Stratasys/MakerBot Deal Closes, Giving Stratasys A High-Profile Consumer Brand

TechCrunch » Gadgets

Stratasys/MakerBot Deal Closes, Giving Stratasys A High-Profile Consumer Brand

Toward the end of June, 3D printing companies Stratasys and MakerBot confirmed what TechCrunch had already uncovered, the former would be acquiring the latter for $403 million (or 4.7 million shares) in exchange for 100 percent of MakerBot’s outstanding capital stock.

Stratasys has long been a dominant force in 3D printing, long before we were buying 3D printers for our homes. The company specializes in factory-level printing and prototype printing for designers and manufacturers.

But as is made crystal clear with the entry of companies like MakerBot, FormLabs, and other consumer-facing 3D printing companies, there is most certainly a demand for at-home 3D printing.

MakerBot was one of the first companies to offer an affordable 3D printer for your home, selling more than 22,000 MakerBots since 2009. That said, the merger truly signifies one of the first time a 3D printing firm will be offering both enterprise and consumer-facing products simultaneously.

“We are excited for the future,” said MakerBot founder Bre Pettus in the press release. “Full steam ahead!”

On the one hand, Stratasys is obviously aggressively entering the consumer space, but this acquisition is also a huge resource to MakerBot. Since 2009, the company was working in its own factory in Brooklyn off of $10 million in venture funding.

Having Stratasys’ 25+ years of experience and resources will surely accelerate innovation and growth at MakerBot.

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Watch This Creepy Little Robot That Can Sneak Under Your Door

TechCrunch » Gadgets

Watch This Creepy Little Robot That Can Sneak Under Your Door

Today in our continuing series entitled “Robots That Will Eventually Drink The Liquid From Your Eyeball In Your Sleep” we present the STAR.V3, a superfast, 3D-printed robot that can squeeze itself down to fit underneath a door and/or scuttle quickly away as soon as it steals your precious juices.

While the juicing feature has not yet been enabled in the robot, researchers at Berkeley’s Biomimetic Millisystems Lab have been able to create this “sprawl tuned autonomous robot” AKA STAR using 3D printed pieces. David Zarrouk, Andrew Pullin, Nick Kohut, and Ronald Fearing created the robot out of a number of simple, easily replaceable and biomimetic parts.

The robot can move up to 5.2 meters per second and it is especially quick on smooth surfaces. A simple control board and simple motors control the star-shaped wheels and collapsible arms.

The team aims to make it a sort of field-repairable search and rescue bot. Because you can print parts for it quickly using almost any 3D printer and it weighs only a few grams, you can carry a few of them and not worry if they break on transport. You can read a bit more about the robot here or you can just sleep with one eye open in hopes of catching this little thing before it catches you.

via RoboticsTrends

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This Week On The TC Gadgets Podcast: Sphero 2.0 And Speculation

TechCrunch » Gadgets

This Week On The TC Gadgets Podcast: Sphero 2.0 And Speculation

Sometimes it’s summer, and instead of real news like the introduction of a new and improved Sphero robotic ball, we hear a lot of news prediction.

Will Elon Musk’s high-speed train idea, Hyperloop, ever actually get built? How sure are we that the next iPhone will be revealed at an event on September 10? And is Amazon really building a gaming/media console or is that just a persistent rumor?

We discuss all this and more on the latest episode of the TechCrunch Gadgets podcast, featuring John Biggs, Jordan Crook, Chris Velazco, Darrell Etherington and Romain Dillet

Enjoy!

We invite you to enjoy our weekly podcasts every Friday at 3pm Eastern and noon Pacific.

Click here to download an MP3 of this show.

You can subscribe to the show via RSS.

Subscribe in iTunes

Intro Music by Rick Barr.

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HTC: Hell That's Confusing

TechCrunch » Gadgets

HTC: Hell That's Confusing

After much fanfare including a mundane video teaser, HTC just released the first part of their latest advertising campaign. Starring Robert “Iron Man” Downey Jr. the video spot is, well, memorable. It’s a touch crazy, a bit confusing, and doesn’t showcase anything HTC makes. But you won’t forget it. And that’s what makes for an effective ad.

As Natasha explained when HTC released the teaser, HTC is asking, almost rhetorically, what their initials stand for. Like “Humongous Tinfoil Catamaran” and ”Hipster Troll Carwash,” says the ad. You get it. Hyper Tongue Circus. Hello, Titicaca Coast. Hippopotamuses Tightroping Carelessly.

There’s good reason for this. Despite being a major player in Android since the very beginning, HTC isn’t a household name. These clever, and mostly silly acronyms, will act as a sort of mnemonic for the brand.

Because, really, anything is better than High Tech Computer Corporation, which is what the initials really stand for. Not very catchy.

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Sony's Crazy Plan To Improve Mobile Photos Involves Making Attachable Cameras For Phones

TechCrunch » Gadgets

Sony's Crazy Plan To Improve Mobile Photos Involves Making Attachable Cameras For Phones

While Samsung and Nokia (and everyone else really) are locked in a sort of mobile photography war by baking elaborate cameras into new smartphones, Sony is apparently testing a slightly different approach. Rather than cramming a high-end camera into a phone, the folks at SonyAlphaRumors have happened upon a set of photos that depict a pair of Sony “lens cameras” that latch onto your smartphone instead.

This isn’t the first time Sony’s curious camera phone attachments have popped up — they were the subject of another leak earlier this year — but now we’ve got a clearer picture of what these things are actually capable of. At first glance, the hefty things don’t seem too different from some other smartphone accoutrements out there right now, but their looks are deceiving.

