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2
Mar

Hidden Instagram code hints at voice and video call feature


Instagram might be able to offer everything you need to keep in touch with friends in the future. TechCrunch has discovered hidden codes and icons for “Call” and “Video Call” in the platform’s and its standalone Direct messaging app’s Android APKs. Instagram refused to comment about TC’s finding, but APKs typically contain features developers plan to switch on later. Having the ability to make audio and video call from within direct messages would make Instagram an even bigger threat to Snapchat, which could spell trouble for Snap, seeing as Instagram Stories already has more users.

(TC reader Ishan Agarwal took this screenshot of the icons found inside the APKs.)

The features could also transform Instagram’s role in your life. In its current form, it serves as a platform where you can see snippets of your friends’ activities — their highlight reels, even — but you probably still rely on a chat app like Messenger to connect with them on a more personal level. If and when these features arrive, you won’t need to hop on another app anymore: you’ll simply have to open up your DM and hit the call button.

Source: TechCrunch

2
Mar

Moto Z2 Force India review: A great phone let down by a poor camera


Motorola is bringing the Moto Z2 Force to India six months after its global debut, and that puts the phone in a tough spot.

moto-z2-force-11.jpg?itok=QTuqL7af

Motorola launched the Moto Z2 Force in the U.S. over six months ago, and while the ShatterShield tech was a welcome addition that allowed the phone to stand out, the $720 retail price and woeful camera meant it wasn’t quite as good as flagships from Samsung and LG.

For its Indian launch, Motorola is making a few changes: the Moto Z2 Force sold in the subcontinent comes with 6GB of RAM and Oreo out of the box, and the phone is priced at a much more inviting ₹34,998 ($540). Positioning the phone in that segment is a smart move from Motorola, as it goes up against the likes of the OnePlus 5T, Xiaomi Mi Mix 2, and the Nokia 8.

Moto Z2 Force What you’ll love

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Back when Motorola unveiled the Moto Mods platform with the first-gen Moto Z, it said that it would support the ecosystem for three years, which meant there wasn’t a lot of room to alter the design language for future generations. Therefore, the Moto Z2 Force shares the same aesthetic as the Moto Z2 Play — including antenna lines across the border at the back — but there are a few differences that make it stand out.

The phone is made out of 7000 series aluminum, which gives it added durability and lightness. Then there’s the fact that the Z2 Force is just 6.1mm thick, making it one of the thinnest phones available today. The lightness combined with the durability of ShatterShield is a potent combination, as you don’t really have to worry about breaking the phone should it take the odd tumble.

ShatterShield is designed to make the Z2 Force more resilient to tumbles, and after exhaustively testing it over the course of the last month, I can attest to its effectiveness. In an age of fragile smartphones with glass backs and easily crackable screens, it’s almost cathartic to throw the Moto Z2 Force around. The fact that you can intentionally drop the device and be sure that it won’t take any damage is amazing, particularly for someone as clumsy as me.

There’s a plastic film applied to the display that makes it withstand tumbles, but ShatterShield goes way beyond that: the phone is designed around a shockproof aluminum chassis, there are two touch layers above the display, as well as an internal lens that provides added protection.

This is the most fun you’ll have with a phone.

The five-layer design ensures that the phone can take a pounding and come out without any damage. Motorola is confident enough in ShatterShield that it offers a four-year warranty against breakage. The one downside with the technology is that the external film covering the screen is highly prone to pick up scratches — I saw micro-scratches littered all over the panel after just a few a days’ of usage.

The 5.5-inch Quad HD panel is the best that Motorola has included in a phone, and while it won’t win any display awards, it is perfectly serviceable. The 2730mAh battery doesn’t seem nearly enough to drive a device of this caliber at first glance, but Motorola has optimized it incredibly well, and you won’t have any issues getting the battery to last a day on a full charge.

I routinely saw over four hours of screen-on-time spread out over the course of a day, and the Z2 Force held up very well on days I was traveling. In India, Motorola is bundling the Moto TurboPower Mod with every purchase of the Moto Z2 Force, a welcome move as the mod allows you to quickly top up the battery.

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With the mod included, you’re essentially getting the best of both worlds — a sleek phone that lasts a full day without breaking a sweat, and an attachment that charges the battery when you need it. It certainly does make a difference once you start using the device.

