Tag Archives: review

eBay Breaks into 3D Printing with iPhone App eBay Exact – Our Review

eBay Exact 3D Printing App

eBay Exact is an iPhone App for 3D Printed Goods

Leading auction marketplace eBay is the latest major e-commerce company getting into 3D printing, following the recent news by Amazon, Tesco, and others. eBay launched an iPhone app called eBay Exact that lets users customize and order 3D printed goods.

How eBay Exact Works

eBay has partnered with 3D printing companies and designers, including MakerBot, Sculpteo, and Hot Pop Factory, to source 3D printed goods that can be customized and purchased.

Here’s the description from the eBay Exact product page:

Unleash your creativity by customizing select products to create exactly what you want with eBay Exact. Simply select a product, choose a design, and add your own personal flair to create a unique item for yourself or someone special!

With our first foray into 3D printing technology, we have partnered with Sculpteo, MakerBot, and Hot Pop Factory who are leaders in 3D printing technology to hand-select a range of special products including, iPhone cases, figurines, and jewelry.

Take the power of creation into your own hands and download the app now to start customizing right away.

Bring your style to life. Choose from a variety of materials, including plastics, wood and metals. Use the engraving feature to further customize your product.

Be the first to use new technology to create one-of-a-kind iPhone cases, jewelry, and figurines based on self-portraits.

Build your collection. Whether you love jewelry or figurines, eBay Exact allows you to create as many unique products, exactly as you like, based on your personal desires and preferences.

Reviews

There are just a few reviews so far, but some of them are glowing.

“Really cool app that gives affordable access to 3D Printers. I’d love to see more templates to customize and buy. Opening up to user generated content – a deviantart like community for 3D models would really make this a very addictive app!”

“App is beautiful- first company to do something like this, impressive.”

Below is a gallery that shows how you can discover an item, customize it and preview your design before ordering it.

 

Get the app for iPhone and iPad at iTunes or learn more about eBay Exact at eBay.

3D Printed Lightclip Lets You Signal Batman With Your iPhone and More

3D Printed Lightclip Batman Signal

3D Printed Lightclip Turns Your iPhone into a Batman Signal, or a Ninja Ghost, and More

This is a review of Lightclip, one of the coolest and most elegantly-designed 3D printed products we’ve come across. We also interview the designer.

(For full disclosure, the designers behind Lightclip sent us a complimentary product to try out.)

The Lightclip is a 3D printed accessory for the iPhone that becomes illuminated when you turn on a flashlight app. A variety of designs were created by Lab02 and are available for sale at Shapeways for $12 to $17 each.

Our Impression of Lightclip

The design is quite a step up from what you would normally expect from 3D printing. Instead of rigid ABS plastic, the Lightclips are 3D printed in White Strong and Flexible (Nylon). As Shapeways said in their own review:

This material is very strong (obviously), affordable and an excellent light diffuser. The Lightclip emits a beautiful ambient light, which is evenly distributed and very easy on the eyes. Use it as a nightlight, at a camping trip or when in need of a superhero!

We loved the different types of Lightclips. Included in the Shapeways store are a traditional light bulb, a ghost, a ninja ghost, and a Batman spotlight. Each one fit perfectly to capture all of the light from the iPhone flash; no leakage. See the gallery below for examples.

Fun for kids. Though not a toy, kids were very attracted to the Lightclip, turning the flashlight on and off repeatedly to see the Lightclip glow.

In summary, the Lightclip is really more about fun and fashion than function, but it’s worth the $15 price point as a conversation piece and perhaps a night light on occasion.

Interview with the Designer of Lightclip

We interviewed Dinos Costanti, the designer of Lightclip. The transcript of our interview is below.

On 3D Printing: Tell us about your organization and your history in 3D printing.

