If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. That seems to be what Canon is saying with its announcement Monday of a new PowerShot camera ...

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If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. That seems to be what Canon is saying with its announcement Monday of a new PowerShot camera ...
Today at CES 2014 Makerbot CEO Bre Pettis announced the Makerbot Replicator 3D Printing Platform including the new Mini, Z18, and prosumer Replicators. This “platform” consists of the Makerbot Replicator Mini, a smaller 3D printer with the build volume of the original Makerbot Cupcake, the large Z18, and a new Replicator printer.
The first in the family is a new, smaller Replicator called the Mini. The Mini requires no leveling to print in PLA filament. Pettis called it the “consumer 3D printer” with one-touch 3D printing and as well as printing via mobile devices. It includes Wi-Fi and a built-in camera so you can monitor the things you build on the device. You can also share photos of your device from taken inside the Mini thanks to a built-in camera. The Mini has an easy-to-maintain extruder that snaps in and out of the device. It costs $1,379 and will ship in the Spring.
“It’s kind of a big deal,” said Pettis.
The company also announced the Makerbot Replicator (actually the fifth generation of the device), a prosumer machine that prints in PLA filament. It has an 11% larger build volume (8x10x6 inches), faster build times, and has 100-micron layer resolution. A 3.5-inch screen on the device allows you to print right from the screen and preheat the printer or change the filament. You can connect to the machine via Wi-Fi, USB stick, Ethernet, or USB. It also allows your to access your own personal 3D object library and includes a small camera to monitor your print progress as well an instant build plate leveling system. It is available today for $2,899 and will ship in a few weeks.
They also showed the new Makerbot Z18, a huge replicator that can make objects at 12x12x18 inches – a truly gigantic build envelope. Pettis said that the company would use the device to make Makerbots.
After dedicating his presentation to all the Makerbot operators around the world, Pettis also announced a partnership with Softkinetic, a 3D sensor manufacturer to create the “futuristic 3D scanners of tomorrow.”
“Makerbot is an innovation company. We innovate so others can innovate,” he said. “We’re a manufacturing education in a box.”
Pettis announced that the company has sold more than 44,000 Makerbots and currently has 450 employees around the world. He expects to see a million Makerbots “in the distance.” There are also more than 218,000 digital designs uploaded to and 48 million downloads from the company’s 3D digital design sharing platform, Thingiverse.
Pettis also described the success of their two retail stores in Boston and Manhattan as well as the new store in Greenwich, CT. Each store has a 3D photo booth where customers can scan and print their own heads and purchase Makerbots and plastic filament.
Today at CES 2014 Makerbot CEO Bre Pettis announced the Makerbot Replicator 3D Printing Platform including the new Mini, Z18, and prosumer...
Epson is building a line of smartwatches because…why not? The printer and projector hardware firm is jumping head first into the crowded health tracker market with two new wrist devices for measuring calories, sleep, steps and heart rate. Epson says that its new Pulsense series has three stand-out features: price, exercise-grade heart rate, and a slim form factor.
Heart Rate
There are a slew of available health trackers that measure steps and sleep (Jawbone UP, Fitbit Force, Nike FuelBand SE), but the only other health tracker on the market that measures heart rate is the Basis B1 band. The Basis, however, can’t measure heart rate during exercise, so it’s not much use to swimmers, runners, or CrossFit enthusiasts who want to quantify the intensity of the workouts. Exercise enthusiasts need something with a heart rate strap, such as the Polar.
Another competitor, the Mio Alpha, is a strapless wristwatch for heart monitoring only, but I’ve found that it’s terribly inaccurate for anything but steady-state running (no intervals, cross-training, etc.).
It would be fantastic for exercise nuts if someone could finally crack the heart rate problem. The early Pulsense demo that I tested couldn’t measure my heart rate beyond 115 beats/minute (intense exercise is around 160, for me). So, they have a ways to go before it’s ready this Summer.
Slim Form
Compared to the Basis, the Pulsense is slightly thinner. My Basis watch tends to snag on my suit jacket and backpack straps, so size is not a trivial issue. I wouldn’t ditch my Basis because of it, but the form factor is an advantage for the Epson.
Price
Like the Basis, the Pulsense with a numbers display is also $199, but they have an LED version for $129. Epson evidently believes there is a sizable portion of the exercise market that it is willing to skimp on a numbers display to save $70. The Pulsense will launch this Summer.
Epson is building a line of smartwatches because…why not? The printer and projector hardware firm is jumping head first into the crowded hea...
As if an overhyped summer blockbuster, Michael Bay just flopped his CES 2014 debut. But it seemingly wasn’t his fault. The famed director was part of Samsung’s over-produced, over-the-top CES 2014 press conference. He was evidently brought on stage to talk about Samsung’s new curved 4K TV, likely supposed to highlight how this new form and tech will help bring his movies to life. But that didn’t happen. Just watch.
To Bay’s credit, it wasn’t his fault. As he exclaimed a few lines into his bit, the teleprompter was not displaying the proper text. The carefully worded script was not available for him to read. And then he gave up.
Giant consumer electronic companies have long dragged Hollywood stars to CES. They give them big paychecks and big publicity for a few moments of their time. Sometimes it doesn’t work in the company’s favor though.
Tom Hanks had a fantastic time at Sony’s 2009 press conference. Watch this one. It’s epic.
Polaroid rolled out Lady Gaga in 2010 to help announce their upcoming camera line. She was 2 hours late and said about 5 words. Worse yet, the camera she supposedly helped design, ended up looking nothing like the concept.
