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Keyto breath analyzer promises to keep your keto diet on track
The low-carb, high-fat ketogenic diet has become increasingly popular in recent years. Keyto is looking to capitalize on the dietary trend by launching a smart breath analyzer and accompanying mobile app that the company claims can determine how efficiently your body is burning fat and provide tips on how to improve and adhere to the lifestyle. The device is available for $99 on Indiegogo.
Indiegogo 'guaranteed shipping' will ensure refunds if campaigns fail
Indiegogo plans to start offering "guaranteed shipping" on some crowdfunding campaigns through a pilot program starting in 2019. Creators who choose to partake in the pilot will promise to users that their product will be delivered. If they fail to fulfill that promise, supporters will get their money back.
The Gemini PDA's follow-up is a clamshell communicator phone
Planet Computers' Gemini could serve as a phone if you really wanted, but it was ultimately a PDA first and foremost. It's keenly aware of that limitation, however -- the company has launched a crowdfunding project for the Cosmo Communicator, another clamshell QWERTY keyboard device that's intended to serve as a phone, not just a pocketable productivity machine. You'll still find a 6-inch display and camera on the inside, but the outside now includes a 2-inch screen, a 24-megapixel camera and a two-orientation microphone and speaker combo. You can take a call without answering blindly, and snap photos beyond selfies. It's closer to a hybrid phone like Nokia's E90 Communicator than PDAs like Psion's lineup.
The crowdfunded Moto Mod keyboard is dead
More than a few companies tried burying bad news during yesterday's Apple keynote. The latest to come to light is a tough blow for fans of physical keyboards: Livermorium announced that it's ending work on its Moto Mod keyboard. In an update on its IndieGogo page, the company writes that it can't scrounge up any interest in selling the accessory, largely due to the Moto Z being "extremely unpopular in most places."
FTC investigates $700,000 crowdfunding campaign for fraud
The FTC hasn't publicly investigated crowdfunding fraud outside of one case, but that doesn't mean it's inactive. The Verge has learned that the Commission is investigating Doug Monahan's crowdfunding campaigns for the iBackPack, a smart backpack that included a mobile hotspot, battery pack and connectors. Monahan raised over $700,000 between Indiegogo and Kickstarter in 2015 and 2016, but hasn't shipped the backpack in question. Supporters only ever received pre-release accessories, and the Kickstarter campaign's last news update was in March 2017.
No, this device can’t 'enhance' your intuition
Intuition is that gut feeling you get about a situation or a decision. The hunch you can't quite rationalize but that just... feels right. Modern psychology generally agrees that intuition is your subconscious whispering in your ear. The idea that all the knowledge and past experiences swirling around your head are responsible for that gut feeling -- even if you can't consciously put the pieces together to understand the why. It's just one of the many mysterious ways our brains process information. Intuition isn't something that's simple to observe, but one company claims its device can measure it, and actually enhance it.
Bose puts crowdfunded 'sleepbuds' on sale for $250
Last year, Bose took to Indiegogo to gauge people's interest on an experimental device: a pair of noise-masking wireless earbuds designed to help you sleep. That experiment was a success, and the "sleepbuds" sold out within six days on the crowdfunding platform, so now the audio giant is making them available for purchase. These sleepbuds were designed to fit snugly -- they're apparently Bose's smallest products yet --allowing you to drift off to sleep without the feeling that there's something in your ears. In addition to blocking noise, they come with 10 pre-loaded white noise tracks that mimic snoring, the sound of gentle waves, dogs, traffic and wind turbines, among other things. What they don't do, however, is stream music.
Atari VCS preorders are finally available through Indiegogo
Atari launched an Indiegogo campaign today, allowing fans to finally preorder the revamped VCS console ahead of a supposed 2019 ship date. The company is offering a handful of limited-time bundles that package the two versions of the Atari VCS along with a joystick and/or a modern controller, and Atari has announced partnerships with some independent development studios.
Crowdfunded 3D headphone startup Ossic closes its doors
It's a sad time if you're a fan of 3D audio. Ossic, a startup that crowdfunded a pair of headphones that personalized 3D sound for your ears, has shut down due to a lack of funds. It successfully shipped a handful of developer-oriented units in January, but didn't have the money to mass-produce the devices for most listeners. There's no mention of customers getting refunds, although that's typical for crowdfunding efforts given that contributions are considered investments rather than guaranteed purchases.
Atari VCS pre-orders start May 30th, but it won't ship until 2019
Nearly a year after it was first revealed, retro gaming enthusiasts will finally be able to order the Atari VCS beginning May 30th via an IndieGoGo crowdfunding campaign.
