Awesome Stuff: Taming Unruly Cables

from the wires-wires-everywhere dept

While wireless technologies are amazing, it still seems we're stuck with plenty of cables around all the time, from charging cables to headphones and more. Most people don't do much to organize them, or they go with the simplest route. Personally, I've been using twist ties to keep cables organized on my desk and it seems to do the job. I know there are a bunch of cable organizer products on the market already, but apparently a bunch of new ones have recently launched crowdfunding campaigns, so let's take a look, for this week's awesome stuff post.

• First up, we've got the QooQi, which is a simple device for your desk to organize cables. You have to watch the video to understand how it works, but it's a very simple and intuitive way of organizing your cables and keeping them in order. It has a nano pad on the bottom to help it stick to flat surfaces easily. The project is already just slightly over its $10,000 goal, and has more than three weeks to go, so chances are it will get at least double the goal.
• Next up, we've got the Kordl, which is a very, very simple plastic device that connects to your headphones to keep them from getting tangled. It doesn't tie them up entirely, but rather just connects the two ends to each other, which prevents tangling. As they explain, they're using the "rubber band vs. spaghetti theory" in that single strands, such as spaghetti, get easily tangled and tied up, where as loops, like rubber bands, tend not to get as tangled (they haven't seen my rubber band drawer... ). This one is also well past its target of $7,500, with about two more weeks to go. Personally, $5 for such a simple bit of plastic seemed a bit on the steep side, but I'm sure people sick of tangled ear bud cables might find it worth it to avoid the annoying process of untangling.
• If the Kordl isn't really what you're looking for, there's an alternative, called Loop for organizing a variety of cables, including ear buds, but also power cables, USB cables and more. It's also a fairly simple concept, but executed nicely. Basically a simple attachment to the cable that makes it easy to wrap up our cables when you're done. My Thinkpad power cable comes with a similar velcro strip, and I always wondered why so few cables came with something similar, so the Loop looks like an easy way to retrofit other cables to do the same sort of thing. This one has only raised about $1,000 out of $5,000 targeted, but there's still a month to go. Again, the pricing here seems slightly high -- $10 for two -- when it feels more like $10 should get you a pack of four or five of these things, but again perhaps I underestimate the demand and the production costs. One other oddity, it appears there's a nearly identical campaign to the Kickstarter campaign, except it's over at IndieGoGo, and it's raised no money at all, with just a week to go. It's not unheard of to see projects appear on both major crowdfunding platforms but it does seem like a relatively rare occurrence. Even more bizarre: the pricing is more expensive on IndieGoGo. No wonder it has no buyers while Kickstarter at least has a few.

That's all for this week. Stay organized.

Filed Under: awesome stuff, cables, earbuds, organization

Awesome Stuff: Bring The Cloud Back Home

from the personal-cloud-solutions dept

For a variety of reasons, I've been spending a fair bit of time contemplating and investigating "personal cloud" solutions. There are clear benefits to cloud computing, but there are downsides as well. As I'd mentioned a few months ago, what many people think of today as "cloud computing" doesn't really fulfill the promise of cloud computing at all. Rather, it's just been buying space in someone else's silo. That has a variety of problems. A few months ago, my main concern was about the fact that service providers can (and sometimes do) shut these services down, and then you're screwed. More recently, of course, as so many revelations have come out about government surveillance that seems to thrive on the fact that it can just go to third parties and get access to your data without a warrant, a separate major concern with today's popular cloud solutions has become very, very apparent. A private cloud may still have some drawbacks -- limited services, you have to be your own IT support, etc. -- but this area seems very, very ripe for innovation. A few weeks ago, we had an awesome stuff post about some new services designed to keep your activities private, but as I was preparing for this week's post, I stumbled upon a trio of interesting projects that focus more specifically on personal cloud offerings. None of them were specifically designed with "privacy" as the key driving point, but all recognize that it's a key selling point as well.

