Awesome Stuff: Sometimes It's The Simple Stuff

from the perhaps-too-simple dept

Going through Kickstarter, looking for interesting projects, I've noticed that there are more than a few times I completely skip over certain projects because they just look too simple. For this week's awesome stuff post, I thought it might be fun to check out three such projects.

• First up, we have the project that inspired this post: the Bergaffe tube. The subhed here really undersells it: "a simple tube with lots of possibilities." Actually, I've noticed that most of these "overly simple" projects all talk about how many "possibilities" there are concerning their offerings. And, in this case, they may actually have a point. I didn't check out this project for weeks, because, really, what good is a tube? But, there's much more to the idea. The tube is basically a platform off of which they're building a bunch of tools that become modular and interchangeable. It's actually pretty neat: It really feels like the initial description -- as well as that photo of just a basic tube -- completely underplays the actual benefit and value of what these guys are trying to sell. If you have to expect that people need to "imagine the possibilities" they're not going to. So even though this does seem like it could be cool, the project is just under its £25,000 goal with a week to go. It'll get there, but just barely. Also... for a "simple" tube, it's pretty pricey.
• Next up... we've got The Puck -- another simple plastic thing that asks you to imagine the possibilities. In this case, it's a simple wall mount for PVC pipe, so that you can build a towel rack or some other kind of rack out of PVC pipe. Now, if you were to ask me why you might want to build such a thing out of PVC pipe, you might have a very good point. For something so simple... and where you have to "imagine the possibilities" yourself, it seems incredibly pricey. When I saw these, my first thought was that it looked like something I could pick up at the local Home Depot for less than $1 each. But... these guys are trying to sell them for $20 per pair. Damn. That probably explains why, a week or so into the project, they've only got 13 backers and less than $500 committed. There's still a month to go, but I can't see this one reaching the $25,000 goal at all.
• And then we've got Bigmouth Funnels, which are basically what the name says: little strips of plastic that fold into funnels. I've seen something similar for years, so I was a bit surprised to see it on Kickstarter, and it seems odd that they're pitching it as some amazing bit of product design. It actually looks nearly identical to a little "sports cone" that I've seen on the fields near where I live. Just inverted. Also, whenever I've needed something like this, usually... a piece of paper has done the trick. Here's another one where I was a bit surprised at the price. $10 (AUD) gets you one big and one small funnel. But, it seems that I can find basic wide mouth funnels online for less than $2, so not sure I see the appeal. But, ~150 or so backers have bought into this one already, and it's nearing its $2,200 goal with over a month to go, so apparently it's got more appeal than I expected.

That's it for this week. Keep it simple.

Filed Under: awesome stuff, funnels, pvc, simple, tubes

Happy Birthday Betamax, Old Friend; Here's To The Thirty Years Of Innovation You Enabled

from the and-thank-you,-supreme-court,-for-getting-it-right dept

30 years ago today, the Supreme Court ruled that creators of the Sony Betamax VCR and other new technologies could not be held liable for acts of copyright infringement as long as the device is capable of substantial legitimate uses. This ruling has become the Magna Carta of the technology industry and an ironic gift to the content interests who fought it tooth and nail.

By ruling that people have a right to record over-the-air broadcasting for private use, the Betamax court clarified the rights of copyright holders, innovators and users. In doing so, it enabled a surge of new products, from the DVD to portable music players to online services. It is not hyperbole to say that ruling gave innovators wings, allowing them to bring new technologies to market without asking the content industry for permission first.

Big content fought hard against the Sony Betamax, making wild claims in Washington about how this new product would lead to the destruction of the American film industry. Of course, the opposite happened. While big content obsessed about the "record" button, users focused on the "play" button. The result? A multi-billion dollar industry in pre-recorded media, which now accounts for the majority of Hollywood's profits. This entire revenue stream would not exist but for Justice Stevens, who disregarded content industry pleas and cast the deciding vote in a razor-thin 5-4 decision.

Now Betamax is back in the news, as the broadcasters decry yet another innovation that they claim will destroy their industry. This time the culprit is Aereo, a service that uses individual antennas to send local, free, over-the-air broadcast programming to users' mobile devices. It's a boon to the public, especially to viewers in dense urban areas with broadcast reception challenges.

