Kickstarter | The Verge

This mechanical bird drops dead when your home’s air quality worsens

2026-05-21T12:57:35-04:00

When air quality drops the bird simulates fainting and death by succumbing to gravity and hanging upside down. | Image: Birdie

The original Birdie debuted in 2022 with a morbid-but-fun design - an air-quality monitor with a literal canary in a coal mine. When the CO2 in your home hit a certain level, a mechanical bird mounted on your wall would appear to drop dead, then prompt you to open a window to air things out. Once the air quality improved, the bird miraculously came back to life. The new Birdie Pro carries forward that same design and approach, but adds additional sensors providing a more comprehensive analysis of the environment in your home.

Birdie Pro is now available through a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign and can be preordered with a discount that b …

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Kickstarter just killed its new mature content rules

2026-05-19T19:20:03-04:00

Last week, we noted Kickstarter's new content guidelines, which had some pretty weird new additions, including a prohibition on, among related things, projects whose rewards could provide "sexual pleasure." The rules exempted "sexual wellness products that are not designed for insertion or penetration and are not marketed primarily for sexual gratification." Those rules have now been eliminated and the company has restored an earlier version of its guidelines.

In an apology letter issued today from COO Sean Leow, Kickstarter confirmed that the new rules were influenced by the payment processor Stripe:

The updates to the rules were primari …

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A BlackBerry you might actually want just landed on Kickstarter

2026-03-24T13:08:13-04:00

The Titan 2 Elite will be available in black and orange color options. | Photo: Allison Johnson / The Verge

When The Verge's Allison Johnson went hands-on with the company's Titan 2 Elite phone at MWC 2026, Unihertz didn't divulge pricing info. But the compact Android phone with a BlackBerry-inspired keyboard is now available for preorder through a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign and starts at $489, with a discount for early backers bringing it down to $389. It's expected to ship as early as June 2026.

The Titan 2 Elite is a smaller and lighter version of Unihertz's Titan 2 that debuted last June as a modernized version of the BlackBerry Passport. The Titan 2 Elite's design is more reminiscent of the BlackBerry Bold lineup, but with a slightly …

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Tembo is a playful drum machine that thinks it’s a checkerboard

2026-03-11T11:45:16-04:00

Checkers? Go? | Image: Alon Daniel / Musical Beings

Tembo looks like a toy, but one of those bougie wooden toys you get on Crate & Kids, not some cheap plastic garbage. Despite its appearance, it is a fully functional drum machine and sampler. Rather than a bunch of buttons and a screen, you build beats on Tembo by placing what are essentially wooden checkers on a board. The point is to be approachable to would-be music makers of any age or skill level.

The core of Tembo is a pretty straightforward five-track step sequencer. Wooden tokens are held in place with magnets, and you just put them where you want the hit to land. There are eight sample packs built in, but you can also sample using …

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This backup camera cleaner hides behind your license plate

2026-02-27T08:59:23-05:00

The Lens Lizard is installed using your car’s existing license plate screw holes. | Image: Lens Lizard

A Vermont-based startup has announced a new upgrade kit that adds a remotely triggered backup camera cleaner to your car. The Lens Lizard system might seem like an unnecessary luxury to some, but if you deal with ice and snow obscuring your backup camera every winter, or live somewhere remote with dirt roads mucking up your ride, the upgrade will save you from having to frequently clean the camera yourself.

Its creators are making the Lens Lizard available through a Kickstarter and those who back the crowdfunding campaign can preorder a kit discounted to $99. Full retail pricing is expected to be closer to $149 while shipping will start in …

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Sharge’s new power bank can charge two laptops while putting on a light show

2026-02-10T13:43:16-05:00

The power bank’s aluminum shell features two cutaway sections revealing its electronics, batteries, and a screen. | Image: Sharge

Sharge has made a name for itself amongst the tech-obsessed with chargers and power banks featuring eye-catching designs and extra functionality. Power bank feature creep is more often than not a bad thing, but Sharge is unabashedly leaning into the trend with its new Shargeek 300. We first went hands on with it over a year ago at CES 2025, but the power bank is finally available for preorder.

The earliest backers of Sharge's latest Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign can preorder the power bank for $149, while its full price is expected to be closer to $199 once delivery starts as early as May 2026. Inside the Shargeek 300 is a 24,000 mAh ba …

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Naya Connect is a modular mechanical keyboard system for the indecisive

2026-01-15T05:46:13-05:00

Naya has already shipped one successful Kickstarter for a weird keyboard. The Naya Create was an ergonomic split deck with four swappable controller add-ons: a touchpad, a trackball, a rotary encoder, or a 6DoF spatial mouse. The Connect takes that modular concept, applies it to a more traditional flat keyboard form factor, and expands the ecosystem to be even more flexible. And clearly, people are into the idea, because it hit its minuscule funding goal in just six minutes.

The Naya Connect has four main components: a low-profile 75% mechanical keyboard called the Naya Type, a 24-key multipad, a six-key programmable strip, and a dock. The …

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This iPhone case with a second screen lets you snap selfies with its rear cameras

2025-12-17T12:00:39-05:00

The Selfix case is expected to launch on Kickstarter early next year. | Image: Dockcase

Smartphones with secondary screens on the back aren't a new idea. Most recently the Xiaomi 17 series launched in September with a smaller rear display and while the company suggests using it for widgets or gaming, the most practical use is as a way to frame selfies captured with the phone's superior rear cameras. The Selfix case brings that same functionality to the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max, while expanding both phones' storage capacity to up to 2TB.

All of the new iPhone models that debuted this year feature a redesigned front-facing camera with a square format sensor allowing vertical or landscape photos to be captured no matte …

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Mirumi the furry companion robot is now available on Kickstarter

2025-12-02T15:48:01-05:00

Unlike a robovac, Mirumi will never eat a sock or get stuck under furniture. | Image: Yukai Engineering

Among a sea of new TVs, robovacs, and smart glasses, Yukai Engineering's Mirumi was a unique standout at CES 2025 earlier this year. The tiny robot has no practical purpose other than looking adorable and bringing a smile to people's faces by simulating an inquisitive personality. The company planned to release the companion bot sometime in mid-2025, but mere weeks before the year ends Mirumi is finally available for preorder through a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign.

Yukai Engineering originally expected Mirumi to be priced at around $70, but a lot has happened around the world since January, and the tiny bot will actually cost about twi …

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Sound Blaster’s modular hub is a reconfigurable Stream Deck for audio

2025-10-31T10:08:34-04:00

Full apps can be run on the hub’s 3-inch touchscreen, including a DOS emulator for retro games. | Image: Creative

Creative, the company best known for its Sound Blaster line of sound cards that boosted the audio capabilities of '90s-era PCs, is reviving the brand with a new hub called the Re:Imagine. It's reminiscent of Elgato's Stream Deck controllers, but with a focus on your audio gear. It has a modular design allowing buttons, dials, sliders, and screens to be mixed, matched, and rearranged to your specific needs.

The company launched a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign with delivery expected as early as June 2026. Pricing is expected to start at $500 for a kit that includes a horizontal base unit plus touchscreen, button, dial, and slider modules. …

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