Mashable: Latest 10 News Updates - including “Kiip Gives Users Real-World Prizes For Mobile Game Achievements [VIDEO]” |
- Kiip Gives Users Real-World Prizes For Mobile Game Achievements [VIDEO]
- Adobe Turns the Tablet into a Photoshop Companion
- Celebrities Use Interactive Videos To Help Stop Child Sex Slavery
- Steve Jobs Official Biography Arrives in Early 2012
- Top 5 Web Design Mistakes Small Businesses Make
- HOW TO: Optimize Your LinkedIn Company Profile for Recruiting
- Google Stops Taking Street View Pics in Germany
- Tablet-Toting Mercedes Concept Car Bristles With Future Tech [GALLERY]
- HOW TO: Score a Job at a Creative Agency
- Driverless Tractor Wreaks Parking Lot Havoc [VIRAL VIDEO]
- Will 3D Printing End Mass Manufacturing? [PICS]
| Kiip Gives Users Real-World Prizes For Mobile Game Achievements [VIDEO] Posted: 11 Apr 2011 04:30 AM PDT      A new startup is looking to get mobile gamers more engaged with brands by offering them real-world prizes in exchange for in-game achievements. Kiip believes that traditional methods of mobile advertising, especially for games, simply don’t work. So how do advertisers actually catch someone’s attention while she is playing Angry Birds, without the player getting angry with her phone? And how can games insert advertising that isn’t just a miniature banner ad? Kiip’s answer: create a new type of network to replace the traditional advertising network. Kiip calls itself a rewards network. Instead of providing advertising for mobile games, Kiip provides real world prizes for in-game achievements such as reaching a new high score or beating certain game levels. For example, if a player reaches a new height record in Doodle Jump, a Kiip notification will appear at the bottom of the screen, letting the user know she’s won a reward. Clicking on the notification opens up a full-screen page that asks for the user’s e-mail address so she can redeem the aware. “What we’re doing is creating a new category out of an industry that is truly in need for a breath of fresh air,” Kiip co-founder and CEO Brian Wong told Mashable. “I think that we have too long been fixated with screen estate and the attention exchange as being a key part of the advertising equation.” Kiip launches today with an impressive list of launch brand partners, including 1-800-FLOWERS, Carl’s Jr., Dr. Pepper, Popchips, Sony, Sephora, Vitaminwater, Popchips, GNC and Homerun.com. Kiip isn’t revealing which games are testing out its novel advertising platform for another two weeks (it wants unadulterated gameplay to test and fix the kinks), but Wong did reveal that its ~15 launch partners have a combined reach of over 12 million users. Trading achievements for physical rewards isn’t a new concept, but we haven’t seen it done effectively on mobile before. It’s too early to tell whether people are willing to stop playing their games to get some free drinks or discounts on flowers, but something has to be done to improve mobile ads, because in-app purchases are far more effective than mobile ads. What do you think of Kiip? Is it a better form of reaching mobile gamers? Let us know in the comments. More About: ads, games, Kiip, Mobile 2.0, mobile ads, rewards network For more Mobile coverage:
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| Adobe Turns the Tablet into a Photoshop Companion Posted: 11 Apr 2011 02:40 AM PDT   Adobe has launched the Photoshop Touch SDK, enabling developers to create applications which can interact with the desktop version of Photoshop on Android, BlackBerry Tablet OS and iOS platforms. To showcase the possibilities of the SDK, Adobe has initially launched three Photoshop CS5 companion apps for the iPad: Adobe Color Lava for Photoshop, Adobe Eazel for Photoshop and Adobe Nav for Photoshop. Adobe Color Lava allows you to mix colors on the iPad using your fingers as well as create color swatches and themes which can be transferred into Photoshop. Adobe Nav will be useful to professionals who are always hungry for more desktop space, enabling them to select and control Photoshop tools on the iPad, customize the Photoshop toolbar, browse up to 200 open Photoshop files and create new files. Finally, the Adobe Eazel lets you create realistic paintings with your fingertips, which you can transfer (via Wi-Fi) back to Photoshop. These three apps will become available through iTunes in May 2011 with prices ranging from $1.99 – $4.99. Developers can access the Photoshop Touch SDK today for Windows and Mac OS platforms on the Adobe Application Manager, which probably means we’ll be seeing more apps (and for other platforms besides the iOS) soon. [via All Things Digital] More About: adobe, Photoshop, Tablet For more Tech & Gadgets coverage:
