We also announce the winners of our Frankengadget contest and give away the clothes from Tim’s back to the winner of our in-studio costume contest, courtesy of Halloweencostumes.com — oh, did we mention that Tim and Brian and dressed as Darth Vader and a storm trooper this whole episode? Because they are.

Intel’s staff futurist Brian David Johnson stops by to talk about the near future of the chipmaker and the role science fiction plays in his daily work. We pay tribute to Steve Jobs with the help of some eager Apple fans. And we take a look at the iPhone 4S, Amazon Kindle and the ASUS Zenbook UX31.

Hosts: Tim Stevens, Brian Heater
Special guests: Brian David Johnson
Producer: Guy Streit
Director: Alexander Vietmeier
Executive Producers: Joshua Fruhlinger, Brian Heater and Michael Rubens

Download the Show: The Engadget Show – 026 (HD) / The Engadget Show – 026 (iPod / iPhone / Zune formatted) / The Engadget Show – 026 (Small)

Subscribe to the Show:

[iTunes] Subscribe to the Show directly in iTunes (MP4).
[Zune] Subscribe to the Show directly in the Zune Marketplace (MP4).
[RSS MP4] Add the Engadget Show feed (MP4) to your RSS aggregator and have it delivered automatically.
[HD RSS] Get the Engadget Show delivered automatically in HD.
[iPad RSS] Get the Engadget Show in iPad-friendly adaptive format.

Whether it’s to save money or just because you love that do-it-yourself feeling of accomplishment, we all love to make stuff. Here are our most popular DIY projects of 2010.

Photo remixed from an original by Matt Katzenberger

How to Build a Hackintosh Mac and Install OS X in Eight Easy Steps

You might like OS X, but not want to buy a Mac for any number of reasons: they’re too expensive, they don’t allow for enough customization, or you just plain love building a computer. Luckily, building a custom PC and installing Mac OS X on it has never been easier, and we’ve got a nice video walkthrough of the whole process.

How to Turn Your iPod touch into an iPhone: 4G Edition

It used to be that turning your iPod touch into an iPhone required jailbreaking and quite a few compromises along the way. If you’ve got a fourth generation iPod touch, though, all you need are a few simple apps and maybe a bit of extra hardware to turn it into a near-clone of the iPhone.

Turn Your Old Router into a Range-Boosting Wi-Fi Repeater

As with all technology, after some time, all routers just become outdated, slow, and it’s time to upgrade. But as with everything else, you don’t need to throw it away—with the same software you used to turn it from a $60 router into a $600 router, you can turn that old router into a Wi-Fi repeater that extends your signal anywhere you need it.

Binder Clips Keep Beverages Stacked in Your Fridge

We love to sing the praises of the endlessly versatile binder clip, but you guys really took to this particular hack. With just a few large binder clips, you can maximize your fridge space for beer (or, you know, Coca-Cola if you’re of the under-21 persuasion).

Learn the Science Behind Glow Sticks by Making Your Own

Whether it’s time for your weekly underground techno rave, or you’re just looking for a fun weekend science project, you can’t go wrong with making your own glow sticks. It isn’t the most cost effective method of obtaining them, but it’s a pretty neat project if you’re into chemistry.

Make a DIY No-Kill Mousetrap with a Toilet Paper Roll

Everyone has that time in their life when they’re forced to deal with a small rodent infestation. Thankfully, when that day comes, you don’t need to waste time searching for the perfect mouse trap—you can just grab an old toilet paper tube and a snack for your mousey foe. Then, just let gravity do its job.

Add a USB Power Outlet to Your Car

If you find you’ve got more USB devices that need charging on-the-go and fewer cigarette lighters, you can dig around in your car’s dashboard and find some unused electricity just waiting to charge your gadgets. Furthermore, depending on your car, you might actually double your number of outlets—so if you still need that cigarette lighter, it can live in harmony with your iPod on the road, no problem.

Learn to Pick Locks for Fun and an Increased Understanding of Security

It doesn’t matter how evil your intentions may or may not be, lockpicking can be pretty fun. Plus, you’ll learn a lot in the process—both about how locks work and how you can better protect yourself from those with evil in their hearts.

DIY Ultimate Note-Taking Notebook

We love technology, but sometimes pen and paper are just the best tools at your disposal. College is no exception to that rule, and instead of compromising on the utensils you use, you can make your own personalized, customized notebook for optimal studying.