• First up, we've got Mailpile, which a number of you have been sending in. This is a project out of Iceland, trying to create a webmail client that matches the kind of ease of use and features of a Gmail or Outlook.com, but which is 100% open source and self-hosted. When I was first thinking about private cloud concepts, I wondered if there was a sort of "Gmail for a private cloud" and it appears these guys are looking to do exactly that, including building in user-friendly PGP. These days, it's still a bit complex (though, not that hard) to set up PGP in something like Gmail, but making it even easier, and doing it on a mail system that will run on your own storage... well, that just seems like a good idea. Hopefully, various useful plugins for other cloud based email services can be configured to work with Mailpile as well (these days, I don't think I could live without Sanebox or Boomerang), but it's good to see that real efforts are being made in this direction. Overall though, Mailpile looks really quite awesome and I look forward to seeing what else the team can accomplish. This one really is in the spirit of donating to something great, since the code will be free and open source, but if you believe that something like this is important, please consider stepping up. The team has already raised a bit more than half of its $100,000 goal -- which will allow the team of three to focus on the product for a year -- and there's still a month to go. It appears they'll work on it no matter what, though if they reach their goal, they'll really be able to concentrate on the product full time.
• But what about setting up your private cloud? The more "traditional" way was to set up a big network attached storage system, which can be quite powerful, with tremendous storage, RAID capabilities and the like -- but they can also be incredibly complex and super expensive if you really make them nice. But some are looking to get away from that, and a super popular one is Lima device looks like one way to do that. This product was known as "Plug" until just a few days ago, but following a legal threat from someone else who apparently holds a trademark on Plug, they've changed the name midstream (ouch) to Lima. Of course, it was so popular already that they had already sold out and have just added a second run of devices. Basically, this is a tiny device that you can plug into your router via ethernet on one side, and then out the other side is a USB plug. In the middle is a tiny Linux server that will take any and all USB drives you attach to the other side and make them cloud drives that you can access from any computer or phone. Basically, turn any old USB hard drive into a network attached storage setup. You can buy two Lima's and set them to do backups to each other as well. Need more storage? Add another USB drive. But it's a bit more advanced than that, because the Lima software also appears to synchronize everything and make it all seamless, so that you're not just seeing "another drive" for things, but rather everything is immediately and easily available on all your devices. No finding a specific drive or copying stuff over. This one was massively popular from the very start. They surpassed their $69,000 goal within 12 hours and then completely sold out of their entire stock of the first run within five days. They've since opened up the ability to purchase the second run of the devices, though they won't get delivered until April. The devices run at $79 per device, which they suggest is a big discount on the eventual $150 retail price (though, I wonder if competition will drive that price down significantly). Either way, they're rapidly approaching $1 million, and this is definitely classifiable as a massive Kickstarter success.
• Didn't get in on the Lima early enough to get the early bird? Think even $79 is a bit pricey for this sort of thing? You might want to check out this other brand new project over at IndieGoGo for the mySkiva Cloud WiFi router. At a glance, it certainly looks like it offers most of the same functionality to the Lima, but with a WiFi router built in as well. Oh, and for early birds (of which there are still a bunch available) it's only $20, which is kind of insane. They have iOS software ready to go and say that there will be Android software by the end of the year as well. From the description, it doesn't look as if the software is quite as sophisticated as the Lima (the syncing stuff with the Lima looks a lot more advanced), so with the mySkiva you'll just have a separate networked drive, rather than making it all as seamless. As mentioned, it looks like this product has really just launched, so there are almost no backers yet, but considering how quickly the Lima (Plug) devices went, it will be interesting to see if this gets similar traction.

And there you go. If people have other suggestions for interesting personal cloud solutions, let us know.

Filed Under: awesome stuff, cloud computing, email, network attached storage, personal cloud, privacy

Awesome Stuff: Earbuds Are So Last Decade

from the moving-on... dept

If you're of a certain age, you'll remember what the headphones for the original walkmen looked like. Of course, nowadays they look pretty dated. How long will it be until today's earbuds face the same fate? Today's awesome stuff post looks at three crowdfunding projects that look at rather different ways to get sound into your head.

