Hacking the Perfect Garden with Embeddable Technology

I just pledged $39 on Kickstarter towards the new Smart Herb Garden by Click & Grow. The technology is well-suited to indoor use. It centers around a special nanotech engineered soil, a computer-controlled watering system and a natural-light spectrum LED lighting system…

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What’s the Difference Between Raspberry Pi Model A and B?

The new Raspberry Pi Model A is finally for sale in the USA (in addition to Europe and Asia where it went on sale beginning a few weeks ago.)

So now there’s two models to choose from. The two are very similar,…

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DUO: a DIY 3D Input Controller (Kickstarter)

In the coming onslaught of new connected devices, figuring out new and unobtrusive ways to interact with users will be key. Many devices will live in the real world and will require new ways of capturing input from users. After all, the…

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Five Fabulous Retro Device Hacks

Here at Hack Things we feel a certain nostalgia for old-school vintage goods — many of which seem to be getting replaced by iOS apps on a daily basis. It’s refreshing to see projects that bring new life to vintage goods. Here…

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Kickstarter Hardware Roundup (3/21/13)

Here’s some of the more interesting hardware projects active on Kickstarter right now.

KADE – A open source arcade game controller with USB that allows personal computers, console gaming systems and DIY projects to easily add authentic retro-style arcade game controllers.

The…

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Bike Speed Projector

Matt Richardson has created an interactive headlight projector for bikes that can be used to create a kind of unobtrusive heads-up display for cyclists. It works by measuring the rider’s speed using some custom electronics and a Raspberry Pi and a portable…

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RFduino: Fingertip-Sized Microcontroller with Bluetooth LE (Kickstarter)

The folks at OpenSource RF have launched RFduino on Kickstarter, one of the smallest Arduino-compatible microcontrollers around, and it even has Bluetooth 4.0 LE built in.

This looks like a wonderful platform for prototyping Internet of Things sensor-based applications where your smartphone…

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A Toddler Dilemma: the Remote Control (Kickstarter project spotlight)

Kyle Myers, a former colleague of mine, just launched Tot Switch on Kickstarter. Tot Switch is a homegrown solution to a common dilemma facing young parents: how to prevent the little ones from changing the TV channel but without making them cry…

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Fitness tracking companies: here’s what I REALLY want

I’ve counted more than 12 “activity tracker” device companies ala Fitbit, Nike Fuel Band, Jawbone Up, Mistfit, Basis, etc. It’s great that we have so many convenient options for quantifying and comparing our activity levels. After all, even moderate amounts of activity…

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Inaugural Hack Things Meetup in Seattle

Special thanks to the around 30 entrepreneurs, software, hardware and mechanical engineers, industrial designers, consultants and investors that showed up for our inaugural Hack Things Meetup today in Seattle, featuring guest speaker Jon WineBrenner (@jonwinebrenner) of OneOak Design, Inc. Also, a special…

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