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Thursday, February 21, 2013

A 3-D Printer on Your Kitchen Counter

A Factory on Your Kitchen Counter

Robert Wright for The New York Times

The Printrbot Jr. in the process of making a 3-D model of a house.

In his State of the Union address last week, along with the standard calls for education reform and energy independence, President Obama gave a shout-out to a growing technology. In a lab in Youngstown, Ohio, the president said, “Workers are mastering the 3-D printing that has the potential to revolutionize the way we make almost anything.”

When Brook Drumm saw clips from the speech at his home outside Sacramento, Calif., he wanted to reach through his TV and give the president a fist bump. Mr. Drumm, a bald, goateed father of three, designed the Printrbot, a desktop 3-D printer kit. Like a number of other 3-D printers, it uses heated plastic â€" applied layer by layer to a heated bed by a glue-gun-like extruder â€" to turn designs created on a computer into real objects.

As Mr. Drumm illustrated in the Kickstarter campaign he used to raise more than $830,000 to start his business in late 2011, the Printrbot is small enough to fit on a kitchen counter, next to the Mr. Coffee. “The goal for the company,” Mr. Drumm said in world-beating tones, “is a printer in every home and every school.”

The technology for 3-D printing has existed for years, and President Obama was referring to its applications in manufacturing. But there is a growing sense that 3-D printers may be the home appliance of the future, much as personal computers were 30 years ago, when Dick Cavett referred to the Apple II in a TV commercial as “the appliance of the ’80s for all those pesky household chores.”

Like computers, 3-D printers originally proved their worth in the business sector, cost a fortune and were bulkier than a Kelvinator. But in the last few years, less expensive desktop models have emerged, and futurists and 3-D printing hobbyists are now envisioning a world in which someone has an idea for a work-saving tool â€" or breaks the hour hand on their kitchen clock or loses the cap to the shampoo bottle â€" and simply prints the invention or the replacement part.

Bre Pettis, the chief executive officer of MakerBot, the Brooklyn-based company leading the charge in making 3-D printers for the consumer market, has seen how the technology is already being applied. “We have stories of people who have fixed their blenders, fixed their espresso machine,” he said.

A file-sharing database MakerBot oversees, called Thingiverse, currently holds more than 36,000 downloadable designs. “One of my favorite stories from Thingiverse is a dad who has a daughter who is 41 inches tall,” Mr. Pettis said. “They were going to an amusement park, and she wasn’t going to be able to go on any of the rides because the minimum height was 42 inches. The dad made orthopedic inserts for her shoes.”

Last fall, MakerBot opened what may be the first retail store devoted to 3-D printers, in Lower Manhattan. Inside, demonstration models of the company’s Replicator 2, a slick, steel-framed machine with the boxy dimensions of a microwave that sells for about $2,200, are constantly printing, turning files created on Trimble SketchUp and other computer-aided design (CAD) software into things like architecture models or smartphone cases.

Emmanuel Plat, director of merchandising for the Museum of Modern Art’s retail division, said that in his experience, watching a 3-D printer work can induce future shock. “When people see the machine function, they’re mesmerized,” said Mr. Plat, who counts himself among those impressed.

As part of its “Destination: NYC” collection in May, the MoMA Design Store will feature a Replicator 2 printing New York-themed items for sale, like a miniature skyscraper or taxi; people can also buy the printer, Mr. Plat said.

In an age when shooting video with a phone and sending it to a friend across the world is old hat, it’s not easy to wow anyone with technology. Still, everywhere he goes lately, Mr. Plat said he hears people gushing about 3-D printing. “The word is out in the design community and creative community,” he said. “The applications are limitless.”

A version of this article appeared in print on February 21, 2013, on page D1 of the New York edition with the headline: A Factory on Your Kitchen Counter.

Daily Report: A New Candor In Disclosing Hacking Attacks

In recent weeks, a number of American companies have stepped forward to admit they have been the victims of hacking attacks, a departure from how companies used to keep these incidents secret, reports Nicole Perlroth in Thursday's New York Times.

