Let’s face it: the days when learning for kids meant going outside to play are dwindling fast. Instead of experiencing the outside world for themselves (or reading about it in a classic paper bound book), children of this generation are more content to sit in front of a screen for hours on end and absorb…

There were scattered reports of Mackbook Pro users covering themselves in ash and eating gallons of ice cream earlier this week with Lenovo’s announcement of their new ThinkPad P1 ultralight mobile workstation. Ultralight mobile workstation. Yeah, I just used those words together in a sentence – TWICE. First though, I admit, ‘Ultralight’ is my word…

Rather than forcing chunky peripherals on your head or hands via VR or AR, real holograms are the stuff of science fiction: true interactive displays which humans can interact with on a more personal level. The day when such a display would come to fruition was thought to be right up there with flying car…

An unusual robot designed by professor David Zarrouk at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev is capable of changing its shape to overcome obstacles, allowing it to roll around on wheels, crawl like a turtle, and even flip itself over to traverse difficult terrain. The RSTAR (Rising Sprawl-Tuned Autonomous Robot) features sprawling wheel-leg assembly, which…

It’s all over the tech news, of course, but the Magic Leap mixed-reality headset, yeeeears in the making, is now available for developers, creators or anyone who wants to shell out $2,295 for ML’s inaugural edition HMD. The Magic Leap One Creator Edition launches with SDKs, Unity and Unreal Engine 4 support, tutorials, preview experiences, games,…

An interesting 3D camera has launched, the Wunder360 S1. This is a 360-degree camera, similar to one you may have or others you’ve likely seen: it captures visual activity happening all around you. It’s developed by Evomotion and a follow-up to their highly-rated Wunder360 C1 camera. But the S1 adds quite a bit more. It’s…

Researchers from UC Berkeley’s Biomimetic Millisystems Lab have been busy developing their Salto jumping robot since its debut in 2016. Back then, the robot was capable of jumping at great heights, but had orientation issues and could only complete two jumps in a row before crashing. The researchers have since solved the orientation issues with…

We’ve all had remarkable careers as air drummers at least some point in our lives. And no matter how musically incompetent we think we are, there’s always a beat sitting somewhere deep in our bones just ready to bust out. For folks who want to take their air drumming mastery a step further, the Oddball…

Forget their proposed drone delivery system; Amazon just solved one of the biggest problems for engineers, designers, DIY’ers, or anyone handy enough to use a screwdriver: identifying a screw. Don’t you just hate when you find one of those buggers under your sofa or behind the fridge and have no idea where it came from or…

If your kombucha fizz just sprayed out your nose, you likely just heard about the new ThinkStation P330 workstations… or took too big a swig. Either way, Lenovo thought it would be clever to release the news of their new entry-level, CAD-class workstations the same day Intel announced its new Xeon E-series, entry-level processors. Don’t…

Over the course of evolution, plant life has gotten pretty complex. There are carnivorous plants, poisonous plants, heck, there are even plants which camouflage themselves to either look more attractive for pollination or hide from predators. But there has never, ever, been a known existing plant which grew legs. After seeing a dying sunflower in…

One of the oldest inventions ever, there is very little need for improvement from the standard wheel. With the ability to make transportation and overall movement a heck of a lot easier than dragging things on a flat surface, it’s no wonder no one tries to mess with a good thing. Through a project called…

… Anything computer-related, that is. If the computer’s spiel has any truth to it, this may be one of the most powerful portable supercomputers out there. Powered by AMD Ryzen Embedded V1000 SoC processors, the UDOO BOLT can handle everything from ginormous 3D CAD models to triple-A computer games. Depending on which version of the…

Toy company Mattel and the portable camera savants at GoPro have really done it now: they’ve attached a camera to something you’ll never be able to ride or experience yourself. Dubbed the Zoom In, this toy car comes with a hollowed-out body and stand which allows adrenaline junkies to slap a GoPro Action Camera on…

Fans of inflatable bouncy castles and comfy car seats have reason to rejoice because 3D-printed inflatables are now a thing! Created by the minds at the Self-Assemble Lab of MIT and BMW, these inflatables adapt and transform by themselves to suit your comfy needs. Dubbed “Liquid Printed Pneumatics,” these silicone materials take on different shapes…

Well, it’s finally happened. After years of fumbling on quadrupedal legs and jumping like patients with back problems, robots have finally learned to run on rough terrain. ACHIRES (short for “Actively Coordinated High-speed Image-processing Running Experiment System”) is an Ishikawa Senoo Laboratory running robot system which uses a high-speed camera to detect the legs’ position…