Costanti: My name is Dinos Costanti and i’m a software developer and 3D modeler. Vangelis Hadjiloizou is a painter and the ex Creative Director of the largest advertising agency in Cyprus. We started working together as freelance industrial designers in 2011. Right from the beginning we wanted a way to prototype our designs. We had access to a nice CNC machine locally, but we needed something better. That’s how we started using Shapeways and i.materialise.

We were very impressed with the capabilities of the modern 3D printers, especially with the EOS SLS machines. We even used them for a small production run of 110 small mushrooms that we designed as a giveaway for one of our customers. That was the final proof for us that 3D printers can be used for small scale manufacturing.

So we launched Lab02.org as a place to show and promote our personal designs. That is probably the dream of every designer; A way to make and sell the products that no one is willing to fund and manufacture! And as 3D printing becomes more popular, we’d love to feature the designs of other Cypriot designers.

Over the past 3 years we’ve gained a lot from the 3D printing community. And it is thanks to it that we can now afford our own 3D printer. As our way of giving something back we’ve made the Lightclip available under a Creative Commons license.  This way anyone can download, modify, and print his or her own for free!

On 3D Printing: The designs you have made are very intricate and probably more elegant than what most people would expect when they think of 3D printing. Was it difficult to design?

Costanti: Not at all! The Lightclip went from initial idea to sketching, modeling and prototyping in about 10 working days. That included 5 days for Shapeways to print and ship the prototype.

I think that the 3D design software companies are starting to realize the need to address the amateur or rather the non-engineering crowd. We mainly use Moi3D, a NURBS modeler created by Michael Gibson, the original developer of Rhino. This is probably the easiest and friendliest NURBS modeler on the market and a perfect fit for designing for 3D printing.

On 3D Printing: How do you see these types of 3D printed goods growing in adoption?

Costanti: The production of 3D printed goods is going to explode. As more 3D printers are becoming available, prices are being pushed down. And as 3D printing materials become cheaper we are coming to a point, maybe in a year or so, where 3D printing will be a viable and cost effective solution for small scale manufacturing. Especially so for the 100 – 3000 units production runs which, using traditional injection molding, are currently in kind of a “no man’s land”.  That is mainly due to high molding costs which demand a major investment with traditional methods, but are not required at all with 3D printing.

That is going to have a profound impact on the variety and complexity of available products as more and more designers can simply self-publish their products using their own 3D printer or a 3D printing service.

On 3D Printing: How has your experience with Shapeways been?

Costanti: Our experience with Shapeways has been amazing right from the beginning. Their engineers are very knowledgeable and they were instrumental in our quest to master the basics of designing for 3D printing. Also, their printing times are constantly improving. They will usually ship a lot sooner than the date they quote!

There is little doubt in my mind that these 3D printing services are the prototypes for the factories of the future.

On 3D Printing: Any other creative ideas your working on at the moment?

Costanti: We’ve had another very successful product with i.materialise, the Dragonbite grip which was designed for printing in stainless steel. It is currently the feature of a design competition at i.materialise.

We are also working on the initial sketches of our new project, a water pipe, designed to be printed in ceramic. This is the one material we haven’t used so far and we are very excited about it.  I’m sure that it will present its own challenges but it is something we wanted to try for a long time. We hope it will be available in a month or so.

 

Thanks for sharing the Lightclip with us!

Review: Mixee Me Lets You Design and 3D Print Your Own Mini-Me

Mixee Me 3D Printing

In November, 3D printing startup Mixee Me launched their public beta. As one of Mixee Me’s first customers, here is our review. Our 3D printed model appears in the photo above standing next to an iPad.

What They Offer

Mixee Me offers a free, online design tool to create your own avatar-like character. There are a range of hair styles, clothing, and expressions to choose from. Once you are finished with your design, it is uploaded to the Shapeways marketplace where you can purchase a 3D printed model for $25 + shipping.

Design

Pros: Designing the avatar was easy and quick. No 3D modeling experience was necessary. Plus it was free!

Cons: The options for hair styles and expressions were relatively limited. You could upload your own design but that requires some graphic design knowledge. This can easily be addressed as they add more styles.

