Cubibot promises to be the world’s smallest 3D printer

Why it matters to you

Think 3D printing is out of your reach? Think again, thanks to Cubibot.

3D printing is no longer reserved for the highly affluent or highly technical. Just about anyone can experience the magic of this 21st century printing technique, thanks to the team behind Cubibot, And now that the barriers to entry have been eliminated, demand is clearly very high. Just half an hour after launching its Kickstarter campaign, Cubibot raised more than $150,000, and at this point, has already raised more than $500,000 from nearly 1,700 backers.

Part of the appeal of the Cubibot, of course, is its accessible entry price point of $149. But not only will it spare your savings account, it also won’t take up a lot of space on your countertop. Heralded as the world’s most compact 3D printer, the Cubibot boasts cloud-printing capabilities, a heated bed, and of course, a companion mobile app.

“We’ve been perfecting Cubibot for over two and a half years to achieve a smarter, safer and easier-to-use personal product that makes 3D printing accessible to the masses and it does not require 3D printing expertise,” according to Aria Noorazar, Co-founder of Cubibot, which is based in the San Diego Innovation Center. “If you can set up and use a regular printer, you can use Cubibot.”

The countertop device, which fits onto virtually any tabletop, boasts a host of features that make it suitable for first time printers and experts alike. For example, there’s a fully automated smart self-leveling build platform; the ability to print in PLAs, ABS, nylon, and other materials; an easily accesible web-based platform; a high-temperature nozzle; and plug-n-print capabilities, which means all you need to do to operate the Cubibot is plug it in and click on print.

The Cubibot prints in resolutions of between 50 and 300 microns, with print speeds of up to 80 millimeters per second. The machine comes loaded with CubiSoft, the web-based software that allows for an easy out-of-the-box experience. Simply design within CubiSoft and hit print for your design to come to life.

“We hope to give people the freedom to create their designs whether they’re already 3D printer pros or if they’re completely new to 3D printing,” Noorazar said. “We invite the existing 3D printing community and newcomers who would want to support our mission to bring easy-to-use, compact, safe, remote, smart, and affordable 3D printing to the masses.”

Shipment is anticipated for February 2018.

Watch Hulu’s first teaser for Stephen King’s ‘Castle Rock’

Ever since Hulu announced Castle Rock, there’s been a lingering question: just what would JJ Abrams’ take on Stephen King’s universe look like? You now have a better idea. Hulu has posted the first trailer for the series, and it makes more than a few references to King’s many stories. Shawshank State Prison gets more than one nod, to start. Even the casting pays tribute. It star Bill Skarsgård shows up at one point, while Carrie’s Sissy Spacek is returning to King’s landscape — albeit as a different character.

The trailer doesn’t offer many clues as to the storyline, although that’s not surprising when Castle Rock isn’t slated to arrive until 2018. This is more about rekindling buzz around the series (the first teaser appeared in Feburary) than giving fans everything they want. Still, what we’ve seen here is a good sign: it suggests that Abrams is eager to pay respect to one of horror’s best-known authors.

Via: Variety

Source: Hulu (YouTube)

Steven Soderbergh’s ‘Mosaic’ app lets you choose a show’s narrative

Many TV shows have apps, but they’re usually meant as nothing more than companions that encourage you to tune in. What if you could actually choose how the story is presented? Steven Soderbergh is trying just that. His upcoming HBO miniseries Mosaic will be accompanied by iOS app that gives you control over a branching narrative, letting you change how the story is told. And this isn’t just a conventional show cut up into pieces. Soderbergh says he produced the story with the app in mind, and there are even different conclusions. While it won’t be a Choose Your Own Adventure experience with big-name actors (Sharon Stone, Beau Bridges and Paul Reubens are part of the cast), it’s likely as close as you’ll get for a long while.

One of the best parts: effectively, you’re getting an early peek at the series. The Mosaic app will be available for free in November, two months ahead of the show’s HBO premiere in January. It’s meant to drum up hype for the show, of course, but it’ll also give you a rare opportunity to pick your own narrative and see how it compares to a ‘definitive’ take on TV. We wouldn’t count on other shows following suit (not every producer has the luxury of shooting scenes exclusively for an app), but it might inspire others who have more of a story to tell than a linear TV show allows.

