diy

I think we can all agree at this point that the iPhone 4 launch is not going well for Apple or its customers. In just two days since its release, iPhone 4 owners have found a plethora of potential and real-world problems, from a faulty antennas and Bluetooth headset connectivity issues to screen discolorations and scratches.

Then there's the phone's glass. Why oh why did Apple decide to use glass for the back of the iPhone 4? As Ryan Salerno, a Gizmodo writer, discovered this morning, glass is breakable.

The good news, if you can call it that, … Read more

A friend asked me a few days ago if he should spray-paint his Canon EOS 500D white with black accents so it'll look like a Stormtrooper. I told that him an easier way would be to get the Pentax K-x, which comes in a similar shade. However, he has already invested in a Canon system, so the only way to get a white EOS 500D is to paint it.

I checked the Web and found a video that Hong Kong-based digital imaging Web site DigitalRev did something similar earlier this year. The crew dismantled a Nikon D90 and gave … Read more

UPDATE: This post was edited at 2:20 p.m. to correct the minimum number of bars to 2, not 3. I can tell the difference between numbers, I swear.

Barring a large lottery win, this may be the closest I get to channeling my inner Willy Wonka.

Chocri, a German start-up that recently set up shop in the U.S., offers chocoholics the opportunity to create their own chocolate bars via its Web site, createmychocolate.com. First, you start with your base chocolate: milk, dark, or white. Then you choose up to five toppings, which range from about what you'd expect to add to a chocolate bar (nuts, coconut, etc.) to things you might not think to put on chocolate (chamomile, poppy seeds, gold flakes). You can even name the bar if you want; it'll be printed on the package.

Once you confirm your choices, the bars are made in Germany from organic, fair-trade-certified chocolate and shipped to you in about three weeks. Each 3.5-ounce bar starts at $6.90, and each topping adds a little more to the price (sea salt adds 20 cents, and the real gold flakes will add an extra $2.10), so if you're on a limited budget, you might want to keep that in mind.

There's also a two-bar minimum for each order, and that can be two completely different bars or two of the same. Shipping usually runs about $6, but expedited shipping that gets your chocolate to you in one week instead of three, is available as well for $19.90. One percent of the sales is donated to DIV Kinder, a German-based child-welfare organization that helps children in Ivory Coast, which, not coincidentally, is the largest exporter of cacao beans.

Chocri gave me a crack at being a chocolatier recently, and this is what I came up with:

Copy Editors' Breakfast Milk chocolate with sprinkles, cinnamon corn flakes, cinnamon, Bourbon vanilla.

Very smooth. The sprinkles and cinnamon corn flakes (looked similar to Cinnamon Toast Crunch for you cereal junkies out there) added a bit of crunch, while the extra cinnamon complemented the milk chocolate nicely. I think this one might be my favorite. … Read more

I hate playing chess. I don't hate the game; in fact it's pure strategy, something I love. But despite years of practice, I still almost never win. And now, it would seem, I have further cause to be pessimistic about my chances of a victory, as even robots made out of Legos are here to beat me.

Observe the video below. That's a huge, 156-square-foot chess board and pieces made entirely out of Lego Mindstorm parts--more than 100,000 of them. It's called Monster Chess, and it's awesome.

The battery-operated, Bluetooth-controlled pieces use downward-facing sensors … Read more

Miss the good old-fashioned manual typewriter? The USB Typewriter, a "new and groundbreaking innovation in the field of obsolescence," according to its creator, turns the old machines into retro-style keyboards that hook up to any USB-capable computer to let you type like it's 1948.

Jack Zylkin, who humorously describes himself as "a reclusive genius with 57 cats," created the peripheral with materials provided at Hive76, a maker co-op in Philadelphia where Zylkin does his tinkering. In the video below, you can see it click-clacking away attached to an iPad.

The USB Typewriter consists of a … Read more

Meet WaterBoy, an odd and scary performance art project by one Marque Cornblatt. WaterBoy is a series of water tanks that look much like fishbowls. Cornblatt wears them on his head while walking around as if nothing is wrong.

As a major aquaphobe (showers over baths!), I find every single moment of the above video, called "Bubble," excruciating to watch. Cornblatt calls his devices "the leading brand of self-contained, portable submergence environments." I call them a unique nightmare from which my real nightmares are likely to be generated. I'll be sleeping with a ShamWow and … Read more

James Bond has always (until recently) had Q to create his gadgets. But regular guys Carlos Picart and Kevin Alexander of Westchester, N.Y., wanted a gadget that only superspies and NBA players can get: a mobile Xbox 360 gaming workstation. So they made one themselves using off-the-shelf parts, and it's something 007 might actually take with him to a clandestine meeting in Prague.

The duo was inspired by Kobe Bryant's professionally made secret-agent-style gaming kit from 2K Sports. It features an Xbox 360, screen, controller, and other gaming essentials, all in a tough Pelican carrying case so … Read more

One thing I've learned as an iPad owner is that I need more than one stand for the device. I mean, sometimes I want it propped up on my desk, sometimes it pulls kitchen-counter duty, and on occasion it needs a show-off spot in the living room (usually to impress guests with its Picture Frame mode).

As you may recall, there are plenty of cheap or free iPad stands out there--but I'm hard-pressed to imagine anything cheaper or freer than this, the coat-hanger stand:

Needless to say, I immediately raided my closet--and found a limitless supply of sturdy, … Read more

The first thing I did after buying my iPad was pick up a new bag for it--a U.S. military surplus over-the-shoulder-style map job. The iPad fits perfectly in the back pocket, which is reinforced and has enough room for most things I'd need throughout the day: a charger, sunglasses, flask, and that one girl's phone number scrawled on a casino receipt.

I thought this bag solution fit me well--stylish, masculine, and cheap, just like me. But then I got these pictures of the ManHandle, built by one Todd Bernhard, a Rochester, N.Y., iPhone app developer, and … Read more