The polycarbonate case holds the guts of a flashed Xbox, so even though it's got no DVD drive, it'll serve as a great media center with the help of XBMC. It definitely makes the current crop of consoles look bloated in comparison, though we're told it runs a bit hot due to the tight quarters inside. Still, it's a great mod, especially given the original Xbox's considerable girth. [Xbox-Scene via Engadget]

But instead of just going the simple route, the folks over there made a really weird trackpad interface option—along with a button based one—so you can thumb around on your iPhone or iPod touch like you were running your finger over a trackpad. It's not worth explaining when you can just watch this decent video demo by TapCritic, embedded below, or just download the app yourself now. [iTunes Store Link]

An XBMC team developer with the forum handle "d4rk" has developed a quick and dirty plug-in that should get Hulu back up and running (although it is untested). Not surprisingly, hackers have chosen to fight the power. [XBMC via Boxee Forum via Lifehacker]

It turns out that crappy old PCs are kind of a hot commodity nowadays; numerous software projects have succeeded in dressing up retired computers for purposes that often didn't even exist when they were first wheeled out of Circuit City. Here are a few suggestion for your dumpy old rigs:

Make a browsing machine for your grandmother and/or kitchen

The most straightforward, obvious use for an old PC is to wipe it clean and install a lightweight, browsing-oriented OS. With a modest PC, you can run the web-app-inclined gOS, which is essentially a modern, stripped down Linux distribution with a modern web browser and lots of links to cutting edge online services.

For older hardware, there's always Damn Small Linux. This superlight distribution will boot straight from a CD in about a minute on just about any box you can find — and it's fast. It'll make your Pentium feel like a Centrino 2. Until you try to play YouTube.

What it can salvage
gOS has room to breathe on just about anything from about 700mhz and 256mb of RAM. It's based on Ubuntu, so it's not the lightest distro, but it get good mileage out of your hard. DSL will run on anything, seriously.

How you do it
Download, burn to a CD and pop in in your computer. Both will ask you if you'd like to install or just run from a CD. Give them a try first, but you'll get your best results running from a hard drive.

gOS download page
Lifehacker's gOS Post
DSL download page

Make a professional grade home router

For people who want to rule their home networks with an iron fist, Monowall a FreeBSD-based operating system that flips any PC with two network cards into a superrouter. If that sounds boring to you, I completely understand — but if full bandwidth monitoring and control, easy setup VPNs and a complementary web server with a remote interface perk your ears up, then you should give Monowall a shot. And step outside for a few minutes a day.

What it can salvage
Got a 486? It'll work, with 64MB of RAM. If your hardware is less than five years old, though, you should probably aim a little bit higher than making a Linksys out of it.

How you do it
Again, this is a wipe>install situation. m0n0wall is based on FreeBSD, which is based on Unix. None of that matters much, though — the m0n0wall team has designed a pretty straightforward installation routine.

m0n0wall download
m0n0wall HowTo page

Create a media center PC

There's no reason to spend money on a Windows Media Center PC if you've got an Athlon XP or Pentium 4 machine with an s-video port at hand, because you can do better with the free XBMC Live. Without modern hardware you won't have much luck playing back HD video, but virtually everything else — music, standard def video, streaming content — will play beautifully. The interface is very intuitive and gives a solid set-top box feel.

What it can salvage
Recently obsolete PCs. Don't expect to get a good experience on a 1GHz Athlon or Duron system, but anything newer can handle the load.

How you do it
Like most of the other hacks here, this one is a start-from-scratch project. If you want to run it within Windows or Linux there is also an option for that. The full, OS-replacement XBMC Live is ideal, however.

XBMC Live download
XBMC HowTo
Note: Boxee is a much more polished and feature-rich fork of XBMC that runs on Linux and OS X currently, but it's in a semi-public alpha. Use this link for Gizmodo readers to skip the line a bit and get invited into the alpha.

Run a server

An obvious use for old PCs for years, running a web server has now gotten easy enough for anyone. Apache is the de facto free web server, but it's a pain to set up. Enter XAMPP, a super-simplified click-and-run version of Apache. Forward a few ports on your router and get yourself a static DNS and you've got your very own website, with as much space as you've got on your hard drive and as much transfer as your ISP will let you get away with. If you have no need for a website, you can host your music, video and files for easy access from anywhere.

What it can salvage
Anything that can run Windows or Linux, gOS and Damn Small Linux included. You can reach waaaayy back into your closet with this one.

How you do it
It's a matter of running the installation routine on your chosen operating system — there's no drive wiping or OS installing involved.