Motorola also nailed the software experience on the Moto Z2 Force. The phones comes with Android 8.0 Oreo out of the box, and the user interface is thankfully devoid of any customization. The only differentiator is by way of Moto Actions — a series of gestures designed to make it easier to control the phone — and Moto Display notifications.

With Moto Display, the screen lights up every time you get a notification, and you get the option to select what apps show up and use quick replies without ever having to unlock the device. Moto Voice is also a useful addition that lets you access information like pull up your calendar or call logs through a series of “Show me” commands. If you want to look at upcoming events on your calendar, all you have to do is say, “Show me my calendar” and the service will surface your calendar app. It’s a nifty addition, but if you’re like me, you’ll just end up using Google Assistant.

With the Z2 Force offering top-of-the-line specs, you’re never short on performance. Sure, the Snapdragon 845 is on the horizon, and we’ll see devices powered by Qualcomm’s latest platform in a few months’ time, but the Snapdragon 835 is no slouch. The Z2 Force is on par with the Pixel 2 when it comes to the performance side of things.

Moto Z2 Force What needs work

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My main issue with the Moto Z2 Force is the camera. It isn’t the camera sensor itself is bad — you can take decent shots from the Moto Z2 Force — but the amount of effort required to do so isn’t worth it most of the time. The phone takes too long to focus on a subject, and when it finally does, there’s an infinitesimal window where you have to hit the shutter button before it switches focus again.

For every decent shot I managed to take, I ended up with four or five blurry ones wherein the phone just refused to focus.

moto-z2-camera-3.jpg?itok=VR80QymAmoto-z2-camera-2.jpg?itok=GRv7PCBNmoto-z2-camera-1.jpg?itok=baLIV76mmoto-z2-camera-4.jpg?itok=aacf5tQfmoto-z2-camera-5.jpg?itok=Uy9DVTbVmoto-z2-camera-7.jpg?itok=hKgNHaXFmoto-z2-camera-6.jpg?itok=rMQx1IFg

Then there’s the display, which still sports a 16:9 panel and not 18:9 like most phones available today. With even budget devices making the switch to the 18:9 form factor, the thick bezels at the top and bottom of the Moto Z2 Force seem ungainly. To Motorola’s credit, the fingerprint sensor at the front is one of the fastest out there, but the sizeable bezels made the Moto Z2 Force look outdated last year. In 2018, it looks archaic.

Another area where the Moto Z2 Force is lacking is the speaker. There’s a single speaker tucked away in the earpiece, and it’s neither loud nor detailed. Call quality isn’t particularly great either.

While the phone has a nano-coating that allows it to withstand the occasional splash of water, Motorola should have included IP6X water resistance.

Moto Z2 Force Bottom line

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If you care about camera quality, then you’ll have to look elsewhere. The Moto Z2 Force is capable of taking decent photos, but the amount of effort it takes to get a good shot just isn’t worth the hassle, particularly when you’re paying over ₹30,000 for a phone. However, if you don’t take as many photos and are willing to use a third-party camera app or switch to manual mode, then the Moto Z2 Force becomes much more palatable.

The ShatterShield tech makes the phone virtually indestructible (I tried), and the sheer performance of the Snapdragon 835 combined with Motorola’s unique customizations make the device an absolute delight to use.

A phone this sleek and thin shouldn’t be this good. But it is.

Overall, I didn’t think I’d enjoy using the Moto Z2 Force as much as I did. I was initially going to use it for just a few weeks to evaluate its performance, but nearly a month later, I’m still hooked. At 6.1mm and just 143g, the Moto Z2 Force is the thinnest and lightest phone I’ve used in a while, and the fact that it performs just as well as a Pixel 2 XL continues to amaze me.

Switching back to a 16:9 display after using the Galaxy Note 8 and the Pixel 2 XL wasn’t ideal, but the panel itself is the best yet on a Motorola phone.

And although the quoted battery life is a paltry 2730mAh, I routinely got a day’s worth of usage out of the Z2 Force. If you’re running out of juice in the middle of the day, there’s always the bundled TurboPower Mod — all you have to do is hook up the mod to the back of the phone, and it charges the device up via Motorola’s TurboPower charging.

The phone does get hot when charging with the mod, and I wouldn’t recommend carrying it in your pocket while doing so. But it is a novel way to top up your phone in a pinch.

What Motorola has managed to create in the Moto Z2 Force is a device that is a viable alternative to the mighty OnePlus 5T. And there aren’t many of those around.

