With so many cool things coming out each week, it can be hard to wade through all the rock-awesomeness. With ‘Cool Tools’, we’ve done the hard work for you.

For our first week of 2015, we saw everything from an 3D printed prosthetic for a turtle to a mini-documentary on people who call a treehouse their full-time home.

Ready? Let’s go!

This week we look at:

DESIGN

FxO Transparent Smartphone by Tokujin Yoshioka

Des01

“”In order to express the openness which is the most distinctive feature of Firefox OS, Tokujin captured the beauty of mechanicals inside and incorporated them to the design.”

Stumpy the Turtle’s 3D Printed Prosthetic Limb

Design02

“Stumpy is a 12-year-old box turtle who recently lost her front right leg. She lives at Oatland Island Wildlife Center in Savannah. Kids at nearby May Howard Elementary used their 3-D printer to solve her mobility problems.”

APPS

Duet Display

App01

“Duet is the first app that allows you to use your iDevice as an extra display for your Mac using the Lightning or 30-pin cable.”

Longform

App02

“The best articles, handpicked.”

DIY

Copper Coffee Maker

DIY01

“The copper pipe pour over device is held together with epoxy, so soldiering equipment and skills are not required. Because copper pipe can be cut with a tube cutter, this project can be made without a single power tool.”

TimeRuler

DIY02

“TimeRuler is a time-space measuring tool, using light-painting technique. It can be used for fun, for measuring high speed movement in different sports or as an educational device for schools.”

ROCK AWESOMENESS

Adults Who Live in Treehouses

“In this short documentary, we interview people who build, live in, and love treehouses. These are far from the forts of childhood memory, though. They employ artificial limbs for support, boast both plumbing and running water, and wouldn’t look out of place in luxury lifestyle magazines.”

The Making of an Ice Cream Bar

YouTube video

“Julie’s Organic Ice Cream in production at Oregon Ice Cream Company in Eugene, OR.”

And there you have it!

Send your cool tool finds to smoth@www.solidsmack.com, sign up for our newsletter there in the sidebar or ask us a question in the comments or via email about diy, design, tech or anything else. Smoth would love to help.

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