Kickstarter spotlight: Flote
The Flote is an idea for a tablet stand that holds your tablet/ereader for you without needing any sort of furniture in between – in other words it stands on the floor and has an arm to hold the device. This is by no means a new concept, rather far from it in fact, with the smaller Hanfree Kickstarter project immediately leaping to mind and many others that I can think of that I don’t know the names of. The Flote does seem a bit more versatile than many of these though, with a longer adjustable arm and universal support for devices rather than a per-device (read: iPad) basis.
The Flote works a lot like a microphone stand, with an extendable boom that holds the device. This means that it should reach places that other stands can’t while still standing on the floor. The downside is the cost. The cheapest you can get one is $245, and there’s not even any mention of international availability. The thing is huge and they state that $245 includes $45 for shipping, which I assume to mean in the US, so likely this won’t even be available outside the US or if it is, it will cost a fortune to ship it. $200 base cost for the Flote itself is four times what the Hanfree costs and more than a Kindle Fire costs even, so definitely not the cheapest accessory out there. With a $30,000 funding goal and 57 days left to reach that goal they still need a decent amount of people to preorder the thing in order to reach the goal.
PS: The introduction video they made is very funny and worth watching regardless or whether you want the product.
[Kickstarter]
