While it may not be able to make your morning marmalade toast or scrub your cast iron skillets (or can it?), there are relatively few things that the Arduino single-board microcontroller can’t do. Considered by some to be the “World’s Friendliest Electronics Prototyping Platform”, the Arduino platform is also perfect for beginners who want to skip all the boring stuff and get straight into building Bluetooth-enabled remote control cars, home automation systems, internet radios, or nearly any other IoT you can think of for prototyping a project idea or to build standalone projects. With the Complete Arduino Starter Kit & Course Bundle, you can do all of this and more…

Few objects have the same level of rebellious punk cred as a pair of black Converse Chuck Taylor All Stars (see: Ramones), so it’s no surprise that the brand has always tried to appeal to music fans over the years with various limited editions and marketing campaigns. For their latest––and perhaps silliest––Converse Chuck Taylor yet, the company teamed up with wearable technology experts CuteCircuit to create a shoe with an embedded Wah peddle – AKA the Converse All Wah. The shoe was previously an experiment by experience design agency Critical Mass to coincide with the launch of a Converse social media campaign. If CuteCircuit built the refreshed model anything like how…

As the creator of design documentaries Helvetica, Objectified, and Urbanized, filmmaker Gary Hustwit has made a name for himself by opening up the worlds of graphic, industrial and urban design to the general population with compelling interviews that to this day are among the best of their kind. For his latest––and most ambitious––project, Hustwit is making the world’s first feature documentary on Dieter Rams with never-before-seen footage and new interviews with the iconic 84-year-old German industrial designer best known for his philosophy of “less but better” design. Fans of Hustwit’s Objectified will be quick to note that the filmmaker interviewed Rams before about the role of design in our lives…

With a Masters degree in Mechanical Engineering and over 9 years of experience at NASA (7 years of which were spent working on the Curiosity Rover), Mark Rober knows a thing or two about how to make stuff work. More recently, Rober teamed up with fellow engineer friends David and Ryan from the YouTube channel Eclectical Engineering for his best project yet: the world’s largest Nerf blaster. Modeled after the existing $29.95 Nerf N-Strike Maverick, the 4-foot-tall scaled up version of the foam dart blaster shoots massive foam darts made from pool noodles and toilet plungers at an impressive 40 mph thanks to an onboard 3,000 PSI air tank. https://youtu.be/57MKxz4pJKE…

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! Silk 2 – Interactive Generative Art “Relax, express yourself, and create mandalas and wallpapers. With…

Presented by In seismically active, emerging nations that have suffered through devastating earthquake damage, rebuilding communities doesn’t just end with repairing homes, schools and other community structures – it ends when a foundation has been laid for a safer, more prosperous community. Unfortunately, many rebuilding efforts are based on routine cookie-cutter procedures that are incapable of any permanent improvement lasting long after the rebuilding crew has gone home. Working alongside world-class architects, builders and engineers from around the world to overcome challenges involved with teaching basic earthquake-resistant construction principles to locals, global nonprofit social enterprise Build Change is indeed changing what it means to design and rebuild communities in these…