Welcome to another week in Kickstarterland. This week we find a Spock documentary teetering on the precipice of funding, a lot of musical and audio projects, a hybrid quadcopter and a collection of shocking projects that should never see the light of day.

For the love of Spock – A documentary by Leonard Nimoy’s son about Spock. So close to their goal its painful to watch.
MikMe – An expensive Bluetooth microphone with built-in storage.
Instamic – This one has no storage but is half the price and size and is water proof.
Myle Tap – A wearable version of Amazon Echo. Record your thoughts into text and voice recordings.
Sound module – Add audio record and playback to your project with this module plus a microSD card.
AximAir Wifi Speaker – Not sure how different this is from all the existing players in this market, except having a Pi in each speaker. But it is sexy enough.
Square2 – I really do like the product but it’s definitely not the first and they still haven’t delivered on their previous campaign.
Saygus V SQUARED – A high specced, hackable Android phone. The only features that makes a big difference are waterproofness and Wireless HD. I don’t understand how they are able to “transfer” $800k of presales to Indiegogo.
Luzi – I am still waiting for my last smart-lamp project to deliver. This one is a bit fantastical, has way too much Photoshopping – I suspect will disappoint many.
Simplypark – It’s a pretty simple idea. Put an iBeacon in your car and mark location when you move apart from your car. I suspect they haven’t thought everything through.
GinzVelo – A powered reclining bike isn’t new. Puting a fibreglass cover over the driver is something. But claiming it is drivable in the snow is just stupid.
Plug-n-IoT – A modular sensor hub with drag-n-drop web interface and (only) GSM output.
uCharger – Sort-of good idea to adapt any USB cable into an iPhone cable. Hard to tell as the campaign information is child-like.
Space Case 1 – Another modern suitcase loaded with useful tech. As always they are a bit heavy but that is unavoidable.
Voltus – USB-C battery and hub in one. Charging your laptop from a USB battery has always been a dream.
Yeair – A hybrid electric petrol quadcopter for larger payloads (5kg), faster speed (100kmh) and longer flying time (60 minutes).
Decko circuit face watch – Cute watch, cute video.
Fahrenheit 2451 – A clever retail use for a commercial/industrial process. I can’t think of much I would want to preserve for eternity.
Owow – A new breed of midi instruments without all the theoretical mumbo jumbo.
Coin – Metawear’s latest build with BLE, gyro, accelerometer and temp sensor. At $69 per device, nobody is going to put these into production.
Aumi – A modern interpretation of the night light. What isn’t BLE enabled nowadays? I suppose the next version will be voice controlled.
Vufine – I can’t see a real use for a small wearable screen except for viewing porn privately. Can you?
Lilo – Grow plants indoors all year. Reminds me of the old tomato growing stations.
Bartesian – Another go at the automated cocktail machine. This one uses Nespresso-style pods for the non-alcoholic ingredients.

Left Fielders

Software Craftsmanship Calendar – A 2016 calendar for software nerds.
Oscilloscope Clock – Some of the readers of this blog will remember analog scopes.
Keyboardio – It’s a nice keyboard but are there really 1000+ people that would pay $300+ for a nice keyboard? Apparently so.
Tatura Hotel – So very Australian. So hard to do it justice in a comment. Watch the video.

Shitstarters

Airing – I am waiting for this scam to be pulled from Indiegogo but it hasn’t happened yet. Taking poor desperate suckers money and promising something in two years, which I suspect they will never deliver. that is what I call a scam.
ARC Reef controller – This poor guy thinks the reason he didn’t get funded last time was the category he chose.
UltraPi – 17 clustered PIs in a briefcase. The guy didn’t even have the sense to turn his smartphone into landscape mode when recording his video.
Residential Accoustics – Why the hell are these guys on Kickstarter? Go buy space in a homemaker catalog.
PAO – They claim this is the funniest game controller but its really the funniest campaign video.
T.brush – Reinventing things that don’t need to be reinvented. I wouldn’t want to take on Braun but if I did I would want to offer more than a USB charging port.