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| Celebrities Use Interactive Videos To Help Stop Child Sex Slavery Posted: 11 Apr 2011 01:29 AM PDT Real men don’t buy girls, and real celebrities donate their talent to a good cause. The Demi and Ashton Foundation (DNA) just launched a series of high-profile online videos to raise awareness about the harsh reality of child sex slavery. The campaign, called “Real Men Don’t Buy Girls,” features major celebrities such as Justin TImberlake, Sean Penn, Bradley Cooper, Jaime Foxx and more. Mashable has an exclusive look at one of those videos starring Mr. Old Spice, Isaiah Mustafa, and Mashable‘s CEO, Pete Cashmore. The videos are meant to help educate people about child sex slavery in the U.S. and to create a cultural shift around the buying and selling of humans. In each video, the celebrities take a funny twist on what it means to be a “Real Man.” And yeah, that’d be Demi “Moore” and Ashton “Kutcher.” The two started the DNA Foundation to combat child sex slavery worldwide. It’s another good story of major celebrities (and social media savants) leveraging their status for a cause, especially one that has remained largely under the public radar. Child sex slavery is a real problem in the U.S. According to the DNA Foundation, the average age of entry into forced prostitution in the U.S. is 13, 55% of girls living on the street in America engage in commercial sex slavery, and every 10 minutes, a woman or child is trafficked into the U.S. for forced labor. The problem is even greater internationally where approximately 1 million children are bought and sold in the global commercial sex trade every year. "The goal of our Real Men campaign is to inform men about the reality of child sex slavery. People need to know that this isn't a problem that is happening 'somewhere else.' Hundreds of thousands of children are currently enslaved in the United States. These girls could be your neighbors, your sisters, or your daughters. We are committed to raising awareness about child sex slavery and ending this horrible crime,” Moore said in an email.   The Foundation’s ads bring a little bit of humor to a serious problem and encourage interactivity. The Foundation’s Facebook Page lets users to insert their own photo into a celebrity video. They can then share it out with their friends across social networks. While Eva Longoria may not give you a personal introduction as she did for Cashmore, the videos are a clever way of increasing the reach of the campaign and helping to personalize the experience. You can see the rest of the videos at the Foundation’s YouTube channel. The “Real Men Don’t Buy Girls” campaign will also be selling two T-shirt designs on Threadless.com in partnership with Steven Alan stores. A percentage of the proceeds will go to the Foundation to help fight the good fight. “We want people to understand that slavery is still happening today,” Kutcher said in an email. “The face of slavery may have changed to that of a vulnerable child, but the heinous crime remains the same. Real men don't buy or sell girls.” What do you think of the video and the campaign? Do celebrities help philanthropy or distract from the message? Sound off in the comments. More About: ashton kutcher, charity, child sex slavery, demi moore, dna foundation, Isaiah Mustafa, non-profit, sex slavery, social good, social media, video, web video, youtube For more Social Good coverage:
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| Steve Jobs Official Biography Arrives in Early 2012 Posted: 10 Apr 2011 07:57 PM PDT   It’s official: the first official biography of Steve Jobs will be making its debut sometime in early 2012. The book, iSteve: The Book of Jobs, is being penned by Walter Isaacson, famed biographer and the former CEO of CNN and managing editor of Time. While very little is known about the contents of the book, Isaacson did manage to obtain unprecedented access to Apple, Steve Jobs and even Jobs’ family. Simon & Schuster will publish and distribute the book. This will be Isaacson’s fourth biography, following Kissinger: A Biography, Benjamin Franklin: An American Life, Einstein: His Life and Universe. “This is the perfect match of subject and author, and it is certain to be a landmark book about one of the world's greatest innovators. Just as he did with Einstein and Benjamin Franklin, Walter Isaacson is telling a unique story of revolutionary genius,” Simon & Schuster Publisher Jonathan Karp said in a statement. Apple’s CEO is famously secretive about his personal life. Some of the details of his past have been unraveled in unauthorized biographies such as iCon: Steve Jobs and The Second Coming of Steve Jobs, but none of them paint a complete picture. Isaacson’s book should hopefully provide some concrete answers to unresolved questions about Jobs’s life, along with some new insights into how Jobs runs the world’s most valuable technology company. Will you read the book? What do you hope his authorized biography reveals? Let us know in the comments. via the Associated Press More About: apple, biography, iSteve: The Book of Jobs, steve jobs, trending For more Tech & Gadgets coverage:
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| Top 5 Web Design Mistakes Small Businesses Make Posted: 10 Apr 2011 05:27 PM PDT This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.   If you’re a small business owner, your website is the central hub of your company, and it’s a pivotal part of your marketing and branding. Potential customers visit your site specifically for its content, meaning its appearance and usability are critical to its success and how those users view your company. However, getting your web design wrong can have a negative impact on your business. Here are 5 common web design mistakes you must avoid to create a great user experience and grow your bottom line. 1. Poor Navigation Many small businesses fail to make navigation a priority, but without careful attention to how people navigate your site, you could unintentionally be creating a frustrating experience for any potential visitor. People visit your site for specific information, and if they cannot find it they will quickly go elsewhere, leaving with the impression that your business is disorganized in more than just its website. A good navigation structure should be seamless and will keep visitors on your site longer, which means potentially more readers, subscribers, sales or leads — whichever is your primary objective. Website navigation affects both usability and accessibility, so it’s important to make it a primary concern. Most websites and blogs use common navigational techniques that are expected by the average visitor. The pages and sections of the site should be easy and logical for visitors to maneuver. Don’t make your visitors think about how to navigate your site; it should be effortless and natural. There are several principles you can follow to create an effective navigation structure:
2. No Clear Calls To Action The fundamental error of many small business websites is the lack of a clear call to action. We’ve all seen bland small-business brochure websites with nothing but endless descriptive paragraphs. If you aren’t leading users to commit to an action (buy a product, contact you or subscribe, for example), then you are losing them. Driving traffic to your website is important, but that traffic is useless if your primary call to action is a plain “click here” link buried in a sea of text. Call-to-action buttons are a great way to grab the user’s attention, and these buttons can be the key to higher conversions. Investing time and consideration into creating successful calls to action can help guide users and address their needs while achieving your own business goals. It’s important to keep the following best practices in mind when creating an optimal call to action:
3. Color & Contrast Color and contrast aren’t usually high up on the list of priorities for a small business owner when it comes to creating a website. But it should be, because if your website text does not have sufficient contrast compared to its background, people will have difficulty reading your content, especially people with poor vision or color-blindness. Aside from plain readability, color and contrast are important because they can be used to create visual interest and direct the attention of the user. It can equally be effective in organizing and defining the flow and hierarchy of a page, and it’s therefore an essential principle to pay attention to during the design process. Here are some tips:
4. Content, Content, Content People visit your website for its content, and how that is structured is a huge factor in its success or failure. Unfortunately, an overwhelming number of small businesses get so caught up in overloading the user with information that they overlook how that information is presented. Most people do not read unless it’s absolutely necessary, and they prefer to scan through information quickly to get to the points of interest. This is why it’s so important to establish a strong visual content hierarchy so users can quickly scan your site and sifting through relevant information. A logical content hierarchy also acts as a guide through each page and creates a more enjoyable user experience. So when focusing on your content, it's best to keep in mind these three tips:
When talking about content, spelling and grammar cannot be underestimated. 5. Clutter We all know at least one small business website that seems to include everything but the proverbial kitchen sink. Many small business owners tend to cram as much as they can onto a single page — the end result is a busy, cluttered and unreadable page. The more extraneous items there are on a web page, the more unprofessional it looks, and it becomes overwhelming, confusing and distracting for the user. A cluttered website will also affect traffic because visitors won’t return if they can’t understand or follow the content, which leads to low traffic, a high bounce rate and possibly a poor Page Rank. Clutter also applies to images. Too many can be a huge distraction and just plain annoying. Images should be used to illustrate, capture attention and guide the user where required. Follow these guidelines for a more streamlined visitor experience:
Even the greatest content can become lost in a mess of words and graphics, so de-cluttering is essential. These are just five web design mistakes that many small businesses make. What other mistakes have you noticed on small business websites?  Interested in more Business resources? Check out Mashable Explore, a new way to discover information on your favorite Mashable topics.Image courtesy of iStockphoto, RBFried More About: branding, MARKETING, small business, trending, web design, website For more Business & Marketing coverage:
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| HOW TO: Optimize Your LinkedIn Company Profile for Recruiting Posted: 10 Apr 2011 03:55 PM PDT This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.   LinkedIn offers companies the ability to provide more information about their organization via their company pages. On a company page, you can include information about your products and services along with information about job opportunities. This is a relatively new feature, relaunched back in November 2010. Several Fortune 500 companies were part of the launch of this new feature including Dell, Eastman Kodak, JetBlue and Microsoft. But company pages are not exclusive to only large businesses — Harvard Business School, Rypple, Squarespace and other well-known, successful organizations have LinkedIn company pages. Since one of the primary purposes of LinkedIn is career networking, it only seems logical to make sure your company profile is being leveraged as much for recruiting as it is for marketing. Here are five things to consider including in your LinkedIn company profile to attract candidates. 1. List Job Openings This might sound very obvious but, as we all know, sometimes the obvious gets overlooked. Candidates expect job openings to be listed under the "Careers" tab on your LinkedIn company profile. Job openings should be current and link to information regarding how to apply. Here's a great example from CVS Caremark Corporation. As an example, if you select the first position, it takes you to a page with a job description, desired skills and company description. It also indicates how to apply, whether it's via the company website or an introduction from a connection.  If the position selected doesn't look like a good match, a candidate's time has not been wasted — similar positions are listed at the bottom of the screen.  2. Employee Profiles Drive Information Eve Mayer Orsburn, CEO of Social Media Delivered, an international social media optimization firm that offers consulting, training and marketing services, says "90% of information in a LinkedIn Company Page comes from employee personal profiles." As such, it only benefits a company to make sure its employees know how to use LinkedIn properly. One of the places that information is aggregated is in the statistics section located at the bottom of the "How you're connected" box on the Overview page.  This section offers some very valuable information, as reported by employees. For example it includes annual company growth, years of company experience, as well as highest degree attained. Orsburn adds, "If your company really wants to rule the LinkedIn universe and recruit top-notch talent, make sure ALL employees have completed and fully optimized personal profiles to improve content and effectiveness of the company page." 3. Let Employees Tell Your Story Candidates are interested in understanding what it would be like if they came to work for your company. LinkedIn company profiles offer an opportunity for candidates to connect with the organization. Shannon Seery Gude, vice president of digital and social strategy for Bernard Hodes Group, says, "Nothing communicates the heart and soul of a company like real employees sharing their personal narratives of their work experience." Bernard Hodes Group helps companies find, keep and engage the best possible talent via recruitment communications and support, hiring process assessments and staffing technology. One way to provide personal narratives is via video, like the example above from Virginia Mason Medical Center. Seery Gude also recommends that companies include a variety of diverse employee voices to reflect your organization. "Our social strategy team commonly sees companies that only include quotes from the recruiting team, or from a single business unit in the 'What employees are saying…' section." You want to provide a bigger snapshot of your company’s employees.  