Source: HBO (Medium)

Scientists create ‘tooth cracker’ device to harvest stem cells

That pesky wisdom tooth you’re glad you got rid of is apparently a great source of stem cells that could save lives. However, it’s not easy getting to the tooth root pulp that contains those cells: drilling into the tooth generates damaging heat that lowers the number of cells that can be harvested. In addition, the water used to rinse the tooth could have corrosive elements and the enamel particulates from the drilling could contaminate the pulp. To solve that issue, a team of researchers from the University of Nevada Las Vegas have developed a device they hilarious call the “Tooth Cracker 5000” to extract 80 percent of the stem cells a pulp contains.

The “Tooth Cracker 5000” has a clamp that holds a tooth in place while a blade carefully cracks it. This method doesn’t damage or contaminate the pulp and results in a perfectly halved tooth — the team proved that the technique is effective by testing it on 25 teeth samples and achieving a 100 percent success rate. The scientists were able to harvest 80 percent of those sample pulps’ stem cells, which is four times more than what you could typically extract from a pulp that was extracted by drilling or shattering teeth.

Dr. James Mah, team leader and director of UNLV’s advanced education program in orthodontics, said:

“Saying the test results were promising is a gross understatement. We realized we’d invented an extraction process that produced four times the recovery success rate for viable stem cells. The potential application is enormous.”

Stem cells, as you might know, can transform into other cells and have the potential to be used as treatments for various diseases. They could turn into neurons, for instance, and be used to treat people suffering from Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s. They could also turn into cells that produce insulin for patients with diabetes. Most stem cell therapies are still experimental, though. That’s why the next step for Mah and his team has something to do with preserving them: they’re thinking of developing a cryogenic process to freeze stem cells harvested from teeth for future use.

Source: University of Nevada Las Vegas

BlackBerry Motion arrives with no keyboard and a giant battery

That didn’t take long — mere days after images emerged, BlackBerry has launched the Motion. As expected, it’s effectively a KEYone without the keyboard… and a couple of extra perks. You’re still looking at a mid-range device with a Snapdragon 625 chip, 4GB of RAM, 32GB of storage and a 12-megapixel rear camera, just with a 5.5-inch 1080p display taking up most of the front (there’s still a fingerprint reader). However, it’s what you can’t see that makes the difference. The Motion is IP67 water-resistant, and it packs a whopping 4,000mAh battery. Given the middling processor, this likely translates to a phone that can easily handle a full day off the charger.

The software will still seem familiar. The Motion is running a customized take on Android 7.1 like its predecessor, and you’ll get the same security-focused apps intended to make it business- and privacy-friendly.

Don’t plan to snap one up right away. The Motion is only shipping to a handful of Middle Eastern markets at first (including Saudi Arabia and the UAE), with a price equivalent to about $460. There’s no mention of North American releases so far, although we wouldn’t rule them out given the KEYone’s availability at Sprint and Canadian carriers.

Even so, the phone may face an uphill battle in North America. The KEYone was considered expensive for the feature set when new, but you could easily point to the keyboard if you had to justify the price. You can’t do that with the Motion — you can mention the battery and what appears to be top-notch build quality, but there are other touch-only phones in this price range (say, the OnePlus 5) that offer faster performance and additional tricks. This is really for workers and those BlackBerry fans who remain loyal, but not so loyal that they insist on physical keys.

Being shown off today at @GITEXTechWeek #BBMotion pic.twitter.com/j15ZU63XWy

— BlackBerry Mobile (@BBMobile) October 8, 2017

Via: Android Central

Source: GITEX (Twitter), BlackBerry Mobile (Twitter)

The tabletop wargame classic ‘Ogre’ roars into the digital age on Steam

Why it matters to you

Many gamers fondly recall the turn-based strategy wargames from when they first got into gaming.

Steve Jackson is a legendary figure in the world of tabletop gaming. His company, Steve Jackson Games, was a prolific publisher of sci-fi themed wargames in the ‘70s and ‘80s with titles like Car Wars and GURPS, the “Generic Universal Role-Playing System.”  Now, thanks to a monstrously successful Kickstarter campaign, one of the company’s biggest hits is available for PC on Steam.

Tabletop wargaming is undergoing a renaissance right now, with new Kickstarter projects cropping up every month and games based on Fallout and Civilization hitting the market. Board games have proven to be the most popular game-related category on funding sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo.

