The boy geniuses of Formlabs, David Cranor, Maxim Lobovsky, and Natan Linder have posted a video detailing their Form One 3D printer, one of the most well-put-together 3D printing devices we’ve seen in a while. The Form One uses a form of stereolithography that prints the objects “upside down” by activating polymers with laser light. The resulting objects come out of a bath of plastic looking like Neo tumbling out of his oozing cocoon in The Matrix.

The team at Formlabs is testing the first 15 units and will begin shipping their devices to Kickstarter supporters over the next few weeks. They’ve also launched a support forum for beginning users, a must-have for such a nascent technology.

Beta users are testing the Form One as we speak and the team is gathering test data.

The company launched a successful Kickstarter campaign last August and they’ve been showing prototypes of the high-tech Form One for a few months now. It looks like the system is finally coming to fruition.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

The bSafe ‘panic alarm’ app and service on iOS and Android by the startup called Bipper launched into the U.S. mid last year.

It’s been successful in Europe and has been positioned for a big push in the U.S. But an unexpected turn of events has lead to an investment by a Hollywood star in the form of a new undisclosed investment by actress Jada Pinkett Smith.

She actually discovered the app after her daughter Willow began using it fall of 2012 and realised it might dovetail with her work as an advocate for the rights of human trafficking victims, given that bSafe is all about personal safety.

Bipper founder Silje Vallestad, who moved to the U.S. last year, received an out-of-the-blue call from Hollywood and the deal was sealed at the Smith family residence at a lunch event with First Lady, Michelle Obama. Every day stuff really…

Initially Smith was to promote the launch of Bipper’s safety products, bSafe and MobileKids, in the U.S., but ended up investing as well.

In a statement Pinkett Smith said: “”bSafe is a safety service that can easily be used by anyone… I chose it because I saw the potential to solve real problems for kids, parents, and anyone looking to increase their overall safety. I have great confidence in Silje and her team and look forward to working closely with them to increase the reach and impact of an already fantastic security tool.”

bSafe has competition in the form of PanicGuard, an app which sounds an alarm, will SMS a contact, start recording video and track your location. But it’s expensive ($6 a month), and hasn’t had the growth of bSafe.

The service (which costs $2 per month or $20 yearly) alerts your friends or family when you hit the panic button on the app, but also secures evidence and broadcasts a time-stamped video recording to them and sends them a map with your location. It additionally allows you friends to follow you home with live GPS tracking, broadcast just one location, and a ‘Fake Call’ feature makes the phone ring like a real phone call to help the user get out of an uncomfortable situation.

Founder Silje Vallestad has now moved to the U.S. to fund-raise a Series A round to take the service global.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

TechCrunch is returning to Barcelona, this time focusing on Mobile Startups. We will have some keynotes and panels which will be announced shortly on TechCrunch and our partner Barcelona.io

A big focus will be the pitch competition of 8 mobile startups. But this time the pitch competition is open to both local and international companies in town for MWC.

Startups can apply here. Tickets are here for the main event.

If you wish to apply fill in this form. Please apply for a tickets separately. If you are selected as a team, we will ensure you have access.

After the event we’ll be having some networking with some refreshments and finger food in the same location. Look forward to seeing you there!

DETAILS:
Main event: 7pm Wednesday, 27th of February.
Networking: 9pm onwards with drinks / finger food.
Address: Plaza Ernest Lluch i Martí nº 5, Telefonica Tower

Do you want to apply to be a company pitching at the event?

Requirements for startups to participate in this event:
- must be a mobile startup
- less than 3 years old
- any geography (you have to cover any travel costs to Barcelona)
- We will announce the finalists ASAP, so you know to get your tickets to come down.
- For those selected please note, we do NOT provide tickets for the official Mobile World Congress events.
- Companies will need to be available from 4pm onwards at the event location.
- There is a closed-door event before hand where selected companies will be able to meet Mike Butcher, European VCs and other key people we will have in place. 4pm-6pm.

