Bamboo Blackbox Case Project = 100% Funded


Today is an exciting day!

At 10:08am I got a call from Matt Wells telling me he wanted to fund our project exactly. At 10:11am he pledged $83 for an iPad 2 Case which put us exactly at $25,000! Thanks for the help señor Wells and for being so cool to exactly pledge what was needed to get these screen shots. You are the man… right up there with all 204 of our other backers who pledged for 247 cases throughout our first fund raising goal.

If your still interested in picking up a Bamboo Blackbox Case for your iPad 2, MacBook Air or Macbook Pro — you have 1 week remaining to pick up a discounted first offering case! And there is still 37 iPad 2 cases available for only $79. These cases will never be priced this low again so grab one for the holidays!

Rock on!
Greg Hydle

[Pledge on Kickstarter]
[BlackboxCase.com]

Blackbox Case – Update #2 – $10,000

Today at 9:22am (Golden Time) we officially crossed into the 5 digit pledge level and we were just over 5 days into or campaign! We feel that adding that extra digit between $9,999 and $10,000 is a huge milestone for us and we appreciate all your support.

We were so excited we had a $10,000 funding party today!

Don’t worry about those china / ikea cases… they are not the ones you are going to receive in the mail – hehe. But we do want to announce that our 13″ MacBook Pros and MacBook Airs are in development and are the first to receive CNC “Bessie” testing and treatment. We are NOT waiting for time to expire or until we hit our funding goal to start making this project a reality. Our goal is to ship your case as soon as possible once funding has been received and we are thankful to Bill (owner of Bessie) for allowing us to pre-program when he has some available free time (aka – before we can pay him:)

On another note – Congratulations to Charity who At 9:52am pledged for 13″ MacBook Air case… which ended up being unique case #K100 and she receives our first iPad 2 case giveaway! Charity – we have messaged you so please get back to us so we can get your iPad 2 case into your hands as quickly as possible.

We will be giving away another free iPad 2 Bamboo Blackbox Case at #K200… and will try our best to keep you posted so you can share with your friends and family as to when that will be. Either way – there are still some great deals available so we really do appreciate you sharing and getting behind our goal of creating the best looking and most useful laptop case in the world. Your support has been nothing short of amazing!

Rock on!
Greg Hydle

[Kickstarter Project Page]

Bamboo Blackbox Case Launch

We finally launched a project I have been working on early this morning. I have to say that it is scary to put yourself out there like this when you simply just don’t know what can happen. I’m feeling confident that we can get some attention and reach our goal though. These cases are just too well made and gorgeous to not be seen and there are some super good deals for those early adopters.

“Thank you for your support and helping us take Blackbox Case to the next level. As you can see in our pledging limits to the right we have tried to accommodate for nearly anyone who would like to be a part of making this product a success. We have included some fun enhancements for those of you who are looking for that extra effort in truly building a product together and we have provided some excellent deals for you early adopters. Don’t take our light hearted approach of making something unique and home grown the wrong way — We are firm believers in following your passions and making the most of any opportunity that is granted to you. Life is simply too short to not make something amazing.”

Save $20 on an iPad 2 Bamboo Case for the first 100 pledgers… Cheers to the future!

Golden – Blackbox Case Announces New Bamboo MacBook Pro Line of Cases




Although they are currently not available on the http://www.blackboxcase.com store – The new line of Bamboo Apple MacBook Pro sleeve cases have been announced.

Just like their counterpart Oak models – the Bamboo Blackbox Case will fit a 13″, 15″ or 17″ MacBook Pro and will come in two different flavors… Natural Bamboo and Carbonized Brown Bamboo.

If you have an iPad 2… you can already purchase your Bamboo iPad 2 Case.

Happy Happy Joy Joy

2009 Media Elements

In 2009 I averaged just over 69 captured media elements a day which is directly on par with the last three years.

I shot 9,582 videos and 14,304 photos on the canon. 1,421 came from the iPhone which is no longer a daily pocket device for me.

HYDLE – Super Bowl Ad Wrap-up

Song – Dream Police – Cheap Trick

I tracked 100 advertisements throughout Super Bowl XLIV and the winner for most creative and overall best executed upon first review is Audi… and this is partly why – Take the challenge. Nice work Paul Venables from Venebles Bell & Partners in San Francisco.

Two other ads that blatantly got me were the Denny’s chickens. The first of 3 Denny’s commercials aired in the 3rd quarter and I perceived it as old, already been done… and not very impressive.

But surprisingly they had two more coming in the 4th quarter from Goodby Silverstein & Partners.