>See a 10-Year-Old Fix an iPhone Screen for $22

Five Effective DIY Alternatives to Running Air Conditioner

The summer of 2010 was one of the hottest we’ve had in a while, and everyone was looking for ways to effectively beat the heat. One of our most popular posts on the subject contained five simple things you can do in your own home to cool off, whether it be creating a makeshift air conditioner or just making sure you don’t generate any extra heat through your daily chores.

How to Build a Hidden Home Theater PC Inside Your Entertainment Center

Home theater PCs are one of our favorite geek projects here at Lifehacker, but if the rest of your household isn’t big on the geekery, you don’t need a big PC cluttering up your living room. With some tough IKEA furniture and a the will to do some woodwork, you can hide your home theater PC inside the entertainment center with no problem.

One Good-to-Know Knot for All Occasions (and a Few Others for Good Measure)

Everyone could use some extra survival skills stored away in their brain, and our most popular this year was a primer on knots (specifically, the ever-useful Bowline knot). With a bit of practice, you can learn to tie this knot in under ten seconds with your eyes closed, and use it to sturdy up many a household hack.

Build a $3.50 DIY Micro TV-B-Gone

If you’re sick of the noisy TVs in bars, restaurants, or in your neighbors apartment, you can build a very tiny TV-B-Gone clone for quite cheap. With just a coin cell battery and a few miscellaneous electronics, you’ll be able to shut off nearly any TV who’s path you cross—just make sure be stealth about it before you get yourself in trouble with the bartender.

Seven DIY iPad Stands for Six Bucks or Less

One of the defining moments of 2010 technology-wise was Apple’s release of the long-fabled iPad. We took the opportunity to quickly round up seven great iPad stands that you can make on-the-cheap—whether out of Lego, wood, or your cat.

Make a Cheap Stylus for iPad and Other Touchscreen Devices

With the announcement of the iPad (and the exclusion of an official stylus), many took the opportunity to make their own styli for the now-popular large touchscreen device. The most popular model required some anti-static socks, though we’ve featured many, many other variations too.

Build a Custom Phone Car Mount for Under $10

As Android devices became more popular in 2010 (along with their built-in turn-by-turn navigation), many cried out for an easier way to mount their smartphone in their car. Luckily, it’s pretty easy to mod your old GPS mount for your smartphone by adding a hard case built for your phone.

And there you have it-one year of our best DIY projects in one fell swoop. Have a favorite that isn’t winning any popularity contests? Let’s hear about it in the comments. And if you’re still hungry for DIY, take a gander at the most popular how-to guides of 2009 and 2008.

Send an email to Whitson Gordon, the author of this post, at whitson@lifehacker.com.

We cover a lot ground every day on Lifehacker, but we get our greatest pleasure from putting together in-depth, step-by-step guides, making complicated tasks easy to do yourself. Here’s a look back at our most popular how-to features of 2010.

Photo remixed from an original by Matt Katzenberger

How to Downgrade Your iPhone 3GS from iOS 4 to iOS 3.1.3

When Apple released iOS 4, it brought a lot of great features (like multi-tasking) to iOS devices. Unfortunately for iPhone 3G owners, the update slowed their devices to a crawl (and subsequent releases showed little improvement). Some people had luck speeding things up with a few tweaks, but many of us found we were better off downgrading from iOS 4 back to iOS 3.1.3. (If you’re one of the lucky few who found their 3G’s iOS 4 performance satisfactory and are yearning for more, here’s how to enable multitasking and home screen wallpaper on the 3G and iPod touch 2G.

How I’d Hack Your Weak Passwords

While not exactly a straight how-to, security expert John Pozadzides’ explanation for how easily he’d hack your weak passwords was a good reminder how important password security is. That’s why we also showed you how to set up an easy, any-browser password solution.

How to Back Up and Play Your Wii Games from an External Hard Drive

Apart from video game makers’ fear of piracy, there’s no good reason why you shouldn’t be able to store your Wii games on a hard drive and skip all the optical disc clutter and the hassle of swapping out discs every time you want to play a different game. Our guide to backing up and playing Wii games from an external hard drive puts all your games a few clicks away, cover art and all. As an added bonus, see our guide to hacking your Nintendo DS for easy backups and single-cartridge playback.