While the broadcasters acknowledge your right to put up an antenna and run a wire to your TV set, they claim that doing the exact same thing remotely (i.e. simply though a longer wire) is somehow illegal. Their contention has serious implications, especially to the nascent and burgeoning cloud computing and storage industries. Indeed, the Aereo case can be viewed as a backdoor attack on the Cablevision case, in which a federal court affirmed the legality of a remotely controlled digital video recorder (DVR). This decision has unleashed waves of investment and the provision of extraordinary new services to internet users.

The broadcasters fighting Aereo are the very same ones who have been granted billions of dollars in public spectrum at zero cost. As a condition of this massive government subsidy, they are obligated to provide the public with widely available, free programming – exactly what Aereo enables. Rather than embracing technologies that promote access, some networks even claim they will halt over-the-air broadcasting if Aereo is found to be legal. Broadcasters must make their own decisions – but if they believe that broadcasting is no longer a viable business, they should promptly return their spectrum to the public to be used for wireless internet and other productive uses.

Over the last three decades, the technology landscape has changed dramatically. But some things remain the same: legacy industries complain that new services or products disrupt business models, and run to the courts or Congress for relief. But this creative destruction is the story of human progress. Innovation disrupts, new business models arise, unsustainable models die and society reaps the benefits.

I hope that broadcasters eventually recognize the clear lesson of Betamax: embracing new technologies and providing their viewers with extraordinary cutting-edge services will benefit all our industries. I'm glad the Supreme Court has taken this case, and I hope that it will rule for Aereo, innovation and users.

Michael Petricone is Senior Vice President of Government and Regulatory Affairs for the Consumer Electronics Association

Filed Under: betamax, big content, copyright, fair use, innovation
Companies: aereo, sony

Awesome Stuff: Getting Around On One Or Two Wheels And An Electric Motor

from the not-quite-a-hoverboard dept

For this week's awesome stuff post, we've got three crowdfunding projects that involve new "electric" transportation devices that help folks get around.

• First up, we've got The Derringer Electric Bike. Calling it an electric bike seems to undersell the Derringer, which is inspired by classic board track racers, which were more like motorcycles than bikes. Think of this as more like a beautifully designed, stylish moped. Of course, with beauty and style (and effectiveness) comes a hefty price tag. There's a non-motorized one that runs $1,800, and then the actual electric bikes run between $3,500 and $6,500 depending on the model. At that price, as beautiful as they are, it seems like a tough sell. Indeed, so far it looks like only a single one (a $6,500 model) has been sold, making it quite unlikely that the Derringer will reach its $75,000 goal in about a week and a half.
• If the Derringer isn't your thing, but you still want an electric bike, you might want to check out the Riide, which looks much more like a standard every day bike, but has a fairly powerful electric motor and battery built-in. For an electric bike, it's surprisingly lightweight, and gets speeds up to 20 mph (same as the Derringer above). And, the pitch video includes some poetry. These bikes are also a hell of a lot cheaper than the Derringer, coming in at $1,799. And while only 28 have been sold at the time I'm writing this it's already enough for the Riide to have surpassed its target of $50,000, with still over a month to go.
• Okay, okay. Enough with the bikes. Let's get down to just a single wheel, and something that's a bit further along the awesome spectrum. How about the Onewheel, which is sort of a skateboard-like device with a single giant wheel, electric motor along with gyroscopic and accelerometer sensors in the middle. The folks behind it claim that it was inspired by the hoverboard from Back to the Future, and whether or not that's actually true, it certainly has a unique cool-factor to it. There are also a few comparisons to snowboarding or surfing, but on the pavement, and watching the video you can certainly see the similarities. These devices run between $1200 and $1800 depending on configuration and if you get in on various early bird deals. No matter what, they're just under the target of $100,000 with over two weeks to go, meaning it will almost certainly get funded.

That's it for this week. Head out and ride somewhere.

Also, the "favorites of the week" post has been on a bit of a hiatus over the holidays, and that's continuing this weekend as well. Fear not, it will return soon.

