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Aquarius is the dawning of the age of automatic plant watering

The Premise. Every house or apartment feels more like a home when it includes houseplants. However, like any living thing, plants need to be cared for, fed, and watered. Needing to leave for business or vacation means finding a way to have plants cared for.

The Product. Aquarius is an adjustable watering system for plants that can be controlled while away from the home. The bland, cubic waterproof base holds the water needed for a potted plant that rests on top of the base. Then the adjustable nozzle points down into the pot and with the push of a smartphone touch screen or by assigning it to a schedule, the Aquarius gives plants the water they need automatically.

The Pitch. The sight of a woman sobbing after her plant dying and the phrase “ruin vacations” are both used in the campaign video in relation to plants withering from dehydration to great melodramatic effect. The product itself looks great as it waters plants of all sizes, and the app looks easy to use as well. The campaign combines attractive houseplants with the sleek design of the product itself. Aquarius inventor Gleb Kudryavtcev needs $30,000 to bring the Aquarius to the masses in terms of production and manufacturing. Stretch goals will be available after reaching the main goal for solar power, making it an entirely autonomous device.

The Perks. A single Aquarius will cost backers $65. The Aquarius Duo, which will allow owners to connect the devices together and water two plants, is available for $85. The Aquarius Quatro, which one can easily deduce will water four plants, can be had for $100. Eight- and 16-plant sets are also available, with each set of four able to exist in a different location. All watering devices will ship out in February 2015.

The Potential. While there are already plenty of ways to ration water to plants while on vacation, this may be one of the first that can be controlled using a phone or tablet. The design is more concerned with function over form, and seems to work great, while leaving a little something wanting in the looks department. At the end of the day, for people who want to keep their plants happy and healthy, the Aquarius is a great option to consider. Others who may not be as prone to breaking out into tears at the possibility of a dead houseplant may not be so compelled to pull the trigger on this product.

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Accents Connected Objects

Smart O’Clock keeps you on top of scheduled appointments

smartoclockWhen planning a day around appointment notifications, there doesn’t appear to be a middle ground. Pop-up alerts or alarms either seem to happen too early to be significant and are quickly closed, or so late that the only option is to stop everything and run out the door. The Smart O’Clock combines the display of a standard wall or desk clock with Bluetooth Low Energy and electronic ink to solve this problem. Using a standard analog clock face with an extra segmented ring, the Smart O’Clock syncs up to any calendar app on iOS or Android phones and blacks out segments of the day that are already spoken for with activities. The approach seems more useful than the e-ink-based aclock. Smart O’Clock will arrive to customers who pledge at least $69 in July 2014.

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Accents

aclock taps Bluetooth and e-ink display to little advantage

aclockNo matter how well it brings the room together, the alarm clock tends to be one of the most unpopular devices in the home. Ranging from the simple and classic to more modern inventive takes, the alarm clock really only needs to be successful in one way. With wireless Bluetooth synchronization with phones and a Kindle-style e-ink display visible in all levels of light, the aclock is a technologically modern take on the alarm clock that works in conjunction with a phone. In the process it doesn’t really do anything a phone can’t already, but provides a nice, external display. The aclock is currently available for pre-order.

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Accents

Cella puts plants in petite pods for a splash of greenery anywhere

CellaLiving in the big city has a great many benefits, but plant life and greenery certainly isn’t one of them. Cella offers a way to get some green in your life while living an urban lifestyle. These plastic nodules are small and round with holes for plants to grow through. The creators suggest using moss and seeds to start your garden. Cella can either be hung from strings, affixed to the walls or gathered together on the floor for an eye-catching display. For $25, backers get each of the three sizes of the product with an estimated delivery date of September 2014. Cella hopes to raise $50,000 in its Kickstarter campaign.

