pocketscan
Latest
Crowdfunding Roundup: PartySnapper, Sticky Notes and more
Every 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. Wow, another week has already passed and we're back with another crop of crowdfunded projects, some of which will blossom into beautiful fruit, others that will wither on the vine. I'm happy to say that the first project out of the gate today is from a company we're all familiar with here at TUAW -- Boinx Software. PartySnapper is a wonderful idea for engaging partygoers. Just let your guests load up the iPhone app on their devices, get PartySnapper running on an iPad connected to a big display, and all of them can "throw their pictures onto the wall" for the rest of the crowd to see. This would be amazing at a TUAW meetup at Macworld/iWorld 2015! The Boinxers get the award for zaniest intro video for their Indiegogo project; now help them get over their goal. Currently, they're at 13 percent of the US$20,000 goal, but we're hoping TUAW readers will push 'em over the top. Now we'll bounce over to Kickstarter and take a look at a few fun projects. First, we have a timely entry in the funding battles with HotBlack, a nice looking watch that also displays football scores beamed via Bluetooth from your favorite device! Umm, not that football, but the one that's in the news all the time right now because of something called the FIFA World Cup. It's 17.8 percent funded with 27 days to go; my predictions is that if USMNT beats Germany today, we'll see it zoom over the 100 percent mark in hours. Here's an interesting idea. The guys at Blerline realize that a lot of artists and others want to use their iPads or iPhones as lightboxes; in other words, using the device to display an image that can then be traced on tracing paper for painting or drawing. Rather than just trying to hold a piece of tracing paper on top of your iOS device, they're seeking funding to create adhesive tracing paper just the size of an iPad, iPad mini, or iPhone screen. The Blerline "Tracing Sticky Notes" campaign has 35 days to go and is just about at 11 percent. Artists -- give them your support! Hey, who doesn't want a digital horn and light combo for their bike? I'm sure that Pee-wee Herman would love a MYBELL, which you can customize with your own sound files for a loud alert to pedestrians that get in the way. About 15 percent funded with 36 days to go, MYBELL is something that techie bikers everywhere should fall in love with. This project has already reached its funding goal, and it's not surprising. PocketScan is a tiny handheld scanner that you "paint" over text or images to send the scanned material to your iPhone, iPad or Mac. How popular is PocketScan? It's 550 percent funded with 19 days to go. We see a lot of crowdfunding campaigns targeted at the mobile world, but not all that many that are creating accessories for the Mac. Here's one that caught our attention: the UNITI Stand, which is designed for iMacs and Apple displays. It's perfect for organizing your desktop world! 12.9 percent pledged with a comfortable 51 days to go. C-Lens? See, lens! These are tiny stackable lenses for your iPhone that can be used for all of your macro iPhone photography needs. These are probably the thinnest macro lenses I've seen for iPhone, and don't require a special case to use. The campaign is about 22 percent of the way there with 27 days to go. Here's a Kickstarter project that made it through funding and is now in production. You can buy the JUMP by Native Union over at BiteMyApple.co, where this little sync cable/battery pack is available for $49.99. And last this week, we have a project that is supposed to launch today on Kickstarter, although we don't see it yet. Total POM (Peace of Mind) is a full GPS/Bluetooth tracking tag solution, made by a company (Eco PACT) that has a history of making tracking devices for container systems. That's all for this week. Come back next Thursday for another look at what's rocking the world of crowdfunding. 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. Once again, thanks go out to Hal Sherman for providing a number of tips on crowdfunded projects.
