Flash tats and metallic jewelry tattoos are all the rage among the fashionistas. Why? Well, they can be used to aesthetically augment traditional metal jewelry or make you stand out from normal tattooed people. And you know what? Turns out they can also be used as on-skin electronic connected interfaces for any number of devices…
Maryland-based startup M3D gained fame back in 2014 when they successfully crowdfunded their Micro 3D printer on Kickstarter in a matter of minutes (surpassing their goal of $50K and ending with over $3.4M). The fledgling company is hoping for a repeat performance with their latest edition of their 3D printer lineup–the M3D Pro, which again,…
You could do worse than designing a new standing desk. And there seem to be enough new ways to approach standing to keep the options coming out. Gaze Lab thinks there’s a smarter way to manage desk fit and screen placement. With the Gaze Desk they want to solve these problems and then some, making…
Think you need to be a 3D modeling pro to use a 3D printer? Think again. Consumers and the hobbyists among us can buy the equipment and start pumping out piles of plastic within the hour. We can even take local classes or find an online course, many free. Ah, what a time to be…
It’s a cyberpunk dream to print clothes like vacation photos and TPS reports. Various companies have tried to combine 3D printing with fashion fabrication, like the mildly successful Elctroloom. Cool, but it’s not open-source. However, Gerard Rubio is doing things differently. Inspired by the open-source RepRap 3D printer project and community, along with other digital…
You can get a pretty good workout walking 18-holes and whacking balls all day, but grab a cart and you can forget about that 10,000 step goal on your Fitbit. Hate the cart, but want something slightly more dangerous? Meet the GolfBoard, perfect for golfers who can’t sit or surfers who hung up the board…
Ahhh, coffee. That rich, aromatic mixture of art and science. Stray a little on bean roast or brew temp and you’re in the repugnant realm of sippin’ a day-old cup of joe from 7-11. NOT GOOD. Brew your beans at home? Well, look at you, you connoisseur of fine caffeinated beverages, you. But do your…
Looks like someone went down to the Hammock store on Hammock Street, over in the Hammock district with this one. The ultimate dream when you were a kid was having your own treehouse, right? Some were lucky enough to have that pad in the treetops. For others, it turned into waiting and a 30-year mortgage.…
Marcin Jakubowski and his lovely wife Katarina are leading the Open Building Institute (OBI) to take open-source to a new level with housing. The organization’s mission is to “make affordable, ecological housing accessible to everyone” and enables aspiring homeowners to build a modular starter home for $25,000. Marcin and team have continued over the years…
Think of the basic parts to a pen. A tub and some ink. We use to use feather quills and an ink bottle. Now it’s highly engineered mechanisms with an endless choice of ink cartridges. Where’s the happy medium? Looking for a minimal, yet well-design led me to take a look at the Ensso Uno,…
With many fighting furiously against the end of the world coming to us via plastic bottle waste, more have been looking for that environmentally-friendly bottle to hold their beverages. While bottles are convenient, come in a variety of style and materials, they’re limited in the types of beverages they hold. Coffee? Here you go. Protein…
When it comes to quality Hi-Fi speakers the phrase “shove it in the corner” doesn’t necessarily come to mind, but that’s exactly what Montreal-based Nepsu wants you to do with their Triangle Hi-Fi speaker. Actually, the speaker can be placed almost anywhere, however a corner provides that extra boost for a corner loading effect that…
Traditional digital fabrication of 3D models relies on first completing the model, or a piece of it, sending it through the slicing software, generating the g-code, eating a sandwich, then printing it out piece-by-piece. Sometimes design changes are required based on printer output or maybe the model needs tweaked and the print needs to be…
We’re on a cutting kick, with the Ergo Kiwi knife and now a new take on the good ol’ pair o’ shears. Every home has at least one pair of them. They’re a necessary tool, especially if you work in an office full of kids and construction paper. But they aren’t the most hand-friendly tools…
Last September, we shared German illustrator Eilert Janssen’s new Real Markers, a Photoshop brush set with over 120 tools that emulate the look of real alcohol-based and permanent markers. Hej Brush But hej (pronounced hey), he has since then updated the Hej Brush lineup with new brushes that include Draw! – a set of dry…
With 3D printing services popping up like dandelions across the nation, and UPS, Amazon and other major retailers hopping on the bandwagon, 3D printing is becoming more available to consumers. Home printer quality is hit or miss, to be honest. Even printers made from M3D, a bigger company, have their own share of issues. I…
Pirate radio, HAM radio and streaming/music player projects involving the Raspberry Pi can be found ALL over the interwebs, in the hobby shops and between the couch cushions, but while most are opensource, none give us the tinglies like Audiophonics’ Rasptouch Audio Player. The Bordeaux-based company designed their platform for audiophiles with Hi-Fi in mind,…
LiquidPiston has invented a new rotary type engine that is piston-less, valve-less, and weighs only four pounds. They published a proof of concept video for the XMv3 engine, shown powering a small go-kart, that builds evidence that the High Efficiency Hybrid Cycle (HEHC) engine could be the compact, energy-efficient engine of the future.
