Tracking
Sign in Get Instant Quote

Latest articles

Article

4 Fundamental Objectives of Prototyping Hardware

When you set out to prototype a new hardware product design, it might seem like there are an overwhelming number of features to test and develop. You want your product to be the best it can be, but the path to get there from a great idea isn’t always clear. While prototyping hardware is a difficult and […]

Article

Creators, Builders, and Producers: The New Maker Economy

In the summer of 2010, I traveled to Huntsville, Alabama, to attend a festival at a community workshop called Makers Local 256. A rag-tag group of engineers, artists, hackers, and community leaders from across the country—we all came as representatives from some of the earliest hackerspaces and makerspaces in the U.S., excited to talk about […]

Article

Hardware Weekly | Vol 93

The week’s top hardware news. February 12th, 2016 Products The Vibrator That Knows You A team of techies from companies like Google X and Amazon Lab126 are pushing the boundaries of sex research to create Lionness, a smart vibrator that uses sensors to learn your pleasure triggers. The more you use it, the more personal […]

Article

Metric vs Imperial Units: The Greatest One-Sided Debate of All Time

The Mars Climate Orbiter infamously disintegrated after its trajectory sent it too close to the planet’s atmosphere, due to a calculation error—an error that could have been avoided if everyone used the metric system. You might ask, “Well, why not have everyone use imperial units?”, to which I would respond: You might wonder why the […]

Article

ChickTech Workshop at Fictiv Teaches STEM Skills to Girls

This past Saturday afternoon, the Fictiv team hosted a group of 20 high school girls to teach them about prototyping and manufacturing. The girls were part of ChickTech, a nonprofit program for high school girls that creates engaging hands-on engineering workshops, in partnership with startups and big technology companies. Groups like ChickTech are doing incredible […]

Article

5 Rules to Help You Run Better Meetings

Ineffective meetings are a major time-suck.  People straggle in late, not exactly knowing what the purpose of the meeting is. A quick review turns into a length discussion.. which turns into a debate, which ends in no-one-really-knowing-what-the-point-of-the-meeting-was-or-what-to-do-next. Sound familiar? When run properly, meetings can provide clarity, alignment, and keep projects on schedule. Thankfully, we had […]

Article

Your Go-to-Manufacturing Checklist

After ten years of working with hardware startups, the most common question we get is, “What do I need to provide in order to get a quote from a manufacturer?” Here’s a checklist of things we recommend you complete before speaking to a manufacturer.  Completing everything on this list will help you paint a very […]

Article

Secrets From a Factory Assembly Line

I still remember the first Chinese electronics factory I visited like it was yesterday: It was an old tier-3* contract manufacturer somewhere in the sprawling Dongguan City. Its white tile facade was yellowed from acid rain, and despite the sweltering midsummer heat, only a few ceiling fans feebly circulated the muggy air on the factory […]

Article

How to Practice Creativity: Tools to Kickstart Your Imagination

Many people think creativity is innate, but in my experience, creativity is something you have to practice every day. In 2012, my team at Toyota was challenged to create a new user experience with the infotainment system in the car (also known as “the thing in the middle of the dashboard”). Customers had been interacting […]

Article

Hardware Weekly | Vol 92

The week’s top hardware news. February 5th, 2016 Products TAPP Fingerprint Padlock There are so many online tutorials on how to pick a padlock that someone had to come up with a better solution for securing stuff. It comes in the form of a $29 seamless padlock called TAPP that unlocks when touched with a […]