Month: December 2014

Categories
Cycling Fitness

Rollerblade inventor returns with Rowbike, marrying cycling with rowing

Physiologists agree that the top three exercises a person can engage in are swimming, skiing, and rowing. Unfortunately, all three of those exercises need some sort of special environment or a machine capable of replicating its benefits. In the case of rowing, the machinery to workout with exists. Unfortunately, it’s a stationary exercise and therefore not nearly as fulfilling as being out on the water itself. The inventor of the rollerblade, Scott Olson, had this exact same thought while working out one day and it led him to create the Rowbike.

The Rowbike is a combination rowing machine and bicycle. The product is designed with total body fitness in mind, engaging all parts of your body to get you zipping along. The rowing motions employed to move along have zero impact on the knees as well, so the Rowbike is a great choice for people who may have previously injured them or who may just be a little older. Provided the campaign reaches its $55,000 goal, the $1,750 Rowbike is slated for an April 2015 delivery.

The idea of providing total body fitness with a bicycle can also be seen with the Dual Drive Total Fitness Bike. Instead of full body rowing motions, though, the Dual Drive combines hand pedals with standard foot pedals. By doing so, it still allows a user the option to use either while the Rowbike doesn’t. The Rowbike seems unsteady at slow speeds and ungainly even at high speeds, so being stuck rowing everywhere severely limits its use and makes it somewhat dangerous unless used on long straightaways that don’t require much handling.

Categories
Connected Objects Cycling

COBI connected bike system stylishly declutters handlebar gadgets

Most riders who take their biking seriously pony up the cash for all sorts of mounts and lights to make their trips more manageable, but their handlebars end up being anything but. To put it simply, handlebars are extremely cluttered and the more functionality a rider wants, the worse it becomes.

iCradle, Inc.’s COBI connected biking system is taking what cyclists want in their ride and combining it all into an unobtrusive, wireless system. On its own, COBI gives riders an automatic flashlight, turn signal, and a proximity start-up that senses a cyclist’s iPhone or Android device and reacts accordingly. The COBI’s main draw is its handlebar dock. When a smartphone is inserted, COBI instantly adds over 100 intelligent features to any standard or electronic bike, all controlled with a handy thumb controller that allows focus to stay on the road ahead. A lot of these features, like intelligent navigation, the ability to call friends, a fitness tracker, Spotify integration, and a smart theft alarm, all make use of their large, colorful screens, and their high-powered internals —all while being charged with a 6000mAh battery pack for standard bikes or an e-bike’s hub.

COBI is extremely modular, allowing riders the freedom to pick and choose which components they’d like to add or remove from their systems, handy when more are created in the future. The company has created four separate types of designs to accommodate different types of riders: racer, city, urban, and mountain. They mainly differ in aesthetic, though. A complete kit for standard bikes goes for $255, while an e-bike gets a small discount being that they come with compatible controllers at $199. iCradle, Inc. is looking to ship the product in June 2015 provided they reach their $100,000 goal.

The COBI connected system is extremely polished and full-featured, traits sure to attract a large number of supporters and adopters. With add-ons to protect from tough terrain and inclement weather, the thought behind the design and implementation of the product is obvious. Combine with the Helmetor to get maximum efficiency out of any bike.

Categories
Maker/Development

Tiny Mono provides development platform potential

Sometimes, our smart devices are a little too smart for what we want to do and a little too rigid for the intrepid among us. This makes merely tinkering with the different platforms in our lives pretty much impossible. Innovations like Arduino boards and Raspberry Pis lets buffs realize their ideas, but they can easily get out of hand and end up with nothing but a jumble of wires.

The one difficult thing when it comes to creation is testing out the idea, but the Mono makes it easy to do just that. The tiny device comes equipped with a 2.2″ TFT touch display, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, an accelerometer, and a temperature sensor. Mono is a gadget as much as it is a development platform. As such, it’s completely open source, so it can act as an interface for other, custom ideas, or act on its own. By downloading tailored apps from the MonoKiosk app store, Mono can act as a one-touch light for Phillips Hue connected bulbs, or can display weather forecasts, for example. A single, fully loaded Mono goes for kr710 (~$119), and is expected in May 2015. The campaign is looking for kr500,000 (~$83,300) in funding.