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Accents

Wallure adds panache to paneling with textured wood

wallureWood paneling isn’t just for the 70s, especially when it’s done tastefully and aesthetically. The use of authentic, quality wood can really make a home or office pop with freshness. Wallure, a set of real wood panels that can be used to decorate any wall have arrived to make unique hardwood walls a simple reality. Made from walnut and oak, the surface and finish of the wood is customizable to create 12 different options designed to fit any design motif. The backs of the panels are polystyrene, making affixing these panels uniformly easy. Right now backers can pledge £50 to get a sample pack in May of one of each of the 12 varieties.

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Accents Lighting Video Games

Pria lamp brings outdoor greenery to your indoor scenery

PriaThere’s something refreshing about being surrounded by plants –especially when there aren’t any bugs involved. Pria offers the opportunity to have live plants in your home and not have to worry about whether or not they are getting enough light to stay healthy. The aluminum or wooden dowels house an LED light that is good for 30,000 hours, and the entire product seems to assemble by snapping the magnets together in the appropriate places. For $125, backers get the aluminum version, or $220 for the wooden version with an expected delivery of October 2014.

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Accents Connected Objects Imaging

Appnificent Eclipse digital frame shares shares photos with your social circles

The Premise. Sharing photos is something almost everybody likes to do. Doing so should be easily and unintrusive, combining the excitement of receiving a social media notification with the surprise of an unexpected gift.

The Product. The Appnificent Eclipse is an addition to the smart photo frame market that integrates the features that users are used to applying to their photos when sharing them through social media. This way, using the Eclipse app, owners can take photos, doctor them to make them more attractive, add messages or emoticons, and then share them only to invited users via their Eclipse frames, Twitter, Facebook, and Dropbox. The frame itself connects to a home wi-fi network with a simple push of a button and can hold up to 2GB of photos for viewing as static images or part of a slideshow.

The Pitch. Appnificent Co-Founder Rod Spongberg introduces us to the Eclipse, showcasing how easy it is to connect the frame to both a wireless network and users of the Eclipse app. The rest of the campaign’s site goes over how to use each of the Eclipses features, from applying filters and sharing to adding emoticons and messaging. Appnificent wants to raise $75,000 to handle the tooling and production of the Eclipse. At $100,000 a stretch goal to double the frame’s storage from 2GB to 4GB will be unlocked.

The Perks. The Eclipse is available to backers who pledge $115 in either Charcoal Grey or Optic White. The device is also available with a custom protective travel case at the $165 level. All frames will be delivered In August of this year.

The Potential. There have several digital photo frames posted to crowdfunding sites in the past, and the most common “new” feature is the ability to wirelessly send photos securely. In that, the Appnificent Eclipse offers little in terms of innovation, but what makes it attractive is the large, high-quality display and the Instagram-like features that can be selected through the app before sending out the photo. The Eclipse is a strong choice for anyone in the market for a digital photo frame, but doesn’t quite offer enough to make consumers want to replace their existing frame.

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Accents Imaging

The Back-Off: Modular frames come down to a photo finish

What. The photo frame industry continues to survive, even in the digital era, by providing a physical home for digital memories. However, the proliferation of digital images from smartphones have overwhelmed the ability to keep up with framing. Two Kickstarter projects – Fotobit and Republic Frames – each have a similar take on this problem.

Why. Both Fotobit and Republic Frames have the same idea: modular frames that can be clipped together to create unique “storyboards” to tell a tale through photographs. Fotobit’s uniform squares — optimized for Instagram — look ultra-modern, like a kind of photograph Tetris that can be installed with a single nail and include a clip for a bubble level to make sure they’re straight. Republic Frames uses stainless steel and clear magnetic clips to hold photos in place and arrange them in any 3D paneling scheme. A 3-pack of 4”x4” Fotobit frames costs $30, while a 2-pack of 4”x6” Republic Frames is $79.

When. Both of these California companies launched their Kickstarters within a day of each other, and are both running 30-day campaigns. Republic Frames was first to post, but Fotobit expects its product to ship in May 2014 compared to Republic Frames’ June.

Winner. The number of options the Republic Frames setup offers is more convenient, with frames for two different sizes of photos and a host of configuration schemes that do more than rest on walls as the Fotobits must.

