Crowdfunding Roundup: Glowing cubes, feeling skins, and pluggy locks

Every week, TUAW provides readers with an update on what new or significant crowdfunded Apple-related projects are in the news. While our policy is to not go into detail on items that haven't reached at least 80 percent of their funding goal, this update is designed to give readers a heads-up on projects they might find interesting enough to back.

From Kickstarter

• Remember the ORB? It was one of the first "connected devices" back in the early 2000s, and it would light up in a variety of colors to let you know what was up. Now Golden, CO-based Advanced Lumonics Lab is working on ORBneXt, a tiny glowing cube that basically does the same thing. It's Wi-Fi connected and actually compatible with the old Ambient ORB -- that is, you can swap the brains of your ORB for an ORBneXt to bring it up to date.You can control it with an iPhone app, or have it respond to incoming calls or notifications by glowing specific colors. ORBneXt is well on the way to being funded with a little over $8,000 pledged towards a $12,000 goal with 23 days to go.

• With just a little over a week left in the campaign, Michael Grothaus' SITU Smart Food Nutrition Scale is 90 percent funded. Anyone who is dedicated to knowing more about what goes into their mouth and who is serious about losing weight needs to back this project, which is a connected smart scale that works with an app to tell you exactly the nutritional content of whatever you're weighing. This is a project that needs to happen!

• The Feeling Skin is an iPhone case with a big difference -- like the ORBneXt, it has glowing, pulsating lights in the back that work with an iPhone app to let you know how your circle of friends are doing. It's also a battery case that knows when to start charging your iPhone so you don't have to flip a switch. And, with a curved contour that fits into the palm of your hand, it may also be one of the more comfortable iPhone cases to hold. Feeling Skin is 31 percent funded with over a month to go.

• We know that a lot of people want to have their iPhones close at hand all the time -- but not in their hands. The Pluggy Lock is a tiny device that adds a lanyard ring to your iPhone by fitting into the headphone jack and expanding to lock in place. It's a smart idea, and you can help make this product a reality for as little as $19. The project is about 26 percent funded with 46 days to go. Many thanks to eagle-eyed TUAW reader Hal Sherman for providing links to three projects this week!

• Remember the OCHO Pad, the NFC smart key tray that can tell you via an app when someone has arrived home or departed? It has just under two days to go and is sooooo close to funding that it's ridiculous -- you can help push it over the top with your pledge.

• Impervious wants to make it easy for you to waterproof your iPhone with a simple to apply spray. Rather than sending your phone in to have a "superhydrophobic" material applied to it, you'll just apply the spray using easy to follow instructions and your iPhone will be totally waterproof. The project currently has about 34 percent funding with 28 days to go. You can back the project for as little as $29.

• Tired of calendar apps that all look like ... calendars? Skywhale wants to change that all with an app named Eeto that displays a timeline. Events are milestones that appear on a "colorful, infinite timeline." One milestone that is in the future for Eeto is running out of time to get pledges -- the app currently has about 2 percent funding with 36 days to go. The app will be free even if you don't pledge, which is probably why they're having issues raising money.

• Here's a project that has reached funding, probably because it is a product that resolves the common problem of cord fraying on Apple MacBook power bricks. Python Cords protects the thin cable of your AC adapter by wrapping it in an easily installed sleeve. 123 percent funded with 25 days left in the campaign, and you can get a white Python Cord by pledging $13 or more.

And that's it for this week. If you're aware of any other crowdfunded Apple-related projects, be sure to let us know about them through the Tip Us button at the upper right of the TUAW home page for future listing on the site. Just make sure that they actually have a valid reason for existing, OK?