You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours — all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
Staples is pushing its consumer printing offerings into the third dimension. The office supply chain has begun selling 3D Systems’ Cube printer through its site, as of this morning. Come the end of June, the WiFi-enabled, semi-portable printer will be hitting a select number of retail locations for $1,300. The Cube’s availability follows news of some higher-end 3D printing offerings at a very select number of Staples locations. Check the source link below to pick up the Cube in one of five colors — and if you need some enthusiastic testimonies regarding the revolutionary nature of consumer 3D printing, be sure to click through to the press release below.
Source: Staples
The notion of a physical store dedicated to 3D printing is still new to us, and Solidoodle’s Asia-focused plans didn’t give much reassurance that we’d see more shops in English-speaking countries all that soon. iMakr may have just come to our rescue by opening what it claims is the world’s largest 3D printing store in London’s Farringdon area, occupying 2,500 square feet across two floors. The showroom has both workshops as well as printers to buy on the spot, including the Solidoodle 3; we’ve reached out to get the full selection, although iMakr’s online channel already sells MakerBot’s Replicator 2 and a few less immediately recognizable brands. We’re still far from having a 3D printing store on every corner, but the London store gives the retail concept some legitimacy.
Filed under: Peripherals
Source: iMakr
We didn’t find much in the way of news at the Inside 3D Printing Conference and Expo here in NYC (and, we’re sad to say, our press badges were just old-fashioned 2D printed), but there was plenty to look at, thankfully. Between the slew of business and consumer devices and the boatload of printed objects, the event was part business conference, part art show. And while the real star was the still-fresh world of desktop home printers, plenty of companies brought out their big-gun industrial devices (including at least one really sweet giant 3D scanner). Peep the gallery below to check out some of the eye candy from the event.
Filed under: Peripherals
Water and fat — those are the two primary building blocks Oxford University researchers have used to 3D print the droplet you see above. Sounds unremarkable until you consider its intended application as a human tissue replacement. By stringing together thousands of these so-called droplets (which measure about 50 microns across) using a custom-built 3D printer, the Oxford team believes it has engineered a “new type of material” that could eventually be used to ferry drugs throughout our internal systems to a specific target site, fill-in for damaged tissues or even mimic neural pathways via specially printed protein pores. The potential applications for medical science are impressive enough, but consider this additional benefit: since the droplets contain no genetic material, scientists can completely sidestep all the ethical red tape surrounding the alternative stem cell approach to artificial tissue. At present, the team’s been able to string about 35,000 of the droplets together, but there’s no real cap as to how large or even what type of networks can be made. If the money and equipment are willing, this Oxford team can make scifi dreams come true.
Via: National Geographic
Source: Oxford University
Is 2013 the year that 3D printing goes mainstream? The technology is already decades-old, having been used to great effect in the world of industrial prototyping, but as more and more companies enter the fray, the world of consumer-facing printing seems less and less of a pipe dream. Is the world ready for a 3D printer on every desk? Join us as we speak to Hod Lipson, Professor of Engineering, Cornell University; Max Lobovsky, Co-Founder, FormLabs; and Avi Reichental, President & CEO, 3D Systems.
For a full list of Expand sessions, be sure to check out our event hub.
Filed under: Peripherals
We honestly hadn’t given it much thought, but now that it’s been brought to our attention, Makerbot and Adafruit really do make an awesome duo. Think about it: one makes 3D printers, the other sells Arduino boards and pretty much everything else a tinkerer could possibly want. So it makes sense that the two companies are teaming up on something: we just heard they’ve started selling a limited edition version of Makerbot’s Replicator 2 3D printer, which will come bundled with three DIY kits you’d normally buy on a site like Adafruit. These include the Raspberry Pi, which you all know very well, along with the Timesquare DIY Watch Kit and MintyBoost, the open-source hardware charger.
You might wonder why someone might need all that in one box, but the idea is that you can use the printer to create the sorts of custom parts that don’t necessarily come with the kits — something like a band to go with your Timesquare watch, or a case for the MintyBoost. All told, you’ll need $2,296 before you can make this your next impulse buy. Don’t get too put off by the price, though — the Replicator 2 by itself would cost $2,199 without any kits included.
Filed under: Misc
Source: Adafruit
The standard crop of 3D printers are all well and good, but what about those times when you need to print something really, really big? Gigabot’s hoping to fill in that gaping void with a build envelope of 24 x 24 x 24 inches — 30 times the volume of a standard consumer device, by its calculations. The device is a beast, naturally — and metal one, at that. It’s so big, in fact, that it can support a full-sized laptop sitting atop an attached arm.
The project is the brainchild of re:3D, an Austin-based startup, which has turned to Kickstarter to help bring the Gigabot into the world — and from the looks of it, the company should hit its $40,000 goal, no problem. You can pick one of these up for a $2,500 pledge, which gets you everything you need to build one at home. Video of the printer in action after the break.
Gallery: Gigabot 3D printer hands-on
Filed under: Peripherals
Source: Kickstarter
Earlier this week, an un-named man in the United States had 75 percent of his skull replaced with a 3D-printed plastic prosthetic, the first-known operation of its kind. The transplant was carried out by Oxford Performance Materials, which received approval to carry out such procedures from the US Food and Drug Administration last month. The company crafted the artificial skull based on a 3D scan of the patient’s head, and the polyetherketoneketone prosthetic sports holes meant to encourage the growth of new cells and bone. According to the firm, about 500 people in the US could benefit from this technology each month. It’s a fascinating implementation of a technology that’s better associated with figurines and animation, but here’s hoping we never witness the innovation firsthand.
Via: Gizmodo
Source: News.com.au
Looking for an “upscale fashion shopping experience” in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan or Belarus? Solidoodle’s got your back. The company is set to launch 3D printing stores in those areas, featuring its low cost 3D printers and “lifestyle” items created on said devices. The Russian store is set to be the first to open this summer. The company also used its press conference today to announce plans to sell printers in Brazil, Canada, Korea and Japan, as well as a join initiative with Georgia Institute of Technology’s Mars Society to test the devices in “harsh environments like Mars” (places like Utah, apparently). More info on the announcements can be found in an exceedingly enthusiastic press release after the break.
Filed under: Peripherals
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