Categories
Fitness

RST training glove punches up hit accuracy, timing

The Premise. Muhammad Ali once said that he was so fast, he could flip the light switch in his room and be in bed before the room was dark. While maybe a little shy of the 300 million meters per second, he was still able to dodge 21 punches in 10 seconds.  The Greatest have been even greater, though,  had he access to the advanced training tools of today — including ones that are putting a digital twist on tried-and-true methods.

The Product: Reflex Strike Technology (RST) is the training glove from the future. Using adjustable lights, a built-in reflect stopwatch, punch counter, and successful strike beeps, the RST training gloves give realtime assessments to the trainer and allow the fighter to prepare for the spontaneity of a realistically unpredictable fight. With RST, fighters can practice with the same intensity of an actual fight, and have a distinct advantage over their opponent in terms of preparation.

The Pitch. The video shows the RST in action as a young boxer squares off with her trainer. From the video, the mitts look well-made, and it’s easy for the fighter to see the lights and throw the appropriate punch that the trainer dictates. RST creator Jermaine Simpkins goes into great depth about the RST in the written description on how he has combined his passion of teaching youth fighters with the technology of his product. He comes off as passionate and honest about all the RST’s strengths and downfalls, leaving the buyer no doubts about what they’re buying if the campaign can reach its $12,000 goal.

The Perks. The price is steep but the reasoning is honest. Simpkins explains that the gloves offer slightly more than the most expensive gloves on the market. Therefore, the fundamental gloves for beginners will cost $219 and the advanced version with punch count, reflex test, and training features costs $399. He expects the delivery of the fundamental gloves to arrive in February 2014, and the advanced pair to arrive in May.

The Potential. It’s great to see that Simpkins is passionate about evolving the resources that fighters have available, and it’s a good foundation for future improvement. However, Simpkins notes his product’s own downfalls such as durability and price. RST is an ambitious product, but the design needs to improve before it’s ready for  production. As the product is refined, it may be more valuable if it measures strength of impact as well.

Categories
Accents

Blub Nixie tube clock designed to glow on you

BlubClockDecades before there were LCD displays, Nixie tubes showed off digits in glowing vacuum glass containers. Their retro appeal and geek cred have led them to adorn the wrist of Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak. And while they’re a tad impractical for such a small timepiece, they have no problem working on the aluminum brick that serves as the base of Blub. Due to ship in backers in May, the clock is more art than functional timepiece, as one would certainly surmise from its $369 AUD price tag. It features a night-time shutoff and an alarm, although you probably shouldn’t try slamming it as you would a snooze button.

Categories
Food and Beverage

Puzzo Susan takes its turn at serving up food flavorings

PuzzoSusan

Lazy Susans have a bit of a problem and it doesn’t stem from their lack of exercise. The longer they wish to extend, the wider their diameter must be. That really ground the gears of Witchita’s Nam H. Le, who has enabled more flexible placement with the Puzzo Susan, a system of wooden toothed wheels and connectors that offers more flexibility in terms of placement. As a bonus, the gears act as coasters. Of course, if someone else’s search for Mrs. Dash moves your desired NuSalt out of the way, you’ll just have to wait your turn. A modular product, Puzzo Susan should be past its teething phase in configurations starting at $50 in February 2014

Categories
Cooking

WonderWok ignites flame war with outdoor grills

The Premise. The wok is a versatile kitchen staple that has been around for thousands of years. Whether frying, steaming, boiling, or sautéing, the wok can do it all. But when it comes to outdoor cooking, most people turn to their grill or maybe a smoker. Traditional electric or gas stove tops just can’t get hot enough to set the wok a-rockin’.

The Product. The WonderWok is an outdoor grill that unleashes unbridled heat directly to a wok. The wok rests on top, allowing the chef to move it at will. It also comes with a grill and griddle attachment. The WonderWok’s base is silver while the wok and attachments are black. Installation involves simply hooking it up to a propane tank, much like a conventional grill.

The Pitch. The Indiegogo campaign chronicles how Gregory Wong dreamed the WonderWok into existence.  AnAsian cuisine chef with his own YouTube channel, Wong understood the need for something like the WonderWok on the mass market.  Where his campaign lacks is in explaining the product itself.  There are no pictures of the WonderWok in the campaign itself and only fleeting glimpses of its commercial kitchen-like design in the video. The same aversion to stills shows on the WonderWok’s Web site. Wong hopes to raise $100,000.

The Perks. Reward tier pricing may prevent the WonderWok from winning out versus conventional propane grills that can cost a few hundred dollars. Wong offers seven reward tiers that include variations of perks such as bamboo chopsticks, bumper stickers, recipes from his YouTube channel, baseball caps and the like. Only a contribution of $5,000 or more will earn a WonderWok with an estimated delivery date of April 2014.

