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Crowdfunding Roundup: Too many projects, too little time
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, as usual we received notification of a lot of crowdfunding projects that are currently underway. Due to a lack of time this week, we're only going to cover a few. Let's start with a look at Kickstarter projects that are underway: Have you ever wanted to record a call off of your iPhone for future reference? Maybe you're talking with your lawyer, perhaps it's an interview that you want to go back and reference later. That's the idea behind RECAP USB, a new version of Igor Ramos' RECAP devices. You can just plug this device into your iPhone on one end, your Mac on the other end, and then use Garage Band or Audacity to record those calls. With 50 days to go, RECAP USB is already over 15 percent funded. Do you know what a slider is? In the food world, it's a small hamburger, but for videographers a slider allows a camera to move horizontally during a shot to provide a more compelling view of a subject. The Extralite G2 Camera Slider project seeks funding to create a family of sliders that will work with everything from an iPhone to your DSLR. It's starting a bit slowly; at this point, with 29 days to go, the project is only about 7 percent funded. You can change that with your support. Hey, it's another tablet stand! This one not only has an odd name -- Scööb -- but an interesting functionality. It's foldable for extra portability, and adjusts to a number of different angles. I think this may be one case where the low cost of the device -- CAD$3 -- is going to make it difficult for the team to reach its goal of CAD$5000. It's 19 percent funded at this point. Check it out in the video below: Remember the Pluggy Lock from a few weeks ago? It's a tiny lanyard lock for your iPhone that plugs into the headphone jack. Unsurprisingly, it's funded to the tune of 459 percent with three weeks to go! There's still time for you to back the project and get one of these innovative little devices before you lose your iPhone. During this week's WWDC Keynote, we heard about "Hey, Siri", a feature of iOS 8 that will let you interact with Siri without the need for you to press a button or raise your phone to your head. But what about being able to say "Hey, Homey, I want to watch Star Trek" and then have lights turned down, blinds closed, a TV turned on, and Plex searched for the movie? That's the idea behind Homey, a home automation tool that uses voice recognition and apps to control your home. It's already funded at 159 percent of goal with just over three weeks to go. And one quick project from Indiegogo. Remember that little puck-type printer that crawled around a piece of paper to print stuff? There's somebody else trying the idea now. PPrintee wants to fit in your pocket and self-drive on a piece of paper of any size, leaving a trail of print behind it. It's just .2 percent funded with about a month to go, but all it takes is some deep-pocketed individual to throw a few hundred thousand bucks in the direction of the PPrintee team and this is reality. And that, my friends, is all we have time for this week. Be sure to drop by next week for our continuing coverage of the world of crowd funded projects that have some relevance to Apple fans. 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. Thanks again to reader Hal Sherman, our faithful provider of tips about Kickstarter and Indiegogo projects!
