Crowdfunding roundup: ‘tasty’ cord organizers, bike navigation tool, air quality detector, more

As the success stories keep piling up, so do the number of projects filling up crowdfunding websites with, among other things, neat hardware- and software-related products. Some projects, like Pebble, gain thousands of supporters as well as millions of dollars in funding (and end up at Best Buy’s retail stores). Other projects flop and don’t reach their necessary funding amount.

Rather than make you sift through all of these projects, we’re rounding up the best or most notable projects from around the web and delivering them to you in a simple roundup.

If there’s a project that you’ve backed – or even a project that you founded – be sure to leave a link below so it can be considered for the next roundup.

• The Tastiest Cord Solution: Cord Taco, Cordito, Cordlupa (Kickstarter project) – It’s probably not the best idea to actually eat these cord organizers. However, the unique designs allow you to beautifully wrap up your headphones, USB cords, and Mac charging block in style. Just three days into it, this campaign is half way to meeting its $15,000 goal.
  
  
• Hammerhead: Bike Navigation. That just works. (Dragon Innovation project) – This device gives directions through an array of LED lights. It also has a bright light for night rides. Even though this project is on a lesser-known crowdfunding site, it’s doing reasonably well with just about 25% of its funding goal raised.
  
• Air.Air! ~ Portable Air Quality Detector (Kickstarter project) – City-wide air quality numbers are usually available every day, but that can be quite broad and unspecific. In addition, that will (of course) tell you nothing about the air quality in your house or other places you visit. For some, the Air.Air! and associated app will be the best thing since sliced bread (or the introduction of iPhone – your choice).
• iSketchnote: from pen and paper to your iPad (Kickstarter project) – With over $148k in funding, it’s clear there is a huge demand for this kind of product. The iSketchnote is an iPad cover that digitizes everything that you write down on the connected paper pad.
• Gecko – Make your smart phone smarter (Indiegogo project) – As a huge fan of BLE devices, this quarter-sized device really intrigues me. Once connected to your phone, you can configure the device to take certain actions at the flick of your wrist.
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• WiFlux – World’s First Wireless Portable Power in a Card (Indiegogo project) – The WiFlux is this week’s “almost too good to be true” project, although the technology is definitely available and bringing this to market is quite feasible. This device is an 850mAh power bank that is extremely slim, charges via USB, and wirelessly charges your Samsung Galaxy or iPhone through a “charging receiver”. This is one I’ll be following closely to see if the funding goal is met and if the product comes to market. Of note, the campaign publisher chose the flexible funding model, which means they will receive all funds even if the $99k goal isn’t met.