Ultimaker has released a new version of Ultimaker Cura 4.5, and as usual there are a couple of very interesting new features. Ultimaker Cura, formerly known simply as Cura, is perhaps the most popular 3D print slicing system. There’s a good reason for that statistic, and it’s because Ultimaker chose to release it as an open-source product. This allows other 3D printer manufacturers to easily bundle the increasingly powerful software with their equipment without much fuss and without the expense of developing their own slicing software. Why does Ultimaker do this, aside from being good folks? I believe it’s because it still promotes their own brand and also allows them…

Your next computer is not a computer. It’s a magical piece of glass.Apple Apple has been holding the paper-thin border between tablet and laptop intact for a while, making it look easy to choose what you use for work and play. Others find it easy to chuck a moneybag down and opt for both, crossing capabilities where they’re able. It’s been one of the most overlooked balancing acts in computing by the company careful to keep the demand for both iPad and Macbook high. With the fourth-generation iPad Pro announced by Apple this week the border between laptop-tablet usability seems to have shifted, nay, torn a bit with an iPad that slips…

Everything looks cute when it’s miniaturized. But when it’s made out of LEGOs is jsut LOOKS PLAIN AWESOME. YouTube creator The Brick Wall specializes in making LEGO Technic builds, and his newest set demonstrates the magic that is a fully functional firewood factory – complete with a delivery truck and log splitter. How is wood cut with LEGOs? The process is much different from how it’s done at an actual mill: 1. Deliver the Logs A LEGO delivery truck delivers a stack of “logs” to a wood sorter where it dispenses the wood one log at a time. 2. Cut the Wood Into Workable Chunks The logs are then pushed…

We’ve featured Michael Grab’s work in the Friday Smackdown before, but we wanted to take a closer look at his process and share more of his work. At the very least, his work is inspirational. At most, it could provide ideas about how you approach your own design problem. Michael is a balance artist – a practitioner of a special kind of art that involves balancing objects in such a way that they form complex and seemingly impossible arrangements. Michael specializes in stone balancing, building rock sculptures that are absolutely gravity-defying: How Does Stone Balancing Work? To create the structures and balance rocks, Michael doesn’t use any kind of adhesive.…

It’s time to crack open a can of beef jerky, shutter the windows, and snuggle up with a tower workstation again. That’s not weird at all because this workstation happens to be a Lenovo ThinkStation P520. Yes, quell your exuberance. As you may know, the P Series is Lenovo’s top o’ the line PC family for professionals in engineering, automotive, media, and other graphically-demanding, performance-pushing industries. It’s considered mid-range by those who get their kicks by categorizing computers, so we wanted to see what we could throw at it. Lenovo was kind enough to send over the P520 to carry out some Quadro RTX 4000 tests we’ll have in an…

With all the quarantining and disease spread lately, you’ve probably thought, “When’s the next flight off this crazy planet?!” Alien abduction volunteers? “Take Wuhan!” Hey now! The virus has already spread. “Blow the planet!” Calm thyself. “I’m outta here!” Ok, granted you’ll take all your bacteria and viruses with you, but should you be planning a departure, you’ll want to pack away this 3D print for looking cool in the isolation of space. Practical 3D printed device maker ‘SunShine’ has the perfect solution for any space-related travel or, for that matter, anywhere you need some extra awesome for holding your phone. How is it ‘designed for space’? SunShine designed it…