crowd funding – SomeGadgetGuy

December 17, 2014

KickStarter Watch: Andromium Wants to Turn Your Phone Into a Desktop PC

We keep seeing the promise of this never completely fulfilled. Docking a phone into a tablet or a laptop shell. Running custom versions of Linux to reorganize the UI for a more PC like experience when plugged into a larger screen.

Kickstarter project Andromium thinks they have the solution for using your phone as the brain of a home computing environment. A simple cradle connects to PC peripherals, and custom software borrows the more successful elements of OSX and Windows for a familiar PC look.

With our phones becoming more and more powerful, the idea of a ubiquitous data experience doesn’t seem too far fetched, and the lead designer of this project was formerly a Senior Engineer at Google. The project already looks like it’ll be compatible with several Samsung phones, with more handsets to follow. Best of all the dock doesn’t look like it’ll be prohibitively expensive if the project is funded with an expected retail price of $39.95.

Andromium (Kickstarter)

May 30, 2014May 30, 2014

‘Reading Rainbow’ Crushes Crowd Funding Goals – LeVar Burton Thanks Supporters on Youtube

LeVar Burton is trying to bring Reading Rainbow to the web and produce a specialized classroom version of the show which will be freely available to educators. Their goal for the project? $1,000,000.

With 33 days to go on the project backers have already pledged $2.5 Million.

Produced from 1983 to 2006, the project producers believe that the next frontier to help improve child literacy isn’t TV, but the internet. The fact that the project reached its goal before the end of its first day, it would appear a lot of people would agree. An emotional LeVar Burton took to Youtube to express his thanks.

The project still has a month to go, and there are plenty of fun perks left to grab. Head on over to the Kickstarter page to check it out, but you don’t have to take my word for it…

May 27, 2014

Solar Roadways Breaks $1 Million Crowdfunding Goal

With 5 days to go on their IndieGoGo, Solar Roadways has shattered their $1 million funding goal by a solid $300,000.

The crowdfunding campaign was to help kick start manufacturing for the first round of this new roadway construction process which incorporates solar cells and LED lights into hexagonal tiles that can be used to replace sidewalks, driveways, and streets. The cells are protected by a tempered glass which is durable enough to handle vehicles up to 15 tons.

The main benefit of this kind of retrofit is it takes ground that’s already dedicated for one purpose to generate electricity. It’s a futuristic idea, that every piece of passive asphalt and cement could instead be generating power. Other solar farm proposals might need large areas of land, which means pushing them farther away from populated areas.

There’s still time left to contribute to the campaign, with some fun perks for donating. If you’d like more info on the Solar Roadways project, we’ve got their pitch video below.

May 15, 2014May 14, 2014

Time Bending First Person Shooter ‘SuperHot’ now on Kickstarter

We posted about SuperHot last year, a standalone, free, indie game with a novel mechanic. Time only moves when you move.

Now it looks like the developers are looking to expand the concept and they’re turning to Kickstarter to raise funds for a follow up. In it’s first day, it’s already grabbed $88,000 towards it’s $100,000 goal. We can be fairly sure they’ll not only make that goal over the next 29 days, they might need to come up with some stretch goals…

The game’s design is currently very simplistic, but the developers absolutely nailed an eerie and interesting atmosphere. With an actual budget, they’re hoping to polish up the whole experience.

It’s a killer concept, and it’ll only take $14 to snag a copy of the finished product. We’ve got more info after the jump, or you can head directly to Kickstarter to support the project.

Continue reading “Time Bending First Person Shooter ‘SuperHot’ now on Kickstarter”

November 25, 2013November 23, 2013

One Today brings charitable crowd-funding to your smartphone – 1 new cause every day.

What could you do with $1? Probably not a lot right.

Well what could 100 people do if they each chipped in a dollar? A thousand people? A million?

It’s the spirit of giving, and it’s important that we check in from time to time. Our tech can be used for trivial things and terrific things.

When it comes to crowd-funding, million dollar projects take up most of the mind share, but we haven’t completely exhausted the idea of bringing a crowd of people to contribute money to an idea. One Today is one possible solution for finding and funding. A new project is highlighted every day, and users can decide whether they wish to contribute a dollar.

Projects run the gamut of social causes, from protecting coral reef, to fighting malaria, or contributing to the World Food Program. A new cause every day is served up right to your phone.

The idea of small, painless transactions makes a lot of sense. Even a relatively small group can quickly build a significant amount of capital. To that end, just as you might easily share a picture on social networking, One Today provides participants with easy tools to help spread the word on causes they care about.

Google One Today

One Today on Google Play

October 3, 2013October 3, 2013

Kickstarter find – SPLIT: The World’s Only Earbuds with no Strings Attached

The ironic thing about most “wireless” earbuds is that while they don’t connect to your phone via a wire, they probably connect to EACH OTHER via some kind of wiring. Kinda betrays the concept when cables get caught behind the neck or on things like scarves…

Well, Greenwing Audio is looking to cut the cord, actually ALL the cords with SPLIT. SPLIT is a standalone music player which uses a low power radio signal and internal clocks to time left ear and right ear buds for playback. Greenwing is estimating radically less power consumption and radiation absorbed by the body that traditional Bluetooth wireless headphones.

Form factor is about as minimal as you can get, pretty much just the size of a traditional earbud driver. This leaves about zero room for controls, but the SPLIT uses accelerometers to detect bite motions from your jaw to skip tracks and control volume. I’m not sure how SPLIT will determine between “control” bites and say “eating” bites, but it’s a novel solution for keeping the earbuds as small as possible.

Greenwing has 27 days left to fund its project. Pricing looks like it’ll fall around $150 for a 256MB version of SPLIT. Check out the project video below. These things are teenie…

SPLIT on Kickstarter