Hasta La Gadget!

The iPhone 5 delivered a lot of new things vs. its predecessors, but it also marked Apple’s exit from the bumper game; unlike with the iPhone 4 and 4S, Apple didn’t make a slim band exterior case for this device to protect its delicate edges. Apple’s oversight makes for opportunity for others, however, and the AL13 aluminum iPhone bumper (which comes in both iPhone 4 and iPhone 5 variants) is a prime example of that opportunity which recently debuted on Kickstarter.

The AL13 is made of aerospace-grade aluminum, and machined with chamfered edges (that’s the same thing Apple bragged about with the iPhone 5′s new design, by the way) that adds less than 16 grams to your device’s weight. It comes in sliver, black, red and green (a limited edition color just for Kickstarter backers) and adds very little overall size or mass to the iPhone’s existing design. The inner ring of the aluminum bumper is coated in rubber, in order to both protect your iPhone’s finish and provide an added layer of shock protection to help with falls.

The team behind the AL13 is Designed by m, a new studio led by CEO and founder Lester Mapp. Mapp started out as an entrepreneur at 22, building car accessories in a business that moved from his own bedroom to a dedicated warehouse and office during its first three years. The shift into product design reflects a desire to become more engaged in the hardware creation end of the business, and the AL13 is the first project for his latest venture.

Based on the prototype, Mapp’s decision to change gears was a good one. But if you’ve followed the iPhone’s storied history and know anything about wireless signals, you may have wondered about what effect the AL13 would have on your device’s cellular connection. The team behind AL13 has thought of that too, and posted in a recent backer update that admittedly, the AL13 does incur some signal loss of between 5 and 10 percent, but that compared to the field of metal bumpers out there, they’re beating the average of 20 percent or more. They say they have yet to experience any dropped calls as a result of using the AL13, however, and at least they’re being upfront about the fact that it will have some effect.

In exchange for minor signal loss, the AL13 provides your device with that extra ounce of protection, and with good looks that actually compliment, rather than detract from, your iPhone’s design. It’s available to backers starting at the $45 pledge level (as of this writing, though those spots are limited) and will eventually retail for $80 when it ships, which Mapp and company expect should happen sometime in April 2013.

Yesterday, we told you about a new portable gaming console called the GameStick. It’s essentially a $79 HDMI dongle-esque gaming console that you plug into your HDTV to enjoy all the Android games you’d ever want, and in just two days, the company has reached its $100,000 goal on Kickstarter, with 28 days left to spare.

The premise behind GameStick is similar to that of the OUYA console, a breakout Kickstarter success that’s currently shipping out to developers. The Gamestick is cheaper and less powerful than the OUYA, which runs Android 4.1 Jelly Bean with an Amlogic 8726-MX processor, 1GB of RAM, and a cloud storage system for the games.

The biggest difference, however, is the form factor: OUYA is a small box that fits in the palm of your hand, while the GameStick is essentially a HDMI dongle that plugs into any HDTV and snaps into an accompanying game controller when not in use. It’s a pretty novel concept, and at only $79, it’s practically an easy buy.

Of course, you can still contribute to the Kickstarter project, and the company will still be taking contributions up until the very last second of the campaign, so while they have reached $100,000 in funding, it’s likely the company will end up with a lot of cash when it’s all over with a month from now.

GameStick reaches Kickstarter goal in just 2 days is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

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.

Granted, the Garmin Fenix already does decent GPS from your wrist, but there’s a limit to what it can accomplish on its basic little LCD. Enter Leikr: a Gorilla Glass beast with a 2-inch, 320 x 240 display that can throw out a wide range of endurance stats simultaneously or switch to a color navigation mode using up to 8GB-worth of onboard OpenStreetMap data. It’s designed by former Nokia engineers who claim they’ve used their mobile skills to make the Leikr catch a quicker GPS signal, connect directly to a cloud-based, Endomondo-integrated exercise portal using WiFi and Linux-based software, and at the same time stick to a smartphone-like 10mm thickness.

