UneBobine
Latest
Bend me, shape me: Une Bobine review and giveaway
Back in May, I wrote about the remarkable story of an iPhone accessory that went from zero to 1000 percent funded on Kickstarter in just 19 days. Well, that accessory -- Une Bobine (US$30) -- is in full production now, and you have a chance to win one for either your iPhone or Android phone. If you didn't read the original post, Une Bobine (Italian French for "a coil") is the brainchild of Jon Fawcett and the other designers at (Fuse)Chicken. After my original post was written, the Kickstarter went even crazier -- the team originally asked for $9,800 and received a total of over $212,000 in funding. So what were people excited about? Une Bobine is a flexible stand for your iPhone, iPod touch or (with the micro-USB model) Android phone. On one end is a USB plug, while the other has a 30-pin Dock Connector or micro-USB connector. Don't worry, iPhone 5 owners -- Fawcett notes that they've created a Lightning adapter that will be available in about a month. So how does it work? Simple. Pop the USB plug into the corresponding port on your computer or hub, plug the other end into your device, and then bend the 24-inch metal-covered connector into any shape you want. By the way, there's a shorter 12-inch version called the Petite Bobine ($28) if you don't need all that extra flexibility in your life. What you end up with is a very sleek-looking iPhone charging/syncing stand that can be flexed into whatever shape you desire. That can be very handy if you want to hold your iPhone up for a FaceTime session or keep the device in one place while filming video. I'm also willing to bet that the metal-shielded cable and robust connectors will last a lot longer than just a stock USB to Dock Connector cable. %Gallery-167727% Any negatives? Just one -- in order to use Une Bobine to hold up my iPhone 4S, I had to remove it from the standard Apple iPhone bumper I've been using. Your mileage may vary depending on the case that you use to protect your device. And now it's time to give away a big pile of these lovely things! (Fuse)Chicken provided three of each model -- Petite Bobine, Une Bobine, iPhone/iPod touch, and Android/micro-USB -- so that a dozen TUAW readers can enjoy this unique charging stand. 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 October 9, 2012 11:59PM Eastern Daylight Time. You may enter only once. Twelve winners will be selected. Three will receive a Une Bobine for iPhone/iPod touch valued at $30, three will receive a Une Bobine for Android/micro-USB valued at $30, three will receive a Petite Bobine for iPhone/iPod touch valued at $28, and three will receive a Petite Bobine for Android/micro-USB valued at $28. 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.
