Crowdfunding is the real deal.
Not just for those who get to turn their ideas into products, but also for you, the consumer.
Looking to the most funded Kickstarter projects of 2014 can offer a clear line of sight towards the newest innovations that will soon be taking over your young professional life.
THE COOLEST
This was the most funded Kickstarter project in the history of Kickstarter. The cooler not only cools your drinks, but also has a built-in blender, Bluetooth speaker, USB charger, LED lid light, gear tie down, cutting board, knife, plates, bottle opener, and more made waves by beating its modest $50,000 goal by $13 million. You read that right. Apparently people really want more from their coolers.
PONO MUSIC
Is it any surprise Neil Young’s alternative to the mp3 player – Pono – quickly surpassed its $800,000 goal by $6 million to become one of the most funded projects of 2014? His pitch video featured many of the greatest musicians around experiencing the difference between Pono and an MP3 player, and raving about the vinyl level quality of sound the Pono provided compared to the flat murkiness of the MP3. We can’t wait to get our ears on one of these.
BRING BACK READING RAINBOW
The glory that was Reading Rainbow doesn’t need to be described to any 80s baby. And since kids these days were robbed of such an important show, there’s no surprise the campaign to bring it back to classrooms in need easily surpassed its $1 million goal by another $4.5 million. Nostalgia (and LeVar Burton) is an incredible marketing tool.
SCiO
This might be the coolest gadget we’ve came across. The SCiO is a personal molecular sensor. This means you can scan any food, medicine, or plants to find out detailed information. Want to know when your avocado is going to be ripe – scan it and the app will tell you. Want to know how many calories are in your milkshake – scan it. This will change the way we interact with the world around us. Mind. Blown.
THE DASH
The Dash is the world’s first pair of wireless smart in-ear headphones. They’re waterproof, performance tracking (to tell you how long you’ve run for example), include body sensors to tell you information like your heart rate, and feature storage for up to 1000 songs – so you can go for a run and listen to music completely wire and phone free. It easily surpassed its $260,000 funding goal by $3 million.
THE MICRO
Around here we love 3D printing, and the Micro is being developed as the first consumer (i.e. affordable) 3D printer on the market. This technology is incredibly impressive, and putting it in homes around the world is going to excel the speed with which this form of printing is changing the world. Yes, please.
SENSE
Sense is a device that allows you to track everything happening both around you and to you while you sleep. The main device sits on your nightstand to monitor your bedroom’s conditions (think: temperature, and any sound or light disturbances), while the sleep pill is a small device that attaches to your pillow to monitor how restless you are. Together the data they gather is sent to your phone to help you achieve your best night’s sleep possible.
ANOVA PRECISION COOKER
This precision cooker wants to bring the high-end cooking style of “sous vide” to the mainstream. Normally, a meal cooked sous vide at a restaurant would cost as much as they are able to manufacture this device for. It’s a smart appliance, linking to your smart phone, literally allowing you to set and forget about the meal. We always knew you were a chef at heart.
POCKETSCAN
The Pocketscan is the world’s smallest wireless scanner. It allows you to instantly scan anything just by scrolling the scanner over the photo or text. As soon as you scan text, you can edit it on your screen, and it also translates foreign language text so you can easily understand signs when travelling. This little scanner will make student and work life so much simpler. We want it.
BLOOMSKY
Bloomsky is a 5-in-1 weather station that captures sky images and weather data in your neighbourhood, so you don’t have to worry about inaccurate weather data from your app. Accurate hyper-local weather data means you’ll never step outside without an umbrella when you actually need one again. Looks like clear skies to us.
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