Filed Under: awesome stuff, crowd funding, electric bikes, onewheel, skateboard, wheel, wheels

Blackberry Goes Back To Its Roots: Sues Ryan Seacrest For Patent Infringement

from the innovators-vs.-litigators dept

Struggling also-ran Canadian maker of mobile phones, Blackberry (formerly, RIM), has quite a long history with patents. A decade ago, RIM actually was extremely aggressive in suing other companies for patent infringement. In fact, it can be reasonably argued that this was actually the beginning of the company's downfall. RIM had a somewhat dominant position in the early part of the 2000s, and then started suing pretty much every competitor (and lots of non-competitors) for patent infringement. In turn, that resulted in a bunch of other companies suing RIM, including the infamous case of the patent troll NTP, who eventually got $612.5 million out of RIM after a tremendously high-profile, years-long lawsuit that brought patent trolling to the attention of both the public and lawmakers. Of course, the guys behind NTP have admitted they only sued RIM after reading about its aggressive patent strategy first. But, more importantly, it seems clear that the aggressive lawsuits, both inbound and outbound, resulted in the company taking its eyes off the innovation ball, allowing basically everyone else to leapfrog way past it.

As the company has been basically falling apart, we've fully expected it to go full on patent troll. After all, that's pretty much what you expect of legacy companies who've lost in the marketplace and can no longer figure out how to innovate. Instead, they basically start to litigate against anyone and everyone -- and RIM/Blackberry already has that sort of trait in its DNA anyway.

So it's little surprise to hear that the company has launched a silly lawsuit against Typo Products, a company formed (of all things) by TV personality Ryan Seacrest and others, creating a physical keyboard that can attach to the iPhone 5. Blackberry claims the company "blatantly copied Blackberry's keyboard." But, it's a keyboard. There are only so many ways you can make it, and honestly, if Blackberry wasn't so focused on lawsuits all these years, perhaps it could have realized years ago that maybe it should have been making physical keyboards for the smartphones that the public actually seemed to want.

Filed Under: blackberry, competition, innovation, keyboards, patents, ryan seacrest
Companies: blackberry, rim, typo productions

Awesome Stuff: Rubber Band Guns

from the weapons-of-minor-destruction dept

For the first awesome stuff post of the new year, we decided to go with something fun: rubber band guns. Not sure exactly why, but it just feels appropriate.

• First up we've go the Palladium Gun, a rubber band gun kit that lets you create a basic rubber band gun that can hold 10 rubber bands. The project is only about 30% funded with two weeks to go, so it might not make it. There don't seem to be any updates or comments, so it's not clear how engaged the creator really is with the project. Still, a simple, straightforward rubber band gun for about $30.
• Of course, one reason why the Palladium might not be getting that much attention is... because of the Rubber Band Machine Gun with unique Fast Charger -- or the RBMG, for short. Rubber band machine guns are not a particularly new concept. And, in fact, there was another one on Kickstarter just a few months ago. But the RBMG seems to have gone bigger and better than many of the previous designs -- and costing less than many comparable rubber band machine guns. The damn thing can shoot 672 rubber bands in a single go -- releasing all of them in about a minute. Oh, and the other useful bit is the "fast charger" device that he's offering with it, because without it, I imagine that spending the time to load up 672 rubber bands might not be that much fun. The project has shot way past its $5,000 goal and is currently over $70,000 with a little under two weeks to go. Since the guns are mostly being hand made by this one guy in the Ukraine, I would imagine there may be some concerns with his ability to actually build 600+ of these things and get them out in any reasonable time period. The other oddity is that he did a rookie Kickstarter mistake, and didn't include shipping fees in the tiers, telling basically everyone they have to pay $30 more than the tier actually requires for shipping. I'm sure many will pay it, but it may lead to problems for those who don't. Still, it's a pretty impressive project, at a good price (~$130 to $140 once you pay the shipping) compared to similar rubber band machine guns. That other one that was on Kickstarter a few months ago was a lot cheaper, but held many fewer rubber bands.

That's it for this week. Don't shoot your eye out.

Filed Under: awesome stuff, rubber band guns

Awesome Stuff: Bike Lights

from the illuminate-your-ride dept

Since this was a short week and we took a bit of a break for the holidays, there won't be any "favorites of the week" post today, so enjoy this as your Saturday post.

