Two crowdfunded projects that opened up new categories of devices.
Kickstarter
This Smart Light Bulb Keeps Working Even If the Power Goes Out
You can even turn it on and off from the light switch.
Omate TrueSmart Watch Makes Calls All By Itself
The Omate TrueSmart watch promises to have a built-in microSIM card slot, so you can make calls and get text messages without tethering to your smartphone.
Choose Your Own Adventure Books Look to Be Resurrected in Tablet Form
You know you turned back to the previous page when you died instead of starting over. We’re all adults now; let’s be honest about it.
Ouya Circles Back with $1 Million in Kickstarter Funds to “Free the Games”
As much as $250,000 per project is up for grabs.
This Collapsible Music Keyboard for the iPad Is More than Meets the Eye
This is arguably the most innovative thing to happen to compact keyboard actions in years.
When Your iPhone’s Mute Switch Doesn’t Actually Mute Everything, There’s the Mutator
Recall the shock, heartbreak and the wholesale loss of your faith in humanity when you found out that the mute switch on the side of your iPhone didn’t actually completely mute all of the sounds to come out of your iPhone.
Ouya’s Lesson for Kickstarter Backers: You’re Buying the Beta
The first reviews of Ouya’s $100 game console are in, and they’re pretty ugly. But this is not an issue specific to Ouya.
NUIA EyeCharm Promises Eye Tracking on the Cheap
Germany-based 4tiitoo is working on the NUIA EyeCharm, a $60 eye-tracking attachment for Microsoft’s Kinect motion controller. The product seeks $100,000 in funding from Kickstarter.
Nataly Dawn On Her New Album How I Knew Her and Why Kickstarter Fans Can Be Fickle
Musician Nataly Dawn talks about her new album’s Kickstarter inception, how she still went into debt to make it and why she’s frustrated with musician Amanda Palmer’s Kickstarter critics.
When Promising, Fully Funded Kickstarter Projects Go Wrong
It’s a reminder that these projects are each and every one a gamble, not a guarantee, and that for all the potentially amazing products we could see from crowdfunded projects, sometimes things fall apart
TechnologizerGadgets
Kickstarter Aims to Make Gadgets Less of a Gamble
For the new dead-tree issue of TIME that comes out today, I had fun profiling Kickstarter, the highest-profile site enabling crowdfunding of creative projects. (Subscribers can read the article here.) I write about some of the …