Kickstarter is a crowd funded venture capital supplier. It supports many projects, for a 5% cut of the funding it organises. Readers find some project that interests them, by looking at the videos on Kickstarter. You can make a pledge (via Amazon payment system) to pay for a reward, if the project raises sufficient money to start. It is not a shop. There is no guarantee any Kickstarter project will succeed in producing what they describe, or even anything at all.
I have backed several Kickstarter ventures, as you can see on the Kickstarter website link above.
I have received an Oona iPhone camera support from The Oona. This is a very small, two piece metal stand, with several mounts with threads to accept standard camera mount bolts. It comes with a number of suction caps, each with a short camera thread bolt. You stick your phone to a suction cup to mount it to the Oona stand. The Oona stand can be free standing, or on a camera tripod, or you could use another suction cup to mount it inside a windscreen, or on a wall.
Oona launched on 4 May 2011, and funding ended on 3 June 2011. My Oona shipped on 30 November 2011.
I have received an environmentally friendly LilyPad solar power case for iPad, now renamed KudoCase. This case includes a solar charged battery to extend the life of your iPad battery. You can charge the case battery with a USB charger, with or without the iPad mounted in it. The case also acts as a stand for an iPad.
LilyPad launched on 31 August 2011, and funding ended on 3 October 2011. My LilyPad arrived 2 March 2012.
Kudo also have other gadgets now. They even have an online shop.
A Galileo Bluetooth iPhone controlled robotic pan and tilt stand from Josh Guyot and JoeBen Bevirt at Motrr. These folks have done camera equipment previously.
Galileo was launched 22 March 2012, and funding ended on 21 April 2012.
They have some delays (reported to Kickstarter funders), but these guys behind the Joby and the Gorillapod™ camera tripods look well placed to do a good job. At issue is the complexity of what they are attempting. Even with good prototypes, there will be issues getting it into production.
Steve King's Hand Stylus is a capacitive stylus for tablets and phones. It has several features I like, but the main one is a finer 4 mm point. Now one potential issue with a finer point is you will probably need to press harder to get sufficient point contact. For some things, especially broad art strokes, you may also want a thicker 8 mm stylus in your art tools. This Hand Stylus is really nice. I got one for me, and another for Jean. I like it a heap.
Hand Stylus was launched 3 May 2012, funding ended on 17 June 2012, and was delivered in early November 2012.
Knut is a WiFi enabled device with interchangeable sensors and a mobile app, by Richard Pasek and Jay Gondelman. Knut by Amperic is their web site.
A bit hard to explain. The inventors started off wanting to monitor aquariums. So they devised a portable, battery powered smart device with a web server, that could accept a variety of sensors. Temperature, humidity, vibration. The idea is Knut sends you an email or a CSV file periodically, containing its readings. This one sounds really handy for ad hoc automation and data collection.
Knut was launched 22 May 2012, and funding ended 6 July 2012.
Scanbox turns your phone into a portable scanner. In Melbourne, Phil Bosua came up with a handy folding platform to hold your iPhone above documents you want to scan. It clips together with magnets. I have cut out cardboard boxes innumerable times so I could scan a bunch of documents. But the boxes always end up in the way, so you chuck them out, only to find you need to make another copy stand. Scanbox solves this copy stand problem.
ScanBox was launched 9 May 2012, and funding ended 8 July 2012. My Scanbox arrived in mid November 2012.
Hone Bluetooth 4 key finder for iPhone needs a Bluetooth 4 capable iOS device. Hone is small enough (15 grams) to use as a keychain. Geoffrey Litwack designed it. You autopair the Hone device and your iPhone 4s or iPad 3. Then you can let your iOS device tell you as you get closer to your keys. Living in a retirement village, I increasingly need a few Hone.
Hone was launched 18 June 2012, and funding ended 18 July 2012. I received the Hone on 10 April 2013.
The Kick pocket lighting studio for photos or video. It basically is a battery powered fill-in LED light, capable of an almost infinite range of colours. It is controlled by the Kick App on an iPhone, connecting to the RiftNet WiFi the Kick provides. It can sample any light you can photo. Plus it has a range of effects available. Start out with fill in white light, then add some warmth. You can also use it standalone, by taking manual control. Kick comes from Rift labs, who have been working on great lights for a long while.
Kick was launched on 13 June 2012, and funding ended on 18 July 2012. I received my Kick on 4 April 2013.
Twig USB connector to iPhone is a very short, flexible combination of USB cable and tripod stand. Ingenious idea, especially for travellers. Comes from Jason Hilbourne at 3D Product. I love it for travel.
