Articles about Kickstarter

Bomaker has announced that it will soon launch a 4K ultra-short-throw laser projector on Indiegogo, and early birds can grab a substantial discount on the device when it goes live for crowdfunding.

Bomaker, which manufactures sound bars as well as projectors, has revealed the specs of the Polaris 4K Laser TV, which the firm promises delivers much better results than rival projectors (DLP or laser).

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Before large screen televisions and 4K content became a thing, I used to enjoy watching films projected onto a white wall at home. I had a Canon projector hooked up to my PC with surround sound, and it was like having a personal cinema.

Technology has moved on quite some way since then, and you can now buy reasonable quality projectors for a fraction of the price. Case in point is Nebra AnyBeam, a Raspberry Pi powered pocket sized projector.

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Keeping your garden free from weeds can be a tiresome and back-breaking job. Thankfully, Joe Jones, the creator of iRobot’s Roomba, has a solution -- a solar-powered robot that lives in home gardens and weeds every day so you don’t need to.

I spoke with Joe about his new creation Tertill which, after two years development, is set to finally graduate from prototype to product this month.

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The iPhone 7 is undeniably an attractive smartphone. The Jet Black model is particularly beautiful -- I should know, I own one. However, the high gloss finish of the Jet Black model is prone to scratches, and what Apple refers to as "fine micro-abrasions" caused by everyday use.

Apple suggests that if you want to keep your phone in pristine condition you should use one of the many available cases to protect it. But then people won’t see the beauty of the new device, which is a shame. This is where Naked Cases come in.

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We have all seen hobbyists and IoT developers working on computers on a board such as Raspberry Pi and Arduino that run Linux, but now there is a full computer on a board that runs Windows 10.

This mighty processor board that costs from $79 (£53) boasts the power to do anything that a PC can. This means it can create Office documents, run HD videos and behave exactly like a home PC.

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Among the great business innovations of the Internet era are Kickstarter and the many similar crowdfunding sites like IndieGoGo. You know how these work: someone wants to introduce a new gizmo or make a film but can only do so if you and I pay in advance with our only rewards being a possible discount on the gizmo or DVD. Oh, and a t-shirt. Never before was there a way to get people -- sometimes thousands of people -- to pay for stuff not only before it was built but often before the inventors even knew how to build it. From the Pebble smart watch to Veronica Mars, crowdfunding success stories are legion and crowdfunding failures quickly forgotten. I’ve been thinking a lot about crowdfunding because my boys are talking about doing a campaign this summer and I have even considered doing one myself. But it’s hardly a no-brainer, because a failed campaign can ruin your day and damage your career.

From the outside looking-in a typical Kickstarter or IndieGoGo campaign is based on the creator (in this case someone like me, not God) having a good idea but no money. If the campaign is successful this creator not only gets money to do his or her project, they get validation that there’s actually a market -- that it’s a business worth doing. About 80 percent of crowdfunding campaigns come about this way.

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De La Soul is one of the most important rap groups in the history of Hip-Hop. When they debuted in the 1980s, many other rappers were acting phony and embellishing their lives of crime. Conversely, the Long Island trio kept it real by rapping about everyday life and not fantasy. Unfortunately, many took their realness and honesty for a weakness, dubbing them 'positive' rappers; a label that followed them their entire careers. While many other rap groups have come and gone -- formed and broken up -- De La Soul is still here. In fact, they are planning a new album called "And the Anonymous Nobody".

Rather than go the traditional route of signing with a record label, the group has turned to Kickstarter to fund the project. Yes, these aging rappers have turned to the Internet, crowd-funding and social media, to make the album happen and it has been a huge success. They met their goal of $110,000 in one day, and as of today, are over $500,000 with close to 10,000 backers. In other words, you can teach an old dog new tricks, and sometimes the old dogs outfox the young pups. I talked with David Jude Jolicoeur, aka, Dave, aka Trugoy, from De La Soul about the campaign.