• Okay, this first one isn't just about the sound, but it's the sound part that stands out. Ever since the Pebble smartwatch became the most successful Kickstarter project ever, a number of other smartwatches have popped up on Kickstarter, IndieGoGo and some other crowdfunding platforms as well. I got one of the original Pebbles, and it's really made me rethink the watch as a computing device/accessory to a smartphone. I'd stopped wearing watches years ago, but the Pebble has actually made my phone much more useful, and I already realize that we're only seeing the very, very early stages of what can be done with smartwatches. In fact, many of the crowdfunded watches that have followed have raised the bar with cool new features. The latest, the HOT Watch, takes things to a new level: with a bizarre speaker/projection system built into the watchband that lets you cup your hand over your ear and use your hand as if it were a phone. This picture shows how it works: The little thing sticking out of the watchband projects the sound up, and (they claim) it's just like holding a regular phone conversation -- private to you so others can't hear it. The video also demonstrates how it works, though I'd imagine some people might question the quality. The smartwatch itself has some other cool features, including multitouch screen, gesture commands and a variety of other stuff. Basically, if it's been in another smartwatch, it's in this one too. Of course, if you thought that people looked goofy talking on those tiny bluetooth headsets, I'd imagine that you might think holding your empty hand up to your ear might look fairly goofy as well. Also, I'd imagine that this won't suffice as a "handsfree" option while driving, though it might confuse the hell out of police if they pull you over. Either way, this project shot past its initial goal very quickly and still has about a month left.
• Next up, we've got the Sound Band, which is designed to be a direct replacement for today's earbuds, but without putting anything in or over your ears. Instead, it uses surface sound technology, touching your head right behind your ears, to make it work. The contraption hangs over the top of your ears, but wraps around the back of your head with the actual surface sound touch part hiding behind your ears. Basically, if you see someone wearing it from head on, you probably won't even notice that they're wearing a form of headphones. The benefits of this are that you can still hear other stuff out of your ears -- which can be a real problem with earbuds that shut off all the sound around you. Of course, there are some situations where people like using earbuds or headphones to block out all other sounds, but you could see areas where this would be cool. Though, again like the project above, there are elements about using this where people might look at you like a crazy person because it will look like you're talking to yourself with nothing in your ear. Also, from behind your head, it definitely has a fairly dorky look to it, with a giant rectangle dangling on your neck. Still, I'm guessing many people might just think you've got hearing problems and have a hearing aid. The project hasn't quite reached its goal of $175,000, but it's not that far away, and still has well over a month left, so will almost definitely surpass the goal.
• And, finally, we've got the Syphon Soundwrap. It is what it says, basically. It's a "wrap" that acts as a sort of headphone, without having to use earbuds. The target market is people involved in action sports -- so you would put this wrap inside a helmet or a hat while you ride a motorcycle, a bike or go snowboarding or something -- and be able to listen to your music, without having to have earbuds sticking in the whole time (which can start to hurt if you wear them too long). These guys had a much more modest goal of $20,000, and are already just a bit over it with about a week and a half left to go. The market may be a lot smaller and more targeted than the general use market, but it seems that within that market, there's pretty good interest.

And that's it this week. Go spend some quality time with your earbuds, because they might soon be a thing of the past.

Filed Under: awesome stuff, earbuds, smartwatch, sound, surface sound

Awesome Stuff: Battery Power

from the keep-it-charged dept

As someone who often is working "on the go," I've built up my "office in a bag" over time, and one key element has always been making sure I've got power. That means I've always got a portable power strip on me (you make friends at airports quickly) for when there's a scarce power socket around. However, there are plenty of times when there are no outlets available, and over the past few years external batteries have become a big deal. I usually carry two: a bigger one that will power my laptop and a small one for my phone (though the big one can power the phone too). I've tested out a variety of different battery packs over the past few years, always looking for the mythical one that will make me never want for power (expensive lesson learned: no-name brands with impressive stats that ship from China tend to make really crappy batteries). Lately I've been using batteries from Anker, which have been pretty good (and much cheaper than less impressive competitors), though I've been drooling over the Bixnet BP160 with its absolutely insane 153 Watt-hour capacity (more than double nearly all other portable battery packs), though the price, weight and size are all a bit difficult to stomach. Given all that, I do spend a fair amount of time checking out various battery power crowdfunding projects. Here are a few current ones that struck me as interesting for this week's awesome stuff post.

• First up is the Legion battery pack. It's more or less like a variety of other battery packs for mobile devices (phones, tablets, but not laptops), but they've tried to take it up a notch with a more detailed LED display and much more actual intelligence, telling you how long you have left, how long it will take to charge and a variety of other nice-to-have features. They have two models -- a 5500 mAh one and an 11000 mAh one. That's right in line with a variety of other battery packs on the market. The pricing on the two different sizes seems somewhat higher than some competitors (such as the Anker ones I've been using), so this is marketed towards people who really value the "smarter" nature of this battery pack and the info it conveys (or people who aren't as aware of cheaper, less smart, battery packs). Still, looks like it could be cool. As I write this, they're right around hitting their target, so this will definitely be funded.
• Next up, we've got Synergy, which describes itself as "the world's best wireless smartphone charger." I will grant them that it's pretty sleek and creative -- really taking a different approach on a wireless charger -- and actually making it something cool. It's a wireless charger with a magnet connector, built into a sleekly designed colorful stand that serves as both a bedside/desktop stand and a windshield mounted stand (you can easily move it from one to the other). And it can even perform a bunch of tasks the second you connect it. So, for example, pop your phone on to the charger in the car and it will automatically open your navigation program, or connect it bedside, and it'll open your alarm clock. There are a lot of nice design touches, and watching the video helps explain it: The creators of this are very ambitious with the target funding, though, seeking $150,000. They're at about $20,000 with a little less than 4 weeks to go, which means they still have a big hill to climb. One stumbling block may be the price. Even at the early bird price of $75 it makes me wonder if it's really worth it for a charger, even one as cool as this. Wireless charging is cool, but plugging your device in isn't that annoying...
• Then there's the JuiceBee, which is a combo small portable battery backup and wall charger in a single unit. I find their marketing to be a little questionable, since they claim they're the first such product... but their Kickstarter campaign came about a week after a very similar project, the Fluxmob Bolt, closed. Still, the JuiceBee looks well-designed and for people looking for an all-in-one solution for both the wall charger and a small portable battery backup for a phone, it could be nice. These guys are looking for $50,000 and are about a third of the way there with over a month to go. Seems likely that they'll squeak by the target. Once again, the pricing strikes me as a bit high if it's just the battery pack you're looking at, but for people who value the combo nature, it could be worth it.
• Finally, we've got WaveJuice, which sort of combines two of the above ideas: it's a small portable battery pack for a phone, but using wireless charging. The idea is that rather than fiddle with a wire to connect the battery to the phone, you can just plop the phone next to the battery (on a table? in your pocket?). It definitely makes it a lot more convenient, and a lack of wires is definitely nice if you're trying to keep your stuff organized. Though, I have to admit that their video "hypothetical" of a "first date romantic dinner" is laughably ridiculous (assuming, first, that you'd put your phone on the table during such a date and that you'd wrap the cable around your wine glass...). These guys have a more modest (than most of these other projects) goal of just $10,000, and have about $2,000 committed with a month left to go. Again, the pricing on this one strikes me as a little high, but I seem to be saying that about all of the products mentioned today, so perhaps I'm not the actual target market.