IMPORTANT: Registering here won’t guarantee an event ticket.

If you wish to apply fill in this form. Please apply for a tickets separately. If you are selected as a team, we will ensure you have access.

Before TechCrunch Mobile Barcelona, Wayra will be holding their Barcelona Demo day. If you are interested in attending the Wayra demo day, please contact the Wayra team directly, not us.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Formlabs, the little 3D printer company that could, sat down with us to show off their Form 1 printer, a stereolithographic system that creates surprisingly high resolution objects using lasers and and plastic resin.

The company has been in the news lately thanks to a patent lawsuit and, more important, a move to hire more players on their small team.

I sat down with Maxim Lobovsky to talk about his cool printer, how it feels to work with his best friends, and what’s next for the company.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Major credit cards companies are slowly starting to adopt Apple Passbook technology, as the product becomes something that’s more like a real mobile wallet than merely a ticket holder. Following AmEx’s support for Passbook earlier in the year, Discover Card this week also added Passbook integration to its mobile app in order to connect users with their card rewards.

With AmEx, the company debuted a way to add its American Express Pass to Passbook in September, allowing cardholders to view account information on the go. This includes things like account balance, transaction notifications, spending updates, customer service information, and more, all directly viewable from within Passbook. The following month, BillGaurd also began offering a utility to track all your credit cards from within Passbook.

Discover, however, is offering a slightly different take. Instead of focusing on account info and alerts, Discover’s Passbook integration, a new feature in the latest version of its iOS application, offers cardholders access to their credit card cashback rewards in the form of eCertificates.

These eCertificates are essentially a user’s Cashback bonus (plus $5 or more as an incentive) in the form of a gift card for one of Discover’s retailer partners. The gift certificate can also be sent via email or saved to your iPhone’s Camera Roll, in addition to being added to Passbook. When ready to redeem the reward at point-of-sale, you simply show a scannable QR code at checkout.

Keeping in mind that Passbook technology is only around half a year old, and is already seeing adoption from major retailers like Target and Walgreens, merchants like Starbucks, and even now the credit card companies, it’s becoming clear that Passbook is well on its way to becoming more than a mere passholder – it’s becoming a mobile wallet platform.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Short Version

There are strange dynamics associated with giving sex toys as gifts. So let’s get that out of the way first. You really have to know a person well before you pick one of these up. This isn’t a stocking stuffer.

Here are the three things you should know about the Form 6 from Jimmyjane: first, the Form 6 is no gag gift because it’s quite expensive. Second, this is a gift you should by for someone you really love (considering the premium materials, brilliant design, wireless charging, and dual-motor action). Finally, if you love yourself more than anyone else (or just can’t find anyone else for the evening), you should absolutely buy this as a special Christmas gift to yourself.

Long Version

Features:

• Waterproof
• Two motors: one in the small end and one in the big end
• Wireless charging
• Minimalist silicon design
• 6 Vibration modes, 5 Power levels

Info:

• Available: Now
• MSRP: $185
• Product Page

The Form 6 is…

… the next generation in adult play, as my colleague John Biggs refers to it. This is the third generation of the Form 6 and it is much improved. In my experience with sex toys, and sex toy stores, you either pay a lot for something wonderful or pay less (still a lot) for something totally awful and useless. The Jimmyjane is actually priced low for what it is.

Having two motors allows for different levels of stimulation on different areas, and you can even switch it up to put more focus on the clitoris or the G-spot, or whatever it is that tickles your fancy. It’s obviously the perfect companion for a lonely rainy afternoon, but don’t be afraid to whip this thing out on a playdate. You’d be surprised at how much fun the Jimmyjane can be when someone else is in control of those six vibration modes and five power levels.

Buy the Form 6 for…

… your lover or yourself. The Form 6 is the best toy I’ve experienced in a good long while, so I’d highly recommend giving it to someone whose sex life you care about deeply. And whose sex life do you care about the most? Your own, right?

Because…

… sex is fun, and the Form 6 makes it funner.

