Since raising over $1.5 million to bring their DIY computer and coding kit to the masses on Kickstarter back in December of 2013, the team at Kano has been on a relentless pursuit to unlock hardware design and programming for the masses. This time around, they’re turning their attention from a DIY computer to a range of DIY product designs built on an end-to-end creative system for “demystifying” hardware design, development, and assembly for the masses. Included in the company’s new “Creative Computing” collection are the Camera Kit, the Pixel Kit, and the Speaker Kit—all of which make use of sensors and wireless systems similar to those in modern electronic…

Time for another round of apps that cover the spectrum of your beloved mobile device, be it iPhone, Android or Windows! The Weekly App Smack is the best of new or updated design and productivity apps (and maybe a couple of fun ones, too) for the busy design or engineering professional and this week we have a list sure to make you more efficient. Do you have an app suggestion that has made your life easier or changed up your workflow? Let us know in the comments below or send it into tips@www.solidsmack.com. Hit it! ScreenMeet One-click screen sharing from iPhones and iPads, view from any browser. Easily screenshare slides,…

There’s no greater feeling than building and finishing your own project. The work is done. The project was a success. Now you need an enclosure. Depending on the design, it can protect or ruin your build. The typical of-the-shelf project boxes can be so… cheap, uninspiring, boring. What’s the solution? Make one yourself. Jon Hollander found himself in this exact situation. After finishing an electronics project as a gift he wanted a nice case to go with it. Instead of searching the internet for one, he came up with a simple web application to create one himself. He called it Makercase. Makercase is a simple web-based application that allows you…

You know how it goes. You make one Archimedes screw and it goes missing. You make another Archimedes screw, it goes missing and you discover a small band of pygmy gopher people have been stealing them for their underground rhubarb growing racket. You want to deal with it, but… THEY’RE JUST SO DANG CUTE and those rhubarb pies are to die for. Fortunately, the Makerbot Learning crew has put together an awesome physics + engineering + history lesson to give you and others the ability to 3D print as many miniature Archimedes screw devices as you need. It’s a fantastic (Helenist-astic, HA!) project for anyone interested in building simple machines…

As one of the most heavily produced and discarded materials in the world, it’s a dang good thing that paper is also so good at being reused, too. While it’s fairly common for discarded paper to be recycled into yet more reams of paper, New Zealand designer Woojai Lee just might have one of the best applications for recycled paper yet in the form of PaperBricks. Having started out as an exploration into how recycled paper can be used in nontraditional applications, PaperBricks provides an end—of—life solution for when the quality of recycled paper downgrades due to the individual fibers growing smaller with each cycle. The result is a compressed…

This week’s Spotify-powered SolidSmack Radio Playlist knocks you in the pop sockets with head-boppin’ groove tuneage to help propel you through the work week in style. Whether you find yourself inking markers until they’re dry, grinding material through a bandsaw or working that 3D geometry all day, consider these tracks as a tool for your process. This week we’ll start things off with “Pacific Theme–Instrumental” from Broken Social Scene and work our way through tracks from Elder Island, Madlib, Chassol, Quantic, and others before wrapping up with “Quand Vas Tu Rentrer” from Melody’s Echo Chamber. Have suggestions? As always, let us know what you listen to, what you want to…