It's getting to be that time of year when people are making their New Years' resolutions -- and getting in shape is always a popular one. Biking is a great way to do that, but for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, it gets dark early, so having a good light is always key. For our latest awesome stuff post, we'll highlight a few crowdfunding projects that may be interesting for your bike riding experience.

• First up, we've got the Xlerad, which is described as a "smart bike light." It tracks when you're moving, automatically lighting up, and then automatically adjusting the lighting as needed. It also shuts off when you're done, so you don't even have to worry about powering it on and off. The light is a bit pricey, either $170 or $190 depending on if you get the early bird (as I type this, there's one left). At that price it seems a little difficult for some to support. The project is only at about $12,000 of it's $18,300 target, with just a few days left. There's a decent chance this project ends up unfunded.
• For a different bike light idea, there's the Magnic Light iC -- a contactless bicycle dynamo. The concept is pretty awesome. You attach it around the bicycle wheel (without touching the wheel), and the moving wheel spins the magnets inside the generator, creating the energy to power the lights. So you never need to charge the thing, it's self-powered. This is the second version of the light, and the first one was also funded via Kickstarter. The single lights (either front or rear) run $70, with a package of two front lights and one rear light running $180. It seems like a better deal than the one above, and backers seem to think so as well. While this one hasn't yet reached its target, it's already raised about $25,000 easily on its way to the $40,000 target, with over a month to go.
• The next one is a bit different. It's Zackees turn signal gloves. They're basic bike gloves... but with blinking turn signals built into the back of the glove, so you when you hold up your hand to signal a turn, drivers on the road don't just see the hand, but the "blinker." Pretty creative idea that could definitely help keep cyclists safer. This project has already shot past its target of $35,000 and is sitting near $50,000 with a week and a half to go. A pair of the gloves runs between $59 and $99, depending on the options and style.

That's all for this week's awesome stuff post. Ride safe.

Filed Under: awesome stuff, bike lights

Awesome Stuff: Computer Vision And Motion Capture Via Your Webcam

from the the-all-seeing-eye dept

Over the last few years, computer vision and motion capture technology has really advanced at an incredible rate. Things that seemed like science fiction not too long ago can be purchased for very little and in your home today. Things like the Kinect and now the Leap Motion controller are getting people to rethink even the way they interact with computers. And this space is really still in its earliest days. So for this week's awesome stuff post (in which we highlight interesting crowdfunding projects we come across) we'll highlight two new projects that deal with computer vision and motion capture -- both of which work with merely a webcam, rather than any fancy hardware.

• First up is the FaceRig, which uses your everyday webcam to not only capture your facial expressions, but translate them into the faces of characters in an insanely realistic manner. Full disclosure: after seeing this video I plunked down some money. I have no idea what I'd use it for, but it's super cheap and it just looks awesome. It really wasn't that long ago that filmmakers who wanted to do motion capture work to create a computer generated character would have to do an astounding amount of work to match the characters to actors' actual facial expressions. And yet, here's a system that appears to be able to do it on the fly in a manner that looks incredibly good, at least from the demo they show. Not only does the product look kind of amazing, they're pricing it to be incredibly affordable. Getting a license via the crowdfunding is just $5. They're shooting for $120,000 which is pretty ambitious, especially for an IndieGogo project, but within just a few days they already shot past $50,000 and with a month and a half to go, it seems likely that they'll fly past their goal and end up with significantly more than that. Combination of amazing product plus cheap prices will do that.
• Next up, we've got the VMX Project, which is more of a platform for developers to be able to add computer vision to anything. They're offering it as a service, so rather than having to install software, developers can just use their API and add in computer vision features via (what they claim) is a super simple user interface. The concept of making computer vision more widespread and usable by developers, without each developer having to reinvent the wheel, or hire experts in computer vision, seems like a super powerful idea in driving this area forward. These guys have a tougher job ahead of them. Even as the product looks cool, it's very much focused on developers, rather than the general consumer market, so there's a significantly smaller audience. These guys are targeting $100,000, which is a pretty big ask, all things considered, and the project hasn't received very much at all yet -- so it seems like a good chance it won't hit that goal.

That's it for this week. Go interact with something.

