A cool Kickstarter project that uses Shapeways 3D printing to extend the usability of the Amazon Kindle

The Kapsule Lightstand by Pieco is everything that you need to make your Kindle complete. It's the highest quality reading light available, and it gets its power straight from the Kindle. It has a slide-out kickstand for hands-free reading, and it provides a comfortable ergo-style grip for long reading sessions.

What better gift for the Minecraft addict than a full color 3D Print of their avatar.

Minetoys is an online service that uses Shapeways 3D printing to create a full color 3D model of a Minecraft avatar.

How does it work?  Your Minecraft skin is rendered in HD file (yeah, HD pixels !) and applied to a 3D model, verified by a human being, and then sent to Shapeways for 3D Printing. You can also choose from over 600 Minecraft avatars from the Minetoys Shapeways Shop including Le Boblennon officiel !, xXNuageZombieXx, Manamaxxx and many, many more.

The Illusion iPhone 4 Case by Sapho Design for 3D printed eye bending phone protection.

Like a 3D Printed Rabbit out of a 3D Printed Hat, Shapeways Brings the 3D Printed Magic to New York Tech Meetup.

On Tuesday 29th of November in front of a capacity crowd of over 800 of New York's tech community at NYU Skirball Center, VP of Engineering and in house magician Josh Levine pulled some 3D magic out of his hat, literally.

The Wired Store in Times Square NYC is currently featuring the coolest gadgets, gizmos and technology from around the world so of course the Shapeways community is representing the best of 3D printing. As mentioned on the Shapeways Blog the pop-up store is open until December 24 so if you can brave Times Square head on in to see the 3D printed goodness in context of some of the coolest stuff around.

Just when you thought Theo Jansen's 3D Printed Strandbeest could not get any more creepy cool, Tim van Bentum and Bo Jansen have helped take the Strandbeest into the fourth dimension with a 3D Printed Wind Propulsion add on for the existing Strandbeests.

The 3D printed Strandbeests can now walk autonomously, powered by the wind, just like Theo's full-scale Strandbeests. The new propellor add-on gives new and existing owners of these kinetic sculptures a new way to set them in motion!

Make your own slide-on macro lens for the iPhone 4 or 4S with $11 worth of 3D printing and a $4 lens from the Surplus Shed. This is an interesting use of 3D printing to help extend the capabilities of an existing product.  Quite an amazing level of detail is achieved with just a few inexpensive parts, see the image below of the ruler taken with the slide-on macro lens.

Custom jewelry design at your finger tips with iRing3D by Paracloud and Shapeways 3D Printing.

iRing3D is an app for iPad by Paracloud, allowing everyone to design and fabricate rings. You don't need to have any 3D CAD skills to design your own ring. Simply sketch the ring design with your fingertip, control the size and shape, and upload directly to Shapeways to 3D print in your choice of materials.

Roland have released the iModela, a desktop 3D mill aimed at the consumer market.

 ... the iModela is an inexpensive ($1000), easy-to-use (cough) desktop device that mills wax, foam, balsa wood and plastic materials commonly used in craft and hobby projects.

iModela also comes with iModela Creator design software to create and mill shapes, holes, textures and patterns along with free-hand drawing tools so users can sketch out "more complex ideas". With iModela Creator, users can either download a file or create original 3D models and designs right on a personal computer.

Friday is the day we take a look at some of the latest 3D printing awesomeness to be shared in the It Arrived and Feature This sections of the Shapeways Forums. Be sure to share your models as they arrive to inspire the Shapeways community and staff.  We especially love seeing any post production techniques realized on your 3D prints.

Just in time for Halloween Kspaho (not his real name) has mass produced glowing spider earrings.... 

Michael Mueller (actual name) shared his Silver Crown Ring along with a tutorial to achieve similar effects with water, electricity and baking soda...

Ammnra's Gold Plated Solid Steel Pendant based on Assassin's Creed Apple of Eden gets some extra mystical power with a rubbing of black paint.

- is like having a personal helicopter for $49.90!

Shapeways community member Sergey Menshikov has designed a range of 3D printed mounts for the extremely popular GoPro Hero camera including the Mast Mount designed specifically for windsurfing.

Take a look at TrickCam where Sergey shares a little more about the product along with some videos of/from it in action.

Also check out this 3D printed 3-Axis Gimbal for GoPro previously mentioned on the Shapeways blog 

Whilst reading a blog post by Seth Godin entitled The forever recession (and the coming revolution) with the line "When everyone has a laptop and connection to the world, then everyone owns a factory" it reminded me of the book 'Makers' by Cory Doctorow and in turn of the potential of Shapeways 3D Printing as New Work.

Seth's post looks at the current employment recession as a long term revolution, where "The internet has squeezed inefficiencies out of many systems, and the ability to move work around, coordinate activity and digitize data all combine to eliminate a wide swath of the jobs the industrial age created."  This echoes elements of Cory's Makers where an economic and employment revolution happens thanks in part to product hacks, access to 3D printing and internet notoriety.

If we look at the potential of Shapeways online 3D printing in the context of these visions which speak of 'employment' in terms of a series of projects you just do, whether they be self initiated, collaborations or by consultation for cash, a factory plugged into your laptop is an incredibly powerful asset.

Take a moment to read Seth's post, set aside some time to read Makers which you can download for free in various formats and prepare yourself for New Work.

Copeland-Chatterson Company, loose-leaf systems factory composing room, Brampton, Ontario ca. 1905 By Toronto Public Library Special Collections

This tutorial is for those with a bit of HTML prowess and want to use the Shapeways Shopping Cart to sell your 3D prints from your own external shop.  Plugging into the Shapeways API it offer levels of customization and complexity not possible with the Shapeways Widget.

Take a look at the tutorial, experiment with your own website, share your examples and let us know if this is something you would like integrated into your Shapeways Shop to sell your own 3D printed designs?

The guys at Makerbot are running full steam ahead with improvements to their machines and with the latest Mk7 extruder they are outputting really nice quality 3D prints. Makers of commercial FDM 3D printers lookout.

In July last year we used our Mk4 Makerbot to print Baroba's Bowie the Bunny with some fair results, but the latest as shown on the Makerbot blog are looking really nice.

A big congratulations to the entire team at Makerbot for the constant improvements, the recent funding and to Bre for his latest 3D Printcess.

Rock on.