While I understand the technology behind it, UV printing will always feel like magic. Buying a box that can bring all your magnificent ideas to reality? It’s magical, and it’s only getting better. xTool, a leader in innovative digital fabrication technology, has just opened the preorder window for its “print anything” O1 Omni printer.
The tagline for the Omni is “From rigid to fabric. Print it all.” xTool says the print anything capability is made possible by a “flexible, innovative dual-printhead architecture.” Makers will be able to configure the system for dual-UV printing to unlock advanced multilayered effects using specialized neon ink, or choose a hybrid UV and fabric setup to give you as many material options as possible.
The O1 Omni printer is available in three configurations. There’s the entry-level UV edition: $1,699 preorder ($2,499 retail price), the effect-optimized dual-head UV edition for specialized neon ink: $2,699 preorder ($3,299 retail price) and the ultimate cross-category hybrid UV and fabric edition for printing directly onto cotton or onto film: $2,799 preorder ($3,499 retail price).
Possibilities are pretty much endless as the Omni stands in a lane of its own. It merges UV (printing on solid surfaces), DTG (printing directly onto fabric), DTF (printing flat images to plastic transfers) and UV DTF (printing raised images onto plastic transfers) technologies.
That means, you can print intricate designs on fabric, wood, acrylic, glass, metal and more. xTool says the Omni can print on “virtually any surface imaginable,” or at least any surface that can fit inside the machine.
James Bricknell/CNET
CNET’s 3D printing expert James Bricknell got to spend some time with the Omni at CES in January and had this to say:
“I’ve used a couple of really good UV printers in the last year or so and, more importantly, I’ve used a lot of great xTool lasers. The Omni is bringing a relatively new technology to a company that has a proven track record in the maker community, and the addition of Direct to Film as well as Direct to Garment makes this a unique one-stop shop for custom creation.”
During the preorder process, you’ll be required to pay a refundable $50 deposit to secure your printer and lock in the early-bird savings. You’ll also receive a special bonus package of jigs, ink discounts and credits for xTool’s generative AI tool Atomm, valued at $459. Launch date is scheduled for July 15.
Gemini can suggest Drive file moves and new folders.
Organize My Files requires Workspace or Google AI access.
The tool is useful but still feels limited and unfinished.
I’m an Apple person. I’ve owned an iPhone since 2007 and a Mac since before that, so of course I’m also a longtime user of iCloud Photos and iCloud Drive. I pay $10 a month for the 2TB iCloud+ plan because I have 488GB of data sitting there, including nearly 40,000 photos. Don’t judge me. The real problem is that I’m also a heavy Google user, specifically Workspace apps.
After 14 years of using Google Drive, I have 340GB of data stored there from all the Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Gmail messages I’ve created, not to mention file uploads. So I pay $20 a month for Google AI Pro, which gives me 5TB of storage and access to Gemini AI. And because, apparently, I need all the subscriptions, I also pay $20 a month for ChatGPT Plus.
I need to cut subscriptions
I know… I need to cut subscription costs somewhere. I’ve wondered whether I should cancel ChatGPT or somehow, some way, reduce my Google usage enough to stop paying for extra Drive storage. Realistically, I do not think I could ever get my data down to the 15GB Google gives me for free. My Drive has become so daunting that I’ve mostly stopped trying to manage it.
The funny part is that I am hyper-organized. My pantry has coordinated glass jars with labels. My daughter’s toy room has a place for everything. My Google Drive, though? A dumping ground. What can I say? Pre-parenthood Elyse was not so organized.
Because my Drive has never been in a good place, I have let files, photos, screenshots, PDFs, tax documents, drafts, downloads, and random digital debris accumulate with no real oversight for years. I keep putting off cleaning it.
Recently, I had the idea that some AI service could connect to my Drive and help me quickly organize it with a few clicks. Then I remembered my Drive includes things like my house deed, a copy of my will, and my LLC business details, and suddenly giving a random third-party company broad access to my personal data felt like too much to bear.
So here we are. My Drive is still messy, and my subscriptions are still multiplying. Joy. I sure do love that in this economy.
Can ‘Organize My Files’ declutter my Drive?
But today I spotted a quiet little launch from Google: its “Organize My Files” feature is now available. Can Gemini actually, truly help me declutter, organize, and simplify my Drive now? Apparently, it uses Gemini AI to suggest moving loose files in Drive into existing folders or creating new folders for related files. And I get to review everything before anything moves.
If this works, maybe one day I can move my data out of Drive and cancel my Google AI Pro plan for good. Maybe. One day.
How Organize My Files works
What you’ll need: A Google account with a messy-as-hell Drive. Oh, and Google’s “Organize My Files” feature is currently limited to Google Workspace and Google AI subscribers. Workspace smart features must also be enabled for it to appear in Drive.
Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNET
Look toward the top of the file and folder list in My Drive for a new button called “Suggest File Moves.” Google said it will appear in My Drive as well as in parent folders in Drive.
Clicking Suggest File Moves opens a new Organize My Files window, where Gemini will begin analyzing loose files and suggesting ways to clean them up.
It’s time to use the checkboxes to select or deselect any file or folder that Gemini served up.
Also, if a suggested folder name is weird, just rename it. Check destinations for folders, too. If they aren’t right, change the target. Once the suggestions do look right and you’re happy, approve the changes.
Gemini will then perform the file or folder moves in one batch and return to My Drive.
After all that, Gemini suggested 19 moves for me. Nineteen. And it mostly surfaced recent files I had created or uploaded.
Some of the suggestions made sense. Gemini wanted to move my resume and a couple of resumes I had helped family members create into an existing resume folder. It also suggested creating a new Family and Real Estate folder for house deed documents, plus a Travel Planning folder for upcoming summer trip itineraries I have stored in Drive. But one of the files it grouped under Travel Planning was literally called “Delete,” because it’s a doc I want to delete. Gemini did not realize that, nor did it suggest deleting it.
To be clear, I have hundreds of gigabytes of data and years of clutter sitting in Google Drive.
Still, I approved the changes Gemini recommended. For the heck of it, I ran the tool again. In about 30 seconds, it suggested the same thing: the same file moves, the same new folders, and the same changes it had just made. This feels half-baked.
It’s not at all the sweeping cleanup assistant for Drive that I was hoping for and need. Maybe it will get better over time. It did just come out of beta, and it’s possible Google will improve how Gemini scans Drive, prioritizes older files, recognizes obvious trash, and surfaces deeper organization suggestions. I just don’t want to have to click it 500 times, hoping it finds something new each time.
Looks like I’m still stuck with a messy Drive and a $20 AI Pro subscription… for now.
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