The first 3D printers could be considered rapid prototype machines which started to be widely available in the late 1980s. They started to work on a real level much earlier than that. Take the short time it’s been between the massive computers popping up in the last 100 years, inside our lifetimes, and the ultra tiny world of nanoprocessors today and you can see that we’re developing now at an absolutely explosive, exponential rate.

One article last week by Christopher Mims on Why 3D Printing Will Go the Way of Virtual Reality you’ll find that his view shows a less optimistic vision for the 3D printing world. While the technology today allows for plastics to be molded to our specifications in little to no time at all, it’s a long push to materials that otherwise need massive heat, time, effort, and other fine features to get the ball rolling. The big mind-over-matter thought comes from Tim Maly then of Quite Babylon who notes the time it’s taken to get from the press to the home press. It all seems reasonable to me.

So what do you think, home citizens? Do you think we’ll be printing up everything from toys to food to our own computers and back again soon? Or is it all in our imagination?

[Image via Wil Wheaton]

Before we go on with the details, just take a moment to look at that picture. Someone lived here. How amazing is that? So here’s the thing – Alleyne’s wife decided to divorce him in 1994. It wasn’t until then that he decided to convert his 500-square-foot living space into geek heaven, but based on this we can imagine the two probably weren’t speaking the same language all along anyway.

So with all the extra spare time not having a wife allows, he was able to spend $150,000 in hand-crafting futuristic furniture, installing a voice-activated lighting system, and converting the bedroom into a transporter. Here’s the thing, though. He wasn’t paying anything for the apartment. His soon-to-be-ex-wife was. And now that the divorce is final, the space belongs to her. She has reportedly vowed to dismantle the Intrepid-class starship entirely. But Mr. Alleyne’s dedication to geekdom will be remembered forever.

[via The Escapist]

He must have a wife that likes Star Trek too since it is in the living room. When I wanted to put my Star Wars Wampa rug in the game room, the wife shot me down. I was able to return the favor when she wanted to decorate the closet with another Coach purse though. According to the wood artist maker, Barry Shields, the project took him a month to complete.

The wooden model is a replica of the NCC-1701-C. The glass on top is even cut in a shape that follows the lines of the ship and reminds me of the Star Trek badges. Me likey. You can buy one from the guy, if you have $3,100 lying around.

[via Technabob]

Of course the Trekkies amongst you will recognize instantly that *the Enterprise D wasn’t the only home for Majel in the Star Trek series, but it’s her representation as the voice-activated assistant of that particular starship that makes this unconfirmed rumor enjoyable enough to cover with less than the average amount of confirmation. When it comes to Androids and Star Trek, there’s just no resisting, that’s what it comes down to here on the internet.

Google Android has had voice recognition for some time now, your Android device able to hear what you’re looking for in Search, Navigation, Texting, and basically anywhere else, just so long as a developer is willing to work with Android’s open source code for integration. There’s even a slightly far-fetched yet interestingly ironic moment of reference for the voice recognition already embedded in Android per our talk with the Android authorities at the Galaxy Nexus launch in Hong Kong — as Director of Android OS User Experience Matias Duarte says, comparing Google’s approach to that of Apple:

“The metaphor I like to take is – if it’s Star Wars, you have these robot personalities like C-3PO who runs around and he tries to do stuff for you, messes up and makes jokes, he’s kind of a comic relief guy. Our approach is more like Star Trek, right, starship Enterprise; every piece of computing surface, everything is voice-aware. It’s not that there’s a personality, it doesn’t have a name, it’s just “Computer.” And you can talk to it and you can touch it, you can interact with it at the same time as you talk with it. It’s just another way to interface with the computer.” – Duarte

The word this week goes like this: engineers at Google X are hard at work creating the “first product” that was foretold by the source for the original word on Google X itself. What you’ll see in the following clip is the first time Commander Riker from Star Trek: The Next Generation meets the Galaxy-class starship he’ll be working aboard for the bulk of the series, showing off how voice recognition works well before the same thing works on smartphones.