We’ve seen just how much potential there is for AR/VR headsets in the design and engineering world—whether it be modeling in the context of the real world or assisting assembly line workers. That said, we’re still on the cusp of knowing just how significant that shift can be. But when Apple gets involved—there’s usually a…

Seamlessly bridging the physical and digital worlds has proved to be a significant challenge for even the world’s most advanced electronic manufacturers. While HP has made considerable strides with their “mixed reality” Sprout platform, the creative market has grown to favor more portable tablets and laptops over full-fledged desktop platforms. With Project Zanzibar, the Microsoft…

We’re stoked to welcome Hardware Massive with this special guest post by Greg Fisher, Founder at HardwareCon. Check out Hardware Massive and, if you’re in the San Jose area this week, you’ll want head over to HardwareCon to learn about the future of hardware. Having spent the last 13 years helping more than 900 hardware startups…

As reported on SolidSmack back in February, music streaming service Spotify is getting into the hardware game—as evidenced by three job postings for hardware engineers or supply chain managers. “Spotify is on its way to creating its first physical products and setting up an operational organization for manufacturing, supply chain, sales & marketing,” explained the…

If you’ve been on the fence about finally entering into digital tablet sketching (or notetaking) territory, both Google and Apple revealed some great news for you this week. First up is the all-new $329 9.7-inch iPad. While marketed towards educators as a low(er) cost of entry to bring iPads into the classroom (the education-adjusted cost…

Although IKEA takes the cake for masterminding the ready-to-assemble (or flat-pack) furniture, the concept was initially captured in an 1878 US patent described as “(A) class of furniture which is so constructed that it may be packed and transported in parts, and put together for use by skilled or unskilled persons.” Either way, decades of…

Modeling a 3D object and prepping it for 3D printing on a 2D screen sounds counterintuitive… because it is. You’re stabbing your mouse at a 2D plane in 3D space to make something which can be interacted with in the real world. I thought we were in the future? So, what if you could design the…

Whether it be music, movies, documents, or photos of your cat – everyone has something precious they keep as digital data. But let’s be real – that’s a lot of data you have to keep stored. Those photos of your cat alone might not even fit the 1TB hard drive you keep. Keeping backups of…

It’s incredible how easy it is to trick the mind into thinking it isn’t doing work. Playing sports makes training your body fun, watching nature shows on TV makes learning biology possible, and playing video games makes puzzle solving compelling. But this particular 21st century device tries to mix both learning and physical activity into…

From production artists to design engineers, few design tools have graced the desktops of design professionals as much as a Wacom tablet. But of all the Wacom tablet models, the Cintiq Pro display tablet takes the cake for the most bells and whistles. Now, the Japanese-based company is kicking things up yet another notch for…

Unlike science fiction movies, where “A.I.” is commonly associated with usurping humanoid robots, real-life artificial intelligence looks far less creepy and is a lot more specialized. They still do our bidding, but without the constant worry that one day they will wake up wondering why they’re doing manual labor without pay. Getting the jump on…

Back when I was a kid, I built a model of the Tardis Console from season 13 using my parent’s cable spool coffee table and a healthy supply of cardboard. Although I could travel anywhere I wanted to in my mind (Calvin & Hobbes style), I wasn’t able to leave the confines of my yard.…

If you still think your desktop PC’s storage space isn’t enough to hold all your CAD projects, then you’ll be happy to know that Samsung just combined 32 1TB NAND flash packages to create the world’s largest SSD. The PM1643’s name doesn’t roll off the tongue so well, but the 2.5-inch SSD holds 30.72TB worth…

3D printing in color can be costly. Given how much time and resources spent upfront, having a failed print isn’t exactly as easy to deal with as printing a 2D color picture incorrectly. MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL)’s new ColorFab method (not to be confused with printing filament company ColorFabb) doesn’t aim…

Remember those scenes in Iron Man where Tony Stark fiddles around with an interactive hologram? Of course, you do. Well, Google is about to bring that same experience to reality, because one of their latest projects seeks to make this technology available for everyone—right from your favorite device. Article is an upcoming 3D model viewer…

While nearly any tech or mechanical junkie can appreciate a hulking giant robot, one should always leave room to admire its smaller brethren. Sure, bigger may be better, but giant robots don’t always have the level of precision that many smaller robots come equipped with. Delta robots consist of three individually controlled arms connected to…

For most, the most significant, most practical expense they’ll ever make is a house. But considering how substantial and costly a home can be to maintain, some homeowners go through some crazy remodeling projects and insurance policies just to keep their house afloat. Hover isn’t an omnipotent solution to remodeling problems, but it does make…