In and of themselves, the applications touted by the Mono seem fairly tame, but its potential is really in how makers end up utilizing it. An expansion connector on the device’s back allows for increased utility such as connected power, a 3.5mm carries multiple digital and analog signals, and an SD card slot really gets the mind going when it comes to how much programming and data a single 32GB card can hold. All this tech in the hands of the right person can result in comparable, more innovative products than those on the market now, all at a fraction of the cost.

Categories
Automotive

GroUrban puts a small bit of plant life in your nearest cupholder

For those who don’t like the plant life growing in that travel mug that they keep forgetting about and leaving in their cupholder, GroUrban allows commuters to enjoy their favorite plant life in their car’s cupholder instead.  No specific measurements are noted for the size of the planter.

While there is a built-in reservoir to help keep plants watered, the extreme heat and cold that usually goes with remaining parked outdoors for extended periods of time may make for a short life for plants unless one is able to park in a garage both at home and work, or is willing to carry around the plant to keep it out of the extremes. In addition, GroUrban fits in a car drink holder, so one may need to choose between that java and their favorite plant unless the car has multiple drink holders. But who knows? Maybe the travel mug will finally be remembered if it has some pretty plant life around it. This campaign seeks to raise £50,000 (~$78,500) by December 14, 2014. Early bird backers get one product for £10 (~$16 USD), with an expected delivery of January 2015.

Categories
Furniture Kids/Babies

Lemon Pie kids’ furniture enables the ultimate couch pillow fort

When you’re a kid, there’s nothing like building a fort to play in. All of the pillows, blankets and cushions in the house must convene in order to make the perfect fort. Lemon Pie was designed to give traditional fort-making materials a break. This product is made of different parts that can either be assembled into a couch or chair and then reassembled into a fort or any other kind of fun structure for kids. Designed from soft, flame-retardant materials, this is perfectly safe for children.

The oddly-named Lemon Pie certainly offers function not only for children, but for adults as well. It looks fun and forces kids to be imaginative in the way they build their forts. While it’s not the most attractive piece of furniture around, it’s still great for parents who don’t want their living room to become a full-blown play area. For the most basic chair, backers can donate $335 with estimated delivery in April 2015, if Lemon Pie can reach its $15,000 goal on Kickstarter.

Categories
Pets Wearables

Arden Collar combines LEDs, GPS and Bluetooth to help find and identify lost pets

Pets have the tendency to wander off, much like children. When they do, they have a much harder time finding their way home. Not only that, but they run the risk of getting hit by a car or snatched up by some Cruella de Vil type. Once pets are gone, pet owners must resort to flyers which usually produce no results.

The Arden Collar works to keep your pet safe at all times. This silicone collar features a GPS tracker which hooks up via Bluetooth LE or Wi-Fi to an app so that you can see where your pet is. In addition, with the help of NFC, those near the lost pet will be alerted to its missing status. The collar will display the pet’s information on their phones, including name and address as well as the vet’s name and address. This makes it possible for others to easily help Fido find home.

This collar isn’t only useful in times of emergency. With Hi-LED lights that can be activated at the push of a button, owners can walk their dogs at night with maximum visibility. Also, the collar tracks the dog’s activity, temperature and other vitals and stores the data in the cloud. This way, owner and vet can make sure the pet is healthy. For maximum convenience, Arden has a detachable battery to make charging possible without removing the whole collar.

The Arden Collar has lots of cool features that will make it useful to lots of dog owners. It takes GPS tracking a step further by giving strangers the opportunity to help. In addition, it monitors the dog’s health like a FitBit does for humans. The one major drawback of this product, however, is that it may cost up to $45 each month for the services it provides. For those who don’t mind the monthly bill, one will cost $149 for estimated delivery in October 2015. Arden is looking to raise a ridiculous $400,000 on Indiegogo.

