This low cost self-balancing skateboard project is a mix between the Segway-like scooter and Electric Segway Skateboard we’ve covered before. Add an Arduino microcontroller, a motor, and some sensors to a standard skateboard and you get a wheeled vehicle which does the balancing job on its own.
It’s light enough to carry around and is build it modules to make it easy to screw onto skateboards. It runs with the help of accelerometers and gyros to maintain balance and direction. After you step on it, it automatically begins to level and is ready for you to move forward. See the full build tutorial for more details.
The iPhone Dev Team is at it again. Using the same methods which allowed them to jailbreak the iPhone, these hackers were able to jailbreak the iPad within a day of its launch. The exploit known as “spirit” allowed root access into the iPad’s OS and file system.
“The video shows that the jailbreak provides a root shell with what appears to be full access to the iPad file system. The video walks shows connection to the iPad via ssh, exploration of the OS and kernel version information, a view of running processes, moving applications out of the iPad’s applications directory (and then restarting Springboard via the shell to show the results) and finally, rebooting the iPad via the jailbroken root shell.”
Well…sort of 
It’s actually an app called Desktop Connect which allows you to connect via VNC to share another computer’s desktop. A perfect shortcut for those who would rather have seen OSX on the iPad instead of a variation of the iPhone OS and don’t want to wait until it’s hacked.
It’s really easy to setup and you pull up an onscreen keyboard as well. It’s not perfect though. It’s pretty difficult to use an OS made for precision mouse clicking and attempt to control it using your large, stubby fingers. More iPad hacks to come! – Subscribe so you don’t miss out.
Xbox 360; £24.99; cert 12+; Microsoft
According to the tagline for Lips Party Classics, “it took decades to build this collection”. Literalists will question this as most people with a knowledge of crowd-pleasers could come up with a large chunk of this playlist in about 60 seconds. Familiarity, however, is entirely the point.
As the name suggests, it’s a (budget price) song pack for the rather popular Xbox 360 karaoke title – 40 singalong classics to get the party started. Or, perhaps more likely, keep it going or finish it in drunken style. Regular karaoke crooners will have been here before and newcomers will, at least, know most of the titles on offer.
Eveyone’s still dancing to the same tune as last week … yep, the Wii-only Just Dance is still at No.1
Leisure software charts compiled by GfK Chart Track
© 2009 ELSPA (UK) Ltd
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XBox 360, Microsoft, cert 12
Bafta’s game of the year, Batman: Arkham Asylum, has been re-released to give anyone who made the honest mistake of missing it the first time around another chance. This version comes with fancy lenticular cover art, all available downloadable content and two sets of cardboard 3D glasses. Making very public use of a new system called TriOviz to produce the familiar, blurry coloured fringing around people and objects, its 3D works in a fairly unremarkable but mildly headache-inducing way. It’s only when using Batman’s Detective Mode to discover secrets, bathing your viewpoint in a monochrome sheen, that the 3D gets noticeably more effective, however wearing the glasses for long periods feels like wearing someone else’s prescription lenses. With its 3D off, Arkham Asylum is a superbly entertaining game of stealth, puzzles and pounding henchmen into unconsciousness.
An exclusive new look at the upcoming racer from Black Rock Studios and Disney Interactive
Check out the exclusive trailer of upcoming racing game Split/Second: Velocity. Will it replace Sonic & Sega All-Stars as my racing game of 2010?
Set within the world of a hyper-competitive reality television show in a made-for-TV city rigged for destruction, Split/Second: Velocity is an intense action racing game in which competitors can trigger events that take out opponents or completely change the track – a bit like a grown-up version of Mario Kart then.
PS3/Xbox 360; £39.99; cert 3+; Monumental/Capcom
MotoGP 09/10 may just be the first instance of an officially licensed racing game arriving in time for the start of the new season – although, as the name suggests, this evocation of motorbike racing’s blue riband formula kicks off with the 2009 season’s curtain-raiser at Losail.
This year’s correct rider roster, new tracks (including Silverstone, whose glorious reconfiguration could put it up there with the likes of Spa and Laguna Seca as one of the world’s very best tracks) and the new 600cc Moto2 formula will be available to download, pleasing sticklers for authenticity.
Alan Wake is now coming out on 14 May. And the writer of the much-anticipated psychological thriller will be discussing the game at an event in Nottingham later this month …
Microsoft has announced this morning that it’s moving the UK release date of hotly anticipated psychological action thriller Alan Wake forward to 14 May.
The game, about a horror author who seeks refuge in a small village when stricken with writer’s block, has been one of the most anticipated Xbox titles since it was announced five (count ‘em) years ago.
