Kickstarter

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Hello friends! Thanks for visiting our Kickstarter page for the Cosmonaut, a minimal, wide-grip capacitive stylus for touch screen devices.

The Cosmonaut was born out of our desire to have a really great stylus for our iPads. We love to sketch out quick ideas or doodle on our tablets, and using a stylus is much better than a finger for such tasks. We bought several different models currently available on the market but they all suffered the same problem: they were designed to look and feel like a pen. But why? Writing or drawing on the iPad feels nothing like using a pen or pencil. For one, tablets are ideal for low fidelity sketching. Also, it is pretty awkward to rest your palm on the screen of the device because it throws off the capacitive detection. Writing on a tablet feels like writing on a dry erase board: fast, simple, low fidelity. The perfect tablet stylus is one that feels like a dry erase marker.

Dan created a blog post about this very idea right after our first Kickstarter campaign ended, and quite a few people seemed to be keen on it, so we decided to start designing a solution. After immersing ourselves in research, prototyping, and design iteration, we’ve arrived at something that we think is pretty great. It’s comfortable to hold and effortlessly glides over the glass surface of the tablet. It just feels right.

In returning to Kickstarter for our second project, we wanted to try something different. You may notice that there is only one pricing tier to the right, for $1. That is not a mistake. Inspired by Radiohead, we wanted to try out a pay-as-you-wish pricing model. Pledge whatever value you feel the Cosmonaut is worth to you. A few things to keep in mind:

• There are only 3000 pledging slots available. So, if everyone only pledges $1, the funding goal of $50,000 will obviously not be met.
• The funding goal of $50,000 was arrived at after getting quotes from our manufacturer (in the USA).
• If we meet our funding goal (which would be awesome!) it means we will be able to sell the Cosmonaut in our online store later on. We are thinking it will retail for $25. Perhaps this price can be used as a guide for your own contribution.
• Get them while they’re hot! Once the 3000 slots run out, you won’t be able to get a Cosmonaut until they become available in our online store. Consider it a limited edition run to test the feasibility of a full scale run.
• Based on the timetable our manufacturer gave us, we should begin shipping the Cosmonauts in June.
• There are two prototypes featured in the video above: a "look and feel" prototype and a functional prototype. We are continuing to refine / improve the design (including the tip) but the final design will have that same form and spirit of the prototypes.
• The Cosmonaut is compatible with any capacitive touch screen device. Eg. iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, Samsung Galaxy Tab, Motorola Xoom, etc.

This is the first we are aware of a pay-as-you-wish pricing model for a physical, tangible product. We are interested to see how it turns out!

Once again, we can’t thank you all enough for your continued support. You are allowing us to continue to do what we love. As always, the Cosmonaut is the labor of love of two individuals, Tom Gerhardt and Dan Provost. We are the two dudes who brought you the Glif just 4 months ago, and are looking forward to another project!