[via Apple Insider]

In response to a question that went more or less like the following: “Can you compare to Siri? Google has voice control, voice command, voice search, voice everything – compared to Siri – what do you think about the competition?” Duarte responded with, first of all, a bit of applause for how Apple is going about utilizing voice controls. After this, he goes directly for the science fiction:

“Well, we don’t like to set ourselves in a head-to-head kind of way, you know, Apple makes terrific products, I think Siri is great; I think it’s really hard in the long run to follow strategy of making kind of an artificial personality. You know, it can be really funny at first, but that uncanny value of just, uh, having a personality that you start to interact with, um, as you would a person, with all the contextual ambiguity you would with a real person – that’s a really challenging approach, and they’re going for it, that’s great.

Our approach is different. The metaphor I like to take is – if it’s Star Wars, you have these robot personalities like C-3PO who runs around and he tries to do stuff for you, messes up and makes jokes, he’s kind of a comic relief guy. Our approach is more like Star Trek, right, starship Enterprise; every piece of computing surface, everything is voice-aware. It’s not that there’s a personality, it doesn’t have a name, it’s just “Computer.”” – Duarte

So it’s now C-3PO and Computer. Do you think we can get a Majel Barrett voice-over for Android? I sure as heck hope so. Meanwhile have a look at the Galaxy Nexus and Siri just for fun:

And note that this is only one tiny fraction of the full Q and A session we were part of back on that faithful day earlier this month, the rest coming here to the main news feed soon!

UPDATE: Here’s the Complete Ice Cream Sandwich Launch Q and A with Android Authorities now!

Apparently, the Jordan ruler, King Abdullah II is a huge Star Trek fan; in fact, he even had a non-speaking role in Star Trek: Voyager back in his teen days. The king is making an investment of $1.5 billion in the project according to a paper in the area. The resort that the park will be integrated into has all sorts of interesting things to offer.

In addition to the Star Trek park the Red Sea Astrarium will also have all sorts of real world features. There will be a pavilion for instance where businesses, students, and others can learn about solar and wind power along with graywater harvesting. The park is being licensed by CBS Consumer Products so it will be official.

[via MSNBC]

Some potato trekkie fun does come at a price. The collectible sets will each cost $30 and will be available by August 2011. Preorders are now being accepted over at PPW Toys.

[Via PPW Toys]

The contest allows players of the game to design what could be the next edition of the famous Enterprise starship. The contest goes along with the latest expansion update for the game called Season Three: Genesis. The new expansion pack adds some interesting new features to the MMO.

Among the features is the public beta of the player-created content system called The Foundry Beta. Players can now replay episodes and some even offer new rewards. Borg tech can be integrated into the player’s star ship and Sector Space is revamped. The player who designs the winning Enterprise ship will win a grand prize package with a new M11x laptop from Alienware, a collector’s edition of the Star Trek online fames, a lifetime subscription to the game, a 3D model of the winning ship design and the winning ship will be used in the game.

The great thing about any 3D printer is not only your ability to create things you’ve modeled in a computer in a 3D realm, but your ability to create things you’d never be able to create by hand – for example, a human heart, with all of it’s inner tubes carved perfectly precisely. This particular 3D printer carves down to 0.005mm resolution. That’s heavily accurate, and so sharp you’re in more trouble of creating something that’ll collapse on itself than missing a detail.

The way this printer innovates upon others is first it’s tiny size and home usability (you can buy other 3D printers and put them in your house, of course, but this one’s like comparing a bike to a car (sizewise)). Secondly, this printer works in a way very similar to your everyday average paper printer, shooting out piece after piece of printed matter without end. Other 3D printers require you to reset everything via cleaning and re-clicking. Fun! Take a peek at the full product description below, and feel free to order one on pre-sale (coming soon!):

***Availability: Ships with a 7 week lead time. This is a Pre-sale item.***

The MakerBot Thing-O-Matic 3D printer is a breakthrough in 3D printing technology. We’ve named it the Thing-O-Matic because it is an automatic 3D printer. All other 3D printers can only do one thing at a time while the MakerBot Thing-O-Matic 3D printer prints thing after thing! Buy it, put it together and enjoy being the first on your block to live in the cutting-edge personal manufacturing future of tomorrow!

Fully Automatic

The MakerBot Thing-O-Matic 3D printer comes with a new larger MakerBot Automated Build Platform v2.0 that will keep printing and printing… Automatically!

The MakerBot Automated Build Platform is truly a revolution in 3D printing. Updated to be larger for the Thing-O-Matic, it allows you to have a print queue where your machine will clear the build surface between builds by printing, then ejecting. It prints objects one after another. This turns your MakerBot into a little factory that sits on your desktop. Best of all, this is completely automated: you hit print, and the machine does all the work. Want to print 100 butterflies? Easy. Want to print an entire chess set? No problem. Want to start a business selling printed things that you’ve designed? Awesome. Have the MakerBot Thing-O-Matic 3D printer do all the work while you design new things.

