Month: October 2014

Categories
Camping Furniture

The Lounger fits seating for a small party in a roller bag

A entire six seater sofa in a bag: that’s what the folks behind The Lounger are peddling. It may sound too good to be true, but there is indeed a Kickstarter campaign with a video that shows this real, working product. Although they’re marketing the Lounger to the camping crowd, its modern, contemporary design can pretty much fit anywhere a sofa would come in handy — and when wouldn’t a sofa come in handy?

The product is weatherproof for those who want to live luxuriously in the wild outdoors and easy to set up, requiring no tools to do so. Nothing in the campaign addresses how the cushions are actually expected to fit in bag without having to inflate them first. If that’s the case, it would be a bit disengenious to claim that the product is fully portable without mentioning the air pump you’ll have to lug around as well. The creator is looking for a hefty €79,999 to mass produce The Lounger; interested backers can get their very own for €319, almost half the retail price.

Categories
Home

Evrst and Aspyn clear the air of bad stuff to breathe

Scrubbing, mopping and dusting your house can only do so much. There’s lots of bacteria that live in the air that are nearly impossible to eradicate. In addition, tons of gunk can build up in your HVAC systems which then turns them into spreaders of ickiness instead convenient home fixtures.

Introducing two products that work for you to clean your house: Evrst and Aspyn. Evrst is a standalone product that sits visibly in your house to kill germs. It plugs in and cleans up to 1,500 sq ft of space. Evrst uses a two-stage filtration system: the first to squash odors and the second to catch teeny tiny particles. To operate, use the touchscreen where you can power it on or off, change the fan speed, set a timer or choose auto mode. The filters are good for three to six years. Aspyn is the same type of product, but gets placed directly in your HVAC system, cleaning your house from the inside out. One Evrst will cost backers $449 while the Aspyn goes for $650. These products have a huge, ridiculous campaign goal of $370,000 on Kickstarter.

Despite these products’ distaste for traditional vowels, they do like a clean house, which is important. While the campaign explains how they work, it’s difficult to prove that they actually do work without some proof. These aren’t the only air purifiers of their kind. Others target more specific irritants like allergens, smoke and mold. However, most of these are quite expensive, reaching into thousands of dollars like the Amaircare Whole House Air Purifier. For what they claim to do, Aspyn and Evrst are a good price, but their huge campaign goal may hold them back.

Categories
Apparel Organization

Runband lets you take your essentials as you exercise

Lots of pockets are essential for storing all the important little things in life. Runband lets active and busy people have what they need right at their fingertips: pens and pencils, pocket knife, small flashlight, even a small water bottle that can be stowed right on the user’s arm! Black netting with elasticity helps keep essentials secure during even the most extreme activities – whether that’s a party where a blended dance genre of hip-hop- break dancing is the hot activity or extreme sporting activities. The product seems to offer a great deal of convenience whether in an urban, suburban or rural setting, and nothing particularly bulky or larger than what fits in a 5.5” pouch is going to be necessary for one’s outing. The pouches are made of cotton, so while they will offer some breathability, they will also retain sweat longer than a polyester-spandex blend. For $40, backers get one product with an expected delivery of March 2015.

 

Categories
Home

MotionSeat automatic toilet seat is happy to show you what’s up

Going to the restroom is a pretty crappy experience for most people. If you think about, there are a ton of germs pretty much everywhere and the ways in which we interact with toilet elements don’t necessarily lend themselves to hygiene. With women constantly in danger of sitting on wet sets and men forced to handle the seat to avoid that from happening, both genders are always under fire from unsavory particles that linger there.

MotionSeat is an automatic toilet seat that instantly opens up when it senses your squirming presence. It takes only five minutes to install and contains a battery that lasts at least two months with the capability of being charged either in the seat or separately. By being so straightforward, the product manages to address an issue that’s often considered but that hasn’t really been addressed in an simple manner —  and that’s where it gets all of its appeal. Backers who pledge €65 or more can get grab their very own MotionSeat and help Affinis VOF reach their funding goal of €12,500.

Categories
Health and Wellness Sensors/IoT

Darma smart seat cushion reminds you to take a stand

Back pain, poor posture and lots of lazing around are realities for many folks. Each one of these problems feeds into the other, so it’s hard to break the cycle of discomfort. Darma is a smart seat cushion that doubles as your posture coach. It monitors your sitting habits, posture, breath, and heart rate to give you helpful tips. If you’re slouching, Darma tells you to sit up straight through a smartphone alert. When your heart rate is high indicating stress, it suggests taking a walk to calm down. Similarly, if you’ve been sitting too long, Darma advises taking standing breaks.

Best of all, by collecting data about you specifically, it can give you customized stretches that will alleviate the pain present in different parts of your body. Designed with sleek black leather, it’s unobtrusive and will blend in well with your office chair. One will cost backers a $189 donation on Kickstarter.

