Aug 29
The Digitizer is about the size of a portable 45 rpm record player — with a laser-shooting accessory attached to the back.
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Aug 28
If the words “ARM-powered wireless Arduino” send your heart aflutter, then you might be interested in… Flutter — a development platform with the aforementioned qualities. The Kickstarter project claims the device has a usable range of over half a mile, letting you nail that wireless letterbox-checker project with ease. Similar tools, such as Xbee and Zigbee already exist, but the $20 price tag for the Flutter basic, and $30 for Flutter Pro (adds battery charging, another button, more memory) make this a tempting option for tinkerers on a budget. So, if building that mesh network of quadrocopters has been sitting at the top of your to-do list for too long, we recommend you get backing right now.
Filed under: Networking, Internet
Via: Ycombinator
Source: Kickstarter
Aug 16
Daily Roundup: Laptop buyer’s guide, Apple’s gold-colored iPhone, Withings Pulse review, and more!
Posted in: Today's Chili
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.
Jul 17
Fresh from impressing President Obama, Bill Nye and LeVar Burton, WaterColorBot — sorry, Super Awesome Sylvia’s WaterColorBot — is ready for prime time. The makers are taking to Kickstarter in order to sell the robot, which transfers vector art and trackpad daubs to paper without the mess of doing it yourself. The team needs to scrounge together $50,000, and a pledge of $295 will get you an unassembled, DIY kit. If you want to see the unit in action (hosted by Super Awesome Sylvia herself) then head past the break.
Filed under: Misc, Peripherals
Source: Kickstarter
Jun 12
If knitting is the domain of needles, yarn and sewing machines, then a digital fabrication project based in Tokyo wants to add ‘data glitches’ to that list. Fusing fashion with technology, Glitch Knit uses a method called “Glitch Embroidery’ to “sew” custom fabrics and knitted items like scarves with a slight difference.
Instead of neat rows of carefully knitted stitches, Glitch Embroidery is based on the idea of using intentionally damaged data to cause errant needle movements. What results are fabrics that visually and physically represent otherwise intangible glitches in data. Created by fashion designer Nukeme , Glitch Knit is inspired by a growing number of experiments that are fusing traditional crafts with computing and was one of the Jury Selections at the 2013 Media Arts festival in Tokyo.
A Brother KH-930e knitting machine is “hacked” using an Arduino Duo so that it can be connected to a computer. This process enables the knitting machine to turn any digital image or pattern, even those created in graphics programs like Photoshop or Paint, into a knitted fabric.
Nukeme then uses a hex editor to open up the raw binary data of an image and purposely damages the image by rewriting the data.
The image is then opened in a program which allows the user to resize their glitched image and send it to the knitting machine to be turned into fabric.
The bottom half of the image below is glitch, the top half is the original image.
The glitch fabric being knitted.
Glitch Knit is an interesting way of physically exploring and representing errors in data that we usually only encounter as malfunctioning software or frustrating experiences. By purposely centering the design of the fabric around glitches, Glitch Knit playfully subverts the way we respond to errors that occur in the data-saturated world around us.
Glitch Knit is a project supported by Shibuya Fab Lab and was created by Nukeme, Tomofumi Yoshida and uses software made with Processing by So Kanno,
Jun 01
Most days, I make my daily java using a stove-top espresso maker. They make coffee quite quickly, and I don’t have to surveil it while it’s working, so I can do some other tasks at the same time. This coffeemaker is very minimal. You don’t need much to make your own cup, almost anywhere.
The MANUAL Coffeemaker was designed by Craighton Berman, a design studio based in Chicago. It focuses your coffee-making efforts on a single cup at a time, ensuring you’ll get the best cup of java possible.
This is a slow extraction coffee appliance, and it will sit quietly on your counter top, allowing you to control the preparation. It’s been designed to maximize the time that the water and ground come in contact, ensuring the most robust cup of joe.
It’s an interesting idea, and I can see this working well in office settings which sometimes do not have a drip coffeemaker where people usually have to settle for instant coffee.
[via Leibal via designyoutrust]
Mar 03
Adafruit’s new Internet of Things Printer goes wireless, uses Raspberry Pi (video)
Posted in: Today's Chili 
Adafruit’s just outed a new Internet of Things Printer kit that’s traded in its ethernet connection for WiFi. Instead of using an Arduino Uno like its wired sibling, the new DIY hardware is built with a Raspberry Pi Model B running Raspbian Linux. Programmed in Python, the software on the box wields the Python Imaging Library, which gives folks flexibility when it comes to typography and graphics, and can leverage the language’s raft of libraries. If you’re not in the mood for coding, however, the contraption brings a few sample applications that’ll print out daily weather reports, sudoku puzzles, tweets and images on 2.25-inch wide receipt paper. The project rings up at $189 — $100 above its predecessor — but it isn’t up for sale quite yet.
Filed under: Misc, Peripherals
Source: Adafruit Blog, Adafruit
Aug 01
There’s something universally appealing about the concept of a 3D printer — that concept being an automated system capable of turning computer code into real-world objects. I found myself forced to give a brief overview of the technology to AOL employees in our shared New York City office space after a particularly noisy initial run of MakerBot’s Replicator. Reactions to such explanations tend to follow a fairly standard arc, beginning with wide-eyed wonder as one attempts to wrap their brain around the idea, followed almost immediately by a list of things they’d love to print out, given a chance. This is usually coupled with questions like “can it print food?” and “can I print a car?” Both of which speak to that larger, vitally important question: “can I print anything useful?” This, in turn, speaks to another important concern: “how long until it pays for itself?”
When we received an unexpected package from the folks at MakerBot last Friday, we realized it would afford us the opportunity to field some of these questions. Though, before opening the thing, we can tell you pretty confidently that, if you’re looking for something that will “pay for itself,” that answer won’t come in a giant cardboard box with a MakerBot logo on the side. Some key questions are a little less straightforward, however, like whether or not this technology is ready for consumers — or if it’s still just the territory of enthusiasts.
Continue reading MakerBot Replicator impressions: the dawning of 3D printers in every home?
Filed under: Peripherals, Robots
MakerBot Replicator impressions: the dawning of 3D printers in every home? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Aug 2012 16:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Jul 09
According to Gizmodo alumnus and extraordinaire coffee connoisseur Matt Buchanan, this coffee maker seems interesting: More »
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