MEGATech News Crowdfunding Corner – February 2018

Great things can come from humble beginnings, and crowdfunding has led to some pretty wonderful ideas coming to fruition. Here at MEGATech News we realize the importance of getting the word out about these projects, and that’s exactly what Crowdfunding Corner is all about: sharing the news about cool and exciting new campaigns. Some of these campaigns have just begun collecting pledges, while others are well on their way and some have even sailed past their goals already. All campaigns are live at the time of this writing.

The Raised Desk

Hey, remember when all those studies came out about how unhealthy it was to sit on your butt all day? And then standing desks became a really popular and health-conscience alternative to sitting desks? And then remember how we all just forget or stopped caring about it? Yeah, that doesn’t mean it stopped being unhealthy. Sitting at your desk for long periods of time, let alone all day, isn’t good for you. The problem with a standing desk is that you’ll eventually want to sit down, and the problem with hybrid desks is that they’re just too expensive.

The Raised Desk functions just as simply as its name. It’s recycled aluminum that folds up to about the size of a laptop, and the tool-free assembly takes roughly 20 seconds. Twelve different shelving slots means that you’ll probably be able to find a height that’s perfect for you. Of course, it needs a table or desk to sit on, and it’s designed for laptops, not desktops, but it’s impressive given how simple it is.

The Raised Desk is at $1,129 of its $1,740 goal with 33 days to go. The early bird specials can you get you one unit for as low as $159, almost a hundred bucks off the (oddly steep) retail price of $239. The special pricing rewards all come with a Raised Desk branded wireless keyboard, for whatever reason.

HyperDrive USB-C Hub + 7.5W Qi Wireless Charger iPhone Stand

The HyperDrive USB hub (I’m not typing that full thing out all the time) has so many different ports that I literally got overwhelmed watching the video and had to rewind it just to catch them all. Here’s what you can plug in simultaneously: micro SD card, SD card, Ethernet cable, 4K HDMI display, USB-C device, and three different USB devices. And you can do all of this while wirelessly charging your iPhone or Android phone. And you can even prop it up, so you can view your phone’s display while it’s charging. That’s a lot of stuff.

The Kickstarter campaign has already blown past its $100,000 goal by raising over half a million dollars, which isn’t that surprising considering how much praise it’s gotten from big-name outlets. The Verge suggested that it might be the “perfect desk accessory.” It’s seriously good.

The campaign still has a couple weeks to go as of the time of this writing, and there are still plenty of reward tiers to jump on, with the cheapest being $109 for one HyperDrive. The expected retail price is $159 and they estimate the product will ship in May.