See at Flipkart

2
Mar

Xbox One tests spring update with controller sharing via Mixer


The next big Xbox One software update is closing in, and as Microsoft rolled it out to Preview Update testers, the company also explained what to expect. Once the Spring update arrives, gamers can check out a new 1440p option that fits in between 1080p and 4K displays to make it just right for anyone using a quad HD monitor. It’s also adding an algorithmic “What’s Hot” feed for club posts that should make things more like Reddit (or Facebook), and a Top Posts option that shows which ones are the most popular of all time.

The other highlight feature lets Mixer streamers share access to their controller with viewers via an on-screen gamepad or by plugging a controller into their own PC — we assume its low-latency streams come in handy here. A few other tweaks mean Xbox One streamers no longer come to a full stop while switching games or going to the dash, and they can start streams at any time.

The built-in Microsoft Edge browser is apparently more controller-friendly (also it can upload or download files now), and there’s an option to change the balance between in-game audio and background music in the guide so you can substitute your own Spotify, SoundCloud or MP3-based soundtracks. Clubs can filter invitation requests to keep riffraff out based on criteria like Gamerscore for a particular game, and it’s easier to join tournaments.

Separately, Major Nelson also noted three new security features on the Xbox One that make it easier to recover your account if someone has taken it over maliciously, find an account name or update your account recovery info from the console itself.

The first 1804.180227-1801 preview alpha is already going out and there’s a list of known issues here.

Source: Xbox, Mixer

2
Mar

Survival arena brawler ‘Darwin Project’ launches March 9th


Been waiting for Scavengers Studio’s Darwin Project ever since it stole the spotlight at last year’s Microsoft E3 conference? Don’t worry: your wait is almost over. The early access version of the Hunger Games-style battle royale title will be available for purchase on Windows 10 and Xbox Game Preview, the platform’s pre-release program for Xbox One, on March 9th. Darwin Project is a multiplayer game that combines various aspects of popular titles in the genre, such as Don’t Starve and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds. In our previous write-up, Engadget Senior Reporter Jessica Conditt described the game as “Katniss Everdeen running around Pochinki Hill, chopping down trees like Wilson the Gentleman Scientist.”

While you can play as one of the ten contestants fighting in an arena to be the only one left standing, Darwin Project also allows you to take on the Show Director’s role. When you play as the Director, you’ll be able to see everything happening in the arena from aboard a drone and will have the power to unleash gravity storms, blow up areas with nukes and put up zone closures to make things harder for the contestants. If you’d rather take on a more passive role, though, you can also just watch streams of ongoing games through platforms like Mixer. As a spectator, you’ll be able to vote on what disaster to unleash and who to target if the Show Director asks.

Scavengers Studio’s Jessica Beaudoin says they’re collecting feedback from the early release to be able to fine-tune the game over the next few months. You can buy the early access version of the Darwin Project, featuring a snowy arena where you’ll have to withstand extreme cold and darkness, for $15

Source: Xbox

2
Mar

How to watch the Oscars online


Ellen DeGeneres at the 86th Annual Academy Awards

Each year, the Academy Awards separates the good from the great in the world of film. The Oscars represent the collective values of Hollywood royalty (for better or worse), and receiving one of those naked gold dudes means you’ve achieved true excellence in your film-related field (yes, even you, Juicy J).

This year’s ceremony — the 90th — will be hosted by late-night personality Jimmy Kimmel for the second straight year. Movies to watch include Guillermo del Toro’s monster-human romance The Shape of Water and Martin McDonagh’s Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. Here’s the full list of nominees.

If, for whatever reason, you’re not planning on watching the 90th Academy Awards on television, it’s all good. Digital Trends has you covered. We’ve compiled all the best ways to watch Hollywood’s biggest night when it kicks off at 7 p.m. ET on Sunday, both on your living room TV and elsewhere. If you need to catch up with the nominees, here’s a short list of top films available to stream.

Note: Red carpet coverage begins at 6:30 p.m. ET. The ceremony itself will begin at 8 p.m.

Watch on TV

If you are planning to watch on TV, ABC has broadcast the Academy Awards for the last 40-plus years, and will continue to do so until at least 2028. Once the awards ceremony is underway, ABC will be the only TV channel showing the Oscars. Where ABC falls on your channel list, however, depends on your cable or satellite package, as well as your location.

