maker

Are your friends always asking you to share those photos and videos you took last year? I know I'm guilty of this crime as well, but there are tools out there to help you create an awesome slideshow that sums up your camping trip, a birthday party, or just a casual night out. Whatever it may be, you can create a professional-level slideshow with this slideshow creator - Wondershare DVD Slideshow Builder Deluxe.

Wondershare DVD Slideshow Builder Deluxe is the easy-to-use yet powerful DVD photo slideshow maker. With it, you can combine photos and video clips into DVD slideshow … Read more

Why now? Because I finally got approval from CBS corporate to buy a MakerBot Replicator. Then it took a few weeks for MakerBot to build the unit.

MakerBot isn't loaning out Replicators for review. The company says it can't produce them in enough volume yet, citing an eight-week lead time because of current demand. (MakerBot did expedite my order.)

I picked up our unit yesterday from the company's office in Brooklyn, sparing us shipping costs and the risk of damage in-transit (you can check here for Daniel Terdiman's report on his own visit to MakerBot HQ). Total cost with the dual-extruder head was $1,999.

How do I justify spending $2,000 of CBS money on a niche product like a 3D printer? If you believe the hype, these devices have the same consumer/professional cross-over potential as Adobe's Photoshop. And through its enthusiastic, infectious marketing of both itself and 3D printing in general, MakerBot has become the industry's flagship company.… Read more

BROOKLYN, N.Y.--Given that Maker Faire is being held next month at a Northern California fairgrounds, it's appropriate that one of the attractions will be a petting zoo.

But this will be unlike any you've seen before. There won't be "animals" on display, and there won't be any fur.

Welcome to the Robot Petting Zoo.

The brainchild of the geeks at MakerBot Industries, the zoo will feature a collection of 3D printed robots, each of which will do something unique. Take "Button bot," for example, a happy-looking android with a head … Read more

Stories from Tuesday's CNET Update:

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As a parent, there's nothing quite so satisfying as watching your kids express their creativity. Doesn't matter if it's with a set of blocks, a box of crayons, or an app that turns long sequences of still photos into superhero-themed movies -- it's just thrilling.

On Saturday, I gave my 9-year-old son a five-minute tutorial on using Lego Super Hero Movie Maker, a new app that lets Lego fans create nifty stop-motion animations using their own minifigs (i.e. little Lego people).

By Sunday, he'd already created several hilarious movies, the best of which involved a giant praying mantis catching and devouring several minifigs (hey, who says the good guys always get to win?). And he was just getting started -- Super Hero Movie Maker was an instant hit.… Read more

Q: What do you call a vacuum cleaner that doesn't suck?

A: A race car.

That seems to be the refreshingly unexpected answer Dyson's U.K. engineers would provide.

The crew got together earlier this month to shake the dust off with the "Dyson car challenge," a Pinewood Derby of sorts wherein the engineers competed to -- as the company puts it -- "create the fastest go-kart using a few Dyson spare parts and all the torque they could eke out from one of our handheld motors."… Read more

Ascomp's BackUp Maker is a free data backup solution for Windows. It automatically backs up your files and folders on schedule or when something changes, and it can create new backups or add changes to existing backups. It doesn't create system images, so it can't restore your entire system, though Windows Backup already does that. What it's best for is backing up critical files and folders on a daily basis. BackUp Maker Standard Edition is fully functional freeware that displays a nag screen at startup and when backups complete.

BackUp Maker's user interface shows prominent … Read more

You'll be forgiven if you haven't previously heard of Stratasys Inc or Objet Ltd. Stratasys, formerly a Nasdaq-traded company from Eden Prairie, Minn., has a multi-pronged business selling industrial-quality 3D printers and on-demand object printing services. Objet, of Rehovot, Israel, is a 3D printer manufacturer notable for its "polyjet matrix" technology, which can print an object using multiple different materials.

Here's why you might care that the two companies announced their intention to merge: the new company, Stratasys, Ltd. could become a third major competitor in the consumer 3D printing market.… Read more

SANDIA PARK, N.M.--It's a good idea to raid your piggy bank for quarters before you go to Tinkertown. You'll need them to trigger the fortune teller machine, play the automated one-man band, and turn on some of the homemade animatronic displays.

Ross Ward's legacy Tinkertown is a testament to the vision, determination, and craftiness of tinkerer Ross Ward, a carnival painter who spent 40 years of his life carving figures and building miniature towns and circuses for them to live in.

One highlight of a Tinkertown visit is the Old West town. It spans a long room. Buttons along the way trigger a figure that chases a chicken, a flying Mary Poppins, and carpenters hammering away. Most of it is hand-built and hand-carved, with layers upon layers of tiny Western details recreated in miniature.

The result of all that work and creativity is Tinkertown. Tucked away in the Sandia Mountains, Tinkertown pulls in thousands of visitors every year. Ward passed away in 2002, but his widow and partner-in-tinkering Carla Ward still runs the place.… Read more