Trying to crowd fund a devoted MP3 participant in 2013 is a dangerous proposition. We’re lengthy faraway from the times when conventional iPods might be seen on each road. Moderately, we’re firmly in an period the place smartphones have supplanted PMPs for a overwhelming majority of individuals. However having mentioned all that, you have by no means seen something fairly just like the Kickstarter undertaking launched by London-based startup Cybotanics right this moment. We’ve not both. Meet iBean and iTagua, described as “the world’s very first digital audio music gamers designed utilizing complete pure botanical casings, gathered sustainably from the amazon rainforest.”
This is not your typical MP3 participant
Extra succinctly, they’re tiny MP3 gamers (assume a spherical iPod shuffle) encased in both a bean or Tagua palm nut. They usually do not simply play again MP3s. If the entire idea wasn’t weird sufficient already, these units have been designed for lossless audio. They do not help FLAC — the popular format of many audiophiles. As an alternative, Cash’s Audio (.ape file extension) is the native format of iBean and iTagua. They’re going to play common MP3s too, after all.
By way of how each merchandise are crafted, consider it as a worldwide effort. Every botanical casing is sourced from Colombia. (Cybotanics says their vines develop “in nice abundance” and that the undertaking poses no hurt to the surroundings.) From there, it is about repurposing and refinement. Take the iBean for instance:
Every bean is fastidiously hand-selected for its symmetry and pure magnificence and is polished to a excessive shine utilizing a particular stone sprucing tumbler earlier than the within kernel is fastidiously eliminated and swapped with the digital media participant circuit board and battery which is then securely housed inside. The iBean’s uncommon polycarbonate-like shell makes a pure and extremely sturdy casing as a substitute for plastic or steel.
The iTagua is alleged to be simply as distinctive, although the housing materials clearly differs considerably. Like iBean, Cybotanics is assured the ivory-like properties of its Tagua nuts make them a viable substitute for plastic. There’s additionally extra room for personalization with iTagua; backers can select from a wide range of dyed shade mixtures. Meeting happens in Bogota, with every participant afforded 2GB of flash storage. That is clearly not sufficient to retailer quite a lot of hours price of lossless audio (if that).
2GB of storage for a lossless audio participant would not fairly add up
However once more, these units are basically an eco-friendly tackle the iPod shuffle. We’re not satisfied {that a} professional goal market even exists right here; put evenly, audiophiles aren’t prone to be shopping for this stuff en masse. The novelty issue cannot be denied nonetheless, as evidenced by the under video.
However is novelty sufficient to spur £30,000 (roughly $45,500) in funding? That is what it’s going to take to place iBean and iTagua into manufacturing, even after the $60,000 in personal fairness that is apparently gone towards the undertaking already. We cannot argue the one-of-a-kind nature of what is on supply right here, and both would make for a cute vacation present. (They will not attain backers till December.) However sadly, it is simply as exhausting to shake the sensation that that is an concept that’s discovered its strategy to the world ten or so years too late.
Replace: In a FAQ on the undertaking’s Kickstarter web page, Cybotanics has clarified that each iBean and iTagua do in reality help the FLAC lossless format, in addition to OGG Vorbis.
