Kickstarter Spotlight: The Bloombox iPhone dock
The Bloombox is an iPhone/iPod (and sometimes Android) docking location that’s designed to take the Apple look and feel and translate it into a functional, natural, acoustic amplifier with space for a planter, or whatever else tickles your fancy.
The Bloombox works best on devices where the speakers face down into the unit, but can be used for anything that is capable of sitting above the box. It requires you use your charging/sync cable, which then goes through the center of the box.
The current kickstarter campaign aims at raising $5,000 to go toward the making of a new mold so that they can produce more than one Bloombox at a time, and so far they’ve raised over $3000 toward that goal with another month to go.
Why it’s neat
The Bloombox adds space to a charging routine and a place for your phone to be displayed and not just be hooked up and laying about on a desk. Basically, it’s a stylish cradle that displays your phone, plus storage for whatever you want to place under it.
It’s really useful if you want a small terrarium display like the one above.
What I’d like to see
Although the Bloombox does not come with a charging cable (it allows you a choice of multiple styles of cables that work for your phone), the lines of the device are ruined by a random dangling charge/sync cable. A small cutout, similar to the one they’re using on the top of the Bloombox, placed in the back right or left upper corners, would allow you to run the cable cleanly out of the Bloombox, or perhaps an indented trench along the top to hide the cable away.
Even a small bent paperclip could do the job of hiding the cable, if changing the mold is a pain.
Cognitive dissonance
While the Bloombox has space for a planter, and touts itself as having such, in my experience there are some things that do not go well together: phone and sun, phone and water, plant with no sun or water, planter with no drain holes steaming up onto the phone, and low-voltage USB cables and water.
Basically, the Bloombox probably shouldn’t hold things that bloom or require water, although the concept works well as a terrarium or small display.
I wonder at what point the contents will start disrupting the sound, though.
Summary
I dig the concept, and for what seems like a reasonable price to me you can fund the project and get a Bloombox if the project ends up being successful. It’s a neat idea and a decent execution. And it just looks sharp, even if I have my doubts about its botanical uses.
[Kickstarter]