See, the attachments don’t actually augment your phone’s built-in camera so much as they replace them entirely. That’s the weird thing about what Sony has cooked up: They’re more than just a lens, but they’re not quite a standalone camera, either. Instead, the devices float in the limbo between both of those things and relies wholly on a smartphone to actually make it usable. According to the SonyAlphaRumors’ report, everything — from the 18- or 20-megapixel sensor to the image processor to the SD card slot — is packed into those barrels while the phone it’s connected to acts as the viewfinder.

For what it’s worth, Sony’s rationale seems at least partially defensible. So long as companies like Samsung, Apple, HTC, and even Sony want to duke it out over how thin they can make their smartphones, they also need to figure out how to continuously improve those mobile cameras while keeping heft to a minimum (unless they temporarily lose their minds). By moving the lion’s share of the hardware outside of the chassis completely, Sony gets to continue trying to push the envelope on camera performance without having to worry about the impact all that extra hardware has on the aesthetics of a new phone. And since these lens cameras aren’t tied into one specific device, Sony could see continued sales of the things even after consumers ditch their old phones for new ones. It’s definitely a strange approach, but it’s also pretty smart.

As we all know, though, being smart doesn’t necessarily translate into being successful, and there are plenty of reasons why something like this wouldn’t catch on. You’ve got to carry around another gizmo for one, and the potential price tag could cause would-be mobile photogs to balk (especially when decent point-and-shoots are getting stupidly cheap). It shouldn’t be long before these lens cameras start trickling into the wild, so we’ll soon see if Sony is actually onto something here.

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Microsoft Doesn't Want To Admit Windows RT Is Dead

TechCrunch » Gadgets

Microsoft Doesn't Want To Admit Windows RT Is Dead

Microsoft is in a tough spot. Windows RT is all but dead in the water. But Microsoft has approximately a zillion and a half Surface RT tablets collecting dust in warehouses. And so Ballmer and Co. continued its ignorant fight against Apple and the far more successful iPad with another TV spot that pits the two against each other.

Spoiler: The Surface RT is declared the winner.

Like in previous commercials, the Surface RT’s legitimate advantages are touted over the iPad and iOS. And in many cases, Microsoft isn’t exactly deceitful. The Surface, and with that, Windows RT, has clear advantages over the iPad. At first blush Windows RT feels more productive and advanced than iOS. But after a couple of swipes left and right on the Start Screen, the novelty wears off.

Of course Microsoft failed to stack Windows RT’s apps against those found in iOS.

Windows RT was a dog from the start. And now that Asus pulled back from the market, the little brother to Windows 8 will quickly fade into irrelevance. With Asus out, just Dell and Microsoft remain as the only Windows RT hardware providers. Samsung, HTC, HP, and Lenovo previously pulled plans for a Windows RT tablet.

“It’s not only our opinion,” CEO Jerry Shen remarked to the Wall Street Journal. “The industry sentiment is also that Windows RT has not been successful.”

At this point, with Windows RT’s support quickly drying up, Microsoft is doing consumers a disservice attempting to pawn their unsuccessful tablet onto unsuspecting buyers shopping on specs alone. The Windows RT product segment will soon be dead, and with it, the little developer support it currently has will quickly follow suit, leaving consumers with a tablet that will be stuck in the past.

Like I wrote in June, Microsoft, stop trying to make Windows RT happen.

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Amazon Could Launch Qualcomm-Powered Games Console And Media Box By End Of Year

TechCrunch » Gadgets

Amazon Could Launch Qualcomm-Powered Games Console And Media Box By End Of Year

Amazon is working on a games console, according to rumors from Game Informer and backed up by rumblings we’ve heard at TechCrunch as well. Game Informer says we’ll see the device by end of year, possibly in time for holiday shopping season, and that it will have its own dedicated controller and offer access to digital games sold online by Amazon.com.

We’ve heard from a reliable source that the hardware Amazon is building could be powered by a Qualcomm MPQ chip, which is the Snapdragon processor line the chipmaking company builds specifically for smart TV and set-top box devices. That, combined with earlier rumours that have emerged suggesting Amazon is working on a set-top device as reported by the Wall Street Journal, combine to suggest that while gaming may be part of this potential new hardware, it won’t be the sole focus. Nor does it make sense for Amazon to focus only on games; it has a huge vested interest in pushing digital music and movies, so why not do a device that combines all three?

Our source also informs us that the Amazon box is being worked on at Lab126, the Cupertino-based experimental hardware division that first created the Kindle. That’s been reported earlier this year by Bloomberg and other sources, but our informant says those plans are still on track and that this is the gaming device being discussed now as well.

We’ve also heard from separate sources reports of developers being approached by Amazon regarding developing games for their hardware, which means it could be more than just a media center PC designed to play the digital downloads it already offers. Amazon might be looking more at competing with devices like the OUYA and the upcoming BlueStacks GamePop and GamePop Mini, if it’s securing original content from small developers.

Webush Securities analyst Michael Pachter previously suggested that Amazon could even give away its hardware to Amazon Prime subscribers, similar to the model that BlueStacks is promising GamePop Mini buyers in exchange for subscription to their all-you-can-play mobile console gaming subscription. We haven’t heard anything specific regarding that possibility, but Amazon’s interests would definitely lie in making more money from content, not in hardware margins.

We reached out to both Amazon and Qualcomm for more information, and Amazon responded saying that it doesn’t comment on “rumors or speculation,” while Qualcomm hasn’t responded as of press time. The fact that these rumors are floating up for a second time definitely suggests that Amazon’s living hardware plans are a key area to watch, for both consumers and competitors.

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