Darma is an interesting new take on the type smartphone-powered health assistance we’ve seen a lot of recently. Most of these devices are wearables in the form of clip-ons or bracelets. While we’ve seen previous products aimed at improving posture, Darma blends into its surroundings. The constant alerts may prove to be annoying at first, like a nagging mother telling you to sit up straight. However, the long term health benefits will likely be worth the hassle. All in all, Darma is a great solution for the sedentary and actually one of the least obtrusive solutions to too much sitting.

Categories
Chargers/Batteries Imaging

Jolt wirelessly charges your GoPro camera

There’s nothing like being able to share an adventure with friends and family. And when the excursions are considered to be extreme in nature, sometimes they prefer to live vicariously through the one taking the adventure through video.

Jolt offers a way to make sure that each visual story told through GoPro is always captured with a fully charged and ready to go camera. The Jolt system is made up of two parts: Jolt transmitter pad and jolt battery. The pad gets plugged into a standard outlet. Then replace the GoPro battery with a Jolt battery, place on the pad, and GoPro wirelessly charges. The pad is big enough to support charging two cameras or a camera and battery.

Though Jolt is only compatible with GoPro® Hero3 or Hero3+ or Hero4, this seems like a product that will be appreciated by GoPro users. For $89, backers get one Jolt pad and two Jolt batteries with an expected delivery of March 2015.

Categories
Lighting

Swan-like Showcome lamp offers many methods of control

For those who find the words “on” and “off” to be boring and predictable, there is now a light that responds to the word “aladdin” instead. And yes, it is shaped like a lamp, sort of.

Probably more of a cross between a swan and a lamp. But Showcome also responds to other forms of communication. It also offers a Smartphone app, motion-sensor control for hands-free operation, and touch control that also allows the user to adjust how much light is being given off. The LED light source also offers potential room-to-room portability with a height of just over two feet and a width of just over seven inches.

The cord may be a bit short, though, at only 5.9 feet, depending on where and for what purpose one wants to use it. For $58, backers get one product with an expected delivery of January 2015.

Categories
Home

Kink Kure shows it knows how to fix your hose woes

Gardening can be one of the most satisfying and peaceful activities in which to engage. Until it’s time to water the plants. When the hose kinks it’s mandatory to go and straighten it before the water flows freely again. One day, the creator of Kink Kure got fed up with this unwelcome exercise and decided to find a solution to this annoying problem. It can seem frivolous to replace a hose when there’s only one problem spot. And while the life of a hose can be extended when it’s stored in a basement, shed, or garage, hoses will still eventually kink due to age and the general wear of usage. Kink Kure seems simple to attach and still allows the hose to bend while preventing kinking, even when pulling around corners and winding; a convenient solution to a not-s0-convenient problem. For $5, backers get one with expected delivery in January 2015.

Categories
Cell Phone Accessories Imaging

DotLens microscopic lens lets your iPhone see it’s the little things that matter

With our noses inside our phones, we neglect to remember the existence of the wondrous, microscopic world that exists around us teeming with unfamiliar life.

Now Dotlens wants to create a bridge for us in the form of a 15x or 120x pebble-sized lens attachment for smartphone cameras. Its resolution of one micron gives any smartphone the ability to take laboratory quality photos of all manner of objects and specimen, from the rocks strewn outside your door to the house ant crawling on your kitchen floor. When you’re done, share them instantly using social media or attach the smartphone to a computer or projector for real-time collaboration or teaching.

Smartphone microscope attachments have been a thing for quite some time. Products like MicrobeScope and Skylight represent what most of these products are like, transforming smartphones into bulky, stationary microscopes. You even have the choice to create a DIY version for around $10 if you were so inclined, but what none of these have is the ability to be attached and removed simply from a smartphone, expanding the range of subjects because of the increased portability. The price is similarly light: $25 will get you the 120x version, a pledge that will go far towards their $12,o00 funding goal.

Categories
Lighting

Switch Port pioneers the write light

Here’s a rather clever idea for writing notes to self – or anyone else in the house for that matter. Switch Port is a light switch that functions like a small, dry-erase board. Users can write notes or reminders in a location that is easily seen and in full view every time the room is entered. The ink doesn’t get absorbed by the light switch because the surface is enameled in an epoxy. This product will be some easy installation using only a screwdriver. The screws are included with the product as well as the fine point dry erase type marker. It appears that the marker sits relatively securely on a small ledge at the top of Switch Port, but it might be a nice touch to add some Velcro or something that helps to keep the marker secure when not in use so that it doesn’t end up getting knocked to the floor or lost. The item comes in both single and double switch options, with the single being available for $12. Expected delivery is December 2014, and should arrive before the holidays.