Snooperscope infrared camera for iPhone apparently plagiarizes magazine from 1951 for no reason

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Link to Kickstarter

Snooperscope promises a small, portable, and battery powered infrared camera that can be wirelessly connected to your phone and used to see in the dark or conduct a number of fun experiments with invisible light.

The product doesn’t seem that implausible, but the product description has a number of …quirks that make me worry.

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Hydrobee: Micro-hydrokinetic power for your phone

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Link to Kickstarter Campaign

Energy harvesting is a buzzword that has been cropping up quite a bit recently.  Anything from hand-crank generators and solar panels  to yo-yos and TMNT Shredder masks can be potentially used to generate power for your mobile devices.  Of course, only some of these harvesters have made it to market because it turns out that there isn’t much energy in your yo-yo or lungs to be harvested.  So what about the local river?
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Coin: One card to rule them all

coin_device_20_nov_2013Coin got a lot of press last week with headlines like “Is this the future of your wallet?” and “New device combines all credit cards into super card”.

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LUCI – The thrilling conclusion!

LUCI is no more – GTX Technology has canceled the campaign, claiming to have found a private source of funding.

In many ways, this is the best possible outcome, but before I get into all the reasons why, let me share exactly what was said. (If you haven’t been following this saga, the original post will bring you up to speed.)
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LUCI – The lucid dream inducer

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LUCI was supposed to induce lucid dreams, to detect when the user is in REM sleep and signal them to take control. Instead, with almost $400k CAD raised and only a few days left to go, evidence is mounting that LUCI is just another internet scam. Continue reading →

Nymi and biometric authentication

Nymi

Nymi promises a future free of keys, PINs, and passwords, like a universal remote for modern life that uses your heartbeat like a fingerprint.

That’s the claim at least. Continue reading →

Setting the record straight with Vybe

Phew, it’s been a pretty crazy week for Drop Kicker, but fortunately the dust has settled, and we have a chance to clarify some of the misinformation that has been flying around the Vybe campaign.

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An email from a public relations company representing Vybe

I received this email today from one of Vybe’s PR companies who asked to not have their name shown as they do not want to be in any way associated with the Vybe campaign.

CREATOR RESPONSE

To Whom it May Concern:

I am writing in response to an article written by “Choof.” We (****** Agency) previously handled media relations for Vybe up until this afternoon. As one of three agencies contracted to work with Vybe I want to be clear that we did not, nor have we ever managed a Reddit account or campaign on behalf of a client. We have a zero tolerance policy regarding astro-turfing and do not associate with companies that employ the practice.

Our agency provided media relations services for Vybe only. This consisted of the drafting and distributing of a press release and media outreach. This afternoon we decided it was in our best interest to terminate our relationship with Vybe and founder Chris Stoikos, releasing the company from all contractual obligations.

I would like to point out the great respect our agency has for the media and assure you that we would never ask an outlet to remove a story or advise a client to do so either.

Please let me know if you have any questions or would like to discuss this further by phone.

Best,

**** *****
vice president

A surprising telephone call from Vybe

Not 12 hours after I published an article discussing the Vybe campaign on Crowdtilt, I was surprised to receive a phone call from one of the project creators.

CREATOR RESPONSE

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Vybe abuses crowd funding to become middle men and charge backers twice what they’d pay elsewhere

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CREATOR RESPONSE

Link to Crowdtilt campaign

Oh boy! Another wrist-mounted gadget!  What’s this one do?

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