Hasta La Gadget!

There’s been a fundamental disconnect for as long as desktop 3D printers have been an affordable reality: how can consumers easily create 3D models to be printed? At the moment, the best solutions for finding objects to 3D print are databases like Thingiverse — places where you can search for and download files that most closely match what you’re looking to create. The shortcoming with such systems is clear: what happens when no one’s taken the time to create the files you want? Two other, more customizable solutions are steadily becoming a reality for home users. The first is 3D scanning, as typified by products like Microsoft’s next-gen Kinect and MakerBot’s prototypical, lazy Susan-esque Digitizer.

Even once these become more mainstream products, however, they’ll no doubt continue to have their shortcomings. Namely, how to create a product from scratch and how to touch up an existing object. That’s where software solutions come in, and 3D Systems has been hard at work on a product it’s sure will help bridge the gap between your imagination and the print platform. Cubify Sculpt is a sort of Photoshop for 3D printing, a simplified tool that doesn’t require any sort of knowledge in the world of CAD to help make an idea a 3D-printed reality.

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Any way you look at it, nine thousand dollars is a heck of a lot to spend on a television. But in the case of Samsung’s 55-inch Curved OLED set, it’s a fair share less than the $15,000 we heard quoted just last month. Just like LG’s equivalent, the Samsung KN55S9C was designed with a curved profile in order to “envelope” viewers — your viewing experience is improved, in theory, because you’re more immersed in the display. The OLED set includes the company’s Multi-View feature, which lets two people watch different programming at the same time when using compatible active 3D glasses, and it’s compatible with the Evolution Kit Samsung introduced at CES. The 55-inch KN55S9C is on its way to select retailers, and can be yours for the considerable sum of $9,000.

Update: The set will be available tomorrow (August 14th) on Samsung.com. Additionally, Consumer Reports has already managed to review the TV, giving the Samsung KN55S9C high marks, despite its sky-high price.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD, Samsung

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The LG G2, the company’s latest Android smartphone, is here, and we’ve been spending some hands-on time with the 5.2-inch flagship to see how it shapes up in a crowded market. LG has dipped into all of its different divisions – displays, batteries, and more – to cherry-pick their best technologies, pairing them with Qualcomm’s […]

Earlier today, Philips announced two new add-ons for its app-controlled Hue system: LivingColors Bloom, a standalone portable fixture, and LightStrips, a 6.6-foot LED tape that you can affix to any surface using the included adhesive back. Both products are fully compatible with the existing Hue system, including the base station and three-bulb kit that launched at Apple Stores last year. Knowing that part of the solution’s appeal is its quick and easy setup, we decided to build out a five-light rig at home using three standard bulbs, one Bloom and one LightStrips set. It took less than an hour to get up and running, including swapping out bulbs, running power to LightStrips and setting up the base station and app.

In order to take full advantage of available “scenes” (lighting color macros based on uploaded images), you’ll want to install all of your bulbs in one room or open space. You can very easily control the color and brightness of each unit using the Android or iOS app, however, so if you prefer to go that route, there’s no reason you can’t install Hue all over your house, as long as you don’t go beyond the 50 maximum units each base station can support. For now, most of the available scenes support one through three fixtures, not the five you’ll end up with if you have one complete kit, a Bloom and LightStrips in your home, so we avoided using scenes for the time being. If you’re using app version 1.1 on iOS, you can take advantage of IFTTT integration, too, letting you set up a virtually endless number of macros.

Even with five Hue fixtures in a small space, the room was a bit too dark — this solution works best for accent lighting, so unless you’re prepared to use 20 bulbs in a room, you’ll probably want to mix in traditional fixtures, too. Still, Hue serves its purpose well, and we definitely see the appeal despite the $200 you’ll spend on the base kit, $80 for the bloom and $90 for the LightStrips. See our installation in action in the hands-on video after the break.

Filed under: Household, Wireless

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Remember that SOL Republic Bluetooth speaker that made a sneak appearance at Verizon’s Droid event? Well, it’s actually official now and the company wants to ensure its first foray into audio outside headphones is a success. Dubbed the Deck, the speaker is the result of a team-up between SOL and Motorola, with SOL providing its audio know-how and Motorola handling the wireless connectivity bit. The $200 speaker features a flat design that might fit into a pants pocket. Vertically positioned drivers and a side-facing port provide 360-degree sound, and an outdoor mode boosts the highs and cuts the lows if you need to fill open areas with sound.

Additionally, deck boasts a usable range of 300 feet, a sprawling distance compared to the the usual 30-foot line-of-sight limit you’ll encounter on devices like the Beats Pill and Jawbone Jambox. Its Heist setting lets up to five devices connect without needing to enable a pairing mode and, like the name suggests, any user can steal the speaker by hitting play on their device. Rounding things out, you can expect roughly 10 hours of battery life, water-resistance (via a sonically-transparent bag), speakerphone functionality and a 3.5mm input / output. Interested? It costs $200 and is up for pre-order today in yellow, blue, red and “gunmetal.” Shipments are expected to begin before August is over. In the meantime, you can join us after the break for our initial impressions.

Filed under: Portable Audio/Video

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Source: SOL Republic, Motorola