Month: January 2014

Categories
Music

Crane Elite gives a lift to laptops of DJs, others

The Premise. We currently live in the era of the DJ. With records and CDs becoming a thing of the past, many of today’s most popular DJs “spin” their tracks straight from laptops and MP3 players. Laptops are fragile, though, and sometimes setting them up on stage can be trick. There are many laptop stands out there, but most DJs can agree that more could to be done in order to create the perfect stage-ready laptop stand.

The Product. The Crane Elite Laptop Stand is a sturdily-designed product that is meant specifically to elevate a laptop off of the table it is placed on and pitch it at an angle. Its modular design allows the user to try out a number of different set-up combinations in order to find the one that is right for a given situation, and also features what the company calls an “industry first non-slip spline for rock solid placement. Its telescoping risers are constructed out of carbon fiber and allow for full adjustability, making it possible for DJs of all heights to find the perfect placement solution. The product is also collapsible, which can really come in handy on the evening of a gig.

The Pitch. Crane’s main pitch comes in the form of a video featuring DJs that love the company’s older products, yet have a few things that they’d like to see changed. Telescoping, tightness variability, wider legs and a few other suggestions are suggested; as a Crane employee explains, all have been implemented in the Elite laptop stand.

The Perks. It’s head-spinning how many different tiers of perks are available for the Crane Elite. A pledge of $67 gets the user a Crane Stand Plus, one of the company’s older models, while $150 is the entry level for a first-edition model of the Crane Elite. Pledge $999 or more, and you’ll get an initial prototype of the product. The Elite is set to be released in July 2014, while the older product perks will be shipped in February. The developers are looking to raise $35,000.

The Potential. There’s certainly no shortage of laptop stands for DJs out there — The Roost, another Kickstarter project, seems to serve a similar function. Still, it’s clear that Crane has put a lot of work into the development of this product, as it seems to blow The Roost out of the water in terms of durability. With more and more DJs popping up on the scene, it’s fair to say that Crane likely has a great product on its hands although the price and features will be overkill for someone just looking to prop up their laptop in bed.

 

Categories
Music

Cue Page Turner gives Bluetooth page flippers some sheet cred

The Premise. Musicians around the world have experienced frustration at having to stop playing their instrument in order to turn a pages of their sheet music. At best, it can result in momentary panic in terms of catching up to the continuation of a composition. At worst, there’s an avalanche of paper that must be frantically gathered. Tablets can clean up the mess, but they involve their own compromises — limited battery life, distracting screen glow, and generally a smaller size than the area of a standard music sheet.

The Product. Cue Page Turner is a mechanical page turner that turns the physical pages of sheet music while musicians are playing. The turning mechanism is controlled by a wireless foot pedal. Cue Page Turner also has a vacuum bottom that allows it to rest stably on a music stand or piano.

The Pitch. The Indiegogo campaign for the Cue Page Turner features a short video explaining the device as well as the reward tiers of the campaign. The rest tells how the idea for the product was born and how, after years on the back burner, it can finally be manufactured thanks to 3D printers. What the campaign lacks is a photo of Cue Page Turner itself. Rather, because it hasn’t actually been manufactured yet, the campaign only features digital mock-ups of what the page turner is supposed to look like.

The Perks. Supporters of Cue Page Turner giving $50 or more will receive the Cue Page Turner Lite which can hold 12 pages. Contributors giving $100 or more will receive the Original Cue Page Turner that holds 24. Higher backers in the $500 range will receive gold- or silver-plated Cue Page Tuners, which look more snazzy and tell the world, “I have a silver-plated Cue Page Turner.”

The Potential. There’s nary a performing musician who wouldn’t find the Cue Page Turner intriguing. Orchestras especially will continue to use sheet music for performances for the foreseeable future. So, while there are other products on the market that turn pages digitally, none are able to do so with physical paper. PageFlip and AirTurn, for example, both use wireless foot pedals to turn pages on a Mac, PC or iPad, but cannot be used with physical paper. At such an early stage, it’s difficult to justify shelling out in anticipation of the product because there are just too many questions, but demand could heat up with the next movement for this musicians’ aid.

Categories
Cell Phone Accessories

ReelKlip leashes your smartphone to prevent pavement pounding

ReelKlipLots of smartphone cases can protect your phone if it falls, but ReelKlip takes a more proactive approach. Acting like one of those retractable badge holders used for access at many workplaces, the product consists of a 1.5″ belt-mounted disc and a polyurethane band of up to 3.5″ that snugs tightly around your smartphone that are joined by a 3.5′ feel that lets you bring your phone up to your face. However, applications such as in-car navigation or passing around a photo of your new precious will likely require untethering. A video which shows a wince-inducing montage of phone breakage scenarios drives home the point. A nice complement to a protective case and screen guard, ReelKlip should be available for backers for $17 in March 2014.

Categories
Organization

Circle Organizer gives your hairspray extra hold in the bathroom

Circle OrganizerParticularly if you must share a bathroom with one or more folks, you know how easy it is for sinks to accumulate a massive amount of plain old stuff. Circle Organizer sacrifices a bit of porcelain real estate for a small city of circular braces designed to hold all manner of lotion, potions and toothbrush with motion. However, if you happen to use something with an odd-shaped container, it will have to stray from its organized home which will likely get quite goopy with things like errant toothpaste, soap and shaving cream. The Circle Organizer is due in May 2014 and is expected to retail for $50. Backers, though, can get it for $49 while early birds can snag up to a $10 discount from that.