Police Brutality, Catalyst for Egypt’s Revolution, Continues Under Morsi

More than two years after tens of thousands of Egyptians took to the streets on Police Day, to demand the resignation of Hosni Mubarak and an end to impunity for the security forces, activists report that civilians continue to be raped, tortured and killed in police custody.

As one of the protesters who marched that day, Adel Abdel Ghafar, recalled in a post for The Lede last year, anger over routine police brutality was a catalyst from the first day of Egypt’s revolution. “Several groups were mobilizing on this day, including fellow members of the Facebook page We Are All Khaled Said,” Mr. Ghafar wrote. “Khaled Said had been brutally murdered by policemen in Alexandria on June 6, 2010 in broad daylight, and it disgusted me how the Mubarak regime had so blatantly tried to over up his death.”

On Thursday, Sherief Gaber, a member of Cairo’s Mosireen film collective, drew attention to a harrowing new video report from the group, presenting vivid testimony from minors about the violence they endured and witnessed after they were arrested during recent protests.

A Mosireen video report on the violent abuse of minors by the Egyptian police.

Later on Thursday, the Egyptian activist Wael Eskandar posted a link on Twitter to a compilation of graphic, disturbing video clips documenting incidents of police brutality since the election of President Mohamed Morsi last year put the se! curity forces nominally under civilian control. Mr. Morsi, who was in jail on Jan. 25, 2011, is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist group whose members endured brutal treatment by the police during the Mubarak era.

Last weekend, as the rights activist Hossam Bahgat noted, police officers beat a suspect to death at the funeral of a colleague they accused him of killing.

After listening to Mr. Bahgat describe some of the ongoing abuse documented by the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights in an interview this week on a private television channel, the journalist Rawya Rageh was moved to ask what the point of Egypt’s revolution had been.



Apple Filed Patent for Flexible Wrist Display

Forget sticking a fancy Apple televisions on your wall. It looks like we might be able to strap a display to our wrists in the not-too-distant future.

On Thursday, Apple technology blog Apple Insider discovered Apple filed a patent with The United States Patent and Trademark Office in August 2011 for a flexible watch-like gadget that can wrap around someone’s wrist using a fully bendable display.

The blog likens the watch to “the slap bracelet, also called the slap wrap.”

The patent application puts it differently. “With a touch screen user input a user can accomplish a number of different tasks including adjusting the order of a current playlist, and reviewing a list of recent phone calls,” the Apple patent notes. “A response to a current text message can even be managed given a simple virtual keyboard configuration across the fac of the flexible display.”

In other words, the iWatch could be a smartphone stuffed into a wrist gadget. Although it is unclear if the device will come with a full data connection, or if it will require a link to a smartphone.

Based on the patent, it seems the gadget can become a bendable watch, or a flat and rigid display.

As I first reported in late-2011, Apple has been experimenting with wearable computing in its Cupertino headquarters for some time. Last week, I reported that those developments had continued and Apple was now experimenting with a computer that could wrap around a person’s wrist.

Experts have long-believed that the biggest barrier for mainstream adoption of wearables won’t be the challenges of making screens that can curve, but rather! creating longer-lasting batteries. But Apple seems to be taking that into consideration, too.

“A solar panel array spread across a surface of the accessory device can lengthen the amount of time the accessory device could be operated between recharging,” the patent notes.

“People don’t want to take off a wearable computer to constantly charge it,” explained Sarah Rotman Epps, a Forrester analyst who specializes in wearable computing and smartphones.

The choice to develop an iWatch and not iGlasses is a different approach from the one taken by Google, which is going straight for the face, making augmented reality Google Glasses.

The Appl watch patent filing credits Apple employees Fletcher R. Rothkopf, Derek W. Wright and Scott A. Myers, as its inventors.



Apple Filed Patent for Flexible Wrist Display

Forget sticking a fancy Apple televisions on your wall. It looks like we might be able to strap a display to our wrists in the not-too-distant future.

On Thursday, Apple technology blog Apple Insider discovered Apple filed a patent with The United States Patent and Trademark Office in August 2011 for a flexible watch-like gadget that can wrap around someone’s wrist using a fully bendable display.

