Tag Archives: iPad
Sold Out: Play-Doh Kids 3D Printer and iPad App
Kids 3D Printer with Play-Doh
Well, that was quick! The folks over at ThinkGeek have SOLD OUT of the new Play-Doh 3D Printer.
Announced yesterday, April 1st, the innovative kids 3D printer is already unavailable. You can read the product description below.
Why buy things from stores when you can print them yourself? The DIY 3D printer revolution is here, friends, and have we got the entry-level 3D printer for you. It’s the Play-Doh 3D Printer, and it’s loaded with features without a price tag that will set your wallet on fire. Let’s take a quick tour, and then you’ll want to buy one.
First, some quick assembly (of the snap-together variety) and your Play-Doh 3D Printer is almost ready for action. Add 2 C batteries, plug it into your iPad, and launch the free app: iPlay-Doh 3D. Quickly design all sorts of things on the free app and then send them to your Play-Doh 3D Printer. Add up to 3 different colors (they’ll blend like soft serve ice cream) to the top of the Play-Doh 3D Printer and then watch your iPad for directions. The iPlay-Doh 3D app will let you know when the printer is ready for you to start cranking.
There are two different cranks on the Play-Doh 3D Printer: one to drip the Play-Doh down onto the conveyor belt and one to move the conveyor belt back and forth (to make sure the Play-Doh gets in just the right place). Sure, the overall product isn’t as sturdy as an expensive 3D printed object, but it will air-harden and can be painted just like one. With the Play-Doh 3D Printer, you’ll learn basic CAD skills, bow hunting skills (just kidding), and 3D printing skills. It’s time to stop reading and get one now. Go on. Get!
Summary of Specifications
- The most economical and fun entry-level 3D printer on the market.
- Uses Play-Doh as a print medium, so it’s safe for kids and noobies.
- Can print in up to 3 colors at once (blending them like soft serve ice cream).
- Connects to iPad for easy designing with free iPlay-Doh 3D app.
- iPlay-Doh 3D app also lets you share designs with others (and print their designs).
- Build Volume: 5″ cubed.
- Power: 2 C Batteries and you (it’s mostly crank powered).
- Includes: Play-Doh 3D Printer with conveyor belt, cranks, and printing head; plastic knife; 3 2oz cans of Play-Doh; and instructions.
- Dimensions: approx. 15.5″ x 8″ x 19″
Again, this product was only announced yesterday, April 1st, and is already sold out. You can check over at ThinkGeek to see if any more come into stock.
Forbes 3D Printing Interview with Shapeways CEO Peter Weijmarshausen
Forbes recently sat down with Shapeways CEO Peter Weijmarshausen to talk about 3D printing.
In his remarks, Weijmarshausen compared traditional manufacturing processes to the innovative approach of additive manufacturing, or 3D printing.
3D printing technology was commercially invented in 1989, and had been in use for prototyping for a number of years. So, in that traditional design process, designers might have actually used 3D printers to make product prototypes. But the costs have come down a lot, and the materials these printers can work with have expanded from plastics to materials like stainless steel, silver, ceramics, and glass – with many more coming. And the answer to that original question turned out to be “absolutely yes.” There are an amazing number of real products that can be made directly with this technology. For example, my iPhone case is 3D printed. My cufflinks are 3D printed. Even my coffee cup is 3D printed.
Weijmarshausen also gave his predictions about the future.
In many ways. Think back to what we discussed about how mass manufactured products are made, and I can tell you there are inherent benefits to direct-from-digital manufacturing. First, the time from concept to actual product is condensed from years to a matter of days. We have one user who launched an iPad cover four days after the iPad launched in 2010. He didn’t have any help from Apple – he just bought an iPad in the store and designed a beautiful cover in a few days and then made it commercially available on Shapeways. So, the time to market is compressed immensely. The other key aspect is that the risk of going to market is almost non-existent, because your investment is only the design of the product itself.
The other big thing about 3D printing is the freedom it offers. For almost 100 years, designers have been trained to think within the limits of traditional manufacturing technology. 3D printing allows you to make incredibly complex designs at no additional cost: interlocking components, naturally hinged parts, semi-translucent surfaces, and even objects that can move on their own without assembly (like the strandbeest). You can make things that were not even possible before. And one of the most exciting things for me is to see young designers in schools being directly influenced by the availability of this technology. We will see products emerge that we’ve never imagined before – mind blowing shapes and solutions. I can’t wait to see what will happen in the next five years.
