Hasta La Gadget!

Back at CES in January, TechCrunch met Fin, the Bluetooth ring that went on to become one of our Hardware Battlefield finalists. Fin, which turns your hand into a wireless controller for smartphones, TVs, and other connected devices, just reached its $100,000 Indiegogo goal. Now Fin is aiming for its stretch goal of $150,000, which will make the ring available for a discounted price to visually impaired people.

Fin is worn on your thumb and has a tiny optical sensor that detects movements, allowing you to send commands to connected devices with a few swipes and taps of your fingers. As TechCrunch’s Greg Kumparak described when he wrote about the device’s prototype in January, you can turn down your phone’s volume by swiping your thumb down your index finger or skip the current track by swiping your thumb across the palm of your opposite hand. In the future, creator RHL Vision wants to use biometrics to assign a different behavior to each segment of your finger, basically turning them into buttons.

Fin is one of the coolest wearable devices out there because it makes you look like you have magical powers. But the ring is also very useful, especially for people with visual or motor impairments. RHL Vision says that Fin can potentially help more than 285 million visually impaired people interact more smoothly with technology. If it reaches its stretch goal, the company will make its ring available for $59 to blind people.

To get a sense of a visually impaired person can use Fin, take a look at this video, in two users talk about how Fin helps them control their smartphones and tablets without struggling to see controls on their touchscreens.

Looks like Google might be ticking off a box on its wearables shopping list, or someone else might be. Basis Science, the company behind the Basis Health Tracker Watch, is on the market, according to two people familiar with the matter.

We’ve heard that the company has been shopping itself around over the past few weeks and has spoken to Google, Apple and possibly Samsung and Microsoft about a potential sale.

The price we’ve heard for any possible activity is “sub-hundred million,” which could mean a small return for investors like Norwest Venture Partners, Mayfield Fund and Intel Capital, who have poured over $30 million into the company.

The alternative to an acquisition for Basis would be a long-sought-after C round of funding, say those people.

Though its market share is unclear, the company would be an interesting buy for any of the big four mentioned above. Google, which recently scooped up “Internet of Things” darling Nest, is gunning to be the frontrunner in both the AI and hardware spaces. It is also said to be working on its own wristwatch as an entry into the consumer hardware market.

Apple, too, is rumored to be keeping an iWatch product waiting in the wings, while Samsung’s smartwatch, the Galaxy Gear, has already hit the shelves, leaving much to be desired from a design perspective.

Microsoft would be the dark horse in this race, with only the Kinect to boast of in the wearables department.

Of all the fitness trackers available currently, Basis is said to be the most accurate in its data collection and reporting, but the most clunky with regards to design. A generous parent company could give it the chance to experiment with a more-streamlined, Jawbone or Fitbit-esque product without it having to go through the pains of raising another round of capital to support R&D.

Update: Basis representative Damon Miller has responded, ”Our focus is on building the most advanced health tracker on the market. As a matter of policy, we don’t comment on rumor or speculation.”

iQi is a hardware add-on that brings the tech Apple hasn’t — wireless charging (using the Qi standard) — to your iPhone without the need to put it in a bulky case. Think of it as akin to Bill Gates’ quest for sensation enhancing graphene condoms. Or, er, having some cake and eating it.

The slender iQi gizmo is designed to work with soft cases, including Apple’s leather iPhone 5 sleeve, so you don’t have to compromise the overall look of your iPhone just to be able to wirelessly charge it. Although, once this phone-hugging gizmo is installed, there will be a slight bump on your phone’s rear, i.e. where the case has to swell to accommodate its wireless-charge providing passenger.

Visually, this is an all-but imperceptible bump if you’re using Apple’s leather sleeve, but it’s a bit more sticky-outy when paired with some soft plastic cases. The slight swelling does mean the handset won’t now sit entirely flat on a table or other flat surface.

Wireless charging has huge potential, albeit much of that promise remains to come. For now it plays a relatively small role in the consumer electronics space — possibly making a few mobile owners’ lives slightly more convenient by allowing them to charge their device by sticking it on a charger plate, rather than fumbling around to plug in a power cord once per day. (Although wireless chargers still have to plug the charger plate in at some point, and make some space for it  – and its unpleasing cable — on their desk.)

Nokia adding wireless charging to its flagship Windows Phone Lumia smartphones wasn’t enough to convert legions of iPhone users to the platform and save the once mighty mobile maker from having to sell that business unit to Microsoft. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t appetite for the tech, even among iPhone owners. More Android flagships are adding built-in wireless charging (including Google); yet Apple continues to stand aloof.

iQi’s Indiegogo campaign for its slender, soft-case compatible iPhone wireless charger, concluded a successful crowdfunding run last December, raising over $161,500 (from 2,350+ backers) — more than 5x its makers’ original target of $30,000. So even though Cupertino hasn’t seen the point of wireless charging yet a portion of iPhone owners are clearly keen. Or keen enough to shell out $25+. (Update: The iQi is now on general sale available, via its maker Fonesalesman’s website, for circa $35.)

But, is the iQi any good? Well, it certainly doesn’t look like much when my test unit arrives, being packaged in an envelope housed on a piece of card with a small paper user manual. But that’s a good thing: less, not more, is exactly the point of this iPhone wireless charger hardware hack.

It’s basically a couple of pieces of cardboard (smaller than a credit card in size), sandwiched around some low profile electronic innards, with a flexible connector sticking out one end that plugs into the iPhone’s Lightning connector port.

