Poor Mojo's Newswire

Blizzard has announced that it will shortly be expanding its hugely successful Armory app to include an all-new mobile version of the in-game auction house, where players buy and sell the items they find and make. The existing Armory application allows players to check out characters, statistics, and achievements from their iPhone. The coming expansion will build on that by giving gamers access to the game's virtual marketplace, Pocket-lint reports. The mobile version will reportedly feature all the functionality of the "real" auction house, and will allow iPhone-equipped players to continue their financial wheeling and dealing on the move.

There are more efficient and complex power supplies in the world. There are easier ways to get a simple power supply like this one (re-using a wall-wart, for instance). But if you make a power supply like this at least once in your life, you will have a much better understanding of how alternating current becomes regulated DC power. There will be many other power supplies like it, but this one will be yours. A power supply, as we'll be referring to it here, converts alternating current from the outlet on the wall into direct current. There are several ways to do this. We are going to look at one of the simplest, but also most illustrative.... To build this specific power supply, you will need the following. * Power cord. There must be one lying around somewhere... * SPST 120V toggle switch * Panel mount 120V neon lamp * 3x Binding Posts * Transformer with an input voltage of 120V and an output voltage around 24V to keep the Vin for the 7812 regulator above the minimum. I used a Radio Shack p/n 273-1512. * Full-wave bridge rectifier * 6800 uF Capacitor * 2x 100nF (exact value is not crucial) capacitors * 2x 1 uF (exact value is not crucial) capacitors * 7805 5V Voltage Regulator * 7812 12V Voltage Regulator

Meet Alexander Kendrick, the 16-year old inventor of a new low-frequency radio that allows for cave-texting, which isn't some fresh new euphemism, it just means people can finally text while deep underground. How deep, you ask -- well, Alexander's team of intrepid explorers went far enough (946 feet) to record the deepest known digital communication ever in the United States. What you see the young chap holding above is the collapsible radio antenna, though plans are already afoot to ruggedize and miniaturize the equipment to make it more practical for cave explorers and rescuers.

. . . So here's how it works: much like with its mobile Gmail site, the app caches your contacts list in a browser page. All the usual GV functionality is there, writing SMS messages, checking your inbox, and even listening to voicemails (although that latter functionality wasn't working for us yet in our trials). Placing phone calls is an interesting trick: as pictured above, after you choose the recipient, the app prompts you to call one of Google's local numbers via the native dialer -- even for international calls, hence the lower rates by paying through Google. The recipient will see your proper GV digits, and upside with this method is you'll still be able to utilize call waiting and background usage. . . .