The blog likens the watch to “the slap bracelet, also called the slap wrap.”

The patent application puts it differently. “With a touch screen user input a user can accomplish a number of different tasks including adjusting the order of a current playlist, and reviewing a list of recent phone calls,” the Apple patent notes. “A response to a current text message can even be managed given a simple virtual keyboard configuration across the fac of the flexible display.”

In other words, the iWatch could be a smartphone stuffed into a wrist gadget. Although it is unclear if the device will come with a full data connection, or if it will require a link to a smartphone.

Based on the patent, it seems the gadget can become a bendable watch, or a flat and rigid display.

As I first reported in late-2011, Apple has been experimenting with wearable computing in its Cupertino headquarters for some time. Last week, I reported that those developments had continued and Apple was now experimenting with a computer that could wrap around a person’s wrist.

Experts have long-believed that the biggest barrier for mainstream adoption of wearables won’t be the challenges of making screens that can curve, but rather! creating longer-lasting batteries. But Apple seems to be taking that into consideration, too.

“A solar panel array spread across a surface of the accessory device can lengthen the amount of time the accessory device could be operated between recharging,” the patent notes.

“People don’t want to take off a wearable computer to constantly charge it,” explained Sarah Rotman Epps, a Forrester analyst who specializes in wearable computing and smartphones.

The choice to develop an iWatch and not iGlasses is a different approach from the one taken by Google, which is going straight for the face, making augmented reality Google Glasses.

The Appl watch patent filing credits Apple employees Fletcher R. Rothkopf, Derek W. Wright and Scott A. Myers, as its inventors.



Syrian Television’s Most Outraged Bystander

In the aftermath of Thursday’s deadly bombing in Damascus, a man emerged from a small knot of bystanders crowded around a camera crew from Syrian state television to vent his anger at the foreign Islamist fighters he held responsible. “We the Syrian people,” he said, “place the blame on the Nusra Front, the Takfiri oppressors and armed Wahhabi terrorists from Saudi Arabia that are armed and trained in Turkey.”

A report on Thursday’s bombing in Damascus from Syrian state television’s YouTube channel.

Pointing at the ruined street near the headquarters of President Bashar al-Assad’s ruling Baath Party, the man described the location as “a civilian place â€" a mosue, an elementary school, the homes of local families.”

Watching a copy of the report online, Rime Allaf, a Syrian writer monitoring the conflict for a think tank in London, noticed that this man on the street, whose views so closely echoed those of the Syrian government, had a very familiar face. That’s because, as opposition activists demonstrated last June, the same man had already appeared at least 18 times in the forefront or background of such reports since the start of the uprising.

After she posted a screenshot of the man’s latest appearance, Ms. Allaf observed on Twitter, “it would be funny if there weren’t so many victims of Syria regime terrorism!”

As The Lede noted last year, the man was even featured in two reports the same day during a small pro-Assad rally in Damascus.

Two pro-Assad television channels in Syria interviewed the same man on the street at a rally in July, 2012.

Mocking the dark comedy of government-run channels recycling the same die-hard Assad supporter in so many reports, activists put together several video compilations of his appearances in the state media. The most comprehensive, posted online last June, featured excerpts from 18 reports.

A compilation of Syrian state media reports featuring the same Assad supporter again and again.

Another highlight reel, uploaded to YouTube 13 months ago by a government critic, showed that after the man had spoken at least 5 times on state-run television, he appeared in the background of a BBC report wearing a military uniform.

A man who is frequently interviewed on Syrian state television in civilian dress appeared in the background of a BBC report wearing a military uniform.

As longtime readers of The Lede might recall, during the dispute over Iran’s 2009 presidential election, opposition bloggers noticed that one particularly die-hard supporter of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also appeared again and again and again in photographs of pro-government rallies.

While there is no way to determine just who is responsible for Syrian television’s frequent interviews with this same man on the street, there is some evidence that Iran has advised Syria on how to report bombings on state television.