Filed Under: awesome stuff, computer vision, motion capture

Awesome Stuff: Lenses For Your Phone

from the camera-advancement dept

Remember back in the day when people thought that having a camera in your phone was a fad, and that no one would ever really use their camera as a phone because the quality sucked? You don't hear that much any more. In fact, it seems that so many people are using their phones as cameras that there's now a market specifically for special lenses for your smartphone. This week's awesome stuff post looks at three crowdfunding projects for smartphone lenses.

• First up we've got an Anamorphic Adapter Lens for the iPhone. This is mainly designed for amateur or independent filmmakers, looking to create a look and feel that's more "filmlike" with a widescreen shot. The sample videos included in the pitch video below are pretty impressive. We've talked about people filming movies with their smartphones in the past, and a device like this makes it possible to make such a film seem even more professional. It appears that plenty of people think it's pretty cool. The project has about a week to go and is nearly double its original $30,000 goal.
• Next up, we've got the [BRIC+] zoom lens. It's actually much more than just a zoom lens. It also is a protective phone case and an extended battery for the phone. The zoom lens can then snap on magnetically to the case. The lens is a 3.5X optical lens, which isn't huge, but will always give you a higher quality zoom than the purely digital zooms found on most cameras today -- and of course, you can combine the optical zoom with the phone's zoom to go even further. The project just launched a few days ago, so still has a ways to go to hit its $65,000 goal. However, it still has well over a month, so it has a decent chance of getting there.
• Finally, we've got the iZZi Slim, an iPhone case that includes a series of rotating lenses, so you can quickly switch which lens you use on the fly. The iZZi includes a fisheye lens, a 2x telephoto lens, a wideangle lens and a macro lens for closeups (which is built into the wideangle lens -- you just snap off a piece to get to it). To be honest, the quality on these lenses don't look to be that great, but they still let you do more than the basic lens alone. With a few days left, this project has already surpassed its $25,000 goal by a little bit, so it appears that plenty of people are interested in having a collection of lenses like these.

That's it for this week. Go take some pictures.

Filed Under: awesome stuff, cameras, lenses, smartphones

Crowdfunded Prize For Open Source Jailbreaking iOS7 To Improve Accessibility

from the awesome-on-multiple-levels dept

Here's a story which hits on so many different points that we're interested in. There's a new effort to crowdsource a "prize" for whoever can release an open source jailbreak for iOS7. First off, we've been big fans of "innovation prizes" like the X Prize. We're also big fans of crowdfunding -- so here's an example of combining both of those: crowdfunding an innovation prize -- which has already reached about $6,500 despite no publicity (yet). Next, the prize is for another thing that we think is of utmost importance: the freedom to tinker with products you bought. The locked down nature of the iPhone remains one of the shames of modern technology. Encouraging a true, open source jailbreak is important in opening up the technology -- for a variety of important reasons (including a huge one that inspired this project, as will be explained below). The project also has a four person team to judge which solution will qualify for the prize, including some folks you might recognize: Cory Doctorow, Kyle Wiens (of iFixit) and Gabreilla Coleman (professor who studies hacktivism, Anonymous and has posted here).

But perhaps the most interesting (if unfortunate) point in this story is the reason for the project in the first place. The fourth judge is Chris Maury, who inspired the creation of this project in the first place. Maury has Stargardt's Macular Degeneration, a genetic condition that has taken him from having 20/20 vision just a few years ago to rapidly losing his vision, to the point that he will eventually be legally blind (already he can no longer drive). He would like to be able to actually use his iPhone but much of the software that makes the phone usable with his vision isn't available in the iTunes App Store. Thus, he needs to jailbreak the phone in order to use it.

This is really the most shameful part of locked down systems. In the past, we've talked about how the short-sighted view of people who want to lock out certain types of applications almost resulted in a young girl being unable to communicate, and here we have a situation where someone with a severe visual impairment can't get everything possible out of the devices he's purchased. What kind of world are we living in that we think it's okay to have this as "standard operating procedures" for the electronics we use every day?

Thankfully, what giant companies try to lock up, creativity can hopefully unlock. And, in this case, we've got layer upon layer of creative innovations to try to get around a bad situation. While it's unfortunate that such a project is even necessary in the first place, it's inspiring to see this kind of creativity pop up to try to solve the problem. Go check out the project. If you want to contribute to the prize, you can do so there (and, yes, they accept Bitcoin, too), or if you feel like creating an open source jailbreak for iOS7 and collecting the prize (or just basking in the wonders of doing something good), check it out as well.

