Hey makers, the clock is ticking — Insert Coin submissions close in two weeks!

Hey makers, the clock is ticking  Insert Coin submissions close in two weeks!

Insert Coin: New Challengers was far and away one of the highlights of March’s first-ever Engadget Expand, and we’re excited to see what the maker community has in store for round two. Time’s running out to get those projects in — we’re closing the door on submissions on September 27th. Think you’ve got what it takes to earn a trip to Expand to compete for the $10,000 Judge’s Choice and $15,000 Readers’ Choice awards? Check out the contest fine print after the break and click the source link to submit your project!

Filed under:

Comments

Source: Insert Coin

Ziphius gets fully funded on Kickstarter, expected to ship in March

Now that’s what we like to see. Our first-ever Insert Coin: New Challengers winner has secured full funding over on Kickstarter — and just in the nick of time. With just over a day to go before the end of its fundraising period, Ziphius has managed to pass its lofty $125,000 goal. That means we can expect to see the cool little aquatic drone shipping to backers in March of next year, just in time for the warm weather. And we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention that you too can live the crowdfunding dream. We’ve opened up entries for our second Insert Coin competition, as of late last month. It may not get you all the way to a final product, but with $25,000 up for grabs, it’s a heck of a head start.

Filed under:

Comments

Source: Kickstarter

Submit your hardware to Engadget’s second Insert Coin: New Challengers competition

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: ,

Comments

Source: Expand

Live from Expand: Insert Coin Awards (video)

Live from Expand Insert Coin Awards video

It’s all been leading up to this! We narrowed it down to 10 semifinalists, and you helped us whittle the list down to five — and now we’re ready to announce the winner of our first-ever Insert Coin competition! Join co-host Mark Frauenfelder and our panel of judges as they unveil the results.

March 17, 2013 8:30 PM EDT

For a full list of Expand sessions, be sure to check out our event hub.

Comments

Live from Expand: Insert Coin New Challengers Demos (video)

You’ve seen plenty about our Insert Coin competitors on this very site — and now it’s time to see them in action. We’ve got some stage time with the finalists, who will be arguing for why they think they deserve that $20,000 grand prize.

March 16, 2013 6:00 PM EDT

For a full list of Expand sessions, be sure to check out our event hub.

Comments

Insert Coin finalist: Snapzoom scope smartphone adapter hands-on

One of five finalists in our first-annual Insert Coin: New Challengers competition, the Snapzoom is an adapter that lets you connect a smartphone to a telescope or a pair of binoculars for some long-range snapshots. We gave you a brief look at the product earlier in our contest, but we went hands-on with the Snapzoom ahead of Engadget Expand — with the San Francisco Bay serving as our test subject, no less.

The Snapzoom isn’t the only product of its kind, but it stands out for being universal. Though we tested the adapter with an iPhone 5, it will work with virtually every smartphone, thanks to adjustable clamps. Connecting the handset (in its case) to a set of binoculars was seamless: we just attached the device via the self-centering clamps and tightened it into place. It’s easy to get excited when the setup brings you up close and personal with Alcatraz, but Snapzoom basically assumes you have some stunning imagery to shoot. We’ll have to wait and see how our elite panel of Insert Coin judges thinks this contestant stacks up. In the meantime, check out the video demo past the break.

Filed under: ,

Comments

Announcing the Insert Coin: New Challengers finalists!

Hard to believe, but March is here, and with this lambing-lion of a month comes Engadget’s first-ever Expand conference in San Francisco. It also marks the impending culmination of our first-ever Insert Coin: New Challengers competition. Late last year, we asked makers to submit their projects for a chance to win $25,000 in prizes. We whittled that list down to 10 semifinalists and asked you to help up get it down to a final five, which will go up in front of our all-star panel of judges on March 16th and 17th. Finalist voting closed yesterday, and we’ve tallied the 5 projects that will be demoed on stage. Check them out after the break, and be sure to follow our coverage at Expand for a chance to help pick the Grand Prize and People’s Choice winners.

Filed under:

Comments

Insert Coin semifinalist: Radiator Labs wants to help you control your heat

Just about any apartment-dwelling urbanite can tell you that radiators are a bit of a necessary evil in the world of city living. What if there was a way to control the heat to individual rental units, without relying entirely on a landlord’s temperature-controlling omnipotence? The Radiator Labs team has developed a device to help realize this dream. It’s essentially housing that sits on-top of an individual radiator unit, controlling heat transfer to a room. Turn it off, and the insulation hampers the heat from making a room too hot. Turn it on, and the ducted fan spreads the heat out to the room.

Radiator Labs has a bit more info on its page, which you can check out in the source link below. You can also view graphical breakdown of the technology after the break.

Check out the full list of Insert Coin: New Challengers semifinalists here — and don’t forget to pick a winner!

Comments

Source: Radiator Labs

We’re celebrating Insert Coin semifinalists with a giveaway makers will love

We're celebrating Insert Coin semifinalists with a giveaway makers will love
On Wednesday, we opened voting so you can help us choose five finalists in our first Insert Coin: New Challengers competition. It was hard enough for Engadget editors to decide on 10 semifinalists out of the myriad awesome crowdfunded projects entered, including such futuristic fare as bipedal robots, high-tech puppetry and more. Now it’s your turn to pick which final five entrants will also present on stage at Expand this March for the chance to win a total of $25,000: $5,000 for the Reader’s Choice winner and a whopping $20,000 Grand Prize. Voting closes this coming Wednesday, February 27 at 12:30pm PST / 3:30pm EST, so get your vote in!

To celebrate the DIY ingenuity and high tech innovation demonstrated by our intrepid entrants, we’re running an Insert Coin Twitter Giveaway that gives a little something back to all the makers out there. We’re giving away the following three kit prizes: Grand Prize is the Egg-Bot, an art robot that draws intricate designs on eggs or other round objects including ornaments, golf balls, and light bulbs; 2nd Prize is an Apple 1 Replica Kit designed with permission from the Apple I’s original creator, Steve Wozniak; 3rd Prize is the Adafruit FLORA GPS Starter Pack including a Flora motherboard, a GPS module that can also perform location datalogging, eight ultra-bright chainable RGB pixels and more.

To win, simply send a tweet naming which of the 10 semifinalists you want to win, in the following format: “I think [PROJECT NAME] should win $20,000 in the @EngadgetExpand Insert Coin Competition!” Of course while you’re at it, don’t forget to vote! To be eligible to enter, you must be 18 years of age and a U.S. resident (please peruse the full rules).

Name your inventor of choice by 5pm EST on Monday, February 25 (one entry per person, please!). We’ll choose three winners at random to win each kit prize and will notify them via Twitter. Plus, make sure to follow @EngadgetExpand for more chances to win tickets, prizes and other goodies.

Filed under: ,

Comments

Insert Coin semifinalist: Hodu is a ‘zero failure’ physical therapy hardware / software combo

Insert Coin semifinalist Hodu is a 'zero failure' physical therapy hardware  software combo

Hodu borrows its name from the Korean word for “walnut,” a reference to the culture’s use of the nut as an exercise tool in traditional medicine. The barbell-shaped device is a “zero failure” physical therapy tool, aimed at rewarding patients for even the slightest level of feedback. There are on-board pressure sensors and accelerometers for detecting activity and a series of colored LEDs that light up based on feedback levels. The team behind Hodu is also working on proprietary software to help log patients’ squeezing and rotational progress.

After the break is a video that should give you a bit of a better idea of precisely what Hodu is capable of.

Check out the full list of Insert Coin: New Challengers semifinalists here — and don’t forget to pick a winner!

Filed under:

Comments