Last year, when The Guardian published a trove of hacked e-mails taken from the in-boxes of Syrian officials, one message forwarded to the president appeared to include advice from Iranian state television’s bureau chief in Damascus on what his Syrian counterparts should report after bombings. That e-mail, from Hussein Mortada, a Lebanese journalist who runs coverage of Syria for the Iranian government’s satellite news channels, complained that the government was not heeding directions he had recieved “from Iran and Hezbollah,” the Lebanese militant group, about who Syria should blame for bomb attacks. “It is not in our interest to say that Al Qaeda is behind” every bombing, Mr. Mortada wrote, “because such statements clear the U.S. administration and the Syrian opposition of any responsibility.”



Google Introduces a Touchscreen Laptop

Google is stepping further into the laptop business, and moving way up the price scale.

The company introduced the Pixel on Thursday, a new version of its Chromebook laptops that store everything online without desktop software. The latest version has a few major distinguishing factors. Google designed and manufactured the laptop itself, and it has a touchscreen.

It is also much more expensive than previous Google Chromebooks. A Wi-Fi model selling for $1,300 will begin shipping next week, and a model equipped with an LTE cellular network selling for $1,450 will ship in April. By contrast, the Chromebook that Google introduced last fall cost cost $250, and was marketed as an inexpensive, extra device for the home.

The Pixel, meanwhile, is for power users, said Sundar Pichai, Google’s senior vice president for Chrome, at a press event in a San Francisco design studio.

Translation: Google is going directly after Apple and Microsoft to try to sell its own high-end devices.

The question is whether customers will buy a laptop at this price from an untested manufacturer, especially when it requires people to do all their computing in the cloud. There are a host of competitively priced computers on the market with similar and additional features. Analysts say that i! n the near future, most laptops will have touchscreens.

“For people who have committed to the cloud and really want a good laptop, this is the best laptop from a hardware standpoint,” Mr. Pichai said. “Some of them buy Macs, some of them buy Windows 8 machines and we wanted to make sure you could see Chromebooks in that segment.”

Mr. Pichai said that Google’s engineers paid obsessive attention to the laptop’s design. Its touchscreen is brighter, taller and higher resolution than most laptops, though it also drains the battery more quickly. The keyboard responds differently based on how hard or soft you type.

Then there are little things â€" the screws are hidden, there is a microphone under the keyboard so the computer can mute your typing when you are on a video chat and the base of the computer stays put when you lift open the top.

The new Chromebook is a big step in Google’s transition to hardware company. It acquired Motorola Mobility and has teamed up with other maufacturers to build previous Chromebooks and Android Nexus devices. It has already built the ill-fated Nexus Q home entertainment device and Google glasses.

“It’s been a long time in computing since we’ve had this rate of change, it probably hasn’t happened since the birth of personal computing,” Larry Page, Google’s chief executive, told analysts in January. “That’s why we’ve put so much focus on devices.”

When people use Google devices, the thinking goes, they are more likely to use Google’s other products â€" like search, docs and photo-sharing â€" and see more ads.

Chromebooks can store a small amount of data, like a file someone sends you to download. But the idea is that users will do their computing in the cloud. In! stead of ! using Microsoft Word or Outlook, for instance, people use Google Docs or Gmail. That offers immediate backup and the ability to access digital files from any Internet-connected computer.

“Even people like my mom and dad live in the cloud, they just don’t know what the cloud is,” Mr. Pichai said.

The problem is that few people are ready to live entirely in the cloud, and even many of those who are ready cannot do so because applications like Word are such a big part of their computing lives.

Google added a few features to make that easier with the Pixel. If a user plugs in a camera’s memory card, the photos upload to Google Plus and the user can share them with a click. With the help of Quickoffice, a start-up Google acquired last year, a way to seamlessly open, edit and send Word or Excel files was created on the Chromebook.

<>These features are an acknowledgement that Google Docs is nowhere close to taking on Microsoft Office.

“All of us deal with Word files, Excel files,” Mr. Pichai said. “It’s here to stay.”