Twig was launched on 29 may 2012, and funding ended 28 July 2012. My four Twig (two for me, two for Jean) arrived mid November 2012.
Strata by MetaWatch is a Bluetooth 4 smart watch for your iPhone 4s, from former Fossil Watch execs Bill Geiser and David Rosales. MetaWatch will check messages, see who’s calling, control music, view weather, and more, all from your wrist. The software is open sourced. These folks seem to have been in the smart watch area for nearly a decade. See the MetaWatch blog here. See also Apple Insider review of Strata Metawatch. They say it is for geeks so far, not the mass market. I tend to agree.
MetaWatch Strata was launched 27 July 2012, and funding ended 20 August 2012. My Strata Metawatch arrived 26 November 2012.
Phil Bosua and team returns from ScanBox with the LIFX smart lightbulb. LIFX is a WiFi enabled, multi-colour, energy efficient LED light bulb that you control with your iPhone. At the moment, these prototypes are the smartest lightbulbs on the planet. Just install them in place of existing lights, and then control them over a mesh WiFi network. Any light, any colour, all from your iPhone. Set them to turn on or off at any time, in any sequence. Have them work in time with your music.
I am really proud to see yet another Australian doing leading edge smart device design. Part of the Internet of Things.
LIFX was launched on 16 September 2012, and funding ended on 15 November 2012.
A very unusual new portable smart light design from Mark Pesce (former judge on ABC The New Inventors
. Light by Moore's Cloud has fifty-two LEDs in two million colours with infinite possibilities of pattern and animation. With a powerful computer and WiFi connectivity. This light has a full LAMP stack, with all the power and connectivity of a full computer running Arch Linux.
See demonstrations of the light indicating the number of Tweets received by the ABC Q&A show. Respond to commands from a local smartphone, a tablet - and anything else with an HTML5-compliant browser, from anywhere in the world.
All of Moore's Cloud work - both hardware and software - everything from PCB layout to case design to the electrical schematic to animation framework, system software and firmware - will be released under open source licenses. See the Light by Moore's Cloud development blog.
This light is awesome. However at the moment the funding is not increasing quickly enough. It is just too hard for most people to figure out how capable it is. Part of the Internet of Things.
Light by Moore's Cloud launched 22 October 2012. It had until 21 December to raise the $700,000 needed. Unfortunately, it raised only around a third of what was needed.
Stop internet advertising from even getting into your home with AdTrap by Chad Russell. This is a smart Linux box that sits between your ADSL Modem, and your router. It blocks advertising, by checking who the sender is, and blocking crap.
You can do the same on a computer by adjusting your /etc/hosts file (if you do not know what a hosts file is, do not try this - use a browser extension instead). You do not have this choice on most tablets and phones. AdTrap solves that problem.
AdTrap launched on 9 November 2012. It had until 9 December to raise its funding, and met that target.
An ingenious aluminium tablet stand by Erik Kittlaus + Dekke. Slope uses micro suction caps to stick your tablet where you want it. It looks pretty elegant, at least in photos.
Slope launched 16 November 2012, and was funded 21 December 2012.
I built a low frequency electromagnetic field detector several decades ago. It was large and fairly clunky. The worst items for EMF radiation were electric blankets and the backs of old style TV sets. Aaron Rasmussen has designed an elegant replacement in the Mr.Ghost: iPhone EMF Detector. Just a short antenna, and an app for an iPhone.
Mr.Ghost: iPhone EMF Detector launched on 28 November 2012, was funded on 19 December 2012. I received my Mr Ghost in early April 2013.
I like solar power projects. Camille van Gestel is doing a solar lamp and power box. WakaWaka Power: the Best Compact Solar Power Station & Light. Backup power and light. Plus they donate a light to Haiti for each one funded.
WakaWaka Power: the Best Compact Solar Power Station & Light launched on 13 December 2012, and was funded 12 January 2013.
A router, but with extra features. Securifi Almond+ : 802.11ac Touchscreen WiFi Router + Smart home Hub is compatible with Z-Wave & ZigBee smart sensors. You could control a Philips Hue (if you can get one). Part of the Internet of Things.
Almond+ : 802.11ac Touchscreen WiFi Router + Smart home Hub launched 23 Jan 2013, and was funded 9 March 2013.
I supported a much earlier LilyPad iteration of this. David Foster is doing an update. Power your Tablet with Light & Charge your Phone all Day!
Power your Tablet with Light & Charge your Phone all Day! was launched on 22 February 2013. Funding closes 22 April 2013.
I watched The Big Bang Theory Critics are right. If you took out the laugh track, it would be a dull documentary on autism.