If you haven’t heard of Minecraft, some may consider you lucky. Others may be shocked. It’s a block-based, build-it-yourself video game that has become popular over the years with gamers of all ages, especially younger ones. It allows people to create virtually anything in their blocky worlds, encouraging users to pump their creative juices. One…
Cycling. It’s the ragingly popular/eco-friendly/healthy/cheap way to get around town. I like to ride my bicycle – we all do. But it can be a pain deciding where to store the bike, especially if you live in… yeah, just about any apartment. (I have to pay $60 a year to store mine.) Solutions?
It’s small–a little bigger than a box of matches–has a 120 degree wide-angle, 2-megapixel lens and can be placed anywhere you need another set of eyes. That’s the short list of features that describes Armstart’s WiCAM, which is currently in the pre-order phase after recently completing a successful Kickstarter campaign back in April of this…
Brooklyn-based EXOvault are known for their unique phone cases and all-metal eyewear that is so removed from the norm they boarder on works of art. The idea behind their creations is centered not only on art and craftsmanship, but on the individual as well, providing a wider range of styles that give the customer a…
If you’re thinking of launching a startup (or are already amidst the craziness), Indiegogo and Arrow can help. The companies recently announced a partnership that will give entrepreneurs access to discounted components and manufacturing services through a joint site made just for Indiegogo crowdfunders.
Bee pollination is tied to almost 33 percent of all American crops, but the bee population has drastically declined in recent years. According to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), 42 percent of bee colonies collapsed in 2015 alone. But San Francisco startup Seedles intends to do something about it by planting one billion wildflowers.
Repurposing old or outdated tech has increased in popularity thanks to the Maker movement. Some of the more creative builds include turning an old Nintendo NES system into a functioning toaster, turning an old iBook and mouse into a decorative clock, and making a rechargeable battery pack from an old cell phone. Repurposing old tech…
There are people who dream about becoming a famous athlete. Then there are others who want to be an astronaut. Well, even if you’ll never make the cut to launch into space, you can at least be part of future space exploration tech. If you’re an maker, inventor or artist, NASA wants your help.
Tell me if this is an offer you could pass up. (I can’t.) An Intel Atom x5-E8000 or Celeron N3160 quad-core CPU, up to 8GB DDR3L dual-channel RAM, 8GB of eMMC storage, and enough power to “drive up to three 4K screens at the same time” with a starting price of $89.
Sometimes you just need to unplug, pack up some snacks, grab the gear, and make for the hills. But just because you want a weekend free of social media and the internet doesn’t mean you can’t be a little tech savvy while sleeping under the stars.
