Today, let’s do it again with 10 new and totally killer WordPress hacks to make your blog stand out from the crowd. As usual, we won’t just list the hacks alone. In each entry, you’ll find an explanation of the code as well as the kinds of problems that the hack solves.

You may be interested in the following related posts:

• 15 Useful Twitter Hacks and Plug-Ins For WordPress
• Mastering WordPress Shortcodes
• 10 Steps To Protect The Admin Area In WordPress
• 8 Useful WordPress SQL Hacks
• 10 Useful RSS-Tricks and Hacks For WordPress

1. Create TinyURLs On The Fly

The problem. Because Twitter has become a social media revolution, many bloggers and Twitter users enjoy sharing blog posts they have found and liked on Twitter. However, manually creating a TinyURL before tweeting can get a little tedious. As you probably know, Twitter can bring a lot of traffic to your blog, so it is in your interest to consistently provide short URLs to your readers.

The solution. To use this recipe, follow the simple steps below:

1. Open your functions.php file.
2. Paste the following code in the file:

   function getTinyUrl($url) {
       $tinyurl = file_get_contents("http://tinyurl.com/api-create.php?url=".$url);
       return $tinyurl;
   }

3. Open your single.php file and paste the following in the loop:

   <?php
   $turl = getTinyUrl(get_permalink($post->ID));
   echo 'Tiny Url for this post: <a href="'.$turl.'">'.$turl.'</a>'
   ?>

4. That’s all you need. Each of your posts now has its own TinyURL, ready for tweeting!

Code explanation. The popular URL shortening service TinyURL provides a quick API that creates TinyURLs on the fly. When you pass a URL to http://tinyurl.com/api-create.php, the API immediately prints the related TinyURL on the screen.

Using the PHP function file_get_contents(), we can get it and assign it to the $tinyurl variable. The last part of the code retrieves the post’s permalink and passes it as a parameter to the getTinyUrl() function previously created.

Source:

• How to: Automatically provide TinyURLs for your WordPress blog posts

2. List Upcoming Posts

The problem. If you often schedule posts to be published, how about displaying them in a list? This will make your readers look forward to what you’re going to publish in a few days and can help you reach new RSS subscribers. Implementing this functionality on your WordPress blog isn’t hard at all.

The solution. Nothing hard here. Just copy this code and paste it anywhere in your theme files.

<div id="zukunft">
	<div id="zukunft_header"><p>Future events</p></div>

	<?php query_posts('showposts=10&post_status=future'); ?>
	<?php if ( have_posts() ) : while ( have_posts() ) : the_post(); ?>
		<div >
			<p class><b><?php the_title(); ?></b><?php edit_post_link('e',' (',')'); ?><br />

			<span class="datetime"><?php the_time('j. F Y'); ?></span></p>
		</div>
	<?php endwhile; else: ?><p>No future events scheduled.</p><?php endif; ?>

</div>

Once you’ve saved the file, your upcoming posts will be displayed on your blog.

Code explanation. This code use the super-powerful query_posts() WordPress function, which allows you to take control of the WordPress loop.

The parameter used is post_status, which allows you to get posts according to their status (published, draft, pending or future). The showposts parameter is also used to define how many items you’d like to get. You can change the value of this parameter on line 4 to retrieve more or less than ten posts.

Source:

• How to: List future posts

3. Create A “Send To Facebook” Button

The problem. In the first hack, we noted that Twitter can bring a lot traffic to your blog. Another website that can boost your traffic stats easily is Facebook. In this hack, let’s see how we can create a “Send to Facebook” button for your WordPress blog.

The solution.