When Monster first partnered with Dr. Dre in 2009, they co-hosted a press interview. Let’s just say, at that time, the good doctor wasn’t as excited about his headphone venture as he is now.
And let’s not forget last year, 2013, when Qualcomm’s keynote turned into a WTF clusterfuck for the ages.
As if an overhyped summer blockbuster, Michael Bay just flopped his CES 2014 debut. But it seemingly wasn’t his fault. The famed director w...
This year at Samsung’s CES special press conference on the day before the conference kicks off, the tone was somewhat different from years past: CEO and Chairman Kwon Oh Hyun started things off with an explanation of the market opportunity that stands before Samsung for the future. In some ways, it felt like a do-over of the special conference Samsung held last year for investors and analysts, which was designed to allay fears that the company has nowhere left to grow.
Samsung essentially argued that its growth will come from a deepening desire for innovation and technological change from consumers. Hyun noted that during the past 10 years consumers have embraced change faster than ever before, and that during the next decade they’ll embrace new tech even faster. The innovation will take place in 4 key areas that Hyun said will “change our world.”
Connectivity is the first of the four. Reach of smartphones and internet is growing, and adoption of these devices and services is skyrocketing around the world. It’s no secret that this is the case, of course, but it paves the way for Samsung’s vision of a broadly-defined connected home.
A second pillar is urbanization. Half the world population lives in cities, Hyun noted, and that will be 60 percent by 2030. As populations grow, cities need to get smarter, Hyun says, and Samsung will help them do that. Plus, populations are aging, and in 10 years 1 billion people will be over 60. Hyun asked how tech make the lives of an aging population more comfortable.
Finally, there’s an opportunity to address changing climate and the challenges that brings up. Extreme weather events such as hurricanes have increased by 200 percent since 1990, he says. the home becomes the important place in everyone’s life in times of dramatic weather changes. So what tech will consumers need in their home/shelter of the future? It has to protect, be fliexible and be responsive, and those are the guiding values Samsung is using to form its overall market strategy.
To protect means keeping people safe from outside threats including diseases, pollution and crime, so it’s likely we’ll see more connected security and home air quality/health monitoring gadgets. To be flexible means adapting to the changing nature of the average person’s work/life balance. Hyun noted that 11 million Americans now bring their work home and that number is always growing. As a result, our home spaces need to be open and multifunctional, with the ability to create and consume content anywhere, and any time.
Finally, our homes need to be responsive, which means according to Hyun that we want homes that understand our needs and show us key information and put us in control of our lives. Combined, Hyun says these three trends will shape the future home and provide Samsung with a huge opportunity for growth. Part of why is because the company makes chips, display panels and other parts, as well as devices, services and more.
The company pointed to its new Smart Home product on display at CES as a sign of where it’s seeing opportunity. This features things like remote doctor’s visits via TV for health and safety, as well as simultaneous TV viewing in the living room and on screens built into appliances for a more flexible living space that makes spending time with family easier. There are also new control interfaces, like using your Galaxy Gear to tell your home you’re going out and having it turn off air conditioning and lights as you exit.
From this big picture perspective, Samsung then brought out other executives to look at the various parts of its business in more detail, but arguably the most important message was this first one delivered from the helm about where Samsung sees its opportunity lying in the years to come. Sure, they trotted out Mark Cuban and Michael Bay (who choked massively, getting out barely a sentence before walking off stage thanks to a teleprompter fail). They drew a lot of eager photographers close to the stage with a totally useless “Bendable TV” that can go from standard flat to gimmicky curved screen with a button press. They introduced new tablets that actually do seem to do a lot more with Android than most company’s light skinning has done thus far.
Across all of this, though, the main message was clearly one of reassurance. Samsung ended last year and started this one off with some significant drops in share value, and it needs to communicate more than just a continued commitment to making top-tier smartphones and tablets. The big picture vision of a connected future does posit a lot of growth potential for the right company, but it remains to be seen whether the parts demoed on stage today will add up to Hyun’s rosy picture of a tomorrow when Samsung makes your everything.
This year at Samsung’s CES special press conference on the day before the conference kicks off, the tone was somewhat different from years p...
LG Electronics has revived the webOS operating system for its latest line of smart TVs, the company announced on Monday. In fact, LG will ...
الترجمة من الصعب. La traducción es importante. Getting something translated quickly is easy (but results in a poor quality translation) and getting it translated well takes time. That’s where OneHourTranslation comes in. They’ve created a crowdsourced-style system to translate documents quickly and easily. This is also why they just raised $10 million in Series A from Fortissimo capital. The company will use the money to continue international growth.
The company, which offers speedy translation and promises a turn around of an hour per page, has 50 employees around the world and will double their staff and support personnel.
Fortissimo Capital “acquired one third” of the company, according to co-founder Lior Libman.
The Tel Aviv-based company has processed 2.5 million projects to date and they use a crowdsourced model to transmit projects to a pool of 15,000 active translators who then do the work and turn it back over to the client.
“We’re proud that over half of the company’s employees are women,” said Libman. “We definitely intend to continue this trend.”
The founders, Libman, Ofer Shoshan, Oren Yagev, and Yaron Kaufman created the project after finding they wanted to instantly translate their financial blog.
“We started a project that turned into OneHourTranslation to provide such a service,” said Libman. Ganska bra.
الترجمة من الصعب. La traducción es importante. Getting something translated quickly is easy (but results in a poor quality translation) and ...