Exciting Tablet (not really)

 

 

Details

Model		JXD S18 Tablet PC
CPU		Amlogic 8726 M3-L, Cortex-A9, 1GHz; GPU: Mali-400
Operation System		Android 4.0.3
RAM		512MB(DDR3)
Nand Flash		4GB
Shell Material		Plastic
Screen	Size	4.3 Inch
	Type	Resistive Screen
	Resolution	480 x 272
	Visible Angle	120°
Extend Card		Support TF card up to 32GB
Camera		No
Gravity Sensor		Yes
Flash		Support Flash 11.1
Android Market		Yes
Youtube		Yes
Video		1080P, AVI/MOV/MP4/RMVB/FLV/MKV…
Music		MP3/WMA/WAV/APE/AAC/FLAC/OGG
Ebook		TXT, PDF, HTML, RTF, FB2…
Email and Browser		Yes, built in
WIFI		802.11 b/g/n
3G		Not built in, support external 3G dongle: HUAWEI1750, E220, E161, E261; ZTE MF80, MF637U
Earphone Interface		3.5mm
Language		Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Spanish, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Swedish, Turkish, Chinese
Other Applications		Office, Browser, Gallery, Clock, Calculator, Calendar, Taskiller, Gmail…
Product Size		111.5 x 73.5 x 12.9mm
Product Weight		124g
Extend Port		1 x TF card slot
		1 x USB port
		1 x 3.5mm earphone port
Package Including		1 x USB cable
		1 x User Manual(English, Russian, German, Spanish)

 

 

Colin Rose (M Eng) | Design Engineer | Future Products Group
www.fpgworld.com
p: +64 6 843 3249 f: +64 6 843 2466
Asia: 0086 21 3351 3390 | Au: 1800 041 649 | NZ: 0800 367 374 | UK: 0808 234 7922

 

OpenDesk - Open source furniture

 

 

 

OpenDesk is the new open source furniture design resource from the team behind FabHub that aims to explore new models for open and collaborative design of digitally fabricated free modern furniture designs that can be made here for free minus material costs.

OpenDesk

“By downloading, printing, purchasing or customising an OpenDesk, you’re helping to create a new way of buying products. One that’s more transparent, sustainable and flexible than current manufacturing models.”

“One that’s more transparent, sustainable, and flexible than current manufacturing models.” Three manufacturing buzzwords in one mission statement is pretty impressive, and it comes with no surprise that the backbone of OpenDesk also happens to be the founders of FabHub, a matchmaking website similar to CustomMade that aims to connect Makers to Digital Fabricators (rather than consumers to Makers). The open source furniture designs are free to download if you have your own means of manufacturing the patterns or can be purchased in “Sawn” form directly from OpenDesk in which case you would need to do the finishing work, flat-packed and ready to be assembled, or made by a locally-sourced maker:

Perhaps what’s most interesting about a business model like OpenDesk in an age of Makers is how it satisfies the entire spectrum from consumer to fabricator in one easy-to-manage process:

“OpenDesk is about local making. What’s available to you — what you can make and what you can have made — depends on where you are and how much you want to get involved in the making process.”

Sample Layout

Currently Available Designs

Cafe

Desk

Edie Set

Meeting

 

Samsung's Latest 2D Printer Prototype Collection

Remember when regular 2D paper printers were all the rage? Neither do I. However, as much as we’ve taken the paper printer for granted it’s still one area that has been plagued with bad design time and time again: flimsy plastic components, cumbersome ink cartridge replacement experiences, and overall bulky awkwardness all remind me why I’ve gone paper-free. Recently, Samsung took a unique approach to redesigning the 2D printing experience with three new printer prototypes. While they’re most certainly just testing the waters with internet-based feedback at this point in time, are they actually improving the 2D printing experience or just building ‘pretty little boxes’?

Samsung’s Printer Prototypes

The Origami – A flat-pack, origami-inspired corrugated cardboard enclosure.