1. Open the single.php file in your theme.
2. Paste the following code in the loop:

   <a href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=<?php the_permalink();?>&t=<?php the_title(); ?>" target="blank">Share on Facebook</a>

3. Alternatively, you could use the getTinyUrl() function to send a short URL to Facebook:

   <?php $turl = getTinyUrl(get_permalink($post->ID)); ?>
   <a href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=<?php echo $turl;?>&t=<?php the_title(); ?>" target="blank">Share on Facebook</a>

4. That’s all. Your readers will now be able to share your blog post on Facebook with their friends!

Code explanation. This useful hack is very easy to understand: the only thing we do here is retrieve the post’s permalink and title and send them as parameters to http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php.

In the alternative method, we used the getTinyUrl() function (created in the previous hack) to send a short URL instead of the post’s permalink.

Source:

• How to: Add a “Share on Facebook” link to your WordPress blog

4. Create A Maintenance Page For Your WordPress Blog

The problem. One thing I really like about Drupal is the option to temporarily redirect visitors to a maintenance page. Sadly, WordPress doesn’t have this feature. When you upgrade your blog, switch themes or make design changes, you may not want your visitors to see your blog as it is being tweaked, especially if it has design or code problems or, even worse, security gaps.

The solution. To solve this problem, we use the power of the .htaccess file. Just follow the steps below to get started.

1. Create your maintenance page. A simple WordPress page is generally sufficient.
2. Find your .htaccess file (located at the root of your WordPress installation) and create a back-up.
3. Open your .htaccess file for editing.
4. Paste the following code:

   RewriteEngine on
   RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !/maintenance.html$
   RewriteCond %{REMOTE_ADDR} !^123\.123\.123\.123
   RewriteRule $ /maintenance.html [R=302,L]

5. Replace 123\.123\.123\.123 on line 3 with your IP address (Don’t know it?). Make sure to use the same syntax.
6. Now, all visitors except you will be redirected to your maintenance page.
7. Once you’re done tweaking, upgrading, theme switching or whatever, re-open your .htaccess file and remove (or comment out) the redirection code.

Code explanation. The .htaccess file, which controls the Apache Web server, is very useful for these kinds of tasks.

In this example, we state that any visitor who has an IP different from 123.123.123.123 (which doesn’t request maintenance.html) should be redirected to maintenance.html.

By replacing 123.123.123.123 with your own IP address, you make sure you’re still allowed to browse your blog normally, while others are redirected to maintenance.html.

Source:

• 10 awesome .htaccess hacks for WordPress

5. Display Related Posts Without A Plug-In

The problem. One well-known way of keeping visitors on your blog longer and helping them discover news posts is to display, usually at the end of the article, a list of related content.

Many plug-ins will do this job, but why not super-charge your theme by integrating this functionality by default?

The solution.

1. Open the single.php file in your theme.
2. Paste the following code in the loop:

   <?php
   $tags = wp_get_post_tags($post->ID);
   if ($tags) {
     echo 'Related Posts';
     $first_tag = $tags[0]->term_id;
     $args=array(
       'tag__in' => array($first_tag),
       'post__not_in' => array($post->ID),
       'showposts'=>5,
       'caller_get_posts'=>1
      );
     $my_query = new WP_Query($args);
     if( $my_query->have_posts() ) { ?>
   <ul>
   
   </ul>
   

3. Save the file, and then have a look at your blog: related posts are automatically displayed!

Code explanation. This hack uses tags to retrieve related posts. The first thing it does is get the post’s tags. If a post has tags, the first one is extracted and used in a query that retrieves posts with the same tag.

By default, this code displays up to five related posts. To change this number, simply edit line 9 of the code.

Source:

• How to: Show related posts without a plug-in

6. Automatically Retrieve The First Image From Posts On Your Home Page

The problem. Many WordPress users use custom fields to display a thumbnail on their blog home page. Of course, this is a nice solution, but how about automatically retrieving the first image from a post and using it as a thumbnail?