And remember, its only limited by your frigging imagination.

After taking a week off to go camping with the kids, I was hoping to come back to a glut of awesome new projects. Sadly, I was disappointed as most of this week’s projects are unoriginal. There are a few interesting projects such as connected footwear and magnetic liquids but nothing exceptional.

Night Runner – Headlights for your running shoes.
Orphie – LED lights in your shoes synced with music or movements. This is the 2015 I was looking forward to.
Ticket Overflow – An enterprising solution to enterprise support costs. Pool your funds, buy a support plan, submit everyones tickets in one month, post the results on StackOverflow.
DIY Home Automation – Become a Home Automation Hero by backing this project. Superb video even if the product isn’t going anywhere.
Stacker – Commercial grade 3D printer that can print up to four copies at once.
Soft Chomp – Finger toothbrush and book for brushing baby teeth without losing a finger. These are already in the shop.
Run Beacon – Add your treadmill data into your Fitbit history.
Audiocase – A large portable Bluetooth speaker for those who don’t with the 80s where a distant memory.
Ferrofluid – Magnetic liquid … so pretty 🙂
TurnsPro – Turns your camera on a timer. I would buy this if it handle DSLR better and included an intervelometer.
SpaceHarp – I wonder if you need to have long hair to use this product or if it makes your hair grow long. Why do people start projects with patents that are nearly 10 years old? Because Indiegogo is a haven for suckers.
Elf – Selfies from a 3D VR drone. I can’t fathom how sick I would feel with this on my head. Almost as funny as watching the 70’s dubbing in this video.
Rocketstar – They want to build a aerospike engine for future single-stage space launch. I don’t know why they can’t find their own money.
Xband – Very small Bluetooth LE + MCU + sensor
Pocketlab – Another BLE sensor kit but this one targeted at STEM education.
Growmotics – Something tells me this is for growing better weed.
Tegstove – A butane cooker which cooks your beans and charges your phone while camping.
Mask – I am not sure why you would want to wait until September when you can walk into a shop and buy one of these off the shelf.

Left fielders and Shitstarters – You can work out which is which

Road Warrior – Heater and Aircon for motorcycle riders. It looks so wrong but then I don’t ride a bike.
UviCube – For paranoid parents who think that washing bottles isn’t enough. It dries and blasts whatever you put in with UV rays.
Eyeprone – Improve your posture by lying on a masage table. Fricking genius!
Crankcase – This is a sad product for sad people. Plus there are plenty of these already on the market.
eDebut – Advertiser sponsored movies. How original. Totally unheard of. Why are people giving their money to these guys?
ConnectScale – BLE connected fishing scale for those who need four seconds back in their life. Solving the worlds difficult problems.

And remember, its only limited by your frigging imagination.

Welcome to another week of Kickstarterland. This episode showcases the best and worst of ideas including two battery projects, connected skipping ropes, wooden sex machines, home urinals and an attempt to fly a drone over North Korea.

ExoDrive Case – Aussie made SD card case for smart phones. Seems a bit obvious yet nobody is making them.
OneNet Open Switch – I can’t really see the use of a software defined network but there are freaks and academics out there for every project.
Bettery – Subscription rechargeable batteries swapped at a local kiosk. Surely rechargeable batteries solve exactly the same problem?
Lightor – Battery with a build in USB port for charging. It’s an overkill but darn it, it’s clever.
Zip Rings – Dental floss rings that solve a problem I never knew we had.
Milk Nanny – After four kids, I can’t say that making formula bottles with the most difficult of the chores. Dealing with the breast-is-best psychos was much more challenging.
Sophia – A slightly modern twist on the old counting skip rope. Apparently a direct copy of Jumpiing but they are now all friends and its ok.
Light Show – A beautiful sculpture, puzzle and interactive LED light.
Gas Sense – Somewhat reminiscent of Quirky’s Refuel only using some sort of thermal imaging technology.
Creek – This looks rather like an Android tablet on a stand. But this clock is also another smart home controller. Why?
Chat Light – A light for your phone, tablet or laptop for better quality videos and selfies.
Shortcut-S – I have to admit I struggle to remember shortcuts so this product appeals to me.
Mu System – Pretty neat and tidy international USB charger.
Bluewire – Bluetooth headset that records conversations. It looks like a really useful product but the absurdity of sending conversations back to the phone by Bluetooth instead of the phone recording them is laughable. Also, they need to decide how the product is spelled.
Catsomat – Multicat refrigerated Wifi-enabled feeder. I still stand by letting them eat mice.
Pixsso – I never tire of seeing ePaper applications. This is a simple product but a worthy one.
VisionCube – HD wifi connected mini projector. Something tells me these guys are not going to deliver anything.
Broogs Smart Lamp – I am still waiting for my last lamp KS project to deliver. I am also not sure I could back a founder named “teddy bear”.

