HBO Blocks 3-D Printed Game of Thrones iPhone Dock The tiny, detailed, 3-D printed Iron Throne iPhone dock is no more, thanks to a cease-and-desist letter from HBO, which owns the rights to the Game of Thrones series. Fernando Sosa, who modeled the throne in Autodesk Maya based on still images from the series, began selling it beside other 3-D printed sculptures on his site, nuPROTO.com. But while it was still in pre-order, HBO found out. “I guess it kind of snowballed in publicity,” says Sosa. “I didn’t think it would get this big. And all of a sudden, we got a letter from HBO.” That letter told him to knock it off, asserting rights not just to the series or the throne, but to replicas inspired by it. “While we appreciate the enthusiasm for the Series that appears to have inspired your creation of this device, we are also concerned that your iron throne dock will infringe on HBO’s copyright in the Iron Throne,” says the letter. (via HBO Blocks 3-D Printed Game of Thrones iPhone Dock | Wired Design | Wired.com)

Imagine if you could take living cells, load them into a printer, and squirt out a 3D tissue that could develop into a kidney or a heart. Scientists are one step closer to that reality, now that they have developed the first printer for embryonic human stem cells. In a new study, researchers from the University of Edinburgh have created a cell printer that spits out living embryonic stem cells.

The printer was capable of printing uniform-size droplets of cells gently enough to keep the cells alive and maintain their ability to develop into different cell types. The new printing method could be used to make 3D human tissues for testing new drugs, grow organs, or ultimately print cells directly inside the body.

Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) are obtained from human embryos and can develop into any cell type in an adult person, from brain tissue to muscle to bone. This attribute makes them ideal for use in regenerative medicine — repairing, replacing and regenerating damaged cells, tissues or organs. [Stem Cells: 5 Fascinating Findings] (via 3-D Printed Human Embryonic Stem Cells Created for First Time: Scientific American)

3D Systems, the industrial 3-D printing giant, is expanding its desktop line of printers with the oversized, multicolor-printing CubeX printers. The printers, announced today at CES, promise an oversized print platform that can output objects up to 10.8″ x 10.45″ x 9.5″, more than twice the build volume of printers from other manufacturers such as the Makerbot Replicator 2. The line offers from one to three print heads to allow for colorful printouts, although information about the ability to blend the filaments into additional colors was not released. CubeX appears to be based on 3D Systems’ 3DTouch series of printers, but with various upgrades. In addition to a modified chassis and larger print area, previously only available on the single- and double-head 3DTouch printer, the new machines also use the proprietary smart cartridges 3D Systems uses with entry-level Cube printers, rather than the more common standard spools of filament. These spools trade accessibility for a moisture-inhibiting system that is said to increase shelf life. (via 3D Systems’ Outsized Machine Does Multicolor Prints as Big as Your Head | Wired Design | Wired.com)

2012 has been a big year for 3-D printing, but the industry has quietly been growing for decades. And the innovations are impressive — for every new plywood-clad 3-D printer kit that makes the rounds on the internet, engineers are developing ways to print titanium parts for jet engines that will change the aerospace industry. This week at Euromold, a manufacturing trade show, the companies behind these devices are demonstrating new products and highlighting the novel technologies that will change the way we build things. The 3-D printing industry is on track to be a $3.1 billion business by 2016 and the innovations on display this week show its foundation is growing — both in revenue and in physical print size. Above: Objet 1000 The big news out of Euromold is really big — a 3-D printer so large that it requires a palette jack to unload. The newest 3-D printer from Objet combines their world-class accuracy (16 micron/0.0006 inch layer thickness) and the ability to create models with 14 materials in one print job with extraordinary size. The new Objet 1000 is named for its 1000 x 800 x 500 mm (39.3 x 31.4 x 19.6 inches) print area which is over three times the size of competitive printers. To put this in perspective, the Objet 1000 holds over 238 pounds of resin to print with, more than some 3-D printers weigh. (via Next Year’s 3-D Printers Promise Big Things — Really Big Things | Wired Design | Wired.com)