prototype
Spoot: Spotted Early keeps prototype in one place: 3 stories so far. The section currently leads with “Project ARES puts 250 real electric motorcycles on the road, not just renders”, “The Enough Phone shrinks back to a size your thumb actually remembers”, and “TypAir straps a keyboard to your wrist so you can type without talking”. Two hundred and fifty real motorcycles. The Enough Phone has a 5.3-inch display. Spoot: Spotted Early New things, caught while they're still new and a little weird. Spoot finds fresh gadgets, clever inventions, crowdfunding campaigns,… The list below is every prototype story on Spoot: Spotted Early, newest first.
Project ARES puts 250 real electric motorcycles on the road, not just renders
Two hundred and fifty real motorcycles. Not renders. Not a Kickstarter that fades into vaporware. Project ARES is building them, with sculptural bodywork that looks like it was carved by someone who got tired of looking at the same plastic fairings everyone else uses. The analog-inspired experience is the detail that snags me, because electric bikes often try to be futuristic in the most boring way possible, all screens and abstraction. ARES seems to want the future to feel like something you actually hold onto. It's preparing its first production run now, which puts it ahead of most of the concepts we cover around here. If you liked the way Lutra's new camera sees through itself to find the subject, you'll probably want to watch where ARES goes next.
The Enough Phone shrinks back to a size your thumb actually remembers
The Enough Phone has a 5.3-inch display. Your thumb remembers that size. It remembers because phones used to be this small, back before everything turned into a slab that requires two hands and a cargo pocket. Brennan Jordan and Austin Boer are making this thing, and they're halfway to their $250,000 Kickstarter goal in one day. That tells you something. People are hungry for a phone they can actually hold. The specs sound genuinely thoughtful: a 3,500mAh user-replaceable battery, 8GB of RAM, a 50-megapixel Sony sensor on the rear. It runs stock Android or the minimalist OdysseyOS, your choice. I want to know who blinks first, the backers or the shipping date. Also, if you liked Lutra's new camera that sees through itself, you'll probably enjoy watching this one squirm through the crowdfunding gauntlet.
TypAir straps a keyboard to your wrist so you can type without talking
TypAir straps a keyboard to your wrist so you can type without talking. That's the whole pitch, and honestly it's the kind of quiet rebellion against the noise of smart glasses that makes me want to see how far it gets. MindRove's prototype uses gesture-based Bluetooth input, so you're not speaking messages aloud or fumbling for a second device. You just move your fingers and the words appear. It's early. It's weird. And it asks a great question: why should typing require a surface? The gesture recognition has to be razor-sharp to work in real life, but the ambition is exactly the kind of narrow, slippery detail Spoot loves.