How to Ditch Big Brother and Disappear Forever

In an internet world, it may seem impossible to drop off the grid. During this year’s Evil Week, we took a closer look at what it takes to ditch Big Brother and really disappear.

Make Free VoIP Calls from Google Voice

Google Voice is one of our favorite communication tools. Apart from the obvious (it creates one phone number that rings all your phones), you’ve got tons of clever ways you can put Voice to use. Perhaps the best involves setting up Google Voice with the right provider for unlimited free VoIP calling. Quick bonus: Don’t forget about all the awesome ways you can take advantage of free calling in Gmail.

How to Boost Your BitTorrent Speed and Privacy

Whether you use BitTorrent to deliver the latest Linux distribution or to fulfill your entertainment needs, our guide to boosting your BitTorrent speed and privacy will get your downloading faster and obscure your downloading habits from prying eyes.

How to Build a Hackintosh Mac and Install OS X in Eight Easy Steps

We’ve walked through how to install OS X on non-Mac PC hardware—commonly referred to as a Hackintosh—a couple of times before, but with video walkthroughs of every step of the process, it’s never been easier to build a Hackintosh Mac and install OS X.

How to Run Mac OS X in VirtualBox on Windows

We’ve had lots of fun running OS X on non-Mac hardware, but if you’d rather keep your regular Windows installation and occasionally run OS X in a virtual machine, our guide to running OS X in VirtualBox on Windows will get you up and running.

How to Turn Your iPod touch into an iPhone: 4G Edition

The latest iPhone and iPod touch are nearly identical devices, apart from the inconvenient fact that the latter isn’t actually a phone—but that’s never stopped us before. With the right tools, you can turn an iPod touch into an iPhone, saving considerable money in the process.

How to Reboot Your Sleep Cycle and Get the Rest You Deserve

Can’t remember the last time you went to sleep and woke up feeling rested? Our guide to rebooting your sleep cycle may be able to help you get the rest you need.

How to Quit Facebook Without Actually Quitting Facebook

As Facebook’s popularity grows and its maze of privacy options grow more complex, the social network has undergone a lot of scrutiny for the way it handles (or rather, doesn’t handle) its users’ privacy. Our guide to quitting Facebook without really quitting Facebook helps you stay connected without sacrificing your privacy.

How to Tether Your Android Phone

Tethering your computer to your phone’s data plan is great, providing you with an internet connection on your computer anywhere you’ve got a signal. But the process depends to an extent on your Android phone. When we first showed you how to tether your Android phone, we detailed how to root your phone to enable tethering. For an easier route, you can use tethering apps like PDAnet, Tether, or EasyTether. Before you do tether, here’s what you’ll want to know first.

How to Get Started with Usenet in Three Simple Steps

Usenet is an old-school, online bulletin board that’s also remarkably adept at downloading really big files really quickly. In most cases it’s faster than BitTorrent, more secure, and extremely reliable. So if you haven’t already, here’s how to get started with Usenet in three simple steps.

The Ultimate Start to Finish Guide to Your XBMC Media Center

XBMC is easily our favorite open-source, hackable media center application. We detailed how to build a silent, standalone XBMC media center on the cheap last year, but our start to finish guide to your XBMC media center is sort of like our XBMC bible, and includes our building guide, our step by step or turning it into a video game console. and a whole lot more.

How to Transform Your Windows Desktop with an Amazing Windows Phone 7-Style HUD

Fancy the look and feel of the Windows Phone 7 interface so much you wouldn’t mind having it on your desktop? This quick and simple guide will transform your Windows Desktop into a Windows Phone 7-style HUD in just a few clicks.

How to Manipulate People

It’s nice to be honest with people and avoid using dirty tricks to get them to bend to your will. Luckily our guide to manipulating people is less about the manipulation and more about spotting it to avoid ending up the gullible victim.

Set Up a Geeky Media Center that Non-Geeks Can Actually Use

The catch to that awesome media center you set up in your home theater? It may be powerful, but no matter how streamlined you made it, it’s unlikely most of your loved ones have ever used something like it before. Make things easier on them: Set up a geeky media center non-geeks can actually use.

The Step-by-Step Guide to Digitizing Your Life

If your analog media is collecting dust—or you wish it were—our guide to digitizing your life aims to save it from obsolescence.

