Just over a year ago, SolidSmack reported that Astropad creators Astro HQ had successfully funded their latest project — Luna Display — on Kickstarter, having raised over $645,000 to bring the project to life. The (minimal) hardware and accompanying app claimed to seamlessly turn any iPad into a second display. Well, now it’s here; we…
You know what’s cool? Having the power of a PC in the palm of your hand. You know what isn’t cool? Not having the ability to use Photoshop when you have downtime on your travels. Well, this is about to change; iPad devices are about to get the FULL Photoshop experience. That’s right — you…
If you’ve been on the fence about finally entering into digital tablet sketching (or notetaking) territory, both Google and Apple revealed some great news for you this week. First up is the all-new $329 9.7-inch iPad. While marketed towards educators as a low(er) cost of entry to bring iPads into the classroom (the education-adjusted cost…
Ever since Apple’s beloved iPad was released, developers have been clamoring to create the ideal second screen experience. Now, over seven years since Steve Jobs presented the first iPad on stage, Astro HQ just might have cracked the code. The company—whom some might remember as the creators of Astropad, a utility for turning your iPad…
As one of the most useful suites of creative applications for designers on the iPad, the Morpholio collection of apps –– which range from digital sketching to portfolio management –– is indispensable for today’s on-the-go tablet creators. With the recent “Stencil” update to their Trace app last week, users can now create reusable digital “stencils” from…
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…
According to industrial designer Oscar Diaz, despite the performance and display capabilities of today’s tablets, many are underused when sitting idle on the desktop. Frankly, we couldn’t agree more. The London-based designer, who set up his own practice shortly after graduating from the Royal College of Art in London in 2006, set out to create…
While today’s tablet sketching apps are a dime a dozen, only very few of them actually get the user experience right – particularly when it comes to truly being useful rather than being an interface to digitally doodle. While few things could ever replace a simple back pocket sketchpad and a favorite pen, this generation’s…
Unless you’re a professional iPad sketcher – chances are you like to use a little bit of assistance with your (lack of) drawing abilities. For this, it’s hard to deny that Paper by FiftyThree is without a doubt the best in its category; some people have even admitted to being swayed into purchasing an iPad…
Regardless of one’s design or engineering background, one of the first steps in any design process is to seek some compelling reference images to help guide the direction of the design. Even concept and fantasy artists – those who create characters, vehicles and worlds that don’t exist – consistently come back to photographs of real…
For those needing to create presentations on-the-go, the iPad has been both a blessing and a burden; while it clearly enables users to do something, it lacks the power to create something that most people would feel comfortable standing in front of while giving a presentation. Ultimately, the tablet has become an in-between tool for…
Morphi is a free iPad app that allows users to quickly design and print items using touch alone; targeting younger people to inspire interest in design for all things 3D and artists/designers interested in taking a new approach. Back in June 2014, we covered their first release and we’re fairly impressed with Morphi’s powerful set of…
Despite the horror stories of unfulfilled orders and not to mention the thousands of half-inspired ideas, Kickstarter is still an extremely powerful crowdfunding platform for getting product design ideas off the ground…as long as project creators do their homework in advance. According to the company, a majority of their users that back projects are oftentimes…
Crowned as one of the best iPad Apps of the year by Apple, the GoldieBlox and the Movie Machine App is super-crazy and super-delightful. Designed used alongside the GoldieBlox Movie Machine engineering toy for girls (and boys!), I had the time of my life simply exploring this creative engineering and movie-animation app. First things first:…
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…
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…
Well, 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 professional and this week we have a list sure to…
‘Minimaluminiumalism’ isn’t an actual word (yet?)…but if we were to hear a word like it there’s a strong possibility that it would come from none other than everybody’s favorite ‘minimal/aluminum-loving’ industrial designer Jony Ive. The iconic Apple designer has seen his fair share of criticisms and parodies over the years but let’s be honest here…there…
Well, 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 professional and this week we have a list sure to…
The iPad stylus market has seen an interesting turn in recent months with the release of Wacom’s Intuos Creative Stylus and now this morning, the Pencil by 53. For anybody who has used the iPad app Paper by 53, you might be familiar with 53’s exceptional attention to detail in the user experience and their…
While the majority of us may find happiness in 3D prints based off of complicated geometry, there is still a population out there that would love to turn a simple 2D drawing into an extruded shape (cookie cutters anybody?). While the 3D printing market has expanded into 3D print pens and other novelties, the ease…
The term ‘Knolling’ has been around since the mid-1980’s and is centered around the practice of organizing any number of objects for a specific purpose in an easy-to-view manner. More recently, design blogs, style magazines, and recipe books have used the practice as a way to instantly communicate a grouping of objects—whether it be items…
Having been a user of Wacom pressure-sensitive products for years, my expectations going into testing the Pogo Connect pressure-sensitive iPad stylus were set at a pretty high bar. Up until the Pogo Connect came out, I always asked myself, “Do I really need to sketch something on my iPad or can I just wait until…
It sits there…staring across the room, waiting for something, anything from you. As the dust gathers within the crevices of it’s numerical keypad, it silently weeps CMYK tears that splash off it’s matte ABS plastic cheeks. When you leave the office, it stares at your monitor with misty cartridges as it remembers a day when…
Released yesterday on Kickstarter, the sleek ORA Sound System is a case that surrounds your iPad with 8 deafening speakers and solves one of the only compromises with the iPad: sound quality. In addition to the recently Kickstarted Zooka and Sound Cover iPad speaker systems, why the sudden popularity and what are the differences?