4. Talk Corporate Culture If you're trying to leverage your LinkedIn company profile for recruiting, it's important to have it reflect the strengths of your organization. This isn't the place for marketing spin, and you should take the time to customize the different job opportunities available. Also be careful not to duplicate text, which could be perceived as not putting forth effort. An example would be not using the exact same copy in the "Overview" and the “Work at…" sections. Shally Steckerl, executive vice president at Arbita, Inc., a global consulting firm connecting leading employers with the best talent on the Internet, says candidates want to connect with interesting people who are doing the work the candidates wants to do. "Candidates want to find exclusive insights about a company's culture, environment and products on LinkedIn. If they want to see an advertisement (or a job posting), they can go to the company's website." A LinkedIn company profile becomes a great way to showcase your culture and share company best practices, recent awards or news articles, along with partnerships the organization is proud of.  Steckerl also suggests including the percentage of hires coming from employee referrals. "People want to connect with people. If employees really like working your company, they will tell their friends about it,” she says. 5. Cross-Promote Your PagesOnce you set up a LinkedIn company profile and careers page, make sure your page is easy to use for both customers and candidates. Orsburn recommends including your company URL in the "Summary" section on your LinkedIn Company Page. Even though the URL is automatically listed on the right hand side, it's not always noticeable. It could also be valuable to include contact information for the recruiting team along with the best way to reach them (even career chat schedules if available). Seery Gude suggests "including links to their other social destinations, such as a Facebook Careers Page or to a custom section on their website. In an effort to be super-transparent, companies may even consider linking to their reviews on Employer Review sites, such as Glassdoor." If you're looking for additional information about setting up and maintaining LinkedIn company and career pages, check out their FAQ section here. LinkedIn company pages provide opportunities to leverage your business both in terms of marketing as well as recruiting. Optimizing each page for the target audience can help you yield the best results. Do you have a LinkedIn company page? What strategies are you finding successful? Leave us your experience in the comments. More About: human resources, linkedin, Recruiting For more Business & Marketing coverage:
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| Google Stops Taking Street View Pics in Germany Posted: 10 Apr 2011 02:40 PM PDT   There won’t be any new Street View pics of Germany from Google. Even after the company won a battle in a German court in March, which ruled that it’s legal in Germany to take pictures from the street even from the Street View camera’s height of 10 feet, a Google spokesperson told Search Engine Land that it has other priorities:
Existing imagery of streets in the 20 cities already covered in Germany will remain. There’s no further info about Google’s reasons for halting its Street View photography, but we’re thinking one reason could be that the company’s growing weary of blurring pictures of buildings requested by German citizens, the number of which is pushing 250,000 at the moment and growing ever larger. Google’s been acting in good faith throughout this drama, negotiating with the Germans, letting them choose whether they’d like to be included in the Street Views, and facing accusations of gathering data from open Wi-Fi signals, which Google said was inadvertent. Google’s been having more trouble with Street View in other countries lately as well, including France, where Google was fined $142,000 for privacy violations in March. Different countries have various privacy laws, but we’re not thinking people have a reasonable expectation of privacy when they’re walking down a public street. Even so, Google will let anyone in the world opt out of Street View if they so desire. Tell us in the comments why you think Google has halted its Street View photography in Germany. Could Germany just be the first in a series of countries objecting to Google’s ubiquitous photography? More About: germany, google street view, photography, privacy, street view, trending For more Social Media coverage:
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| Tablet-Toting Mercedes Concept Car Bristles With Future Tech [GALLERY] Posted: 10 Apr 2011 01:02 PM PDT   The Mercedes A-Class was once a stubby mini-MPV (multi-purpose vehicle), but now it’s the hatchback of the future. Behold, the Mercedes-Benz Concept A-Class. This is one cool car. What really caught our eyes is that dash-mounted tablet, along with those red-backlit gauges and swooping controls inside. The exterior is forward-looking, too, with an aircraft-like skin that its designers say takes its “cues from aviation.” No longer looking like the current A-Class‘s resemblance to a chopped-off AMC Gremlin from the ’70s, now it’s spruced up with LED headlights, an aggressive grill that looks like a cross between a hungry shark and an angry bird, and angular cuts that