If you’re not a cable customer, you should look into picking up an HD antenna. There are numerous digital antennas that will allow you to pick up ABC (free of charge!), and we’ve recently rounded up the best of them. After you get your antenna set up, enter your address here to find out which channel ABC is being broadcast over in your local area. An antenna might not be as reliable as cable, but the broadcast signal occasionally actually offers higher-quality video than what your satellite or cable provider serves up.

Watch via ABC’s website or app

Watching the Academy Awards on your desktop is as easy as visiting ABC’s website and logging in with a cable subscription from a participating TV provider. (Most every TV provider has ABC.) And if you miss the live-stream, the telecast will be available to stream on-demand for a limited time following the live broadcast. If you’d prefer to watch on a smartphone or tablet, the ABC app is your best bet. The app is available for iOS, Android, Roku, Apple TV, and Amazon Fire devices. Here are lists for direct download links and frequently asked questions.

Here’s the catch: To watch via either of these methods, you’ll need to be in one of eight locations: Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina; and Fresno, California. Otherwise, streaming won’t be available via the ABC website or app (lame, we know).

Streaming services

Every popular cord-cutting platform offers ABC, one way or another. You might need to be living in the right area, though, so make sure to double check before ponying up any cashola. They all offer free trials, too, so if all you want to do is watch the Oscars and bail, you can do that.

Sling TV

If you use Sling TV, you’ll need a Sling Orange subscription ($20 per month) and the $5 Broadcast Extra add-on package, which gives you access to ABC, Univision, and UniMás. That’s not all, though — local broadcasts are restricted, so you’ll need to check here to find out if you can even get ABC before shelling out that dough.

The Sling TV app is available on the following devices:

Compatible Devices

iOS devices
Android devices

Android TV
Roku devices

AirTV Player
Amazon Fire devices

LeEco
ZTE

Xiaomi
Select smart TVs

Apple TV
Google Chromecast

Google Chrome
Windows 10 (app)

DirecTV Now

As with Sling TV, DirecTV Now only offers live ABC coverage in select markets, but the list is a little longer. In addition to the markets listed above (Chicago, Fresno, Houston, Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia, Raleigh-Durham, and San Francisco), the following markets get access with a DirecTV Now subscription: Albuquerque, New Mexico; Boston; Milwaukee; Monterey/Salinas, California; Fort Smith/Fayetteville, Arkansas; Jackson, Mississippi; Kansas City; Oklahoma City; Omaha, Nebraska; Pittsburgh; Portland/Auburn, Maine; Savannah, Georgia; and West Palm Beach, Florida.

To get ABC on DirecTV Now in one of the aforementioned markets, you’ll just need to sign up for the $35 “Live a Little” package, which is the cheapest package available. DirecTV Now is available on the following devices:

Compatible Devices

Apple iPad
Amazon Fire devices

Apple iPhone
Roku devices

Apple iPod Touch
Android phones

Apple TV
Android tablets

Safari
Google Chromecast

Google Chrome
Select smart TVs

PlayStation Vue

Just like Sling TV, you’ll need to check (just click the little pin icon next to the Start Streaming button in the upper-right corner) to see whether ABC is available in your area. If it is, you’ll only need the $40 Access plan (the cheapest Vue plan) to watch.

PlayStation Vue is available on the following devices:

Compatible Devices

PlayStation 3
PlayStation 4

Android devices
Android TV

iOS devices
Apple TV

Android devices
Amazon Fire tablets

Roku devices
Amazon Fire TV

Google Chrome
Safari

Firefox
Microsoft Edge

Hulu with Live TV

Hulu’s Live TV streaming program, launched in mid-2017, just offers one channel package, for a $40 monthly fee. As with most other options here, ABC is only available in select markets. Head here and enter your ZIP code to see if you qualify. Hulu with Live TV is available on the following devices:

Compatible Devices

Apple iPad
Amazon Fire TV devices

Apple iPhone
Roku devices

Mac
PC

Android phones
Android tablets

Apple TV
Google Chromecast

Xbox One
Xbox 360

Youtube TV

Of all the streaming services we’ve listed, Youtube TV is (by far) the most comprehensive when it comes to supported locations. For $35 per month, you’ll get ABC and a host of other channels (though, obviously, we only care about ABC right now). If your area isn’t listed, simply start the sign-up process and it’ll prompt you to enter your ZIP code.

