Vibrators are typically strong, powerful, dumb pipes. Which is mostly fine! But sometimes you’d like something more… nuanced. Vibease, which is supposedly the world’s first wearable "smart" vibrator, claims to have the sort of sexy thoughtfulness that can get any woman off. It’s basically a read along vibrator for erotica.
Sex sells, that goes without saying, but whether you do so in a tasteful manner or not is another question altogether. Vibease happens to be the world’s first ‘wearable smart vibrator’ that has just launched on Indiegogo in order to gain enough funding from the general public and hopefully, the faith that the public shows in the idea will be translated to enough money collected so that this hands-free Bluetooth-enabled vibrator will become a reality. What makes the Vibease so special is this – it will synchronize with an Android or iOS Fantasy app, where all you need to do is pick an audio fantasy track on the app, and the vibrator will move accordingly.
For instance, the Vibease will create sensations at different intensities or patterns, depending on the current fantasy that is being played back. Should the voice in the audio track say sultrily, “I’m touching you softly,” the vibration will end up at a soft intensity, but should it say, “I’m touching you hard,” the vibrations will increase in intensity accordingly. [Vibease Indiegogo Page]
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Crowdfunding Reaches Its Terrible, Glorious Climax With ‘Smart Vibrator’ Vibease
Posted in: Today's ChiliThe startup behind a “wearable smart vibrator” called Vibease has taken to Indiegogo with hopes of raising at least $30,000 from fans.
That sentence kind of speaks for itself, doesn’t it? I mean, I could probably insert some suggestive wording from the campaign description (“People often forget that the brain is the biggest sex organ.”), mention some of the high-end rewards (100 vibrators!), embed the campaign video (which is sometimes hilarious, sometimes awkward, and often both), and call it a day.
But here’s the thing: I’m genuinely not sure whether or not this is a terrible idea. I mean, if I say “smart vibrator” (or, even worse, “Internet of Things-connected vibrator”, which is the shorthand we were using around the office) it’s easy to laugh and roll your eyes.
At the same time, I wonder if that comes from a combination of suppressed Puritanism and immaturity. If we genuinely think that everything in our lives is becoming increasingly smartphone-controlled and Internet-connected, why would we exclude sex? (Co-founder Hermione Way has argued that the Valley sometimes forces entrepreneurs to make a false choice between seriousness and sexiness.) Sure, the idea of a remote-controlled vibrator as a tool for long-distance relationships seems awkward, but is phone sex any better? Is this the future we’ve all been secretly hoping for?
For what it’s worth, Vibease has validation from other tech industry organizations, having been incubated by the Founder Institute and the Haxlr8r accelerator for hardware startups. It also received an at least semi-positive response from investors when Way made her pitch in a segment on Bravo’s “Start-Ups: Silicon Valley” TV show (it’s okay if you missed it, so did everyone else) and from the judges (including my boss Alexia Tsotsis) at the Dublin Web Submit.
So hey, maybe there’s a real business here. Or maybe I and everyone else in the Valley have become so numb to crazy startup ideas that this seems almost normal. Almost.
Update 1: I failed to mention that although the company is only now crowdfunding the vibrator itself, it actually launched its Android app last fall.
Update 2: Just to be clear, I don’t think vibrators are inherently funny. I do think a “wearable smart vibrator” marketed with repeated references to Fifty Shades of Grey is inherently funny (which, again, doesn’t make it a terrible idea, maybe). You may adjust your estimations of my maturity accordingly.
We have seen our fair share of long distance relationship apps that coupled with some special kind of hardware, they help ensure that the spark of love is maintained, never mind that a great distance separates them. Vibease has come up with a special kind of app that allows one’s partner to control the vibrator of another regardless of distance. Once you have turned on the “massager” and launched the app, you are able to hook up using Bluetooth, choosing solo mode if that is how you plan to fly that night, or enable your partner to take full control, operating the device on your behalf. Not exactly as attractive as having the person right there beside you physically, but it is a start – don’t you think so?
The Vibease comes with five levels of power and a quartet of vibration patterns, and partners can also video chat simultaneously, or opt to snap photos – although you would do well to make sure that the photos are stashed away somewhere safe. The Vibease is up for pre-order at $79.99 a pop, and its app seems to run on the Android platform only for the moment.
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Google ‘secret police’ visits bartender for Nexus 4 prototype possession, Android 4.2 Preview with the Google Nexus 4,
Vibease, a Bluetooth controlled vibrator + app that can be controlled by yourself or your partner, just went on pre-order. To mark this momentous occasion, the company released a commercial. An awful, horrible commercial. But the general mobile… sexual… hardware segment(?) has been heating up, with competition sprouting up from the high to the low end.
