Hasta La Gadget!

One of the coolest projects I’ve ever seen turn up on Kickstarter was the 3Doodler, which always reminded me of the mix between a 3-D printer and hot glue gun. The device is a pen that heats up strips of plastic allowing the user to draw three-dimensional shapes in the air.

The last time I talked about the project, it had racked up $2,060,000 and still had 19 days to go. The Kickstarter campaign officially ended on March 25 and is now funded. In the end, the project raised $2,344,134, which is incredible considering the people behind the project were only out to raise $30,000. That means they achieved an astonishing 7,813% of their goal.

The company is now taking additional pre-orders for the 3Doodler via their own website. However, if you pre-order the device now, you won’t get yours until after all Kickstarter orders have been delivered. Even on Kickstarter, some people late to the project have to wait until February 2014 to get their device, so if you order one now, you’ll be waiting almost a year to receive yours.

If you are one who loves drinking wine and pairing it up with every single meal, then you might have heard of Casa Mariol before. They are rather obscure though, as Casa Mariol is actually a family owned winery that is located in Poland, and in order to promote their fine wine as a business gift, they decided to go off the beaten path by thinking outside of the box. Since their target market are potential business partners, Casa Mariol decided to ship wine samples to them in pens instead of in bottles of wine.

These pens were specially filled with a unique kind of ink that is based on the winery’s best Cabernet Sauvignon. Casa Mariol has enough faith that the wine itself boasts of a special bonding quality, resulting in the possibility of strong business relationships. Of course, before arriving at this unique business gift, the house of Casa Mariol did spend plenty of time experimenting with the concoction, until they managed to achieve a consistency level that allowed it to be visible, letting you write with wine just like a standard issue pen.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: A Glimpse Into How Google Glass Will Be Used By Guys, Photon Shower Prototype Helps You Overcome Jet Lag,

Wacom’s dipped its electronic quill in a lot of stylus-enabled tablets, but hasn’t yet done what many of its creative pro users would like: build one of its own. It looks like that’s about to change as the Bamboo maker has posted a teaser on Facebook saying it’ll bring a mobile tablet “this summer” with a pressure-sensitive professional pen, multi-touch capability and an HD display. There are no other details like what OS such a device may boast, but if it offers its own functionality as well — say, Cintiq-style input on a desktop machine — then Wacom could be onto a winner.

[Thanks, Mark]

Filed under: Tablets

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Source: Wacom (Facebook)

It’s been nearly 30 years since the original Macintosh hit the scene, so that definitely makes me feel old. But despite being ancient technology, I still love the little computer that smiled at you when you powered it on, and frowned when it crashed. And while I’m currently working on a 2011 iMac with a 27-inch screen, I’ve finally found a way to keep a classic Macintosh on my desktop.

Thanks to Technabob friend, artist, and all around good guy Metin Seven, we can now have a happy Mac to hold on to our pens! It measures about 2.6″ x 2.6″ x 3.3″, and is perfect for holding onto all of your pens, pencils, X-Actos and other long and pointy desktop objects. Thanks to the miracles of 3D printing tech, you can get your grubby little mitts on this classic Mac pen holder for about $53(USD).

Just don’t try cramming a 3.5″ MacPaint disk into that tiny drive slot. It’ll take way more than a paper clip to get it out of there if you wedge one in there.

Inventor Falk Wolsky and his better half Mandy, a child care worker, were inspired to make the Lernstift (“Learning pen” in German) after seeing their son struggle with writing. They came up with a prototype that detects “writing movements” and alerts the user if he makes a mistake.

Currently, the prototype has two modes. Calligraphy Mode detects errors in form and legibility, while Orthography Mode checks the spelling and grammar. The Lernstift’s motion sensor also has one other advantage: the user can practice even without paper or any writing surface. It will supposedly be able to detect “words, gestures and symbols, even if you only draw them in the air.”

The Wolskys also hope to include a pressure sensor to teach kids not to grip the pen too tightly. The idea is that if the pen detects that the user is pressing too hard on it, it will vibrate in an intensity proportional to the user’s grip. They also want to equip the pen with a wireless module, so your teacher can send your embarrassing mistakes to your parents, other teachers and classmates in a snap. As if having your pen vibrate all the time wasn’t shameful enough.

The Wolskys – via their new company Lernstift UG – will seek crowdfunding for the Lernstift later this month, so keep your eyes out for that if you want to pre-order the pen. But if you’re willing to invest in the company, you can reach out to them right now via their website.

The pen sounds like a good idea, but I wonder how effective it will really be as a learning tool, especially in the use case that inspired it. I say that because the pen can only say when and where you are wrong, but not what you’re doing wrong and ultimately how to do it correctly. Should it also have a voice assistant, like an English teacher version of Siri? Or perhaps a small laser that traces out the correct answer? Or maybe it could provide advice by vibrating in Morse code?

[via Lernstift & Wired UK via Likecool]