Linux Devices, Open Hardware, and Gadgets

posted by Roy Schestowitz on May 22, 2026

• Devices/Embedded

  • Hackaday ☛ Why The Smart Home Bubble Popped

    Over the past decade we have seen the concept of a ‘smart home’ collapse into a nightmare of abandoned IoT devices, subscription services, forced ads, privacy violations, and an increasingly more congested 2.4 GHz spectrum that everything from WiFi and Zigbee to Bluetooth and others ended up competing for, with a corresponding collapse in reliability of data transmissions.

  • Krebs On Security ☛ Alleged Kimwolf Botmaster ‘Dort’ Arrested, Charged in U.S. and Canada

    Canadian authorities on Wednesday arrested a 23-year-old Ottawa man on suspicion of building and operating Kimwolf, a fast spreading Internet-of-Things botnet that enslaved millions of devices for use in a series of massive distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks over the past six months. KrebsOnSecurity publicly named the suspect in February 2026 after the accused launched a volley of DDoS, doxing and swatting campaigns against this author and a security researcher. He now faces criminal hacking charges in both Canada and the United States.

  • Emaan Rana ☛ I2C

    Stands for Inter-Integrated Circuit and abbreviated as I2C or just I2C. It is a synchronous, two-wire serial communication bus used to connect low-speed peripherals over short distances.

• Open Hardware/Modding

  • CNX Software ☛ Hacknect – A wireless hacking USB cable with a built-in microSD card slot (Crowdfunding)

    Little Gadgets’ Hacknect is an ESP32-S3-powered wireless USB Type-A hacking cable with Wi-Fi control, HID automation for keyboard/mouse events, payload deployment, and a microSD card slot hidden in one of the Type-A connectors. The USB cable is designed for makers, developers, automation enthusiasts, and cybersecurity researchers and can be wirelessly controlled from your smartphone or computer. It just looks like a normal cable, so any free USB cable that comes your way may look suspicious in the future. Hacknect specifications: Wireless SoC – ESP32‑S3 with WiFi 4 and Bluetooth 5.x Storage – MicroSD card slot (inside one of the USB Type-A ports) USB – 2x USB Type-A male ports (Full-speed, 12 Mbps) Features: Keystroke injection – Automated keyboard payloads using HID emulation.

  • Hackaday ☛ E-Fortune Cookie Will Humble, But Never Crumble

    Inside you’ll find a Seeed Xiao ESP32-S3 Plus and a matching e-paper display board. [gokux] is detecting the shakes with an MPU-6050 accelerometer, and powers everything with a small Li-Po pouch.

  • Hackaday ☛ Sliding-Screen Cyberdeck Has Chunky, Rugged Design

    The heart of the build is a Raspberry Pi 5, which provides a good amount of computing power for regular tasks. It’s wrapped up in a 3D-printed enclosure with rail mounts on the back, along with a NOS 450 TKL mechanical keyboard, offering full-travel keys in a compact layout. The 10.1″ IPS touchscreen display is mounted on sliding rails to cover the keyboard when it’s not needed. A smattering of buttons live around the screen, in a manner akin to so many industrial controllers. On either side, the deck has large grab handles, with one side featuring custom horizontal and vertical scroll controls, while the other rocks a trackball. Power is via NP-F batteries, which are more commonly used to run Sony camcorders.

  • Hackaday ☛ Transforming Lamp Built With LED Filaments

    If you’re unfamiliar with filament LEDs, they’re basically thin plastic filaments stuffed with lots of individual LEDs that are very close together. This effectively creates a continuous, flexible, glowing string that can be used for all sorts of creative purposes.

  • [Old] System76 ☛ Launch Keyboard tips to make you more productive

    Launch Configurable Keyboards have been redesigned in prism black with corrosion-resistant (doubleshot PBT) shine-through keycaps. Manufactured in Denver, these open source keyboards were expertly engineered for fast, comfortable typing. Customize your layout so that no key goes unused.

  • Flipper Blog ☛ Flipper One — we need your help

    Flipper One isn't an upgrade to Flipper Zero — it's a completely different project with its own goals. Flipper One is an open Linux platform you can build almost anything on: from a 5G-enabled IP network analyzer to an SDR-powered radio signal analyzer with local AI. We focused a lot on the hardware expansion system. You can connect high-speed modules to Flipper One over PCI Express, USB 3.0, and SATA interfaces. Add an SDR, a fast SSD, or a cellular modem — just plug in the right module.

    Flipper One comes with several network interfaces: 2x Gigabit Ethernet, USB Ethernet (5 Gbps), and Wi-Fi 6E (2.4/5/6 GHz). You can add 5G connectivity by plugging in an M.2 modem. That means you can use Flipper One as a router, a VPN gateway, or a bridge between wired and wireless networks.

• Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

  • Joel Chrono ☛ Nothing deserves brand royalty

    There are better products for better prices, but the creativity just won me over, their phones’ bootloader is also unlockable so that’s a plus for the day I finally decide to get into rooting and installing a rom on my phone again.

    Now, if it’s not obvious. Nothing (the brand) doesn’t actually deserve brand loyalty. They have done some sketchy moves too. I am not a fan of the pathetic AI button on my phone that can’t be reprogrammed by default. There are also some updates that have shown some notifications with ads for app recommendations and the like. Definitely not perfect at all.