The Potential. The WonderWok could represent a slice of stir-fried heaven for Asian cuisine chefs who want to expand into more outdoor events; it will be a harder sell for the average weekend backyard burger flipper. Beyond the huge price displarity, there are already several other less expensive alternatives such as Mr. B-B-Q Cast-Iron Wok is a heavy wok designed to sit directly on the grill. Eastman Outdoors sells a similar Outdoors Steel Wok Kit, that is essentially an outdoors grill with a wok on top, much like the WonderWok, just not quite as hot. With these alternatives, it may be difficult for Wong’s creation to find a steady role in the world of outdoor cooking, but professionals should be able to offer at least a wok-on role.

Categories
Cell Phone Accessories Chargers/Batteries

Ark opens doors to wireless charging on the go

ArkChargerOnly Apple knows for sure why it abstains from supporting wireless standards such as Qi. But if the company did come out with a portable charger, it’s a good bet it would look a lot like the Ark, the rounded square of which resembles the previous generation of its AirPort Extreme router. As with other chargers that support Qi, you lay the phone atop the surface and it simply begins charging. However, since Qi adds a bit of depth to the phone, you may need to add a different back cover or, in the case of the iPhone, a case as the Ark’s creators have. After that, you can fill up the Ark with electricity as if it were Noah’s animals, and set it down on any flat surface deemed worthy to serve as a smartphone refilling station. Set to sail in March 2014, the naked Ark starts at about $65 with a host of other  early bird and reward tiers offering bundles with adapters for the Galaxy S3, S4 and iPhone.

Categories
Cell Phone Accessories

HOYO gets your smartphone to cut it out in the shower

HOYOWaterPouchPlumbing was invented by the Romans, who were not advised of the eventual arrival of smartphones vulnerable to water. This may have something to do with why there’s no good place to put your mobile companion when taking a shower. Londoner Georgey Sheehy seeks to bridge the words of water and wireless with the HOYO. While there are many waterproof pouches for smartphones and tablets, the HOYO allows you to play through a protective barrier while affixed to a wall or even embedded inside a shower curtain. That latter configuration will involve taking a knife to your bathroom’s bare body barrier, but offers the advantage of easy insertion and removal as well as placing the all-important potential porthole on the other side of where the water is. Still, that could make HOYO a no-go, you know? The £15 HOYO should be available in either wall or shower curtain configurations in June 2014.

Categories
Connected Objects Sleep

DreamNet opens lucid dreaming to analysis, app variety, collective unconsciousness

The Premise. The idea of lucid dreaming — in which one is aware that one is dreaming and wakes to remember the tale — has been around for a long period of time. Up until recent years, however, it’s been the kind of thing that people have had to take on entirely themselves. For many, lucid dreaming is difficult enough as it is, and it can take years to learn even just the basics. As today’s technology is pushing just about every industry in the world in a new direction, it should stand to reason why lucid dreaming is heading in a new direction.

The Product. DreamNet offers a new way for people to embrace lucid dreaming. The sleep mask-like device is a programmable headband that allows users to create their very own personal lucid dreaming experience. When synced with a smartphone or tablet, the software associated with DreamNet takes a sophisticated approach. It lets you choose a specific point in your sleep schedule to trigger an alarm, which alerts you that you have entered into a dream. It utilizes an EEG to monitor brain waves, which you can even go back and analyze in the morning, Perhaps the most fascinating thing about DreamNet is that, true to the product’s name, it is trying to build a network of dreamers. that share data in order to create more effective analysis.

The Pitch. Synapse, the team behind DreamNet, has created an effective campaign for those who want the nitty-gritty on the headband’s components, choice of processor and software origins even if a lot of it reads like hard-to-follow inside baseball. Much praise is offered to researcher Bill Murphy, the narrator of the video.

The Perks. DreamNet has a unique pricing structure. For those who are willing to submit at least four of their sleep sessions to the company for research purposes, the product can be had for just $140. Otherwise, the entry point for DreamNet is $150 for early adopters, and is due to ship in June 2014.

The Potential. Lucid dreaming products are all over the place. The smartphone-optional Aurora, a similar product to DreamNet, raised more than double its funding goal on Kickstarter. What sets DreamNet aside from the competition, however, is that it offers a state-of-the-art way to not only trigger the headband’s alarm at a specific point in time, to track what’s going on when you sleep and to contribute ultimately to the state of lucid dreaming research.

