Self-manufacturing can be a real nightmare if you’re constantly printing useless toys and gadgets. Once you’ve exhausted the library of plastic gizmo, widget, and doodad, there’s always more thingamabob to horde. Why not use your 3D printer to repair things you already own? Below is a list of my favorite 3D models shared by hackers and makers at Thingiverse for fixing everyday objects you have around your home – like your guitar or dishwasher.

Repair Your Matsui MF654EWN Dishwasher

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The great thing about bamboo is its propensity for growth. The grass practically nurtures itself and is a great renewable resource for product manufacturing. However, most products made from bamboo tends to be shredded then laminated, meaning more energy and more glue. This speaker, however, is as minimal as it gets. The bamboo’s hollow core gets refined as a conduit for sound and a small incision is made to hold an iPhone where the speaker and wood channels sound waves. I especially like the warmth the wood imparts on the sound.

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D.C.’s Martin Luther King Jr. Library is proving that libraries aren’t just for books – they’re also for 3D printing and book-making. The library is using its $3.4 million grant to provide a publicly accessible 3D printer and an Espresso Book Machine for on demand book printing – great for students and self-publishers. Printing is five cents per gram plus $1 (they say most print jobs costs between $1-$5). The library also has plans to include a “Dream Lab” where users can collaborate on projects ,test drive tablets and e-readers prior to purchasing, and also publish personal novels.

Library manager Nicholas Kerelchuck is optimistic about the library’s 3D printing service as an educational tool:

They’re learning math skills, engineering skill, hard science skills…this is future job experience. I think that in 10 years if someone has experience using a 3-D printer, they are far ahead of the curve.

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Edward Snowden’s personal email provider Lavabit has shuttered its email service, active immediately. Instead of complying with government orders, the email service provider ended all email service on Thursday and is continuing the fight in appeals court. Further, the company is under federal gag orders, presumably from US secret courts, to remain silent on the details.

Here is the posted message from Lavabit’s CEO Ladar Levison detailing the decision:

My Fellow Users,

I have been forced to make a difficult decision: to become complicit in crimes against the American people or walk away from nearly ten years of hard work by shutting down Lavabit. After significant soul searching, I have decided to suspend operations. I wish that I could legally share with you the events that led to my decision. I cannot. I feel you deserve to know what’s going on—the first amendment is supposed to guarantee me the freedom to speak out in situations like this. Unfortunately, Congress has passed laws that say otherwise. As things currently stand, I cannot share my experiences over the last six weeks, even though I have twice made the appropriate requests. Read more

ADD cooks like myself are constantly wandering away from the stove to multitask – often leaving our precious pots to determine proper cooking time and temperature to disastrous results. I can’t even count the times where I’ve burned or overcooked things, which is why I was excited to see this Range smartphone thermometer that can send me alerts. The graph feature is an added bonus so I can study my recipe’s cooking temperature over time – for even more precision!

Galaxy S 4 Active phones are advertised as water-resistent, which means it’s often portrayed as submerged in pools of water. In real life, however, this is not as safe as one might expect. That’s why AT&T has offered to replaced the water damages, but only once.

Samsung designed and tested the Galaxy S 4 Active to adhere to IP67 standards for water resistance (1 meter for 30 minutes). If your Galaxy S 4 Active has been damaged due to water exposure, bring it back to an AT&T retail store as soon as possible for a one-time exchange for another Galaxy S 4 Active.

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Vavuud is a simple, plastic wind meter for your smartphone that takes advantage of magnetic power in order to give you an accurate wind reading. It plugs into your phone’s jack and relays the information to you via a simple app. Here’s how it works:

As its arms spin in the breeze, the magnetometer in your phone detects the field created by the two magnets embedded in the Vaavud’s rotor. The app then converts the rotations of these magnets into wind speed using modified sound processing algorithms.

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Delivering RSS feeds got a lot more interesting and profitable now that Google has left the building. As of July 1, 2013 when Google reader shuttered its RSS service, Feedly has seen a drastic increase in users and now the company managed to raise nearly $500,000 in subscriptions in a span of eight short hours.

Feedly introduced its premium lifetime RSS service was priced at $99.99 sold out within the first day – a total of 5,000 happy backers. The money will go toward better hardware to run Feedly. In a blog post on Feedly’ site, Feedly CEO, Edwin Khodabakchian, highlights the company’s goals: Read more

Google Chrome’s latest Canary Build has some great swipe features that looks really promising. Swiping left to right will move you back and forth in your browser history. There’s also a feature to “enable pinch scale” that lets you pinch to zoom.

The touch features are needed if Google’s Chrombook is to compete with Internet Explorer on Windows 8, which already has those features. We’ll let you know when the new update rolls out for everyone.

Currently, the new browser is made for developers only and “can sometimes break down completely.” If you want to test drive  the new features, you can download the browser here. It gets updated every night.

Via the Verge

It’s literally raining cats and dogs over at Weather Kitty and Weather Puppy, and Grumpy Cat Approves. She gives the app a paw of endorsement.

This Weather Kitty app upgrades your weather notifications to the point of cute overload. The basic kitty app is free, but if you want Grumpy weather, you can upgrade with an in-app purchase. I know there’s a million weather apps floating around out there but for the furry friend fanatics, it doesn’t get better than this. If you get tired of the kittens and puppies, you can upload your own with the app upgrade. My only remaining wish? Kitty gifs. Read more