Shitstarters

Kitsch – Even when translated this makes no sense. 100,000 euro in one weekend and they are just at concept stage.
Bug-a-salt – Torment flies with this weapon of messy destruction.
HandEnergy – Charge your phone by masturbating.
Wallflowers – Easily the worst video pitch all year. The product is so-so but the video takes it down to the gutter level.

Left fielders

Main Drain – A home urinal for men who would prefer to pee on a tree than in the loo. This is so very wrong. I can just picture the mess after a drunken visit to the loo.
Tesla Coils for North Korea – These morons want to raise funds to build a kerosine powered drone to fly into North Korean and back.
Adulte.toys – How can you ignore a project titled “Wooden Sex Toys and Fucking Machines”.

As always, it’s limited only by your frigging imagination!

Welcome to another week of Kickstarterland. This episode is chock full of awesome and horrible projects covering (and apparently revolutionising) religion, sex, relationships and physics. We have connected dildos, robotic and electronic prayers, connected cups and power generation from urine.

Voltera – A circuit board printer which solders, places parts and reflows automatically. If this delivers on the promise, it could be a game changer for many.
Luna – An electric blanket that is so smart it detects your sleep patterns, turns off your TV, locks your doors and makes you coffee in the morning. Pass.
Coolbox – A blatant ripoff of the Coolest Cooler but for your tools. At least they did a good job.
3DRacers – A 3d printed, real-world racing game. Finally, something to use that useless printer for!
Flotilla – Yet another hardware hacking kit, this time Pi bases and from the UK. These look pretty good but so do most of the others.
EasyPlug Air – Wow, another Arduino sensor kit. This one using the magic of wireless technology!
DuinoKit Jnr – This may not be the best video but it is one of the best electronics discovery kits which blends the Arduino with the old electronics kits.
OpenMV Cam – Python based open source machine vision hardware. The last MV camI purchased is sitting in a box somewhere.
Bluemometer – General purpose, waterproof, bluetooth thermometer.
Spider Wifi – Dual channel 2.4ghz router for lots of speed and to blast the neighbours off your channels.
Chop-E – An electric bike in a shape inspired by a Harley Davidson motorcycle. With a top speed of 35 km/h, you probably can’t use the roads safely.
Hive – A home automation, control, entertainment and security system. At list this one looks pretty.
xRemote – Another home automation platform (basically a remote control hub) that believes they have done something new. I have news for them. I wonder how many of these companies will be broke within 24 months.
Vexbox – A tool for parents who want their kids to hate them. It throttles the speed of specific websites. These guys don’t live in the same world as me.
Rouncer – Sometimes I just don’t get why people back a particular project. This is a perfectly fine looking mandolin tool but it doesn’t look any better than the other 100 products already on the market.
Coordimate – A rubber stamp that prints an empty cartesian graph. Clever, clever tool for all maths students. I imagine this will be the first of many useful stamps.
Piezo Film Speaker – This guy has come up with some great scientific projects and this is up there. Plus he says its only limited by your frigging imagination!
Neoh – A pretty obvious solution of adding motion sensing to headphones to allow 3D sound to work. But a really badly executed attempt at a funny video. And their claim of being the first is a bit silly as the Rondo Motion was on Kickstarter in 2013.
Kinskii – Share fun times with your kids when you are out of town. I appreciate what they are trying to achieve but I don’t think they hit it.
Daisy – Monitor your potted plant health from your phone. The product looks ok but these muppets are going to learn a tough lesson about the economics of business soon.
TarDisk – I don’t get it. This seems to be just a high capacity SD card.
LensRacks – I wish I had enough gear to justify this solution.
Smartstones – “Pioneering non-verbal communication.” I don’t really believe the world needs this, even if the video is slick and the product looks like a pebble. But I appreciate the attempt.
Entacup – Quantum entanglement for coffee cups. Like Smartstones but with coffee cups instead of rocks. Still just as pointless.
Tlinkle – When it rains, it pours. This is a connected team cup!
Carvi – A team of back seat drivers criticising you while you drive. The minor failure of this concept is most people think they are great drivers and don’t need help. Maybe a product like this should be mandatory for all drivers for the first five years of driving.

