The project turned out to be a LOT harder than I had expected.  I should have known that gutting a battery is not exactly an easy task.  The hardest part was pulling off the negative end of the battery.  For those of you who are going to attempt the project, there really isn't a trick to it.  You just have to slowly cut, drill, and pry away at the inner metal and plastic piece.  Don't worry, it will eventually come out!  Another tip is to be very careful if you plan on cutting with a Dremel tool instead of the recommended hacksaw.  Because of the circular motion of the cutter, it tends to kick up the black goo as soon as you break through the metal.  Also, as you would expect, make sure to get a USB drive that is really thin so you don't have to do much grinding to get it to fit inside the battery case.

I also decided to go one step further with the label, and made my own with Photoshop to match the look of a Duracell battery.  You can see the detailed photos below.  I then used some clear 24mm heat-shrink casing to give it the glossy look of a normal Duracell battery.

Overall a very cool project, and one that impresses anyone that sees it.  For more information, pick up MAKE: Volume 16 and head on over to the project page here.

Meggy Jr RGB is a handheld platform for developing your own pixel-scale video games.

Featuring a fully addressable 8x8 RGB LED matrix display, big fat comfy button switches, customizable handles, a lo-fi audio transducer, and even 8 extra LEDs for lives, score, ammo, or level, Meggy Jr RGB is a little kit you won't want to miss. Meggy Jr is fast, programmable, open source and hackable. And fun.

Meggy Jr RGB is a little sister to our Peggy and Peggy 2 LED display kits, and was designed with a different focus-- less soldering, more pixels in your palms. The 8x8 RGB matrix display provides a whole lot of pixels (192 LED elements), and the 8 auxiliary LEDs bring the grand total up to 200. The six tough buttons have excellent click-feel, and multiple programming interfaces let you take control of exactly what you're playing with.

The basic kit will run only $75 (including the case)  Get one here.

After a couple of years of prototypes, tests and announcements, finally we have produced an ethernet shield for Arduino. This module gives Arduino the ability to open connections to other Internet hosts or behave like a server, for example a simple web server.

We like this design because it uses the w5100 chip from WizNet that implements the whole IP stack in itself providing up to 4 sockets simultaneously.

I believe this will provide Arduino enthusiasts around the world with a platfrom that is initially simple to use but with room for growth as the knowledge of the user increases.

From the Internet of Things to the Internet of Arduinos, happy tinkering.

Hot on the heals of the "Official" Ethernet Shield, Ladyada has released a modified version of her own shield that now works with the w5100 OR XPort module.

...I’ve put a new version of the ethernet shield up in the shop as well. This version allows the use of XPort or WIZnet Ethernet modules. The WIZnet module is compatible with the official Arduino Ethernet library, which is easy to use and very powerful. However it does not have DHCP built-in which can make setup a bit frustrating if your network isn’t friendly. Still, they are a bargain compared to the XPorts, available for only $20.

More info on the official shield here.