<div class="image-container float_right click-to-enlarge"><div class="image"><a title_source="The Economist" title_caption="" class="zoomin" href="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/52d97814ecad045a04769270-960/20140118_srd005_2.jpg"></a><keyword id="425741" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="The-Economist">The Economist</keyword></div></div> OH NO, NOT another accelerator, you may think. But this one is different. On the tables are not just the obligatory laptops and smartphones but circuit boards, cables, screwdrivers and a few items which look only vaguely familiar. One resembles a very old mobile phone with an oddly shaped knob attached to it. Another, a set of small blocks with switches and buttons, calls to mind a disassembled mixer in a recording studio. Yet another might be the microphone of a computer headset, but is mounted on a pair of glasses.
Even more surprisingly, the home of <a href="http://haxlr8r.com/" target="_blank">Haxlr8r</a> (pronounced "Hackcelerator") is not some co-working space in London or San Francisco but the 10th floor of an office building in Shenzhen. The city in the Pearl River Delta, close to Hong Kong, is the world capital of electronics: most of the planet's digital devices are assembled in factories in and around the city.
Haxlr8r is living proof that, as Karl Popper once said, history repeats itself, but never in the same way. Just as with software services, new technology makes it ever easier to build new types of devices, most of them connected to the internet. The difference is that making hardware remains, well, hard-which is why Haxlr8r is in Shenzhen. That way its teams may avoid the fate of a first generation of hardware startups, mostly based in America. They put their ideas up on Kickstarter and Indiegogo, the leading crowdfunding services, but then endured months of delay or never got as far as manufacturing their devices.
The technologies that allowed software services to be developed more cheaply and quickly were cloud computing, social networks and any number of digital services called application programming interfaces (APIs). For hardware the list includes all of the above plus 3D printers, sensors and microcontrollers which bridge the analogue and the digital worlds. The platform for most connected devices is smartphones. All these elements can be combined in countless ways, creating a Cambrian explosion not just in software but in physical electronic devices too.
When the latest batch of founders arrived at Haxlr8r in August, new wireless chips based on a standard called Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) had just become widely available. These are cheaper and less power-hungry than the previous generation, and startups do not have to ask Apple for permission to use them to tether their devices to the iPhone (and pay for it). Most teams at Haxlr8r went on to use BLE chips in their contraptions.
The old mobile phone with the knob is actually a wireless tuning device called <a href="http://roadietuner.com/" target="_blank">Roadie</a>-and an example of how technology, personal interest and culture can come together in surprising ways. Bassam Jalgha and Hassane Slaibi are the founders of Beirut's first hackerspace, a clubhouse for tinkerers. But they are also musicians and know how difficult it is to tune a lute, a popular instrument in Lebanon. So when they came to Shenzhen, they set out to build something that makes it easy to tune string instruments. A smartphone app listens to the sound and tells the motor in the tuning device whether to tighten or loosen a string.
The blocks, called <a href="http://www.palettegear.com/" target="_blank">Palette</a>, are indeed the components for a mixer of sorts and are meant to be assembled by designers and photographers who need a physical interface for repetitive tasks on a computer. The microphone, dubbed <a href="http://wearvigo.com/" target="_blank">Vigo</a>, is a "drowsiness meter": the tip contains a sensor that measures how often a user blinks-a sign of how tired he is, and whether he should stop driving or get a cup of coffee.
Yet most of the value of such devices is not so much in the design but in the software and services that are part of the package. Roadie comes with a smartphone app, Palette, with a program that runs on a PC. Vigo will show the user on a website how his attention fluctuates over time. Such offerings not only make products harder to copy but might allow their makers to earn additional money from subscriptions.
Makers and shakers
When Cyril Ebersweiler and Sean O'Sullivan, two venture capitalists, set up Haxlr8r in September 2011, they chose Shenzhen for a good reason. The district of Futian, the accelerator's home, has dozens of shopping malls for electronics. The biggest is the Seg market. The bottom floor is reserved for screws, cables and chips, and as you go higher up the products become more finished: circuit boards, networking equipment, personal computers. The sixth floor offers LEDs in all shapes and sizes, from super-thin Christmas garlands to super-bright lamps.
Shenzhen is also packed with all kinds of suppliers and service providers that can make life easier for hardware startups. Having a new circuit board made there takes days, not weeks as it does in America, reports Eszter Ozsvald of <a href="http://www.notchdevice.com/" target="_blank">Notch</a>, another Haxlr8r startup. Her company is developing small motion trackers. And had <a href="http://wearpoint.com/" target="_blank">Wearpoint</a> not gone to <keyword id="1334" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="China">China</keyword>, it would probably never have found the track pad it needs for its remote control for Google Glass, a head-mounted display.
Being in Shenzhen also allows founders to look at lots of factories, which proved handy for<a href="http://%20www.everpurse.com/" target="_blank">Everpurse</a>, a company that sells fancy handbags with a built-in smartphone charger. "If the workers are not happy, they may leak your intellectual property," says Dan Salcedo, the firm's co-founder.
If a factory passes muster, other Haxlr8r startups often go on to use it too. Howard Hunt, the boss of <a href="http://www.thedustcloud.com/" target="_blank">DustCloud</a>, had scouted out a factory to make casings for prototypes of his Dusters, gun-shaped devices for playing open-air laser tag. When he went to pick them up and pay (cash) in early October, the founders of Notch and Wearpoint came along to see whether the factory could also work for them. The meeting showed that people from different cultural backgrounds can communicate perfectly well with a minimum of translation. Each time the Western founders asked a question, the Chinese owner of the factory fetched another plastic sample that met with approval.
Silvia Lindtner of the University of California, Irvine, and Fudan University in Shanghai, who follows the startup scene in China, is not surprised. The two sides complement each other, she says. The founders of hardware startups, often steeped in the open-source culture, partner with factories rooted in the Chinese culture of shanzhai, which translates as "mountain stronghold". It used to mean pirated electronic goods but now stands for open-source manufacturing.
Haxlr8r is not the only model for plugging into Shenzhen's extraordinary manufacturing platform. Another is <a href="http://www.seeedstudio.com/" target="_blank">Seeed Studio</a>, a contract manufacturer for makers, as the world's ever-growing crowd of tinkerers is called. "Haxlr8r is for backpackers who want to do things themselves," explains Eric Pan, who founded Seeed in 2008. "We on the other hand offer guided tours. And you don't even have to come here."
Having worked for about 200 makers last year, Seeed is now one of the world's biggest manufacturers of open-source hardware. When a maker asks Seeed to build a circuit board, the firm keeps a copy of the design which can then be used without charge by other customers. Most factories in Shenzhen work for big customers and have long assembly lines where workers perform only one task. But makers typically want just a few items and are willing to pay more, so Mr Pan has split his employees into self-organizing teams.
Whereas Seeed is a Chinese creation,<a href="http://www.pchintl.com/" target="_blank">PCH International</a> is a Western take on Shenzhen. Also based in the city, it started out as a sourcing company with a reputation for being the fastest supplier of parts to electronics makers. Liam Casey, who founded the company in 1996, had criss-crossed the Pearl River Delta, gathering knowledge about supply lines. PCH later added packaging, logistics and manufacturing to its portfolio. Today the firm, which had revenues of $1 billion in 2013, is an "end-to-end platform, a sort of Amazon Web Services for electronics manufacturing", in the words of Mr Casey. He has even started an accelerator, Highway1, which is based in San Francisco, to generate more things to make for his platform.
Some firms prefer to go it alone, like <a href="http://www.zoundindustries.com/" target="_blank">Zound Industries</a>, a Swedish maker of fashionable headphones, including brands such as Urbanears and Molami. Back in 2008, when production in Shenzhen did not get off the ground because factories failed to deliver, Zound sent one of the founders, who hired a couple of experienced hands to work with manufacturers. Today the firm has 18 employees in the Chinese city and uses five factories which have so far produced nearly 8m headphones.
For the moment Haxlr8r's latest batch of startups can only dream of such success. In November they had their demo day, held in San Francisco and marking the beginning of their "Kickstarter" campaigns, which essentially consist of a video presenting the project and asking for money. Investors can be surprisingly generous, even for rather odd projects.<a href="http://www.petcube.net/" target="_blank">Petcube</a> managed to raise more than $250,000 for a small, internet-connected metal box with a video camera, microphone and laser pointer inside that lets owners watch their pets from afar and play with them by controlling the laser pointer.
The Kickstarter campaign is only the beginning of a long journey. Founders must get their products certified, find distributors, organize production and avoid getting sued for infringing other people's intellectual property. "Hardware is really hard," says Amanda Williams, whose company,<a href="http://www.fabule.com/" target="_blank">Fabule</a>, was part of Haxlr8r's previous batch. She is back in Shenzhen dealing with manufacturers of the firm's first product, a programmable lamp.
Some of the contraptions may seem a shade frivolous, but Haxlr8r's startups also included<a href="http://www.babybe.org/" target="_blank">Babybe</a>, an "emotional prosthetic" designed to help prematurely born babies to catch up. It transmits the mother's heartbeat, breathing pattern and even her voice to a mattress in the infant's incubator.
With startups you never know what you will get. But the platforms, the accelerators and the ecosystems that allow them to develop are already emerging in other industries, too.