The solution. This hack is quite easy to implement:

1. Open the functions.php file in your theme.
2. Paste this code in. Don’t forget to specify a default image on line 10 (in case a post of yours does not have an image).

   function catch_that_image() {
     global $post, $posts;
     $first_img = '';
     ob_start();
     ob_end_clean();
     $output = preg_match_all('/<img.+src=[\'"]([^\'"]+)[\'"].*>/i', $post->post_content, $matches);
     $first_img = $matches [1] [0];
   
     if(empty($first_img)){ //Defines a default image
       $first_img = "/images/default.jpg";
     }
     return $first_img;
   }

3. Save the functions.php file.
4. On your blog home page (index.php), call the function this way to get the URL of the first image from the post:

   <?php echo catch_that_image() ?>

Code explanation. The function uses the global variable $post to parse the post’s content with a regular expression. If an image is found, its URL is returned by the function. If not, the default image URL is returned.

Source:

• How to: Get the first image from the post and display it
• Retreive first image from post

7. Resize Images On The Fly

The problem. When you use thumbnails on your blog’s home page or even images in posts, having to manually resize them is boring and wastes a lot of time. So, why not use the power of PHP to do it?

The solution. To achieve this hack, just follow these simple steps:

1. Get this script and save it on your computer (I’ll assume you’ve named it timthumb.php).
2. Use an FTP program to connect to your server and create a new directory called scripts. Upload the timthumb.php file to it.
3. Once done, you can display images like so:

   <img src="/scripts/timthumb.php?src=/images/whatever.jpg&h=150&w=150&zc=1" alt="Screenshot" />

   In other words, you just call the timthumb.php file and pass your image as a parameter. The same goes for your desired width and height.

Code explanation. The timthumb.php script use the PHP GD library, which allows you to manipulate images dynamically with PHP. GD is installed by default on all servers running PHP5. If you’re not running PHP5, you’ll have to check if GD is installed before using this script.

The timthumb.php file gets the parameters you’ve passed to it (image URL, width and height) and uses it to create a new image with your stated dimensions. Once that’s done, the image is returned to you.

Source:

• TimThumb PHP script released
• How to: Resize images on the fly

8. Get Your Most Popular Posts Without A Plug-In

The problem. Displaying your most popular posts is a good way to make visitors stay longer on your blog, as is displaying related posts. Many great plug-ins can list your most popular posts, but again, why use a plug-in when you can simply hack your WordPress theme to do it automatically?

The solution. Just paste the following code anywhere in your theme files (for example, in sidebar.php). To change the number of displayed posts, simply change the “5″ on line 3 to your desired number.

<h2>Popular Posts</h2>
<ul>
<?php $result = $wpdb->get_results("SELECT comment_count,ID,post_title FROM $wpdb->posts ORDER BY comment_count DESC LIMIT 0 , 5");
foreach ($result as $post) {
setup_postdata($post);
$postid = $post->ID;
$title = $post->post_title;
$commentcount = $post->comment_count;
if ($commentcount != 0) { ?>

<li><a href="<?php echo get_permalink($postid); ?>" title="<?php echo $title ?>">
<?php echo $title ?></a> {<?php echo $commentcount ?>}</li>
<?php } } ?>

</ul>

Code explanation. This code executes an SQL query to the WordPress database, using the $wpdb object, to get a list of the five posts with the most comments. The results are then wrapped in an unordered HTML list and displayed on screen.

Source:

• Create your own popular posts page

9. Highlight Searched Text In Search Results

The problem. The WordPress search engine system is often criticized for not being powerful enough. One of its weakest points in my opinion is that searched text is not easily distinguishable from the rest of the text. Let’s solve that!

The solution.

1. Open your search.php file and find the the_title() function.
2. Replace it with the following:

   echo $title;

3. Now, just before the modified line, add this code:

   <?php
   	$title 	= get_the_title();
   	$keys= explode(" ",$s);
   	$title 	= preg_replace('/('.implode('|', $keys) .')/iu',
   		'<strong class="search-excerpt">\0</strong>',
   		$title);
   ?>

4. Save the search.php file and open style.css. Add the following line to it:

   strong.search-excerpt { background: yellow; }

That’s all. Better, isn’t it?