Categories
Tools

Boss lets you record voice with the tape measure of your choice

For all those who use a tape measure, the Tape Boss will prove a godsend. The digital recorder attaches to any tape measure and has the capacity to record three separate recordings, from instructions to measurements. Having all the detailed information a button press away is superior to trying to remember everything or writing everything, especially because information is so easily forgotten and it takes so much time to actually get everything of importance down.

Contractors, homeowners, plumbers, and everyone else who use a tape measure will be able to cut down on labor time with this handy device, and over time that number will rise dramatically. A protective rubber coating prevents major damage to the the Tape Boss, and a single battery cycle will last 1,500 recordings. More technology could potentially go into this device, like some sort of smartphone import/export feature but as it exists, it gets the job done. A Tape Boss goes for $50 CAD (~$44 USD) and is expected in April 2015. The campaign is looking for $15,000 (~$13,200 USD) to start production.

Categories
Food and Beverage

Degono tea and coffee press promises to retain true grit

There’s something about the smell and taste of freshly brewed coffee or tea that just makes the morning (or evening wind-down) more pleasant. Degono offers a product that not only brews the best morning beverages, resembling a French press, but also simplifies clean-up with its “grounds away cleaning system,” setting it apart from other coffee and tea makers. The grounds are trapped between two filters, one at the bottom and the other on the top. This coffee press also works well with loose tea, allowing the user control of how strong their tea will be through the use of the unique filtration system. In addition, Degono is dishwasher safe.

It’s not clear if brands other than Degono brand coffee or tea can be used in the product or not. Coffee loving backers may also want to check out the Artist, Bruvelo, and Brewover campaigns. This campaign seeks to raise £27,980 (~$44,000). Early bird backers get one product for £20 (~$31), with an expected delivery date of May 2015.

Categories
Displays Tablet Accessories

Project Wedge is a cheap, portable projector for tablets

Lots of young millennial have figured out that televisions are expensive. However, with the right cables and devices, they can project television shows and movies onto a blank wall or screen for entertainment. Since companies would rather have consumers spending money on expensive equipment, the typical project model is lagging behind in innovation.

Project Wedge is a mini projector for the young adult consumer in mind. Working with tablets and smartphones via an HDMI cable, Project Wedge projects images from these devices. It looks sharp on a screen or wall up to 60 inches. With a battery that lasts for four hours, it’ll be easy to watch a move on the big screen, perhaps streamed from Netflix or Amazon Prime.

Not only is Project Wedge easy to use and compatible with a wide range of devices, but it’s also quite compact, not much bigger than a tablet with a stand. All in all this is a nifty little product, perfect for those who don’t care for cable or flatscreen televisions. One will cost backers $150 for delivery in September 2015. This product is looking to raise $100,000 with the help of Indiegogo.

Categories
Television Wearables

Google Glass-like Narwhal clips on to your glasses, works in the shower

High-tech wearables that can be worn over the eyes hold a special place in pop culture canon, and have largely stayed there over the years. Most attempts at a functional piece of technology that could be worn comfortably while still providing lots of compelling content easily have all pretty much crashed and burned. Why would merQ think they have solved these problems?

Their product is the Narwhal Clip-On, a wearable device that attaches to any pair of glasses and instantly upgrades them from merely pieces of glass to a capable digital accessory by adding a digital display and a compartment in which streaming sticks like the Chromecast or the Roku can be inserted. Listen to your favorite content with the retractable Bluetooth headphone, and control it with the trackpad mouse on the rear. The display is also waterproof so your showers can become the theater you always wanted it to be. The future’s cost of entry is $299 CAD (~$260 USD) and backers can start using it June 2015. MerQ’s campaign is aiming for a $85,000CAD (~$74,200) goal.

If the behemoth that is Google tried and spectacularly failed with Glass, I don’t see how the Narwhal really sets itself apart. It adds more computer elements to an interface that doesn’t need it and frankly shouldn’t have it, and it shows: the Narwhal is incredibly ungainly and bulky. Even if the company is looking to streamline it, their reliance on streaming sticks will limit it. High-tech glasses are ultimately limited by technology, and we just don’t have what we need yet to make a compelling, Star Trek-esque version quite yet. Let’s not jump the gun.