Hasta La Gadget!

As it stands, smartwatches aren’t exactly the most beautifully designed gadgets. For the most part they’re pretty boring and standard, not to mention chunky, meaning that the fashion conscious tech enthusiast might be a little put off. Enter the MEMI, which is more like a smart bracelet rather than a smartwatch, which has also been designed for women in mind who wear accessories on their wrists, such as bangles, cuffs, and whatnot.

The design of the MEMI has been created to resemble a regular silver bracelet, but under the hood it contains Bluetooth technology that allows it to pair with your smartphone, and will vibrate when you receive a message or a phone call, which you can choose to filter via the accompanying iOS app. The MEMI bracelet will also feature a hidden USB charging dock in the clasp and an embedded LED that users can use to check if the device is working.

As it stands the MEMI is a Kickstarter project that is currently seeking funding. It has managed to raise about $24,000 out of its $100,000 goal and if successful, will begin shipping in August 2014. It’s an interesting project and is definitely one of the more eye-pleasing wearable electronics out there, so if you’d like to learn more or pledge your support, hit up its Kickstarter page for the details.

The MEMI Is A Smart Bracelet Designed By Women, For Women original content from Ubergizmo.

Kickstarter has been around for a handful of years now, and in that time span has seen regular growth and some wildly successful campaigns, not the least of which was the recent Mighty No. 9. As the company continues to grow, a management shuffle is taking place, and two Kickstarter co-founders will be taking on […]

At one of those iconic 80s movies of my childhood was Pee-wee’s Big Adventure. That movie started with Pee-wee Herman having his beloved bike stolen by thieves. What Pee-wee need was something like the LOCK8 smart bicycle lock. The guys behind this Kickstarter project claim that it’s the world’s first smart bicycle lock.

The LOCK8 is more than a bicycle lock, it also has integrated GPS, alarms, and the ability to push notifications to you and other people if your bike is messed with. The LOCK8 is keyless and uses a smartphone as a digital key to lock and unlock the bike. The system can also be set up to automatically lock when the owner walks away and unlock when the owner gets close to the bike.

The LOCK8 has built-in alarms that will activate if the bike is tampered with thanks to motion sensors, an accelerometer, a temperature sensor and a conductive cable. Messing with the lock in any way will trigger the alarm. The lock also allows bike owners to unlock their bicycle from afar allowing them to share it with friends when needed.

The smart lock is on Kickstarter through December 2. A pledge of £69 (~$111 USD) will get you your own LOCK8 with shipping expected in May 2014.

One of my all-time favorite films is The Princess Bride. I once got into a fist fight with a kid back in the day who said it was a girls’ movie. I’ve watched the movie more times than I can count and my eight-year-old daughter likes it so much she named her chihuahua Buttercup. If you’re a fan of the movie too, you’ll love this Kickstarter project that is already met its funding goal with 29 days to go.

The project is seeking to make a deck of The Princess Bride playing cards. The people behind the project are keeping most of the artwork for the deck of cards to themselves. The cards we have seen have Wesley as the King. The designers promise every card will be based on the movie.

The deck will also have custom jokers and a special magic finish that allows the cards to handle smoothly and last longer than cheaper cards. The deck will also include a unique gaff card designed to be used for card tricks. The project is seeking $10,000 and has raised over $34,000 so far with 29 days to go. A pledge of $15 or more will get you a single deck of cards with delivery estimated for July 2014.

What does it take to become a Kickstarter success? First you need a great product. Then you need a plan for the future. Luckily, Austin-based Moniker Guitars had both.

We first covered Moniker back in March when founders Dave Barry and Kevin Tully had already created a small guitar shop and wanted to expand into custom git-fiddles. They built a unique guitar customizer to allow buyers to add colors, designs, and logos, and hundreds of sales later they’ve moved from Kickstarter darling to actual startup.

Since launch, the company has sold and built 43 guitars through Kickstarter and they have built a growing and expanding manufacturing business. In fact, they’ve built “several hundred” guitars since launch, including a special TC model in crazy green.

“Kickstarter has been a huge boost in growing our business,” said co-founder Tully. “In addition to providing crucial funding to make several of our product lines possible, Kickstarter has been one of the better marketing decisions we’ve made as a business; which was a little unexpected.”

The company has used crowdfunding as a platform for customer acquisition and fan-base building. They were also able to build new product lines.

“It was enough to launch our line of semi-hollow body guitars,” said Tully. “However, we still need to be aggressive about getting our product out in front of people and letting them know we’re here. I learned that everything is going to cost twice as much and take twice as long as I thought it would. But patience is a virtue, and we’re seeing the results of our hard work and patience and it’s incredibly fulfilling.”