By Jane Gayduk 3/13 3:35pm

startup rundown

626px-TigerWoodsOct2011

Startup News: Disrupting Burner Phones and Brunch With Jake Lodwick and Bre Pettis

Here’s A Tip. Are you travelling outside the U.S. soon? Are you afraid of getting publicly humiliated by an Austrian waiter because you rounded his tip up to the nearest 5 percent, not 10? Well How Much Should I Fucking Tip has a goddam solution! Just type the country or city of your choice into the search bar and get the proper percent to tip at restaurants, at hotels, and in taxis. There are also convenient notes on countries with sneaky service charges, or specific parking rules. But don’t exit your browser until you’ve typed in “North Korea.” Read More

By The Editors 2/15 4:43pm

shameless rumormongering

Screen Shot 2013-02-15 at 3.25.10 PM

Rumor Roundup: Rap Genius Cofounder Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop

Real Genius Andreessen Horowitz invested $15 million in Rap Genius to help its Ivy League cofounders to annotate the Internet. But how much will they have to pay to rein in the braggadocious Mahbod Moghadam?

In a recent issue of Wakefield, a newsletter covering “tech and startup insight not captured elsewhere,” Maboo was up to his old shenanigans, volunteering information about a “feud” with Mark Zuckerberg, who also happens to be backed by Andreessen Horowitz.

Apparently, Mr. Moghadam was at Ben Horowitz’s home, “chilling” with Zuck and Nas as is the new mode of Silicon Valley socializing. (Mr. Horowitz happens to be close friends with Steve Stoute, Nas’ former manager.) Despite Zuck’s heightened privacy concerns (it’s complicated?) Rap Genius cofounder couldn’t resist Instagramming his good fortune. Read More

By Kelly Faircloth 7:00pm

Meet Your Maker

13 Photos

A MakerBot does its thing.

An Inside Look at MakerBot’s New Nolita Store [SLIDESHOW]

At the conclusion of the unveiling of MakerBot’s latest 3D-printing marvel, Betabeat was treated to a look at the company’s brand-new store, located at Mulberry and Houston Street. But before setting out (as the assembled reporters snacked on sliders and waited for our rides back to Manhattan) we got a bit more detail from CEO Bre Pettis about his hopes for the store and for the Replicator 2.

For one thing, “the store is a dream of mine,” Mr. Pettis explained. Read More

By Nitasha Tiku and Kelly Faircloth 4:25pm

Meet Your Maker

Mr. Pettis.

MakerBot ‘Levels Up’ with the Replicator 2: a Sleeker 3D Printer with ‘Brooklyn Swagger’

“We leveled up to bring you this today,” MakerBot CEO Bre Pettis told the crowd at the company’s press conference in Brooklyn this afternoon.

The startup responsible for bringing 3D printing to the mainstream–with a nudge from Stephen Colbert, of course–announced a breakthrough: the fourth-generation of MarkerBot’s 3D printing device, dubbed the Replicator 2. You’ll see it soon enough. The gleaming metal rectangle graces the cover of the October issue of Wired. Read More

By Adrianne Jeffries 6/11/12 10:43am

Fine Prints

One of the MakerBot 3D printing designs inspired by artwork at the Met.

Print Your Own Lumpy Fifth Century Sculpture, Thanks to MakerBot and the Met

Over the weekend, Brooklyn-based MakerBot brought a group of more than 30 artists, hackers and teachers from across the country to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Using basic digital cameras, the group scuttled around the museum capturing 360-degree views of sculpture from China, Greece, India and Mesopotamia, which would be made into digital models using 123D Catch, a free program from Autodesk. Read More

By Adrianne Jeffries 5/14/12 2:59pm

Fine Prints

The Cube's cartridges.

Maker Movement Purists Bothered by ‘Closed System’ 3D Printing Cartridges

“We’ve been engineering our tails off to bring you the best personal 3D printer and we rejected the proprietary cartridge model for printing materials which other companies use, because we encourage sharing and iteration,” MakerBot founder Bre Pettis wrote last week on the MakerBot Industries blog.

He was turning his nose up at the ink cartridge model, whereby manufacturers hold consumers hostage by charging them stiff prices for ink cartridges to keep their printers printing. Besides running out of ink too quickly, the cartridges also contain chips to monitor use, Mr. Pettis wrote. “This is such an old, accepted model of doing business, we don’t even think about it anymore. Razor blades, ink cartridges, photo printers, Swiffers, and mobile phones & service contracts. That’s the old world. That’s a wasteful world.”

Unfortunately, that attitude may be creeping into the 3D printing industry.  Read More

By Adrianne Jeffries 3/02/12 1:59pm

Printers

Makerbot Industries LLC - production of the Replicator™

Thingiverse Has More Than 15,000 3D Designs for Print

Brooklyn-based 3D printing startup MakerBot lords over the Thingiverse, an online community where users can post printable designs, notes about their designs, and collaborate on open source projects. The design database has reached 15,000 designs, a rep said in an email, including the impressive 3D-printed clock that MakerBot founder Bre Pettis just demo’ed at TED2012.

The clock, developed by Thingiverse users, is on the sophisticated side of the thousands of designs in the Thingiverse, but it gives us a glimpse at the full power of the Makerbot. The creation myth goes like this: Mathieu Glachant, a.k.a. Thingiverse user Syvwlch, created a 3D model for an escapement—the part that activates the clock’s pendulum and makes it tick—and posted it on Thingiverse. But he didn’t have a MakerBot to print it.  Read More

By Ben Popper 1/09/12 3:50pm

The DIY Economy

Extra extruder means more making

Makerbot Replicator: Bigger, Better and Now Two Color

3D printing for the masses has always been the mission of Brooklyn-based Makerbot. Today the company unveiled the Makerbot Replicator, a souped up version of its original device. It lets users print way bigger items, we’re talking the size of a breadloaf, instead of a cupcake. And because it comes with a dual extruder it now, “supports Dualstrusion 2-color printing” (dualstrusion, fun word to say), users can now print in multiple colors and materials, opening up all sorts of new possibilities.

The company is selling its new item as the gateway to a brighter future. “Students with access to a MakerBot have an edge in the future job market. Just like the youth of the 1980’s, who had access to computers, children with access to a MakerBot Replicator™ will become the leaders who make a better tomorrow.” Bill Gates brains not included. But seriously, there is an open position for a “maker” at the NY Times R&D lab right now, and according to Vimeo founder Zach Klein, “We’re going to be seeing a lot more of that job.” Read More