At this year’s CES, IBM unveiled their 50-Qubit Quantum Computer prototype, which looks more at home in the Steam Punk world instead of an exhibition room at The Venetian Hotel and Casino. What makes the machine an incredible piece of technology is in the way it processes data. Rather than strictly using digital binary (1’s…

Good news for those looking to add 3D capabilities to any device or machine as Intel recently released their RealSense 400 series depth cameras. Both the 415 and 435 cameras are USB-powered, ready to use out of the box and capable of processing depth using the onboard D4 Vision processor, which can process multiple real-time…

Picture, if you will, a dog: brown fur, floppy ears, mouth full of drool. Easy, right? Now picture an AI system doing the same thing you just did. Since computer language is essentially ones and zeroes, translating human words into picture data isn’t as easy as you might think. And yet, this is what Microsoft’s…

If being stuck in traffic every morning isn’t your idea of a good time, relief may soon be here by way of the friendly skies thanks to the aerospace geniuses over at Boeing. The company’s new Electronic Vertical-Take-Off-and-Landing (eVTOL) prototype stands four feet tall, measures 15 by 18 feet across, and weighs over 700 hundred…

As we’ve seen in the past, bigger, higher resolution TVs can lead to bigger, higher resolution computer screens. Well, how would you like at 146″ computer screen in your face? We love the tech debuted at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) and The Wall, a 146-inch “microLED” TV announce by Samsung, is one of our…

Considered by many design professionals to be the holy grail of design tools, the Wacom Cintiq was critical in bringing the natural pen experience to digital workflows over the past decade. Previously offered in both 13.3” and 15.6” sizes, the brand’s untethered Cintiq Pro models enabled professionals to take the Cintiq experience with them on…

With the ability to let users explore and communicate their ideas directly in 3D though AR and VR, few design tools have come along in recent memory that is as unique as Gravity Sketch. Designed to be intuitive in a VR or Mixed Reality workflow before sending over to a more robust CAD program, the…

While just about everybody loves dogs, caring for their daily needs is far from easy—the midnight yelps, the endless appetite, and perhaps the most time-consuming of all, taking them out after every meal. The last problem in particular is what the designers of BrilliantPad aim to solve. The BrilliantPad is a self-cleaning dog potty which,…

Microsoft came pretty dang close to projecting holograms in the real world with their HoloLens mixed reality headset. However, those holograms can only be seen through the eyes of the viewer so long as they’re wearing the head-mounted display. Tech startup Looking Glass, on the other hand, has developed an interactive lightfield kit that allows…

It’s been a long time coming, but after nearly three years, Magic Leap has finally unveiled their One augmented reality headset— dubbed the ‘Creator Edition.’ The head-mounted alternate reality platform consists of a pair of oversized Lightwear goggles, a portable CD player-looking external computer known as Lightpack, and a handheld controller. The headset is purported…

When it comes to internet browsers, I’ve used them all–Chrome, Safari, Edge, Opera, Firefox, you name it. While each of these browsers has their strengths and weaknesses, over the years I find myself just using Chrome and Firefox and, between both, Chrome comes out as the clear winner. Of course, this was before I updated…

With another year just about coming to a close, companies who are gearing up to show off their latest wares at CES in Las Vegas in early January are already getting a head start on the news cycle. Among others, LG has just announced a pair of new monitors for the professional market that are…

When it comes to communicating design ideas effectively on paper, sketches that follow the basic principals of perspective are absolutely critical. While modern digital sketching tools including various iPad Pro apps can assist with perspective drawing, training your mind to see perspective in the analog world can be an entirely different beast to tackle. Aiming…

Considering the vast amount of hackable devices out there, it’s safe to assume that hackers see vulnerable everyday people as easy targets. Certain companies even live off selling products that help keep customers’ digital data safe. Anti-viruses and RFID-lined wallets are some of the most common forms of digital safety, with RFID bags marking a…

As if printing your own desk toys and battle armor wasn’t enough, researchers up at the University of Washington have recently developed a method for transmitting data via Wi-Fi using 3D objects without the need for electricity. The objects in question use a series of 3D springs, switches, and gears to translate motion into data…

Gone are the days of the simple computer monitor. These days, curved screen dimensions, color profiles, resolutions, mounting capabilities, and connection ports sit amongst the top demands of professionals. Among others, Phillips wants in on some of that high-end market in 2018. Hitting stores in January (only in Europe – North America expected later), the…

While multimedia notetaking and sketching continue to drive professional tablet sales, the ability to pull the best from both worlds—the immediate digitization of analog sketches created with physical media—still leaves a lot to be desired. In the Spring of 2016, Moleskine released what we declared “The Best Analog/Digital Sketchbook of Them All” in the form…