But more seriously, intimacy is more than one thing. It’s more than eye contact in the missionary position, and it’s more than farting in front of one another. Intimacy is getting past embarrassment and showing off the real you, without hesitation. Giving a sex toy as a gift, especially the best vibrator I’ve ever personally come into contact with, is a representation of intimacy with your lover.

“I think it would be fun to try this. Wanna give it a whirl?”

To the same extent, putting your own name on the Jimmyjane giftbox is a form of intimacy, too. It says, I’m gonna let something else do all the work next time I’m feeling randy, and I’m going to be proud of it.

Click to view slideshow.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Gartner has this morning published its numbers for how the mobile handset industry has performed in Q3. The topline figure is that the mobile industry overall continues to see pressure from the wider economic downturn, and the gradual move away from cheaper, low end feature devices: overall sales of 428 million units for the quarter are 3% down on the same quarter last year. But smartphones continue to outshine that by quite a lot: they are up by 47% to 169 milion units. In other words, smartphones accounted for about 40% of al mobile device sales in Q3.

Still, that decline of 3% over last year was seen as encouraging by Gartner, since it was still an improvement over Q2, in which 419 million mobile devices were sold.

“After two consecutive quarter of decline in mobile phone sales, demand has improved in both mature and emerging markets as sales increased sequentially,” writes Anshul Gupta, principal research analyst at Gartner. He points out that in China — currently the world’s largest mobile market — smartphones were the biggest driver of sales, with demand for feature devices “weak.” In mature markets, he says that part of the good news story came in the form of new devices, such as the iPhone 5 and Samsung’s Galaxy S III.

Indeed, with those strong sales for the Galaxy S III, Samsung continues to remain at the top of the pile both in smartphones and mobile handsets overall. Its share of the mobile market for Q3 was 23% compared to Nokia’s share of 19%. As you can see in the table below, it’s a reversal of their positions this time last year:

Rounding out the top five, Apple’s overall share of the mobile market was up to 5.5%, on 23.6 million units.; ZTE remained in forth position with a 3.9% share (16.7 million units). And while it has managed to remain in the top five, LG saw both a drop in both market share and actual sales numbers. These were nearly halved to 14 million units, for a 3.3% share (versus 4.8% last year). Chinese handset makers Huawei and TCL are the ones to watch in the quarters ahead.

Gartner doesn’t break out a list of how individual vendors are faring in the smartphone-only segment, although it does give several details in the report. Samsung has solidified even further its position as the smartphone maker to beat at the moment, accounting for 32.5% of all smartphone sales in the quarter, compared to just under 30% in Q2.

It’s still a two-horse race between Samsung and Apple, with the two accounting for 46.5% of all smartphone sales. But that is actually a much-diminished position compared to last quarter, when together they accounted for 83%. In any case, Samsung is currently appearing to be the stronger horse, with Apple’s market share and unit sales at less than half of Samsung’s.

Android overall took a whopping 72% of all handset sales in the smartphone segment in the last quarter, a staggering rise of 20% over last quarter. That works out to sales of 122.5 million devices, more than double what Android device makers sold in Q3 2011.

Although Apple’s wider mobile share was up over last year, it is feeling the pinch of competition in the smartphone-only category: its worldwide market share is now less than 14%, down more than 1% over last year, and down by more than 5% compared to Q2. However, in actual terms it also grew its sales numbers (although not by as much as Android): they were at 23.6 million units, compared to 17.3 million last  year.

RIM saw declines in both handset sales and market share. Market share has been more than halved to 5.3% on sales of just under 9 million units for Q3.

But perhaps most painful of all is watching that Symbian decline: its share is now just 2.6% compared to nearly 17% last year. Units sold were 4.4 million compared to 19.5 million a year ago. Nokia has been rumored to be phasing out Symbian completely over time. Although it has never publicly said it would do this, numbers like this seem to speak for themselves. This, combined with lackluster sales of Nokia’s Windows Phone devices, meant that Nokia slipped down to number-seven in the rankings of smartphone makers, from is position as number-three last year (and historically its position of dominating the whole field).