Why Southern China Is The Best Place In The World For A Hardware Innovator

<ul><li>Internet is suspended in some parts of <keyword id="6357972" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="jammu" source="Orion">Jammu</keyword> and <keyword id="132351" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="rajouri" source="Orion">Rajouri</keyword>.</li><li>Official sources said mobile internet services in these areas will remain suspended till 5 p.m.</li><li>The decision to suspend the mobile Internet service was part of the elaborate security arrangements ahead of the home minister's visit.</li></ul>Authorities have suspended mobile Internet services on Tuesday in parts of Jammu and Rajouri districts. Official sources said mobile Internet services in these areas will remain suspended till 5 p.m. The same has been done for preventing miscreants from creating a law and order situation by misusing the service. Union Home Minister <keyword id="6355521" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="amit-shah" source="Orion">Amit Shah</keyword> is on a three-day visit to J&amp;K and he is addressing a historic public rally in Rajouri district. The decision to suspend the mobile Internet service was part of the elaborate security arrangements made for the protection of the home minister, sources said. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/stock-market/news/sensex-opens-1100-points-higher-mirroring-gains-in-global-markets/articleshow/94634505.cms">Sensex opens 1,100 points higher mirroring gains in global markets</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech-buying-guides/best-laser-printers-for-home-and-office-use/articleshow/77977886.cms">Best laser printers for homes and offices in India</a>

Authorities suspend mobile internet in parts of Jammu, Rajouri districts

<ul><li><keyword id="15153866" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="paabo" source="Orion">Paabo</keyword> has been awarded the prestigious prize for having sequenced the genomes of our extinct relatives.</li><li>Paabo is widely regarded as having pioneered the field of ancient DNA</li><li>Nobel prize winner studied ancient DNA in material ranging from mummified humans to extinct ground sloths.</li></ul>The Nobel prize in physiology or medicine for 2022 has been awarded to Svante Paabo from the <keyword id="2306463" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="max-planck-institute-for-evolutionary-anthropology" source="Orion">Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology</keyword> in Leipzig, Germany, for his discoveries concerning the genomes of extinct hominins and human evolution. In other words, Paabo has been awarded the prestigious prize for having sequenced the genomes of our extinct relatives, the Neanderthals and Denisovans, and for the fact that these discoveries have resulted in novel insights into human evolution. Paabo is widely regarded as having pioneered the field of ancient DNA, a research area dedicated to the recovery and analysis of DNA from historic and prehistoric remains. Although Paabo did his PhD in medical science at <keyword id="196985" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="uppsala-university" source="Orion">Uppsala University</keyword> in Sweden in the early 1980s, he also studied <keyword id="2255540" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="egyptology" source="Orion">Egyptology</keyword> when he was at <keyword id="4100233" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="uppsala" source="Orion">Uppsala</keyword>. It was a logical next step that he took tools from molecular biology, garnered from his expertise in medical science, to better understand human prehistory. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Extracting DNA from ancient bones" comment="subhead" text="Extracting DNA from ancient bones">Extracting DNA from ancient bones</cmsannotation> Beginning in the 1980s, Paabo studied ancient DNA in material ranging from mummified humans to extinct ground sloths. This work was technically challenging because ancient DNA is significantly degraded and can be contaminated. In the decade that followed, he developed a series of methods and guidelines to recover and interpret authentic DNA and to minimise the risk of contamination from modern sources, especially from contemporary humans. In the early 1990s, there was significant excitement in the field about the possibility of recovering DNA from dinosaurs. However, based on his knowledge on how DNA degrades over time, Paabo remained sceptical that DNA could survive such a long time. He was later proven right. For many of his colleagues, it was clear that P bo's goal was always to recover Neanderthal DNA. But he took his time and carefully developed the methods for recovering and authenticating ancient DNA until these methods were mature enough to accomplish this objective. Finally, in 1997, Paabo and his colleagues published the first Neanderthal DNA sequences. In 2010 this was followed by the entire Neanderthal genome (that is, all the genetic information stored in the DNA of one Neanderthal). Only a few years later, the group also published the genome from a previously unknown type of human, the Denisovans, distantly related to Neanderthals. This sequencing was based on a 40,000-year-old fragment of bone discovered in the Denisova cave in Siberia. By virtue of being able to compare these with human genomes, one of the most important findings of Paabo's work has been that many modern humans carry a small proportion of DNA from Neanderthals and Denisovans. Modern humans picked up these snippets of DNA through hybridisation, when modern and archaic humans mixed, as modern humans expanded across Eurasia during the last ice age. For example, particular Neanderthal genes affect how our immune system reacts to infections, including COVID-19. The Denisovan version of a gene called EPAS1, meanwhile, helps people survive at high altitudes. It's common among modern-day Tibetans. At the same time, in comparing the genomes of Neanderthals and Denisovans with those of modern humans, Paabo and his colleagues have been able to highlight genetic mutations that are not shared. A large proportion of these are connected to how the brain develops. By revealing genetic differences that distinguish living humans from our extinct ancestors, Paabo's influential discoveries provide the basis for exploring what makes us uniquely human. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/stock-market/news/sensex-opens-1100-points-higher-mirroring-gains-in-global-markets/articleshow/94634505.cms">Sensex opens 1,100 points higher mirroring gains in global markets</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech-buying-guides/best-laser-printers-for-home-and-office-use/articleshow/77977886.cms">Best laser printers for homes and offices in India</a>

