Sometimes the best but hardest part about camping is using a fire to cook food. Dry wood can be difficult to find and cooking over an uneven spit is dangerous. Campfire in a Can solves these problems. It is a compact kit that comes with a vertical burn chamber as well as a grill top to use for cooking. This product burns both coal and wood and evenly distributes heat upward and to the surrounding area to cook food and warm campers at the same time. One Campfire in a Can costs backers $59 at an early price or $68 regularly for delivery in October 2014. Reaching a goal of $80,000 in a two-month campaign on Kickstarter will spell success for this product.
The Premise. Coffee can, unfortunately, make or break a meeting, lecture or work event. Without it, it’s hard to focus and getting anything done becomes extremely difficult. While most schools and offices recognize this by providing cafes and coffee carts in house, that cup of java is not always right at hand.
The Product. The Hey Joe Coffee Mug is a convenient way to get that caffeine dosage for hardcore coffee addicts. It looks like any normal travel mug and is tall and black. The mug comes with small cartridges of coffee and with the push of a button will brew a cup of coffee. It is designed so that drinkers are welcome to use their own coffee as well. The temperature can be regulated with the push of the power button and the coffee brewing is powered from a rechargeable battery on the bottom of the mug. Cleaning is easy since the coffee is relatively contained. One simply needs to fill the mug with water and soap and then press brew sans coffee cartridge.
The Pitch. The campaign video really stresses the environmental friendliness of the product. It goes through statistics for how many disposable coffee materials people consume and how the Hey Joe Coffee Mug cuts down on that waste. In addition, the coffee cartridge package comes with seeds so that when the coffee grounds are used, one can plant them to grow into flowers. Hey Joe is looking to raise $20,000 in a 30-day Kickstarter campaign.
The Perks. Early birdies will receive the travel mug for $39. For $49, backers will receive the mug in black. At the $69 level, backers have the choice of color for their mug and also get 40 coffee cartridges so that they can start brewing. Reward tiers go all the way up to $10,000 with estimated delivery in November 2014.
The Potential. Coffee convenience has become a thing of concern in recent years. The ever-popular Keurig machine has made it possible to brew one cup at a time easily. This type of machine, however, leaves behind little plastic cups of waste. Other products, like the highly touted AeroPress still requires a source for hot water. The Hey Joe Coffee Mug is the first of its kind that can brew on the go and regulate temperature. This product will certainly be a staple for all caffeine addicts with hectic schedules.
When a vehicle owner is out and about on a hot day, parking in a garage is not always an option. And in the dead of winter, digging out a vehicle and deicing it is an inconvenience that can take a terribly long time. Swift Shade offers a solution for both situations. In the summer, it can lower the temperature inside the vehicle 50-90 degrees. In the winter, it blocks snow and ice from gathering on windows. The wraparound product also has a built in alarm for deterring theft. For $200, backers get one product designed for a standard truck, or $400 for customization. Expected delivery is August 2014.
Lately, we’ve seen a trend in using products to maximize one’s fitness. Apps and gadgets make it easier to see one’s performance level as well as progress made over time. The PulseOn closely resembles pulse-monitoring watches from companies such as Polar, but requires no chest strap. With this wristband, the heart rate is monitored and that information is sent wirelessly to an accompanying app that helps track progress. In addition, this Finnish gadget keeps a record of fitness intensity, distance, time, and speed for runners. One of these wristbands will cost backers $169 USD. PulseOn hopes to raise $150,000 USD in a two month-long campaign on Indiegogo.
Whether a person is at the computer, in the kitchen, or driving, mobile devices that lay flat can make things like surfing the net, cooking with a downloaded recipe and driving to a new destination complicated. Smart-Snap-Mount works via magnetic mounting brackets on one end and specialized tape on the other. The ball-head mount and goose-neck keep the device from vibrating, even if driving on a bumpy road. Early bird backers get a four piece set for £100, with a swift estimated delivery of June 2014.