Recover Data Like a Forensics Expert Using an Ubuntu Live CD

Whether or not you’ve gone entirely digital, you’ve still got a considerable amount of data stored on your hard drive. But hard drives crash and files can be accidentally deleted. Our guide to recovering data like a forensics expert will help you get it back.

How to Install Android on an iPhone in Six Easy Steps

Don’t feel like choosing between an iPhone or Android? Install Android on your iPhone and get the best of both worlds. It’s not a perfect port yet, and as of this writing it works best on an iPhone 3G, but it’s a helluva start.

And there you have it—one year of our best how-tos in one fell swoop. Have a favorite that isn’t winning any popularity contests? Let’s hear about it in the comments. And if you’re still hungry for how-to, take a gander at the most popular how-to guides of 2009 and 2008.

Send an email to Adam Pash, the author of this post, at tips+adam@lifehacker.com.

It’s almost a sure thing that you’re leaving early from work today to take a long weekend. So I’m not going to saddle you with photography homework, but I do ask that you pull out that camera and photograph something.

Six months ago, we had our first Shooting Challenge Free-For-All and the results were fantastic. For the holiday weekend, we’re doing it again. Photograph anything you’d like any way you’d like. Show us what you’ve got.

Sometimes, when you’re free to do anything, the first thing you do is nothing. But I urge you to photograph without a specific assignment. Need inspiration? Go through the Shooting Challenge archives. Feel free to try or retry any technique, just like Austin Gohn did for our lead shot. In fact, if you can’t think of an idea, just emulate an old challenge. Problem solved.

Shooting Challenges are meant to, well, challenge you, to force you to master the craft. But ultimately, it’s your voice that separates your Canon T2i or iPhone 4 from the next guy’s. So consider all the limitations lifted for this week. Go nuts.

1. Submissions need to be your own.
2. Photos must be taken since this contest was announced.
3. Explain, briefly, the equipment, settings, technique and story behind shot.
4. Email submissions to contests@gizmodo.com, not me.
5. Include 800px wide image (200KB or less) AND a 2560×1600 sized in email. I know that your photo may not fall into those exact high rez dimensions, so whatever native resolution you’re using is fine.
6. One submission per person.
7. Use the proper SUBJECT line in your email (more info on that below)

Send your best photo by Monday, November 29th at 8AM Eastern to contests@gizmodo.com with “FFA” in the subject line. Save your files as JPGs, and use a FirstnameLastnameFFA.jpg (800px wide) and FirstnameLastnameFFAWallpaper.jpg (2560px wide) naming conventions. Include your shooting summary (camera, lens, ISO, etc) in the body of the email along with a story of the shot in a few sentences. And don’t skip this story part because it’s often the most enjoyable part for us all beyond the shot itself!

Have extra time with your camera? Document your family Thanksgiving on my site Life, Panoramic by submitting an 8-12 photo collection or just emailing a single photo with description to mark@lifepanoramic.com.

Send an email to Mark Wilson, the author of this post, at mark@gizmodo.com.

Counted by cool points alone, cubism may win at art—an unmistakable style that explores a subject from multiple angles within a single frame. And for this week’s Shooting Challenge, you’ll bring cubism to photography.

Take multiple photographs of a single subject or scene, then chop them up and glue them together as one single image. Make something like our lead image, Georges Braque’s famous Woman with a Guitar (1913), a quintessential example of Synthetic Cubism.

Before you plan your piece, it’s not a bad idea to read a bit more about cubism. As mind-bending as the works come out, their premise is simple. As explained by Wikipedia:

In cubist artworks, objects are broken up, analyzed, and re-assembled in an abstracted form-instead of depicting objects from one viewpoint, the artist depicts the subject from a multitude of viewpoints to represent the subject in a greater context. Often the surfaces intersect at seemingly random angles, removing a coherent sense of depth. The background and object planes interpenetrate one another to create the shallow ambiguous space, one of cubism’s distinct characteristics.

I don’t know of a great cubist photographer to share with you (maybe some of our readers do). However, the style seems to lend itself perfectly to photography and I can’t wait to see what you come up with.

Consider, not just changing your angle, but your zoom, exposure…maybe even your lens. Do anything, really, except handing in mere panoramic photo montage, an attempt of a 1:1 representation of an image with multiple combined photos. That’s not what this challenge is about.