Code explanation. Once again, regular expressions are a lifesaver. The regexp parses the $s content ($s is the variable containing the searched text) and automatically adds a <strong class=”search-excerpt”> element around any occurrences of $s.

Then, you simply modify your style.css file to give searched text a special style and make it more visible to your readers.

Sources:

• Make WordPress’ search function suck less.
• How to: Highlight searched text in search results

10. Disable Widgetized Areas Without Editing Theme Files

The problem. Widgets are very useful, but sometimes you don’t need them on a particular page or post. Sure, you can create a page template for a particular page or even remove the widgetized zone from the code, but a much better and more elegant solution exists.

The solution. To do this, simply add the following code to your functions.php file:

<?php
add_filter( 'sidebars_widgets', 'disable_all_widgets' );

function disable_all_widgets( $sidebars_widgets ) {
	if ( is_home() )
		$sidebars_widgets = array( false );
	return $sidebars_widgets;
}
?>

Code explanation. This code first adds a filter to the sidebars_widgets WordPress function. Now every time WordPress tries to execute this function, it will execute the disable_all_widgets function we just created.

The disable_all_widgets function uses WordPress conditional tags (in this example, is_home(), but you can use any conditional tag) to disable all widgets if a visitor is on a particular page or post.

Source:

• Disable widget areas (sidebars) without touching theme templates

Related posts

You may be interested in the following related posts:

• 15 Useful Twitter Hacks and Plug-Ins For WordPress
• Mastering WordPress Shortcodes
• 10 Steps To Protect The Admin Area In WordPress
• 8 Useful WordPress SQL Hacks
• 10 Useful RSS-Tricks and Hacks For WordPress

About the author

This post was written by Jean-Baptiste Jung, a 27-year-old blogger from Belgium, who blogs about WordPress at WpRecipes, about Photoshop at PsdRecipes and about everything related to blogging and programming at Cats Who Code. You can stay in touch with Jean by following him on Twitter.

(al)

© Jean-Baptiste Jung for Smashing Magazine, 2009. |
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Post tags: facebook, hacks, maintenance, related, techniques, tinyurl, upcoming, wordpress

The new and much-improved Power Glove is positioned as kind of a 20th anniversary present to the original Glove. The video below gives a pretty detailed instruction for how to tear apart your own Power Glove, presuming you can find one, and also shows him using it with an iPhone boxing game he’s developing.

Power Glove 20th Anniversary Edition — Build Video from Matt Mechtley on Vimeo.

Finally, the future looks like we imagined it would in 1989. [Instructables, creator's blog]

The XIM 2 gives Xbox 360 owners the ability to use a plug-and-play keyboard and mouse with their console. It’s available from XIM’s site for a steep $180, but then, the ability to shoot more things even faster and more accurately has to be priceless to somebody, right? It’s available to order from their website, though you’ll have to wait a bit for shipping. [Engadget]

RSS is one of those technologies that are extremely simple yet extremely powerful. Currently, RSS is the de facto standard for blog syndication, and it is used widely in both personal and corporate settings; for example, in blogs. And because a large percentage of these blogs run on WordPress, we’ll cover in this post some (hopefully) relatively unknown but useful RSS-related tricks and hacks that will help you use RSS in a more effective way — and without unnecessary and chunky WordPress plug-ins.

Let’s take a look at 10 useful, yet rather unknown RSS-tricks for WordPress. Each section of the article presents a problem, suggests a solution and provides you with an explanation of the solution, so that you can not just solve some of your RSS-related problems but also understand what you are actually doing. Thus, you can make sure your WordPress theme remains under your control and is not bloated with some obscure source code.

1. Control When Your Posts are Available via RSS

The problem. Have you ever published an article and then immediately noticed an error? Sure, you can edit it, but there’s another problem: the article has already been published in your RSS feed. To avoid this kind of problem, use this recipe to create a delay between the publication of a post and its availability in your RSS feed.