Microsoft, whose OS is being used by Samsung, HTC and others in addition to Nokia, is showing modest gains, as is Samsung’s Bada platform (considered by Gartner to be a “smartphone” platform for these purposes, although Samsung puts it into “feature phone” devices). But in Microsoft’s case these numbers are still not pushing it in to the ranks of heavy hitters: it has only a 2.4% share of sales for Q3, on sales of 4 million units. People will be watching closely to see if it manages to boost that in quarters ahead with the launch of Windows Phone 8.

Looking ahead, Gartner predicts that Q4, encompassing holiday sales, will be stronger for handsets, but not as strong as in the past: it expects  a “lower-than-usual boost” because consumers continue to remain cautious with spending, and there are other bigger shinier gadgets also distracting them — namely in the form of tablets.

Indeed, that means a win-win for companies like Apple, with its iPad tablets continuing to dominate the tablet market. Gartner says it expects Apple to continue to report Q4 as its strongest of the year. “We saw inventory built up into the channel as Apple prepared for the coming holiday season, global expansions and the launch into China in the fourth quarter of 2012,” Gupta writes.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Happy iPad mini day. Since my review a few days ago, by far the number one question I’ve been asked about the device is: how does it fit into my life? Do I really need another iPad — let alone a smaller, less powerful one with a non-retina screen? Will I use it alongside the regular iPad? What about alongside a MacBook? Instead of those devices?

This question keeps coming up, of course, because everyone is trying to understand how the iPad mini might fit into their lives — or if it will at all. Granted, I’ve only been using one for a little over a week, but I think I already have a pretty good sense of where it will fit into my life.

Caveat emptor: I’m not a typical user. That’s probably obvious. But because I’ve had nearly every Apple device made over the past five years, I’ve had the opportunity to try all sorts of different combinations of products for my daily routine. And I think I have a pretty good sense of what I would use if I could only pick, say, one or two of those devices.

First and foremost, the iPad mini is a winner. No question in my mind that it’s one of the best devices Apple has ever made. No, it doesn’t have a retina display — but the more I talk to people about this and show it off, the less of an issue this seems to actually be for most people. And yes, we all know that retina display will eventually come. Maybe a year from now, maybe two years from now — it’s impossible to know. But if you’re at all on the fence about the iPad mini and you can afford it, I highly recommend making the jump. It’s fantastic.

If you already have an iPad and question why you would want the iPad mini as well, the situation is clearly more complicated. For me, personally, I want both. I’m already using them for different purposes.

For the past several months, ever since I bought Logitech’s great slim keyboard for the iPad, I’ve been using the iPad (3) for much of my computing work and play. Yes, that includes writing and emailing. With a physical keyboard, I actually find myself working faster on the iPad than I do on a regular computer because I’m less distracted thanks to the one-app-at-a-time aspect.

On the last few trips I’ve taken, I only brought my iPad and it was great. The exception was a week in Europe last month where I brought a MacBook basically just so I could charge other devices through the USB ports without having to worry about getting several power converters.

I’m very, very close to being able to go completely PC-free (meaning Mac/MacBook, not a Windows PC — I’ve been free of that for years). I’m not there yet, but I suspect I will be soon. And yes, again, I recognize that I’m an outlier. If you program, need Excel, etc, you’ll want a PC still. For now.

My point is that ultimately, I see myself carrying around a large, powerful iPad for work and the iPad mini for play. That’s not to say you can’t work on the iPad mini or play on the regular iPad, but the form factors are different enough in my mind that this is how I’m already using them.

If you don’t want a two-iPad lifestyle, that’s totally understandable. I suspect that the iPad ecosystem is going to play out similar to what we saw with the iPod. That is, the original, larger one is the iconic device that lives on for power users, but it’s the mini version that takes the product line to new heights. I suspect it will become the best-selling iPad relatively quickly. Maybe even this quarter.