To help people make the cloud transition, Google is offering one terabyte of Google Drive storage for three years with the Pixel. That amount of storage is worth $1,800. The more expensive model of the Pixel can also tap into Verizon‘s cellular network when there is no WiFi available. The cellular model will not require a subscription to a monthly data plan. Instead, users will have various options for connecting to the cellular network, like buying access for a day or adding their device to their monthly Verizon plans.

Mr. Pichai admitted that the lines are blurring between Google’s two op! erating s! ystems â€" Chrome, used on the company’s laptops, and Android, typically used for touchscreen phones and tablets. He said that did not matter because users of either operating system used the same Google services.

The Pixel, which is made in Taiwan, will be sold at Best Buy and online at the Google Play store.



Google Introduces a Touchscreen Laptop

Google is stepping further into the laptop business, and moving way up the price scale.

The company introduced the Pixel on Thursday, a new version of its Chromebook laptops that store everything online without desktop software. The latest version has a few major distinguishing factors. Google designed and manufactured the laptop itself, and it has a touchscreen.

It is also much more expensive than previous Google Chromebooks. A Wi-Fi model selling for $1,300 will begin shipping next week, and a model equipped with an LTE cellular network selling for $1,450 will ship in April. By contrast, the Chromebook that Google introduced last fall cost cost $250, and was marketed as an inexpensive, extra device for the home.

The Pixel, meanwhile, is for power users, said Sundar Pichai, Google’s senior vice president for Chrome, at a press event in a San Francisco design studio.

Translation: Google is going directly after Apple and Microsoft to try to sell its own high-end devices.

The question is whether customers will buy a laptop at this price from an untested manufacturer, especially when it requires people to do all their computing in the cloud. There are a host of competitively priced computers on the market with similar and additional features. Analysts say that i! n the near future, most laptops will have touchscreens.

“For people who have committed to the cloud and really want a good laptop, this is the best laptop from a hardware standpoint,” Mr. Pichai said. “Some of them buy Macs, some of them buy Windows 8 machines and we wanted to make sure you could see Chromebooks in that segment.”

Mr. Pichai said that Google’s engineers paid obsessive attention to the laptop’s design. Its touchscreen is brighter, taller and higher resolution than most laptops, though it also drains the battery more quickly. The keyboard responds differently based on how hard or soft you type.

Then there are little things â€" the screws are hidden, there is a microphone under the keyboard so the computer can mute your typing when you are on a video chat and the base of the computer stays put when you lift open the top.

The new Chromebook is a big step in Google’s transition to hardware company. It acquired Motorola Mobility and has teamed up with other maufacturers to build previous Chromebooks and Android Nexus devices. It has already built the ill-fated Nexus Q home entertainment device and Google glasses.

“It’s been a long time in computing since we’ve had this rate of change, it probably hasn’t happened since the birth of personal computing,” Larry Page, Google’s chief executive, told analysts in January. “That’s why we’ve put so much focus on devices.”

When people use Google devices, the thinking goes, they are more likely to use Google’s other products â€" like search, docs and photo-sharing â€" and see more ads.

Chromebooks can store a small amount of data, like a file someone sends you to download. But the idea is that users will do their computing in the cloud. In! stead of ! using Microsoft Word or Outlook, for instance, people use Google Docs or Gmail. That offers immediate backup and the ability to access digital files from any Internet-connected computer.

“Even people like my mom and dad live in the cloud, they just don’t know what the cloud is,” Mr. Pichai said.

The problem is that few people are ready to live entirely in the cloud, and even many of those who are ready cannot do so because applications like Word are such a big part of their computing lives.

Google added a few features to make that easier with the Pixel. If a user plugs in a camera’s memory card, the photos upload to Google Plus and the user can share them with a click. With the help of Quickoffice, a start-up Google acquired last year, a way to seamlessly open, edit and send Word or Excel files was created on the Chromebook.

<>These features are an acknowledgement that Google Docs is nowhere close to taking on Microsoft Office.

“All of us deal with Word files, Excel files,” Mr. Pichai said. “It’s here to stay.”