The solution. To apply this hack, simply paste the following code into your theme’s function.php file. If your theme doesn’t have this file, just create it.

function publish_later_on_feed($where) {
	global $wpdb;

	if ( is_feed() ) {
		// timestamp in WP-format
		$now = gmdate('Y-m-d H:i:s');

		// value for wait; + device
		$wait = '5'; // integer

		// http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/date-and-time-functions.html#function_timestampdiff
		$device = 'MINUTE'; //MINUTE, HOUR, DAY, WEEK, MONTH, YEAR

		// add SQL-sytax to default $where
		$where .= " AND TIMESTAMPDIFF($device, $wpdb->posts.post_date_gmt, '$now') > $wait ";
	}
	return $where;
}

add_filter('posts_where', 'publish_later_on_feed');

Code explanation. The above code will add a 5-minute delay to the time between when your post is published on your blog and when it appears in your RSS feed. To change the length of the delay, change the value of the $wait variable on line 9.

Sources

• Publish your feed later

2. Redirecting WordPress Feeds to FeedBurner Feeds

The problem. Beginner bloggers usually start to use FeedBurner only after they have seen it used on many other blogs and realize how useful and cool this tool is. They sign up and start to use it, but their early readers are already subscribed to their default WordPress feed.

Another problem: do you often change your theme? If so, you must be bored having to edit each call to bloginfo(’rss2_url’) and replace it with your FeedBurner feed’s URL.

The solution. The solution to both problems described above is simple: use server redirections.

1. Create a backup of your .htaccess file, located in the root of your Web server.
2. Edit the .htaccess file and add the following code. Don’t forget to modify the feed’s URL with your own feed’s URL.

   # temp redirect wordpress content feeds to feedburner
   <IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
    RewriteEngine on
    RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} !FeedBurner    [NC]
    RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} !FeedValidator [NC]
    RewriteRule ^feed/?([_0-9a-z-]+)?/?$ http://feeds.feedburner.com/wprecipes [R=302,NC,L]
   </IfModule>

3. Save the file. You’re done!

Code explanation. Each time someone clicks on a link to http://www.yourblog.com/feed, he or she will be redirected to http://feeds.feedburner.com/yourblog. This way, you will have never lost an RSS subscriber, and even if you change your theme twice a day, you’ll never have to manually edit your RSS feed links again.

Sources

• Redirect WordPress feeds to FeedBurner via htaccess (Redux)
• How to: redirect WordPress RSS feeds to FeedBurner with .htaccess

3. Insert Ads (or Anything Else) in Your RSS Feed

The problem. Monetizing RSS feeds is currently becoming a common practice, and many blog owners do it to maximize their income. FeedBurner can insert AdSense ads into your feed items, but you need at least 500 subscribers to qualify, and you can’t use any ads other than the AdSense ads provided by FeedBurner.

The solution. It is possible, though, to insert other kinds of ads into your RSS feed. You can, for example, use a link to a free WordPress theme only for your RSS subscribers.

Follow these simple steps to perform this hack:

1. Edit the functions.php file of your theme. If your theme doesn’t have a functions.php file, simply create one.
2. Paste the following code into your functions.php file:

   <?php
   function insertAds($content) {
       $content = $content.'<hr /><a href="http://www.wprecipes.com">Have you visited WpRecipes today?</a><hr />';
       return $content;
   }
   add_filter('the_excerpt_rss', 'insertAds');
   add_filter('the_content_rss', 'insertAds');
   ?>

3. Save the file. You’re now displaying your ads in your RSS feed!

Code explanation. I have seen many similar hacks on the Web, but all of them require you to edit WordPress core files to achieve the same result. Of course, editing WordPress core files is a very bad idea because then you would have to re-edit the files each time you upgrade your blog. Instead, this hack uses the add_filter() WordPress function to insert content into your RSS feed without editing any core files.

