makers

Chessmen, belts, other ephemera come to life with Cube 3D printer

LAS VEGAS--The profile of 3D printing will rise after this year's CES, and 3D Systems' Cube is partly responsible.

MakerBot's build-it-yourself Thing-O-Matic has claimed most of the consumer attention for 3D printing this past year, and MakerBot's own CES announcement, whatever and whenever that will be, will only spur more coverage. In the meantime, the Cube underscores the idea that 3D printing can be consumer-friendly, and that a growing number of vendors see it as a viable business.

The design of the Cube printer is a contrast to the garage workshop aesthetic of the MakerBot product. Instead of the Thing-O-Matic's exposed circuity and wooden housing, the Cube with its friendly-looking plastic chassis looks more like a sewing machine.

Other than in appearance, the two printers are not that different. Each relies on an attached spool of plastic: ABS (Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene), the same material from which Legos are made, in the Cube, or ABS and PLA (polylactic acid, like that used for keg cups) in the case of the Thing-O-Matic. The plastic for each is available in assorted colors, and as the video above shows, it offers all kind of output possibilities.… Read more

Create 3D images from one or two pics with Free 3D Photo Maker

Free 3D Photo Maker is an easy-to-use tool for creating 3D still images by combining two images or processing a single image. It offers several 3D image algorithms and several interface language choices, but most of what it does is automatic. To view the 3D effects it creates, you'll need a pair of anaglyph glasses. Don't worry, you probably already have as pair somewhere; we're talking about those paper-framed glasses with different colored lenses that you used to get at 3D movies.

Free 3D Photo Maker has a simple user interface based around side-by-side image displays with … Read more

Lam Research to buy Novellus Systems for $3.3B

Semiconductor equipment maker Lam Research has agreed to acquire rival Novellus Systems in an all-stock deal worth $3.3 billion, the companies announced today.

The combined venture is expected to benefit from the individual companies' complementary product capabilities, with Novellus' thin-film application technology aligning with Lam's business of etching the film to create features that define a chip's final use and function.

Under the agreement's terms Novellus stockholders will get 1.125 shares of Lam common stock for each Novellus share, a premium of about 28 percent higher than Novellus' $34.70 closing price Wednesday. When the … Read more

Soda brings 3D to PDF readers

Soda 3D Reader is Lulu Software's answer to Adobe Reader. While it may not be the most powerful Adobe alternative out there, it does have some nice features and unique 3D functionality that make it worth a look.

The program's interface is clean and inviting, with ribbon-style navigation that should be familiar to Microsoft Office 2010 users. The tabs at the top act as your main menu, with submenus that open up beneath them as you click. And along the left, there's a page preview pane, if you choose to enable it. The program's controls are … Read more

Bake fancy cakes on the countertop

Looking at a sugar-glazed confection might lead one to ask how it could be bad for you when it looks so good. Putting temptations aside, another question one might ask is just how such treats are formed.

The answer, at least in the case of the Bella Cucina Fluted Cake Maker, simply has to do with batter poured into a mold and then cooked. This specialty electric appliance creates five cakes, each with a distinctive design.

Combining a mold and a cooking appliance allows for instant gratification. Clamshell-type countertop appliances tend to heat up quickly and this 1,400-watt gadget … Read more

Qedoc Quiz Maker misses the mark

Quizzes are a great way to help students retain the information they learn. Qedoc Quiz Maker offers users a way to create their own custom quizzes. Unfortunately, the program's vague and never-ending user interface made it extremely unappealing to use.

A welcome screen greets you at the start of the program. It gives you options for getting started, but the program has its own language, so the options are vague. In terms of help, the program offers what it calls a "Help system," but when we clicked on it, nothing happened. The Online documentation and support feature … Read more

Custom photo slideshows

Flash slideshows are a fun way to present your photos to friends and family. As its name suggests, Photo Flash Maker Free offers to help you create your own Flash slideshows. This program's easy-to-use interface and fun themes will appeal to a variety of users.

The program opens with a helpful wizard that walks you through the process of adding photos, creating a theme, and publishing the slideshow. But the regular user interface is just as easy to figure out. Tabs divide the interface into three areas: Photo, Theme, and Publish. Under the Photo tab, we browsed for our … Read more

Bare-bones graphs

Graphs are a great way to display your data; they tell the story in a way that numbers can't. Grey Olltwit's Graph Maker is an extremely basic program for creating simple graphs. It's not for anyone doing serious research or working with statistics, but if you need to create a bare-bones graph, it might be able to do the job.

The program's interface is plain, but at first it confused us; there's a space to enter the y values for data points, but not the x values. It turns out that the program just uses … Read more

Seat selector

Anyone who's ever taught elementary or secondary school knows the great importance of seating charts; the arrangement of students in the classroom can make or break the teaching environment. Seating Chart Maker is a simple program that takes all of the hassle out of creating seating charts, even letting users account for troublemakers when making seating decisions. We have trouble imagining why any education wouldn't use this program.

Seating Chart Maker has an intuitive, wizard-style interface that walks users through each step of the process. First, enter your list of students. Next, select any combination of two or … Read more

Tooling around San Francisco's TechShop

The maker culture can seem exclusive sometimes, but TechShop is helping to bring the underground community to the mainstream, offering classes and monthly memberships to the general public.

In late June, a fourth TechShop location opened in San Jose, Calif., but it's still building up its own storied history. To see what a TechShop is like after it builds its network of makers, CNET toured the 15,000 square-foot San Francisco location, which opened its doors earlier this year.

During our visit, people where taking prototyping into their own hands. An eclectic bunch of members--including policemen, entrepreneurs, and fashionistas--all … Read more