eee PC pick up an incredible, almost cult like following and with that came more mods and hacks than most of us could even imagine. It has taken some time, the Cloudbook has gotten off to a slow start, but that seems to be coming to an end. A decent community is starting to get going behind the Cloudbook, albeit not as large or devoted as the Eee PC has, but still its getting there and I am sure it will continue to grow with time. With the community getting behind the Cloudbook we are beginning to see some cool new mods, along with some tips and tricks that make the gOS-based ultra-portable a little more user friendly.

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The Wii has now been out for a few months, and the guys over at CycloWiz have already begun shipping mod-chips for the popular console.  Similar to other mod-chips you’ve become familiar with over the years, the CycloWiz allows you to backup your Wii games so you can load and play them conveniently without the game discs.  Additionally, it makes your Wii compatible with DVDs so you can play your friends games as well.  Sorry gaming industry - I’m just speaking the truth.  It looks like they’ve got two distributers in the US, so hit the link below for more.

Product Page [CycloWiz] Via [CrunchGear]

Note: If you’re at work, turn down your speakers (or put on headphones).

If you’re down with voiding the warrenty on your Sony PSP (or just looking for some entertainment), this video is pretty sweet.  The video is a demonstration of how to install a PSP-to-TV mod chip - and seems like a rather stupid idea for those of us without a spare PSP laying around.  He takes out every screw and piece of tape that holds the darn thing together to install it, then puts it all back together… in a bit over 9 minutes.  Impressive, but still stupid.

Read [Aeropause] Via [MobilityToday]

If you’re crazy about the Xbox 360 but are always on the move, Ben Heckendorn has got a wild project for you.  Heckendorn tool the components of his 360 console and stuffed them into a laptop shell, allowing for the ultimate portable gaming unit.  Since the Xbox 360 already weighs a fair amount by itself, when it’s put into a laptop form-factor, you’re not going to lose that weight.  The device weighs in at 6.4kg and measures 42 x 27 x 7cm.  So you don’t have to play by yourself Heckendorn included 3 USB ports.  The unit also has the optical drive, hard drive, and an illumnated Xbox 360 ring logo, of course.

It sports WiFi, component video, composite video, a 17” display at 1280 x 720 and is even HD ready.  And if you can believe it, this only took him 3 months to complete.  Now I call that the ultimate mod.

Check out Ben’s detailed write-up

Read [Ben Heck] Via [RegHardware]