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Pebble is one the few startups that knows how to get the most out of a Kickstarter campaign. Three years ago, it was the first on the crowdsourcing platform to raise more than $10 million in funding, and now it is the first to have broken the $20 million mark. Pebble's latest record is likely to last for a while, seeing as it took over two years for its first one to be broken.

At the time of writing this article, Pebble's Time campaign has attracted nearly 78,000 backers, who have pledged $20.16 million in total. The average contribution is $258.9, which exceeds the latest asking prices of $179 for Time and $250 for Time Steel.

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A number of popular projects have come from crowd-funding via Kickstarter. It's a great place to find new and innovative ideas. Many things there fail to reach their goal (although it could be argued that the market for those items made the decision), while others blast past the funding goal and enter the market. Pebble watch is a great example of that success.

There is some peace of mind when donating money -- for one you will get the product. But, if it fails to hit the goal you aren't out anything. Now you'll have one more option for funding that next great product. Kickstarter is announcing it will start to accept Apple Pay.

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Pebble launched its first smartwatch through Kickstarter, raising more than $10 million from nearly 70,000 backers. It's one of the most successful campaigns to ever be hosted on the crowdsourcing site. Some might say that it's time for Pebble to move on to the next level.

However, earlier this week Pebble used Kickstarter once again to launch its latest smartwatch, called Pebble Time. The company's second crowdsourcing campaign is a huge hit, days after its start, surpassing its initial goal of just $500,000 by nearly $8 million at the time of writing this article, with 30 more days to go before the grand finale.

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Crowdfunding is now an incredibly popular way for startups and individuals to get the funding to get their projects off the ground. It's certainly an interesting approach to things. Ideas that might not otherwise come to fruition receive the money they need to hit production, further development and so on, and investors get the chance to be involved in something from a very early stage, and possibly reap the benefits when it hits the big time.

But in the UK the Financial Conduct Authority found that most British crowdfunding websites were less than honest with the information shared with potential investors. Specifically, the regulator warns that companies are being selective about the information that is shared with would-be investors, whilst simultaneously underplaying the risks that might be involved.

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If you've backed something on Kickstarter then you know that you're risking the money you spent, as some come to fruition while others never do. The site has had its share of major successes such as the Pebble watch and the tiny Android-based Ouya gaming console. But there have also been ones that simply get the money and never ship.

Now the service is trying to clean things up with a new terms of service agreement that it hopes will lend more confidence to potential backers. That should be a good thing for customers, and Kickstarter spells things out pretty clearly.

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Tablets have forever changed the landscape of computing. An entire industry has been formed from Apple's tablet alone -- iPad cases. Yes, cases for the tablet are very abundant from many manufacturers. A search on Amazon, results in a smorgasbord of options, such as color, size and price.

Unfortunately, the market is so flooded that it is nearly impossible to impress with a new case. Surprisingly, a company called Acme Made has done just that with the Ergo Book. It is an extremely svelte case, for which the manufacturer is seeking funding from Kickstarter. Will you back it?

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Crowdfunding is a relatively new phenomenon. If you aren't familiar, it is essentially begging on the internet. However, the beggars are not unmotivated slackers -- quite the contrary. No, these people are begging for money to fund their dreams -- electronics, books, movies, etc. When someone chooses to pledge money, they often get perks, like early access to the product being funded.

There are many companies that facilitate crowdfunding, but the most popular is still Kickstarter. While pledges on the site can be very small, like $5, they can also reach into the thousands of dollars. Today, Kickstarter reaches a milestone -- one billion dollars in pledges. In other words, crowdfunding is legit and here to stay.

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I was a beta tester for Papa Sangre II, the excellent audio-only game for iOS (if you’ve yet to try it I can whole-heartedly recommend it -- Sean Bean stars) and am a massive fan of Zombies Run, an audio fitness app, that you listen to while running and which takes place following a zombie apocalypse.

So naturally, the news that Papa Sangre’s creators Somethin' Else are working on a zombie-based audio-only first person shooter has me in a heightened state of excitement.

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