Sources

• How to: insert ads in your RSS feed
• WordPress, ajouter du contenu dans son flux RSS !

4. Format Your Images for Feed Readers

The problem. You took a lot of time to write and format your post and add beautiful screenshots. It looks so good on your blog. Sadly, when the post is displayed in Google Reader or any other RSS reader, it doesn’t look so great.

The solution. This is due to the fact that most feed readers display images inline with text:

To avoid this problem, add a CSS class to display the image as a block. WordPress provides the built-in class “center“:

<img src="http://88.198.60.17/images/wordpress-rss-hacks/myimage.jpg" alt="This is my image" class="center"/>

Sources

• How to format images for feed readers

5. Provide Your Readers with a Feed for Each Post

The problem. When a post has lots and lots of comments, it can be hard for readers to follow the conversation. Most WordPress users don’t know this, but our favorite blogging engine has a built-in function for providing an RSS feed for the comments in each post.

The solution. Well, this recipe isn’t really a hack or anything: to provide an RSS feed for the comments in a particular post, just call the comment_rss_link() function:

<?php comments_rss_link('&raquo; Comments RSS Feed'); ?>

Sources

• WordPress how to: provide an RSS feed for the comments in each post

6. Exclude Categories from Your RSS Feed

The problem. Do you use one of your blog categories to let readers know about your website’s news, or does your blog feature a category that has nothing to do with the rest of your content? If so, it is generally not a good idea to include it in your RSS feed.

The solution. Here’s how to get rid of one of the categories in your RSS feed:

1. First, get the numeric ID of the category you want to exclude. If you don’t know how to get the ID of a particular category, you can learn how here.
2. Once you have the ID of the category you want to exclude from your RSS feed, edit the functions.php file in your theme. Create the file if it doesn’t exist.
3. Paste the following code in it:

   function myFilter($query) {
       if ($query->is_feed) {
           $query->set('cat','-5'); //Don't forget to change the category ID =^o^=
       }
   return $query;
   }
   
   add_filter('pre_get_posts','myFilter');

4. Save the file, and you’re done!

Code explanation. This hack works exactly the same way as the previous one: create a custom function to exclude the category that you don’t want to appear in your RSS feed, and then use the super-useful add_filter() function to apply it to the pre_get_posts() WordPress core function.

Sources

• Excluding posts from your WordPress feed
• How to: exclude categories from your RSS feed

7. Display Any RSS Feed on Your WordPress Blog

The problem. Do you have more than one blog, or do you manage a forum? If so, you may want to be able to display any RSS feed on your WordPress blog.

The solution. Many plug-ins can do the job, but they’re not necessary at all. WordPress has a built-in RSS reader that is used, for example, to display news on your dashboard. All you have to do is use it in your theme.

1. Paste the following code anywhere in your theme (personally, I’d put it in the sidebar, the footer or, even better, the page template):

   <?php include_once(ABSPATH.WPINC.'/rss.php');
   wp_rss('http://feeds.feedburner.com/wprecipes', 3); ?>

2. Save it and you’re done. It’s as easy as that!

Code explanation. The first thing we have done is include the rss.php file from WordPress core. This file allows us to use the wp_rss() function, which takes two parameters: the first is the RSS feed’s URL, and the second is the number of RSS entries to be displayed.

Sources

• How to: Display any RSS feed on your WordPress blog

8. Use Category-Specific RSS Feeds

The problem. Many blogs talk about a lot of different topics: design, programming, blogging tips, etc. Have you ever come across a blog in which you have enjoyed only one category of posts? If so, you should definitely consider offering one feed per category to your own readers.

The solution. Let’s say you’d like to be able to subscribe only to TheGridSystem’s tools section. The category URL is:

http://www.thegridsystem.org/categories/tools/

To get an RSS feed for this category, you simply have to add /feed to the end of the URL:

http://www.thegridsystem.org/categories/tools/feed

Pretty easy, isn’t it? But pretty useful, too, in my opinion.