Extremely Reliable

The MakerBot Thing-O-Matic 3D printer comes with the MakerBot MK5 plastruder which will give you thousands of hours of trouble-free printing.

We’ve invested many hours into designing, testing, and tweaking the MK5 plastruder. The result is an extruder that is extremely reliable, and very simple to maintain. The hot end on this extruder is essentially unbreakable and the filament drive system is one of the strongest on the market. We’ve run this thing for more than a thousand hours with minimal maintenance. Changing the filament is a breeze with the filament pressure thumb screw. You can even hot-swap the filament mid print!

Higher Quality

The layer alignment is much better which results in nicer prints and higher resolution.

We’ve completely overhauled the drive system to give the optimum positioning accuracy. The entire system has been upgraded to sturdy 3/8″ diameter linear shafting. This is overkill, but you can trust that the axes will be sturdy and straight. We’ve also switched to self-aligning, sintered brass bearings. These are very forgiving to DIY assembly and provide a nice, smooth motion on the steel shafts. Last, but not least we’ve completely replaced the Z axis with a stepper driven, cantilevered stage. Guided by two of the linear shafts, this completely eliminates any Z wobble and results in nicely aligned layers. Using a high-angle lead screw, we were able to increase the speed of the Z axis from 150mm/minute to 1000mm/minute. That’s more than 6 times the speed! This means the layer changes are almost completely imperceptible and blobbing is significantly reduced for smoother prints.

Easier to Use

Connect to the MakerBot Thing-O-Matic 3D printer over USB and hit print – the machine will detect its position and start printing.

The new MakerBot Gen4 Electronics have been designed to make the printing experience even easier than ever. The motherboard now sports an integrated USB port, so you simply plug the MakerBot in with a standard USB cable. We’ve also added full endstop support so that you never need to touch the XYZ axes ever again. When you hit print, the MakerBot Thing-O-Matic 3D printer will automatically home itself, heat up, and begin printing. All you have to do is sit back and relax while your MakerBot does all the work. Living in the future is awesome. Oh yeah, and the electronics are all inside, so you don’t have wires dangling everywhere. This also makes travelling on the subway with your MakerBot stress-free.

The MakerBot Thing-O-Matic 3D printer kit is available for $1225 and has a 7 week lead time. Order a MakerBot Thing-O-Matic 3D printer and get the latest in personal manufacturing technology!

You’ll get:
* Makerbot Plastruder MK5
* MakerBot Automated Build Platform v.2.0
* The lasercut parts to assemble a Thing-O-Matic CNC machine.
* 3 x NEMA 17 motors
* The hardware to assemble it.
* Belts and pulleys
* Smooth Rods and Drive system components
* Pre-assembled 4th Generation Electronics
* a USB cable to talk to it
* cat5e and rainbow cables to wire things up
* a standard ATX power supply
* a tools kit with all the hex keys, wrenches, and other bits you need to construct it.
* SD card to buffer your prints
* 1lb of MakerBot ABS Plastic to print with

Full instructions and documentation will be released on the day we start shipping this kit in mid-November.

Some tech specs on the Thing-O-Matic:

* Interface: Print through USB or print from SD card
* Size: 300 x 300 x 410 mm (12″ W x 12″ D x 16″ H)
* Build Area: 96 x 108 mm
* Build Height: 115 mm
* Generation 4 Electronics
* Supports up to 5 stepper drivers (XYZ + A/B)
* Connect over USB (no more FTDI cable)
* Optional LCD interface support (Not included)
* Full mechanical endstop support
* High current mosfets to drive heated build platform and extruder heater
* Thermocouple support for more accurate temperature sensing
* 500W Hercules ATX power supply
* Works with both 110v and 220v power
* Theoretical XY Positioning resolution of 0.02mm (20 microns or 0.0008″)
* Theoretical XY Maximum Feedrate of up to 5000mm/minute (roughly 200 IPM)
* Theoretical Z Positioning resolution of 0.005mm (5 microns / or 0.0002″)
* Theoretical Z Positioning Feedrate of up to 1000mm/minutes (roughly 40 IPM)

* Capable of printing with ABS and PLA

***Availability: Ships with a 7 week lead time***

[Via ReadWriteWeb]

SlashNERDOUT Oh my goodness you do NOT cross a StarTrek fan without receiving a serious … talking to. Here’s what News.Com.Au had to say about a terrible error they made in their publication regarding the USS Enterprise E and the USS Enterprise C. Terrible mistakes were made!

