workshop

Crave giveaway: TyPad 2 iPad case with Bluetooth keyboard

First off, congrats to John M. of Winona Lake, Ind., for winning a Booq Cobra laptop backpack in last week's giveaway. Now, would you like a keyboard to go with that iPad touch screen? This week's giveaway will hook you up. We're offering a free TyPad, a unique iPad case with a built-in Bluetooth keyboard.

CNET's Josh Lowensohn gave the TyPad positive marks when he went hands-on with it a couple of years back. He tested the original TyPad, but we're giving away the latest version of the accessory, the TyPad 2, which is compatible with all iPads, including the newest model. … Read more

Lego for girls, this time hardware-hacker style

For Limor Fried, a hardware hacker and leader in the booming maker and do-it-yourself movements, there was never a question of waiting for someone else to jump in and do a better job of inspiring girls than Lego has done with its widely-panned Lego Friends set.

The product was featured on the cover of Bloomberg Business Week last year and drew worldwide attention as the global toy company's first major attempt at showcasing girls in a new set. Still, many Lego fans were upset that the company had focused on well-worn stereotypes and had ignored the modern reality that girls can do pretty much anything they want, whether or not there's pink or purple involved.

For Fried, who runs open-source hardware developer Adafruit Industries, it sounded like it was time for a little culture hacking.

… Read more

The real business of the DIY movement

PALO ALTO, Calif.--Since 2006, Maker Faire has offered tens of thousands of people an annual celebration of the best and brightest in the do-it-yourself movement.

But while everyone from individual tinkerers who have built small rockets to two people doing amazing things with Diet Coke and Mentos to paper airplane masters and crafters making magic out of felt has had a venue for the last five years to showcase their innovative projects, there's never been a forum for the growing number of people and companies that are developing the new business platforms that are merging manufacturing and making. … Read more

Recycled Lexus parts as couture

With about 2,000 parts to choose from, four designers created high-fashion clothing and accessories from a disassembled Lexus CT 200h.

The Lexus Fashion Workshop highlights not only the talents of fashion designers Moss Lipow, Eddie Borgo, John Patrick, and Alejandro Ingelmo, but also the Lexus CT hybrid as a 90 percent recyclable vehicle.

The fashions created from the car parts push the idea of recycling and are part of an upcoming advertising campaign for Vogue.

The collection will be on display at Art Basel Miami Beach, on Dec. 1 and 2, 2011. The pieces will also be available through … Read more

So you bought a smartphone--now what?

The carriers are increasingly taking their cues from Apple's stores as they look to evolve more into a resource for consumers instead of simply a place to buy cell phones.

Last week, AT&T opened up a model store near Chicago with a Genius Bar-like services center. Over the past few months, Verizon Wireless has been rolling out workshops--similar to the classes offered at Apple stores--to help with different smartphones, tablets, and services across its nationwide chain of stores. T-Mobile similarly has been holding "smart clinics" in its stores.

The move towards improved customer care and … Read more

Full-featured icon editor

If you're looking for a quick and dirty way to create icons, Axialis IconWorkshop isn't it. If, however, you're in need of a full-featured program that will let you take your icon-making to the next level, this is the program for you. We've reviewed a lot of icon creation software, and Axialis IconWorkshop is definitely the most professional of the bunch.

The program's interface is sleek and well-designed, although it may seem a bit overwhelming to the uninitiated. The program's features are organized with panes and large, graphical buttons, and although the sheer number … Read more

Useful guitar tutor

ChordWizard Gold lets users learn guitar chords and scales. Guitar novices might find its many options a bit overwhelming, but overall, it's easy to navigate.

ChordWizard's interface is not particularly sleek, but it's very intuitive and customizable, allowing users to orient the fret board for right- or left-handed playing and to select how many strings will be used. The program's features are organized into five separate tabs, allowing users to explore scales related to specific chords, construct new chords, and practice along with a built-in metronome. On the whole, the program was easy to navigate, although … Read more

Sesame Workshop: Video games good for kids

A new report (PDF) published by the Joan Ganz Clooney Center at Sesame Workshop discusses the potentially positive effects of video games in educating children and promoting their physical well-being. (And if you can't trust the fine people at Sesame Workshop, who can you trust?)

Studies that look at the effects of video games on kids have been mostly positive of late, with a focus on safe virtual worlds, and devices such as the Nintendo Wii that encourage physical activity.

The new report "Game Changer: Investing in Digital Play to Advance Children's Learning and Health" (PDF) urges educators as well as government and the health care industry to look beyond the stereotype of video games as harmful.

Video games have been shown to help children learn vital foundational and 21st-century skills, including:

Content (from rich vocabulary to science to history) Skills (from literacy to math to complex problem-solving) Creation of artifacts (from videos to software code) Systems thinking (how changing one element affects relationships as a whole)

… Read more

iPhone forensics seminar to expose security holes?

For years, published examples of security breaches at banks, credit card companies, and on home PCs have put us all on guard for identity theft. Would you be surprised to find out that, despite all this bad news, the iPhone and the iPod Touch are not as secure as they should be? It's true: neither of these devices does what it should to protect your personal information, and the upcoming O'Reilly Forensics Workshop--a meeting that highlights various ways to get data out of either of these popular Apple devices--proves it.

Taking place in Chicago on May 26, … Read more