9. List RSS Feeds by Category

The problem. If you like the previous hack, you will probably also want to be able to display the names of all your category feeds in a list to your readers.

The solution.

1. Edit any of your theme files, where you want to list your categories and their accompanying feeds.
2. Paste the following code:

   <?php wp_list_categories('feed_image=http://www.myblog.com/image.gif&feed=XML Feed&optioncount=1&children=0'); ?>

3. Save the file. You categories will now be displayed, along with their RSS feeds!

Code explanation. This hack uses only the good old wp_list_categories() function, with two parameters. The first is feed_image, which allows us to specify the URL to be displayed as a feed image. The second parameter is feed, which is used to specify the feed format.

10. Get Rid of RSS Feeds the Clean Way

The problem. Let’s say you’re using WordPress as a CMS to manage your online portfolio or your company’s website. In such cases, the RSS feed isn’t that useful, and some people would probably want to remove it.

The solution. I have seen many “hacks” on the Web where people say you just have to remove the include on the wp-settings.php core file. I don’t think you should ever edit a core file. Instead, the following hack will do the job. Simply paste this code in the functions.php file of your theme:

function fb_disable_feed() {
	wp_die( __('No feed available,please visit our <a href="'. get_bloginfo('url') .'">homepage</a>!') );
}

add_action('do_feed', 'fb_disable_feed', 1);
add_action('do_feed_rdf', 'fb_disable_feed', 1);
add_action('do_feed_rss', 'fb_disable_feed', 1);
add_action('do_feed_rss2', 'fb_disable_feed', 1);
add_action('do_feed_atom', 'fb_disable_feed', 1);

Sources

• Disable WordPress feed

About the author

This guest post was written by Jean-Baptiste Jung, a 26-year-old blogger from Belgium, who blogs about WordPress at WpRecipes and about everything related to blogging and programming at Cats Who Code. You can stay in touch with Jean by following him on Twitter. (al)

Key Features: – Play most video formats (DivX, Xvid, AVI, WMV, RMVB + more) – Play DVD files WITHOUT converting them – Sync, organize and watch non-iTunes video files – Browse the web with a Safari based web browser – Rent & watch Hi-Def movies from Jaman.com – Stream media from UPnP(v1) media servers – View local weather forecasts – View RSS Feeds – Enable SSH access – All original Apple TV features remain intact – And much, much more…

The drive will run you $59.95, which is a small price to pay in proportion to the enhanced functionality you will receive. This is in addition to the fact that it can save you a ton of time—not to mention one big headache. [AppleCore LLC via Palluxo via Crunchgear]

The hacks are all based on the tiny infrared camera in the front of the Wii controller, which detects the lights on the bar that sits on your TV. The first one shows a virtual whiteboard. Using a homemade infrared pointer (an LED, a switch and a battery. Total cost, $5), Lee is able to write on the screen and the WiiMote sees the “pen”. This then tells Photoshop to draw the lines. Think of it as a poor man’s Wacom Cintiq.

Next, the showman Lee whips out a second pointer and starts stretching and zooming the on-screen windows. It’s kind of like Microsoft’s Surface, only without the big-ass table.

Last, and best, is his fake 3D display. This time the WiiMote sits under the screen, pointing back at the user who wears a headset embedded with two infrared LEDS. The computer tracks the head movements of the viewer and updates a display. It’s totally faked 3D, and it works amazingly. Lee says that Electronic Arts is planing to incorporate the tech as an Easter Egg in a game later this year.

Mind bending stuff, and Lee got three ovations during this one short six minute talk. Each of which, we think, was deserved.