And you know what I learned today? Almost all startup sex toys have crazy, hilariously awful commercials.
Let’s take a look, yes?
Vibease
- Description: A Bluetooth-enabled clitoral vibrator that pairs with an Android app for duo or “solo” mode.
- Price: $69 pre-order, $149 for a pair
- Video: For one, this commercial kind of displaces the watcher from reality the second that girl runs a towel over completely dry hair. It then gets just a bit more awkward as you watch her fondle the vibrator (rather than use it), as the camera cuts to split screen over some corny acoustic guitar.
- Rating: What’s the opposite of turned on?
OhMiBod
- Description: A variation of vibrators and dildos that mostly come with a 3.5mm headphone jack. When plugged into an iPod, the vibrator pulses to the beat. There is also an iPhone app.
- Price: $79-$120
- Video: This is possibly even less realistic than Vibease simply because (while I don’t speak for everyone) I hope with all my hope that there is no woman who is pleasuring herself by dancing on her bed half-dressed and mocking oral sex with a vibrating dildo. It also doesn’t help that the relatively upbeat, bouncy piano music at the beginning, which was kind of cute, was replaced with chaotic Rock.
- Rating: Yeah right.
JimmyJane Form 6
- Description: To be fair, this isn’t a tech startup per se. But this is a wireless top of the line vibrator with no battery door and wireless charging. It also obviously takes design cues from modern gadgetry.
- Price: $185
- Video: Wow. Well, that’s only slightly better than going to the gynecologist. I’m also not sure about those white gloves. My mind goes from Doctor, to magician, and then to Mickey Mouse. Personally, that is a progression from not sexy to downright awkward. Subtract ten points for using the word “labia.”
- Rating: One step up from an STD clinic.
LovePalz: Hera and Zeus
- Description: LovePalz is a three piece system, including a WiFi-enabled and sensor-equipped “Hera” dildo and “Zeus” man jar, along with an iPhone app (that’s tied up in the App Store). The secret sauce here is that, when paired over WiFi, the partners will feel each others motions in real time.
- Price: $94.95 for the pair
- Video: I’ll give credit where credit is due — this is actually a pretty high-quality video. The music actually captures that lonely but horny mood, while managing to be romantic, melancholy, and semi-sexy at the same time. Bonus points for showing two humans interacting physically without it looking awkward or forced.My main problem is that the actual product is only shown once, as a graphic laid over the video, and not anywhere close to in-use (other than the app). To be fair, this is probably how the commercial manages to be remotely hot.
- Rating: Smart is sexy.
To be fair to our startups, even the biggest sex toy manufacturers in the world have commercials that range from mildly hot to mildly disgusting (yet funny).
My point, I think, is that it’s nearly impossible to market a sex toy through video because a sex toy commercial is called porn. And chances are we’ve all seen it, probably on Sex.com or Pinterest, if not sought it out directly at one time or another.
There’s clearly a trend here, as far as Bluetooth and sex toys and mobile apps are concerned. But manufacturing can make this a really difficult space. So here’s to the startups that are trying, bellyflop or not, to get you, well, turned-on by their products.
Take a look around. Explore your spicy side. Drop that credit card like it’s hot.
We’ve seen quite a few startups try to disrupt relationships lately. There’s Dejamor, which sends you a box of romance each month, Boink Box, which sends you a box of sex toys, and I seem to remember a somewhat embarrassing interview with OhMiBod at CES.
And today, yet another sexy startup joins the space. It’s called Vibease, and it’s a “massager” as they say, that hooks up to your smartphone via Bluetooth. You can text chat, a bit like Pair, while your lover can control your massager from across the country, and vice versa.
The app offers text and picture messaging, along with the ability to create custom vibrations. You can also set a nickname instead of using your real name (God forbid some friend or mom see your name flash across the screen next to “Vibease”).
For the moment, Vibease doesn’t quite have their Bluetooth massager ready for market. “It won’t take long,” they say. But in the mean time, the Vibease app will use the phone’s vibrator “as a tease.” Plus, there’s a “Solo Mode” with ambient noise like Rain or Deep Breathing, which lets you drop it like it’s hot all on your own.
Vibease is only launching on Google Play today, with iOS coming in the near future. The team wants to get traction and feedback on the app before shipping the Bluetooth bunny.