In other words, if you’re debating between a large iPad and the mini version, you’re probably going to buy the mini version. And for most users, I think that will be the right choice. Yes, this is sort of ironic given Apple’s previous comments about smaller tablets. But they nailed it with the 7.9-inch screen. Not only is the size great, the fact that it can use *all* of the over 275,000 iPad apps unmodified is key. Whether or not they lucked into this situation doesn’t matter, it is the situation, and it’s going to allow the iPad mini to flourish immediately.

Until I’m ready for my iPad/iPad mini computing life, I believe I’m going to carry around a retina MacBook Pro and the iPad mini on a daily basis. I’m currently testing the new 13-inch retina MacBook Pro, and I think it’s the right combination of power and portability to be my daily machine. Previously, I had been using the 15-inch retina MacBook Pro as my desktop machine and a 13-inch MacBook Air as my portable (until I started using the iPad + keyboard as my main portable).

I still believe the MacBook Air is pretty close to a perfect laptop, but its lack of retina display gives this new Pro a great value proposition (more on that in a future review).

Others I’ve spoken to in the past have argued that carrying around an 11-inch Air and the regular iPad was overkill since they’re nearly identical in size. A few of those people now plan to carry around a combination of the 11-inch Air and the iPad mini. I think that’s a pretty good set up as well given the extremely low total combined weight (almost exactly three pounds — which is less than the 13-inch retina MacBook Pro alone!).

Because of its size, the iPad mini seems like it will much more complementary than the regular iPad is to pretty much any size MacBook. I suspect we’re going to see a lot of people walking around with some combination of these two devices in the coming year.

If you also have an iPhone, you may view such a set up as overkill since you’ll already have an iOS device and an OS X device. But I view the iPhone as completely different from the iPad mini. The mini still isn’t small enough to have it with you at all times like the iPhone. Plus, one is optimized for iPhone apps and one is optimized for iPad apps. You may not believe that’s a big difference, but it is.

The same is true with the iPod touch, by the way. Though I do wonder if the iPad mini eats into some of those sales because it’s such a good device for children and gaming, in particular. We’ll see.

One interesting device combination I still haven’t figured out yet is the iPad mini/Kindle question. I recently bought a new Paperwhite Kindle (the one that has a built-in light and is touch-enabled), it’s a fantastic reading device. But so is the iPad mini given the form-factor. There’s the backlit screen vs. e-ink equation. But over time, that seems to be less of a deal to all but the most voracious readers. The Kindle is much cheaper, but is also does far less.

I simply can’t see myself taking both with me when I travel. The iPad mini is going to win out. The Paperwhite Kindle will sit on my bedside table for now, but I suspect the iPad mini will still get more use there too. That leaves the rare times when I find myself reading outside. The Kindle wins there, no question.

A retina iPad mini will only make this battle tighter as well.

Another interesting part of the iPad mini equation is whether Android (and Windows Phone, BlackBerry, etc) users will buy it as well. This was clearly happening with the regular iPad — a lot of Android smartphone owners bought an iPad as their iOS device. Perhaps the existence of the Nexus 7 and now Nexus 10 changes this, or maybe the iPad mini is even more attractive to these users.

One area where I’m not sure the iPad mini will shine is for people only looking to buy either a computer or a tablet. The regular iPad has done remarkably well here — that is, as a computer replacement for some users. The iPad mini will probably be a harder sell as a full-on computer replacement. Again, that’s not because it’s not powerful enough, but the form factor will probably be in inhibiting factor. But maybe I’m wrong — it will be one of the more fascinating trends to watch.

It’s pretty clear that the iPad mini has a lot of potential market fits. There may be some hesitation at first simply because it is a new device. But once people recognize that this really is an iPad in every sense of the word, and that it’s the smallest, lightest, and cheapest iPad, sales will skyrocket.

A lot of those sales will be to people who own Macs and iPhones. Plenty will be to people who already own the regular iPad. And some will be to people like me who own all of the above. But plenty will be to Android users too. And Windows users. And, of course, kids, as their only device.

