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Crowdfunding Roundup: Sound Prizm, Addams Family, and Notion
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. Let's start off this week's roundup with a winner! I always love it when a project already has its funding, and we can help push those projects through stretch goals. In this case, the funding goals were modest -- $1000 -- but the Sound Prizm natural sound projection and docking station is an acrylic iPhone/iPad stand that helps channel the sound out of your device's speakers and into a room. It looks good, too! 135 percent funded with 38 days to go. FarSight Studios has a wonderful mission -- to bring classic pinball machines to the digital age. The group has already made digital versions of the Twilight Zone, Star Trek: The Next Generation, and Terminator 2: Judgement Day pinball machines that are available on gaming consoles and iOS devices. Now they're seeking funds to take the classic Addams Family machine digital. Who wouldn't want to see this amazing pinball machine on their iPad? The project is 53 percent funded with 24 days to go, and you can help push it over the top. Yeah, companies like Logitech keep trying to make the "universal remote", but these guys want to make everything controllable from your smartphone. AnyMote is designed to control all of your devices, whether they're audio/video gear, power plugs, air conditioners, or anything else that can be controlled via some sort of remote. This project is already funded -- 222 percent of goal with three weeks to go. Loop Labs of Denver has a great idea for another home automation system. This one is also fully-funded (176 percent) with 27 days to go, so you can jump into being a backer of a really cool project with assurance that it's probably going to be on the market soon. Notion consists of a hub and an intelligent sensor that performs the tasks of seven different sensors. The sensors are battery-powered and last two years, so you can put 'em just about anywhere for monitoring from your iPhone. All of us bearded, balding male tech bloggers want beautiful skin, so we're all going to put our money on this next project. FaceCare is a smart skin analyzer for smart phones that will make sure that your skin is well-hydrated and glowing. But it needs a little support from the world right now -- it has no funding with 22 days to go. Ouch! Sometimes when I'm in bed trying to get comfortable while looking at my iPad, I wish I had something like this next product. Mükava Tables are adjustable to a number of heights and positions, so that you can move the iPad into a position where you are comfortable. It's a unique design, and I was impressed with how top-notch the manufacturing looks. It's only 25 percent funded with 13 days to go, so if you want to see this project come to life, please open your wallet now. It's another external battery project! And they come in bunches -- 4, 6 or even 8! It's PowerKnots, billed as the "last backup battery you'll ever need." It comes with a docking station and a bunch of little, ummm, knots that are the batteries. Don't know if this one is going to make the cut, though. It's only 2 percent funded with 25 days left in the campaign. This week's last project is a tracking device again -- but this one is different, because it's rechargeable. Tintag looks like a cool idea, and it is well on its way to being funded -- 75 percent funded with 50 days left. It comes with a charging base for the tags, which can be linked to more than just one device. And with that, another week's worth of Apple-related crowdfunding campaigns slips past. 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.
Google TV team focuses on third party content, second screen apps as I/O approaches
The slow-starting Google TV project has gotten a lot of attention at the last two Google I/O conferences, so what do the folks at Mountain View have up their sleeves this time around? Judging by recent updates to the Google Developers support pages, a major focus will be on helping third party devs create apps full of content, as well as control and information apps for mobiles or tablets. Recently the Anymote Android library for remote apps and related documentation was published, which the developer of the popular Able Remote app confirmed could assist devs in expanding upon Google's existing app, while subsequent additions to the FAQ library address HTML5 and more. On deck for Google I/O sessions are Bring Your App To The Big Screen, Get Your Content On Google TV and Command and Control in Your Living Room: Building Second Screen App for Google TV. Recently, apps like the one for Al Jazeera have been updated to bring more video to Google's platform, so with the rumored SDK (and HDTV) from Apple still missing in action, we'll wait and see if the third time's the charm for Google TV.
Google TV shows off new Honeycomb UI, plans for Market, SDK; opens up remote app source code (video)
Google I/O is still ongoing and at the session for teaching developers how to build Android apps for Google TV the team has just shown off a quick peek of the new Honeycomb-based UI that will be released later this year. Shown above you can quickly compare it to the original UI to see how different, and hopefully improved it is. The new icon layout should make getting back to live TV a simpler process, while there's also that large space above for widgets and support for notifications. Developers will be able to run their ADBs on devices later this summer, but prior to that it will have a "Fishtank" program for some devs to take home their internal test units to run apps on now -- no hardware modification necessary. The team also just announced that the source code to the existing Google TV remote app for Android is being open sourced, so anyone who thinks they can do better (it wouldn't be difficult) can have a crack at building their own. Also available is code for the Anymote Protocol it runs on so developers can make tablet or phone apps that integrate with and control the Google TV -- both are linked below. Other features mentioned included support for 3D, and game controllers using Android 3.1's expanded USB compatibility. There were no product announcements before the session ended, and no word on the rumored and expected ARM base for new products, but the project manager confirmed new product announcements "later this year." Google TV will need new product announcements if it's going to receive a boost over other smart TV technology, but the potential of the market and availability of open source code is still providing a tantalizing vision of the promise it's failed to capitalize on so far. Update: The entire presentation is now available on YouTube, check it out after the break as well as an earlier Bootcamp presentation on the same subject. %Gallery-123418%