Typically, a bullet would completely shread a piece of foam, but now the tables have turned. Various types of foam have been developed and used as fire retardants, crack sealants and insulate all mater of objects. However, a team of researchers from NC State has created a metal foam; one they say is capable of…
While some furniture comes mass produced and can be found in any dumpy chain store, others are absolute works of art ─ and Benjamin Nordsmark’s Contour Cabinet certainly falls into the latter category. His cabinet design was inspired by the layers and curves found in some modern architecture as well as his fascination with the…
Move over hamburgers and hotdogs, pizza could be the new go-to favorite for tailgaters, campers and backyard barbeques everywhere. How does 1000% of your daily charbs sound? On the go? Nashville-based Tennessee Stone & Design has kicked-off their Kickstarter campaign aimed at bringing mobile brick ovens to pizza and closet brick oven enthusiasts everywhere. The…
When it’s time to get some new spoons, the first place you turn is Ikea or Amazon, if you don’t feel like leaving the house. But some prefer to make their own spoons, the old fashioned way. Giles Newman is one of those people. But once you see Newman’s hand crafted spoons you won’t want…
Back when my generation were kids, we created projects using the most state-of-the-art technology on the market–Tinkertoys, Erector Sets and the eternally popular LEGO. It took a lot of imagination (along with cuts and bruises) to create projects that somehow always ended up being some crazy Rube Goldberg contraption. Imagine if we had access to…
What if we could all make a difference by reviving our artisan roots of ages old? I’m not implying you ditch your condo for an old barn, wood shop and some chickens, but I am saying us little guys can change the status quo (and save some money along the way) by supporting, well, other…
If you’ve never been across the pond, then you have probably never seen of The ArcelorMittal Orbit. Looking like a sort of towering behemoth from an H.P. Lovecraft story, the ArcelorMittal Orbit is a 376 foot sculpture and observation tower in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford, London. At 115 meters (22 meters taller than the Statue of…
Never cared much for having a globe at home… until now. Oscar Lhermitte and the design tag team Kudu are ready to manufacture the first batch of MOON lunar globes for commercial sale. MOON is the ‘most accurate lunar globe’ in existence, and is based on NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter topographic data collected by the…
What do we want? Handheld computers! When do we want them? By October 2016 or thereabouts! That’s Wade Wang’s mantra. He is the mastermind behind the GPD WIN – a 5.5-inch handheld PC the Shenzhen-based team is pushing as a game console. However, we’re convinced it could be the first Ultra-mobile PC (UMPC) that could…
Ever dream of flying the high skies as a pilot? How about sitting on the edge of a massive jet engine intake? Well, if either has crossed your mind, there’s still a chance to live out your fantasy. All you need is this beautiful, futuristic chair made by Fallen Furniture.
Kickstarter is littered with failed projects that never made it close to their respective pledge goals and then there are those that smash through those goals within a few hours. Projects like Uniz Technology’s Slash 3D printer.
Back on April 1st, a video hit YouTube that featured a drone outfitted with a chainsaw that flew/cut through everything from snowmen to treetops. Of course, it had some scratching their heads, wondering if it was staged or completely fake. While the idea of a flying chainsaw seems disturbing to some, it turns out the…
Ask any avid hiker or outdoorsman and they will say, weight is an issue that can make or break you. Or, only take the gear you’re going to use, not what you think you need. Or, the less gear you carry, the faster you can run from bears. (Psst, don’t run from bears.)
As the internet and Photoshop has taught us, pictures aren’t always what they seem. Sometimes they’re manipulated to a point where it’s something completely different. Other times, they’re optical illusions playing tricks on the eye. But what if these manipulations can be applied to actual furniture?
There was a time when 3D printing and building robots seemed out of reach of regular civilians, reserved for experts in the technology field. Now top-end technical tools are readily available at the hobby level. BoxBotix is yet another open source software aimed at hobbyist in the field, AND WE LOVE IT.
While companies are cashing in on kiddos rolling around atop exploding, self-balancing and frustratingly mis-named two-wheeled ‘hoverboards’, people with more passion, knowledge and design prowess are attempting what has always seemed the impossible. People like Frank Zapata, CEO of Zapata Racing. The company recently published a video showing Zapata flying on what looks like a…
It started as a prank that went viral and had some wondering if Nintendo lost their minds. The prank in question was centered on a supposedly ‘leaked’ image of a new controller design for Nintendo’s upcoming new console designated NX, which was uploaded to reddit from a user known as Idriss2Dev, AKA David Im. The…
Cloudalize is a company you’ve probably never heard, but you’ve certainly heard of desktop virtualization. You know, accessing all your apps (CAD, CAE, BIM, etc.) from the cloud via any browser or mobile device? Yes? Well, up until now Frame has been the headliner showing the possibilities, with quick creation of a virtual workspace, and…
Back in December of 2015, Alex Bolderoff and Joe Mosfet of Arcadian 3D came together to bring the ARC-one 3D printer to the world through crowd-funding website Kickstarter.
Imagine if you could own a piece of furniture many would consider a piece of art? That’s how you would describe the Lagoon table by LA Table, a design company that goes the everyday design of traditional furniture. Thier new project is the brainchild of creator and designer of the company Alexandre Chapelin, who has…
Last year, Nike turned the Air MAG shoes, that Marty McFly sports in Back to the Future, into a reality. They were pricey, yes, but available in limited quantities and sold exclusively to benefit the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Disease research. Now the shoe company is bringing that totally futuristic technology to the…
How are vinyl records made? Have you spent nights awake just pondering that? Well, let’s put your mind at ease. It begins with a metal flat disc and a coat of lacquer, and ends spinning on a turntable. Boom. Done. The Vinyl Factory provides a glimpse on how they make records in a 60 second…