Checkout

Pros: The model was automatically uploaded to Shapeways and available for checkout. We received an email to notify us that it was ready.

Cons: The model was placed in the MixeeMe account rather than a personalized account.

Price

$25 seems fair given where 3D printing technology is today, but expensive compared to a similar toy one could purchase at retail.

Quality

From a distance, the quality is great. It is a cute little character that can be placed on any shelf or mantle. Our character is posing on a piano keyboard in the photo below.

Close up, the 3D printing lines are apparent in the sandstone material which suggests that the resolution is not very fine. We don’t know if this is a design flaw or a limitation of Shapeways.

All in all, it’s a fun keepsake.

Mixee Me 3D Printing 2

Overall

In summary, Mixee Me is a fun new service where you can make little characters to adorn your office or house. We hope to see more options and flexibility in the future, as well as natural price declines to make the purchase more appetizing to consumers.

You can design your own at mixeeme.com.

 

UP! 3D Printer from China: Viable Competitor to US 3D Printer Makers

UP! 3D Printer from China

Forest Higgs, a self-proclaimed “technocratic anarchist”, has written a detailed review of the UP! 3D printer, a compact desktop 3D printer from China.

Forest explains how he first was introduced to the UP! 3D printer.

Some months ago, a long term technology friend of mine acquired an UP!  While Peggy has been a inspired developer of educational technology for years, she did not, to the best of my knowledge, have any prior knowledge of the ins and outs of 3D printing on personal printers.  In spite of that, Peggy whipped her UP! printer out of the box and did a brilliant print first time out. That really caught my attention.  I’d been working on the Reprap project for years and still, when I bought a Rapman, a greatly enhanced Darwin-derivative, several years ago it had taken me the better part of a month to get used to the quirks of printing on it to the point that I could get reliably good prints.

Later he walks through specific features and functionality, with detailed photos and comparisons to other printers in the market.

Out of the box, one thing that immediately struck me was the tiny size of the UP! The 140x140x135mm print volume reminded me a lot of the old Makerbot Cupcake.  It took me about half an hour to get out of the box and set up, ready for operation.  While the manuals indicated that I might have to level the print surface, this was not necessary.  Calibrating the printhead height took about ten minutes.  When I ordered the UP, I was very worried about print adhesion to the print surface.  Delta Micro offered three solutions; perforated printed circuit board, painted glass and Kaplon tape covered glass.  I had had so much drama with prints peeling off of the print table with the Rapman over the years that I ordered all three options.

Forest concludes: the UP! is a meaningful competitor from China.

Finally, it appears that Delta Micro is going for the throat of the manufacturers of Repraps in the US and elsewhere.  They are now offering a slightly smaller printer, the UP! Mini! with a 120x120x120 enclosed print volume which uses standard 1.75 mm filament for less than $1,000.  The UP! Mini appears to be a serious challenge to both the Reprap variations and to the 3D Systems Cube system.  It strikes me that unless the quality and ease of use of UP! competitors makes a rather quick quantum leap they could easily find themselves to be a historical footnote in the history of 3D printing rather than a new paradigm of virally diffused technology.

Read the full review by Forest Higgs, who says on his blog, “If I wasn’t supposed to take it apart, it wouldn’t have screws in it.”

 

UP! 3D printer photo by donjd2 used under Creative Commons license.

CNET Reviews the MakerBot Replicator: Most Capable 3D Printer Under $2000 [Video]

MakerBot Replicator

In the video below, CNET reviews the MakerBot Replicator. This is the first 3D printer reviewed by CNET.

Rich Brown, Senior Editor for CNET, tells us, ”Chances are if you’ve heard of 3D printing, you’ve also heard of MakerBot,” and concludes that the Replicator is the most capable 3D printer under $2000.

 

Via CNET.

MakerBot Replicator photo by Creative Tools used under Creative Commons license.