Hasta La Gadget!

In Insert Coin, we look at an exciting new tech project that requires funding before it can hit production. If you’d like to pitch a project, please send us a tip with “Insert Coin” as the subject line.

Richard Haberkern’s pretty much got this Kickstarter thing nailed down. The Soundlazer and Lumapad creator has now turned his attention to Arduino-based location logging, and needs your cash to produce the GPS Cookie. Slam in a microSD card and some batteries, and the unit will track the time, route, speed and altitude of all of your journeys. Coming in cookie and sandwich-shaped versions, the unit’s available to backers for $79, while solder-happy modders can snag the unassembled version for $25. Unfortunately, the early-backer editions have already been snaffled. Curious to learn more? The video’s after the break.

Filed under: GPS

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Source: Kickstarter

In Insert Coin, we look at an exciting new tech project that requires funding before it can hit production. If you’d like to pitch a project, please send us a tip with “Insert Coin” as the subject line.

Here’s one to get the maker community’s mouths watering. SparqEE CELLv1.0 is a compact certified cellular board that plugs directly into Arduino and the Raspberry Pi shields, letting you piggyback on networks all over the world. The company, naturally, is offering up plenty of potential applications for the technology: remote home automation, pet tracking, RC copter flying. You know, the usual. As ever, though, the fun of these sorts of things is in the execution the manufacturers never dreamed of. Of course, $70,000 is a fairly lofty goal for the component’s Kickstarter campaign, so SparqEE needs all the help it can get. Watch the company’s Kickstarter plea after the break.

Previous project update: Choose Your Own Adventure is chugging along. The page-turner of a campaign is currently at $30,878 of its $100,000 goal. Thankfully, it’s still got nearly a month to get there.

Filed under: Peripherals

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Source: Kickstarter

Roughly this time last month, we opened up our second Insert Coin: New Challengers competition to all you entrepreneurial makers. The first one was an unquestionable highlight of March’s first-ever Expand event in San Francisco, and we’re psyched to see what you guys have in store for us this time. Ten semifinalists will get tickets to the show and a $1,000 travel stipend. One Judges’ Choice winner will walk away with $10,000 and one Readers’ Choice winner will get $15,000. Both will also score a product review on this site.

Ziphius, which managed to pick up both prizes back in March, is entering the home stretch in its own search for $125,000 over on Kickstarter. The aquatic drone managed to capture the imagination of the Expand crowd and our online audience, beating out a number of impressive finalists, including the Make-a-Play, SmartPulse, Smart Knob and Snapzoom. Think you’ve got something just as good in the works? Well, now’s the time to show us. Submissions are open now through September 27th. You can find all the necessary rules over on our event page.

Filed under: Announcements, Meta

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Source: Expand

While the tech fraternity is obsessed with perfect white balance, the creative community may want a bit of variety. That’s the idea behind the Rainbow Flash Wizard, a device that lets photographers coat their subjects in any color that takes their fancy. In essence, the device is a color wheel that you can mount over your flash gun — giving you a rainbow of new lighting options. As well as creative settings, seasoned pros can use the unit to correct under or overexposed shots without resorting to post-processing. If you’re interested in getting your hands on one, the device’s creators have taken to Kickstarter to raise $78,000, with a $70 pledge getting you an early-bird discount.

Filed under: Cameras, Peripherals

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Source: Kickstarter

In Insert Coin, we look at an exciting new tech project that requires funding before it can hit production. If you’d like to pitch a project, please send us a tip with “Insert Coin” as the subject line.

It’s safe to say that most people’s idea of home networking involves the following steps: buy a wireless router, set it up with an SSID and a password, and then never ever think about it again as long as the WiFi keeps working. But if you’re one of a dedicated few who want deeper IT admin-level control over your family’s internet usage, then a new Kickstarter campaign from PowerCloud Systems just might be right up your alley. The product is called Skydog, and while you do get a slim and compact dual-band 802.11n five-port Gigabit router out of it, Skydog is really more about the cloud-based platform than the physical hardware. Customers are able to visually survey who and what device is on their home network, manage permissions based on that information, allocate bandwidth priority, troubleshoot network issues with ease and more.

PowerCloud Systems is no stranger to cloud-managed networking — it’s been providing just such a solution to enterprises such as hotels, schools, multi-dwelling units and retail chains ever since 2008 when it was spun out of Xerox PARC. In order to bring that level of sophistication to the home audience, however, the company needed consumer-facing software to simplify the process for the masses, and that’s exactly what it has tried to do with Skydog. After the break, we offer a tour of the service and interview the people behind it to see just why they’re seeking funding via Kickstarter.

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Source: Skydog (Kickstarter)