kickstarter

Mackenzie Wilson, 9, may just be the youngest Kickstarter rock star to date, and if all goes as planned she'll be a coding superstar one day as well.

Wilson teamed with her mom, Susan Wilson (to respect Kickstarter's official ban on minors owning crowdfunding projects) to launch a campaign to raise $829 to cover the cost of attending a weeklong role-playing design camp for 9- to 12-year-olds.

"I love computers, video games, apps, and role playing games - especially Magic the Gathering and Borderlands 2 that I get to play with my Dad (because my 15 & … Read more

You've got the quality locks, you've seen the how-to-lock videos, and you're very careful about where to leave your bicycle. But is that enough?

Not according to the backers of BikeSpike, a GPS tracking device being promoted on Kickstarter.

If a thief makes off with your ride, the BikeSpike will show its map location on your mobile device or home computer. Police can be given access to the data to help recovery. … Read more

April may be the cruelest month, as T.S. Eliot said, unless you've been jonesing to hack the massively popular Pebble smartwatch.

Founder Eric Migicovsky has announced that a watch-face SDK (software development kit) for the Pebble will be released in the second week of next month (and that 40,000 Pebbles have been assembled so far).

He showed off some early developer work in the Kickstarter video update below, including watch faces with an animated dragon, Mario running around the screen, and even the first game written for Pebble, featuring a Nokia-style Snake done in very simple graphics.

It's all very 1980s, but lots of fun. … Read more

Subscribe to Crave:

iTunes (HD) | iTunes (SD) | iTunes (HQ)

RSS (HD) | RSS (SD) | RSS (HQ)

Backyard tinkerer Grant Thompson teaches us how to build a solar-powered death ray. A man gets a Netflix tattoo for life and only gets a measly one-year subscription for it. Plus, we meet Mr. Stubbs the alligator, the first reptile (that we know of, at least) to receive a prosthetic tail. Donation came from the Phoenix Herpetological Society and the Core Institute. … Read more

If paddling out to that wave is getting a little too tiring, this electric body board puts you right in the water while pulling you along effortlessly.

Kymera is a lightweight, motorized jet board that can send you crashing through waves to help a struggling swimmer. Mainly intended for lifeguards and search and rescue teams, it's designed to be placed in the water more quickly and easily than personal watercraft.

The focus of a $250,000 Kickstarter campaign, Kymera weighs 48 pounds with the rechargeable lithium polymer battery pack, and 29 pounds without it. … Read more

There are two meanings for illumination: light and knowledge. As such, a lamp that looks like a book seems apropos -- and Lumio by San Francisco architect and industrial designer Max Gunawan immediately appeals.

When you open its cover, a concertina crafted to resemble the pages acts as a filter for the bright LEDs inside.

It's not just a pretty face, though. Like a book, it's portable, its lithium ion rechargeable with a discreet charging port hidden in the spine. Because it's lit with LEDs, its power consumption is low, lasting up to 8 hours. Neodymium magnets in the cover mean you can stick it to metal surfaces, and the wooden cover is flexible for a variety of configurations. … Read more

A "Veronica Mars" movie is nearly a reality, thanks to the Kickstarter campaign's rabid fans.

The TV show's creator, Rob Thomas, with the blessing of Warner Bros., opened a crowdsourcing campaign today and asked for $2 million dollars to shoot a "Veronica Mars" movie. Four-and-a-half hours later, the project hit the $1 million mark, and now it's a few hundred thousand shy of its goal.

It's the fastest-growing film campaign on the crowdsourcing site, and this is the first time a major movie studio has been connected to a Kickstarter project like this. Warner Bros., a studio that normally makes big budget films costing tens of millions of dollars, wasn't going to foot the bill for a lower budget film like "Veronica Mars," based on a canceled TV series focused on a high school girl who is also a private investigator. So, Thomas suggested Kickstarter and Warner Bros. gave him the green light. If the fans would help pay for production, the studio would take care of the costs associated with distributing the movie. … Read more

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- Bonobos opens stores that don't sell anything.

- The Smithsonian gets Warner Bros. movie props no one else wants.

- Moving Image art fair sells first ever "Vine art" for $200.… Read more

Most of us live our lives in blissful proximity to power outlets. We can charge up our phones when needed, without worry. But sometimes you're stuck in no-man's land, or you've forgotten your power cable, or you're out camping, or the zombie apocalypse has begun. That's when a gadget like the SOSCharger could come in handy.

The SOSCharger has a 1,500mAh Lithium Polymer battery built into it. You can charge it up through cranking or by plugging it into a standard outlet using the same USB charger cable that came with your phone. That way, it also acts as a battery backup option. You'll only have to crank it if absolutely necessary.… Read more