Startup Weekend Maker Edition: teams are hard at work building prototypes

Startup Weekend is holding a very special “makers edition ” this weekend in Seattle. The teams are hard at work building prototypes and working on their pitches. We’re looking forward to tonight’s presentations and will be back with a full report!

In…

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Buccaneer concludes kickstarter campaign – 1438% funded

We first wrote about Buccaneer on the very day that their Kickstarter launched, noting that they just might be creating the most consumer-friendly 3D printer yet. About one hour ago their campaign ended having raised a total of $1,438,765, putting them in…

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Meet RAPIRO, the hackable robot kit for Raspberry Pi

Shota Ishiwatari reached out to us to announce his new Kickstarter project, RAPIRO, and it’s something you definitely want to keep an eye on (or back the project) if you’re into hackable robotics. RAPIRO is a Robot kit project that comes with…

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WigWag is like IFTTT for Home Automation

WigWag, launched 2 hours ago on Kickstarter (31% funded with $15,915 raised out of $50,000), looks like a promising new approach to sensors in the home, offering up an “IFTTT”-like interface for wiring things together (i.e. a simple to use web interface…

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Hack Things Meetup Recap (China Trip, Molecule Synth and PCH)

Thanks for everyone who made it out to our 4th Hack Things Meetup and to Madrona and SURF Incubator for sponsoring.

Ethan and Joe from Hack Things gave a quick recap of their recent China trip and talked about their experience finding…

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Hack Things Meetup: June 13th with PCH International and Molecule Synth

The next Hack Things meetup will be on June 13th from 12pm ~ 2pm at SURF Incubator.

Please go here to learn more and RSVP.

We have a great line up:

1) Aymerik Renard – with over 5000 employees and nearly $1B…

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Who Will Win the Smart Lock Race, August or Lockitron?

If you missed it, the race is now on to be the “smart lock” of choice. Originally pioneered by Lockitron and their amazing story of crowd funding over $2 million dollars, Yves Behar is raising the bar with the introduction of August.…

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At $400, the Buccaneer May Be the Most Consumer-Friendly 3D Printer Yet

As we’ve noted, 3D printing is rapidly reaching consumer price-points. The latest entrant, the Buccaneer, just launched on Kickstarter. The printer focuses on ease of use and aesthetic appeal, with a price that’s among the lowest out there.

A little reminiscent of…

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Sweet Bike Hack: Monkey Light Pro (Kickstarter)

Another day, another awesome bike hack. Monkey Light Pro launched on Kickstarter earlier today and if Helios Bars is an urban hipster’s smart bike utility for increasing safety, Monkey Light Pro is the ultimate bike hack for the Burning Man crowd —…

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Comparing Hardware Hacker Prototyping Boards

UDOO, a sort-of dual Arduino + Raspberry PI hardware hacker prototyping board and extremely successful Kickstarter campaign that we interviewed recently, just released a handy comparison chart of similar products. Unless you backed their project as we did, you might not see…

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Made with China – The Professionalization of Make

About the Author: Silvia Lindtner is post-doctoral Fellow at ISTC and Fudan University. She researches and writes about DIY Maker culture in China. She is currently based in Shenzhen exploring how Chinese manufacturing comes together with IoT start-up culture.

Since January 2013,…

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iTunes for 3D Printing

While people are paying a lot of attention to the idea of 3D printed fire arms, they are missing what will undoubtedly have a larger impact as 3D printing takes off: intellectual property rights.

But startups are emerging to address this issue.…

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Meet Clyde: A Hackable Lamp Designed at HAXLR8R

UPDATE: Photos of Clyde added below!

Clyde is an Adruino-compatible, expressive lamp that looks like a fun way to experiment and get creative with hacking your physical environment. Pop an XBee shield in so you can talk to Clyde remotely and have…

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Chinese Cigarettes are Beautiful

Okay, this post may be just a tad off-topic but since we talked about smoking in China in yesterday’s post, $10,000 Android Phones, Smoke and Gourmet Espresso, I thought I’d share these photos I took today in a shop in the Shenzhen…

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I Needed Some RFID Tags So I Went to the Factory

At a Hack Things meetup a couple of months ago, Niall Smart presented his “Tactile Music Player,” a device that uses an RFID reader and a Raspberry Pi to play music by simply placing physical album covers on a stand, which are…

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$10,000 Android Phones, Smoke and Gourmet Espresso: My Impressions of Shenzhen

By now, Ethan is now back in the states and I’m treating myself to another helping of Shenzhen in order to catch up with Romotive, to visit a security marketplace and to stop by an RFID factory to buy some supplies (blog…

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DIY Maker Story: Travis Felman of Molecule Synth

We visited Travis Felman at HAXLR8R in Shenzhen last week. In a lot of ways, Travis is the prototypical example of the DIY / hacker / maker phenomenon. A PhD in English Literature who spent time as a professor at Lewis and…

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Arduino-Compatible, Wi-Fi Board from HAXLR8R Company, Spark Core

We were too busy travelling to New York and China to notice the launch of Spark Core, probably one of the most interesting prototyping boards to be released…yet. It’s pretty simple: a prototyping board with Wi-Fi on the front and Arduino on…

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Explore a security marketplace in Huaqiangbei

Last week we wrote about our visit to the Huaqiangbei electronics market in Shenzhen with program director of HAXLR8R and former co-founder of Makerbot, Zach Hoeken Smith. On that trip Zach mentioned that there was an entire building dedicated to security products.…

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How Romotive Went from Prototype to Polished Product

This morning I met up in Shenzhen with Peter Seid, one of the cofounders of Romotive. I first met Peter and his co-founder Phu in Seattle at a TechStars mentor-startup mixer just days after they were accepted into the program. Back then,…

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