Ascape Audio and the economics of making headphones in America
Ascape Audio's home page proudly proclaims "Designed in Detroit," but at this point it's not helping business. "It hasn't made any goddamn impact," marketing director Dean Clancy said. "I want to put that in as many places as possible, because regardless of how it impacts our sales, I just want people to know we're doing it here," he said. "Designed in Detroit" they may be, but economics makes manufacturing Ascape's earbuds in the Motor City impossible. President Paul Schrems estimated it'd take at least $5 million to build a factory and staff it, so the company has offshore-manufacturing contracts for the wireless earbuds it designs in the D. "These things I wanna make are not made here," Schrems told me recently.
'Wave' ring is the latest to turn your hands into MIDI controllers
Ring-shaped music controllers aren't anything new. IK Multimedia released the iRing back in 2014, and the Enhancia made its debut at CES this year. Now we've got the Wave, an adjustable MIDI controller ring that can adjust sounds and effects with gestures and taps. Genki Instruments has a working prototype of the device, and is looking to fund a final version on Indiegogo.
PowerUp releases its phone-controlled paper airplane
PowerUp first previewed its smartphone-controlled paper airplane back in 2014, but now it's finally available to everyone. The startup has announced that a retail version of its Dart aircraft will ship in February, and is running a pre-order campaign for barebones (just the propeller module and two templates) and standard (wheels and Japanese aerobatic papers) kits that start at $29 and $37 respectively. Higher-priced packs offer additional modules and stands for your aeronautics-minded friends.
Indiegogo makes it easy to hop on the cryptocurrency bandwagon
There's a frenzy over cryptocurrency at the moment (helped in no small part by bitcoin's sky-high value), and Indiegogo is determined to milk the trend for all it's worth. The crowdfunding site has partnered with MicroVentures to enable investments in the initial coin offerings (ICOs) that are all the rage as of late. If you think a new digital cash format is going to be the next big thing, you now have a potentially easier way to pour money into it -- and you don't need to be an accredited investor, which limits the scope of many ICOs. The first offering on tap is the Fan-Controlled Football League, which is running a pre-sale for $5 million tokens for 10 days after this writing.
Olie lamp includes a voice assistant and wireless charging
It seems like everyone is building in Alexa or Google Assistant smarts to their speakers, thermostats and cars these days. If you haven't yet had enough of devices you can talk to, the Olie lamp over at Indiegogo might interest you. It's a cute little desk, floor or table lamp that will have a voice assistant from Amazon or Google and a neat little Qi wireless charging station built right in (to the table-sized Olie).
'Social robot' Jibo reaches Indiegogo backers three years later
Three years after an astronomically successful crowdfunding campaign raised over $3.6 million, Jibo the robot is finally ready. The social bot is available to buy on its site for $900; Those who backed its Indiegogo have already started receiving their robots, while more recent preorders will start shipping on November 7th.
Indiegogo's Marketplace sells successfully-funded projects
Indiegogo has become a viable alternative to Kickstarter for crowd-funding projects in the last few years. It's not just small projects, either — big names like IBM, Honeywell and Atari have used the site to pull in funding. Now the crowd-sourcing company is looking to help successfully-funded initiatives get attention after they launch, as well. The company has launched a new Marketplace page where you can find a ton of gadgets, devices and other products that you can purchase directly from the site.
Honeywell will crowdfund a DIY home security system
In the tech world, Honeywell is a long-established (century-old!) brand known for its appliances and devices, which are just now getting hooked up to Google Home. But its next venture is usually a move made by less-resourced companies and startups. Soon, Honeywell will launch an Indiegogo campaign and ask folks to crowdfund its new product, a home security system you can install yourself.
Google's Pixel Buds translation will change the world
Google's Pixel 2 event in San Francisco on Wednesday had a lot of stuff to show off and most of it was more of the same: the next iteration of the flagship smartphone, new Home speakers and various ways of entwining them more deeply into your smart home, a new laptop that's basically a Yoga running ChromeOS and a body camera that I'm sure we've seen somewhere before. Yawn. We saw stuff like this last time and are sure to see more of it again at next year's event.
The Ataribox will cost under $300 and ship next spring
Atari has so far kept pretty schtum about its forthcoming Ataribox, but in an email newsletter it's now revealed a few nuggets of information that should tide fans over until the console's Indiegogo launch this fall. As the newly-released pictures show, design-wise you can expect an Atari 2600 influence with a modern twist (and yes, that is real wood). Inside, the console will be powered by an AMD customized processor and run Linux, so you'll be able to tinker with the OS and access games bought from other platforms. You can also do all the usual PC-for-TV things, such as streaming, listening to music and navigating social media.