I personally like the MacBook Pro/iPad mini combination in my bag right now. But you really can’t go wrong with any X/iPad mini combination. Pretty soon, I suspect the iPad mini to be my second most-used device behind only the iPhone.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Statistics are everywhere these days, and it’s difficult to know which ones to take seriously. Occasionally, a “report” comes out that’s so misleading it presents a teachable moment on how to spot a bad statistic. Last week, Twitter made headlines for claims that users who are exposed to their political advertisements, in the form of promoted tweets, are about twice as likely to visit a campaign donation page than the “average” Internet user. However, Twitter users are also more likely to be from a educated voting demographic and, more importantly, prior research on these kinds of non-randomized advertising campaigns show that the results can be exaggerated by as much as 2000%. Moreover, using percentages, rather than actual numbers, is a well-known technique in disguising poor results (i.e. if only 1 in a million users normally visit a website, and the ad gets one more person to visit, its “doubled” the visitors).

Let’s break it down:

Twitter claims that “political tweets drive donations” with a graphic that shows Twitter users are 68% more likely to visit a political donation site than the “average” Internet user, and 97% more likely if they see a political advertisement, in the form of a promoted Tweet, in their feed. “This means Tweets don’t just drive Twitter users to political sites, Tweets drive people to these sites with a greater intent to donate,” explains the blog post.

The biggest problem with this claim is that it violates a fundamental rule of Statistics 101: correlation doesn’t equal causation. On any given day, for instance, there could be an unknown news story about a candidate that drives people to donate, and if a campaign coincidentally advertised on the same day, we wouldn’t know if it was the advertisement or the news that caused a spike in donations.

A much more accurate way to assess causality is to randomly expose a portion of users to an advertisement and see if they behave any differently. Indeed, a team of Yahoo researchers found that brands which don’t experimentally assign an advertisement to a small portion of users can be misled into believing that an ad is 200 times more effective than it actually is [pdf].

A online advertising campaign, Yahoo finds, will bump searches for a particular brand about 5% (as opposed to the 1,198% boost that a correlational study would have found). Twitter is claiming a 97% boost–which should be a red flag. The fact that Twitter hasn’t been forthcoming with both percentages and the sample size should be another red flag.

Additionally, we don’t know who saw the ads or when they saw them. If advertisers are targeting certain users based on their likelyhood to vote, then of course these users are more likely than the typical Twitter user to visit a politician’s donation page. Furthermore, when did the advertisements run? If the ads were for Mitt Romney, and they were run after his widely praised presidential debate performance, then visits to his website would naturally have been higher anyways. And would these users have been likely to visit the donation page anyways, and just happened to go through Twitter because it was convenient?

The researchers discovered that typical user behavior swings wildly from day to day. This means that we don’t know if an uptick in traffic was due to an ad or some random variation in Internet behavior. Only showing the ad, on the same day to a smaller set of similar users, can get us a more accurate assessment.

“we show that the assumption of common trends in usage between exposed and unexposed users that underlie observational methods fail to hold for a variety of online dependent measures (brand-relevant keyword searches, page views, account sign-ups) and that ignoring this failed assumption leads to massive overestimates of advertising causal effects.”

All of these unanswered questions are important, because, at least in terms of the Yahoo study, it means the difference between thinking an ad boosted interest 1,198%, versus the actual 5%.

This isn’t to say that social media companies can’t do good research. Facebook helped with an experimental study, published in the prestigious journal Nature which found that Facebook quadruples the power of a campaign message.

Twitter easily has the capacity to do more accurate and honest research. We’ll hold their feet to the fire until they do. In the meantime, use these tips to guard yourself against a world filled with misleading statistics.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

3D printing is coming into its own. No longer relegated to the professional sector, anyone who has the cash can essentially join in the fun with a Makerbot or a RepRap.

