Ben Heck, the engineering whiz who makes genuinely useful stuff for the lot of us, has a new device that may interest you Android fans in the crowd. It’s a mobile phone charger that works using the mighty power of kinetic energy, the energy of motion. What a pleasant man this Ben Heck is. → Read More
This is Ben Heck’s newest creation, a “ruggedized” PS3. Why would you need such a PS3? Well, Mr. Heck[endorn] created it for some folks who are currently serving in Afghanistan. That’s not exactly an easy place to be when you’re trying to play Gran Turismo. → Read More
Of course Ben Heck turned the new Xbox 360 Slim into a laptop. Of course it looks effin awesome and of course you want it. (good thing you can win it) → Read More
I’d hate to be Ben Heck. You wake up in the morning and suddenly there’s a modded Nintendo DS in your stool. You got eat breakfast and find a modded Commodore 64 inside a cereal box. Then you go to work and suddenly instead of beers coming down the conveyer belt at the bottling plant you start finding modded PS3s inside laptop cases.
He used a 1280×720 17-inch laptop screen and has a… → Read More
When I interviewed modder extraordinaire Ben Heckendorn a couple of months ago, he mentioned that he’d been working on building a pinball machine from the ground up and that it’d be called “Bill Paxton Pinball” when all is said and done. While it’s not quite together yet, Heckendorn has made some serious progress on the actual cabinet itself, which now includes photos of Paxton in various movie… → Read More
Modder extraordinaire, Ben Heckendorn has just finished version 2 of his Commodore 64 laptop. This one will be auctioned for charity and features an SD card reader for loading up various software (games!). → Read More
I recently sat down with the king of gadget modders, Benjamin J. Heckendorn. → Read More
All-star modder Ben Heckendorn takes a walk down memory lane with the (surprisingly) one and only PC case mod he’s ever built. It’s a computer ensconced in an empty 18-pack of Miller Genuine Draft that he built back in 2004 when he “needed a portable computer to do the looping for [his] independent film but was too cheap to buy a laptop.” → Read More
Ben Heckendorn has done it again with another Xbox 360 Portable. Unlike his last Xbox 360 Laptop though, this isn’t just an upgraded Elite version. Calling it the Xbox 360 Portable, Ben has nixed the keyboard, but has added the ability to swap hard drives, more accessible memory cards, better layout of ports and buttons and internal Wi-Fi. I personally think that the best thing is that this… → Read More
Here’s Ben Heckendorn’s latest invention. It’s a pedal for Guitar Hero (and presumably Rock Band) that controls the strumming and whammy bar functions, so people with only one good arm (and presumably chronic masturbators) can rock out like everyone else. Heckendorn built the pedal for the Games for Health conference. These replace the strum and whammy bar from a standard guitar… → Read More
Remember the Apple IIgs? I had an Apple IIc but my friend across the street had the Apple IIgs, the lucky bastard. Oh what I wouldn’t give to be a kid again. Not a care in the world except trying to get from the castle to the bottom of the mountain without falling to my death in King’s Quest III. Anyway, Ben Heckendorn has built a gorgeous laptop version of the Apple IIgs with the… → Read More
Ben Heck is at it again, and this time he’s decided to go old school (I mean, really old school) and put together an Atari 2600 portable. The Nintendo DS-esque handheld lets you play those old Atari games that most of us have grown to love. Sure, maybe I wasn’t alive when Atari was big, but that doesn’t mean I can’t love it now, does it? Of course you’re gonna have to… → Read More
The Xbox 360 wireless controller may very well be the best gaming controller I’ve ever used. The analog sticks fall right under your thumbs, the right and left triggers feel like actual triggers and the vibration isn’t disabled. There’s really no reason to take the controller apart unless, you know, you couldn’t grip the controller with both of your hands. As it turns out… → Read More
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