Categories
Apparel

Rhino Laces keep your boots kicking butt through blades and fire

Rhino LacesThere have been Kickstarter projects that have sought to replace the lace, but Rhino Laces certainly is not for those too lazy to run that rabbit around the tree in order to make a proper knot. These laces are designed for people who depend on their boots for survival in extreme situations, not looking cool. As the campaign description makes clear, they’re resistant to every danger from fire to zombies to (no, please, anything but) hipsters and their tips are rugged enough to arouse suspicion by the TSA. For those needing the toughest rope this side of paracord keeping their boots on, early bird pricing starts at $17 and delivery is expected in April 2014.

Categories
Automotive Cell Phone Accessories Organization

MOS Spring, MOS Menos attack car cable chaos

editors-choiceThe Premise.  You have a cable connecting your music player to your car’s stereo.  The fear that it will somehow manage to electrocute you has become intolerable, yet you refuse to replace it because the amount of dough you’ve coughed up for aux cables has already reached unacceptable levels.  No more shall be spent on another just for it to become lost or ruined like those before it!  Just jiggle it a little, sound quality be damned!

The Product.  The MOS Spring is a high-quality audio cable meant to be a permanent replacement to all those cheap cables.  It has woven cotton­ shrouding, and a coiled metal wire where the cable meets the jack, just like you would find on a pro-grade audio cable.  The MOS Menos is a discreet base for keeping your Mos Spring cable safe and at hand.  It mounts to your car, and employs strong magnets to keep any wayward cables in check.

 The Pitch.  The combined practicality of the Spring and MOS Menos are demonstrated with a video depicting the standard cable drama: cable lost in car, guy damages cable while retrieving, guy plugs in his phone to hear music, music rendered inaudible by cable’s crappiness.  The day is saved by the Spring, with its woven cotton, anodized aluminum and electroplated steel construction, its black, red, or teal color options, and its lifetime warranty.  The MOS Menos lends its super strong neodymium magnet,  satin body, and options of permanent adhesive, or semi-permanent suction mountings to the fray. It is also worth mentioning that the MOS Menos is the scaled-down version of the original MOS, which Kickstarted in Winter ’12 and is now selling in Apple stores.

 The Perks.  The Spring and Mos Menos are slated for availability in late March ‘14.  Sold individually, they are moderately priced at 10 dollars, or a mere 15 bucks (just 11 for early backers!) for the combo.

 The Potential.  While there are other woven cables out there for as little as 99 cents, they can also range as high as $40.  Moreover, one is hard pressed to find cables that have the Spring’s coiled wire joint reinforcement.  So combined, the Mos Spring and Menos can relieve all your electrical apprehensions, musical frustrations, and organizational headaches, for what you might spend on any other decent-quality cable.  Take the Spring’s lifetime warranty into account, and you find a sound audio investment.

Categories
Winter Sports

Frostbite turns your limbs, lard into a human sled in five easy pieces

editors-choiceThe Premise.  Lots of folks want the fun of sledding, but not the lack of control over your sled’s downhill course or having to schlep said sled back up said hill, just to submit to gravity’s indifferent mercy once again. For those who don’t mind looking a little silly to alleviate this tradeoff, the ultimate sled may be themselves.

The Product.  The Frostbite is a collection of flexible sheets of plastic that strap to your hands, heels and hindquarters, allowing you to sled down a hill in a seated position, steer ( probably more just influence) your descent, and finally spring to your feet and run back up the hill without having to pick or carry a sled back up, or ever worry about falling off of it again, as you and the sled are united in perfect snow-strewn harmony.

The Pitch. The Frostbite’s creators demonstrate their product with what is mostly just a narrated product slide show interspersed with random graphics.  Claims are made that jumps tricks and spins can be done with the Frostbite, and are backed up with snippets of semi-trailers jumping dirt mounds and jets breaking the sound barrier; the latter one shall not achieve with Frostbite.  Although it does depict a smooth and fun sled run, after which the inventor seemed to have no problem popping right back up and running directly back up the slope, the one clip of the product in action is short and repeated about four times. The rest of the campaign page shows off design photos are literally snapshots of hand-drawn sketches and discusses things like die creation and pressing convex plastic in an extrusion process.

The Perks.  $25 gets a Frostbite, or $45 for a limited run that glows in the dark, for your night-time, glowing-butt sledding needs.  The inventor will throw his signature on most of the perks for an extra five bucks, just in case the Frostbite becomes the next pet rock, and he’s the next…guy that invented the pet rock.

The Potential.  The Frostbite is cleverly designed, reasonably priced, and made with safety and practicality, those best of intentions, in mind. But, snow tubes are almost free, regular sleds as low as $8, and steerable sleds start at $50­.  Also, none of these are named after painful potential side effects of winter exposure. Still, it’s one of the few sledding contrivances that one can pack away in a carry-on bag on route to your next destination for sliding snow fun.