vaguely suggest shiny muscles. Take a look at the video below for more details about this upcoming pocket rocket, which Mercedes says is “on the road now.” We beg to differ – concept cars might be on the road, but usually not in any discernible volume, and remember this caveat: a lot can change between concept and reality. However, we’re hoping Mercedes keeps most of these details — especially that high-tech interior — and we’re holding out for an electric version, and maybe even a 17-inch touchscreen on board like that Tesla Model S Sedan will have. Driver's View That shift handle looks like the throttle control on a jet aircraft. Front You can almost hear it snarling at you. Rear View It looks like it's crouched, ready to pounce. Side View Interesting angles. Seating Even the seats are redesigned. Hatchback Plenty of cargo space in the back. Three-Quarter Angle Mercedes says it's "on the road now," but the company didn't mention how many of the concept cars have been built. Graphics courtesy Autoblog, Mercedes More About: A-Class, concept car, futuristic cars, gallery, mercedes, Mercedes-Benz Concept A-Class, trending For more Tech & Gadgets coverage:
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| HOW TO: Score a Job at a Creative Agency Posted: 10 Apr 2011 11:21 AM PDT   If you’re a young designer or creative developer who’s thinking of applying to work at a top creative agency, you’ve probably sweat your fair share of bullets during the job search. You’ve crafted the perfect resume, cover letter and portfolio, all of which scream “creative,” hopefully without inadvertently irritating your potential employers. But how do you know whether you might trigger a pet peeve or whether you forgot some crucial detail? We tapped four creative agencies on your behalf and asked them for the critical must-haves and thou-shalt-nots for would-be designers and creative developers. Here are words of wisdom from execs at AKQA, JESS3, Code & Theory and Mekanism — heed them well, and add your own tips in the comments section. 5 Mistakes to Avoid from JESS3Jesse Thomas founded creative agency JESS3. His firm has done great work for tons of tech brands such as Google, Facebook and Wikipedia; JESS3′s also worked for mainstream consumer brands, including Nike. He gives us a quick run-down of five things not to do when applying for a job.
3 Quick Tips from Code & TheoryBrandon Ralph is a partner and executive creative director at New York-based firm Code & Theory, which was recently charged with redesigning Vogue‘s website. He gives the following words of advice to would-be designers:
7 Dos and Don’ts from AKQAAKQA is one of the leading interactive-focused agencies in the country. Two of the firm’s creative recruiters, Lionel Carreon and Barbara Tejada, share these three things they love in candidates — and four red flags. Aim for the following:
Try to avoid these faux pas:
10 Pointers from MekanismFinally, we hear from a few staffers at Mekanism, one of the most creative firms in the world of digital storytelling. Brendan Gahan is the firm’s social media director. He, a Mekanism copywriter, a PR staffer and the firm’s president, Jason Harris, relay the following tips to would-be creatives:
Social Media Job ListingsEvery week we put out a list of social media and web job opportunities. While we post a huge range of job listings, we’ve selected some of the top social media job opportunities from the past two weeks to get you started. Happy hunting!
More Job Search Resources from Mashable:
image courtesy of iStockphoto, laflor More About: Agency, Creative, design, job, job search series, trending For more Dev & Design coverage:
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| Driverless Tractor Wreaks Parking Lot Havoc [VIRAL VIDEO] Posted: 10 Apr 2011 10:09 AM PDT Watch what happens when a powerful tractor is on the loose, running rampant in a Walmart parking lot in Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada. In this YouTube video that’s destined to go viral, there’s no information about who was responsible for the beginning of this bizarre, circuitous journey. SPOILER: One thing’s certain — no one was responsible for its end, either. We’re just wondering why it took so long for someone to consider jumping up on the tractor’s running board, opening its door, and turning off its ignition — until it had already done major damage. The tractor wasn’t going very fast, but maybe no one wanted to be a hero, risking life and limb. We were impressed by how powerful that tractor was, and wonder what this video would have looked like if the parking lot had been full. Commenters, how did this happen, and would you be brave enough to try to stop it? More About: Ontario, runaway tractor, trending, viral video, WalMart, youtube For more Video coverage:
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| Will 3D Printing End Mass Manufacturing? [PICS] Posted: 10 Apr 2011 08:33 AM PDT   Dictionary.com has 17 definitions of the verb "to print," but none of them conjure up images like the metal cross you see on your right, or other objects such as glass figurines, iPad covers or even shoes — all of which can now be printed with the help of special machines. The process of “3D printing” only loosely corresponds to our common image of printing. It may, however, revolutionize the way we define and interact with manufacturing. Chief among the proponents of this view is The Economist, speculating in a February cover story that the technology "has the potential to transform manufacturing because it lowers the costs and risks," thus opening it to smaller players. It's not hard to see this line of logic. Just picture a local craftsman able to make his own customized bicycle using parts created from his printer. “3D printing will for sure be a new mode of manufacturing,” says Peter Weijmarshausen, the CEO of Shapeways, which creates 3D objects for consumers. “People are no longer only happy with mass-produced products that all look the same. That is just what mass production has given them. With 3D printing you can produce en masse custom and personalized products at perhaps almost the same prices.” The CostAt the moment, 3D printing is more of a curiosity than a threat to the status quo. One roadblock holding up the revolution is cost. For example, Z Corp's 3D printers range from $14,900 to $59,900 in the U.S. It may be steep but the costs balance out, says Scott Harmon, Z Corp’s vice president of business development. "More important than the purchase price is the operating cost," Harmon said. The total expense for finished models is $2 to $3 per cubic inch. The prices are likely to come down over time, and new materials are being used for 3D printing. Shapeways, for instance, added stainless steel in 2009, glass in 2010 and last month, silver to its printers. Moreover, larger manufacturers are coming on board, including Clark’s, the British shoe brand, which this month began using Z Corp’s 3D printers for prototyping. Harmon says his customers come from a variety of industries, including mechanical design, education, architecture, retail and entertainment. While architects and mechanical designers usually use 3D printing to make prototypes, many of the firms, including Shapeways,Jujups and i.materialise.com, basically act like a Kinko’s for 3D objects — consumers send in their designs and the companies print/manufacture them. For instance, FigurePrints, a Seattle company, makes 3D replicas of Xbox Live avatars and World of Warcraft characters. Sculpteo, a French firm, offers more options. The company can make a 3D figurine of you or someone else from a picture and also creates custom objects using 3D designs in software programs like sketchup and 3ds. Clement Moreau, CEO and co-founder of Sculpteo, says the price for such objects ranges from $20 to $2,000, depending on the size. "We have two kinds of customers — consumers and professionals, mostly mass-market artists," he says. Moreau started the company in 2009 in order to make 3D printing available to a wider audience. Looking to the Future3D printing will eventually infiltrate the market, even though Z Corp’s Harmon doesn’t see that happening for a while. Harmon says the evolution is already underway: “What 3D printing will do in the short term is give business owners and consumers new kinds of products that can’t be made using traditional techniques,” he says. “As 3D printing generates scale with these new products, it will become increasingly price- and quality-competitive with traditional manufacturing techniques for a broader array of products.” Click through the photo gallery below for a look at some of the 3D printers and the objects they’re able to create. What do you think? Let us know in the comments. Z Printer 650 Z Printer 650 from Z Corp., the company's top printer. It retails for $59,900. Z Printer 650 Another view of Z Corp.'s Z Printer 650. The 3D Printing Process This excerpt from a Z Corp. white paper on 3D printing explains how the models go from CAD to 3D objects. System Overview This Z Corp. document offers a deeper dive into the guts of the printer. The Printing Cycle Z Corp's 3D printers work with powder, which eventually solidifies. The Build Chamber This illustration shows how the objects are "printed," layer by layer, using powder. Materials Z Corp. currently offers three types of materials for 3D printing ranging from salt and water to two-part, high-strength resin. Bit Cross This item was made by Shapeways. It was created by Michiel Cornelissen. Color It Wiggle the Dog A dog, created by Shapeways. iPad Cover An iPad cover created by 40 West. Over the Top Puzzle A puzzle created by artis: Oskar van Deventer. iPod Tray An iPod tray created by 40 West. Timekeeper A timekeeper created by Aeron203. More About: 3d printer, 3D printers, 3d printing, Gadget, printer, tech, trending, z corp For more Business & Marketing coverage:
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