Just when I thought nobody could possibly innovate in the notebook space, along comes a Kickstarter project to prove me wrong. Magnote magnetic notebooks look like simple notebooks on the surface, but their covers and spines are comprised of neodymium magnets. This allows the notebooks to be attached to one another for easy storage, and separated only as needed. Each Magnote is…
Embue is a new Kickstarter project that aims to replace your thermostat, but not just with a single unit like Nest. Embue has sensors that can be placed in every room, giving it a much better overview of your home or office's temperature and humidity. And like Nest, Embue can learn from your habits and make adjustments as needed for optimal comfort.…
This one is for those of us with little kids running around the house. Watching them learn how to wash their own hands is fun in a way, but cleaning up the mess sure isn't. They have a hard time reaching anything, they're putting their hands all over faucet handles and knocking over soap dispensers and getting water everywhere, and you're standing…
The SLIDE wallet by Stitch & Locke is a Kickstarter project for a wallet that is both eco-friendly and animal-free. A simple design, really—it sports a thin layer of cork on the outside and a thicker denim interior, with a notch cut at the lower corner that allows you to easily slide cards out (hence the name). They've already tripled their funding…
Research has shown that sitting at a desk all day is terrible for our health, well-being, productivity, and even life expectancy. Standing desks—especially those that adjust between sitting and standing positions—are a good way to counteract the negative effects of all that sitting, but they can be pretty expensive. (A fact I'm all too familiar with; my current "standing desk" is a…
Balance Watch is a Kickstarter for a wristwatch that wants to help you achieve a better work/play balance. The right half of its face ("work") looks like a typical watch, with visible markers for hours 12-6 and minutes 0-30. The left half ("play") is totally blank, signifying that this is your time to do as you please. You can focus on the…
The Great Discontent is one of my absolute favorite web publications. Their interviews with creative people from all over the web can often be inspiring, entertaining, touching, and even funny. The site is quite beautiful and features some excellent photography. (I love the site so much that I was inspired to begin conducting some interviews of my own a while back.) And…
Flag is a recent Kickstarter campaign for a free photo-printing service. Yes, you read that correctly. The entire service—printing, shipping, and all—is completely free, at least for people in the U.S. It sounds crazy, but the way they plan to accomplish this is by putting an advertisement on the back of each photo print. I'm generally not a fan of obtrusive advertising,…
We've mentioned a lot of camera bags on T&T before, but a photographer who only carries one camera and lens around might want something even more minimal. Something they could toss in their normal bag and still protect the camera. Enter the Miggo, a new Kickstarter project. Essentially, it's a camera strap that wraps around the camera (lens and all) when not…
Moment is an upcoming lens-mounting system for iPhone and other smartphones. At first glance it kind of resembles the Olloclip, but the mounting system is different—it uses a thin, case-friendly metal plate that safely adheres directly to the back of your phone, which the lenses can then be attached to. There are two lenses in the set: Tele and Wide. The Moment…
The Duo Coffee Steeper is a Kickstarter project that combines the longer steeping time of a French press with the cleanliness of a pour-over brewer. The instructions are simple: load up the top chamber with coffee and hot water, stir, let the mixture sit for a few minutes, then twist the chamber to allow sludge-free coffee to pour into the bottom. The…
I'm one of those people who always finds a way to lose pens, no matter what I do. I'll leave one in a specific spot, only to find that it was somehow magicked away the next time I need it. The Move Pen is a Kickstarter project that might help me out a little. With a built-in attachment point for keychains and/or…
The Slate Mobile AirDesk is a Kickstarter project for a small, portable "desk" that sits on your lap. Cut from a block of premium bamboo and large enough to fit 13"-17" laptops, the Slate sports several rows of ventilation holes in the section where your laptop sits and the bamboo absorbs any remaining heat, so your legs stay cool during use. The…
The COBURNS iPad Stand is a new Kickstarter project that caught our eye this morning. It's comprised of two wooden blocks, each with a pair of magnets and a slot — if one didn't know what they were, they might think they were looking at some sort of puzzle. The magnets hold the blocks together when not in-use, and when separated, the…
I've seen some interesting watches before, but one made almost entirely out of wood, down to the single-piece flexible band? That's a new one on me. And yet that's exactly what Analog Watch Co. have come up with for their Kickstarter project, which they've dubbed The Carpenter Collection. Sporting an eco-friendly and gender-neutral design, the bodies of these watches are CNC-carved from…
While the term "life hacks" has gotten kicked around a lot over the years, a new Kickstarter project by Alex Croft breathes new life into the phrase. The 24x36 inch poster is well designed, featuring white and black art over a beautiful blue. Each "hack" is told as a fun little story around a big owl. Guides on CPR, the Heimlich maneuver,…
Nock Co. is a new startup by Jeffrey Bruckwicki and Brad Dowdy focused on creating beautiful, functional pen accessories. Their initial Kickstarter project features numerous products. Ranging from the The Chimneytop, a mini pop-up case with a single zipper for 6-7 pens to The Brasstown, a zippered roll case for pens, pencils, small tools and more. All of Nock Co's items are…
The Buca Boot is a new Kickstarter project designed to make biking with items easier than now. While saddle bags, cases and more exist, the Buca Boot is a new lockable, waterproof, handsome rig that's designed to be more flexible than products out there. The Buca Boot fits any standard bike rack, so no drilling is required on your bike frame. The…
The guys at Studio Neat, makers of the Glif tripod mount for the iPhone and the Cosmonaut stylus for iPad, are putting on another Kickstarter for a...cough...neat kit for making super-clear ice at home. It uses an insulated, block-shaped ice mold to freeze water from the top down, pushing impurities to the bottom. The resulting ice block looks like this: Using the…
One of the best ways to brew a great cup of coffee is using a pourover method — a couple of the more popular options are the Chemex and Hario V60 brewers. The Pour Mason is an interesting Kickstarter that aims to apply this same idea to mason jars. The concept is simple: twist one of the Pour Mason brewers onto a…