Nobel prize winner Svante Paabo's DNA discoveries offer clues as to what makes us human

<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/advancing-cities"></a><div type="image" title="a building in Utah" height="1226" width="1634" msid="94161488" hostid="261" sizebytes="283374"></div><ul class="summary-list"><li>University of Utah's Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute helps students launch startups and raise money.</li><li>Undergraduate students, graduate students, and alumni have access to mentorship and other resources.</li><li>The university also plans to offer an online master of business creation degree to expand its reach.</li></ul>Over the past 20 years, Troy D'Ambrosio, executive director of the University of Utah's <a href="https://lassonde.utah.edu/">Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute</a>, has helped Salt Lake City's entrepreneur community flourish. He leads programs for students at the university that fosters a culture of innovation and supports the next generation of startup founders.<div type="image" title="headshot of Troy D’Ambrosio" height="3836" width="5115" msid="94161489" hostid="261" sizebytes="737322"></div>The institute he works for, which was founded in 2001, is part of the university's <a href="https://eccles.utah.edu/">David Eccles School of Business</a>. It offers programs for high school students, undergraduates, and graduate students, and also just launched a new program for alumni. US News and World Report ranks it as one of the <a href="https://lassonde.utah.edu/ranked/">top 10 entrepreneurship schools</a> in the nation.<div type="image" title="a group of students at the University of Utah" height="2668" width="3557" msid="94161490" hostid="261" sizebytes="672378"></div>"We've seen how much interest there is from entrepreneurs and where we thought we could fill in the gaps" to be a resource for them, D'Ambrosio, who's also an assistant dean at the business school, told Insider.Salt Lake City's entrepreneur community is "amazing, robust, creative, and continues to grow," he said. "It's becoming part of our DNA. Entrepreneurship is what people want to do in the future. They're really interested in entrepreneurship, technology, and innovation."As a Salt Lake City native and University of Utah alum, D'Ambrosio said he's seeing entrepreneurship and innovation being used to solve problems around climate change, health care, and transportation. So far Lassonde has helped students launch more than<a href="https://lassonde.utah.edu/lassonde-institute-fy-2021-annual-report/"> 2,700 startups</a> and raise more than $700 million in funding, including venture capital. These include the medical device <a href="https://lassonde.utah.edu/lerc-medical-a-dual-function-esophageal-probe/">LERC Medical</a>, an addiction-recovery mobile app called <a href="https://lassonde.utah.edu/relay-wins-20000-grand-prize-at-2022-utah-entrepreneur-challenge/">Relay</a>, and <a href="https://lassonde.utah.edu/kroy-railway-solving-public-problems-with-entrepreneurship/">Kroy Railway Group</a>, a company helping mitigate railroad safety issues.Here's a look at how Lassonde is supporting innovation and entrepreneurship in students.<h2>Giving University of Utah alumni the tools to start businesses </h2>This month, the institute launched <a href="https://lassonde.utah.edu/life">Lassonde for Life</a>, a new program open to University of Utah alumni who completed any degree in any major and now want to start or grow their business. The program is free and offered online so alumni can participate from anywhere."We have a number of alumni who have been really successful who are always coming back saying, 'You made an impact on my life while I was there. How can I give back now?'" D'Ambrosio said. Alumni also often get in touch to ask about resources for starting a business.The program pairs these two groups. It will feature a series of workshops during the 2022-23 academic year that are hosted by successful alumni on topics like launching an e-commerce business, prototyping new products, conducting market research, and navigating legal issues for startups. D'Ambrosio said the first program will help the institute learn more about which programs to offer, how often, and the best format to deliver the content going forward. <h2>Expanding an online master's program to reach more entrepreneurs </h2>In January 2023, the business school will expand its <a href="https://eccles.utah.edu/mbc/">master of business creation</a> (MBC) degree online, which will enable anyone from around the world to enroll. It'll focus on "the founder's startup, applied curriculum, personalized mentorship, substantial scholarships, peer support and discussion, access to $5 million in startup funding, and more," according to an <a href="https://lassonde.utah.edu/master-of-business-creation-now-offered-online-or-in-person/">announcement about the program</a>.The online MBC is part-time with a flexible schedule that's completed in 14 months instead of the nine-month full-time program, which is in-person only. It will feature video content and live virtual group meetings. Every student is assigned a coach, who they'll meet with regularly one-on-one."We created the online program because we had so many people apply for the in-resident program who either couldn't physically be in Utah or Salt Lake or because of economic circumstances, they're still working a day job, they have children they're taking care of, or they couldn't participate in as intense of a program as in-resident," D'Ambrosio said.Students in the online program will have 60% of their costs covered by scholarships and will pay around $15,000 out of pocket. Next, D'Ambrosio said they plan to launch region-specific online MBC programs in Africa and Europe.<h2>Offering programs to the next generation of startup founders </h2>The institute provides many other initiatives, programs, and resources to support the next generation of entrepreneurs. Its <a href="https://lassonde.utah.edu/studios/">Lassonde Studios</a> is a 400-person residential community and innovation facility on campus for University of Utah students to create and launch ideas. It features a 20,000-square-foot innovation space with 3D printers, laser cutters, and office space.<div type="image" title="a room on a college campus" height="1600" width="2133" msid="94161491" hostid="261" sizebytes="431118"></div>"It's become this gathering place, a community where entrepreneurs go," D'Ambrosio said. "It's a unique place where people can find each other on campus and work together." Students also help commercialize ideas created by other university departments by translating them into real products. D'Ambrosio said they've helped around 70 technologies developed at the university raise startup capital and enter the market, including <a href="https://peeltx.com/news/peel-therapeutics-initiates-clinical-trial-of-peel-224-in-patients-with-advanced-solid-tumors/">Peel Therapeutics</a>, a biotech company developing cancer and inflammatory disease medications that recently kicked off its clinical trials."We're using that intellectual property on campus as a tool to teach technology commercialization, entrepreneurship, and capital raising," D'Ambrosio said.The institute also runs the <a href="https://lassonde.utah.edu/hsuec/">High School Utah Entrepreneur Challenge</a> (HSUEC), which is open to all Utah high school students, who can win prize money and scholarships based on their ideas. Another program, the <a href="https://lassonde.utah.edu/founders/">Lassonde Founders Program</a>, is a cohort of incoming freshmen at the university who have started companies. The students receive housing at Lassonde Studios, a scholarship, and access to resources and a community to develop their businesses."The really interesting thing for us is these young people teach us about the new trends and new technologies and stuff out there," D'Ambrosio said. "They're educating us as much as we're educating them."Working with students and creating a place where they can develop their ideas and get them out into the world is what D'Ambrosio loves about his role."When a student walks into your office and says, 'I have this idea,' and I get to say, 'I can help you,' it's the coolest job ever," he said.