Left Fielders

Bilal Robot – This might have been an interesting project except that they are asking for more than a half million dollars. It teaches you to pray, to speak arabic AND to do maths in arabic! It even comes with a comprehensive patent.
365 Watch – For people who don’t have the time to read your bible every day … carry it around on your wrist.
Miss on the Go – Teledildonics at its finest. You can pleasure yourself, your partner or a complete stranger. All while doing your Kegels. Good to see that Canadians do relieve themselves.
g.vibes – A second company revolutionising sex with a remotely controllable dildo. They all seem to be made by geeks with a front-woman. No hamsters required.

Shitstarters

Spark – A watch that zaps you every time you zone out. I can’t think of a stupider product (except for while you are driving). How about a watch that helps you sleep better at night or does your chores for you so you aren’t so bloody tired!?
Ion Earth – A really clever idea but sadly a useless campaign. Someone with proper skills and budget needs to build this.
Coolest Clock – This is not as cool as the Coolest Cooler nor is it ever going to be built as presented. Backers be ware, my shit detector is going off.
Hybox – Apparently you can pee, cry or spill your soda on a Graphene plate and generate enough electricity to charge a smartphone. My guess is that won’t stand up to any sort of scrutiny.
MediaBox – Someone in South Africa forgot to check out Roku and every Android media player on Ebay.

As always, it’s limited only by your frigging imagination!

Welcome back to This Week in Kickstarterland. A busy week for education, photography and useless remote controls and the usual collection of crappy home automation projects that nobody really needs.

Flicks – A LED projector and a Bluetooth speaker in a portable battery operated box. I am mixed on this one, but it isn’t something I would use.
CoolWallet – I like the design of a cold storage Bitcoin wallet in a card but there is no mention of any sort of backup of the contents. I would rather have my Bitcoin bolted to a concrete floor.
Paragon – Inductive cooktop with smart temperature control, specifically targeted at sous vide and deep frying. I really think this is a nice package.
Pixio – Auto-follow camera mount. Awesome idea. The home grown porn industry is going to love it!
AXSY T-Set – Motion control for your camera to allow for fine control during video, time-lapse or astrophotography. Comprises of Centric (the hub), Spin and Slide.
Blueberry wall – Another remote heart-string-tug device. This one with a weird chocolate twist. Apparently the market for long-distance relationships isn’t that big. This one’s for you Kevin.
Juggglow – The IoJ – Internet of Juggling.
Jack – “If you don’t know Jack … you should.” Apparently using Wifi for your guitar cable changes everything.
Dillinger eBike – “Everyone else is doing it wrong, we know best.”
Leo – Another headphone amp that makes your digital audio sound analog. Sadly, this is a thing.
StickyBugs – Build-your-own Arduino shields.
Cirkits – Young kids will get better at electronics and worse at spelling. A fair trade. This is a sewable kit for very young ones.
Pirate Electronics – Another project that thinks they are revolutionising education of electronics. They are not.
Black Swift – The Russians have come out in force to put together this small embedded Linux box with built-in Wifi.
Prynt – Definitely not the first (“Hello, Polaroid!”) but still a great tool for those who have a lot of cash to burn on paper (50c per tiny photo). But I am really impressed with their augmented reality feature.
Pi Neopixel Controller – Why should Rasberry Pi users miss out on the joy of NeoPixels.

