Since announcing their TV show “America’s Greatest Makers” at the Intel Developers Forum last Summer, the chipmaker has had high hopes that the armchair inventor-based show would build off of the success of their “Make It Wearable” digital campaign and take mainstream interest in hardware tinkering to the next level. This Tuesday, April 5th, we’ll get our first glimpse of the new show and what producer Mark Burnett has called “the next evolution of storytelling, told simultaneously across many platforms and in many different ways.” The reality competition show, which pits 24 teams of Makers against each other with weekly build challenges leading up to a $1 million final, heavily…

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. This week we saw a sleek wood handlebar that rivals any midcentury furniture piece, an incredible self-sustainable planter, a handy new 3D sketching app for iPad, how to make a hot glue gun with found materials, a montage of the best VFX in the history of cinema and more… Ready? Let’s go! This week we look at: DESIGN Bel & Bel Scooter Chair “Bel & Bel Chair is made from original parts of the legendary Italian scooter from the 80’s. Re-using…

The wild and unpredictable color combinations that result from melting crayons has been the cornerstone of many an arts and crafts project for decades – but why haven’t we seen a wood shop project yet? Whether or not you have a particular fondness for the Grateful Dead and funny tasting mushrooms, it’s hard to deny that the color explosion that results from turning a brick of melted crayons on a lathe is anything short of mesmerizing. In this demonstration from self-described “tool geek” and woodworker Peter Brown, a total of 256 crayons are delabled and melted into a giant brick that is then turned into a vase somewhere underneath a…

As a research group focused on making user experiences more seamless, natural and integrated into our physical lives, MIT’s Fluid Interfaces research collective exists at the forefront of what’s next in interaction design. Founded by tech pioneer Pattie Maes, the goal of the group is to design and develop interfaces that are a more natural extension of the human mind, body and behaviors using novel form factors that make use of a full range of sensory capabilities. More recently, the group turned their attention to a Sharpie-wielding drone that someday just might replace neck-straining vertical whiteboard sketching for good with their “Flying Pantograph”. Created by students Sang-won Leigh and Harshit…

It’s hard to believe that a year has already passed since Microsoft’s last Build conference in San Francisco; the event that revealed the first in-depth look at the company’s HoloLens. With the device already shipping out to developers this week, it’s clear that Microsoft has been making headway over the past year to bring the holographic computing experience to the masses. So what will the next year bring for the HoloLens, Windows 10 and the rest of the modern Microsoft experience? This year’s Build 2016 starts today at 11:30AM ET / 8:30AM PT. The company will be live streaming through their Channel 9 site. In the meantime, here are ten…

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! Frax – The First Realtime Immersive Fractals “Frax is an art program that puts the…