How an institute at the University of Utah has helped entrepreneurs build their startups and raise more than $700 million in funding

<a href="http://businessinsider.com/digital-industry-insider"></div></div></div>The industrial fringe of Greenville, South Carolina, isn't the most obvious place to go looking for a glimpse of things to come. But tucked behind railroad tracks and boxy factories you'll find GE Power's new Advanced Manufacturing Works, which opened in April. It's changing how humans make things.Larger than two football fields and emblazoned with a giant GE monogram, the facility is like a massive toolbox from the future. It holds a sleek "<a href="http://www.gereports.com/major-laser-this-water-guided-laser-machine-cuts-the-tiniest-holes-in-the-toughest-metals/">microjet</a>" cutter that sends a laser beam through a thin stream of water and cuts shapes into the hardest metals that are so precise they look almost alien (see below). There are rows of industrial-grade 3D printers and ovens with argon atmospheres that cure parts made from light and heat resistant supermaterial called &#xa0;<a href="http://www.gereports.com/ge-mass-produce-advanced-space-age-material-u-s-first-time/">ceramic matrix composites (CMCs)</a>. Elsewhere, a robot nicknamed Autonomous Prime after the Transformers character Optimus Prime, scans its work area with LIDAR eyes - the same technology used by Google in self-driving cars - and services a computer-controlled milling machine.&#xa0;Much of the technology here comes embedded with sensors that stream data over secure Industrial Internet links into the cloud for analysis and insights.When GE Reports visited, machines at the plant were crafting sinuous compressor blades for the&#xa0;<a href="http://www.gereports.com/video-ge-started-testing-the-worlds-largest-jet-engine/">world's largest jet engine</a>, ceramic shrouds for gas turbines and other parts with shapes so complex and from materials so new that just a few years ago they would have been a glimmer in engineers' eyes.&#xa0;"This facility is the bridge between the lab and reality," says Kurt Goodwin, the GE manager who runs the plant. "It's an incubator. We collaborate with engineers to allow them to realize their big ideas and help turn them into a process that you can do reliably over again at the right price."Goodwin, who wears glasses, sports a gray beard&#xa0;and has the demeanor of a friendly university professor, says that "Leonardo had the idea for the helicopter, but it took Igor Sikorsky 400 years to make it a reality. We have the tools to help our inventors figure things out here and now and get their ideas into mass production right away."GE Power invested $75 million to build the plant. It stands right next to the company's huge Greenville campus, the <a href="http://www.gereports.com/turbines-born-inside-look-ges-big-iron-maternity-ward/">massive factory</a> where GE Power makes the <a href="http://www.gereports.com/point-break-where-the-worlds-largest-gas-turbines-prove-their-mettle/">world's largest gas turbines</a>, which weigh hundreds of tons but hold parts made to hair's-breadth accuracy. Its engineers, as well as their colleagues from other GE energy business, GE Oil &amp; Gas and <a href="http://www.gereports.com/major-laser-this-scientist-is-helping-write-the-ge-3d-printing-cookbook/">GE Global Research</a>, will use the new facility to try new design and manufacturing ideas, quickly produce test components and then figure out how to make the best designs in large volumes. GE calls this exchange of knowledge and technology the "<a href="http://www.gereports.com/give-and-take-how-the-world-and-ge-power-benefit-from-the-ge-store/">GE Store</a>."This is the second such GE facility to open this spring. Earlier in April, GE opened the <a href="http://www.gereports.com/all-the-print-thats-fit-to-pitt-new-additive-technology-center-opens-near-steel-town/">Center for Additive Technology Advancement</a> in Pittsburgh, which is helping GE take "additive" manufacturing methods like 3D printing mainstream.Goodwin says his business needed the Advanced Manufacturing Works to keep pace with customer demands. "It's incredible how fast the world is moving," he says. "The expectations for improvement from the market are mind-boggling. Our factory next door is the largest in the world and it's already optimized to produce gas turbines at maximum capacity. The workers there have a lot of great ideas but they don't have the time to play around."The tools here include the latest machines and big-data analytics, but also the right people. The plant, which will have 80 workers, already employs materials scientists with PhDs, engineers, and machinists who spent decades honing their craft. "We handpicked this team of people who are resourceful, solution-oriented and they don't panic when something goes wrong," Goodwin says. "They know how to fail fast. Together, they can solve just about anything."The typical task usually starts as a 3D computer-assisted design file, or CAD, of an early prototype that arrives at their workstations over the Internet. "We want the designers to show us their ugly baby, when the design is just 80 percent finished," says Blake Fulton, a materials engineer at the plant. "We've learned that at this stage they are much more willing to accept feedback."Fulton and his colleagues then proceed to make a 3D model of the design. It can be printed from plastic or metal, or even cut out from wood.In the past, designers would FedEx their files to contractors, who would produce the models and ship them back weeks later. The direct digital feed to Fulton's 3D printers allows designers to make many drawing iterations in just days and see what they look like in real life. "This is what we call rapid prototyping," Fulton says.Goodwin's workers are also test-driving entire manufacturing processes. GE Aviation is already putting <a href="http://www.gereports.com/airbus-gets-1st-production-jet-engines-with-3d-printed-parts-from-cfm/">3D-printed parts inside jet engines</a>, but when Goodwin wanted to apply the same technology to gas turbines - they include many of the same parts as jets but are much larger - he started running into obstacles.The type of 3D printer GE Aviation is using is called a direct metal laser melting machine. It uses a laser beam to fuse layers of fine metal powder together and grow the part from the ground up. But Goodwin's parts were too large and took too long to print on DMLM machines to be economical.Goodwin told his team to find a more cost-effective machine. Since&#xa0;3D printing is still so new, the only faster machine they could &#xa0;find was a&#xa0;3D printer with two laser beams that wasn't even on the market. "We bought three of those," Goodwin says.It was a risky move and problems quickly popped up. "We followed the instructions, but the metallurgy wasn't good." His team spent four months analyzing 200 different software parameters and made 400 hardware modifications before they debugged the machines. This spring, they used them to optimize the design of a 3D-printed fuel nozzle for GE's latest-generation gas turbine and bring it to production. The new design lowers the machine's nitrogen oxide emissions and increases power output and efficiency. "We were able to run through 10 design iterations in just a few months and then ship the final version into production four months later," Goodwin says. "Normally it would take us a year."GE uses its <a href="http://www.gereports.com/ready-for-prime-time-ge-opens-predix-its-digital-platform-for-the-industrial-internet-to-everyone/">Predix</a>&#xa0;software platform to stream data over the Industrial Internet into the cloud, analyze it and report problems and solutions back to the team.These feedback loops are part of a concept GE calls the "digital thread." Clay Johnson, GE Power's chief information officer, says the plant still shows only a fragment of what's coming. He says the digital thread will be constantly moving data from customers and suppliers to GE and back. "The system will be getting real-time feedback from sensors on parts inside machines," Johnson says. "In the future the part will realize it's getting degraded, automatically can reorder itself to be made, and schedules the field engineer to be on-site to install it. It's Uber for industry."But technology won't solve everything. Said Steve Bolze, GE Power CEO, after Friday's opening ceremony: "We have robotics and 3D printers, but this place is really about the people who trust each other enough to take risks together and create the future."This content was originally published on <a href="http://www.gereports.com/">GE Reports</a>&#xa0;and is part of <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/digital-industry-insider">Digital Industry Insider</a>.</div>Find out <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/sponsor-posts">more about Sponsor Content</a>.

