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Congratulations to our Insert Coin winners: Poursteady and Noke
The votes have been tallied; the judges deliberated; and we have our winners for this year's Insert Coin. The judges tossed their support behind Poursteady, a robot that makes five pour-over cups of coffee and handed the company $10,000 to help get off the ground. Noke took home the $15,000 readers choice prize. While we've seen plenty of smartlocks before, this is the first time we've seen Bluetooth crammed into the padlock form factor. You can relive the entire competition, from the initial presentations by the 10 semi-finalists, to the grilling by the judges, and finally the prizes being awarded after the break.
60 seconds with the world's first Bluetooth padlock
In just a matter of three months, the Noke smart padlock managed to make its way from Kickstarter to our Expand event as an Insert Coin contender, so of course it's rather special. First of all, it's a Bluetooth 4.0-enabled steel bolt that can be unlocked with a click on the shackle when your iPhone or Android phone is nearby. Secondly, the companion app lets you share your Noke locks with family and friends, thus saving you the hassle of passing on a physical key. You can even set the repetition and security level for the authorization, as well as tracking history by users or by locks.
Crowdfunding Roundup: A bunch of dogs and one bright idea
Each week, TUAW provides readers with an update on new or significant crowdfunded Apple-related projects 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. This week we're starting off with a couple of Indiegogo campaigns, the first of which is the MPortable, a wireless SSD for photographers. Well, at least it's an SSD external storage device with Wi-Fi in it, because at one point on the campaign page they show pulling photos from a camera with a cable... but that's beside the point. The idea is that you can use this to store large quantities of photos from a DSLR, then share the images over Wi-Fi using a special app. Too bad it probably won't make it to market: it's 7 percent funded with about 17 days left. There's nothing to see here, let's move on. OK, how about a "smart iPad bag" called Padroo? It's smart if you think that putting a loaded backpack on the front of your chest is a good idea. At my age, I see this as nothing but a bad backache waiting to happen. Apparently others are questioning the primary design decision as well, as Padroo has no backers with 29 days left in the campaign. Back to the drawing board... Now over to Kickstarter, where we'll hopefully have a few projects that are actually going somewhere... although I doubt it with this first entry, the Pocket Gamer video game controller for iPhone. It's a great idea; it's just that there are a number of similar products that are already on the market. Perhaps that's why this campaign is stuck at 3 percent of its goal with a week to go. Well, that's going nowhere quickly. How about another "smart home solution"? That's a hot growth area, right? Qhome is a "next-generation smart home solution", powered by Quatanium. Huh? That's what I said, too. Anyway, despite an impressively long infographic, Qhome is 0 percent funded with 40 days to go. Ooof. Well, let's try again. How about Live Lids, a baseball cap with a color LED display where the team logo normally appears? That's a fine idea if you like having a billboard strapped to your forehead. Seriously, though -- the idea is different, but how many people really want to worry about having to charge their baseball caps? Call me old-fashioned, but I'll just take a standard baseball cap that costs less than $75, even if I can't sync images and logos to it. The campaign is 9 percent funded with 40 days to go. So, if you're not up for baseball caps with embedded displays, how about speakers with glowing color lights in the front? What? You say this seems like something that might have been popular with high school students in the 70's? Well, LumaPlay is actually 12 percent towards its funding goal, which is turning it into today's winner! There's still almost a month to go in this campaign, so your smartphone-controlled LED light/speaker may actually make it to market. This last project is one that I find to be probably the most useful and worthy of funding: the Jolt Sensor, which is used to detect possible concussion conditions in youth athletes. It's a wearable with a mission, a tiny clip-on that can be used in a helmet or on any other headgear, providing notification when the wearer's head has been exposed to a possibly dangerous impact. The idea is that coaches and parents can keep an eye on concussions in real time. The Jolt Sensor is 21 percent funded with four weeks to go; if you have kids who play sports, you want to back this project. And now an update on a previous story. Remember when I commented on AyeGear's jacket that was surprisingly similar to those made by SCOTTeVEST? Well, apparently Scott Jordan, CEO of SCOTTeVEST noticed as well. He contacted me yesterday to discuss just how similar the product is -- an exact duplicate -- and mentioned that the company is currently in litigation to defend its intellectual property rights against AyeGear. Go get 'em, Scott! By the way, the AyeGear "25 pocket transforming jacket" is only 6 percent towards its funding goal with just four days left in the campaign, so it's probably going to never see the light of day anyway. Finally, let's end on a very upbeat note. Remember Noke, the Bluetooth-equipped smart padlock that I actually backed? Well, it's currently 389 percent funded with about three weeks to go, and the team is reaching for some stretch goals like a scratch-protecting shell and different colors. I can't wait to get mine early next year so I can quit having to dig for the right key for the stupid padlock I currently have on my gate. That's it for this week. We'll be back next Thursday for another roundup of crowdfunded projects that you can support or ignore. Many thanks again to Hal Sherman for providing some tips about new and exciting projects, and 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. Out of this week's rather sorry crop of crowdfunding projects, which one do you think you'd back? Make your pick in the following poll and then let your friends know via Twitter and/or Facebook. What's your pick for the best crowdfunded project of the week?
Noke Bluetooth app-enabled padlock launches on Kickstarter
I was so excited about this Kickstarter campaign that launched this morning that I decided to forgo waiting until our usual Thursday crowdfunding roundup to write it up. The new project is from FÜZ Designs, the same team that brought you the EverDock last year. But the Noke (pronounced No-Key) is a much more ambitious project than the universal dock, bringing Bluetooth connectivity and the power of apps to that bane of students and bicyclists, the padlock. Somewhat akin to the Kwikset Kevo in how it works, Noke seeks out an app on your iPhone for a digital key and unlocks it in a second. Those digital keys can be shared with anyone who has the app, making it simple to let someone borrow your locked bike or open your storage locker to borrow something. Noke is water-resistant and uses a replaceable battery for power. If you don't happen to have your iPhone with you and really need to get the Noke unlocked, you're in luck -- there's a way to program a "click code" to open the lock in emergencies. Obviously Noke fills a need; the project has been live for about four hours and is already at over 40 percent of its funding goal. After you watch the launch video, you might be tempted to be a backer as well.
This Bluetooth padlock will open for you and whomever you deem worthy
The plain old padlock is getting rather dull, but add Bluetooth to it unlocks (pun intended) a whole new level of possibilities. As the name suggests, this waterproof Noke smart padlock by Fuz Designs doesn't come with any physical keys; instead, you unlock it by first getting near it with an assigned iOS or Android device (with Bluetooth LE), and then click the Noke's hook. Better yet, you can also assign a Noke to your best pals, thus eliminating the need to pass a key around. But what if your phone runs out of battery? Well, that's where your pre-assigned click pattern comes in: Simply tap that in on the hook and your Noke will magically open up. On a similar note, the device itself can last over a year with a CR3032 battery, which can be easily replaced even when completely out of juice (but it'd still be locked, of course). Check out the demo video after the break, and then you can head over to the Kickstarter page to grab one for an early-bird price of $59. Update: Canada's OckCorp previously tried to raise funds for a similar project but failed to reach goal.