The project’s Kickstarter page has just gone live, with early bird deals still available — at the time of writing, a minimum $229 buy-in is required to lock down a final production Leikr by the summer. That’s hardly cheap, but it’s not at $400 Fenix proportions either, so take a look at the video after the break and the funding link below (scroll to the bottom of that page for full specs) and then, you know, dwell on it.

Continue reading Insert Coin: Leikr GPS sports watch has 2-inch screen, ex-Nokia engineers on its side

Filed under: Wearables, Wireless, Mobile

Comments

Source: Leikr (Kickstarter)

Well folks, after a brief break to celebrate the new year, we’re back with the first Evening Wrap-Up of 2013. We heard today that the iPhone 5S might come with a number of color selections similar to the iPod Touch along with a larger screen, while rumors are saying that HTC will unveil its new flagship device, the M7, during CES (which is next week!). There are new services floating around out there that let users install pirated iOS apps without jailbreaking first, and Apple has secured Android sales data from Samsung, despite Samsung requesting that this data remain a secret.

The first details for Black Ops II‘s incoming DLC have leaked out, while the Project Paperless patent trolls are at it again with new unnamed subsidiaries to help them do their dirty work. Apple has a rumored relationship with Broadcom for 802.11ac WiFi in 2013 Macs, we learned today that CTIA will consolidate its 2013 shows into one massive mobile event, and the GameStick portable gaming console is looking to do battle with OUYA for Android console supremacy.

Apple is said to be testing out its new 28nm A6X chips while preparing to cut Samsung out of the loop, and in a very surprising turn of events, Ubuntu mobile OS was announced today and should be hitting phones starting in 2014. A US district judge has ruled that Amazon’s Appstore is very different from Apple’s own App Store, while the Samsung Galaxy M Pro has been leaked, complete with a full QWERTY keyboard. Installious has been shut down (so no, you aren’t just experiencing an outage), and we learned that the Do Not Disturb bug in iOS 6 will be fixed come January 7.

We have a couple Xbox-related stories today, as a countdown timer on Major Nelson’s website seems to suggest that the next generation Xbox will be announced at E3, while new rumors said that production on the console’s processor has gotten underway, with a potential launch coming late this year or early in 2014. Elite: Dangerous reached its Kickstarter goal today, with California and Illinois both enacting laws that prevent employers from demanding their potential employees’ social media passwords. Google executive Eric Schmidt might be taking a trip to North Korea soon, Zynga has shut down its Japan studio, and finally tonight, Chris Burns delivers his review of AT&T MiFi Liberate mobile hotspot. That does it for tonight’s Evening Wrap-Up, we hope you enjoy the rest of your night everyone!

SlashGear Evening Wrap-Up: January 2, 2013 is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

The OUYA seems like a pretty awesome gaming console, and the company finally started shipping out dev units a few days ago, but a new gaming console concept has hit Kickstarter in the form of just a mere flash drive. It’s called the GameStick, and it consists of a tiny HDMI dongle-based game console and an accompanying controller that offers portability, and of course, a huge selection of games.

The console uses Android as the basis for the software, so the console boasts an open platform that more game developers can join in on easily, and the team behind GameStick has made it really easy to play the console. You simply plug it into the HDMI port of your HDTV, grab the controller, and start playing games.

So far, GameStick works on roughly 200 titles that are in the Google Play store, but the team is working with over 250 developers, including Madfinger, Hutch, and Disney to bring GameStick gamers an even greater selection of games. The company boasts that since most of the games come from Google Play, you won’t be spending any more money on games than what you have to in order to play them on the big screen.

The company only has a working prototype of the GameStick so far, but they’re 90% of the way to getting the final pre-production samples made, and expect them to be done in 5-6 weeks. The team expects to have final units shipped out to customers starting in April at a cost $79 each — that includes the dongle and the gaming controller.

GameStick portable gaming console takes on OUYA is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.