What happens when you link 3D printing and the internet?

A start-up is combining 3D scanning and weaving technology to make the perfect pair of jeans, as consumers’ preferences shift from big-name brands to tech-inspired and sustainable fashion. San Francisco-based Unspun, which joined Hong Kong’s The Mills Fabrica “techstyle” incubator in February, touts itself as a zero-inventory store; jeans are only made when an order is placed. The incubator says techstyle covers material and supply chain innovation, wearables merging technology and style, and new retail experiences The two-year-old robotics and apparel company, which counts the National Science Foundation, H&amp;M Foundation, venture capital investor <keyword id="3485432" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="SOSV">SOSV</keyword> and the Mills among its early backers, aims to become a zero-waste operation. It is developing a 3D weaving machine that would completely eliminate fabric waste, with plans to deploy it in stores as early as the end of this year. “The best way to think about it is like a 3D printer for clothes,” said <keyword id="594669" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Walden">Walden</keyword> Lam, one of Unspun’s three co-founders. “But when people think of 3D printed clothing, they think its plastic-y, not something people would want to wear. What we are actually doing is using yarn that goes into everyday clothing and manipulating it into the final product.” With 3D weaving, Unspun will no longer have any cut waste, the discarded fabric from traditional apparel making techniques. For now, Unspun uses their cut waste to create reusable packaging for their jeans. “The packaging also happens to be able to fit a 13-inch laptop, even though we did not intentionally make it that way,” Lam said. Unspun is currently in talks to close a seed funding round, but declined to disclose further information on the deal or their valuation. According to Statista, the size of the global denim market was US$60.4 billion in 2017 and is forecast to grow to US$87.6 billion by 2023. A report from market intelligence firm ResearchAndMarkets.com last month showed that the growing popularity of online sales is enabling vendors to provide customised denim products tailored to each customer’s size and colour requirements. Unspun joins a host of luxury labels, making everything from jewellery to glasses frames that employ 3D body scanning techniques to boost sales. According to the consultants Deloitte, mass personalisation is being made possible with advances in <keyword id="883288" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="3D-printing">3D printing</keyword> technology. A recent report in Wired magazine, quoting a Deloitte survey in the UK, said that 15 per cent of respondents were willing to pay 40 per cent more than the regular retail price for a personalised fashion item. Unspun is banking on the trend catching on. It has partnered with a body scan company called Fit3D to set up more than 1,000 infrared scanners worldwide where customers can get a 20-second body scan – allowing for customised fittings, stitching and styling. The start-up said that most of these scanners have been placed in gyms, as one of their main customer groups are people who work out a lot, so they often are unable to find mass market clothing to fit their body type. “Customers will not be overwhelmed [as there are no] piles of small-, medium-, large-sized jeans,” said Lam, who also handles marketing and branding. Unspun’s founders chose to focus on jeans, which has one of the most polluting and labour intensive manufacturing processes. Workers who sandblast fabric to create distressed denim are saddled with chronic lung disease, while dyeing requires toxic chemicals and hundreds of litres of water per pair of jeans. “We want to change that and offer products that do not involve using labour to spray toxic chemicals, so we are experimenting with ozone wash and laser whiskering to create the patterns,” said Lam. Hong Kong-born Lam has been pleased with Unspun’s reception in the city, where he said there is a deeper market for fashion products. “Our very first pop-up we wanted to test whether people were open to 3D body scans and if they were willing to pay a little bit more,” he said, adding that the response was overwhelming. The company said they originally started out partnering with a workshop in Hong Kong, but since they could not meet demand they have roped in other manufacturers in China’s Guangdong province. Currently they do not have any pop-up stores in Hong Kong, but are doing it by appointment only. As for the price – a pair of Unspun jeans will set customers back by HK$1,962 (US$250). “It’s easier for prices to go down than to go up, but we have to scale to get there, especially when you are setting up your own infrastructure – we have to set up scanning stations and create a supply chain to support that,” Lam said. In addition, Lam said, standard jeans from other brands sell for the same price or more. “Levi’s sells custom jeans with an eight-week turn around, and their starting price is US$800. It feels like we are actually leaving money on the table, but we are trying to be disruptive so we will take it.