Shitstarters

Memsi – Backup your photos while on the road. Hardly original. I had my first one of these in 2001 and who wants to 7 months (plus delays) for such a non-event of a product.
SPIN remote – This has to be the stupidest remote control I have ever seen, bar none. They ran a simultaneous campaign on Kickstarter too, but this WAS funded. Stupid people.
Kaka – You really have to expect the worst when you name your product Shit.
Spaceman Lighting – Really cheap Bluetooth smart bulbs. So cheap, nobody is willing to take a risk. I have to admit I am waiting for smart bulbs to get cheaper.
VISR – Yet another Google Cardboard clone, only this one is really special.
Domus – How can you not poke fun at a home automation system that claims to make breakfast and heat your shower for you before you wake up. In the end its just a connected plugtop and an app. Plus “we have a working prototype that is ready for mass production but there is still a lot to be done.” What?
Clime – Environmental readings for idiots … by idiots and boy bands.
Smart Boxing Gloves – I have no idea how Kickstarter let this one though but I am even more amazed that 43 fools have successfully funded it and parted with their funds.

Left fielders

None for this week.

As always, it’s limited only by your frigging imagination!

Welcome back to This Week in Kickstarterland, the home of Ebola-proof condoms, scrotum bags, shitting dogs and breathometers. Thankfully there are some cool project amongst the nutters.

Stethee – This campaign was so successful they decided they didn’t even need it. I think this is the first campaign I have seen cancel itself.
Cinch – For everyone who loves camping but hates setting up and packing up. Is there anyone who enjoys it? This is a big, affordable, popup tent.
Alchemist Matter – Learn what happens when materials and chemicals mix. The littleBits of chemicals.
FishBit – Home automation … for your fish tank.
Neeo – Universal remote with hand recognition. It’s pretty but toppling the Logitech Harmony and alike will be challenging. I hope they deliver.
Immersis – Not exactly the first to use this tech but still very cool. It allows you to project on irregular surfaces that are larger than what you could do with a single white wall.
NIWA – Another Nixie clock, designed in wood or black aluminium.
Manga Screen – 4.3″ multitouch LCD screen with HDMI input and USB power for a pretty low price.
SONICable – At what point can you no longer claim to have the most advanced cable around? How fast is twice as fast when everyone else is claiming to be twice as fast as well?
Z:ero – A headphone with a built-in DAC and amplifier. Like all headphone projects, I will believe it when I hear it.
Mesh – Yet another kit for developing small projects with noodles and nodes.
Ambivision – Yet another ambient display device that extends the TV picture by lighting up behind the TV.
Standap – Adapt an Apple Watch to a standard watch strap. Why wait for the Apple Watch to actually launch?

Shitstarters

Mint – I can’t believe that there is a market for breathometers. Alcohol, sure, but most people with bad breath know it pretty quickly.
Virtual Window – $4m is not a reasonable request for a ranting rambling video about a head tracking virtual window. He thinks he deserves a Nobel prize for this product he appears to be seeing for the first time.
The Product – This project is so amazing, it is guaranteed to generate a billion pounds over ten years. It is also so amazing that it is being patented so he can’t tell you anything about it.
Brain Hack Firewall – How do you know if your brain hack firewall is working? Nobody hacks your brain, of course. I think mine is working well. Fucking fruitloops.
Ebola Condom – Protect your fingers, hands, pubic area and scrotum for all the nasties your partner has, including Ebola.

