news
Retro, Open Hardware, and Mobile Systems
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Open Hardware/Modding
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Hackaday ☛ A New Cartridge For An Old Computer
Although largely recognizable to anyone who had a video game console in the 80s or 90s, cartridges have long since disappeared from the computing world. These squares of plastic with a few ROM modules were a major route to get software for a time, not only for consoles but for PCs as well. Perhaps most famously, the Commodore VIC-20 and Commodore 64 had cartridge slots for both gaming and other software packages. As part of the Chip Hall of Fame created by IEEE Spectrum, [James] found himself building a Commodore cartridge more than three decades after last working in front of one of these computers.
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Mighty Gadget ☛ Ugreen NASync DH4300 Plus Review
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Purism ☛ Purism Defends the Fourth Amendment in the Digital Age
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[Old] Olimex ☛ Join us today at Open Source Hardware Association Show and Tell Live
Join us today at 17.40 o’clock Sofia time at Open Source Hardware Association Show and Tell Live
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CNX Software ☛ wafer.space lets you design your custom silicon just for $7 per die (Crowdfunding)
wafer.space has launched its first pooled silicon fabrication run on Crowd Supply, called the GF180MCU Run 1, which enables designers, engineers, and companies to create 1,000 custom ASICs using GlobalFoundries’ 180 nm mixed-signal process. Each slot provides a fixed 3.88 × 5.07 mm (19.67 mm²) die area replicated 1,000 times, meaning you will receive 1000 chips, with options for bare dies or chip-on-board packaging.
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Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications
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Linux Phone Apps ☛ Q3/2025 Progress: Over 30 apps added, again
How can it be October already!? Time to look back and see what happened in third quarter of 2025.
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Fireborn ☛ Why the Hell Does Android Even Exist Anymore? — fireborn
Google has finally crossed the line. Starting in 2026, sideloading on a certified Android phone will no longer mean freedom — it will mean paperwork. If a developer doesn’t submit their government ID, register their package names and signing keys, and agree to Google’s new “verification,” then their app simply will not install.
That’s it. Sideloading is gone, gutted, neutered. And I don’t care how much they dress it up as “safety” or “protection.” This is not about protecting users. This is about control. This is about Google cutting out the last remaining artery of independence in Android and tightening its grip around everything that runs on your phone.
And that raises the only question worth asking: why the fuck does Android exist anymore?
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