Hong Kong start-up developing 3D technology to weave perfect pair of customised jeans with zero waste

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image">Arizona State UniversityOne of 1,600 customized Amazon Echo Dot smart speakers, donated by Amazon to Arizona State University.</div></div></div>On Thursday, Arizona State University (ASU) marks the beginning of its fall term, which doubles as the grand opening for <a href="https://asunow.asu.edu/20170812-sun-devil-life-new-asu-tooker-house-residence-hall-immersive-engineering-education">Tooker House</a> - a brand new, high-tech dorm for first-year engineering students.Tooker House sports cutting-edge amenities, including a workspace with 3D printers and laser cutters for students to use. This dorm is designed to be the crown jewel for ASU's Fulton Schools of Engineering, which it says is the largest engineering program in the country. But wait, there's more: Every single one of the 1,600 freshmen moving into Tooker House is getting an <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/using-amazon-echo-dot-in-a-car-2017-7">Echo Dot smart speaker</a>, retail price $50, thanks to a one-time donation from Amazon. Notably, accepting the device isn't mandatory, and some students may elect not to take advantage of the offer.The devices also come equipped with an ASU "skill," built in collaboration with Amazon, which lets students quickly get information on the academic calendar and events on campus just by asking the Echo's Alexa digital assistant. It also sports the normal Alexa features, including setting alarms and playing music. For ASU, it's a way to ensure its students stay on the cutting edge. For Amazon, it's a part of a larger master plan to work out how it can use the Alexa assistant to own the future of computing. <h2>The big idea</h2>From ASU's perspective, the Echo Dot speakers speak straight to the engineering program's mission, according to Fulton Schools dean Kyle Squires. He says the Echo Dot speakers "merge the living environment with the learning environment," with students encouraged by the school's curriculum to build their own Alexa skills.For Amazon, the "first of its kind" ASU partnership speaks of bigger things to come in higher <keyword id="6355445" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="education">education</keyword>, says Amazon Alexa director Eric King. For starters, it's going to give students an incentive to build voice apps in general, and Alexa skills in particular. That's good for Amazon and the Alexa platform as a whole."It's going to inspire the next generation of developers to use voice," says King. <div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">Deanna Dent/ASU NowTooker House, ASU's new high-tech dorm. Even the laundry machines have bluetooth to tell you when the cycle is done.</div></div></div>Plus, King says Amazon and ASU are working closely together to see how students actually use their Echo Dots - not through directly monitoring student usage or tapping their devices to listen in, says Squires, but by observing and gathering feedback.That feedback, in turn, will be used by Amazon as it figures out the best ways for Alexa to integrate itself into living spaces and academic life. Today, that might be setting an alarm for an early class; tomorrow, Alexa might be able to tell you the best route to your intramural soccer game, or the content of your next exam, says King. Ultimately, King says universities are a crucial part of the future of Alexa and Echo, as the future of voice-based computing takes shape. He hopes the collaboration with ASU is the first of many in the years to come.In that light, King says the donation of these 1,600 Echo devices "was as much an investment" as it was a donation. <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/life-hack-amazon-echo-dot-car-infotainment-system-2017-7">Turns out the Amazon Echo Dot makes an amazing car infotainment system</a></h3> <div> </div> </div>

Amazon donated 1,600 Echo Dot smart speakers to ASU's new high-tech dorm for engineers