YouTube TV is available on the following devices:

Compatible Devices

Apple iPad
Apple TV

Apple iPhone
Roku devices

Android tablets
Android TV

Android phones
Google Chrome

Google Chromecast
Select smart TVs

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2
Mar

Nike teams up with Headspace for ‘mindful’ guided runs


Nike has joined forces with meditation app Headspace to provide you with a different kind of audio-guided runs: one that works your body and calms your mind. Starting today, you’ll find the first three Headspace audio-guided “mindful” runs on Nike’s Run Club (NRC) app. Like the other guides on NRC, they feature coaches and athletes speaking into your ear and giving you running instructions. But according to Headspace co-founder Andy Puddicombe, they also blend “technical and motivational components,” making them sort of like a more “active and upbeat [type of] meditation.”

Nike says the Headspace guides will help you feel in control and will stop your thoughts from drifting to your to-do lists or your unanswered work emails. The hope is for you to reach your running goals and be at peace after every run without those distractions clouding your mind. “When we are running mindfully,” according to Puddicombe, “we are actively creating the conditions for that sense of flow, meaning everything is enhanced, from technique and motivation to focus and recovery.”

If you’re more of a gym person than a runner, you’ll benefit more from Headspace’s workout tips on Nike’s Training Club (NTC) app. Like the audio-guided runs, they can also help you tune out distracting thoughts, so you can focus on your workout and improve your performance. You’ll find new Headspace workout stories and tips on your NTC feed and Collection workouts every Monday.

Source: Nike

2
Mar

Facebook will stream The Oscars red carpet this weekend


The Academy Awards take place this Sunday and if you’re an Oscar fan who can’t get enough behind-the-scenes looks, Facebook has you covered. As Variety reports, Facebook will once again be the only social network to live-stream “The Oscars: All Access,” which includes red carpet and backstage views as well as interviews with presenters, nominees and performers. The show will begin at 6:30 PM Eastern/3:30 PM Pacific and will stream on the Facebook pages of both ABC and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. You can also catch it on Oscar.com and ABCNews.com.

Sofia Carson (Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists, Descendants), Wesam Keesh (For the People, Awkward.) and commentators Chris Connelly, Ben Lyons and Adnan Virk will host “The Oscars: All Access.” You can also check out more coverage over on Instagram where Tom Holland (Avengers: Infinity War, Spider-Man: Homecoming) will be taking over Stories on Instagram’s official account and the Academy will share content via Stories and Instagram Live.

Facebook has done this before. It played host to “The Oscars: All Access” last year as well and streamed content during the Emmy Awards in September. Following last year’s Academy Awards, Facebook said Oscar-related videos on its site garnered over 112 million views.

The Academy Awards air this Sunday at 8 PM Eastern/5 PM Pacific on ABC.

Via: Variety

2
Mar

A genome never forgets: Scientists map DNA of past and present elephants


Alberto Ghizzi Panizza/Getty Images

Want to know all there is to know about elephants? If so, you have an international team of researchers to thank for it because they painted one of the most comprehensive evolutionary pictures of all time by sequencing the genome of 14 different species of elephant, ranging from present-day African and Asian elephants to extinct ancestors like the woolly mammoth and American mastodon.

An immensely daunting undertaking, the work is shedding new light on the way that elephants have lived over the years and unpacking some intriguing elephant factoids in the process.

“We found that different elephant species interbred in the past more than once,” Elle Palkopoulou, a post-doctoral scientist at Harvard University Medical School. “For instance, the straight-tusked elephant descended from a mixture of three different evolutionary lineages, while North American woolly mammoths had ancestry from Columbian mammoths. At the same time, today’s African forest and savanna elephants appear to have remained isolated for at least the last 500,000 years, even though local hybridization still occurs between them in areas where the two species meet. But this does not seem to have left traces in the genomes of these species across their ranges.”

JD Howell, McMaster University

The comprehensive genomic study involved researchers from McMaster University , the Broad Institute, Harvard Medical School, Uppsala University, and the University of Potsdam. It’s an extraordinary example of how modern scientific techniques can be used to help reveal more details about the natural world. It could also, the researchers claim, have a key role to play in helping with elephant conservation efforts.

“This is the first study to establish with complete nuclear genomes that the two African elephants, in fact, comprise two distinct species, and therefore reinforces the need for conservation policies to protect the two African elephants separately,” Palkopoulou continued. “It also highlights how rich the evolutionary history of the family of elephants has been in the past, despite the fact that only three species survive today. Future work aiming to understand in more detail the population structure of living elephants will contribute to conservation efforts of these iconic animals.”