But FormLabs has found a way to bring the high-end performance of top-notch machines down to the price of a Makerbot. Yesterday, they launched the Form 1, an affordable, professional 3D printer, on Kickstarter with the goal of reaching $100,000 in funding in one month. Today, they’ve received about $660,000 and have over 400 backers. And the number keeps climbing.

I spoke with co-founder Maxim Lobovsky about his sudden success, asking him how the Form 1 differentiates in the space. Essentially, there are two groups of 3D printers, the high-end professional machines and the hobbyist machines. The high-end printers cost anywhere between $10,000 and $1 million, whereas hobbyist machines cost between $2,000 and $3,000, yet don’t have the same high resolution output.

“We see Form 1 as the first 3D printer that takes affordability to the high-end, professional level,” said Lobovsky.

To give you some perspective, Makerbots start at $2,199, and the most basic Form 1 pledge you can make on Kickstarter is $2,299, and includes “the full Form 1 package including the printer, 1L resin, and Form Finish Kit.” Clearly, Formlabs isn’t looking to undercut price, but then again, this isn’t another hobbyist 3D printer. Lobovsky believes his competition lies with the professional machines, and in terms of those costs, the Form 1 is a steal.

There were only 25 spaces for the basic Form 1 package, which sold out almost immediately.

The Form 1 uses Stereolithography to help makers product their designs. It’s considered the “gold standard” in 3D printing, using a high-precision positioning system to direct a laser onto a tray of liquid resin. This achieves “dramatically better resolution,” according to Lobovsky.

But perhaps more important than the technology is the ecosystem around Form 1. The guys at FormLabs have created software that imports .STL models from any 3D CAD package, supporting structures for complex geometry. And after importing, it only takes a few clicks to get the machine fired up and printing.

This allows any designer or engineer, from the professionals at major corporations to the students putzing around in SketchUp, to enjoy the same high-performance as big companies.

“Bringing the cost of these expensive machines down isn’t enough,” said Lobovsky. “These machines are usually operated by someone entirely dedicated to the job. We knew if we wanted to make the Form 1 available to every maker, every designer, we had to make every part of it accessible. So we streamlined the process.”

According to Lobovsky, there’s no magic formula or secret sauce to Kickstarter success, though he did say they spent extra time and effort on the video and imagery within the post, as well as honing their message. We’ve seen a few stories like this, namely that of the Pebble smartwatch, yet all of the shining stars of Kickstarter are very different. Rather, it’s the demand for this product that has led to such success.

FormLabs claims there are around 30,000 professional 3D printers installed around the world. However, approximately 10 million people actively use 3D CAD software. FormLabs simply aims to fill in the gap.

The most amazing part of this already-amazing story is the way that FormLabs was able to bring down the cost of the machine. Lobovsky says it was thanks in large part to three different factors.

The first is that the team used a new kind of laser, specifically a 405nm Bluray laser diode. In the past, the lasers used to run these professional 3D printers have cost more than the machine itself. With this new type of laser that only recently came on the market, FormLabs was able to keep manufacturing (and thus market costs) down.

The second factor was the expiration of a few patents, meaning that the team didn’t need to pay high licensing fees to get this product to market.

Finally, and most importantly, FormLabs was able to look at all those high-end, $10k+ machines, and essentially decide what was necessary.

“Most high-end machines are built for companies with specific needs and don’t want to compromise on performance in certain areas,” said Lobovsky. “We looked for the base feature set that is useful for a lot of people.”

It took FormLabs just under three hours to reach their goal, and with the way this number keeps climbing, I wouldn’t be surprised if they surpassed Pebble’s $10.27 million in funding by the end of the month.

Dror Berman, Founding Managing Director of Innovation Endeavors, expressed enthusiasm at the early-stage success of the Form 1 in an email.

“It’s great to see Formlabs moving forward so quickly. By making high quality 3D printers affordable, Formlabs is essentially changing the economics of creating and breaks down the doors for inventors and entrepreneurs of all kinds. We want to be a part of this revolution.”