That's it for this week. Hope that whatever you do this weekend, you've got enough power.

Filed Under: awesome stuff, battery packs, battery power, wireless charging

Awesome Stuff: Health & Fitness

from the stay-safe dept

For this week's awesome stuff post, we're looking at three crowdfunding projects that could help people stay healthy.

• First up, the super impressive Scanadu Scout, what they refer to as a "medical tricorder." Honestly, this is the kind of thing that it feels like should have been on the market ages ago. A simple consumer device that you can use to quickly scan and record a variety of medical "vital signs," access them on your phone and even send to your doctor. The device looks pretty cool, and I'm not the only one to think so. They put it up with a $100,000 goal, and it's well over $1.6 million dollars. If you want in on the crowdfunding part, though, order now, because their campaign closes tonight.
• There are lots of fitness trackers out there these days. And while the Fitbit probably leads the pack in awesomeness, some folks are trying to take things to the next level with the Sensoria Smart Sock Fitness Tracker. It's a special sock plus anklet gadget that you attach to the socks. It measures all the same things that regular trackers do (though, potentially with more accuracy), but goes even further -- such as telling you if your running cadence is off, or if you're landing too much on your heels. Basically, it's trying to take the fitness tracker up a level. This one is pretty near its goal of $87,000 already, and still has nearly four weeks left, so it'll almost certainly pass its goal. Personally, knowing the rate I go through socks, I wonder if it will get prohibitively expensive if you have to keep buying more of the "smart socks," which appear to run a staggering $20 per pair. Also, the prototype anklet looks huge, though they promise the production device will be smaller. Still, in an age when people are looking to measure everything they do, here's another tool that measures even more.
• The last one isn't quite a health/fitness thing, but I could see how it might be used to increase health. It's an omnidirectional treadmill device (plus the special shoes needed to use it) called the WizDish -- which allows you to basically "run" or "walk" while playing video games. In this age of Wii and Kinect where we've finally moved video gaming beyond the "sit on the couch and play" stage, this tries to take it up another level by letting you feel more like you're actually walking or running around rather than being tethered to one spot. You kind of have to watch the video to understand the point: Of course, as you'll see, this has the feeling of a product where the creator spent an awful lot of time on the engineering aspect, but not nearly enough on the marketing/design aspect. The device looks kinda cheap and flimsy, and the production value of the campaign feels like it could have been done much better. On top of that, the whole thing feels a bit pricey -- and when you realize that you also need to add a VR headset (which most people probably don't have), it might not feel worth it. Perhaps that's why it's only got a little more than 12% raised of its £50,000 goal with just a week to go. Chances are this isn't getting funded. It's too bad, because the concept could be cool, but the folks who created it may want to team up with someone with some more experience in marketing these kinds of accessories.

That's it this week. Stay healthy.

Filed Under: awesome stuff, fitness, fitness trackers, health, innovation, medical tricorder, omnidirectional treadmill, sensors, smart socks, treadmills

Awesome Stuff: Keeping Your Online Activities Private Suddenly More Interesting

from the well,-look-at-that dept

Given all the recent leaks about surveillance lately, we figured this week's awesome stuff would look at some crowdfunding projects that are a bit more focused on keeping your online activities secret. Startups that actively protect their users privacy from snooping eyes of the government are getting a lot of renewed attention. Search engine DuckDuckGo has seen a massive bump in traffic. Kim Dotcom's Mega is now working on encrypted email and messaging to go along with its encrypted storage offerings. On the crowdfunding front, we're seeing a bunch of other privacy-related projects popping up -- some with a bit more reasonable plans than others.