1. Submissions need to be your own.
2. Photos must be taken since this contest was announced.
3. Explain, briefly, the equipment, settings, technique and story behind shot.
4. Email submissions to contests@gizmodo.com, not me.
5. Include 800px wide image (200KB or less) AND a 2560×1600 sized in email. I know that your photo may not fall into those exact high rez dimensions, so whatever native resolution you’re using is fine.
6. One submission per person.
7. Use the proper SUBJECT line in your email (more info on that below)

Send your best photo by Monday, November 22nd at 8AM Eastern to contests@gizmodo.com with “Cubism” in the subject line. Save your files as JPGs, and use a FirstnameLastnameCubism.jpg (800px wide) and FirstnameLastnameCubismWallpaper.jpg (2560px wide) naming conventions. Include your shooting summary (camera, lens, ISO, etc) in the body of the email along with a story of the shot in a few sentences. And don’t skip this story part because it’s often the most enjoyable part for us all beyond the shot itself!

When I’m not running Shooting Challenges, I’m curating my new site, Life, Panoramic. Come on over and check it out.

Send an email to Mark Wilson, the author of this post, at mark@gizmodo.com.

If “good artists borrow, great artists steal”—I just made that up by the way—then for this week’s Shooting Challenge, I want you to steal. And steal shamelessly.

Choose an iconic photograph of any era or style and do your best to completely duplicate it, like our lead photo by Mike Stimpson stole from the original Dali Atomicus by Philippe Halsman…

…who in fact stole from Salvador Dalí’s Leda Atomica quasi NSFW link to photo (and stole pretty well, as both Dalí and his painting appear in Halsman’s photo!).

There are just too many possibilities to cover here in terms of method, but I will say that there are three pretty obvious directions you can go:

1. You duplicate the photo as earnestly as possible, matching its tone or particular draw as authentically as you can (the most noble route, and I hope a lot of people go this way).
2. You can duplicate the photo with a few elements swapped out for others or even updated for the modern era (most likely, what many without costume and prop budgets will need to do).
3. Or you can try to simply go for a parody (which is kind of like option 2 but soaked in hyperbole).

I’m not looking to limit your inspiration here, so know that all of these submissions are fine by me. I just ask that you push yourselves technically and creatively to get a great stolen shot.

1. Submissions need to be your own.
2. Photos must be taken since this contest was announced.
3. Explain, briefly, the equipment, settings, technique and story behind shot.
4. Email submissions to contests@gizmodo.com, not me.
5. Include 800px wide image (200KB or less) AND a 2560×1600 sized in email. (The 800px image is the one judged, so feel free to crop/alter the larger image for wallpaper-sized dimensions.)
6. One submission per person.
7. Use the proper SUBJECT line in your email (more info on that below)

Send your best photo by Monday, November 15th at 8AM Eastern to contests@gizmodo.com with “Steal” in the subject line. Save your files as JPGs, and use a FirstnameLastnameSteal.jpg (800px wide) and FirstnameLastnameStealWallpaper.jpg (2560px wide) naming conventions. Include your shooting summary (camera, lens, ISO, etc) in the body of the email along with a story of the shot in a few sentences ALONG WITH A LINK TO THE ORIGINAL PHOTO. And don’t skip this story part because it’s often the most enjoyable part for us all beyond the shot itself!

When I’m not running Shooting Challenges, I’m curating my new site, Life, Panoramic. Also, I tend to eat, sleep and watch TV a lot.

Send an email to Mark Wilson, the author of this post, at mark@gizmodo.com.

It sounds so badass, doesn’t it? Freelensing. Like Tom Petty is microwaving your $3,000 DSLR just to get high off the fumes or something. Well, truth be told, freelensing is a little badass, as far as photography techniques go.

Take a photo using the technique of freelensing, like our lead shot by jrdn7730. What the heck is freelensing? Read on.

Freelensing is when you take a photo with your lens detached from your camera body. You unlock the lens and CAREFULLY pivot it anywhere from a few millimeters to several inches. Depending, the results will look like tilt shift or macro photography. And that makes sense, because a tilt shift lens works a lot like the technique described…though instead of laying down the cash for the traditionally expensive glass, you can capture the effect this way for free. Just keep in mind that light leaks come with the territory.