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right click-to-enlarge"><div><div class="image on-image"><a title_source="Socialbakers" title_caption="Former Apple CEO John Sculley on stage at Engage 2015 in Prague." class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5565a3e7dd0895d6458b45ba-960/screen%20shot%202015-05-27%20at%2010.43.57%20am.png"></a>SocialbakersFormer Apple CEO John Sculley on stage at Engage 2015 in Prague.</div></div></div>Former Apple CEO John Sculley is now a backer of a range of different tech companies - including the Obi Mobiles Android line and enterprise company Zeta Interactive, shortly to IPO - but he will probably be best known as the man who ousted Steve Jobs from Apple in 1985.Sculley told us recently at the Engage 2015 conference in Prague that <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/john-sculley-steve-jobs-was-never-fired-from-apple-2015-5">it's a myth that he "fired" Jobs from his own company</a>. Rather, Jobs left after failing to convince the Apple board that they should pursue a discount pricing strategy for the failing Macintosh Office line of computers and printers. Upon losing that argument, the board deemed Steve's presence in the company too disruptive and Jobs left.It's an oft-told tale, but perhaps the most poignant and unexpected was Sculley's description of how deep his relationship with Jobs was, and the fact that once Jobs was kicked out of the company, they never repaired their relationship. &#xa0;"He never forgave me for that," Sculley told me at Engage. And the friendship?"No. Never repaired. And it's really a shame because if I look back, I say what a big mistake on my part," Sculley said.Here is a lightly edited version of Sculley's account of how Jobs was kicked out of Apple in 1985. It begins when Sculley first met Jobs in 1982. Sculley had been the president of PepsiCo, where he had launched the legendary Pepsi Challenge campaign, and Jobs was hoping to tap his marketing genius to make Apple a consumer brand.Steve wanted to be CEO but they [the board] didn't think he was ready for it. [So they let Jobs choose an outside CEO.]Apple II was the only source of cashflow for the company, so my job was to grow the Apple II, which was outsold two to one by the Commodore [and other brands.]<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right click-to-enlarge"><div><div class="image on-image"><a title_source="Seth Wenig / Reuters" title_caption="Steve Jobs." class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5565a3e7dd0895d6458b45bb-960/steve-jobs-14.jpg"></a>Seth Wenig / ReutersSteve Jobs.</div></div></div>We had to get cashflow from the Apple II because the Apple II had failed, Lisa had failed and that was crucial to keeping the doors open while Steve was developing Mac.We were exceptionally close. We spent five months getting to know each other. We spent seven days a week together. It wasn't like we were just business partners, we were very good friends. But remember Steve was then only 27-years-old. And before I had joined Apple, he had been demoted from the Lisa group by the board because he was not, in those days, anywhere near the mature executive that we all know [he became] in later life.We reached a point in 1985 when Steve introduced the Macintosh Office, which was a laser printer, a laser writer, postscript fonts from Adobe, and a Macintosh.One problem: The whole sale of the product just didn't work - people weren't buying it. Steve got depressed. And then he turned on me. He said: 'It's your fault. You forced me to price the Macintosh too high.' The price was $2,495. He had wanted it at $1,995. We needed the money for the marketing and campaigns to launch it back in 1984.He said: 'I want you to drop the price by $500, and I want you to move the advertising weight from Apple II over to the Mac.'I said: 'Steve, if you do that, we're going to drive the company into a loss. I talked to the engineers and they say the reason it doesn't work has nothing to do with the price or the advertising. It's physics!'In those days, people called it the Silicon Valley distortion field. Steve could convince himself himself, along with everyone else, of about whatever he believed in.The reality was it wasn't until at least a year later that the microprocessors were powerful enough that you could actually do the kind of things we were actually promoting back in 1985.[The board asked Apple founder Mike Markulla to study the pricing and report back to the board a week later at a special meeting.]He said: 'I agree with John, I don't agree with Steve.' The board said: 'Steve, we want you to step down from running the Macintosh division. You're being disruptive in the organisation.' Steve was never fired. He went off and took a sabbatical for a number of months, but he was still chairman of the board.He never forgave me for that.He was actually sued by the Apple board for taking five key managers but he was never fired from Apple.[And the friendship?] No. Never repaired. And it's really a shame because if I look back I see what a big mistake on my part. See, I came from corporate America. There it was kind of secular, there wasn't the passion that entrepreneurs have. I have so much respect now decades later for founders, for the belief and passion and vision that they have. So to remove a founder, even if he wasn't fired, was a terrible mistake. I wish that Steve and I had gotten together again and found even some part of our friendship, but it didn't happen.You can see our whole conversation with Sculley on this video, fast-forward to the mark at 5 hours and 21 minutes.<div><div></div></div>

Former Apple CEO John Sculley admits Steve Jobs never forgave him, and he never repaired their friendship, before Jobs died

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image">Thomson ReutersMembers of the media and TEPCO employees walk down the steps of a fuel handling machine on the spent fuel pool inside the No.4 reactor building in Fukushima</div></div></div>For the venture capitalists spearheading innovation in Silicon Valley, the speed of development is so fast that it's almost impossible to say what the next big breakthrough technology will be. But they have a pretty good idea where they will find it.Josh Wolfe is the co-founder and Managing Partner of Lux Capital, the Silicon Valley venture capital firm focused on backing scientists and entrepreneurs to solve the world's toughest problems. He literally cleaned up as his start-up Kurion, which uses advanced robotics and chemistry to remove nuclear waste, was the only US company on the ground in Fukushima, removing 99% of the radioactive cesium and strontium from that disaster.From a $3 million initial investment, Kurion was sold to Veolia for $400 million this year, while his venture into metamaterials with Bill Gates, Kymeta, is making science fiction science fact, replacing giant space antennas with something as flat as a magazine or iPad."I like to say that I have 100% certainty that I will be investing in some cutting edge things in the next one or two years. And I have close to 0% certainty what those things will be," Wolfe said in an interview with Real Vision TV. "But I have another close to 100% certainty of where they will come from. And it's at the edge of the already cutting edge companies that we're in."<h2> Asian Money Flooding VC, Replacing "Dumb" Middle East Capital</h2>One of the most interesting dynamics at present in the VC market is the disconnect between the largest ever year of capital deployment in the sector, but at the same time being the worst year in history for IPOs.Great companies will still go public, Wolfe said, while alternatives are secondary trades to investors or an acquisition. Looking at acquisitions globally, Wolfe outlines a transient phenomenon, because the money from Asia, is return seeking and arguably seeking amnesty as well."The amount of Asian money flooding into venture is huge," Wolfe said. "Five or seven years ago, the sort of dumb money that people were looking for in the valley, historically, was let's go to the Middle East. And I think that has shifted, and you see serious players like SoftBank, making huge acquisitions and arguably trying to turn themselves into a Berkshire," Wolfe said. <div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_left"><div><div class="image on-image"><a href="http://pictures.reuters.com/archive/CHINA-DEVELOPMENT-FORUM--GF10000351304.html">Shu Zhang/Reuters</a>Jack Ma.</div></div></div>"The amount of money that they're deploying is really large. Same thing for Alibaba, Tencent, and some of the other players in China," he adds. "China, Japan, Korea, I think are huge forces of money that are coming into this market. In part, because they want to get out of their native currencies and I think in part, for strategic reasons it makes sense to invest in some of these companies. So trade sales and M&amp;A to some of the sovereign funds and some of the Asian players, I think, is going to be a big exit path when IPOs are scarce."<h2>The Future is Here - It's Just Not Evenly Distributed</h2>For a fast paced venture capitalist with money flooding into the latest technologies, in what is essentially a slow growth world, Wolfe's perspective is firmly fixed on the future as he keeps one or more steps ahead of everybody else."There's two quotes about the future that I love," Wolfe said, "One is, the future's here, it's just not evenly distributed. The other being, the best way to predict the future is to invent it. And the people that are inventing the future are also almost by definition the people that asymmetrically know what's going to happen before everybody else does. And in fact, our argument is we're always trying to find people that are literally at the cutting edge."Forget juvenile, desktop 3D printers, Wolfe says. Look instead at some of the metal 3D printers and textile innovations. "These are the kinds of things that you can shift back in a smaller footprint and actually have people running and get the kind of productivity yield on a geographic basis that's localized to certain major industrial cities."You look at the real time delivery, autonomous vehicles able to do some of this stuff," he adds. "You will see a bike lane with autonomous vehicles that are doing 24-hour deliveries of certain things, whether it's drugs from your local CVS or food. That stuff will automatically be brought into your apartment with access controls."Also making the future a reality are companies like Auris, doing tiny robotic surgeries and secretive autonomous vehicle company Zoox, which Wolfe invested in two years ago. The cars' exterior features LIDAR, lasers, optics and thermal vibrational sensors, running on special GPUs (Graphics Processing Units) made by Nvidia, which you would find in an X-Box or Playstation 4<h2> The Most Valuable Investments Will Rot Your Brain</h2>"They say that the most dangerous words in investing are this time is different. I actually think the most valuable words in anticipating what the big things in the future are going to be now are parents that say, it'll rot your brain," Wolfe said."It'll rot your brain literally predicted every major $10 billion industry from the '50s on," he said, with television and rock 'n roll, then the early internet chat rooms and the internet, with video games in the 2000s. "The biggest and most important jobs today where there's very high demand, drone pilots, robotic surgeons. They all learned at the heels of playing PlayStation and XBox. So wherever you hear parents bemoaning it will rot your brain, I think it's predictive of the next $10 billion industry of Generation X." <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-much-us-currency-dollar-bills-coins-money-cost-2016-11">A penny costs 1.43 cents to make - here's what the rest of US currency costs</a></h3> <div> <div> <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="B3OXJ4NzE6KOUoBs9SfTfgdx_VxHddro" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div> </div> </div> </div>

