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Out There: Typhoon F1 promises flying car, offers flights of fancy

Out There is a feature that highlights weird, wacky or woeful projects.

Now that it’s 2015, everyone’s wondering, “Where are those flying cars that the Back to the Future movies promised us?” Well, engineers and scientists are saying that hovercrafts and the like are still a few years away. But wait! Clearly, they haven’t perused Indiegogo’s current campaigns!

Typhoon F1 is a flying car! Woah, what?! Yes. According to the Indiegogo campaign, the Typhoon uses magnets, rotors, fans, lots of fancy words, and a lithium battery to fly around. It can take off directly from a driveway and fits conveniently into any garage. Typhoon acts like any car with a gas pedal to go, a brake pedal to stop and a steering wheel for direction. A button, yes a button, is what controls takeoff and landing. While it doesn’t resemble a DeLorean, it does look like something out of Star Trek

Now, unfortunately and unsurprisingly, the car itself isn’t available in any of the reward tiers. But for $10,000 backers can choose their own reward. Great Scott! A donation of $10,000 earns a giant question mark. Who could beat that? Perhaps losing that amount is enough to convince any backer that there’s simply no way this thing will ever come to fruition. The creator of Typhoon F1 is looking for a cool $250,000 to fund the dream.

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Introducing Product Innovation Pipeline Reports for retailers, manufacturers and investors

For over a year, Backerjack has been the only editorial Web site devoted exclusively to covering the world of crowdfunded product innovation. The campaigns that we’ve focused on include cutting-edge ideas in many different product categories. But retailers, manufacturers, and investors who want to track these products need more to tap fully into the promise of open innovation.

Introducing the Product Innovation Pipeline Reports. PIPR reports cut through the clutter to curate the most innovative physical products in specific categories along with detailed data that provide clues about consumer demand before products are even available. Consistent across Kickstarter, Indiegogo and other platforms, this data includes:

  • total funds raised
  • total number of backers
  • campaign creator and location
  • product pricing
  • whether the campaign was successful

In addition, each report includes independent profiles of products with links back to the original campaign and company Web site. PIPR reports reveal what could unlock the next product opportunity to drive hundreds of millions of dollars.

The first two reports cover digital imaging — an area of keen interest for any professionals selling or investing in smartphones or digital SLRs and their accessories — for the first two quarters of 2014. The Q3 report will be available soon, and the Q4 report later by March. Many of these products that were funded in the first half of 2014 are just coming into production now and are seeking distribution,

Stay tuned for many more reports launching in the coming months.