XAMPP Download
Port Forwarding Guides
Free Static DNS

Dealzmodo Hacks are intended to help you sustain your crippling gadget addiction through tighter times. If you come across any on your own that are particularly useful, send it to our tips line (Subject: Dealzmodo Hack). Check back every Thursday for free DIY tricks to breathe new life into hardware that you already own.

Hanging out at sites like Giz may have instilled in you an insatiable, pocket-emptying gadget habit. But now we're entering a new era—the old guys on the TV are saying that soon we may not even have pockets, let alone money for them. Don't panic though: You've probably got a wealth of gadgetry sitting underutilized in your living rooms, closets and basements, just waiting to be given powerful new (not exactly authorized) features. For free.

I've collected the best firmware replacements, software mods and homebrew hacks from the DMCA-flouting, EULA-hating frontiers of gadgetland that'll breathe new life into your stable of hardware and maybe—just maybe—let you feel that lusty new-gadget rush again.

Turn Your Xbox, Old PC or Apple TV into a Genuine Media Center

Xbox Media Center is about as refined as an unauthorized hack can get, playing back virtually any audio and video format, running a bevy of console emulators and still playing your Xbox games. To be honest, this should almost be viewed as a natural update for every Xbox, which at its core is a slow but functional PC with an easy TV connection. (Any actual PCs you have lying around can run a PC-ported version of XBMC.)

Boxee is a very slick fork of the XBMC project for Mac, and it's available for Apple TV. As shipped, the Apple TV works fine within the closed iTunes ecosystem, but Boxee's support for virtually every video codec and free online video like YouTube, CNN, BBC, and Revision3 will suit your new, more destitute lifestyle a bit better.

Difficulty: Easy to Moderate. Installation is pretty straightforward in most cases, with simple Boxee and XBMC setup programs available for Windows, Mac and Linux. Before you load XBMC, though, you have to mod your Xbox with one of these methods, many of which require a specific game. After that it's all install wizards and lollipops.

Installing anything on the locked-down Apple TV used to take some serious finagling, but there are now tools that will create an automated Boxee installer on a flash drive. Just plug the drive in, restart and you're good to go.

XBMC Online Manual

Boxee

Make Over Your iPod, Archos, iRiver or Sandisk with Rockbox

It's hard to look at the current generation of media players and not admire their diverse capabilities and extensible software platforms. That's not to say that your 5th-gen iPod doesn't play back music perfectly well, or that your iRiver H10 still isn't a kickass media player, but they do feel a bit dated. Rockbox replaces your MP3 player's operating system with something more substantial, effectively making it a completely new device. You get endless codec support, advanced audio options, dozens of games, useful apps like a calculator and a text editor, plus you can choose from tons of different interface skins for a unique look and feel. Rockbox's tweaking possibilities mean you will earn admiring "what is that?" questions from friends, and it won't cost you a thing. If your player isn't supported yet just hold on—everything from the Zen Vision:M to the Toshiba Gigabeat S has a fairly active dev team.

Difficulty: Easy. Rockbox has an automated tool called the Rockbox Utility available for Windows, Mac and Linux. It does the work for you. Even better, it often automatically configures your player to dual boot with its original OS.

Rockbox Official Site

Convert Your PC or Notebook Into A Much More Expensive Mac

It's undeniable that Macs are too expensive. For many, they are considered a luxury item whose added cost doesn't justify the benefit. Luckily Apple's switch to an Intel platform opened up a world of unauthorized OS X installations which can turn your existing PC into a powerhouse Mac Pro workstation, or morph your MSI Wind or Asus EeePC into the Mac netbook that should be in their goddamn product line anyway. Check the hardware compatibility list to see if your PC is eligible for the upgrade.

Difficulty: Moderate to Hard. If you're not morally opposed to downloading iATKOS and Kalyway, which are pre-patched Leopard install DVDs (this is bit torrent territory), then the process is much like installing any other OS. If you insist on building your own patched install from a DVD you own, then, well, good luck. Always check hardware lists first, though, because driver support is everything.

OSX86 Project Page

Flash Your Crappy Router Into a Top-Line Piece of Hardware

The DD-WRT project exists for a simple reason: Most routers are physically very similar, but are priced differently because of functionality derived from software. The DD-WRT firmware unlocks the potential of the most basic routers out there—too many to name but damn if yours isn't on the list. As it turns out, your budget model is kind of impressive: Program-specific traffic throttling, professional level wireless security and radical signal boosting are just a few of the dozens of new features that can be enabled.

