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Crowdfunding Roundup: New Apple-related projects
Every week, TUAW provides readers with an update on what new or significant crowdfunded Apple-related projects are in the news. While our policy is to not go into detail on items that haven't reached at least 80 percent of their funding goal, this update is designed to give readers a heads-up on projects they might find interesting enough to back. From Kickstarter SPIN is billed as a premium in-ear audio solution that provides a very cool cord-retraction mechanism in an aluminum casing to destroy cord tangling once and for all. One of the co-founders of SPIN, Kevin Brennan, hails from LUNATIK -- we're big fans of their products here at TUAW. The campaign has about a month to go and is currently at about 4.5 percent of the $125,000 necessary to bring this product to life. When I first saw FretPen, I immediately thought that this diminutive guitar fell out of Jim Dalrymple's ample Beard™. I'll let the video below give you an idea of how amazing this thing is when used with your iPhone. And it's also usable as a pen! Which reminds me of The Who's "Guitar and Pen"... but I digress. With 26 days to go, it's about a third of the way towards funding. YOU CAN PUSH IT OVER THE TOP ... YEEEEEAAAHHHHH! DARWINmachine wants to evolve the iPad stand, which is why they've designed the F2 iPad/Tablet Stand. It has about three weeks to go, and is about 40 percent funded. F2 is a professionally-machined piece of gear that not only looks futuristic, but works well too. Give it a look if you're tired of the same old iPad stands that are currently on the market. The Star Trek Tricorder is closer than you think. The SCiO pocket molecular scanner from Consumer Physics is amazing. Use it with your iPhone and it uses infrared spectroscopy to do some amazing things -- tell you what the nutritional value of a food is, identify a medication, or determine how ripe a piece of fruit is. Unsurprisingly, SCiO is already 188 percent funded with about six weeks to go. We covered Lunecase yesterday in a breakout post, and it's bleepin' amazing. Lunecase is an iPhone case that harnesses the electromagnetic energy from your phone to power a display on the back. The case "knows and identifies when users receive an SMS message or a phone call before it is even displayed on the iPhone's screen." Lunecase is 180 percent funded with five weeks to go, but you can still get in on the fun. Would you buy a Lightning or micro-USB cable if it had a lifetime warranty? One of the primary issues with existing cables is that there's no strain relief around the actual plugs, so the cables become frayed and unusable way too quickly. Snakable uses a patent-pending strain-relief assembly to keep your cables in one piece. The Lightning cables will be Apple MFi-certified, and the project is about 10 percent funded with three weeks to go. Get to work, backers! Hat tip to Hal Sherman for feeding us this one! And although I was a day late in getting this week's crowdfunding roundup to "press", that's all I've got this week. Be sure to join us next week for even more great projects that could use your funding dollars. If you're aware of any other crowdfunded Apple-related projects, be sure to let us know about them through the Tip Us button at the upper right of the TUAW home page for future listing on the site. Just make sure that they actually have a valid reason for existing, OK?
This "smart case" is powered by your iPhone's own electromagnetic radiation
The radiation put off by mobile phones has long been a topic of discussion -- and that discussion is usually focused on whether or not it is somehow harmful to users. Lunecase is changing the discussion to one of functionality by creating an iPhone case that actually uses the wisps of energy put off by your smartphone to power a notification system located on the back of the device. The Lunecase, which has already been successfully funded on Kickstarter with over a month of its campaign left to go, provides lighted notification icons for both phone calls and text messages. There is no internal battery, and there's nothing you need to do to get it to work. Simply snap on the case and viola, it's on. A pledge of US$39 will get you a first-run Lunecase, which is considerably cheaper than the $50 price it will carry once it hits retail. Unfortunately for many, the case only works on GSM networks, though the reason for this isn't made very clear. So it looks like Verizon and Sprint customers are out of luck on this one.
