Tag: balls

Categories
Connected Objects Games

Juggglow adds glowing balls to the mix, makes juggling easy for beginners

Juggling is a time-honored art; a feat of balance and grace featured at many circuses. Clowns do it while teetering atop a unicycle or walking a tightrope. Even as a simple talent, juggling always manages to dazzle.

Juggglow brings juggling into the 21st century with LEDs and Bluetooth, which allows one to control the balls from the accompanying smartphone app. They can easily choose not only the color of the balls, but also the effects that they display, such as a rainbow spectacle for up to seven balls.

In addition to aesthetics, the app lets users track their juggling accomplishments. They can watch their progress over time, and engage in different challenges that the app offers. It also lets them compare their accomplishments to other Juggglow users. With tips and games, it makes juggling not only attainable, but fun.

As a luxury item, Juggglow brings all of the different dimensions of juggling to the masses. Its tutorials, challenges, and effects make it a great toy for beginners and experienced jugglers alike. Those wanting to dazzle their friends or an audience should look into purchasing their own. A donation of €89 (~$101) is rewarded with a Juggglow, which is estimated to be delivered in July of this  year. Juggglow is looking to raise €10,000 (~$11,300) in funding with the help of Indiegogo.

Categories
Sports

TorrX pumps up your sports balls, won’t burst them

Balls used in sports need constant pumping to keep them firm enough to play with. They’re constantly losing air and, if too soft, can ruin any football, basketball or soccer game. The only problem is that traditional air pumps leave you guessing. Either the ball isn’t as firm as it should be or too much air is pumped in causing the ball to burst.

TorrX is a digital air pump that takes the guesswork out of breathing new life into sports balls. To use, just turn on and select whether the ball should be pumped manually or automatically. For the manual mode, it’ll display the ball’s psi. For the automatic range, input the optimum psi and it’ll fill it to that level. TorrX is long and skinny, perfect for throwing into any sports bag.

This is a great product for any sports enthusiast, athlete or coach who constantly find themselves with weak footballs, basketballs, soccer balls or any other kinds of ball. The battery lasts long too, boasting the ability to fill up 50 soccer balls on a full charge. For their own, backers can donate $45 to receive by June 2015. TorrX is looking to raise a whopping $100,000 on Kickstarter.

Categories
Games Sports

Oche Pong elevates a beer pong setup to the classiness of a dartboard

28cbd33d4ea10eae4df00764eaab3e8f_largeBeer pong isn’t just a frat bro’s claim to fame anymore. Phinneas Innovations LLC wants to get the storied game out from college campuses and into the livers of those everywhere with their Oche Pong, a modified version that tilts the cups at a 45° angle, hangs them on the nearest wall, and transforms the game. It also has feet for those places without walls, like the beach, or tailgating parties. $35 is the asking price for the novelty, while the company is looking for $34,000 to it into homes by February 2015 the latest.

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Home

Paca Dryers furballs speed up clothes drying times

Paca DryersEnergy is expensive these days and anyway to cut down on utility bills is always welcome. Paca Dyers are one small way to save money on energy each month. These large hairballs are made of alpaca fur, which are all natural and contain no lanolin, a common irritant for many. With porous fibers, the Paca Dryers soak up moisture, allowing your clothes to leave the dryer earlier. One set of three balls goes for $25 on Kickstarter with an estimated delivery date of May 2014. Paca Dryers hopes to raise a modest $1,500 in a 45-day campaign.

Categories
Toys

IKOS construction set offers arced pieces, tells other sets to hit the bricks

The Premise. Building toys are, at a first glance, perfect for young children. Somewhere along the way, however, adults began picking them up and using them to create and design new things. They offer kids a way to learn spatial patterns and adults a way to create and experiment with prototypes for their inventions.

The Product. IKOS is a building tool comprised of small pieces that lock together to create new shapes. The pieces are larger than typical building toys and come in different colors. IKOS used a modified geometrical polygon to come up with its design. These building blocks are curved and spherical, unlike most building toys which are typically flat.

The Pitch. The long campaign video shows how the adult mind behind IKOS, Mike Wong, enlisted the help of three high school students to help him create IKOS. His vision was to find a new kind of shape to create with, “How are we supposed to think outside of the box, when that’s all we have to design with?” Wong asks in the video. Despite the fact that two of the three high school students are women, the video boasts that the building tool is great for everyone including girls, hmm. The rest of the campaign shows a few of the million different things that can be made using IKOS pieces. IKOS hopes to raise $21,000 in its 32-day Kickstarter campaign.

The Perks. As with other toy building products we’ve seen the past, IKOS offers different packages for different amounts of donations. The lowest priced Young Innovator package costs $22 and comes with 40 IKOS pieces in two colors. The Innovator package comes with 120 IKOS pieces at an early-bird price of $40 and regular price of $50. Other packages offer up to 2,500 IKOS pieces for keen future or current engineers. All have an estimated delivery date of July 2014.

The Potential. IKOS’s unique quality is that it offers a building block that isn’t flat like other building tools, presenting even more building opportunities to kids, professionals and adults alike. The company hopes to branch out by manufacturing the set using recycled materials which will give it even more of an edge in the future. We’ve seen lots of fun building tools on crowdfunding sites like Strawbees, Snaak and CubeCraft that offer designers the chance to dream up new creations easily. IKOS is a different kind of tool because of its curved shape and breathes new life into the building block market.