Left fielders

Happy Sacs – Keeping your “boys” happy in the ultimate scrotal comfort.
Keymouse – Put your keyboard on your mouse to save the effort of reaching over to your mouse.
Squatting Dog – For those who want to see a dog shitting relentlessly all day.
Fahz – Have your face 3D printed into the side of a vase.
The Mod – A multivibrating open-source dildo platform. Yep, it contains Dilduino and its pins are fully accessible. You can even buys sensor kits.

As always, it’s limited only by your frigging imagination!

Welcome back to This Week in Kickstarterland, the last edition for 2014. The holiday period always brings out the crazy in people and crowd funding campaigns are no exception. A quick fuck-you to Indiegogo for no longer displaying if the campaign is “fixed” or “flexible” and doing so without explanation or notice.

BrainCard – Nobody in industry wanted these neural network chips … and guess what, nor do the makers they are targeting. Still, I am interested to see what people can make out of these little guys.
Cynaps Mint – You have to be concerned when their biggest selling point is choosing the colour combination on these 3D printed, bone transducing headphones.
Small Wonder – This doesn’t really smell like a crowd funding campaign. However, with so many headphone gurus endorsing the product it must be good … at least for the sheep.
iPac-Man – Bluetooth game controller and phone charging battery pack in one. Why the hell not?
Wino Board – Another cheap Arduino-like Wifi board. I assume the makers didn’t realise that a “wino” is “a person who drinks excessive amounts of cheap wine or other alcohol, especially one who is homeless.”
Sounds 85 – I have been waiting for a volume limiter like this for years.
Hemingwrite – I am not a writer but even I appreciate this retro product. It won’t fix writers block but it will give you one less distraction (i.e. no porn!)
Whispering Imps – These are really successful playing cards, whatever, but they have a great name/theme.
Andromium – Yet another attempt to turn your (Android) phone into a desktop PC. Bah, whatever.
EVB – These guys have ported the LEGO Mindstorms EV3 source code to the much more powerful BeagleBone and added a bunch of sensors.
Bulletsafe Baseball Cap – For those afraid of a frontal lobotomy, this is a bulletproof baseball cap. Just hope you don’t get hit on the side.
OneRNG – For the tin-foil hatters, this is an open source random number generator that generates more randomness than your current randomness. Because entropy just aint entropy any more.
Pico – Camera intervalometer for time lapse photography. I really like that there is a basic manual mode that doesn’t require your phone.
eRing – Proof that the Kickstarter community is willing to pay a premium for awesome wireless Christmas lights.
Ramos – For people who “beat” their alarm clocks each morning this one requires you walk over to an iBeacon to turn it off … and a bit more useless stuff like home automation. I still prefer Nanda’s Clocky.

 

Shitstarters

TWI-VIS – Everything about this product sucks – the form factor, the quality, the campaign and even the stupid name.
Cicret Bracelet – When one asshole scams the market successfully, the creeps come out to scam anyone remaining. Thankfully, the victims have all retreated back into their holes. $6 raised is a blessing as this product could never be built.
AppYourCar – While there are a few handy features in this product, their main premise is insanely dangerous. Anybody who thinks they can safely review their calendar (or any of the other stupid things they are suggesting) while driving is going to kill themselves and someone else on the road.
iJump – Charge your phone off someone else’s phone (P2P). I don’t think the Lightening port can supply enough current to do this. I also am not sure if this is a product campaign or a charity campaign.

 

Left fielders

Lovepalz Twist – Teledildonics and videography at its finest. I think those 3D printed prototypes would be really rough inside.
Gummy-Tip – Two inches of jelly lemon juice on the end of your “peepee”. This is a seriously stupid design that clearly hasn’t been trialled in the real world.
Dream Rooster – Dongles for your dongle to help you wank and lucid dream while you sleep. What could possibly go wrong?
Shower Rock – The ultimate first-world problem … nowhere to put your feet while shaving your legs in the shower.
Magic Mirrors – Display digital images and text in the condensation on a mirror. WTF?

 

As always, it’s limited only by your frigging imagination!