Kickstarter

Own a Hand-Crafted Wooden Pen Made from a WWII Ship

I enjoy studying WWII as a history teacher and love hand crafted pens as a pen turner. A cool Kickstarter program is offering a chance to own a hand crafted pen made from the deck of the USS North Carolina. For as little as $45 you can own a piece of the historic ship. Check out Kickstarter to learn more.



Create Your Own Watch Thanks to Modify Watches

Imagine if you could pick from one of more than thirty different watch band colors and then design your own watch face. That’s what the Mod-To-Order project on Kickstarter is all about. Modify Watches is looking for $50,000 to make it happen. Having received some early samples of the watch, I sure hope it is successful. Here’s a closer look.


SipSnap Turns Any Cup into a Sippy Cup

Babies not only require a ton of stuff, but they constantly rotate in and out of all that stuff. Just when you’ve mastered bottles, it’s time to move on to sippy cups. It’s a never ending parade of plastic pieces, but the Kickstarter project SipSnap hopes to make the transition easier with universal sippy cup covers!



Brew Cutlery Makes Loving Beer Even Easier

I recently built a home bar; between glass wear, jiggers, shakers and openers, there are tons of gadgets I could fill my drawers with, but a recent Kickstarter campaign has introduced an item I have never seen. Brew Cutlery combines stainless steel eating utensils with a bottle opener. A $20 Kickstarter contribution will let you eat, drink and be merry!


The Bluelace Project Brings Great Laces Made in America

The goal was simple — use Kickstarter to fund a project to “give American Manufacturing its own yellow ribbon… a wearable way to show your support for the war they’re fighting daily”. The Bluelace Project raised six times more than its goal and shipped the best laces ever — in blue no less —  to those of us who backed it.


Help Kerry Woo’s ‘Take the Long Way Home’ Project Hit the Road

Kerry Woo, past Gear Diary writer and current street photographer extraordinaire, has just launched his first Kickstarter project — the aptly named “Take the Long Way Home”. His goal is to “document a rich pictorial history of America’s back roads, [and] upload the images online with professional printing and direct mailing to you” while driving cross-country from Seattle to Nashville. And now, in my words: Kerry is someone who I have never met in person, but over the ten or so years that we have been communicating online, he has become a dear friend. Kerry has always had a quirky…


Power Pillow, Take A Nap, Charge Your Phone

We all know how nice catching a nap is. What stinks is needing to charge a phone while doing so but the plug is too far away. The Power Pillow is a Kickstarter project starting at $40 and offers seven designs. Two 12,000mAh batteries come with a stylish pillow insuring the ability to relax and charge at once. Comfort meets function.


Sparkbeats Case Gives Your Phone the Gift of Light

I remember when the lighted suits in Tron seemed so amazing and futuristic. What if you could have an iPhone case with a similar look? Sparkbeats takes the iPhone LED flash and bends the light through the case, perfect for messages and calls. A $37 pledge on Kickstarter is all it takes to light your iPhone and wow your friends. 



MyLIFTER Makes Garage Organization Smart

There are two kinds of garages out there: the garages where cars live while shelves of stuff loom over them ominously, and the garages where the idea of fitting a car amongst all the stuff stored there is laughable. No matter which garage you have, myLIFTER is a Kickstarter project designed to organize your garage and control it from your phone!


Will the Bonaverde Coffee Changers Project Succeed? I Sure Hope So!

I debated and debated (and debated!) about whether or not I should back the “World’s first roast-grind-brew coffee machine” by Bonavarde Coffee Changers. In the end, even though it seemed unlikely and possibly too good to be true, and even though there were plenty of good reasons not to,”but what if it works?” won out, and I backed. Bonaverde more than met their initial goal of $135,000; they smashed it with over $681K in backing money, and they added several stretch goals along the way. This may turn out to be a very expensive piece of junk, or it might…


Deathfire: Ruins of Nethermore RPG Final Days on Kickstarter

For fans of traditional computer role-playing games (cRPG), there has been a bit of a drought of games the last couple of years. There have been some really good games, but they have been few and far between. Now there’s a Kickstarter for a new RPG that is something RPG fans can get excited about called Deathfire: Ruins of Nethermore! Note: Deathfire is down to the final 3 days of funding! Here is the basic description: “Deathfire: Ruins of Nethermore” is a party-based computer role-playing game with turn-based combat that hearkens back to the Golden Era of fantasy cRPGs. Built…


Roadie Tuner, The Ultimate Guitarist Tool Kickstarter Project

One of the only annoying things about playing the guitar is tuning. I already use my iPhone as my primary tuning device since it is always with me. The Roadie Tuner on Kickstarter utilizes an iPhone app and pairs with a device via Bluetooth to automatically tune each string for you. The device will be $99 and releases soon.


Toymail is a Cute Idea That Picks Your Pocket

One of the things I have learned extremely quickly as a new parent is that some kid’s accessories and toys come with crazy gimmicks. They’re either smartphone-connected for no good reason, overpriced, or they’ll make something simple overly complicated, all in an effort to part parents from money. The Toymail project on Kickstarter appears to nail the trifecta!


Padcaster Launches iPad Mini Kickstarter Campaign Releases Padcaster 2.0!

The original Padcaster demonstrated once again that dismissing the iPad as a media creation device is wrong-headed – it allowed iPad owners to attach their tablet to a tripod and then use lights, lenses, external microphones and more. Now they have launched a new Kickstarter to help fund the creation of an iPad Mini version! Why are they seeking funding now? Well, they only introduced the Padcaster in April and started selling it in June so it is just starting to get rolling through production. As they note: “The Original Padcaster is already in production, having been funded almost entirely…


Ballads of Reemus 2 Kicks Off Kickstarter Project!

The Ballads of Reemus was a fun adventure game that evoked the classic LucasArts era of gaming. It was fun and funny with plenty to do and discover. Now Reemus is back for another adventure – well, he will be if you back him on Kickstarter! Develop Zeebarf plans to use funding to bring the game out in June 2014. Here is a snip of what the game is all about: A 2D, hand drawn, comedy-fantasy point and click adventure game in the vein of such classics as “Day of the Tentacle” & “Monkey Island” for PC/Mac/Linux. With future ports…


Sometimes Crowd-Funding is an Excuse to Beg for Money

Sites like Kickstarter and IndieGoGo are great places for developers to directly appeal to consumers with their ideas and involvement for product design and manufacturing. It is great to complete (‘Kick-finish’) something like a video. There are risks of being late, not living up to promises, or never releasing. But what if the funding was just that – for funding? This past week I got an email forwarded to me containing a link to a video and a ‘project’ on a crowdfunding site (neither of which I’ll share). The project used as a basis of enticement a list of past…


JUICIES+ Lightning and Micro USB Power Cables Looking for Funding on Kickstarter Now

The folks at Juicies may have come up with a way to improve upon Apple’s lightening cables as well as the typical Micro USB cable. The JUICIES+ cable is made of anodized aluminum, wrapped in a tangle-free woven cable, and is a foot longer than the typical power cables. A $20 Kickstarter pledge lands you one power cable of the future. Project Title:  JUICIES+ for iPhone, Android, Blackberry and Windows Phones Status:  Currently Funding Closing Date for Funding:  11/1/13 URL of the Project:  http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/laudowicz/juicies-for-iphone-android-blackberry-and-windows Product Overview: JUICIES+ incorporate a few great cable designs that I’ve been looking for in a…