For those ‘Paper Junkies’ out there, your world just got a whole lot more colorful. FiftyThree has released a much-anticipated color upgrade to their Paper app, as well as a new touch sensitive feature for your iPad masterpieces.
It came to my attention this morning that Wacom, the purveyor of drawing tablets for your computer, has issued yet another iPad product under their Bamboo brand: Bamboo Paper. It’s pitched as “a natural and realistic writing and sketching application tool” as a “perfect complement to the Bamboo Stylus for iPad.” After playing with it…
After my rant about Wacom’s announcement of their aluminum Bamboo Stylus for iPads—and all other capacitive screens—Shapedad’s Ivo Beckers got ahold of me and asked me to try out his Eco Stylus. Turns out, it is actually made of bamboo. I waited until I had a good bit of experience with the new stylus before…
Hear that buzz? It’s the sound of your eyes glazing over in the pasty radiance of light while the capacity of your ocular cavities is subjected to the era of 3-dimensional space upon the screen of a hand-held device. That sentence may have been slightly too long, but when you’re viewing 3D on a 2D…
You may be familiar with the new crowd-funding product design craze. It’s ridiculous. The number of projects achieving funding is amazing. We’ve featured some on here and know of others who are preparing to launch their ideas into the crowd cashing cosmos. Recently, two interesting projects popped up which show how a small team is…
Last week, while Josh was in a travel-weary coma, I went through his wallet and found his login to SolidSmack. (Your wallet, Josh? That’s pretty lame, man.) I choose to abuse my new found access to the SolidSmack media empire by writing this rant… directed towards Wacom.
You’re sitting in a design review meeting. In a conference room. The dull buzz of the fluorescent lights match the mono-tone static of some voice in the room, but who cares, you’ve got a pen. Before you know it, you’ve inked an entire mural across the wall, the whiteboard and your boss’ face. He would…
Wouldn’t you know it? CNBC reports that the iPad is the “most quickly adopted non-phone electronic product” EVER in the history of all history.
There are a whopping 500 apps in Apple’s AppStore for architects and contractors. This includes apps categorized as “games,” “lifestyle,” and “entertainment.” While SimCity Deluxe might alleviate stress on the job site, it’s not going to help create layouts or access floorplans. So, Software Advice has slapped together a list of the best iPhone and…
I don’t even use Autodesk Maya, so I have no idea what I’m saying, when I say… This is JUST like Maya. EXACTLY like the morphing effects that make you go to the next Hollywood blockbuster, raise your fist and shout, “The director and visual effects department that made this film are making blood shoot…
You know that annoying guy who’s blocking the soda machine because he’s looking down at his iPhone? He might not be texting or leveling up on a game, he might just be designing an extremely life-changing product to serve you up a cold beverage without leaving your seat… and he might be using an app…
Well, I don’t know about you, but it’s been a tense couple of weeks watching the entries come in for the iPad model rendering challenge. The wait is over… Or is it? YES, it is! All together we had 28 submissions and over 50 renderings from people using a variety of top-notch rendering tools -…
Before you reach in that bucket and grab a week-old shard of melted plastic to gnaw on for a little iPad case-makin’ inspiration, look at what the necessity for flatness and reduced material usage has resulted in. Like many of you, Jeff Bare, of jbare designs, knew he would be getting an iPad the first…
If your nerves, family or free-time have been affected by the frenzy of the shiny new iPad from Apple, you’re not alone. In less than a month Apple sold over 1 million of the 10″ touch-screen tablets. However, only a small percent of those people are obsessed with getting a 3D model of the iPad…
Oh yes, it’s here party people. Apple released their iPad on Saturday, so I picked one up to toss around and see if it stacks up to all the hype. Personally, it tastes awful, but when you hit the little button on the front the screen lights up and makes you wonder if it will…
You can shake whatever you want, but if you’re a photo editor, graphic artist or cutting edge product developer, you’re gonna have tremors of pen tablet euphoria when you hear Wacom has a product redesigned especially for you. It may not be news about a multi-touch Cintiq or a portable Cintiq, but the new Wacom…