The concept behind Ogre is simple enough – it’s an asymmetrical futuristic combat game, where one player controls the titular “Ogre” (a giant, nearly indestructible tank), while the other player wields a variety of conventional units such as hovercraft, infantry, and armor in a never-ending world war across irradiated battlefields. First released in 1977, the game was played on a hex grid with various terrain modifications using a large rulebook, damage charts, and multiple dice rolls. It was basically Bismark, except with hovercraft and laser beams.

Forty years later, Ogre is now available on Steam for a new generation of wargamers as the result of a wildly successful Kickstarter fundraiser. Back in 2012, Steve Jackson started the campaign to create a “Designer’s Edition” of Ogre, a massive 14-pound behemoth that would sell for $100. The modest goal of the initial campaign was $20,000.

As of this writing, funding has surpassed $900,000.

One of the campaign’s “stretch goals” was a computer version of Ogre, and it’s now available on Steam for $25. Developed by Auroch Digital, it’s a turn-based strategy game with a 10-mission solo campaign that pits you against different Ogres (Mark I to Mark VI) in various scenarios, as well as online or hot-seat multiplayer. The game also allows you to design your own maps and scenarios for custom games against computer or human opponents.

For fans of classic wargames, this is great news. Jackson has already announced that another campaign for Car Wars will begin soon (another stretch goal), so hopefully this will start a new renaissance of classic tabletop-style wargaming.

Microsoft exec says Windows 10 Mobile is no longer a ‘focus’

It’s no secret that work on Windows 10 Mobile has wound down given the lack of new devices and software features (talk of mobile Windows updates was virtually absent at Build, for example), but what’s happening with it, exactly? Well, Microsoft’s Joe Belfiore has just settled the matter. The Windows VP (and former Windows Phone program manager) informed Twitter users that new features and hardware for Windows 10 Mobile “aren’t the focus” any more. There will be fixes and security patches, of course, but you shouldn’t expect more than that.

As for why the platform has been all but dropped? The executive boils it down to one main reason: the difficulty of getting developers to write apps. Microsoft tried paying companies to produce apps and even wrote them itself when creators couldn’t or wouldn’t get involved, but the number of users was “too low for most companies to invest.” Why build an app for a relatively small bunch of Windows phone owners when there are many more Android and iOS users? Belfiore himself switched to Android for the “app/[hardware] diversity.”

It’s a bit more complicated than that, of course. You can point to a few other factors in Windows’ fate on phones, such as slowness in responding to Apple and Google as well as an inconsistent hardware strategy (you could rarely count on getting a timely sequel to a handset you liked). Whatever the reason, it’s safe to say that Microsoft isn’t just acknowledging that Android and iOS hold a clear lead — it’s quashing any hopes for a comeback, at least for the foreseeable future. That’s no doubt sad if you’re a long-time fan, but you’ll at least have software like the Microsoft Launcher and Edge to keep you company.

Of course we’ll continue to support the platform.. bug fixes, security updates, etc. But building new features/hw aren’t the focus. 😟 https://t.co/0CH9TZdIFu

— Joe Belfiore (@joebelfiore) October 8, 2017

Via: Windows Central

Source: Joe Belfiore (Twitter 1), (2), (3)

Solar car race kicks off 30th anniversary with a fresh challenge

It’s a special moment in the history of clean energy: the 30th anniversary World Solar Challenge has begun. A total of 42 solar-powered cars (the largest field to date) left Darwin, Australia on October 8th to travel roughly 1,880 miles to Adelaide. The race officially lasts a week, but it’s likely going to end considerably sooner for the front-runners — the world record holders, Tokai University, took just under 30 hours in 2009. As it is, technical hiccups knocked out several competitors in the first day of racing.

The first ones across the line are likely to be from the Challenger class, which focuses on pure speed. Cruiser-class cars, which include two or more seats, are focused more on efficiency and practical designs than reaching the finish before anyone else. The ones arriving near the end are likely to be in the non-competitive Adventurer class. There are already a few clear front-runners, including Tokai, Dutch teams (Nuon and the University of Twente) and the University of Michigan.

This year, the race regulations are a clear sign of how rapidly solar technology is changing. Teams have to use a smaller solar collector than before: cars in the Challenger class can have no more than 43 square feet of solar cells versus nearly 65 square feet for the previous race, in 2015. That’s half the area allowed on cars from the original 1987 race. In other words, technology is advanced enough now (both in solar cells and the underlying vehicle designs) that you don’t need a sea of panels to keep a car running.

