Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Riyo Case for the iPhone (Dan Almazan)


I was skeptical at first about this product because in general I have never liked wallets that were attached to your phone. Mostly because I didn't like the idea of having my cards showing to the public and because I didn't like the idea of making my phone bulkier. However after using the product for a couple days I found that the case didn't feel as bulky as I thought it would (see picture below), and because of the design of the wallet, very little of the cards can be seen by the public. However, after carrying the case around for a couple days and using it I found that it was actually very convenient. The best feature of the case is the fact that the cards are laid out in a tiered layout so that you can easily access any of the three cards that the case will carry with ease, and as their video shows you can pull any of the three cards out with one hand. 
As I said before the case does not feel as bulky as I thought it would. The reason for this is because the case only carries 3 cards. This keeps the case relatively slim which is a major plus to me. At the same time if you are like me and need to carry more than three cards around, the case will not meet that need (if you generally only carry three cards then this wallet is perfect). What I ended up doing after using it for a while was I put my drivers license, a debit card and a credit card in the case and left all of my other stuff in my wallet which I carried in my bag, or left in my car depending on what I needed. So it allowed me to slim down most of the time when I didn't need everything on me. And when I was going out for the night or on a quick errand and didn't need all of those cards, it was nice to be able to just grab my phone and keys and have all the essentials with me without having to carry my wallet as well. Overall the functionality is great and I would definitely buy one  or recommend it to a friend based on my experience with the case so far. 

As for the quality and durability of the product, I unfortunately was given a prototype that was 3D printed so I can't speak much to the quality, but after speaking with the maker of the case he told me that the final case would be made of a type of flexible rubbery/plastic material that felt both durable and comfortable to hold, and would make it east to snap on and off the phone. Unfortunately I can't say much more beyond that. 

As for design, the case comes in lots of different colors. And I think it looks great. Like I said before it hides your cards pretty well from the public eye but still allows you to access your cards with ease. 



When all is said and done I felt like the case did what it was designed to do really well. I liked using it and would definitely recommend it to a friend. Check it out on kickstarter at http://kck.st/TwHXTg.

Leave a comment and let us know what you think. 



Friday, June 20, 2014

Edyn Garden Sensor (Edyn)

(Kickstarter Review of the Edyn Smart Gardening System)
I started gardening recently, and I would love to have a product like this to make sure everything was just right.
Here are some features of this cool product according to their information as listed on kickstarter:

Edyn Garden Sensor
  • Solar-powered
  • Wifi-connected to the Edyn Cloud
  • Water and fertilizer-resistant
  • Measures ambient temperature, humidity, light intensity and soil electrical conductivity
  • Machine learning algorithm analyzes live sensor data on the device and in the cloud
  • Edyn App reports soil nutrition, moisture, light and temperature in a clear snapshot of your garden, now and over time 
  • Powered by a rechargeable, lithium polymer battery 
  • Database with thousands of plant varieties and optimal soil conditions 
They also have a water valve edition that I am very jealous of right now as I am currently on vacation and hoping that my garden is doing ok.  It tests the water levels and then turns on the water when the water levels in the soil are low.  So convenient.  Again here are the features as outlined on the kickstarter project page.


Edyn Water Valve      
  • Solar-powered
  • Connects wirelessly to the Edyn Cloud
  • Automatically waters your plants only when they need it, based on data from the Edyn Garden Sensor
  • The Edyn App allows manual control of Water Valve remotely
  • Fits standard Garden Hose Thread (GHT 1 1/16th" Fittings) 
  • Compatible with most drip irrigation, soaker hose or garden hose-fed sprinklers 
  • Requires household water pressure 
  • Compatible with most washing machine fittings (may require adapter) 
  • Powered by a rechargeable, lithium polymer battery    
I particularly love that it can connect to your phone and give you information anywhere.  

If you are a gardener or are considering gardening either a veggie garden, or flower bed, this little gadget could make your products go from good to great!

Hope you enjoyed this kickstarter review.

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

JyroBike (JyroBike Inc.)

The JyroBike is an incredible invention.  In the Kickstarter video it shows the bike ride across the screen on its own with no one on it.  It is a great tool to help kids learn to ride a bike.

One of the cool features is that the bike comes with a remote control that allows you to change the balance settings so that the child can ease into learning how to balance on their own.  As you can see in the picture below the balancing technology sits in the front wheel.  Basically a wheel sits inside the front wheel and can spin at high RPM's allowing the bike to balance on its own.  Similar to Gyro's used in helicopters and space shuttles.



 Below is the rewards offered through kickstarter.

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

The Slide and Clutch Strap (Peter Dering)


This is an incredible camera strap that can do pretty much everything you would ever want your camera strap to do.  A lot of Kickstarter camera straps offer a strap or a strap connector solution but they usually don't offer the full solution from around the neck strap, to sling strap, to the clutch.  

Everybody takes pictures differently but I really like the idea of a clutch.  Whenever I take pictures I often will take the neck strap and wrap it around my hand a couple time to create a make-shift clutch.  

The last two things worth noting to me are the quick adjusting strap length mechanism which you will have to watch the video through the link above to really understand how it works, and the anchors that are shown at the very bottom of the bottom left picture above which allow you to easily switch between the different straps extremely easily. I have never used this product but I really love the design, appearance of quality and ease of use.  Below is the rewards list as shown on kickstarter.com.





Kickstarter has created an incredible platform for anyone to introduce great new technologies and innovative products to the market place.  This form of innovation and creativity has literally changed the world.  Prior to Kickstarter and other crowd-funding sites, launching a product felt like a distant dream that only those with access to lots of capital would be able to achieve.  However with the introduction of Kickstarter, these dreams quickly have become a reality for hundreds and thousands of people. And as a result, the world gets to experience life with a whole new array of tools, toys and accessories to enhance the experience. I love all of the incredible products that make up Kickstarter and want to share some of my favorites with those that are interested.  Hope you enjoy this view into the creativity of the world.