Response from The Dash

Just received this email from Nikolaj Hviid, founder of The Dash headphones project in response to our write up:

Hi,
Just saw your teardown of The Dash. I’m impressed with the analysis.
I’d like to provide some additional content that you are allowed to share.
If you approve, I’d like to link from our campaign, unless you think that will make your site less trusted.
We haven’t disclosed much about us, but a bit about our credentials:
  • Nikolaj, ex CEO of Designit Munich (www.designit.com), ex head of design at Harman (last 2 generations of products from JBL & harman/kardon was concepted and designed by the team I built), the design teams I created, have won more than 100 innovation and design awards 2011-2013.
  • Josef Scheider, ex AKG (www.akg.com) Head of Mech engineering 20+ years
  • Toby Martin, de.linkedin.com/pub/toby-martin/6/a75/4b4
The rest of the team has similar level of experience. As you say, we have made a few products in our time.
Regards,
Nikolaj

The email included these exclusive high-resolution images which provide some more detail on the 3D construction of the ‘phones:
4C4A54EE-9C23-471E-88A9-00DB09A0F70E

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We are very impressed with the team’s openness, and the level of polish on their campaign and PR alike.  We will be following this campaign closely as it nears its November 2014 deadline.

The Dash headphones: surprisingly possible

phones

The Dash wireless earbuds cropped up earlier this week on Kickstarter, and you guys have been blowing up our inbox requesting a review.  We can see why you’re interested; they’re offering a pair of wireless earbuds with integrated heart rate monitor, bone microphone, touch-sensitive controls, voice feedback, 4GB MP3 player, and more. While a cursory glance might bring up memories of the Smarty Ring, a device with a similarly extreme sizing and technology requirements, there are a few details present in the Dash campaign that make it not so far fetched.

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Your fundraising goal is bullshit

blast

When your average tech journalist wants to talk about the success of a new product or service, he has a lot to draw on.  Netflix subscriptions can be compared to cable subscriptions, iPhone sales can be compared to Android sales.  Even the number of reported returns or one star Amazon reviews can tell you a lot about the success of a company’s new product.

Unfortunately, in the world of crowd funding, there isn’t a whole lot to go on when trying to gauge success.  Many crowd funded products are too unique to compare to products already on the market.  Others attempt to butt heads with established brands, but journalists can’t verify their claims without review units. Readers want to hear who won and who lost, but the world of product development makes that distinction cloudy.

Fortunately, Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and just about every other crowd funding site offer an arbitrary and random way to gauge the success of a campaign without drawing on information from any of the established and reliable sources mentioned above: the funding goal.

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Atlas Fitness Tracker doesn’t understand what an endorsement is

Just noticed something on the Atlas Fitness Tracker campaign.  It’s a textbook example of a crowdfunding project mistaking a quote for an endorsement.

atlas quote

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A quick message from the founder of Hydrobee

Last week, I got a message from Burt Hamner, founder of Hydrobee which we reviewed recently.  Here’s what he had to say (edited to remove personal information):

Your DropKicker review was fair, glad you know we can make the power claimed, and yes, there is a lot more work to do to make this a commercial product!  And yes, I have not done it before, so I got smart.  Find help!

We have now figured out how to charge our USB dynamo/battery with faucets and hoses, streams and rivers, wind, bikes, pulleys and open wood fires.  Design in process.  Found a great prototyping and batch manufacturing team in Tijuana who makes power tools etc.

Also we have a little coalition of local Seattle people forming “McStarter” consulting team to help others do crowd funding.  Maybe we can enlist you guys as product reviewers  pre-Kickstarter, for those entrepreneurs smart enough to know that’s a good idea!

Burt Hamner, President, Hydrobee SPC

The Ark wireless portable charger

ark

As the portable backup battery market is flooded with a number of hand-held battery solutions, the Ark from Bezalel hopes to float above the rest by offering a wireless charging feature uncommon in portable devices.  With forty days and forty nights left to go on their campaign, it looks like they’re well on their way to reaching their $35,000 goal, but when their efficiency claims are scrutinized, one wonders why anyone should bother waiting.

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SeeSpace InAir Augmented Television

seespace

SeeSpace InAir promises a whole new way of interacting with your television. Using an inline HDMI dongle, they hope to enhance your favorite programming with additional information from the web.  It’s definitely a cool idea if done well, and the hardware technology is there, but the real question is where this extra content is going to come from.
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Dream on

face-down-sleeping

The allure of sleep and dreaming is undeniable, those mysterious necessities that fill a third of our lives (if we’re so lucky). Despite decades of research, there is no comprehensive theory of sleep, why we dream, or why I feel like a slug when I wake up early. It’s no wonder we find them fascinating.

Unfortunately, some unscrupulous creators have taken advantage of that fascination, raising insane amounts of money with good marketing and shoddy science while more legitimate campaigns languish. Let’s set aside the hyperbolic nonsense – no more shouting about the “power” of sleep and dreams – and investigate the science and technology behind:

  • NeuroOn – A magical device that claims to track your sleep patterns, train you to sleep less, induce lucid dreams, and wake you up gently, all while ripping off early supporters
  • Lucid Dreamer, CanLucidDream, Aurora, & DreamNet – Lucid dream inducing masks
  • Napwell – Progressive light alarm clock
  • Vigo – Track your alertness and give you a poke when you start to doze

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Skulpt Aim

skulpt-aim

You should buy a Skulpt Aim because “you can’t improve what you can’t measure.” Or so they say.

But do they measure something worth improving? They claim to record body fat percentage but cite no evidence their method is accurate (or that it even works). They claim to measure muscle quality – a metric they appear to have invented – but don’t bother to define the scale.

We’re expected to watch their parade of very fit half-naked models and take their word.

That said, while it may be snake oil, it’s not necessarily a scam. The technology behind Skulpt has been used in numerous peer-reviewed studies to assess disease-induced changes in muscle composition, including several projects by Skulpt’s co-founder Dr. Seward Rutkove, Professor of Neurology at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

So let’s play along, shall we? What exactly does Skulpt Aim measure?

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Airfy wireless hotspot

airfy

The Airfy team claims that their new line of wireless devices will make it simpler for individuals or businesses to set up advanced and secure wireless networks.  The product looks good, but there are some business challenges and gaps in their product description that leave me with a few big questions such as “what does the app that ties all of these things together actually look like?”

While it looks like Airfy is pitching a new wireless router, closer investigation reveals that they’re trying to start up an internet services based company that will utilize a global network of devices such as those pitched in their campaign.  Many of the advertised features require pervasive use of their technologies, and yet some of those features may hinder widespread adoption.

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