kickstarter

Here's a weird stop along the circle of life. Thanks to a Kickstarter project, the footsteps of a 14-year-old me and millions of others have found a new destiny: amplifying the volume of some stranger's iPad or iPhone.

The Sounder is an iPad/iPhone stand and amplifier with some real Americana credibility built in. In fact, it's 100 percent Americana. Each of the wooden stands is handmade (with an assist from some power tools) from old-growth lumber reclaimed from 19th century structures, including the Coney Island boardwalk. … Read more

You've got mail. You've got a new Facebook friend request. Someone wants to chat. You've been mentioned in a tweet. Your mom left a voicemail. Your gadgets are constantly trying to get your attention, but bell, ringer, and buzzer alerts get old fast.

Get some peace and quiet (or at least quiet) with the L8 SmartLight. The Kickstarter project consists of a small box full of 64 RGB LEDs in a grid on one side and a single super RGB LED on the other. Talk to your smartphone, connect to your social networks, and feed Internet alerts to the box through Bluetooth or USB.

The battery-powered L8 -- which measures 2.4 inches by 2.4 inches by less than an inch -- can be set to notify you of just about any event you want. Got a new e-mail? Get a flashing light. Status update from your sweetheart? Trigger a pulsing LED heart. Boss left a voicemail on your day off? Set it for an LED frowny face. A control app is coming soon for iOS. Android, and desktop computers.… Read more

The Aviator Travel Jib lets budget videographers capture videos with smooth, cinematic panning at a fraction of the price of professional systems. A jib is also known as a camera crane, which is typically used in movie productions to get a sense of the scene, usually with the camera panning or zooming from a higher vantage point.

Weighing only 3.7 pounds, the camera crane is able to extend up to 6 feet and should be able to carry your dSLR and a kit lens (the accessory can support cameras of up to 6 pounds). When not in use, it can be folded down to 24 inches for portability. … Read more

Sous-vide cooking has been getting a lot of attention recently and for good reason: cooking food in a water bath at an exact and consistent temperature provides unique results. As the method keeps gaining popularity, appliances and gadgets are cropping up designed to make the process accessible and affordable.

The Nomiku combines a heat source with an immersion circulator. Many other consumer appliances do not integrate an immersion circulator into their designs. The capability to circulate water (in this case at 10 L/min) allows for more consistent results. Unfortunately, the cost of integrating an immersion circulator into these devices … Read more

Is Instagram just a handy photo-sharing platform, or does it represent some unconscious longing for better times when all was analog?

Whatever the case, these concept glasses let you view the world through the prism of retro photography.

Designed by Markus Gerke of Berlin, Instaglasses are specs that would take photos with an integrated camera and, of course, Instagram filters.

When seeing an Instagram-worthy scene, users would push a button between their eyes to activate the camera. It would display filtered images in the lenses, as seen in the pic below. … Read more

The commercialization of space travel is well on its way. That means you can't just pop over to NASA and borrow a space suit for your private space flight, which leaves room for some upstarts to get in on the space-clothing action.

Final Frontier Design is working on a lightweight, relatively inexpensive space suit and is looking for $20,000 on Kickstarter to boost the project. The company has already built two generations of suits but is looking to improve the design with a retractable helmet, better gloves, a carbon fiber waist ring, and higher operating pressure.… Read more

Scanbox, created by Australian design company Limemouse, works as a miniature studio in a box perfect for scanning documents (up to A4 size), receipts, 3D objects, or even a page from a book.

At first glance, the $15 Scanbox may appear like some sort of strange geometric shape, but the peculiar design optimizes lighting conditions for the perfect shot. It only takes a few moments to set up the device, as the user simply aligns a few high-strength magnets built into the box.

A stencil of a smartphone with a square hole sits on top so that the user knows exactly where to place the camera lens every time. When the photo shoot ends, the Scanbox folds back up into a flat shape for easy transportation. … Read more

Eminent science fiction writer Neal Stephenson wants to get real about swordsmanship, and he's passing the helmet to get it done.

The author, perhaps best known for his novels "Cryptonomicon" and "Snow Crash," is seeking donations on Kickstarter for a new video game called Clang that promises to provide a more realistic representation of steel-on-steel swordfighting. Working with Subutai, the goal is to create a game based on two-handed longsword combat that will play on game controllers already on the market, he writers in a blog explaining the project:

Several other blogs have already highlighted a new Kickstarter project, Twig, a Gumby-esque iPhone docking cable, but I thought I should also throw some props its way as well. … Read more