However, there’s something to be said about the uniformity of Fotobit when you can get roughly four times the frames for the same cost. Plus, there’s something about the way the Fotobits can still be creatively deployed, but that boils down to a matter of personal taste. In terms of price and shipping date, Fotobit looks like the winner here, but Republic Frames is a close, close second.

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Accents

Nova duvet cover zips up blankets for quicker bed-making

The Premise. Duvets are the luxury item of the bedding market and owning one has weirdly become a status symbol. The only problem is that comforters often get tangled up inside of their duvet covers and can be really hard to reinsert after washing. Often, they look messy after making the bed and appear rumpled.

The Product. The Nova is a duvet cover designed to make sleeping even more comfortable. This innovative product reinvents the way that normal duvet covers work so that blankets are easy to insert and don’t bunch up. The opening to put the blanket in is actually in the middle of the cover disguised by piping and has ties on the inside to keep the comforter in place. This cover comes in two colors (charcoal and off-white) and five different bed sizes.

The Pitch. Nova’s campaign begins with the standard video talking about the birth of the idea along with the long prototyping process. The rest talks about the various “revolutionary” benefits of this product along with the different packages that the reward tiers offer. Nova hopes to raise $20,000 in its 30-day Kickstarter campaign.

The Perks. A twin duvet cover and two matching pillowcases costs backers $150. Various packages offer sheets, fitted sheets, standard pillowcases, and decorative pillowcases along with the cover itself. The last and highest reward tier goes for $390 and includes one king duvet cover, two king-sized pillowcases, one fitted sheet, two decorative pillowcases and one cotton-filled comforter. All tiers have an estimated delivery date of August 2014.

The Potential. The Nova duvet cover was created by Crane & Canopy, a bedding company from San Francisco, California. This product uses a simple idea to completely revamp your bed. And the price isn’t too expensive, taking into account that duvet covers always seem to be overpriced. While there aren’t other duvet covers quite like this out there, Amazon does have a few products aimed at fixing this problem, like the Padded Comforter Clips that hold a duvet in place. All in all, the Nova duvet cover certainly offers a new solution to an age-old problem.

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Accents Organization

Geco Hub organizer crams small items into its grabby grid

The Premise. Keys, bags, phones and other things are essential items for leaving the house. Most people opt to use a special bowl or shelf for their varied accoutrements, but their items tend to get messy when all thrown in the same place. Other storage systems that hang on the wall keep those important accessories in place, but can also make them difficult to access.

The Product. Geco Hub offers a way to keep your accessories handy, but organized at the same time. As the campaign refers to it in a way that tugs at the heartstrings, it is the “home for things without a home.” Using a series of rubber pegs and circles, the hub holds your stuff without poking holes into anything. The shelf is easily assembled and can be adhered or screwed into the wall. This organizational accessory comes in different sizes and colors including black, blue, green, pink and white.

The Pitch. Geco’s campaign starts with a video showing the different ways the product can be used and configured to make different patterns with the colors available. Simon Lyons, the British creator, is a little bland if charming enough in the video. The rest of the campaign shows different design possibilities for the wall fixture and details exactly what the reward tiers offer. Geco hopes to raise £35,000 in their 35-day Kickstarter campaign.

The Perks. One Geco Hub, which is a 5×5 unit, goes for £25 with an estimated delivery date of October 2014. Other perk levels offer different sizes of the hub up to a 15×15 unit for £269. Reward tiers go all the way up to £540.

The Potential. Other products out there have attempted to solve the whole key and letters by the door problem. Most approach it from a more direct stance like the InterDesign Key and Mail Rack that has hooks and a shelf specifically meant for key rings. The Geco Hub is more versatile in what it can hold and, according to the campaign, can hold a great deal of weight. This nifty product is also great for tools or even bathroom accessories making it valuable all over the house. While a little expensive, the Geco Hub is a cool and multipurpose addition for any home.