News from the Odd Side of Technology
iDangle is a ceiling-mounted phone holder designed for watching videos while lying down. Flip a switch to bring the holder down, attach a phone magnetically, then remove the phone and send the holder back up when finished.
Inventor Matty Benedetto presents it as part of his Unnecessary Inventions collection.
Details： Matty Benedetto / Unnecessary Inventions ↗
To reduce the temptation to pick up his smartphone, Kevin Noki built a large handset styled after a 1980s mobile phone. It is not a standalone cellular phone: it connects to an existing smartphone via Bluetooth to handle calls.
After an initial Bluetooth setup produced poor audio, Noki switched to a dedicated hands-free module. He shaped a foam mockup before 3D-printing the final enclosure, allowing the real phone to stay out of his hands during calls.
To stop reaching for one phone, he built a second phone. And the new phone still depends on the original one.
Details： Hackaday ↗ · Open video or post ↗
LastComputer turned a badly damaged Samsung Galaxy S23 into a desktop gaming computer. The build combines the phone's mainboard with a 512 GB SSD, USB hubs including HDMI output, and an added cooling fan.
The creator straightened the bent frame with a hammer and installed a replacement battery. A heatsink and fan lowered temperatures by about seven degrees Celsius compared with the phone's original cooling setup. Samsung DeX provides the desktop environment, with PS2 emulation and other games demonstrated.
The phone looks beyond saving as a phone, but a hammer, fan and SSD give it a second career as a gaming PC.
Details： Hackaday ↗
To avoid holding a phone in bed, the ceiling now has to do the work. That's a lot of hardware to rest your arms.