Difficulty: Easy. If you can't manage this one, then you don't deserve a router—installation just takes a few clicks on the device's default configuration pages. A word of caution, though: Make sure your router configuration page is totally compatible with your browser before the operation, as some choke on Firefox and can botch firmware upgrades. Stick to IE if you have the choice.

DD-WRT Project Page

Download Updated Maps For Your Old GPS

I'm referring of course to capital 'D' downloading here, mainly because at the moment GPS map updates are a racket. You could spend hundreds of dollars on map data that is freely available on Google Maps, Microsoft Live and MapQuest, among others, or you can just, you know, not. Map packs for Garmin, TomTom and Magellan units are floating around torrent sites and usually don't require much more than a simple CD image mount and run routine to set up. (Guilty conscience sold separately.)

Difficulty: Easy to Moderate. If you're just running a copy of a CD, then you'll be able to use the installation wizards. Some more involved methods for Windows CE-based devices require some SSH file transfers, but these are relatively rare.

Jailbreak Your iPhone for Wi-Fi Internet Tethering

Two internet plans are enough, but to sign on to a mobile internet contract when you've already got unlimited iPhone data feels kind of stupid. Jailbreaking your iPhone is now about as easy as performing a firmware upgrade, and there are actually multiple tethering apps. PDANet and iPhoneModem both work a treat, but keep in mind that excessive usage could draw AT&T's attention and ire: Tethering is not allowed on the data plan, even though it works fine. Both apps are available in Cydia, where you can also find a limited assortment of other apps that don't have a place in the app store.

Difficulty: Moderate. Jailbreaking can be managed through the Dev Team's fantastic Quickpwn tool, but it does take a few minutes and can go wrong if instructions aren't followed closely. After jailbreak, Cydia and Installer fill the role of the gray-market app store, functioning as simple package managers that are arguably as polished as their more legitimate younger brother.

PDANet and iPhoneModem take different approaches to tethering, but neither requires more networking expertise than it would take to, say, set up a router.

iPhone Jailbreak

PDANet

iPhoneModem

Turn Your Wii Into a Free Emulation Machine

It's more than a little infuriating to have to repurchase your childhood library of console games from the Virtual Console, especially when free PC emulators and accompanying ROMs abound on the old intertubes. All you need is a copy of Legend of Zelda: The Twilight Princess, an SD card and an SD reader and you're ready to install A Boy and His Blob: Trouble on Blobolonia, which is pretty much all anyone has ever really needed since this whole "Video Gaming Television Machine" thing got under way in the first place. Throw in extended media playback and some helpful widgets for an extra value-add.

Difficulty: Moderate. This is one of the only hacks here that needs additional hardware to work, even if it's basic. The good news is that once you find a copy of Zelda and load up your SD card, the process pretty much takes care of itself. Further app installs are taken care of through a intuitive dedicated channel.

WiiBrew WIki

A great resource for similar projects is our industrious sister site Lifehacker, where you can find a veritable treasure trove of tutorials and tricks. Have you postponed any gadget purchases until you're sure your bank is solvent? Have any other budget hardware resurrection techniques that we missed? Let us know in the comments.

[XBMC]

[Plex and Aeon via Crunchgear]

With this installed, you can turn your Xbox on directly from your couch using the remote—or probably any universal remote—without having to run up and hit the power key. We wish our PS2 had this, since those three seconds of exercise are too much for our atrophied little hearts to bear. – Jason Chen

Remote [XIR]

Instructions [Awooga via eHomeUpgrade]

A little over a year ago, one of the people in my group modded an Xbox, installed Avalaunch, and put all sorts of Xbox mod scene apps on the box, like XBMC, RSS readers, etc, along with some "backup" games. :rolleyes: He brought this box along to a meeting with Bill Gates. Bill saw a demo of this, was quite impressed, and asked something along the lines of "How can we engage this community?" - instead of saying something like "How can we squash this?" It's long been on the back of everyone's minds in the Xbox group - how can we get students and hobbyists involved without disrupting the console business model? The good news is that it's still on the radar, we'll see what happens in the future.

That's quite interesting that there would be legitimacy given to the Xbox mod scene by Gates. Maybe instead of saying how they can engage them, maybe Microsoft should be figuring out how they can learn from them. The XBMC mod for Xbox is light-years ahead of the media playback capabilities of the Xbox 360. If they could somehow catch up even halfway, with DivX playback and media storage, many of these Xbox modders would jump on the 360.

But, it's nice to see that they're paying attention to what's going on and actively trying to make their product better. – Jason Chen

Is Bill Gates learning from the mod community? [Ars Technica]