MakerBot Mobile 1.0 for Android Just Released — Luxuriate in Controlling 3D Printing From Afar

It’s not enough to be able to come up with a concept, digitally or 3D design it, and then 3D print it. It’s not enough to be able to replicate and prototype items nearly out of thin air. It’s not enough to have sleek, mind-boggling technology. The question that nearly always follows is, “Yeah, cool — but can I do it from my phone?” It’s the obvious contemporary question that everyone has for the most part, including the guys who make these fantastical products.

These days, we are admittedly a high-tech, savvy culture that is also high-maintenance and spoiled. We are used to everything fast, fast, fast — and from the palms of our hands. That’s got to be a lot of pressure for the companies we expect so much from, but MakerBot and parent company Stratasys are historically pretty far ahead of us and their competition in a variety of markets.

As the startup that made marketing cool and then hit the big time and the mainstream in their multi-million dollar merger with Stratasys, MakerBot has been blazing a path through the world of innovation — and they certainly aren’t about to leave Android users hanging.

While we reported on the release of MakerBot’s iOS mobile app last year, Android users had some months to wait for the good stuff, while MakerBot left everyone on the note that they were working on multitudinous new features, functions, more streamlined interfaces, new 3D printer releases, and firmware updates.

Ushering in the new year with good news though, MakerBot has just announced that Android users can look forward to mobile luxury. Estimating that 80% of smartphone users are operating most of their daily personal and work tasks from the Android platform, MakerBot has now made the MakerBot Mobile 1.0 app for Android available for download from the Google Play Store.

Now from your smartphone, you can use the MakerBot Mobile 1.0 app for Android to control your MakerBot Replicator 3D printer remotely with the convenient options now available for canceling or pausing prints, as well as changing filament. Freeing you up from being tied to standing over your 3D printer, the mobile app allows you to multi-task with your smartphone as a control center.

Thingiverse users who are fans of the Android platform should also be glad to know that MakerBot is also announcing a matching app to be ‘used in tandem’ so that 3D models can also be 3D printed in a streamlined mobile process directly from the widely used website that caters to the open source design community.

While connected to your wifi network for your MakerBot Replicator, not only can you perform basic functions, but the app also allows you to search your MakerBot Desktop Library and select any 3D print from your inventory of saved items to 3D print.

MakerBot is, of course, planning to roll out a number of other features for their mobile apps in the near future. We’ll be tapping our fingers, waiting eagerly to see what comes next…

Are you an Android user who has been waiting for this app? Do you already use the iOS app? Do you really find that these mobile apps save you time? Share your thoughts in the MakerBot Releases Mobile 1.0 forum over at 3DPB.com.