Maco Go 2: Apple Watch Charger

August 16, 2023 | 4 comments

Back in February 2020, I backed the Maco Go project on Kickstarter. This tiny, portable, USB-C Apple Watch charger arrived in September 2020. While I was impressed with its size and portability I was less impressed with its charging speeds.

In my tests, shown below, the Maco Go took roughly twice as long to charge as the standard Apple Watcher charger cable in the same charging plug.

Apple Watch cable	Maco Go	Apple Watch cable	Maco Go
18:25 22% 19:25 92% +70%	13:19 28% 14:19 58% +30%	18:25 33% 19:25 96% +63%	16:51 15% 17:51 44% +29%

In the end, … Read the rest

Memobottle Stainless Steel – Review

January 5, 2023 | Comment

Not so technical but still geeky so I think it counts for posting here.

Regular readers will know of my love of Kickstarter and memobottle is one of my great successes from the platform. Disclaimer I am a (very, VERY) small investor in the business.

The Background and Kickstarter Campaigns

The original memobottle was a series of reusable water bottles in sizes that matched paper sizes (well anywhere but US paper sizes) such as A7, A6 and A5. These were (and are as they’re still available on the memobottle website) great and I still use my A7 and A6 constantly. … Read the rest

The failed Kickstarter that’s still a partial success

November 18, 2022 | 1 comment

There is much to like about UK plugs – for a start they never fall out of sockets under the weight of the plug as so many US chargers seem to but they are big and bulky. This was something that Mu looked to address with their innovative folding charger.

Back in February 2018 Mu launched a Kickstarter campaign to deliver the “World’s Thinnest 45W International Fast Charger” which was successfully delivered August 2019.

In October 2019 Mu were back on Kickstarter again this time to bring to market the “Next Generation 63W Dual USB Type-C Wall Charger”. What happened … Read the rest

The Paperlike2 for iPad

November 15, 2019 | Comment

If there is any gadget related job worse than cleanly applying a screen protector to a device I don’t know what it is. So it was with mixed emotions when my Paperlike2 arrived in the post this morning.

Paperlike2 is yet another Kickstarter project but one that had a higher chance of success as it it the follow-up to, of course, Paperlike. Basically Paperlike is an iPad screen protector that adds a slightly course layer on top of the screen making it more, well, paper like, and better for writing and drawing.

Application

But before you can get to the … Read the rest

HyperCube: Auto Photo Backup USB Device

October 4, 2019 | Comment

The HyperCube is another Kickstarter project but unlike the tardy Spooly this one went from completion on 16th July to delivery in just eight weeks which must be some sort of record for projects I have backed.

The HyperCube’s premise is simple. It’s a USB dongle that allows you to backup multiple device’s photos and videos to some connected media while simultaneously charging. That media could be a microSD card, a USB stick or even an external hard drive. The idea is that it makes backup simple and could replace services such as iCloud thereby saving you money.

The Dongle

… Read the rest

Spooly – the Long Kickstarter Wait

September 20, 2019 | 2 comments

I’ve written about Kickstarter on numerous occasions highlighting both the successes and the failures for me on the crowdfunding platform. Today I wanted to talk about the successful failure that is Spooly.

On June 9th 2016 the self-styled “World’s First Magnetic Charging Cables” was fully funded securing £70,000 more than the project goal. What had attracted me to the Spooly was the size, little more than the connector and a short cable, and that it would stay neatly together using a magnetic cable.

The Long, Long Wait

I handed over my money and waited. And waited. And waited. In … Read the rest

Kablecard – The Swiss Army Utility Card for Charging on the go!

October 1, 2018 | Comment

Kickstarter has been a bit hit and miss for me but occasionally it does turn up a real gem and Kablecard is one of those.

I have to say that when I saw the video and spec list (multi-head charging! sim tool! kick stand! back light! memory storage! credit card sized!) it did seem a bit unbelievable and I wondered if it was a scam. But no, I did end up with one and it really can do all the things that it claimed.

Included inside a quite thin case is a main cable which is USB-C … Read the rest

Kickstarter is a stock market not a super market

January 26, 2016 | 1 comment

It’s no secret that I am a big fan of Kickstarter having backed many, many, many projects but, as you can see from the above screen grab, not everyone is of the same opinion and I believe that stems from a fundamental misunderstand about just what exactly a crowd funding site is.

The reason for the ire shown by the commenters above is that the project delivery end date is slipping and so people are becoming unhappy. In this particular project’s case the delivery date has slipped by approximately one month – in Kickstarter terms that is nothing, … Read the rest

My First Two Weeks with the Pebble Watch

March 7, 2013 | Comment

I decided to wait a couple of weeks before writing a review of my Pebble watch and passing any sort of judgement as I felt that would allow the dust to settle a bit. So now those weeks are up here are my thoughts.

The Pebble, for those that have missed it, is a “smart watch” that is connected to your phone. iPhone in my case but it is also compatible with Android. Pebble was a project on the crowd-funding site Kickstarter where it set out to raise $10,000 to fund its project and ended up raising $10,000,000. This … Read the rest

Pebble Watch for iPhone Passes $10M on Kickstarter

May 10, 2012 | 1 comment

Already the most funded project ever on Kickstarter the Pebble Watch for iPhone and Android has now passed the $10 million mark – 100 times the amount it was aiming to raise. Kickstarter is a great platform and I have backed a number of projects on it and will continue to look out for innovative things I can be an early part of.

Looking forward to receiving my watch too – glad I got my backing in early!… Read the rest