Awesome Stuff: Time To Rethink Your Keyring

from the that-old-thing? dept

Sat, May 11th 2013 9:00am — Mike Masnick

I've joked before about how Kickstarter seems to have a new type of wallet launched every other day or so, but it also seems to be trying to offer a reinvention for the other thing most people keep in their pockets: their keys. Here are three projects involving rethinking your keyring.

First up is the Keyprop, a simple kickstand for your smartphone, that is shaped like a key and fits on your keyring. My current phone is an HTC Evo, which has a built in kickstand, and it's amazing how frequently I use it. I'd been dreading the eventual new phone without a kickstand, but there are a bunch of products on the market to make it easy to add a kickstand to your phone, including the keyprop -- which is a bit unique in that it uses the fact that you regularly carry your keys with you to its advantage. The design itself is fairly clever as well, as it uses either the headphone jack or the power port as the place where the keyprop hooks on, and then lets you use your other keys to help position the angle. The one downside: if you're using the headphone jack, you wouldn't be able to use the stand and your headphones at the same time. The price feels a little on the high side for what it is -- and it kind of feels like the kind of thing that someone could make for themselves with a nice 3D printer. But still, the general idea is pretty cool. There are about three weeks left in the project, and it's only raised a little over a third of its goal, so it's probably right on the bubble of whether or not it will be able to hit its goal. In fact, Kicktraq's prediction is that it will just squeak by.
Next up we've got the Smartkey, which really does aim to reinvent the keychain by making it act more like a pocketknife. You connect your keys to the various posts on either side and can fold them in. Your keys then fit nicely together, with no more jingling or poking and whatnot. If you carry a lot of keys it seems like it could be pretty handy, though not sure it would be that helpful with bulky car keys -- and these days, that's really the only key I carry around. While it might not be what I need, clearly over 2,000 people feel otherwise. The project shot way, way, way, way past its goal of $6,000 and will probably wrack up at least a couple of hundred thousand by the time the project ends.
Okay, how about we take a step back from all of this futuristic high tech stuff, and get back to basics. What kind of keychain would you want during the zombie apocalypse? Probably something like El Jefe -- the Boss of Keychains. It seems like a no nonsense keychain that will hook to your belt buckle and has a bottle opener but that's nothing special. Lots of stuff has that. This one also has a ferrocerium rod built in, with a "fire scraper" so that you can start a fire very quickly. As they note, survivalists have pointed out that when society collapses and you need to survive, the most important skill will be able to set a fire. This keychain makes it easy. Can you say that about your keychain? Oh yeah, it also has a knife sharpener, because if you're in need of instant fire, you're probably also carrying around a knife, and you probably want it sharp. My favorite part, though, is that they compare this to a smartphone and call this a "smart keychain." I'm not sure they're really quite analogous, but they've got a fun video: Not much time left to get in on this. It's already more than 3x its initial goal of $5,000, so El Jeffe is definitely getting funded. If you want one (or its smaller brother El Nino, with no belt loop hook) apparently now's your chance. And, if you get one, and civilization collapses, let me know, because I'll be sure to hang out with you, since my own fire starting skills are minimal.

Okay, now that we've solved your keychain needs, have a good weekend.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: awesome stuff, keyring, keys

11 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

This comment has been flagged by the community. Click here to show it

Anonymous Coward, 11 May 2013 @ 10:02am

'If you carry a lot of keys it seems like it could be pretty handy, though not sure it would be that helpful with bulky car keys -- and these days, that's really the only key I carry around.'

From the kickstarter: 'It also comes with a removable loop to attach remote car keys.'

Read much?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Killercool (profile), 11 May 2013 @ 10:08am
  
  Re:
  Which using for your keys would kinda defeat the purpose of the whole gadget.
  
  Think much?
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - Anonymous Coward, 11 May 2013 @ 10:22am
    
    Re: Re:
    Yes, I see what you mean. Using the loop provided to put your bulky car key on to actually put your bulky car key on while putting the other keys into the gadget would totally defeat the purpose of the whole gadget...
    
    What was that you were asking about thinking?
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
    - Killercool (profile), 11 May 2013 @ 11:15am
      
      Re: Re: Re:
      Just because it's included doesn't mean it's sensible.
      
      "Let me get a gadget that is supposed to eliminate the need for bulky keyrings. I'll just use the included keyring for all my bulky keys."
      
      Derp.
      [ link to this | view in chronology ]
    - Anonymous Coward, 12 May 2013 @ 12:49pm
      
      Re: Re: Re:
      What other keys? You get reading comprehension fail award.
      
      "and these days, that's really the only key I carry around."
      
      Yes! Put your car key on the removable loop! Put all your zero other keys on the neat foldy thing you just paid money for! Marvel at your no-keys taking up less no-space in your pocket! Oh wait, it would be MORE space since the foldy-thing takes up space too! DOH!
      [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 11 May 2013 @ 11:24am

Well, let's take the initial hostility out of this for a while and engage in a more productive dialogue:

You misrepresent/misunderstand the purpose of the gadget. It's not a meant explicitly for 'bulky' keys. It's meant for keys. All the keys that will fit into it. In order to (among other things):

-Organize
-Eliminate jingle
-stop the keys from poking holes in your pocket
-maybe even look better than a plain ol' keyring

I got about 20 'normal' keys that could all go inside the smartkey, providing the benefits mentioned above. But I only have 1 car key. How does either attaching the car key to the loop or carrying the car key individually defeat the purpose of the whole gadget for the other 20 keys?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Coward, 11 May 2013 @ 11:25am
  
  Re:
  reply fail, was meant to be in replay to killercool and the read/think much stuff
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Coward, 11 May 2013 @ 2:41pm
  
  Re:
  no, before you sling mud at other people for not engaging critical thinking skills, you should probably engage your own.
  
  Now apologize to Mike and Killercool.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - Anonymous Coward, 11 May 2013 @ 5:51pm
    
    Re: Re:
    Silence on the peanut gallery, please. This doesn't concern you.
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
This comment has been flagged by the community. Click here to show it

horse with no name, 11 May 2013 @ 7:27pm

advertising
Why is this not marked as advertising? Are you absolutely sure that you get no benefit from this at all (not even a freebie, or helping to complete funding so you can get your product?)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 13 May 2013 @ 8:41am

My keychain has it all: nail clipper, mirror, bottle opener. Plus, it cost 1$. It fits in my purse, not my pocket, obviously this works best for women. Awesome!
*insert obligatory derogatory remark to previous commenter's inability to read/think*
[ link to this | view in chronology ]