In DESIGN

Behind the Design Process: Anki Drive's Intelligent Robotic Toy Cars

3 Mins Read

For those who watched Apple’s Developer Conference back in June, you might have remembered Apple CEO Tim Cook inviting out a CEO of a new toy car company that utilized Apple’s iOS devices as a ‘steering wheel’ of sorts to drive physical cars. For those who might not have seen the keynote presentation, these aren’t your usual Hot Wheels…rather, they are powered by robotics and artificial intelligence and scream around a race track contained by sensors rather than a physical ‘track’. The San Francisco-based startup toy company Anki is set to launch their first line of robotic toy cars tomorrow in Apple Stores worldwide. Here, we get to see a little bit behind their design process and what it takes to execute a modern smart toy car design.

Read More
In RADIO

SolidSmack Radio | Night of the Living Dead

1 Min Read

This week’s Spotify-powered SolidSmack Radio Playlist brings an entirely new face-smack of great music to help propel you through those laborious, tedious design tasks for the next few days. This week we’re pulling out some of the best ‘spooky’ music we know to help welcome the Halloween and Day of the Dead season. We’ll start with a classic Cave Singers track and work our way through Florence + The Machine, The Black Keys, Misfits, The Tallest Man on Earth and others before wrapping up with a ‘scary’ David Bowie classic.

Read More
In DESIGN

On Location: 'Out of Hand' Digital Fabrication Exhibit at the Museum of Arts and Design

3 Mins Read

As any regular reader of SolidSmack knows, digital fabrication tools have led a helping hand in ways never before seen for designers, artists, and even regular-Joe hobbyists. Combining the powers of digital modeling or 3D scanning with various devices that output a three-dimensional object still sounds like something out of the future, yet every day seems to bring a plethora of new ideas for ways of making via Digital Craft. In Out of Hand: Materializaing the Postdigital, the Museum of Arts and Design in New York City examines the interdisciplinary practice of digital craftsmanship and provides visitors with quite possibly one of the finest curated collections of relevant product design in recent memory. Having opened their doors for the exhibition this past week and running through July of 2014, SolidSmack stopped by to take a look.

Read More
In NEWS

Why I will pay $1372 for a fillet tool

7 Mins Read

Today I received a friendly email from my local SolidWorks VAR, ending with a gentle nudge: “****THERE IS NO GRACE PERIOD FOR DECEMBER RENEWALS, ANY DECEMBER RENEWAL RECEIVED AFTER DECEMBER 31ST WILL AUTOMATICALLY INCUR A REINSTALLATION FEE – NO EXCEPTIONS.” Ahhh, the sweet taste of extortion in the morning. SolidWorks 2014 is upon us, friends, as is that big annual “subscription” bill–one of the largest business purchases I make in the course of the year. I’m fed up. I’m angry. And I’m going to pay up. (Buries face in shame.)

Read More
In FAB

Mobile 3D Printing: Envisioning a Future of On-Location Part Fabrication

2 Mins Read

Putting a 3D printer in the back of a car might not be that revolutionary, but considering what kind of power that could put into the hands of various service people? Now that’s getting interesting. From plumbers to electricians and even general contractors, the ability to have on-demand part production on-site could rapidly speed up the repair or presentation process and put an end to any “we’ve gotta wait for the part to come in” headaches. French digital fabrication shop leFabShop teamed up with automaker Renault to explore what having a 3D printer in a driving car might be like, and could a 3D part feasibly be printed while driving on bumpy roads? Here’s an interesting user experience scenario that gives a peak at what printing on the way to a client presentation might look like in the (very near) future.

Read More