The Challenge was started with the goal of fostering sustainable transport, and you can argue that it has had some success inspiring the automotive industry over the past 30 years. While you’re not going to drive a purely solar-powered car any time soon (they’d be relatively pointless in gloomier parts of the world), solar power is creeping its way into cars thanks to the rise of electric vehicles. After all, even a small roof array can extend the range of an EV or power minor components without hurting performance. Solar may have been a relatively impractical novelty in 1987, but it has some very tangible uses today.

Via: Reuters, ABC

Source: World Solar Challenge

Casio’s ‘2.5D’ printer can mimic leather and fabric

It’s safe to say that we’re all familiar with the term “3D printing” by now, but “2.5D printing?” As silly as it sounds, this may be a game changer for all the industrial designers out there. At CEATEC, Casio demoed this Mofrel printing technology that adds a range of textures to ordinary-looking sheets, before giving them the final touch with a 16-million-color inkjet.

The printed samples looked and felt surprisingly convincing with a great level of detail — down to the uneven surfaces plus puffiness of leather, the subtle bumps on stitches and even the coarseness of embroidered fabrics (especially for kimono designs). Hard materials like wood, stone, brick and ceramic can also be mimicked, though some of these may require additional coating for hardness or shininess.

The secret behind this trick lies within Casio’s “digital sheets.” These appear to be slightly thicker sheets of paper, but in fact, they contain a layer of micro powder between the inkjet layer and the paper or PET substrate. Each powder particle consists of a liquid hydrocarbon coated with a thermoplastic resin (acrylonitrile), and such combination expands when exposed to heat, then the structure is retained when heat is removed, thus leaving behind the mimicked texture on the sheet.

To better control the texture formation, the texture pattern is first printed onto the sheet’s top microfilm using carbon, then these infrared-absorbing carbon particles focus the heat onto the desired areas of the micro powder layer. According to Casio Digital Art Division’s Executive Officer Hideaki Terada, the sheet’s expansion is currently capped at 1.7 mm thick for the sake of stability, but 2mm to 2.5mm is also technically possible albeit with difficulty. The microfilm is then peeled off so that colors can be printed onto the textured surface i.e. the inkjet layer.

The entire process takes around three to five minutes for a single-sided A4 “digital sheet,” with each sheet costing around $10 (Terada might have been referring to the PET-based version for this). This may seem steep compared to ordinary sheets of paper, but considering the vast range of textures that this technology can simulate, it’s actually a lot cheaper — and faster — than prototyping with the real materials. This is a dream come true for pretty much all sorts of designers. The printer also supports A3 sheets, and you can get double-sided sheets for both sizes (A4 would take about nine minutes to process), though prices for these are unknown.

As for the Mofrel printer, the current version costs around a whopping five million yen or about $44,400, and it’ll be available as a B2B solution some time next year. That said, I was told that some top automobile makers as well as electronics companies got early access to Mofrel, and they are already using it for research and development. It goes without saying that this price point is a bit too much for us mere mortals, but Terada hinted that his team is already prototyping a consumer version, though we’re still one to 1.5 years away from its debut.

Source: Casio

EU raids banks over attempts to block financial tech rivals

You’d think that governments were waging a war against financial technology given reports of crackdowns and tighter regulation, but the opposite is true in Europe. EU officials have confirmed that they recently raided the offices of bank authorities in multiple countries, including the Netherlands and Poland, to investigate antitrust “concerns” that banks are stifling tech-driven newcomers. The banking establishment is allegedly preventing fintech companies from accessing account info despite customers granting permission, pushing people back to conventional services.

The EU stresses that the raids amount to a “preliminary step,” and that they’re not evidence of guilt. With that in mind, there’s at least reason to be wary. Germany ruled in 2016 that bank restrictions on customer data access were violating its competition laws, and it stands to reason that it’s not the only European country with that issue.

Wherever the investigation leads, it’s not coming out of the blue. EU rules coming into effect January 2018 will require that banks give third parties access to account data with your consent. Think of this as laying groundwork — it’s a not-so-friendly reminder that banks will soon have no choice but to let you use the fintech services you want.

Via: Financial Times

Source: European Commission