The Clip – A screwless plastic snap-enclosure

The Mate – A customizable, minimalist printer with interchangeable body panels

While the designs are unique, do they really address what 2D printing has needed for years (ie a revamped ink cartridge replacement experience)? Regardless, these printer concepts as-is would definitely cut down on a large amount of material and could drastically reduce other costs associated with manufacturing and shipping.

 

After listening to your conversation about shelves that can tell you about the food they are holding...

 

 

 

How Toxic Are You?

With the current GMO outcry, it is important that we ensure that what we are eating is nutritious and not the opposite. Nurtima is a kitchen scale that calculates the nutritional values, possible toxins and freshness of your food and ingredients. The scale combines piezoelectricity with smart and flexible technologies, and is charged by bending repeatedly. This action creates enough electric charge for the scale to operate for the duration required.

• The scale along with weight, analyzes the food’s or ingredient’s weight, basic nutritional information (energy, protein, carbohydrates and fat content), freshness level, and cautions the user of high levels of the most common toxins, such as mercury.
• It can also be used as a traditional kitchen scale when measuring ingredients in a bowl.

Nutrima is a 2013 Electrolux Design Lab semi-finalist.

Read more at http://www.yankodesign.com/2013/08/09/how-toxic-are-you/#OmiHSvvALG78aMsD.99

 

 

Chairigami: The Cardboard Furniture of the Future

Speaking of ideas that are out of the box: one startup is using cardboard to make eco-friendly furniture.

Chairigami manufactures tables, arm chairs, couches, shelves, standing desks, even iPhone cases out of recyclable material called Triple Wall, a three-ply corrugated cardboard. The material is like plywood in terms of its sturdiness, but is flexible enough that it can bend without breaking, providing maximum comfort. The pieces — which range from $80 to $180 on the Chairigami website — ship flat and require minimal assembly, but no glue.

Zachary Rotholz, 24, started the New Haven company in 2011 after graduating from Yale University with a Mechanical Engineering degree. “People these days just purchase stuff and throw it out when they’re done with it, so I wanted to get people thinking about what the material is made out of,” he says.

Unlike most furniture designers, Rotholz doesn’t mind if customers use his pieces merely as a starting point for their own creations. “It’s almost like an open source material: hack it, rearrange it,” says Rotholz, who is also an alum of the Yale Entrepreneurial Institute. A summer camp converted one of his cardboard tables into a LEGO table by cutting out a rectangle shape in the middle of the table and putting a bin of LEGOs inside. Other clients have installed speakers and light fixtures or drawn elaborate patterns on the cardboard.

New Zealander Building Rare Aston Martin With $499 Solidoodle and 2,500 3D Printed Parts

Every once in a while we hear about a Maker with zero previous making experience come by and run circles around those who have been in the business of making for years. Ivan Sentch of Auckland, New Zealand is one of those Makers who only last December picked up his first 3D printer for $499. Soon after, he decided that yes, he was going to use it to help build a 1961 Series II Aston Martin DB4 replica (only 1,200 were made). Ambitious? Maybe. Insane? Possibly. Totally awesome? Heck yeah! $499 Solidoodle X Aston Martin DB4
Using mechanical parts from a Nissan Skyline GTS25 and an engine from a Ferrari 250 GTO replica, Ivan found himself with a cost issue when looking at how much a plug would cost in order to make the mold for the body. To get foam CNC cut from a local cutting shop would have cost him upwards of $15,000 NZD. His alternative plan? Purchase a $499 SolidDoodle and build the plug himself in small installments for an estimated cost of $2,000 worth of filament and the printer itself. While Ivan is a programmer by day, he had no 3D printing experience leading up to his purchase of the 3D printer in December of 2012. With zero 3D printing experience, he set out last Christmas to print 2,500 individual components that would help make the whole of a car body plug. His progress nearly 8 months later while balancing a full-time job? An impressive 72%.

“The printing itself isn’t very time-consuming (click a few buttons to kick one off before I go to work and another one off before I go to bed) and preparing the next prints only takes a couple of hours a week – it’s just really the sanding of the printed parts before I glue them together that is time-consuming (and dreadfully boring).”

