The world of Pinterest is a visual delight. Whether you carry a camera and an appetite, whether you're a geek who likes to geek it out on Pinterest, or whether you're just looking for technology boards on Pinterest to pique your interest.
You can find anything on Pinterest, from cyborgs to warp drives, among other things. But there are also boards which take you to your backyard with simple technology hacks you can create yourself.
DIY hack-a-day websites like Instructables.com and Makezine.com easily switch over a few lessons to image boards on Pinterest. They are not alone, as active "pinners" use the online pinboard to discover cool technology ideas and share them. Here are some of the more amazing technology ideas you can find on Pinterest. Some you can try yourself, and some you can keep pinned for inspiration.
Don’t Throw the Cartridge Away
This is a common problem which has led to the making of the refilling cottage industry, or to landfills, depending on which side of the globe you are on. This hack shows you the way to puncture your misconceptions about empty cartridges (when they are not really) with a clip or a pin. The pin reveals the industry secret – you can reset the memory chip of the sophisticated cartridges and keep it going for a many pages more. Here’s a more detailed article that goes into the process behind the hack.
DIY Cell Phone Charger
Don't let your friends call you a cheapskate when they see you lug around the DIY Minty Boost charger with a $700 iPhone. You just need basic soldering skills to make this one. The Kit bundle from Maker Shed costs around $26. Your friends won't scoff but applaud when they see the Minty box giving your iPhone or iPod all the juice for a few more hours.
Emergency Charge for Emergency Phone Calls
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUxx-4bUo4Q
Not everyone carries around an iPhone, so this is one hack you should always keep in mind. This DIY video tutorial shows you how to use the 50-60 V of current that is drawn by phone lines. When you think that phone lines have this power even during a blackout, you realize that this is an emergency power source you can tap into readily when nothing else is available.
Amazon Weather
I can’t imagine myself putting a Kindle on the wall as just a weather display. But I can agree that the e-ink kind of looks neat. The thing to appreciate here is the iconography which the developer has made available under a Public Domain license. Catch the complete how-to [Broken URL Removed] and thank the guy for a job remarkably done.
Take Selfies Using Your Earbuds
Selfies may have entered the popular lexicon, but taking self-shots of yourself remains an artistic challenge. This simple hack of using earbuds with a volume switch as a remote shutter may not be awesome, but it is very handy. As the linked BuzzFeed article says, it is a low-tech hack for a hi-tech gadget. I had mentioned a similar use of a remote shutter trigger for taking photographs in my article on useful digital camera hacks.
The Shoebox Smartphone Projector
The homemade smartphone projector looks like a kid’s weekend project. Alternatively, let’s say it is dumb simple. The step-by-step illustration says it all. If you get down to making it, do let us know how long it took you. I am guessing ten minutes or less. I don’t think you need AirPlay anymore!
Google Maps Envelope
I literally fell in love with this idea, not only for its utter simplicity, but also for its practicality and aesthetics. Look at the screenshot above, and do disagree with me if you find the Google Maps envelope "ugly". It's not. It’s a creative concept right now (from two students at the Industrial Design program at Syracuse University), but I think you can apply this with a workaround if you have a color printer lying around. It could be a nice way to bring snail mail back in style.
DIY Conductive Gloves
Spend a few cold winters, and empathize with the agony of taking out your gloves to answer calls on your smartphone. Touch surfaces are generally capacitive screens which respond to the static electricity on the fingers. Thick gloves block this signal, thus making the use of touch-enabled devices a problem. Researchers are working on the problem, spending a few million dollars on the way. Probably, no one told them about stitching a few strands of conductive thread onto the fingertips of the gloves. You might have to search for conductive threads, but it’s easily available on Amazon and eBay. Now, you just have to thread a needle. This is a nifty low-tech solution to a high-tech problem.
A USB Hotplate
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSgW9AMeIjo
I found this hack on Pinterest, but learnt all about it on YouTube. This DIY project is for those times when you have a broken computer headed for the landfill. You need the processor, a USB cable, and a metallic plate you can get from your corner hardware store. This YouTube tutorial shows in detail how to put together this burner with common items. The DIY USB burner is definitely headed for my favorite dorm room projects list.
PVC Pipe Laptop Stand
There’s probably a YouTube video around explaining that, but even the Pinterest image makes it seem like an easy project to do. The one thing I would do before starting out on this project is buy colorful PVC pipes and not use the drab ones that are the norm.
Pinterest is a curation tool. Let’s not forget the actual sources and the credit that’s due to them for thinking up these amazing but simple hacks. There are some mind-boggling technologies out there, and even more bizarre projects.
What are the best DIY technology ideas you found on Pinterest? Are you going to try one of the projects above?
Image Credit: theanthonyryan