Inspirational

Coca Cola came through with their regular two weirdly inspirational spots by Wieden + Kennedy, Portland. Google made some internet waves and told a story through search. FloTV spent some coin and their Generation advertisement was inspiring to kick off the half time show.

Let Downs

E*Trade babies were back, but not with original voices. Maybe they are growing up. It is very hard to top what they have already accomplished with their babies. So why keep trying.

Doritos should probably quit allowing consumers to make their ads for them.

Go Daddy has nearly almost run its course. Their second ad slightly saved the first… but nothing like they used to be… simply because (lesson to everyone listed above) da da da… it has already been done before.

Checks

Additional commercials that got checks in my book. As in – I would like to check them out again are:

Miller High Life Little Guys link Station Film
McDonalds Play You For It link Translation
Snickers Old Lady link BBDO, New York
Monster Beaver link BBDO, New York
Cars.com Timothy Richmond link
CBS David Letterman SB Party link
Dodge Man’s Last Stand link Wieden + Kennedy, Portland
Intel Lunchroom link Venables Bell & Partners, San Francisco
Intel Timeline link Venables Bell & Partners, San Francisco
VW Slug Bug link
HomeAway.com Griswold’s link
CareerBuilder.com Job Fairy link MJZ
2010 Census Census link DraftFCB, New York
NFL Networks Best Fans on the Planet link Grey, New York
TruTV Groundhog Day link Grey, New York

The Surprise

Of all brands and commercials that I would never consider as being something I could support… the big surprise this year was this Kia – Sorento ad from David & Goliath, Los Angeles.

Beer

Of the 8 Budweiser and Bud Light related ads that ran… 3 interested me. Asteroid, T-Pain and Lost. All of which were puns off their new “It’s the shear sign of a good time” jingle.

Brosive Hydle Creates

My creative brother is at it again… this time making what he calls a Green friendly “Media Credenza” from sustainable materials.

“I designed, built and hand painted….yes, hand painted to look like real wood but its not real wood at all…. its made from formaldehyde free MDF…. look it up, its a green material. Im pretty sure that Im the only one in the world that has made a piece like this one…. Its already received quite a bit of attention…… not the greatest pics but anyways, hope you like!!”

I do like… and after seeing it in person I can definitely confirm that it amazingly does look like real wood. Luckily he is taking orders, because I want one for my own house.

Hydle Media Credenza
MediaCredenza_Wood

New iPhone 3G S (the ski racer)

iPhone 3G S now has video capability, faster processing power and longer battery life. It is hard to determine what differences are actually hardware driven and which ones Apple is software marketing into the phone… but this chart should help.

On a green note – the new packaging is 23% smaller then the already minimal packaging. Go Apple.

engadget_iphone3Gvs3GS

Thanks to the Engadget crew for creating this short bus chart

iPhone 3G – available now

8GB black only – $99

iPhone 3G S – available June 19th

16GB black or white – $199
32GB black or white – $299

iPhone 3.0 software – available June 17th

iPod Touch will have to pay for this update

Worlds Greenest Notebooks

wwdc-2009-keynote-1244-rm-engjpg

New kids are in town. Which means my current 17″ Unibody MacBook Pro 2.66GHz / 4GB / 320GB is for sale.

Apple claims these are the greenest notebooks available with their revolutionary new built-in battery that can recharge up to 1000 times. That equates to 3x less battery waste over the course of a traditional 5 year standard computer user life cycle and although that really just sounds like a lot of variables to me… they will take less green backs out of your pocket to get one.

13″ MacBook Pro

2.26 GHz / 2GB / 160GB / 9400M + SD Card Slot = $1199
2.53 GHz / 4GB / 250GB / 9400M + SD Card Slot = $1499

15″ MacBook Pro

2.53 GHz / 4GB / 250GB / 9400M + SD Card Slot = $1699
2.66 GHz / 4GB / 320GB / 9400M + 9600M GT + SD Card Slot = $1999
2.80 GHz / 4GB / 500GB / 9400M + 9600M GT + SD Card Slot = $2299

17″ MacBook Pro

2.80 GHz / 4GB / 500GB / 9400M + 9600M GT + ExpressCard Slot = $2499

MacBook “who cares” Air

1.86 GHz / 2GB / 120GB / 9400M + NothingElse = $1499
2.13 GHz / 2GB / 128GB SSD / 9400M + ExtremeNothingElse = $1799

Green Steps = Small Steps

This video is not interesting enough to embed… and neither is this feel good story about Marcal – the oldest recycled paper maker in the country – but it brings up good points about green-washing.

It’s the whole idea that people are not going to make dramatic steps in anything they do. Even if you want to go green, it’s small steps.