Hasta La Gadget!

Earlier today our brethren over at Engadget Chinese got to hang out with Huawei Device chairman Richard Yu, who was kind enough to inform us that his company will release a HiSilicon K3V3 chipset — the follow-up to the current quad-core K3V2 — in the second half of this year. What’s more, much like NVIDIA’s upcoming Tegra 4, the new platform will be based on the more powerful Cortex-A15 ARM architecture instead of Cortex-A9. Yu also hinted that the K3V3 will be featured in the successors to the Ascend D2 and the Ascend Mate, but our guess is that we won’t be seeing those at MWC next month. We shall tickle the man live on stage for more answers this Thursday.

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3D Systems isn’t exactly new to the consumer 3D printing space, but its history lies in professional additive manufacturing. Its machines have found homes around the globe in high profile businesses like Boeing. That hasn’t stopped the company from rolling out a pair of impressive home options at CES. The company’s CEO Avi Reichental stopped by our stage chat for a while and let us play with the two new devices, the CubeX and the second-generation Cube.

The Cube X is a rather beastly device. While technically it might able to sit on a desk, we wouldn’t exactly call it a desktop printer. The 1,030 cubic inch-build platform is large enough print a basketball, though, one that wouldn’t bounce very high. Such a build would take quite a long time however, with the lower 500 micron resolution taking up to 12 hours to spit out. If you bumped it up to 125 microns an easily breakable sphere would be yours in about 24 hours. Still, that’s quite a bit faster than some printers out there, and it can accomplish the feat in three colors — something no other consumer model we’ve seen is capable of. Even though we’ve seen high resolutions out of machines like the Replicator 2, the difference 25 microns makes is practically indistinguishable. Everything from chain mail to mugs are within reach. Rather impressively, just like its little brother, the CubeX relies on cartridges instead of spools for dispensing plastic — either ABS or PLA. 3D Systems even calls them “smart cartridges” since it can distinguish between the two plastics and adjust the properties accordingly.

Continue reading Eyes-on with 3D System’s CubeX and next-generation Cube (Update: video)

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You might remember that way back in September Makerbot took the wraps off its next generation of Replicators. Sadly, when the company invited us out for a sneak peak, the cutting edge Replicator 2X was no where to be seen. Thankfully Bre Pettis decided to swing through CES with the dual-extruding, ABS optimized version of its 3D printer in tow. Aesthetically there’s not much different about the 2X — it’s the same black body and a Stepstrudder that form the heart of the device. Though, there’s quite a number of tweaks to the basic feature set here. For one, instead of PLA (the corn-based plastic manufactured by MakerBot), the 2X goes for the ABS plastic favored by most other additive manufacturing devices. Since it has a tendency to crack and warp when exposed to extreme temperature fluctuations, the Brooklyn startup has brought back the heated build platform. The gaps in the frame have also been filled with clear plastic, and a pair of coverings have been added to the top and front to help keep the temperature inside stable.

MakerBot also announced an update to its MakerWare package that enables dual-color printing and the addition of an API to its Thingiverse. The new developer tools will allow customers to tweak and produce completely unique products on their desktop. The Replicator 2X should, hopefully, be available soon for $2,799. For more check out the gallery below.

Billy Steele contributed to this report.

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It’s usually a no-brainer — Mophie exits quickly out of the gate with a battery-equipped case soon after a new iDevice gets announced. This year, however, it appears iBattz is poised to hit it out of the park faster with two of its own iPhone 5 cases. Notably, each case comes packed with two swappable i9300 Li-ion battery packs (the same kind for Samsung’s rival Galaxy S III, seriously). The cells are rated at 2,200mAh each, which is notably larger in capacity than the iPhone’s roughly 1,400mAh batts. The streamlined Mojo Fuel (pictured) will set you back $90 come February, while argonauts can sang the ruggedized Mojo Armor for $100 in March. The cases charge via microUSB, and an external battery charger will also be included with each. The company has also detailed its waterproof AquaSeal Hi5, featuring a detachable 2,500mAh aluminium battery back — no further details just yet. We’ll be sure to report back if catch ’em on the show floor here at CES. Find the full press release after the break.

Continue reading iBattz beats Mophie to iPhone 5 charging case, ups the ante using interchangable i9300 batteries

Filed under: Cellphones, Misc, Peripherals, Mobile

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This shouldn’t come as a surprise after Steve Ballmer crashed the Qualcomm CES keynote yesterday, but at a follow-up briefing earlier today, the latter’s CEO Paul Jacobs reiterated his support for Windows Phone. The exec said “it’s too early to call the game” on Microsoft’s mobile OS, and emphasized that he “never counted Microsoft out” as it has a lot of resources plus benefits, especially with the tie-in with its enterprise software and Xbox. “It is growing, they are gaining traction. When you use the devices they work well. That’s pretty key,” said Jacobs. Well, we’re certainly fans of the Snapdragon-powered HTC 8X and Lumia 920, so we shall see.

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