Filed Under: accessibility, crowdfunding, innovation prizes, ios, ios7, iphone, jailbreaking

Why The USTR Is Working So Hard To Kill American Innovation And The Economy

from the outdated-understanding-of-economics dept

The person who was going to do this week's Techdirt "favorites of the week" post was unable to complete it in time, so instead, with the latest TPP negotiations starting up, I figured I'd post some thoughts on the USTR's view of the world.

Over the last few weeks, since the draft of the TPP IP chapter leaked, I've been puzzling over just why the USTR appears to be actively working against the interests of the American people, jobs, innovation and the economy with the proposal. Frankly, the USTR's extreme position makes no sense at all. Yes, the USTR is heavily influenced by patent and copyright maximalists that it placed on the Industry Trade Advisory Committees (ITACs) it relies on for input on its negotiating position. Yes, there's a tremendous revolving door between maximalist lobbyists and the USTR. Yes, the main guy negotiating this part of the agreement is a long term maximalist extremist who can't even comprehend the idea that locking up information and knowledge might be a bad thing.

But it's felt like there's something more. The USTR has been so incredibly obnoxiously dismissive of the idea that these are bad ideas. I'm beginning to think that, while all of the above are a part of it, a much bigger issue is that they simply come at the issue from a historical, debunked and no longer relevant understanding of how economics and economic growth works. That is, the USTR seems to think in the most narrowest of ways that "what's good for big US companies is good for the US economy" -- a view that was popular in the 1950s but has never made much sense. It's the crony capitalism view of the economy that nearly anyone with any experience in economics knows is bunk. They're taking a zero sum view of the world when the world is anything but zero sum, especially when it comes to information and knowledge. It also completely ignores the nature of disruptive innovation and the importance of allowing new innovations to flourish, and companies who can't keep up to die out. Instead, the USTR seems to think that protecting the companies who aren't innovating is its job. That's dangerous and harmful.

The USTR simply doesn't care at all about what the various public interest groups are telling the USTR about the insanity of these proposals because it thinks that those groups are anti-corporation and anti-growth. But that's outdated and, frankly, wrong thinking. While it may be true of some of the groups, many who actually understand these issues recognize that in the world we live in today, the path to economic growth and innovation is to increase knowledge and information sharing and to work together with consumers to benefit both. But the USTR views the world as "corporations vs. the public." And it's firmly on the side of "the corporations." But that's not the way the world works. It's a very last-century view of the world (and wasn't even accurate then).

Today, companies succeed by treating the public right, aligning interests and building products and services that make people better off, not to fuck them over. That is: if you want innovation to flow and the economy to grow, the USTR should be focusing on an agreement that serves the best needs of the public, by lowering the barriers to innovation and information sharing. Instead, it's doing the exact opposite -- raising trade barriers to help a few industries that don't want to adapt and embrace the way the world works in this information era.

The next great innovative companies come out of a world where giving the public exactly what it wants is key, and part of that is an openness and transparency that brings those consumers into the process. But the USTR is supporting the 1950s vision of giant monolithic companies deciding what the public wants, and fighting any attempt to actually work with the public.

The end result is that the USTR is basically setting a trade agreement with a 1950s manufacturing agenda in a twenty-first century information age world. The end result is going to be a complete and utter disaster for the US economy, innovation, jobs and the American public -- not to mention free expression and access to medicines. We've seen the government do braindead things in the past, but the way the USTR has handled the TPP negotiations appears to be one of the most clueless efforts by US government officials ever. Their entire approach is wrong and dangerous -- and they don't even seem to have the slightest clue of what they're about to do to the economy and innovation. What's good for a few giant companies isn't what's best for the American public, jobs or the American economy. And it's downright frightening that the people negotiating an agreement that is going to have a huge impact on all of those things don't seem to understand the basics beyond an outdated view from 70 years ago...

Filed Under: copyright, crony capitalism, economic growth, economics, intellectual property, knowledge sharing, patents, tafta, tpp, ttip, ustr, zero sum