[Credit: McGill.ca]3D printers are getting more and more capable every day, and we're seeing more that can print with alternative materials. In one recent project, a DIYer experimented with using nylon as a viable alternative to ABS, the traditional material used in 3D printers, as it extrudes at a higher temperature and has a greater degree of flexibility.

Going in the other direction, Pieter Sijpkes and Jorge Angeles at McGill University are looking into printing 3D models using ice. The machine they use dispenses water along with potassium chloride brine--a material that freezes at a lower temperature than water--which serves as support scaffolding for the ice. When the print is done, they place the model in an environment that’s a bit warmer, and the brine melts away, leaving the ice sculpture behind.

Verizon is speeding up its FiOS network--it's doubling the download speeds of two FiOS tiers, and it's adding two new super-fast tiers to the service, the company announced Wednesday.

The current 25Mbps/25Mbps (download/upload) tier will be boosted to 50Mbps/25Mbps. Likewise, the 35Mbps/35Mbps tier will speed up to 75Mbps/35Mbps. As you can see, in both cases upload speeds will remain the same.

As I’m sure you know, hassles often extend beyond the PC.

For example, if you have young kids, it’s a sure bet they’re always clamoring to use your Android smartphone.

Zagat, the "dining guide" famous for its "quote-laden reviews," has been integrated into Google+.

A new "Local" tab in Google+ shows nearby places to eat, with Zagat ratings when available. For places that aren't Zagat-rated, Google+ generates a score from regular user reviews, employing the same 30-point scale that Zagat uses.

The reference Nexus tablet shown at CES 2012Google’s long-awaited Nexus tablet has popped up on benchmarking site Rightware. According to the specs, the tablet, dubbed the Nexus 7, will use a quad-core NVidia Tegra 3 processor, and come with the Android 4.1 (“Jelly Bean”) operating system.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt promised a Google tablet would be coming within six months last December. If Google is to meet that six-month timeframe, Google likely will officially introduce its first Android tablet in June.

We here at GeekTech have been known to enjoy a bowl of instant ramen on occasion, even post-college. When I'm feeling adventurous, I'll add frozen veggies and maybe even dried seaweed or other things one might legitimately find in ramen from an authentic Japanese ramen place. It's still not the same, but at least it lets me pretend that I'm cooking. When I'm feeling lazy... what could be easier than boiling water and cracking the noodles in?

What if you didn't have to stir the pot while it was cooking? That's what the Kuru-Kuru Nabe, or "Round-and-Round Pot", invented by a Japanese dentist, promises. Scalloped like the inside of a whirlpool hot tub, the pot directs the convection currents, which would rise and fall vertically in the pot, into horizontal motion as well, not only stirring the pot but causing food to cook faster and more evenly, thereby using less energy.

[Credit: Fred27 on Instructables]If you still have your classic Fisher Price record player, then you’ll no doubt recognize those plastic discs that play songs much like a music box. There are nubs in the oversized groves of these miniature plastic records, and they pluck the tines that make up the needle of the toy record player. Instructables user Fred27 decided to make his own custom records for the classic toy using his milling machine.

Fred27 even wrote a program that lets you convert music notes into a format that the player can handle, and place them on a pre-sized record ready to mill.

LibreOffice has been nothing if not an active and vibrant project since it was forked from OpenOffice.org back in 2010; and it was just a few months ago that we saw the debut of LibreOffice 3.5, the software's third major release.

Several smaller updates have come out since then, but on Wednesday a new one was launched that looks truly notable.

Google's Chrome OS may be all about the Web, but the latest version of the search giant's operating system adds a traditional desktop look to Chromebooks including features familiar to any PC user. Instead of having one monolithic browser window with an endless number of tabs, Chrome OS has a new window manager that lets you open multiple windows at once. You can also snap a window to each side of the screen to view two separate windows at once similar to the Aero Snap feature in Windows 7.

At the bottom of the screen, the new Chrome OS features a Windows-style taskbar for pinning favorite apps, accessing a list of all your apps, and a system status area off to the right. You can also change the background image and customize the app launcher with the new Chrome OS look.

You already know how to punch up your PowerPoint slide decks, but what about punching up yourself? Do you have the skills to really inspire your audience, to make your presentation not only valuable but memorable? Most importantly, can you use it to close the deal?

There’s an ebook for that. In Presenting to Win: The Art of Telling Your Story, presentation consultant Jerry Weissman teaches you to move beyond the slide deck and really engage with your audience.

The book normally sells for $26.99, but for a limited time, Amazon is offering the Kindle edition free of charge. (How limited? I’m not sure, but these freebies rarely last more than a few days. If you’re interested in this title, grab it now.)

Don’t have a Kindle? No problem: You can read the ebook on your PC, smartphone, tablet, or just about any other device.

So, what kind of information can you hope to glean from Presenting to Win? Weissman starts off by noting that most presenters fail to tell a story, which is the key ingredient in a persuasive presentation:

“The overwhelming majority of business presentations merely serve to convey data, not to persuade,” he says, adding: “In business, when the point is not crystal clear, and when the benefit to the audience is not vividly evident, the investment is declined, the sale is not made, the approval is not granted; the presentation fails.”

That reminds me of my days in sales, when a very smart boss taught me the importance of stressing benefits over features. I think the same can apply to presentations: It’s critical to let the audience know how this information will benefit them, using real-world examples.

Presenting to Win is itself chock-full of benefits, so I’d say it’s a must-read for anyone who spends time in front of groups. Even if you miss out on the giveaway, it’s $27 very well spent.

Have you found a better resource for presentation advice? Or do you have your own tips to share? Let’s hear them in the comments.

Earlier this month, we heard reports that Facebook was gearing up to add a new paid "highlight" feature to give your status updates some increased visibility on users' news feeds. Now it appears that the feature is ready for prime time.

The last time we heard about the pay-to-promote feature, it was in its testing phase, and the price for a Highlighted status ran between free and $2. Gorilla vs. Bear, a music blog, tweeted on Wednesday that these sponsored new feed bumps can cost as much as $100.

Apple CEO Tim Cook said the company would increase secrecy of the products in its pipeline, a speech that occurred on the same day alleged designs of the iPhone 5 were leaked online. Speaking at the D10: All Things Digital conference, Cook said: “We’re going to double down on secrecy on products.” Meanwhile, online photos of what appear to be parts of the next-generation iPhone were published by 9To5Mac.

Could it be a coincidence that Cook gave his speech on the same day the photos were leaked? Absolutely. After all, it wouldn’t be the first time we have seen alleged parts of a future iPhone that turn out to be wildly off-base when the real product arrives.