Image via Core 77

If you’re in the NYC area, you’re in luck! As PSFK reported, “At the official launch of its NoHo store, Makerbot introduced its own 3D printing photo booth, taking photography beyond digital. While not as detailed as the one we recently profiled in Japan, users will get a monochrome version of their head.

Amazingly, the service costs a total of $25. Customers will sit in the booth for a $5 scan and pay an additional $20 to get their face printed. This initiative was made possible by collaborating with Shapeshot, a 3D printing company focused on applications that relate to personalization.”

Rad to own, a must to see. Visit Makerbot’s physical location at 298 Mulberry Street in Manhattan or visit the store’s website.

Many may know that I love innovation when put into practical use. These 3D printed shoes by think tank Continuum almost gets there. With that said, they are pretty rad.

The details: Continuum, which makes customizable or user-designed fashion, is now selling shoes made with a 3D printer. The Strvct line of footwear is based on a delicate but austere pump design or a similar sandal one; from there, users can ask for different colors, styles, or heel lengths. The shoes are then given a patent leather inset and the bottom is coated with textured rubber, making them (theoretically) wearable. 

While this isn’t just for the ladies, but at $900 a pair, it may be for the serious style seekers.

Read more here.

Seems to be today’s theme…

Excerpt:

But as the proliferation of such essays and books suggest, we are far from forgetting about the offline; rather we have become obsessed with being offline more than ever before. We have never appreciated a solitary stroll, a camping trip, a face-to-face chat with friends, or even our boredom better than we do now. Nothing has contributed more to our collective appreciation for being logged off and technologically disconnected than the very technologies of connection. The ease of digital distraction has made us appreciate solitude with a new intensity. We savor being face-to-face with a small group of friends or family in one place and one time far more thanks to the digital sociality that so fluidly rearranges the rules of time and space. In short, we’ve never cherished being alone, valued introspection, and treasured information disconnection more than we do now. Never has being disconnected — even if for just a moment — felt so profound. 

Read full article.

In our hyper-connected world, the juxtaposition of technology that is created for real, analog…sentimental even… human experiences is something that I can’t help but be fascinated by and genuinely admire.

Yesterday’s nosh-with-your-neighbors site is a fantastic tool that helps you become a part of your new community, but Skype is something that has changed the impact that distance can have on relationships.

Artist John Clang has taken this insight and put it to use for this moving photo series, Be Here Now, capturing projected families and their international members brought together. Could this be the family portrait of the future? 

See the full series here.  

Coming off the heels of the overwhelmingly successful SOPA and PIPA opposition, Google is asking each of us to tell our story of the Internet by completing the statement, “The Internet is the power to…” Why?

“The Internet is the foundation of millions of conversations among billions of people all over the world — and that includes you. Those conversations have allowed us to connect with friends, collaborate on a global scale, and produce some amazing innovations.

It’s time to start a new chapter in our Internet conversation — one in which we come up with positive and proactive plans to drive constructive Internet legislation in countries around the globe. Instead of reacting only to legislation that is harmful to the Internet’s utility, we should be promoting policies that improve the Internet’s usefulness while making it a safer and more secure environment for everyone.”

A simple thought and a basic excercise, but one that I believe has the power to help us all truly see the value of this technology and how we use it every single day to make amazing things happen. Just like this.