tools

Everything you need to build and fix awesome gadgets [Deals]

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iFixit's kit of 64 specialized screwdriver bits will let you fix that device with the proprietary parts.
iFixit's kit of 64 specialized screwdriver bits will let you fix that device with the proprietary parts.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

For all the amazing devices you’ll find in an electronics store these days, it’s nothing compared to the wild DIY imaginations of people who aren’t the CEOs of major tech companies. Is there a machine to feed me breakfast? What about a device that guarantees I make a proper entrance?

No matter what you hare-brained idea, below you’ll find some of the best DIY tools to make it a reality.

Practical, portable, single-minded, beautiful — Opinel is the Apple of knives

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This might be the best knife you'll ever own.
These might be the best knives you'll ever own. Photos: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

The Opinel No8 is hardly a new gadget, but when something is this good, why change it? I’ve been using the wood-handled French pocket knives for around 12 years since I was given a carbon steel No8 as a gift. That knife is still in daily use, and has since been joined by several others, including one made for children (more on that in a bit). I even have a tiny No3 that I use for sharpening pencils.

Why am I writing about a 120-year-old knife on the Cult of Mac? Because age doesn’t matter when something is this well-designed. Also, I figure if you’re a fan of Apple gear you will appreciate good design wherever you find it.

Ledr is sort of a leather fruit roll up to hold your longish, smallish equipment

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If you’re anything like me, you’re constantly shuffling around town (or around the country) with bits. No, not those bits; you know the ones I’m talking about: pens, cables, more pens, headphones, USB sticks, pocket knives and pens. They get shoved into a small pocket in a bag, where they sit, unharmonious and disorganized, until I fumble around for them.

David and Calvin Laituri of design outfit Onehundred have a better way. The father-son team have come up with Ledr, a leather strip that organizes all that stuff and rolls it up into a compact toolkit.

Create Remarkable Websites With The Ultimate WordPress Starter Kit [Deals]

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redesign_wordpress_mainframe

Have you ever thought about building your own website without spending thousands of dollars or thought about starting a freelance web development gig? What if it was all possible without knowing how to code? Well, it’s true.

WordPress is a full content management system and so much more through the thousands of plugins, widgets, and themes. It’s a system that makes it easy for anyone to get a professional website up and running without knowing how to code, and now WPMU DEV has created an amazing membership service that will give you all the essential tools you need to get a WordPress website up and running…and all for just $89.

Get Screwed: Mac Toolkit Perfect For Holiday Repairs

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As nerds, one of our Christmas holiday duties is to fix the computers of family and friends. And if the past is anything to go by, fixing Macs can mean opening them up for kitchen-table-top surgery. Hell, there’s even something to be done about common iPhone problems, too: switching out a smashed glass back on an iPhone 4/S, for example.

But a real doctor doesn’t go to work without a proper set of tools. I’ve stripped enough screw heads with cheap screwdrivers to know this. What you need is VisionTek’s new “12 Piece Toolkit 900671.”

Clear iPhone Case Packs A Tiny Toolbox

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swiss case

 

I love this case: It’s a plain old polycarbonate shell for the iPhone 5/S, but it comes with a bunch of handy pull-out tools in embedded into the plastic itself. It’s like the pen and tweezer tools from Swiss Army Knives, only all of the tools are like that.

Tuls Are Little Card-Sized Titanium Tools And iPhone Stands [Kickstarter]

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tuls-titanium

 

I remember the crushing fetish we all had for Titanium back when I entered the cycling fraternity. (It’s fallen out of vogue now, of course — most likely thanks in part to the rise of carbon fiber, or perhaps something to do with the economics of materials I don’t fully understand.)

It’s an exotic material, with accompanying exotic pricing, thanks to the difficulty and expense of processing it. Still, we’ll pay an exorbitant surcharge for things made out of the magic metal because it’s so near-unbreakable, corrosion-resistant — and just plain wicked.

Which brings me to Tuls. David Laituri — you may or may not remember him as the man behind Vers and their super-green, handcrafted audio toys — has laser-cut tools, iPhone stands and other thoughtful solutions out of slivers of Titanium.

Getting CSS Done With Stylizer [Deals]

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CoM - Stylizer

I’m always looking for ways to get things done more efficiently and—better still—effectively. After all, those two elements combined are the true keys to improved personal productivity. And while I’m not a coder, I am well aware that the term “lifehack” has its roots based in the realm of coding. The term essentially originally meant “a more general solution related computer problems that occur in a programmer’s everyday life” but now it means a lot more.

