Real Wood iPod

An anonymous reader submits "People have tried modding their iPods using wood before, but it took the genius of ZapWizard to create the Real Wood iPod. Hand carved from a solid piece of African hardwood to a thickness of just 2mm, the end result has to be seen to be believed. Wood grain is the new Apple White!"

Comments

Re:Touch wheel

[myukew]

Yes, the touch-wheel still works. Touch-wheels are capacitance sensors, you can learn about them at www.qprox.com

"No War for Hardwood!"

[billstewart]

Actually, deforestation really is a serious problem, and decorative hardwoods are often from much more environmentally sensitive areas than pine and some of the other softwoods that grow efficiently in tree-farms. People who like fancy guitars and other musical instruments have to deal with this issue also.

Some softwood types are also sensitive - old-growth redwoods forests and high mountain areas. Forest Service roadbuilding typically costs about 10 times as much as the value of the wood that gets logged using those roads, so it's essentially subsidizing the destruction of old-growth forests; the Clinton administration belatedly got around to banning it in many areas, and the Bush Administration rapidly re-authorized it.

Re:Wood Ipod (guilt)

[deimtee]

Strangely enough, converting an entire tree into CO2 by either burning or decomposition will release exactly the net amount of CO2 that the tree absorbed over its life. Weird huh?

Re:Touch wheel

[datafr0g]

Cheers for the site!

Here's the blurb for those too lazy to search the site :)

QWheel(TM) touch wheel technology can be thought of as a 'capacitive potentiometer', where the wiper is a finger. The electrode consists of a simple resistive ring element placed behind the plastic panel; three capacitive QT sensing channels are connected to this ring, and the signals processed to 7-bits of absolute position. The result is output on an SPI serial interface. The device can be set to sense through panels up to 3mm thick, and even through gloves.

The entire circuit with the electrode ring can be fabricated on a single-sided PCB for very low cost. In many cases the technology is less expensive than mechanical equivalents, and in all cases is more reliable.