• Deservedly getting a ton of attention this week was the announcement about Heml.is, a new secure messaging app for mobile devices, put together by the same crew of folks who created Flattr, including Peter "brokep" Sunde (also of The Pirate Bay fame), Linus Olsson and Leif Hogberg. These are three very, very smart guys. They raised over $150,000 very quickly and then shut down the funding. The project looks pretty cool, though I wish they'd focus on more platforms than just mobile. Also, I'm a tad disappointed that they trotted out that old, silly line "if you're not paying, you're the product," because it's really misleading, and they should know that. Still, if there are people you can trust to truly focus on thinking about user privacy first, these are the guys. I'm excited to see what they eventually build.
• HiddenToolbox looks like they're trying to create a userfriendlish version of TrueCrypt or something similar, such that you can store your documents/files/data secretly, with some additional cool features built in, such as remote self-destruct, a panic shutdown, file shredder and more. Some of it sounds cool feature-wise, but it would be interesting to see if any security experts have really had a chance to stress test their system to find out how secure it really is. There seems to be precious little info on that front. They're not asking for very much money total -- just $8,000 -- which is so low that it almost sounds suspicious in its own right. Still, they've almost reached that amount. Given free products on the market that do much of what they're promising already, I'm not quite sure it's worth what they're charging, but it is interesting to see more attempts to build secure storage options.
• There are a bunch of anonymous surfing tools out there, but iAnonym is looking to make completely anonymous internet surfing easier. The project looks pretty comprehensive, and (unlike the HiddenToolbox above) they lay out a lot of the details of what they're trying to do and why it should actually allow for anonymous activities online. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like they've received very much attention for the project, which is seeking £25,000, but only has around £1,000 with about two weeks to go.
• Can't trust pure software? How about hardware. Adonify is offering a plug and play network device for people to surf the web privately. Unfortunately the video explanation is horrible. I mean this might be the worst crowdfunding video I've ever seen. The video quality, the sound quality, the explanation of the product, the dude standing around smoking while the other guy explains what's going on... it's all pretty weak. When will people finally learn that a quality video is a pretty key part of a crowdfunding campaign. For what it's worth, their IndieGoGo page isn't particularly informative either. Given the weaknesses of the video and the description, combined with asking for 100,000€, it's not too surprising that they've raised almost nothing so far, though there's still well over a month to go.
• If the Adonify had some problems attracting attention, that appears to go double for Cryptomania, a Swiss company that is trying to crowdfund money for a secure storage and communications platform. They don't have any video for their product, and they barely explain their product at all. And the crowdfunding awards are for equity in their company, which almost certainly violates public offerings laws in the US and other countries (while other countries do allow equity crowdfunding, and the US is getting there, the rules tend to be rather specific and rather strict -- and it doesn't appear these guys followed any of that). They're also trying to raise a much larger amount: 250,000€. So far... they've made 0€ with less than 3 weeks to go. It seems doubtful they'll get much more.

Unfortunately, the last two projects especially demonstrate one of the key problems with most tools to protect privacy that are on the market today. They're designed by engineers and cryptogeeks who very often are not very good at explaining what they do, making it user friendly, or convincing non-geeks why what they're doing is valuable. The quick success of Heml.is' funding, combined with the growth of DuckDuckGo are good signs, though. When you can make privacy user-friendly and understandable, people are definitely interested. I'm hoping that the new attention on privacy due to the recent leaks about surveillance will drive more companies to look at ways to do user-friendly, powerful privacy tools. It's good to see some are already on that path, though they may need some work to improve.

Filed Under: anonymity, awesome stuff, encryption, privacy, surveillance

Awesome Stuff: Maybe Awesome, But More Info Needed

from the maybe-awesome dept

Given July 4th yesterday, we're taking an extended holiday today as well. We normally post our weekly awesome stuff post about cool crowdfunding campaigns on Saturday, but with the extra off-day, we figured we'd post this one on Friday. Enjoy.

Last week's awesome stuff post was about ambitious projects, which generally meant really "big" projects that others were trying to build. This week's set of projects were all ones I'd considered for last week, but they're "ambitious" in a different way. While the projects we discussed last week were big centralized things with no "products" going to the supporters, the three projects this week are all for products. But the reason I classified them as "more info needed" and possibly ambitious is that they all seem a bit "out there" and my gut reaction on all of them was, "well, that could be cool, but it would help if there were a lot more info..."