To help people make the cloud transition, Google is offering one terabyte of Google Drive storage for three years with the Pixel. That amount of storage is worth $1,800. The more expensive model of the Pixel can also tap into Verizon‘s cellular network when there is no WiFi available. The cellular model will not require a subscription to a monthly data plan. Instead, users will have various options for connecting to the cellular network, like buying access for a day or adding their device to their monthly Verizon plans.

Mr. Pichai admitted that the lines are blurring between Google’s two op! erating s! ystems â€" Chrome, used on the company’s laptops, and Android, typically used for touchscreen phones and tablets. He said that did not matter because users of either operating system used the same Google services.

The Pixel, which is made in Taiwan, will be sold at Best Buy and online at the Google Play store.



Amid Online Furor, Sheriff Responds to Death of Man With Down Syndrome

WJLA-TV’s coverage of the Robert E. Saylor case in Maryland.

Online furor over the death of a 26-year old Maryland man with Down syndrome, who was handcuffed and forced to the ground by sheriff’s deputies in a movie theater, has been so vigorous that a local sheriff took the unusual step this week of posting a statement on social media to try to reassure the public that his office was handling the matter responsibly.

On Jan. 12, the man, Robert E. Saylor, went with his caregiver to a Frederick County movie theater to watch “Zero Dark Thirty.” After the movie was over, the caregiver went to retrieve her car and Mr. Saylor waited in a seat in the theater, said Joseph B. Espo, a lawyer for his parents.

At about 11 p.m., an employee asked for help when Mr. Saylor refused to leave, and three deputies, wh were moonlighting as security personnel, responded, a sheriff’s office statement said. Mr. Saylor was handcuffed and “brought to the ground,” Mr. Espo said, quoting language that he said the sheriff’s office used when informing him of what happened.

The deputies had to string three sets of handcuffs together to restrain Mr. Saylor, who was short but had a large physique, with his hands behind his back, Mr. Espo said. He then suffered a “medical emergency,” according to the statement from the sheriff’s office in January, and the officers removed the handcuffs. Mr. Saylor was pronounced dead at the hospital.

The cause of death last week was ruled a homicide by asphyxiation, said J. Charles Smith, the Frederick County state attorney, whose office received the case on Wednesday to decide whether there should be criminal charges.

But Mr. Saylor’s death touched off a wave of online criticism. The sheriff’s Facebook page has been inundated, with several thousand comments, some calling the deputies “murderers” and “bullies,” and questioning why the deputies were allowed to stay in their jobs.

On Monday, the couny sheriff, Charles A. Jenkins, expressed his “very serious concerns for the messages posted by the public on Facebook and other social media sites” and responded in a letter on Facebook and Twitter.

Excerpts from his statement, dated Feb. 18, said:

First, I do understand the negative outcry and frustration by those who have expressed their concerns about the death of Mr. Robert Saylor. The death of Mr. Saylor was very tragic and I want to! assure e! veryone that a thorough investigation is being conducted.

Please allow myself and this agency the opportunity to complete the investigations necessary to collect all of the facts regarding this matter, before judgment is passed on the involved deputies or the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office. Again, as I have expressed to them directly, I extend my sincere condolences to the entire family of Mr. Robert Saylor for their loss.

The officers were later put on administrative leave, the sheriff said on Monday. They had been working secondary jobs for Hill Management at the Westview Promenade where the cinema is located, the January statement from his office said.

The e-mails and phone calls from the public got so bad that the mayor of Frederick, Randy McClement, posted a message on the city’s Web site saying the city’s police were not involved. Mr. McClement said the incident also id not take place in Frederick itself; the cinema is near a highway in an area that falls under county jurisdiction, rather than municipal, and therefore involves the sheriff’s office.

Reaction took hold on Twitter, with some recalling other criticisms of police misconduct or their interactions with people with disabilities.

In its coverage of the case, ABC’s WJLA-TV interviewed Mr. Saylor’s mother, Pattie, after her son’s death last month. “He has never had anybody put their hands on him before in his life,” she sai..

Follow Christine Hauser on Twitter @christineNYT.



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