YESTERDAY, a news.com.au article incorrectly stated that the Star Trek starship USS Enterprise-E, otherwise known as model NNC-1701-E, was the successor to Captain Kirk’s original USS Enterprise. It has since been brought to our attention that the NNC-1701-E in fact came two models after Captain Kirk retired and was under the command of Captain Jean Luc Picard. … News.com.au apologises unreservedly for the error. There was no intention whatsoever to suggest Captain Kirk may have commanded the Galaxy Class Starships Enterprise-D and Enterprise-E. Any damage to the Star Trek brand incurred by the use of the term “hyperspace” is regretful. No malice was intended and a correction to the original article will be made. We also agree that Patrick Stewart is a handsome man, a sentiment expressed by several readers.

Addendum – We’re also sorry for any errors in this apology.

Excellent apology, folks, well played on all accounts.

[Via News.Com.Au]

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To see more Daily Slash posts, click here: [The Daily Slash]

Sure, the cutter is molded after the Enterprise from the original series, but I can let that slide. The cutter is an officially licensed Star Trek item and has a laser etched stainless steel blade bearing the NCC-1701 markings. The cutter is hand wash only.

The cutter is designed and made exclusively for ThinkGeek and has a 4-inch blade diameter. The total length of the cutter including the blade is 4-inches and it weighs of the cutter is 277 grams. This is the perfect thing for cutting your Tribble pie.

Collectibles manufacturer eFX has announced that it will be adding a line of Star Trek collectibles to its offerings alongside the Star Wars collectibles it already sells. The products are officially licensed from CBS Consumer Products and will be available later this year.

The first product in the Star Trek line will be the Mark IX Tricorder that was seen in the Star Trek: first Contact flick. Pre-orders for the tricorder will begin in September and the production run will be limited to only 1000 pieces. The collectibles will be offered as a signature edition signed by actor Brent Spiner. Pricing is unknown at this time.

If you are a huge Star Trek geek and need the perfect cologne to go along with your spandex Star Fleet uniform Firebox can hook you up. The company has announced three fully licensed Star Trek scents. Two of the colognes are for men and they are called Red Shirt and Tiberius. Red shirt is the smell of expendability and an ode to the ensigns who always died on away missions.

Tiberius promises hints of black pepper, citron zest, and cedar, I wonder if it smells like breakfast at Cracker Barrel. The ladies get Pon Farr, named after the Vulcan mating cycle. That’s right; the perfume is named after Vulcan sex, which evidentially smells of water lily and lotus blossom. You can gets yours for £29.95 per bottle.

This new phone will feature new custom items that make it uniquely Star Trek-oriented including four screensavers, three wallpapers and eight brand new ringtones. And the best part? It comes with a Phazer application. Yes, dear SlashGear readers, you can set it to stun.

The Star Trek edition of the 5800 XpressMusic phone will only be available through Phones 4U in the UK at first as a part of a limited run starting on May 1st. However, it will also be available through Vodafone, O2, T-Mobile and Orange with the equivalent of a $32.87/month contract.

The keyboard pretty much does what you’d expect – it looks just like the keyboard you use every day, except the English letters are replaced with Klingon characters.  The keyboard makes an usual decision, though, opting to make use of a PS/2 connector instead of USB, which could affect its adoption rate.  When you’re already marketing to a really tiny niche market, that’s not wise.

You can pick up the Klingon keyboard over at Cherry Keyboards.  It’ll cost you around $64, but if you’re a hardcore Trekkie, it’s probably a price worth paying.

[via Boing Boing Gadgets]

Imagine meeting with clients or watching the big game while sitting in your very own Star Trek Command Chair.  It swivels, it has light-up controls and it uses sound effects from the original TV series, making it quite possible to live out all your childhood Star Trek fantasies.  All you have to do is pretend you’re in outer space.

For $2,717.01 (plus $400 shipping and handling), you could own this fully-licensed geek masterpiece, currently available through SkyMall.

[via Tech Digest]