• First up, we've got The Cardboard Bike. It is exactly what it says. The design is really quite impressive looking, though there's little to no information beyond that: how well does it ride? How durable is it? In fact, the project's main video is much more about how the two guys who teamed up to do this have a vision of building all sorts of things out of cardboard and "changing the world" with cardboard. It's a lovely vision, but... it seems like they skip over the first part, about convincing people that the product they're offering, the cardboard bicycle, is actually worth buying. They just keep talking about how cardboard is a "game changer" for building anything. That might be true, but if I'm buying a cardboard bicycle, convince me that the cardboard bicycle makes sense first. They admit that the whole reason they build one in the first place was because everyone said it was impossible, but then they don't explain how they get past the limitations of cardboard. They just leave you wondering. So... more information needed. They're also asking for an insane amount: $2 million. Not surprisingly, they're nowhere near that, and are closer to $30,000, though it's an IndieGoGo Flex Funding campaign, so they'll get the money even if (when) they fail to hit the target. Also, if you buy the cardboard bicycle, they say they won't ship until March of 2015. That's a long time to wait... and it suggests that the reason there's so little info is they still have a lot to figure out in terms of how to actually build this bicycle. Still... it looks cool, and it is a potentially awesome project.
• Next up, is the Wie-Phone, which they claim is the "perfect" phone. It supposedly does amazing things like providing "free communication worldwide." Their pitch says: "Free as anywhere, anytime. Free as no charges, fees, subscriptions or pre-paid cards, no roaming fees, no data plans." But they don't explain how. That seems like a massive giant question mark. They just say: "We are sorry that we cannot disclose details how everything functions, but we have to protect ourselves." That always sets of warning bells. Often (though, not always) when companies are totally secretive about key aspects of what they're selling, and claim to have done something amazing, it means that they're missing something big -- something that people would tell them if they'd just share.
  
  The phone's "design" looks potentially interesting, with things like four cameras (two front, two back) that allow you to do 3D photos and video, identical buttons on the top and bottom (so it's never "upside down") and a few other things look potentially neat as well -- but it's all renderings. No actual product. Another set of alarm bells go off. The creators claim to have built amazing phones in the past, but they can't show an actual prototype here -- just a rendered design. That's great, but it gives no suggestion at all about their ability to actually make the phone. A rendering is great, but getting from rendering to actually built involves an awful lot of challenges, and many of those challenges could necessitate big changes in the design and functionality, and they give no indication that they're aware of this. Also, it's pretty difficult to decide to buy a smartphone when you can't even see what the final design looks like. This project set a target of $225,000, but it appears that the lack of details, specifics or an actual device has kept people from being interested. At the time I write this there were less than 20 buyers and just over $2,000 raised. It is an IndieGoGo Flex Funding campaign, so they'll get the cash either way, but if they only end up with a few thousand dollars, will they ever actually be able to produce anything? More info needed...
• This last one may be the least speculative of the three projects. It's GlassUp, an augmented reality set of glasses. If that sounds like the infamous Google Glass, you're right -- though their design and focus is somewhat different. Also, kudos to the creators of GlassUp for addressing the Google Glass issue head on, pointing out that they were well into designing the product when Google announced Glass, but decided to plow ahead anyway. They highlight the differences, including that GlassUp is more a notification-only type device -- so seeing info, text messages, email, etc., and it doesn't have a camera for recording (so you don't have the "privacy" fears of Glass). Still, it does seem like there's a lot of information needed. It's not quite clear how these glasses work -- and the images mostly seem to place the glasses strategically at an angle where it's difficult to see the main data mechanism and what that part looks like, which could have a big impact on how natural these glasses actually look. They claim that they're still working on the final design, and promise that it will be small and look great, but... it would be nice to actually see what you're getting. This one is looking for $150,000 but just has a little over $6,000 as I write this. As with all of the projects in this post, it's an IndieGoGo Flex Funding project, so they get the money no matter what. Again, it's unclear what happens if they end up with so little money. Do they still go to production? Still, if you're looking for an augmented reality pair of glasses, and are willing to take on the risk, but don't want to shell out the $1500 that is the current asking price for a developer's version of Google Glass, perhaps you might want to check these guys out and see if you think it's worth the risk.

Ambitious projects can be great, but they also can fail spectacularly. All of these projects could be awesome, but they also might never actually deliver a product. To some extent, that's always the risk with any crowdfunding project (some big ones have failed, and many others have been delivered much later than expected). However, when projects have this many questions at the beginning, supporters need to have a high tolerance for risk and the potential lack of payoff.

