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. This week we have an app that lets users – both young and old – create a variety of machines from directly within their iPhone, a new offering from Linkedin that aims to make connecting with coworkers a seamless experience, a slick audio player for Android devices and more……

Although we’ve been seeing some incredible developments in additive manufacturing over the past year ranging from 3D printers that can print in zero-gravity environments to 3D printers that can produce high resolution objects in just minutes, it’s no secret that there’s still a lot of terrain left to be discovered in terms of one day using additive processes to create more complex multi-material assemblies. More recently, MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory – also known as CSAIL ­– have developed the MultiFab 3D Printer, a multi-material 3D printer that’s capable of printing in ten different materials within a single print including plastic housings, lenses, circuit boards and wiring, among…

This week’s Spotify-powered SolidSmack Radio Playlist brings an entirely new playlist of face-melting great music to help propel you through those laborious, tedious design tasks for the next few days. So whether you find yourself inking markers until they’re dry, grinding material through a bandsaw or flying through a CAD model, consider these tracks as a tool for your process. This week we’ll start off with “No. 4” from Khruangbin and work our way through some Tosca, Apparat, Massivan, Wax Tailor and others before wrapping up with “Get a Move On” from Mr. Scruff. As always – do you have any suggestions for next week’s playlist? How about a playlist…

As a highly versatile natural energy carrier that also happens to be the most plentiful element in the universe, hydrogen has been used to power everything from cars on the road to NASA space shuttles – but could it also be the key towards squeezing more battery life out of our laptops and mobile devices in the not-too-distant future? If recent developments from British power technology firm Intelligent Energy are any indication, we just might be able to carry our devices – including impossibly slim iPhones – for days at a time without needing a charge. For their patented hydrogen-powered fuel cell (‘battery’) design, the team of engineers and scientists…

Don your favorite bath robe, cream that coffee and get comfortable with this weekend’s SolidSmack Weekend Reader. This week we saw everything from a behind the scenes look at the new paintball-inspired Nerf product line, the latest touch-based peripheral from Touchjet, a working paper engine model, a closer look at the assembly and testing behind G-Shock watches and more… So lay back, relax and take a load off while reading the top ten stories on SolidSmack this past week. Oh and uh…don’t forget to shed some much-needed sunlight on your face, too.

We flew around the peak. The moss fires put us in a orange haze and gave the air a sappy taste. We wouldn’t be able to set down anywhere nearby, so we hung the drag lines out the side, hoping that whatever was down there shrieking wasn’t large enough to pull us down with it. We would have to power up once we felt the catch, and pray the torque wouldn’t break these links. Tor Frick – Loads of luscious 3d mech, ship, and machinery with a muted color pallet and filtered lighting that make the concepts pop, pop, pop. Brand Machine – Corporations will keep making cool Rube Goldberg…