kickstarter

Your iPhone may be getting more and more wireless, what with iCloud and Wi-Fi syncing and all, but there are times when it's nice to have a dock.

Of course, most docks are little more than stands, offering few, if any, features beyond charging and syncing.

Enter the Foundation Dock, a Kickstarter project that's arguably the most versatile iPhone dock to date.… Read more

Once-hot digital photo frames are now relegated to the holiday gift sales section at department stores. But the digital frame may be about to get its groove back thanks to Instacube, an Instagram-specific display.

The bigger-is-better concept is alive and well with this Kickstarter project. The squared-off Instacube streams your Instagram photo feed in a much larger format than you can view on your little smartphone screen.… Read more

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- Pitchfork's People's List polls readers for the best albums of the last 15 years.

- The new rise of a summer hit: Tweet It Maybe.

- How Murder by Death became the No. 3 most successful Kickstarter music campaign ever.

- The Internet has finally met its match: Avril Lavigne engaged to Nickelback frontman Chad Kroeger.

- Lights turning off at Nintendo Power?

- Custom BioShock pinball machine is Rapturous.… Read more

In this age of keyboards and stylii, there's still something beautiful about a pencil. I'm talking about real wood pencils, the kind you have to sharpen.

If you're anything like me, you end up with drawer full of pencil stubs that need to be cleaned out periodically. Instead of tossing them in the trash, there is an alternative.

The Sprout pencil from Democratech is made with a Ticonderoga cedar body, but it has a seed inside a water-activated cap. Once it gets small, just turn it upside down, plant it, water it, and reap the benefits of growing your own herbs or heirloom tomatoes.… Read more

We've heard of holsters for cameras, such as the Roberu leather holster or the Spider holster, but what about one for dSLR lenses?

Compared with typical lens holsters -- which are basically small nylon bags that carry a single lens -- the Quikdraw system allows shutterbugs to quickly swap between multiple lenses.

All you need to do is to strap on a belt and you'll be able to hang several lenses from your waist. The lenses are mounted on the Quikdraw units and dismounted with a twist-and-lock motion, just like what you do when mounting lenses on a camera body. … Read more

Don Cayelli says one of his main motivations for developing his SunVolt Portable Solar Power Station was that he couldn't find a solar charger that worked well for charging his iPad on his boat.

He sails a lot and uses his iPad as a chart plotter and preferred to use the sun as a power source rather than rechargeable battery packs. Most solar chargers, he says, had internal batteries, and the standard approach was the solar panel would charge the internal battery and the battery would charge your device. That was because the panels were too small to charge … Read more

Are you a tech startup desperate to hire the best talent around and looking for a central repository of skilled engineers? Or a kick-butt coder trying to get in on the ground floor of a hot new venture? AngelList may have just the place to go.

This evening, AngelList, a service whose alumni companies have raised more than $1.1 billion in funding, launched a new talent portal, a one-stop shop where startups can search for qualified tech talent, and where skilled engineers and others can seek out the best new companies.

"We noticed that people were using AngelList … Read more

App.net's goal of creating an alternative social network took a big step forward with the announcement that it had achieved the goal of raising $500,000 in a crowd-funding campaign.

The project, which seeks to build an open API framework for developers, achieved its pledge goal with almost two days to spare before its deadline, thanks mostly to a last-minute push for new sponsors.

More than 7,800 sponsors have pledged funds for varying membership privileges. A $50 basic membership gives donors an annual membership, while a $1,000 donation gives members access to the developer tools and … Read more

Soon, that whiny kid from Transformers won't be the only one who gets to play with giant walking robots. The makers of Project Hexapod are Kickstarting Stompy, a honking huge two-seater hydraulic robot.

Oh, Stompy, where have you been all my life? I can't wait to some day meet all 4,000 pounds of you and watch as your six legs destroy everything in their path. Despite your frighteningly arachnid shape, you have an adorable moniker. … Read more