In an interview with SolidDoodle, Ivan also states that he is using Autodesk 3DS Max for the slicing and AllyCAD to print out the MDF shapes on paper. He also includes some tips on 3D printing:

“I’ve found the best printing method (at least for the tall skinny prints like mine) is to lay a heat strengthened glass sheet above the bed and Kapton tape on top of that and hair spray. The Kapton tape sticks better to glass than to the aluminum and the Kapton tape + hair spray sticks the prints down to the bed 99.9% of the time. I’ve found 95 deg (Celsius) is the best temperature for the bed.”

To track the progress of Ivan’s Aston Martin project, check out his project blog.

New Study: 3D Printers Will Pay For Themselves in a Year……What Do You Think?

Shower rings? iPhone cases? Banana Hooks? Watering Spouts? Whatever products you might create on your 3D printer as an alternative to purchasing said products, researchers at Michigan Technological University have determined that after a years’ time, you will most likely have paid for the 3D printer in money saved alone. Ultimately, this brings up perhaps a more interesting question: What do you actually use your 3D printer for that you would otherwise purchase?

 

When Does a 3D Printer Pay for Itself?

 

The study considered 20 of some of the most common household items listed on Thingiverse including smart device accessories, a garlic press, a showerhead, a spoonholder, and the like. Using Google Shopping, the researchers then determined the maximum and minimum cost of buying those 20 items online, shipping charges (and alternatively, gas/transport expenses) not included. Household items used in the study Once the team had a well-rounded list of the common household items and their average prices, they calculated the cost of making them with consumer-grade 3D printers. Their results? It would cost the typical American consumer from $312 to $1,944 to buy those 20 items online (again, not including shipping) compared to $18 to make them on their 3D printer over a weekend. Holy cow!

“With the exponential growth of free designs and expansion of 3D printing, we are creating enormous potential wealth for everyone… [Y]ou don’t need to be an engineer or a professional technician to set up a 3D printer. Some can be set up in under half an hour, and even the RepRap can be built in a weekend by a reasonably handy do-it-yourselfer.”-Joshua Pearce, Lead Researcher
 

An additional bonus that wasn’t mentioned in the study is the ability to not only fabricate your own items at home, but personalize them as well: Also: these are just 20 of the most common household items. Yesterday, we posted on a man named Ivan Sentch in New Zealand who is creating a plug for a body mold for a 1961 Aston Martin with 2,500 3D prints on a $499 Solidoodle 3D printer—effectively saving him the $15,000 or so it would cost to have the same shape sculpted out of foam at a local CNC shop. 3D printer users are also printing replicas of rare vintage camera lens mounts, orthotics, vintage car parts, and other items that alone might cost 4x-10x the cost of a single MakerBot Replicator 2.

ARPRO material

www.arpro.com

 

 

ARPRO® Benefits

 

• Thermal insulation - Outstanding thermal insulation for temperature sensitive applications. 
• Light weight - Material mass reduction and minimised component count dramatically decrease weight. 
• Structural strength - Load bearing structural support from high strength to weight ratio. 
• Acoustical - Noise reduction levels up to 10 times that of alternative materials.

 

The thermal insulating benefits of ARPRO® mean that there are growing numbers of applications in the Heating, Ventilation, Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration (HVAC-R) industry.

Thermal insulation in combination with properties such as light weight, structural strength, energy absorption, acoustic insulation and design flexibility ensure broad suitability. Key system components such as pumps, boilers, valves, heat-exchangers, motors and control mechanisms are universally housed in ARPRO® casings to improve heat insulation.
Additionally, the increasing focus on Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) has highlighted the need for thermal enclosures since the performance of the battery itself is adversely affected by temperature. As well as limiting temperature variations, the benefits of design flexibility (enabling sophisticated three-dimensional shapes, live-hinges and inserts) and its durability in maintenance situations make ARPRO® an ideal solution.