Boosted Boards - First Look, and Test Ride

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It's 12:30 PM on a beautiful day in the San Francisco Bay Area. Perfect to be outdoors enjoying the sunshine, and nice sunny breeze. I had just finished having a teleconference meeting down the street from Google HQ, and was on my way to Boosted Boards HQ.

 

Working at Starbucks across from Google Campus, computer history museum. - Spherical Image - RICOH THETA

 

Yesterday I had reached out to them via their website link and asked for an in-person demo since I was in town.

It was just a short trip over from the Starbucks I was working at. I walked in to their head quarters, met with an empty lobby. No person in sight; not even ‘the bell’ to ring which a sign to the right indicated. A few moments go by, and I waved someone down who was walking past the hallway. He motioned me to come on in.

I followed him towards the back, walking past a bunch of skate boards. I immediately recognized them from the bright orange wheels - the unofficial color of boosted boards. All seem well used, and tested no doubt. What struck me was they pretty much looked like any other mid to high end long board with just a hint of some mods done to it.

Through the short hallway I went into an open warehouse space filled with personal electric vehicles of all sorts and types. I went straight up to the first person sitting closest to me whom I recognized from some video interviews as Matthew Tran (co-founder of Boosted Boards). I greeted him with a firm handshake, briefly introduced myself, and asked if I could try out one of the boards.

I suppose he was taken by surprise since I had been communicating with Christina yesterday about dropping by for a test, but he recognized me from a post on Facebook about some tickets they had for tonight’s California Academy of Sciences event.

Short on time because my earlier go-to-meeting event had run longer than anticipated, and I had to pick my GF up later that afternoon— I got to the point and asked to test ride one of the boards.

Matthew walked me to the demo boards I saw earlier, picked one up with a controller, and a skate helmet, and we walked out onto the driveway. He set the board down, helped me to adjust my helmet a bit and gave me about 2 minutes of instruction. I mentioned that I skateboarded a long time ago, but that I also snowboard from time-to-time so he showed me the simple to use grip controller and let me get on-board and get going.

 

@boostedboards HQ trying out their production electric long board for my first time. #theta360 - Spherical Image - RICOH THETA

 

He had me setup on beginner mode for safety reasons,

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Droplet is a Water Cannon for Your Plants

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I wish this robotic water cannon came out early in the summer when I needed it to water two different gardens in two different properties in the blistering heat.

The Droplets sprinkler is the world's first programmable hose end sprinter system that is smartly connected to over 10,000 weather stations with real-time data, as well as comprehensive database that includes the biological plant information and US soil samples to make better recommendations on how much watering is appropriate.

The company claims that it uses up to 90% less water than a standard sprinkler-- a figure that does seem believable given that a lot of the speakers that I see in a neighborhood tend to sprinkle the water onto the sidewalk just as much as the grass.

Still, at $300 it seems a bit steep.  I'd buy a few if they were hundred dollars piece.  If I get my hands on one, I'll definitely let you know what I think.

Droplet is also available at Brookstone here.

Google I/O 2014

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That's the entire keynote.  What I gathered from half listening, half cleaning house was an Android OS update, UI features that make the interface cool-er, but mostly what intrigued me was the Smart Watch and chrome integration.  They announced the next-Gen: LG G watch, and Samsung Gear Live watches coming out next month.

Oh - one more thing that stood out: 1000 women at Google I/O and it got really special mention.  Funny how the cheers that came after that sounded predominantly male though.

Microsoft Store

Cinetics Axis360 Motorized Pan Tilt Slide on Kickstarter

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The hugely successful Cinetics company which brought us the original CineSkates Camera Dolly Wheels is at it again on Kickstarter.  They now have a complete solution for budding time-lapse photographers and cinematographers to do it all.

Check out their kickstarter campaign.

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