Read the full interview at Forbes.
Peter Weijmarshausen photo by Dave Pinter used under Creative Commons license.
Autodesk Shows off 123D Catch Software and 3D Printing at Google I/O
At the Google I/O conference in San Francisco this week, 3D printing was a popular theme. We reported earlier about the 3D Systems Cubify team hosting a printing station. Also at the conference was the Autodesk 123D team.
They were showing off their design software called 123D Catch, software for your laptop or iPad that lets you import a series of photos of a physical object and create a precise 3D model from those photos. The software is powered by the cloud and takes about 10 to 15 minutes to produce a model. In the example they were showing, the team had taken 30 photos of a marble statue in a museum and the software created a rich 3D model that was ready to print.
The Autodesk team was also printing objects on the MakerBot replicator.
Read more about Autodesk and 123D in our previous coverage.
Photos from Google I/O by on3dprinting.com.
3D Systems CEO: 3D Printing Will Be As Big As the iPad
The Cube is coming and it’s going to help 3D printing be as big as the iPad.
That’s the message 3D Systems CEO Abe Reichental wants you to understand. The Cube is 3D Systems’ new printer targeted at the mass consumer. It simplifies the process of getting from design to print via embedded Wi-Fi and cloud printing. The Cube will retail for $1,299 which undercuts the current consumer standard MakerBot Replicator by $500.
There is no doubt that Mr. Reichental has conviction about his belief in the growth of the 3D printing industry. 3D Systems transfered from NASDAQ to NYSE just one year ago and has grown its market cap by 40%. It has since been on an acquisition tear, picking up My Robot Nation, FreshFiber and several other companies. The 3D printer company recently reported record revenue for Q1 and is now placing bets on its Cube consumer printer and Cubify design portal.
In an interview with VentureBeat, Mr. Reichental commented on why 3D printing will become as big as the iPad:
There are very few artists around the world that can start painting on a blank canvas, but there are millions of people who can use a coloring book.
And further on his expectations for printer prices over time:
The prices will come down. It’s inevitable that in the next year or year-and-a-half prices will be half of what they are today, and then come down again.
We are excited to see the launch of the Cube printer!
Via VentureBeat.
iPad Crowd photo from niallkennedy used under Creative Commons license.
Analyzing Funding Goals of 3D Printing Kickstarter Projects [Data]
Why do some Kickstarter projects achieve their funding goals while others are unsuccessful?
The New York Times recently published an analysis of three years of Kickstarter projects.
Almost 50,000 projects have sought financing on Kickstarter since the site began on April 28, 2009. About half successfully reached their fund-raising goals.
We decided to run our own analysis of 3D printing Kickstarter projects. Here is what we found:
- Of the 13 projects since October 2009, only 6 have successfully reached their funding goals, or 46%
- The average funding goal of a successful project is $3,842 and the average funds raised is $11,039, or 287%
- The average funding goal of an unsuccessful project is $16,874 and the average funds raised is $1,105, or 7%
- The average number of backers for a successful project is 55 with each backer pledging $164
- The average number of backers for an unsuccessful project is 21 with each backer pledging only $38
- There was no geographic concentration of successful projects
Based on this analysis, we are seeing that unsuccessful projects are asking for too much money and also not finding enough individual backers to support their idea. Sometimes this is due to the production quality of the pitch, but overall it seems that crowdfunding backers are not ready to embrace 3D printing projects.
For example, PotteryPrint was an iPad app concept to teach kids about 3D printing. They raised $6,000 of their $12,000 funding goal. Another example on IndieGoGo is Anarkik3D, which has only raised $3,050 of its $120,000 funding goal with 55 days to go. Both of these projects have good ideas and great production quality, but have set targets above the average successful funding level of $3,842.
Below are some charts of our analysis and the raw data.
3D Printing Kickstarter Projects Funding by Location
Kickstarter bookshelf photo by Scott Beale / Laughing Squid used under a Creative Commons license.
