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 everything from a lamp inspired by “an old headlight found around the workshop” and a vintage racing-inspired motorcycle to a quick and easy way to make a pour-over coffee maker, how to add Star Wars movie FX directly from your iPhone, an impressive new video from Red Bull, and more… Ready? Let’s go! This week we look at: DESIGN Lampster “It all started from some old headlight we had around the workshop. We wanted to give them…

It seems as though in order to gain attention these days, automaker are increasingly looking outside of the cars they make and into new technologies that validate their credibility as an innovator. One only needs to be reminded of Lexus’ recent hoverboard publicity stunt to see that they actually, kind of, work. More recently, German automaker Audi pulled their iconic 1936 Auto Union Typ C “Silver Arrow” grand prix car out of their design archives and reproduced it using direct metal laster sintering (DMLS) – otherwise known as “metal 3D printing”. The 1:2 scale reproduction of the car, which famously knocked Mercedes-Benz off the winner’s podium in the late ’30s,…

By now, we’re well aware of the promises that augmented reality holds for professionals – whether it is used for showing a client a scale model through an iPad or for working with CAD in the “real world” – yet we’ve seen very little in the realm of consumers outside of novelty apps. Within the next month, Hyundai just might be one of the first major manufacturers to show how this technology can be truly useful outside of virtual room planners and zombie face apps. The automaker’s new Hyundai Virtual Guide app is the brand’s updated take on the traditional owner’s manual and allows Hyundai owners to get under the…

For some, it only exists if it includes mounds of bacon and a steaming stack of syrup-soaked hot cakes. For others, it’s as simple as a bowl of shredded wheat and a handful of blueberries. No matter how you prepare it, though, chances are your first meal of the day isn’t necessarily the most pleasurable meal to prepare when rushing out the door, right? But what if you could automate the breakfast-making and eating process just like you would automate a coffee maker to wake you up with the sweet smell of caffeine at 6 AM? In an article for Motherboard last week, Swedish Creative Technologist Simone Giertz recently took…

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 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 in to tips@www.solidsmack.com. Hit it! Microtrip “Microtrip is a physics arcade game set inside the body of a strange creature. Its unique…

Creative Tools, the same company that brought us #3DBenchy, the free 3D printer torture test model, recently released a new open-source, DIY 3D-printing project to make photographing small objects easier than ever. It’s called the Smartphone Photo Studio, a bench that holds your phone parallel to your small objects, allowing you to take great, detailed still shots of your trinkets. The photos are pretty impressive.