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Tag: Kickstart

  • Mountain Dew Breakfast: Extreme, But Not Too Extreme

    Mountain Dew is looking to expand their customer base a bit–or at least make more sales to the fanbase they already have–by bringing breakfast into the mix.

    It may not be a vitamin-packed smoothie, but the company says their new drink, Kickstart, does contain vitamins B and C and has a burst of caffeine to get you going when you have a severe case of the Mondays. It also contains 5% fruit juice and comes in different flavors, like fruit punch and orange citrus. But it won’t pack on the calories like some “energy drinks” do; instead, it includes artificial sweeteners to bring that number down to about half those found in a can of soda.

    But the company doesn’t want to rely too much on the “energy” premise, as many super-charged energy drinks have garnered negative attention in recent months due to alleged deaths and health issues. Instead, Kickstart falls somewhere between a regular can of soda and an energy drink with 92 milligrams of caffeine for a 16-ounce can. A similar amount of Mountain Dew has 72 milligrams, and Amp Energy Drink contains 142 milligrams.

    The company wants to draw in a core audience of 18-24 year olds with the drink in an effort to win them over despite a growing love of coffee in that age group.

    Image: PepsiCO

  • Kickstarter Project Hopes to Create Social-Video-Sharing Glasses

    Kickstarter Project Hopes to Create Social-Video-Sharing Glasses

    Can’t wait for the Google Glass headsets to arrive? A company called Vergence Labs has some eyewear that just might tide you over until Google Glass is finally out of beta.

    The company has started a Kickstarter campaign to raise $50,000 for what they claim are the world’s first electric-powered sunglasses. The basic pair of sunglasses the startup touts turns the glasses from shades to normal glasses with the flick of a switch. In addition, the specs have a 720p video camera on the bridge of the frames, allowing them to record a user’s-eye view to a microSD card. Kickstarter pledgers who pledge $199 dollars or more will get their very own electric sunglasses. The glasses currently only come in large, blocky frames. Luckily for Vergence, that style is currently popular, though the company is still working to miniaturize the components to fit them into smaller frames.

    Vergence hopes users of the electric glasses will upload videos they take to their future website, YouGen.Tv. The company suggests that users would be able to share their view of life and help educate the world on what they see. In reality, though, if these glasses take off as much as Vergence’s founders hope, they are going to be dealing with a huge chatroulette-type problem.

    Aside from the basic model of electric sunglasses, Vergence is raising money for it’s “immersive reality” visor glasses, seen above. The visor, which looks like something a fighter-pilot would wear, displays an overlay that can be programmed to interact with elements from the visor’s view. This is the same type of augmented reality that Google Glass promised with its announcement trailer, and it can be had for pledging $7,000 to the Kickstarter campaign. The device is only shown running some face-recognition software, but one Vergence co-founder claims the company hopes to implement gestural interfaces in the near future.

    That future had better be very soon, as the Kickstarter campaign estimates that both the electric sunglasses and the augmented-reality visor are due to ship before Christmas of this year. That gives the Vergence just over seven months to perfect something that appears to still be an early prototype. Watch the founders of Vergence Labs pitch their products in the video below, and decide for yourself if their ideas could be implemented by December.

  • Social Media Propaganda Posters Will Hopefully Become a Coffee Table Book Thanks to Kickstarter

    Social Media Propaganda Posters Will Hopefully Become a Coffee Table Book Thanks to Kickstarter

    Aaron Wood is known in almost 20,000 Google+ circles for his social media propaganda posters and now he is putting together a coffee table book.

    He is trying to get funding for his Kickstarter project by networking on Google+. The book will be 9″x12″ and contain 25 full color reproductions of his posters. It will be a soft cover and have 60 pages. Opposite each poster will be a small description of the poster and some behind the scenes into what he was thinking when he made it.

    Wood has raised $2,050 for his project from 40 supporters and he only needs to raise another $650 in the next 5 days.

    Maybe more artists should reach out like Wood has so that they can fund projects they are passionate about.

    Check out his rendition of the fail whale, the picture that Twitter shows when the site goes down.


    But some people think Wood’s art is too “commie” and lacks originality.

    This is how he responded to the critique:

    Do you think it is too “commie?”

    What is your reaction to his artwork?


    You can also view some of his other designs on his Etsy page where you can purchase the posters.

    The following is his profile on Etsy:

    This one is my favorite.