The work was recently published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science under the title “A comprehensive genomic history of extinct and living elephants.”

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2
Mar

These smart sensors will tell you when your car’s tire treads are wearing thin


Imagine owning sensors, made with carbon nanotube ink, which could accurately monitor the tread on your tires to let you know when they have become uneven or maybe even dangerously thin. That is exactly what a new company called Tyrata is trying to bring to market and it recently attracted $4.5 million in funding to help make its dream a reality.

“The core of the sensor is formed by placing two small, electrically conductive electrodes side by side, very close to each other on the inside of the tire, directly below the tread,” Jesko von Windheim, president and CEO at Tyrata, told Digital Trends. “While most of this electric field passes directly between the edges of the two adjacent electrodes, some of the field arcs from the face of one electrode to the face of the other, with the arc penetrating up into the tire tread. The tire rubber and tread structure interfere with this so-called ‘fringing field’ and by measuring this interference through the electrical response of one of the electrodes, it is possible to determine the thickness of the tire above the sensor.”

The innovative smart sensor was developed by researchers at Duke University, who published their findings in IEEE Sensors Journal in 2017. The sensor the team plans to market is substantially the same, although they have further developed the technology. That includes testing it under different environmental conditions and developing the packaging and electronics required to operate the sensor remotely from within the tire.

As von Windheim points out, having reduced tread on your tires isn’t just about improving one aspect of your driving experience — although safety is a pretty big aspect to focus on. Thinner tread makes you more likely to crash, hurts vehicle performance, and increases fuel consumption.

“Our goal is to improve safety, performance, efficiency, and profitability for anyone or any business that is dependent on tires,” he continued. “We see applications for consumers [in the form of] safety, fleet management companies [in] efficiency and profitability, racing teams [with] performance, and ultimately in new markets such as ridesharing and autonomous vehicles where tire monitoring will be an integral part of making those business models work effectively.”

Now we just need them to hurry up and get to market.

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2
Mar

It took 9 days to 3D print this record-breaking, full-sized camper van


Planning a road trip this summer? Why not 3D print your very own camper van to go in? That is what a team of enthusiasts from Canada just demonstrated. Created over the course of nine days, and requiring hundreds of feet of plastic 3D-printing filament, their world record-breaking 3D printed camper has a volume of 507 cubic feet, and measures in at 13 feet by 6.5 feet with a height of 6 feet. That is more than three times bigger than the previous world record and easily big enough to sleep in.

Making it more impressive is the fact that it was printed in one piece. This was achieved through the team’s use of a custom-built ErectorBot 3D printer, measuring a massive 28 feet by 8 feet by 7 feet. The big printer is nicknamed “Printron,” and enables large-scale prints such as this one.

A scale mock-up of the camper.

“For this project we used PETG plastic which is the same plastic as pop bottles,” Dustin Maki, CEO and founder of Create Cafe 3D Printing Solutions in Saskatoon, Canada, told Digital Trends. “The main difference between this printer and smaller machines is that, instead of feeding a string of plastic in as the material, Printron uses a pellet extruder. Traditional desktop machines use a spool of filament which is made from pellets. The custom ErectorBot uses a extrusion system that goes straight from pellets enabling us to extrude plastic at a higher rate. The high flow rate is what enabled the team at Create Cafe to complete the print in under 10 days, making the process cost effective.”

With the print finished, Maki said the plan next is for the camper to be post-processed and kitted out with appliances and protective insulation coating. They also need to add windows, which can’t be 3D printed, before showing off the finished model around the country. After that, project originator Randy Janes — one of Create Cafe’s business partners — plans to open up a large format 3D- printing facility to create units for retail purposes. A buyer of one of the 3D-printed campers could have complete control over everything from layout and window placement to table and seating heights to the unit’s exterior color.

“Create Cafe is a professional services cafe,” Maki said. “We roast and serve our own coffee, while offering a full suite of 3D solutions.The cafe is used to host classes, 3D-printing events, and provide a creative environment for the public. Behind the cafe, we work closely with inventors and industry to provide prototypes, design, batch production parts, or one-off pieces to their desired specifications.”

In other words, it’s totally somewhere every “maker” in the area needs to be aware of!

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