Consumer Search Results

News: Print Yourself in 3D

Since the early genesis of the brilliant Microsoft Kinect hack, inventive applications have been popping up nonstop. One of the most fascinating projects to surface recently falls within the realm of 3D printing. "Fabricate Yourself"—a hack presented at the Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction Conference in January—allows users to pose in front of an Xbox Kinect, which then converts a captured image into a 3D printable file. What does this mean exactly? Think Han Solo trapped in carbon...

News: Your first experience with Kinect

What was your first experience with Kinect? Mine was through my friend Robert. (He's in the blue shirt above.) I was over at his place, and he and his girlfriend had just gotten a Kinect. After much futzing with the Kinect because it kept falling off their flatscreen TV, they finally got it to stay.

News: When Will the iPad Be Paper Thin?

Below, designer Chris Woebken's Flicflex isn't a new concept (Woebken displayed it at MOMA in '08), but still amazingly cool. And still not on the consumer market. Watch his paper thin, magazine-like "page turning": "Opening a letter, unfolding it and feeling the texture of the paper is a very tactile experience compared to receiving an e-mail. On top of the content itself, the behavior and micro-interactions adds a level of engagement to the medium. Flicflex explores the possibilities of fut...

News: A Pet Butterfly That Lives Forever

Everybody loves butterflies. What's not to love? They're beautiful. But extremely fragile. Touch a wing, and the butterfly is immediately weakened, if not rendered completely flightless (BTW, if you happen upon this situation, we have just the HowTo for you).

News: Fingerpainting for Baby Cyborgs

Did you ever, as a know-nothing kid, push against your closed eyelids for the pleasure of the resultant light show? LCD bending takes the low-tech fun of physical retinal stimulation and updates it for the 21st century. And, as the title suggests, the end result looks very much like a sort of angelic, fractal-based fingerpainting.

Books: Digital vs. Analog

Since the invention of the printing press, books have been a dominant and iconic paradigm in our culture and throughout the world. During my years in elementary and high school, the digital world was on the rise sparking the conversation: Are Books Obsolete. Over the last year (or 2 at the most) that the term "Book" has started to make the shift from a physical object to the concept of a written work.

Edit on a Dime: The Week Ahead

Happy Monday to all of you out there, thankfully the Consumer Electronics Show is now behind us. It feels quite possible that a cold was caught by yours truly simply by reading the numerous reports of germs being spread from booth to booth on the show floor. I'll do my best to soldier on, in the meantime if you haven't already, you can experience the convention vicariously by reading my 'Best of CES' post here.

News: The Best of CES

This year's Consumer Electronics Show is nearing an end so of course it's an occasion for the 'best of' lists. To save you time I thought I'd compile my 'best of' the 'best of' lists.

Sneak Peak: Xbox Live's Metro User Interface (Coming in November)

It's almost time for the new Xbox 360 dashboard to invade gamers everywhere. Microsoft expects to update the Xbox Live user interface sometime next month, which is said to be the most significant update to the dashboard since the NXE update three years ago. This new Metro-based update is meant to bring a unified and distinctive look across all of Microsoft's consumer products and services, including Windows Phone 7, Windows 8 and Zune.

News: Indie Developer Fights Pirates with Piracy

No Time To Explain is the first game by two man indie developer tiny Build Games. It's a fun and very stylish platformer in it's own right, available for $10 from the tiny Build website. Articles about the game on RockPaperShotgun, Destructoid, and other prominent PC sites helped it develop substantial hype and raise more than $26,000 via Kickstarter to fund development.

News: World's First 3D Printed UAV Takes to the Skies

The use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) has been widely used by the military for surveillance and reconnaissance missions—even armed combat. But there are other beneficial applications of an unmanned aircraft, such as search and rescue operations, scientific exploration, locating mineral deposits, transporting goods and even filming bikini models. But drone development can be pretty pricey, unless you just happen to have a 3D printer...

News: Japan's Flying, Tumbling Reconnaissance Sphere Soars at 37 MPH

Flying orbs. At first, you might think of the Tall Man and his army of flying sentinel spheres, equipped with zombie brains and a mini-arsenal of saw blades, drill bits and shooting lasers. But these flying orbs weren't conceived from the evil mind of a superhuman mortician—they were designed by Fumiyuki Sato, a researcher at the Japanese Defense Ministry's Technical Research and Development Institute—for something other than deadly deeds.

CISPA: What You Need to Know

Though under a lot of the average consumer's radar, the CISPA is now making rounds again with a coalition of advocacy rights groups. The act, known as the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, forces companies to ignore existing privacy laws and share information with the Federal Government. This short article will bring you up to date on this bill. The CISPA is another bill 'designed' to help prevent thefts and prevent them in cyberspace. But again, like all the previous bill before...

News: Mobile Game Developer Fined $50,000 by FTC for Soliciting Emails from Minors

Children under the age of 13 possess insight that can blow the minds of their elders, but not the wherewithal to make important life choices for themselves. This is exactly why there are strict rules against marketing cigarettes to them. In 2000, a law went into effect called the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act that institutes similar consumer protections for our youth's online identities, prohibiting companies from soliciting personal information from children under 13 years of age ...

News: Eco Friendly Window Treatments

Looking to go "Green" When I'm looking to do new remodeling projects around the house, I find myself asking, is this Eco-Friendly? Is this main stream America brain-washing me into a "Greener Tomorrow?" I doubt it! Embracing Eco-minded products is not just good for preserving the natural environment, but it's about creating a healthy living environment in your home as well.

News: Boost Mobile. Is It Hot or Not

You and I know that everyone's lookin for a killer deal for cellphone service. A lot of us hear about good deals for the plans, or who's got the hottest phones at the moment. Though most of us these days are just looking for something simple, that has all we need, and is fairly cheap too. But how cheap is too cheap?

How To: New Update Adds Big Changes to MyGlass App

Google has updated the MyGlass application for Android, fixing several bugs, redesigning the user interface, and including a feature to allow Explorers to share Google Maps locations from their device to their Glass. If you haven't updated yet, do so now, then follow along as we go through it. Redesigned User Interface

News: Google Adds Serious Style to Glass with New Partnership

They may not be the coolest looking things in the world, but Google is addressing some of the shortcomings of its Glass hardware by announcing a partnership with Luxottica Group. The company, with over 5000 retail stores in the US, has a strong portfolio of brands under its belt, including Amette, Persol, Ray-Ban, and Vogue. And for this Glass Explorer, the news is welcomed with open arms. Admittedly, these bad boys have come a long way over the past couple of years, just take a look at the i...