But that doesn’t mean it can’t still apply to the realm in which it was born.

One Year Later, What Was Steve Jobs’ True Legacy? [Opinion]

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Steve Jobs has changed the world four times, by my reckoning. One year after his death, is the world different? What is his legacy? Is it the company that he started, journeyed outward from in disgrace, and ultimately returned to in triumph? How about the devices he had an enthusiastic hand in bringing to market? The business of music and film? What is the world now that it would not have been without Steve Jobs?

It’s all of those things, of course. Jobs’ legacy is not something we can distill into a simple slogan or tagline. Steve Jobs worked for a world in which the design, manufacture, and marketing of consumer electronics enhances our lives in a very human way.

Let me explain.

CamRuler: Measure Pretty Much Anything With Your iPhone

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My sense of proportion has been hopelessly corrupted by a lifetime of telling girls that six centimeters is actually six inches, so I’m very excited by the prospect of an app that can tell me the size of something just by taking a photo of it.

That app is called CamRuler, and it works by comparing the size of an unknown object to that of a known object. If you ever put a coin or a small model dinosaur into a photo to help show scale, then you already know how it works.

Back In The 80s, Apple Shipped This Awesome Little Wrench With Their Products

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MaQch

Nowadays, Apple locks its devices down pretty tightly: RAM soldered onto motherboards, proprietary torx screws and parts glued to each other inside cases. About the only tool you’ll ever find Apple shipping a product with that has been designed to help you actually open that device up is the iPhone’s liquid metal SIM ejection tool.

But that wasn’t always the case. Thirty years ago, Apple shipped every 5.25″ disk drive controller add-on kit for their Apple II computer with the adorable little wrench you see in the picture above, meant to help you actually install the card in your machine. It even had a cute little Apple logo stamped into the metal. I wish I had one of those for my keychain.

Via: Reddit

Gerber Multi-Tool Packs Camera-Phone Tripod

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A camera-phone stand, and a bottle opener. What more could you need?
A camera-phone stand, and a bottle opener. What more could you need?

Just when you thought there was nothing more that could be squeezed into a pocket-sized multitool, Gerber comes along with the Steady, and proves our imagination to be pathetically limited. What does this many-bladed wonder bring to the transforming tool party? A camera tripod.

Gerber’s Steady Tool is aimed at real everyday use, with a slew of practical, non-specialized tools. There’s a pair of needle-nose pliers, flat and serrated blades, a bottle opener (essential), screwdrivers, wire cutters and of course a tripod and cellphone/camera mount.

The body of the tool forms one leg, while the other two stick out like a sea lion’s flippers. You can either screw a standard thread into the bottom of a camera or tripod-compatible phone cases, or you can use the suction cup to stick the sleek, smooth glass back of your iPhone 4 to the 5.8-ounce tool.

The Steady will cost you $64. Not cheap, but you do get Gerber quality, plus everything you need to conduct a booze-filled picnic.

[Via Uncrate]

Develop Apps For Mobile And Desktop Platforms With LiveCode 5 [Review]

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LiveCode ios

There are many other development tools available besides the free copy of Xcode that comes with every Mac. LiveCode 5 (starts at $99; $49 for upgrades), a development tool running on Mac OS X and other operating systems from RunRev, gets it inspiration from the programming language HyperTalk. It is designed with an intuitive user interface to make application development easier using a language that uses an understandable English-like syntax. You can use it to create your own iOS apps.

Pro Blogger Reveals His Favorite Apple Tools [Peter Sciretta of Slashfilm]

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Ever wondered what Apple hardware and software pro bloggers use?

Peter Sciretta is a professional blogger/journalist specializing in film and entertainment. He is the founder and editor-in-chief of Slashfilm.com (stylized as /Film), which has won numerous awards and recognition from the mainstream media. Last year, Total Film named him one of the “100 Most Influential People in Movies.”

Sciretta began his career on a Windows PC, but soon thereafter saw the value of switching to the Mac. “Nowadays everything I have in my home office is Apple-based,” he says.

In this post, adapted from a recent interview, Sciretta reveals what hardware, software, and mobile apps he can’t live without — both personally and professionally.