The Premise. Tablets and online games have captured children’s imaginations so much so that kids don’t seem to have fun off screen anymore. It’s difficult for parents to get their children to explore the three-dimensional world while competing with digital wonders.
The Product. Osmo is a unique gaming system that combines the entertainment of an onscreen game with the interaction of physical objects. With three different game choices, kids can hook up Osmo to a recent iPad and play onscreen and off at the same time. The games included focus on tangram puzzles and patterns, drawing shapes, and word scrambles. The accompanying base attachment clips over the iPad’s camera and uses Artificial Intelligence and a built-in mirror to allow the iPad to reflect the child’s movements onscreen in real time. In simpler terms, the iPad shows the child moving the shapes, for example, on its screen and uses this information to determine if the child is on the right track.
The Pitch. Osmo’s simple video shows one, two, and then a bunch of kids flocking to play with the product. The children ooh and ahh at the game and seeing the product in action will elicit the same reaction from viewers. Pictures of children playing with the device in a myriad of ways pepper the rest of the campaign. Testimonials from educators and parents as well as logos from a number of respectable news sources give the product some authority. In addition, Osmo’s campaign exists on its own website as opposed to on a crowd-funding site. For this reason, they have no public goal set on their site. They will be accepting pre-orders for backers until June 22nd.
The Perks. Osmo’s site offers only one reward. For 50% off of the retail price of $99, backers will receive the Osmo kit for only $49 with the base attachment, and Words and Tangram games (iPad not included, obviously). The creators expect to ship by late summer 2014.
The Potential. To put it quite simply, Osmo is really cool. It’s the type of game that would be glimpsed at in a movie set in the future. Not only is it rare that a product for children combines the physical with the digital, but it also uses games that help kids’ minds to learn and grow. The retail price seems extremely reasonable and the pre-order price is an absolute steal. Osmo also lets kids play together, using several two-player modes, cutting down on the type of social isolation that screen games usually cause. All in all, Osmo will enjoy great success on the market, creating fun for children and parents alike.
For those who aren’t content to just lay around on the beach, Beach Chess offers the option to have some mental stimulation while baking in the sun. And one can still take in the…um…sites as one’s opponent contemplates their next move. The six chess pieces are embossed on each side of a plastic cube (one black and one white for two player fun) and the sand becomes the chess board. As long as the game isn’t being played too closely to the water, this could attract the attention of some interesting people. For $25, backers get the complete product with an expected delivery of July 2014.
While there are many people out there who love their tie shoes, it seems that shoelaces become untied at the least convenient times. Shnap is the newest attempt to get shoelaces under control without having to double knot them. The three-part system uses the shoelace hole farthest from the toes and includes a base part with a raised center that pushes through the shoelace hole from the tongue side, a small piece that attaches to the shoelace, and a third piece that seems to snap on and hold it all together. There are four Shnaps for each pair of shoes. Other campaigns aimed at securing your laces have included Zipped and Innie. For $8, early bird backers get a one set of Shnaps and an expected delivery of September 2014.
There are days when life is so busy that mobile users forget to charge their devices at home. When that happens and they choose to charge at work or a public port, it can mean that data gets compromised, or worse, they get juice jacked. So Umbrella USB keeps the reign of cyber bullies from falling on the precious data of rightful mobile owners. A similar campaign that is rather colorful in nature if not in hue would be the USB Condom, but this effort looks more like a finished product than a hobbyist’s project. For $9, backers get one USB Umbrella with an expected delivery of October 2014.
The problem of rest while in transit is a doozy. For those who have trouble falling asleep on the move, traveling can be extremely uncomfortable. The JQ Headrest aims at helping weary passengers get some rest. It comprises of an adjustable pole that rests on the forehead and chest to let passengers sleep leaning forward. Despite its awkward look, it claims to be effective, much like the Forward Front Face Pillow Cushion. If backers think they can get it past security, they only have to pay $36 (if they live in China and have a lung disease) for delivery in August 2014. Healthy, non-Chinese backers must donate $99. JQ hopes to raise a huge $386,000 goal in a 27-day Kickstarter campaign.