Commercial 3D printers will one day undersell the Makerbot. But does it matter?

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• Commercial 3D printers will one day undersell the Makerbot. But does it matter?
• Beautiful solar system mobile from really cheap stuff
• Look, There's a Disco Party In My Pants [LEDs]
• Earth Defense Force Returns To Stave Off Insect Armageddon [Sandlot]
• The Ben Heck Show launching next week, right into your regular viewing rotation
• How 6 Memorable Tech Companies Got Their Names
• Set a Low Home Price to Attract Buyers in Critical First Week [Selling]
• Google Is Really Freaking the Hell Out of Me [Blockquote]
• Power Up The Tiny Little Tractor Beams [Science]
• iPod nano code hints at possible video playback

Commercial 3D printers will one day undersell the Makerbot. But does it matter? Posted: 08 Sep 2010 04:00 PM PDT The MakerBot CupCake is a thing of beauty, an open-source 3D printer whose $750 price undersells the commercial alternatives by a ton. Plus, you get a fanatical group of users who'll help you debug any problem. Yes, the Dimension uPrint can make tighter models and outputs them quicker, but $20,000 excludes most amateurs. Then there's the new UP! PP3DP, which costs a mere $1,500 and features a quality that seems on par with the MakerBot -- still not a threat. But if 3D printers go mainstream and the price drops to an inkjet price point (say, $99) how can MakerBot compete? Anything made out of electronics can be made more efficiently and cheaply in a sweatshop than a Brooklyn warehouse. At some point, a commercial 3D printer will undersell the MakerBot. What then? In my previous post about the UP!, MakerBot user Dominic Muren weighed in with this excellent comment: Read the Full Story » | More on MAKE » | Comments » | Read more articles in 3D printing | Digg this!

Beautiful solar system mobile from really cheap stuff Posted: 08 Sep 2010 03:00 PM PDT If you'd told me yesterday that it was possible to make a solar system mobile from nothing but yarn and styrofoam craft balls that I'd be proud to hang in my living room, let alone give to a child, I would not have believed you. You win this round, Instructables user yosyam! More: Solar system necklace - "Each bead represents 20 million miles" Our Solar System -- An experiment with CSS3 border-radius, transforms & animations Read the Full Story » | More on MAKE » | Comments » | Read more articles in Crafts | Digg this!

Look, There's a Disco Party In My Pants [LEDs] Posted: 08 Sep 2010 03:00 PM PDT Marc DeVidts went from Miami to Atlanta to attend Dragon*Con 2010 and show off his party-in-a-suit custom, which is loaded with LEDs that are controlled from his iPhone. That's at least +259 courage points right there. [Makezine] More »

Earth Defense Force Returns To Stave Off Insect Armageddon [Sandlot] Posted: 08 Sep 2010 02:40 PM PDT Sandlot's lovable Earth Defense Force series will live to see another massive invasion. Publisher D3 has cryptically and modestly revealed the next entry in the giant bug and 'bot shooter, Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon. More »

The Ben Heck Show launching next week, right into your regular viewing rotation Posted: 08 Sep 2010 02:40 PM PDT Oh, Ben -- how far you've come. But now that you're about to star in your very own web show, don't ever forget that we had you first. Pleasantries aside, we couldn't be more thrilled to hear that the man responsible for pushing the art of modding into the mainstream is set to host a bi-weekly web TV show on the subject. The Ben Heck Show will see its first episode published on September 13th, where Ben showcases a mod of a controller for an avid gamer with a serious disability. Future episodes will highlight "projects inspired by the modder community, ranging from mods for a particular need to gadgets that help electronic enthusiasts work and play faster," which means that you and yours can send in ideas that may end up on the show. Head on past the break for a trailer, and be sure to pencil this one in right beside our own Engadget Show when it comes time for viewing pleasure. P.S. - Congrats, Ben! Continue reading The Ben Heck Show launching next week, right into your regular viewing rotation The Ben Heck Show launching next week, right into your regular viewing rotation originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 08 Sep 2010 17:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink   |  Element 14, Ben Heck  | Email this | Comments

How 6 Memorable Tech Companies Got Their Names Posted: 08 Sep 2010 02:36 PM PDT itwbennett writes "If Larry Page and Sergey Brin had stuck with the first name for their search engine, we'd be 'BackRubbing' instead of Googling. But the fun doesn't stop there. The unforgettable Go Daddy was first saddled with the eminently Seussian moniker 'Jomax Technologies.' And as for Yahoo!... its original name just rolled off the tongue: 'Jerry and David's Guide to the World Wide Web.'" Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Set a Low Home Price to Attract Buyers in Critical First Week [Selling] Posted: 08 Sep 2010 02:30 PM PDT Everyone wants to get the top dollar for their home but setting a high price and expecting potential buyers to haggle you down to a reasonable one is a sure fire way to scare them off before they even contact you. More »

Google Is Really Freaking the Hell Out of Me [Blockquote] Posted: 08 Sep 2010 02:20 PM PDT Today, Google's founder Sergey Brin said that they want to be your third "brain half". Yesterday, Eric Schmidt said Google knows where you are, what you like, and will suggest what you should do next. And that wasn't all. More »

Power Up The Tiny Little Tractor Beams [Science] Posted: 08 Sep 2010 02:20 PM PDT Researchers from the Australian National University have built a working tractor beam of sorts, ensuring that those wily rebels won't get far, as long as their spaceship is the size of tiny glass particles. More »

iPod nano code hints at possible video playback Posted: 08 Sep 2010 02:17 PM PDT It may not be anything more than a bit of excess or leftover code, but it looks like there's at least a hint of some possible video playback capabilities lying deep in the code for the new iPod nano (the internal settings property list, to be specific). As discovered by Erica Sadun over at TUAW, that includes options for things like TV subtitles, captions and alternate audio, and even a fit-to-screen option -- for the perfectly square aspect ratio of the nano's screen, perhaps? Of course, there doesn't seem to be an option to actually make video watchable on a 1.5-inch screen. iPod nano code hints at possible video playback originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 08 Sep 2010 17:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink   |  TUAW  | Email this | Comments

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