Categories
Organization Tech Accessories

FirstStand 2 gets all your mobile madness in line

FirstStandThere are many charging stands and docks available for smartphones and tablets, but relatively few can accommodate the multiple mobile devices that stuff our modern pockets and bags, much less are ready for the emerging wave of smartphones. Straight outta Brooklyn comes the oxymoronic Firststand 2, however, employs a clever hollow tube-like design that not only plays well with a smart — or really any —watch, but also accommodates resting phones and even tablets. The space inside the tube can be used for cables, keys and other small items. A bevy of length configurations stretch from a $29 early bird to a $99 combo that includes a 10″ and 4″ stand. Alas, backers’ digital darlings will likely have to flail about in lesser homes until at least May 2014.

Categories
Cycling Music Winter Sports

Jalapeño mixes beats to your extreme feats

editors-choiceThe Premise.  Your favorite music flows. You wipe your brow with the last dry spot on your shirt before bearing down for that last attempt at nailing this trick, lest the daylight and your body give out. Start your run, compress for the jump, pop, hit the air, and then the silence, the calm, that instant between bad idea and successful trick. Time and sound resume, and you can stop holding your breath. You stuck that! What could make this moment better? How about if your music was more than a backtrack to that trick? What if it was the unique score to that moment?

The Product. The Jalapeño, so named for its cubist resemblance to the spicy pepper, is meant to enhance the extreme sports experience by allowing your movement to remix music; essentially, shredding on a board or bike creates the effect of a DJ mixing.  Along with the accompanying Beat Farm smartphone software, it allows your jumps, spins and turns to slow, freeze, cross-fade between tracks, and pan audio between headphones.

The Pitch. A compact (under 3x2x1″), durable, weatherproof design and a seemingly sturdy mount make the Jalapeño viable across a wide range of applications from snowboarding, to BMXing to breakdancing. Its campaign includes multiple endorsements and three videos depicting testimonials, product demos, and brief explanations of operation, but little technical info about how it actually works. The only info about the creators is that they “first met at the University of Pennsylvania’s IPD graduate program.” In fact, technical development information is lacking overall. Not a campaign designed to appease techies, there are only two prototype development photos, and short, broad descriptions of the development state.

The Perks.  Early birds will pay $199 for essential equipment (Jalapeño, mount, software), and everyone else can expect to pay $239, or more, for packages that include extra swag like tees and hoodies.

The Potential.  This seems like a ton of fun. Who doesn’t want their own personal soundtrack enabling you to mix and remix.  Shredding to your own sounds looks like it will add a new element of fun to showing off, but the challenge will be in ensuring that the novelty doesn’t wear off.

Categories
Imaging Video Wearables

meMini records your life after the fact

editors-choiceThe Premise. Sometimes the most precious memories in life can be the most unprecedented. These unexpected moments can add a delightful twist of color into life, and they should never be lost or forgotten. But oftentimes it’s either too cumbersome or too late to pull out a camera and take a video that can be cherished forever.

The Product. The meMini is a wearable camera that lets you record events after they happen. Designed to be small and unnoticeable, it magnetically clips onto your clothing and records continuous loops that can be set anywhere between five seconds to five minutes. If something special happens but you were unable to pull your camera out in time, there’s no need to worry. Simply press the Recall button and the meMini will send that moment to its secure cloud based server for you to view later on your meMini.com profile. Because life’s most precious moments deserve to be shared, meMini also has an iPhone app that makes it easy to share your videos with family and friends.

The Pitch. Co-Founder Sam Lee starts off his narration of the meMini by introducing it as the world’s first wearable camera that makes it possible to record moments after they happen. He then shows the process and the detail that he and his team went through to make sure that the meMini was both simple and innovative in the way that we capture, store, and share our most treasured memories.The device eliminates the need for cords and memory cards because of its unique cloud-based storage system, which makes it easy to go back and relive memories in their purest form as they happen. Lee and co-founder Ben Bodely end the video by asking for a donation to fulfill their first order to put the meMini into production.

The Perks. Scheduled to be shipped in June 2014, a few early bird specials that will land you a meMini in the color of your choice for just $149. After this deal is over, you can still claim the same prize for $159, which is still a pretty good deal for a 1080p HD video recording device with image stabilization.

The Potential. Going head to head with wearable video capture products such as the Looxcie 3, the  meMini could change the way that moments are captured. Instead of a performance in front of a video camera, the meMini captures a memory as a candid visual that accurately portrays the moment as it happened and as you remembered it.  Wearable cameras still have their share of stigma, though, and the meMini’s battery will power it for only three hours at a time. Still, it’s the closest thing we might have to the rewind button on what we’ve experienced.