Product page [CMU via John Nack]

However, many of us would also like ways to change the frequency of its backups. By default, Time machine runs once an hour, saving a daily backup at the end of the day and a weekly backup at the end of the week. This behavior continues until the drive it was pointed to is full, at which point it begins to delete the oldest backups. Almost immediately, people wanted a way to change the frequency – even if, like me, half the reason was the annoyance of those bright-blue, flashy LED’s on the external hard drive as it spins up every hour in the middle of the night.

An earlier hint at Mac OSX Hints had users editing a .plist file to change the frequency of backups. This hack consisted of editing com.apple.backupd-auto.plist, specifically the following lines:

<key>StartInterval</key>
<integer>3600</integer>

A change to that integer value – which is in seconds, by the way – and Time Machine would theoretically back up on your schedule, not Apple’s. However, that seems to cause more problems than it solved, in my experience. Specifically, now Time Machine backs up whenever it likes. (It seems to be about once a day, give or take an hour or so, not once every three hours, as I set it to be.) Upon inspection, it appears that the file’s permissions are broken. Repairing permissions in Disk Utility hangs, and attempting to manually do so, even on a duplicate, causes Finder to crash.
…Let’s just say that method is Not Recommended, then.

Alternatively, there is now this – Time Machine Scheduler.  Time Machine Scheduler does not meddle with the .plist files – it simply runs its own daemon to create a backup.  It can be set for any length of time between 1 and 12 hours, as well as optionally running a backup upon loading.  You have the option of either installing Scheduler and its daemon, in which case you do not need to open TMS, or simply running it from the .app when you want to make a backup. It is also fully compatible with existing Time Machine backups – the preference pane will show that Time Machine is off, but it reads the TMS-created backup and date of last backup without trouble.

There is also the option to mount and unmount the Time Machine backup drive automatically, although I have not tested this.  (I have a partitioned drive, and the other partitions are in frequent use, so I don’t bother.)

This method works very well for me, at a reliable three hours.  It takes the same amount of time to run backups, as well as to load and unload the normal Time Machine interface, and, thank heavens, it actually does it every three hours.  Why Apple didn’t include the option to change the backup frequency all along boggles me.

I will note that a third way to do this is to use Lingon to edit the plist files.  I have not tried it, but I thought I would mention it, for  those who might be interested.  How about you?  Have you tried Lingon?  Time Machine Scheduler?  Did the original .plisthack work for you?

(Time Machine Scheduler and Lingon are both free utilities, available at the links above.)

The Touchmodders are giving away the software and hope to make money on their iPod Touch microphone, without which you’ll be having a very one-sided conversation.

Installation is easy if your iPod Touch is already hacked. You’ll need to add the Touchmod team’s server to the Installer’s source list (http://touchmods.net/rep.xml) before the application will show up.

You’ll then need to get a SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) account. SIP is the open protocol for VoIP. I tried with my Gizmo Project account details with little success, but as you can see in the video, it does work. The application will need some prettying up and a little more user feedback (error messages are absent), but this is shaping up to be a nice little hack.

Project page [Touchmods]

Like the look of the iPhone or iPod Touch? Too cheap to buy a new one? Then why not hack your way to a sweet new interface. Apple’s newest products have a habit of making the old ones look out of date, so the chaps at iPod Hacking have redesigned the interface of the 5G and 5.5G iPods to use the new style graphics and icons.

It’s a simple job: Just download the firmware and load it up using the iPod hacking tool, iPodWizard. There are some glitches, though. You need to have your menus customized in the correct order for the icons to match the function, but otherwise it’s a nice bit of eye-candy.

Product page [iPod Hacking via Engadget]

Hacker Marian, who made this sleek dongle, is offering them for sale, although you’ll have to email to get a quote (I have done, and hopefully I’ll have a price later today). Now all we need is a Kindle VoIP hack. Amazon’s eBook reader has a free EVDO connection. If anyone makes this, though, please build it into a Bluetooth headset. We’re nerds, but not nerdy enough to hold a Kindle to our ears.

Product page [Touchmods]