Filed Under: augmented reality, awesome stuff, bicycles, cardboard, cardboard bike, glasses, innovation, phones

Awesome Stuff: Ambitious Projects

from the not-your-next-nicknack dept

For our latest awesome stuff post, I thought perhaps we'd look at a few more "ambitious" projects. Many crowdfunding projects are really effectively "presales" of something that people might want: a gadget, an album, a book, a movie, an accessory, etc. However, there are some projects that are more ambitious in some sense. They're much more along the lines of getting people to support and donate to a vision. As such, they may be long shots, and those who support them might not get very much back in exchange, but it's neat to see people chase various dreams.

• First up, we have + POOL, Tile by Tile, a crazy ambitious project to build a giant floating "pool" in the river off of Manhattan, which actually acts as a giant strainer for the river. In other words, you are in a pool, and the water is actually river water, but it's been cleaned and filtered. You have to see the photos to realize just how ambitious this project is. Here's one, but the project has many more. Or, you can watch the video, which is fairly impressive in its own right: This is not actually the first time these guys have used Kickstarter. They did another project a couple years ago to fund the filtration tests, but the latest project is to help fund the actual pool. And they have a relatively neat way of doing it, letting anyone "buy a tile" that will go in the pool, where you can put whatever you want on the tile. Most buyers will also get a "first dip" allowing them to swim in the pool before it opens to the public. They're looking for $250,000 (which seems like a fairly small amount considering everything going into this project), and they still have a pretty big way to go, and less than two weeks to do it.
• How about bringing together a group of experts -- one in artificial intelligece, one in robot designs (making them look human), one in consciousness, one in biomorphics -- to build a better, futuristic, human-like robot. I have no idea if any of these experts really are as impressive as they claim to be, or if they'd be able to actually build this "Robot Adam Z1" to the point that (as they claim) it's the equivalent of a 3 year old child, but it certainly is ambitious. Given the very speculative nature of the project -- and the fact that lots of people have tried to build "human-like" robots -- it seems like they're asking for quite a bit: $300,000. And you don't get that much if you donate. The robot will remember your name at the low end. Higher up you can get a poem or a piece of artwork from the robot, or even a Google Hangout with the robot, but that's at $500 which seems steep. Given all that, perhaps it's not that surprising that they're a long, long way from the $300,000 they're asking for so far. But, since it's an IndieGogo "Flexible Funding" campaign, they'll still get the money even if it doesn't reach the goal. Of course, that might mean they don't actually get enough to do everything they want, which might be holding back some folks from donating.
• Finally, we head back to a project for the open waters, where the makers of the world's largest amateur-built submarine, the UC3 Nautilus, are asking for help to get the sub back in the water. It's been taken out of the water for necessary maintenance, and they're looking for some funding to help. Just the fact that some folks built their own damn submarine is impressive already, and the video definitely makes it look pretty cool. They're looking for $50,000 and they have a very, very long way to go to get there. It may be tough to convince people to pay for a maintenance tuneup for the sub, though. I'm guessing that more people would be interested in funding an original sub, rather than fixing up an old one. Still, the whole project definitely fits into that ambitious category of this week's theme.

That's it for this week. Go out and do something ambitious yourself this weekend.

Filed Under: artificial intelligence, awesome stuff, pool, robots, submarine

Awesome Stuff: The Future Is Finally Coming To Home Automation

from the getting-there-slowly dept

By now, weren't we all supposed to have little personal assistants that manage our lives, and weren't our homes supposed to be "smart homes" with fancy sensors to better manage everything? We've been hearing these promises for years, and it seems like we're finally inching towards that goal. Over the past few years, a number of smart home devices and systems have come and gone on Kickstarter, IndieGoGo and other platforms, but it seems like a bunch of new ones have launched recently. Let's look at a few.

