3D printing, a futuristic technology that's not only cool but very functional. Sure, you can print great wall art or things to display on your desk, but it can also save you a bunch of money depending on what you print. Today we'll review 3D printer from New Matter called the MOD-t. What New Matter has done is created a way to simply 3D print objects directly from a web browser on your computer or your smartphone. So imagine when you're browsing the iOS App Store or the Google Play Store, download an app. 3D printing with a MOD-t is pretty similar. You search through the app store, you find a print that you want, you hit "Download", and it will download it to the MOD-t printer and they'll start printing. That easy, that simple. Getting the MOD-t set up was even easier than I thought it would be with very minimal assembly required. Set it up, download the software for Windows or Mac, get firmware updates if there are any available for your MOD-t at the time, and then connect it to your home Wi-Fi network because that's how it talks to the MOD-t service.
Just make sure you have a 2.4 gigahertz band enable on your router because the MOD-t will not connect to a 5 gigahertz network. Now, if you've known about 3D printing for a while, don't worry, this is not dumbing down the process. In fact, you don't have to use the New Matter store at all. If you have your own projects, or you've downloaded projects from other places like Thingiverse for example, you can actually use those STL and those OBJ files with the MOD-t to print whatever you have files for. But the main point is if you're new to 3D printing, the MOD-t walks you through the process step by step to get you use to and accustomed to what 3D printing can be. At $399, this is one of the most affordable 3D printers that you can buy. A few years ago, 3D printers in this class cost upwards of 14 hundred dollars for one printer. So we're down by a thousand bucks and MOD-t makes it even easier than those older ones did.
At the same time, it's a system that grows with you like I said. You can use your own STL files. You can use your own OBJ files, or when I say "your own" I mean files you've gotten from somewhere else. You may not be at the point yet where you're designing your own prints, but you can certainly get them from other places besides a New Matter store. But I appreciate the fact that New Matter doesn't try to lock you into their platform which some other 3D printing companies are trying to do, either by locking out certain file types or only allowing you to use their brand of filament that they will then overcharge you for.
Filament is the plastic that's used to 3D print things. One other cool thing about the MOD-t is that it's also social. So if you find a design or if you upload a design, you can actually share that to other friends of yours and they can then 3D print that in their home if they have a MOD-t very easily as well. Aside from the easy setup and simple method of getting the filament all set up, the MOD-t also just looks cool what with that see-through casing. And by the way, for the parents out there, something like this is really cool for kids. Remember, 3D printing isn't going away. To the contrary, it's actually gonna get bigger. And kids will learn more about machining and art and planning out their designs, and seeing trial and error, all that with the MOD-t, than you'd think at first glance.
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