Hasta La Gadget!

Like The Longines Symphonette before it, Thingiverse’s army of 3D printing enthusiasts don’t rest, so when MakerBot put them to the task of building a better home for wayward birds, they naturally jumped into action. Not to put too fine a point on it, but while we’re still a ways from indoor plumbing and the like, the American Craftsman Bungalow is surely the sort of thing any upwardly mobile winged friend would want to call home. The first place winner gets (fittingly) an Eggbot, some PLA filament, display space at the MakerBot NY store and the admiration of birds everywhere. And if Hitchcock has taught us anything, it’s that you want those buggers on your side. You can download the schematics for all of the winners in the source link below, complete with the standard whistles and bells.

Filed under: Misc, Peripherals

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Source: Thingiverse

Despite dropping prices in the 3D printer market, not everybody’s able to get a MakerBot and print the objects of their desire. Today, however, eBay’s launching a way — aside from trekking to MakerBot’s brick and mortar — for folks to get their 3D printing fix. It’s called eBay Exact, an iOS app that lets you buy customizable 3D printed objects from MakerBot, Sculpteo or Hot Pop Factory. For now, you can choose from 18 basic objects that are mostly jewelry, but figurines and phone cases are also available. To place an order, you simply choose your object, then pick from the available customization choices (mostly color and materials options) and check out. It’s a fairly simple idea, but you know what’s better than us describing it to you? Seeing it for yourself… your download awaits.

Filed under: Software, Mobile

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Via: The Next Web

Source: eBay Exact

These days, drones are all the rage. Now, you can make your own with this handy Drone It Yourself kit from designer Jasper van Loenen. Droneifying (it’s a word now) your belongings is a relatively straightforward procedure; all you need is a 3D printer and the ability to follow simple instructions. Once you’ve printed the control unit and four motorized propellers, you can clamp them to whatever object you wish to make airborne. Technically, your homemade flying device would be an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, but Drone-It-Yourself has such a nice ring to it. To watch van Loenen’s kit in action, check out the video after the break.

Filed under: Misc, Robots

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Via: The Next Web

Source: Jasper van Loenen

Fedora 19 Schrodinger’s Cat may have a name that suggests it’s both alive and dead, but there’s no uncertainties about its release — the finished Linux distribution is now available on Fedora’s servers. The oddly-nicknamed OS mostly improves content creation. It beats Microsoft to the punch on 3D printer support by including object design and printing tools; budding programmers will also like Node.js support and a Developer’s Assistant that simplifies learning new code languages. While there’s many more updates than we can list here, it’s safe to say that Fedora 19 is a big update for many Linux fans, whether or not they appreciate Schrodinger’s quantum mechanics. You can grab the new build and its release notes at the source links.

Filed under: Software

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Via: Muktware

Source: Fedora Project (1), (2)

We often hear about the coming nanobot revolution, but just how are scientists planning on powering these future marvels? Well, researchers from Harvard and the University of Illinois may have found the solution in a 3D-printed battery: it’s smaller than a grain of sand, yet has areal energy and power densities comparable to your cellphone battery. The team used a custom 3D printer with a 1mm wide nozzle to deposit two separate lithium metal oxide pastes into comb-like shapes, which then hardened to create an anode and cathode. After adding an electrolyte, a sub-hair-width cell was created with “performance comparable to commercial batteries in terms of charge and discharge rate, cycle life and energy densities.” Those could someday wind up in medical devices, wearable electronics or tiny flying drones, for instance. To see how they did it, check the video after the break.

Filed under: Science

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Via: Gigaom

Source: Advanced Materials (subscription)