• First up, we've got Benki, self-described as "connected devices done right." It appears they're looking to build out a whole suite of home automation sensors/devices that work nicely together. They're certainly not the only player in this space on the market (not by a long shot), but their initial devices really do look nice, simple, easy to use and fairly compelling. An outlet that doubles as a baby monitor that automatically pings your mobile phone when it hears a noise? Yeah, you can do that with Benki's smart outlet, Socket, which has a built in light sensor, temperature sensor and microphone. Or how about a combined camera, light sensor and temperature sensor. And, of course, everything can by controlled by your phone. The Benki folks apparently decided to go big or go home, choosing a super ambitious target of $220,000. With less than two weeks left, they're only about a quarter of the way there, meaning it seems unlikely they'll hit their goal without a huge last minute surge. Interesting project, but the goal might have been a bit out of reach.
• If you want to go all hackery with your home automation/sensor work, you should check out wigwag. In some ways, it could be similar to Benki above, but rather than focus on building a few nice looking initial devices, it seems that wigwag focused its initial efforts on building out a platform that will let hacker-minded folks do almost anything. They're offering up a sensor block, and some simple programming tools to let you write rules for "intelligent environments." The vision here is fairly bold -- basically using a variety of sensors to just do the right thing in your house given the situation. It's easy to have sensors that, say, turn on a light when you enter the room, but what if it takes into account other factors: is it late at night? Maybe just slightly illuminate the room, rather than the full blast of lights. Honestly, a combination of something like wigwag and Benki might be cool, as they're similar, but appear focused on slightly different areas of development. The wigwag folks chose a much more modest $50,000 target, and they've got nearly two months left in the campaign and they've already almost hit that goal. So this one will definitely get funded.
• Sensors controlled by your phone are great, but voice control is the in thing these days, so we'll kick it off with Fiona, the virtual home assistant, which comes straight out of random science fiction story. The video is kind of hilarious, especially the "date" example, where the guy asks Fiona to turn on some jazz music and dim the lights. Honestly, I'm a bit skeptical that the product works anywhere near as good as the video shows, and it seems like it may be a lot to shell out when it's not clear how well it will really work. Also, they show two different versions of the device and it's not clear which one they're actually selling. This seems like it could be cool if it worked, but there are a lot of open questions. The company seems to be focused on natural language techniques, but we've seen lots of fanfare around those sorts of things turn out to be less than promised when they hit the market (*cough* Siri *cough*). Another fairly ambitious goal, seeking $100,000. They're around 15% with 35 days to go which probably puts it as a borderline project, probably likely to just make it over the finish line, but not much more.
• And, finally, we've got a somewhat similar project, called ivee. Frankly, after watching the Fiona video, the ivee product doesn't look nearly as nice. It appears to be slower, have less functionality, and the text-to-speech and voice recognition don't appear as nice. However, that said, the ivee looks a hell of a lot more like a real product that I'm more confident would ship. The company behind it has been selling voice-activated alarm clocks for years, so it has some experience in the space as well. It doesn't seem totally futuristic like Fiona, but feels more like a stepping stone to that future. The ivee blew past its goal of $40,000 in just a few days, and there are still about four weeks left, so this one will be way overfunded by the time the campaign closes.

Who knows how well any of these products really work just yet, but it's nice to see so many companies trying to tackle these sorts of offerings that were always somewhere off in the distant future when I was growing up. It means that sooner or later someone's going to get these kinds of things right.

Filed Under: awesome stuff, home automation, sensors, voice control

Awesome Stuff: Have A Cool Drink This Weekend

from the you-deserve-one dept

For this week's awesome stuff post, we're going to suggest it's about time you kicked back and had a cool drink. You deserve it. Thankfully, there are a bunch of crowdfunding projects to help you make that cool drink a reality.

• First up, The Ice Baller, for those of you who think your ice cubes are too cloudy, too small, and too... cubed. It's a device designed to make larger, clear, round ice balls. Pretty self explanatory. Apparently, a lot of people want big clear ice balls, because this one shot past its $20,000 goal pretty quickly and there's still over a month left. Personally, it seems fairly pricey to pay $70 (well, $55 if you got in early) to make ice balls, but what do I know?
• Ice is so last century. How about some ChillBottles -- little stainless steel refreezable bottle-shaped devices to cool down your drinks. They even come in a small "six pack" stainless steel case that will keep the bottles cool outside of the freezer. This reminds me of another Kickstarter project -- called pucs which closed a couple weeks ago. That one was much more popular, but the ChillBottles are still available (and cheaper). This one only has a couple hours left, so if you want them, don't waste much time. Of course, it might seem a bit odd to put a "beer bottle" shaped frozen bit of stainless steel into a non-beer drink, but this isn't about thinking too hard. It's about getting drinks cooler.
• Okay, maybe you shouldn't just be thinking about what to put inside your drink to cool it down. Some designers have come up with a funky looking device called TurboCool to (they claim) quickly cool down any canned drink. I have to admit that I'm not sure I understand how or why this works, but it's basically a cannister in which you put water & ice, and then your can, and you pump the top so the can spins. Sort of the same functionality as a salad spinner. I can see how this would get the drink marginally cooler faster, but still seems like it would take a while to get a drink really cool. These guys are pretty ambitious -- seeking over $150,000 for a device that cools a single can marginally faster than a bucket of ice, but they still have over a month.
• Finally, what good is a cool drink if the drink isn't very good. Rejigger seems like an easier way of making mixed drinks without having to carefully measure each component. Basically, it's a cup with three separate compartments, sized to the usual different ratio of "parts" in various classic drinks. Just pour in the right liquids to the right ratio slots, and you've got a quick mixed drink. This one is also super ambitious, seeking $75,000, and it's got a long way to go to reach that goal. However, they still have nearly a month to go.

There you go. Kick back, relax, have a cool drink and enjoy your weekend.

Filed Under: awesome stuff, crowdfunding, drinks, ice