fusechicken
Latest
[Fuse]Chicken goes natural with the LEDGE iPhone charging dock
You'd expect a company named [Fuse]Chicken to be different, and they certainly have come up with some different products over the years. They started with the Bobine, then moved on to the togoDock and PLUGdock with a successful Indiegogo campaign. Now the design house is going natural with the wood LEDGE, a Kickstarter campaign that is funded with a little over a week to go. The company sent a prototype LEDGE for us to test, and we'll be giving that away along with a production PLUGdock. Design The LEDGE is made of two pieces of hardwood; one is machined to hold an iPhone (5/5s, 6 or 6 Plus) with a small case comfortably, while the other is a prop to hold up the LEDGE at an angle. The main piece has a couple of channels machined into it as well - there's one for the charging cable (you need to supply your own Apple-approved Lightning to USB cable) that snakes out of the back of the LEDGE, while another provides an open area where a headphone cable can comfortably plug in. The bottom of that main piece has a piece of non-slip foam on it, while the prop has two foam bands wrapped around it to keep it from slipping on a desktop. The LEDGE is given a natural hand finish, with each one being produced from a piece of African Bubinga, African Padauk, or North American Cherry wood. If there's one thing about the LEDGE that I'd like to see is for the foam bands to be installed a bit more carefully. The band on the bottom of the pre-production LEDGE I have was installed a bit unevenly, and even though it can't be seen when the LEDGE Is in use, it made my OCD kick in. Functionality LEDGE is an amazingly simple design and provides a desk or table top home for your iPhone. I've already run into issues with some competing charging stands, as they don't work well with iPhones in cases. Not so with the LEDGE - I have a rather thin case on my iPhone 6 Plus, yet it fits comfortably in the phone pocket with a bit of space to spare on each side. [Fuse]Chicken made sure to take cases into account when designing the LEDGE, a feature I really appreciate. You can determine if your iPhone and case will fit in the LEDGE phone pocket quote easily: the standard LEDGE pocket (for iPhone 5/5s/6) is 3 inches (75mm) wide, while the large version is 3.5 inches (89mm) wide. Conclusion Pledge US$35 on the LEDGE Kickstarter page in the next week and you can get your own LEDGE shipped to you next month. Pledge $60 or more, and you'll get two! LEDGE is a nice, natural looking charging dock for your iPhone, case-friendly, and affordably priced. Note that we don't usually provide a TUAW "star rating" for items that are pre-production, crowdfunded projects. However, [Fuse]Chicken has a good track record of bringing projects to market and the LEDGE project has reached its funding goal, so the charging stand is getting a rating. Rating: 3-1/2 stars out of 4 stars possible Giveaway One lucky TUAW reader is going to win not only a large (iPhone 6 Plus) LEDGE, but also a [Fuse]Chicken PLUGdock. Here are the rules for the giveaway: Open to legal US residents of the 50 United States, the District of Columbia and Canada (excluding Quebec) who are 18 and older. To enter, fill out the form below completely and click or tap the Submit button. The entry must be made before November 29, 2014 11:59PM Eastern Standard Time. You may enter only once. One winner will be selected in a random drawing and will receive a FuseChicken LEDGE charging stand (large size for iPhone 6 Plus) valued at $30 and a FuseChicken PLUGdock wall-mounted dock valued at $10. Click Here for complete Official Rules. Loading...
Une Bobine: A Kickstarter succeeds, expands to another market
Une Bobine is a stylish and handy iPhone cable that went from zero to 1000 percent funded on Kickstarter in just 19 days. I covered the device on an episode of TUAW TV Live a few weeks ago, and just love the way that the flexible-but-somewhat-stiff Une Bobine works with an iPhone or iPod touch to not only connect your device for charging and syncing, but also works as a stand. As a result of the hot start this Kickstarter project received, the team decided to expand the product's use to micro-USB devices as well. Not all Mac users use iPhones -- there are a surprising number of TUAW readers who have Android-based phones -- so it is nice that Jon Fawcett and the [Fuse]Chicken team have taken the extra funding from Kickstarter to meet the needs of another market. Fawcett noted that "Micro-usb took significantly more work to achieve because it has one major flaw compared to the Apple 30 pin connector when attempting to do what we are with it. It is simply so small that the phone tends to rock side to side. To solve this, we have engineered a custom micro-usb connector housing that will make the micro-usb very stable on most phones. Because it seemed like an eternity was passing for us to finalize the details for this, we held a spontaneous 'Kickathon' with all of our employees (our name for the Kickstarter version of a hackathon) from 12:01am today until 5:01pm today. The Kickathon had one goal; to finalize the entire design for the micro-usb connector, which included design, engineering, prototyping, and testing. All of these came together by the hard work of our great team!" Une Bobine will be available in a 12" version (Petite Bobine) and a 24" full version, and since the company surpassed a $90,000 "stretch" funding goal, they're adding in a free 3-foot USB extension cable. And of course, it'll be in both Dock connector and micro-USB flavors. Check out another one of [Fuse]Chicken's well-done product trailers below.