Plugging the iQi into your iPhone is pretty straightforward, although it helps to have a fingernail long enough to push the connector snugly into the port. At that point you just bend the flexible plastic ribbon over so the main bulk of the iQi sits flush with the back of your iPhone (that’s bend, not fold; the ribbon won’t stand up to any kind of creasing). A flat silicon disk is also provided in the pack which you can stick onto the iQi’s rear to stop it sliding around on the phone’s rear. Simples.

Of course you do need a Qi charger plate to use the iQi with — such as the KoolPuck or KoolPad — or another charger plate that uses the Qi wireless charging standard. You’ll also need a soft-case to help protect the iQi and keep it fixed in place — unless you fancy augmenting your iPhone’s rear with duct tape.

Now to the main issue: does the iQi actually work? Not, I’m afraid to say, reliably. Which may well illustrate why Apple thinks this nascent tech isn’t worth bothering with (yet).

Some of the issues I encountered while testing the iQi (with an iPhone 5) are likely those generally associated with the Qi standard. As my TC colleague John Biggs has previously noted, Qi is slow and finicky — requiring the user to align the device with the charging place in just the right place or no dice. Or rather, no juice.

Which isn’t a huge hassle per se but it is a problem for a device that only offers an incremental convenience boost anyway. To add to the irritation, when it’s not aligned, the iQi beeps persistently, like a mournful robot child in need of a bottle feed.

One time I left it charging — everything apparently going tickety-boo — yet when I returned to the house half an hour later I heard its urgent call. Turns out the phone was sitting there, where I had left it charging on the plate, now not charging but beeping. Stuck on 99% battery.

Perhaps the iQi cuts out charging when it’s almost full and beeps to signify this but, if so, that’s going to get really annoying if the moment it chooses to pipe up coincides with the middle of your night.

I did also have a missed call, which perhaps caused the charging function to cut out. Whatever triggered the Qi break, the iQi’s reliability evidently can’t be relied upon.

It had been working prior to this point, but after this break it stubbornly wouldn’t resume charging — even after I tried draining the battery a bit to give it more scope for juicing. I also swapped out the KoolPuck charging plate for the KoolPad. But it still didn’t want to charge (even though the charger light on the plate switched to blue, as if charging, yet the battery indicator did not respond).

Next I tried removing the iPhone sleeve. Still no joy. So, finally, I did the inevitable reboot of removing the iQi and then plugging it back in again. And lo it started working again. So, yeah.

Another caveat: this is a hardware hack of the iPhone. iQi Mobile notes on its Indiegogo page that it’s not part of the MFi program, and “as such is not Apple certified” — so, while it claims the iQi “works well with iOS 7.0.4″, that statement carries an implicit caveat that it can’t guarantee smooth operation with future iterations of Apple’s OS.

So, down the line, iQi owners might have to choose between their iPhone having a sporadic wireless charging ability, and their iPhone having iOS 8. So, yeah…

Bottom line

If you really are desperate for an iPhone that supports wireless charging, and are willing to live with temperamental tech while you wait for Apple to take the plunge itself, the iQi does get around the need to stick a bulky, unattractive case on your iPhone. It’s certainly very visually unobtrusive, especially paired with Apple’s leather case.

Just don’t expect your phone to sit entirely flush with any flat surface, ergo prodding a resting-on-a-table iPhone’s screen or pushing its home button will result in the handset rocking about or lifting up like an angry ouija board.

But — above all — don’t expect the iQi-powered wireless charging to ‘just work’. Much like the nascent convenience of wireless charging generally, the additional functionality offered by the iQi can be marginally useful sometimes — but only when it’s not being a bit annoying.

Happy Valentine’s Day, lovebirds. We’ve got quite the treat for you.

This week, rumors spread that Nokia and Microsoft are working on an Android phone, to be released later this month. Meanwhile, LG has been making waves with the new curved-screen LG G Flex. And finally, we all returned from a super fun, 7th annual Crunchies award show, where Kickstarter won best overall startup.

We discuss all this and more on this week’s episode of the TC Gadgets Podcast, featuring John Biggs, Matt Burns, Jordan Crook, and Darrell Etherington.

Enjoy!

We invite you to enjoy our weekly podcasts every Friday at 3 p.m. Eastern and noon Pacific. And feel free to check out the TechCrunch Gadgets Flipboard magazine right here.

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Intro Music by Rick Barr.

A new Kickstarter project aims to make your GoPro filmography easier to handle, with a case designed to hold the GoPro in such a way that you have a full view of the screen of your iPhone 5s or 5, so that you can monitor all the action while you shoot one-handed.

There are no shortage of iPhone cases that offer double-duty performance with some other task, be it acting as a wallet, or opening beers, or propping up your iPhone itself, but the GoPhone might have just the right feature mix for the action hero in your life. It features a hump at one end that’s designed to allow you to slide in your GoPro’s quick release buckle, giving you full access to the screen at any orientation.

The iPhone still connects to the GoPro in the traditional manner – wirelessly, using the camera’ s inbuilt Wi-Fi connectivity, but now a shooter can watch the action as they film while operating as a follow cam, which is particularly useful if you’re trying to capture your buddy showing off at the skatepark or on the bike track.

It’ll come in multiple colors when it ships, and offers not only live video while shooting, but also a quick and easy way to review footage just shot without having to put down one mount and pick up your phone. Australian project creators Andrew Dorn and Carson Tully have aimed for an economy of design here, and they’ve also spent months testing it in real-world situations at the skatepark. Tully is an industrial designer and illustrator, and Dorn works in the film industry and previously created an iPhone app called ‘Ramped Slow Mo.’

The GoPhone case is seeking $15,000 AUD ($13,538 U.S.) in funding over the next 60 days, with backers at the $40 level securing a pre-order. If all goes according to plan, the accessory should ship this September.