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Juicebox Hacking

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the because-you-can dept.

magic_user writes "Now that Mattel's JuiceBox can be had for $12 (Target, WalMart), this seems like a perfect toy for hackers. I've found a picture frame hack but what I'm really looking for is a way to play my own videos on it. It runs uclinux so this shouldn't be too hard, right? "

9 of 259 comments (clear)

  1. $12? Hardly... by garcia · · Score: 5, Informative

    From what I can see (walmart.com, amazon.com, and froogle.com) the JuiceBox is about $40 to $50. The only place I can find it quoted for being less is at the blog that this story links to... Perhaps they were on sale, the unit was in an opened package, or the online prices do not reflect the in-store ones. I don't know. YMMV.

    It seems that this would have been a more informative link to include in the story as it gives quite a bit of information about the JuiceBox and links to some of the code from Emsoft.

    It does seem like an interesting device to putz around with but I'll hold out until you can display pics via wlan to it :)

  2. hacking? by justforaday · · Score: 4, Funny

    I wouldn't exactly call it "hacking," but I've been modding juiceboxes for years. All it involves is a straw...

    --
    I'll turn into a supernova and burn up everything. Well I'll turn into a black little hole and you'll turn into string.
    1. Re:hacking? by lpangelrob2 · · Score: 4, Funny
      I wouldn't exactly call it "hacking," but I've been modding juiceboxes for years. All it involves is a straw...

      Have you ever noticed what color the hole that you stick the straw is? Silver. That's right. It's tinfoil.

      There's something in these "juiceboxes" that they don't want us to know about, and someday our meddling with juiceboxes with straws will get us in trouble...

      --
      -Rob
      Marriage doesn't have to suck!
  3. In the words of Meatwad... by The_Rippa · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...do what now?

  4. Noisy website by th77 · · Score: 5, Informative

    You could have warned us that the JuiceBox link leads to an obnoxiously noisy site. Fun way to get noticed at work. Yick.

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    Your favorite sig sucks
  5. If there's anything I've learned... by AKAImBatman · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...it's that hardware intended for kids is usually useless for anything else. I've seen quite a few electronic gizmos in recent years, and every time I look at hacking them into a more general purpose device, I find that they are far too mission specific to be of any real-world use. Half the time you open them up and find nothing more than a chip, small PCB, and some epoxy holding the whole thing together.

    If you're interested in replicating this, it might make a "fun" home project to build one using services like Pad2Pad, Digikey, and a handful of parts. Once you have the design down, you can sell them in bulk for a similar cost. Perhaps even as "developer kits" that allow others to fool around with them. Just don't waste your time on a toy. :-/

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    Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
  6. here are the technical specs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    2.75 inch 240x160 color LCD
    http://www.elinux.org/wiki/JuiceBox

  7. YES! $12! No need to hack it... by thatguy2g · · Score: 5, Informative

    My co-worker bought one of these for $12 at Target (look in the clearance items). A usefull thing to note: The "mp3 adaptor" is really an SD Card adaptor, and it plays mp3s and mpeg4 video clips. You don't have to "hack" anything, just put a 512MB SD card in with your properly encoded video clip and you're good to go. Then again, you're gonna get what you pay for. The screen can only handle a wopping 6fps. My advice: buy a PSP and a big memory stick duo.

  8. Re:The Wait by afabbro · · Score: 5, Funny
    I'm 25, and she's 11.

    You should be able to take her in another year or so, if you train hard.

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    Advice: on VPS providers