Tired of fiddling around with meaningless apps on your iPhone whilst on the train, running your battery so low that you cannot instagram misspelled sign writing at your corner store?  Forget the apps, now you can mindlessly fidget with the gears on the Infin8 Gear iPhone Case, to infinity, without draining your iPhone battery.

Check out the video of the phone (case) in action.

Mixing 3D printing, craftsmanship & honest design, Lance Atkins wants to bring useful, 3D printed goods into your home with the help of Shapeways and a Kickstarter project entitled Inherently Useful.

Over the past two years have seen an avalanche of Kickstarter projects launching 3D printers, 3D scanners along with the occasional project using 3D printing as a way to reward some of their backers but Inherently Useful may be the first to tie 3D printed products into every level of the project.

A range including a pen, vase, iPhone dock and lamps the range all uses Shapeways 3D printing to make fully functional objects for your daily use.  The range has evolved out of products that Lance wanted for himself, and as is often the case on Shapeways, when you make something EXACTLY as you want it, often others have the same need and aesthetic so the product resonates with them in the very same way, it may even inspire them to make something for themselves. 

"When I make something for myself, it's perfect, for me"

You can back Lance's Kickstarter project for as little as $1 but $29 will get you a 3D printed pen and over $350 will get you a couple of very cool 3D printed lamps, powered by Shapeways 3D printing:)

Back in March 2013 we revealed the 3D Printed gown for Dita Von Teese designed by Michael Schmidt and Francis Bitonti at the Ace Hotel in NYC. Now we finally have footage of the gown in action.

Check out the video to see the making of the 3D printed gown along with footage of Dita Von Teese showing how it fits her for, moves and sways. 

The Eames Lounge Chair and Ottoman is a mid-century modern design classic first released in 1956 by husband and wife design team Charles and Ray Eames but even after ovder 50 years of being in production, even the reproductions are prohibitively expensive, until now.

The Mini Eames Lounge Chair by kspence is a 1:20 scale miniature is about 2 inches tall and at just over $25 as a full color 3D Print is 1:67th the cost of a full scale reproduction.  Do the math, it's a bargain and you can hold a piece of design history in the palm of your hand, maybe even make the perfect seat for Sad Keanu?

New Zealand based designer and Shapeways user Earl Stewart has designed the XYZ Shoe using a combination of 3D Printed Nylon and traditional shoe making materials such as leather and laces.

We have seen a number of 3D printed shoes hit the runway along with a few prototype sports shoes from Nike and New Balance but these are the first to use 3D printing in a more traditional, wearable style, and for men.

Our new Elasto Plastic may be the perfect material to usher in a new range of 3D printed and/or partially 3D printed shoes into the market.

Check out Earl's impressive portfolio featuring additional 3D printed footwear experiments and more.

Emerging Topologies is an upcoming exhibition exploring how contemporary technologies are changing our relationship with the architectural space we inhabit.  The exhibition is the culmination of artist Josh Harle's four year doctoral research, informed by degrees in Computer Science, Philosophy, and Sculpture, and completed between the School of Design, COFA, and the Faculty of the Built Environment, University of New South Wales.  The artist's practice utilises exotic production techniques and bespoke software tools that map, scan, and visualise the city in contingent, poetic ways using 3D fabrication, laser etching, cloud processing, and structural reconstruction from images.  

The artist explores the shifting landscape of a city experienced through mobile mapping technology, sketching out his own improbable paths through the shadows.  The works tell tales: compiling esoteric maps of journeys through strange cities, and taking playful, winding trips across the smudged face of the GPS screen.

The research thesis will also serve as the catalogue for the exhibition, and the artist is selling printed and DRM-free ebook versions to help with the cost of the exhibition.

Opening: Tues, May 21, 5-7pm

Where: Kudos Gallery 6 Napier St, Paddington, NSW

Hours: Wed to Fri, 11am – 6pm, Sat, 11am – 4pm  

Beautiful, delicate, finely balanced mobiles 3D printed to dance on the breeze.

These 3D printed mobiles are the result of a collaboration between Marco Mahler and Henry Segerman, available 3D printed on demand through their Shapeways Mobiles Shop

3D Printing isn't just about photorealistic bulldogs, beautiful jewelry and iPhone cases, it is also a way to design, prototype and produce more complex products by integrating other components.  Check out this working stepper motor constructed around a Shapeways 3D printed frame along with some nails, magnet wire, neodymium magnets and a digispark microcontroller.

If a simple motor can be constructed, what is the next step? (pun intended)

Every now and then we see an object that is hard to believe it is 3D printed, in this case it is the Bulldog 3D printed in Full Color Sandstone byMISS3. This is by far the most realistic 3D printed object we have seen so far and now the challenge is on...

Can you design something so realistic we will not know that it is a 3D print? 

Father and Son team up to design and 3D print kite photography rigs for a range of smart phones then document the world around them, from above.

Taking the father and son project to new heights (sorry) hobbiestoomany have designed and 3D printed a range of kite ariel photography rigs for the Samsung Infuse, Galaxy S3 and the iPhone.

Making great use of the super light yet strong 3D printed Nylon on Shapeways they have constructed cages that can safely carry a smartphone up into the sky to record with either video or photos. There are already a whole range of 3D printed GoPro camera mounts on Shapeways for a wide range of uses but this is one of the first mounts we have seen designed to take the smart phone to the skies.  Each of the kits are available in hobbiestoomany's Shapeways shop with simple instructions in the video below how to assemble the cage and send your phone into the sky in a playful mash-up of Benjamin Franklin's kite experiments and a modern surveillance drone.

Check out the video of the test, amazing images and how to assemble then the second video whale watching with a kite...