'Wherever you hear parents bemoaning 'it will rot your brain,' I think it's predictive of the next $10 billion industry'

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div>In the introduction to <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Homemakers-Domestic-Handbook-Digital-Generation/dp/0062332503">her new book, "Homemakers,"</a> Brit Morin says she never expected to be undertaking such a big writing project."After all, I come from the digital generation. You know, the generation that prefers Instagram to Kodak cameras and can't focus on anything for longer than two minutes. The generation of which 72% downloaded at least one app in the past week," she writes."Yes, that generation." As a former employee of both Apple and Google, Morin is thoroughly entrenched in the tech world of Silicon Valley. Her husband, Dave Morin, is a former Facebook employee and the founder of social networking app Path. Brit's personal brand, however, is best defined as a blend between the digital and analog worlds.She's the founder and CEO of <a href="http://www.brit.co/">Brit + Co.</a>, a DIY content and ecommerce site that's <a href="https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/brit">scored $7.6 million</a> in funding from Index Ventures, Cowboy Ventures, Lerer Ventures, Marissa Meyer, and Oak Investment Partners. Brit + Co. features fun articles, recipes, tutorials and even online classes that teach skills like knitting, hand-lettering, and 3D printing.Her book, which was published by HarperCollins' William Morrow Paperbacks imprint and officially hits shelves Tuesday, has more of the same content, with each chapter addressing a different room in the home. "So for example, you take the kitchen. I look at what has happened over the past decade - the way we cook, the way we entertain, and how that has evolved with technology," Morin told Business Insider. She added that home automation and the Internet of Things will have an enormous effect on people's definition of home. "I'm not sure people fully realize how advanced our homes are becoming," she said. "This is the new reality as of today, and it's only going to advance more."After Morin left her product marketing job at Google in 2011, she joined TechShop, a studio in San Francisco where you can pay a monthly fee for access to 3D printers, woodworking equipment, silk screening machines, and laser cutters. "I started taking classes and got obsessed. I loved that all you needed to know was how to design it online, then send it to print," she said. "It's exciting to see the intersection of creativity and technology play out in real life."<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div>Morin had officially joined the Maker movement, a name given to the use of new technology to create and build things. "The Maker movement is really just a new definition for a cultural shift that has been happening for decades," Morin said. "I like to use this example. At first people thought it was cheating to use cake mix instead of baking from scratch, but sales were soaring, so there was obviously demand for it. It was the same with the microwave, icebox, and the iPhone."<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_left"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div>Most projects in her book - tassel garlands, patterned tea towels, swirled cakes - aren't too time-intensive.But with others, like a gadget-charging nightstand that requires using a charging mat and router, Morin shows off some of her Maker skills.That combination of craftiness and tech has led some people dub her the "Martha Stewart of Silicon Valley." She says she's flattered by the comparison."It's definitely a huge compliment," Morin said. "She's really nice."While brainstorming a title for her book, Morin found that some considered the word "homemaker" a derogatory term. She says that's because the term has carried a different meaning for previous generations of women, some more positive than others."Our grandmothers' generation was kind of forced to stay home and be a homemaker. For our mothers' generation, women were leaving the home and working," Morin said. "Now women have the choice, and it's OK to do both, and they want to do both."Morin knows firsthand just how difficult that can be. She had her first child, a boy named Ansel, in October. "I do prescribe to outsourcing certain services. I don't go grocery shopping - I use Blue Apron and Foraged for ingredients," she said. "I love having free afternoons to paint or 3D print. It's OK to make time to create and build with my hands." <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/jerome-jarre-vine-star-snapchat-2015-2">This guy went from homeless to making $25,000 per Vine</a></h3> <div> <div> <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="xlNnBnczr6dS_g6xSERVGt9En__aupHu" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div> </div> </div> </div>

You Searched For "best laser printers" and got 11 results

Why Southern China Is The Best Place In The World For A Hardware Innovator

The Economist

Authorities suspend mobile internet in parts of Jammu, Rajouri districts

IANS

Nobel prize winner Svante Paabo's DNA discoveries offer clues as to what makes us human

PTI

How an institute at the University of Utah has helped entrepreneurs build their startups and raise more than $700 million in funding

Erica Sweeney

What happens when you link 3D printing and the internet?

Sponsor Post,Sponsor Post

Hong Kong start-up developing 3D technology to weave perfect pair of customised jeans with zero waste

SCMP

Amazon donated 1,600 Echo Dot smart speakers to ASU's new high-tech dorm for engineers

Matt Weinberger

Former Apple CEO John Sculley admits Steve Jobs never forgave him, and he never repaired their friendship, before Jobs died

Jim Edwards

'Wherever you hear parents bemoaning 'it will rot your brain,' I think it's predictive of the next $10 billion industry'

Real Vision TV

Brit Morin, the Martha Stewart of Silicon Valley, explains what it means to be a homemaker in the digital age

Madeline Stone

How a founder went from being worth millions to -$10,000 almost overnight - then rebounded to a $100 million fortune

Anna Mazarakis,Alyson Shontell