Now, a word of warning: Man wasn’t meant to take photos like this. Beyond the obvious possibility of dropping your lens, you’re also exposing your camera’s internals to moisture and dust. Done properly, freelensing isn’t much more risky than swapping out your lens. But I wouldn’t recommend keeping that lens detached for very long. Plan your shot. Detach. Snag the shot. Seal the lens back on the camera.

For more on the technique, LukeRoberts has a nice visual explanation and PhotoJojo has a fantastic general tutorial (via SwissMiss). Read it and then show us what you’ve got.

1. Submissions need to be your own.
2. Photos need to be taken AFTER the challenge was announced.
3. Explain, briefly, the equipment, settings, technique and story behind shot.
4. Email submissions to contests@gizmodo.com, not me.
5. Include 800px wide image (200KB or less) AND a 2560×1600 sized in email. (The 800px image is the one judged, so feel free to crop/alter the larger image for wallpaper-sized dimensions.)
6. One submission per person.
7. Use the proper SUBJECT line in your email (more info on that below)

Send your best photo by Monday, November 1st at 8AM Eastern to contests@gizmodo.com with “Freelensing” in the subject line. Save your files as JPGs, and use a FirstnameLastnameFreelensing.jpg (800px wide) and FirstnameLastnameFreelensingWallpaper.jpg (2560px wide) naming conventions. Include your shooting summary (camera, lens, ISO, etc) in the body of the email along with a story of the shot in a few sentences. And don’t skip this story part because it’s often the most enjoyable part for us all beyond the shot itself!

When I’m not running Shooting Challenges, I’m managing my new site: Life, Panoramic. Submit* your photos today!

*There’s a Brett Favre joke here somewhere, I can just feel it..

Send an email to Mark Wilson, the author of this post, at mark@gizmodo.com.

It sounds so badass, doesn’t it? Freelensing. Like Tom Petty is microwaving your $3,000 DSLR just to get high off the fumes or something. Well, truth be told, freelensing is a little badass, as far as photography techniques go.

Take a photo using the technique of freelensing, like our lead shot by jrdn7730. What the heck is freelensing? Read on.

Freelensing is when you take a photo with your lens detached from your camera body. You unlock the lens and CAREFULLY pivot it anywhere from a few millimeters to several inches. Depending, the results will look like tilt shift or macro photography. And that makes sense, because a tilt shift lens works a lot like the technique described…though instead of laying down the cash for the traditionally expensive glass, you can capture the effect this way for free. Just keep in mind that light leaks come with the territory.

Now, a word of warning: Man wasn’t meant to take photos like this. Beyond the obvious possibility of dropping your lens, you’re also exposing your camera’s internals to moisture and dust. Done properly, freelensing isn’t much more risky than swapping out your lens. But I wouldn’t recommend keeping that lens detached for very long. Plan your shot. Detach. Snag the shot. Seal the lens back on the camera.

For more on the technique, LukeRoberts has a nice visual explanation and PhotoJojo has a fantastic general tutorial (via SwissMiss). Read it and then show us what you’ve got.

1. Submissions need to be your own.
2. Photos need to be taken AFTER the challenge was announced.
3. Explain, briefly, the equipment, settings, technique and story behind shot.
4. Email submissions to contests@gizmodo.com, not me.
5. Include 800px wide image (200KB or less) AND a 2560×1600 sized in email. (The 800px image is the one judged, so feel free to crop/alter the larger image for wallpaper-sized dimensions.)
6. One submission per person.
7. Use the proper SUBJECT line in your email (more info on that below)

Send your best photo by Monday, November 1st at 8AM Eastern to contests@gizmodo.com with “Freelensing” in the subject line. Save your files as JPGs, and use a FirstnameLastnameFreelensing.jpg (800px wide) and FirstnameLastnameFreelensingWallpaper.jpg (2560px wide) naming conventions. Include your shooting summary (camera, lens, ISO, etc) in the body of the email along with a story of the shot in a few sentences. And don’t skip this story part because it’s often the most enjoyable part for us all beyond the shot itself!

When I’m not running Shooting Challenges, I’m managing my new site: Life, Panoramic. Submit* your photos today!

*There’s a Brett Favre joke here somewhere, I can just feel it..

Send an email to Mark Wilson, the author of this post, at mark@gizmodo.com.