Everyone heared about the Arduino for Atmel. Now it’s posible to work with the modern PIC and use a arduino like board, the Jaluino.
“JAL (Just Another Language, version 2) is an open source programming language built for programming PIC microcontrollers. If electronics is your thing, JAL is for you!”
hackaday did a great work with the creation of a 100% DIY picture frame. It seems to be a must have gadget, because you can build one by yourself.
“We set out to build a 100% DIY, scratch-built digital picture frame. Our frame has a 12bit color LCD, gigabytes of storage on common, FAT-formatted microSD cards, and you can build it at home. ”