Since announcing that they were working on an actual working hoverboard late last month, Lexus has been sporadically teasing Back to the Future fanatics and the curious general public alike with quiet updates on the board’s development. So far, what we know about “Slide” is that it uses magnetic levitation and liquid nitrogen cooled superconductors to keep afloat – supposedly in a controlled environment that features specially-designed metal floors that works in tandem with the board. Also – it looks kinda cool. Yesterday, the company announced that on August 5th, they will be settling the ‘proof of hoverboard’ existence debate once and for all with a public unveiling of the…
The Smoth Mealer (pictured above) has been doing a lot of 3D printing lately. He has some thoughts he’d like to share.
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 a custom lockscreen app for staying on top of all of your notifications, a sleep cycle alarm clock for helping you through those power naps, an updated version of one of our favorite podcast apps and more… Do you have an app suggestion that has…
There has been much fanfare around 3D printers in recent years. Meanwhile, you rarely hear about the laser cutter in mainstream media. Honestly, I am not sure why. Perhaps it is because the laser cutter doesn’t have a charismatic evangelist like Bre Pettis. Hey laser cutter manufacturers, I’m pretty charismatic and available, wink wink. It seems to me like it should sell itself. They had me at frickin’ laser! But at the big end of year ball, everyone wants to dance with 3D printer, and the poor laser cutter is the wallflower. Here is the thing, just because the laser cutter isn’t on the prom court doesn’t mean that it…
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 things off with “Let It Happen” from the latest Tame Impala release and work our way through a solid mix of trip-hop inspired beats including those from Massive Attack, Bonobo, Morcheeba, Air, Tosca and others before wrapping up with “You Hid” from Toro y Moi. As…
Although some of us may refer to 3D printing as “a tool in our toolbox” for when the need to rapid prototype arises, one Florida design engineer recently took the saying quite literally. Chad Bridgewater, an employee at Florida’s Boca Bearings, recently modded an old vintage Huot toolbox to create an expandable 3D printer that can be folded up and carried when not in use. The aged toolbox, which was previously used as a “Blower Repair Kit”, featured a fold-down front panel that made it an ideal candidate for creating an expandable print bed. To ensure that the concept would work, Bridgewater started by building a mockup using parts from…