Crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo are awash in multipurpose mobile gizmos, most of them variations on the Swiss Army Knife theme, and most of them resembling an extra-thick credit card.
The WonderCube embraces that same theme, but in cube form. It’s seven, seven, seven handy mobile accessories in one, and I mean that literally: one cubic inch.
What could such a diminutive device possibly offer? For starters, it can unfurl a USB connector from one side and a Micro-USB or Lightning cable from the other. This twosome serves two functions: syncing and charging your mobile devices.
That USB connector also hides a microSD slot, so now you’ve got a memory-card reader as well. You can use it with an Android phone or tablet, as the Micro-USB end supports USB OTG, or you can just plug the cube into a laptop for traditional card-reading.
There’s no backup battery inside the WonderCube — not for your smartphone, anyway — but if you flip up a panel on one side, you can connect a 9-volt battery for emergency phone power. (One 9-volt is good for about 3.5 hours of extra talk time, according to the developer.) That’s pretty cool.
Another side features micro-suction cups that can adhere to the back of your phone, thus turning the WonderCube into a kickstand of sorts that allows for both portrait and landscaping viewing.
Finally, there’s a built-in LED flashlight, always a handy thing to have on your keychain — and that’s where the cube is intended to travel.
A newly launched Indiegogo campaign is seeking $50,000 in funding; as of press time it had raised about $10,000. Early-bird backers can get a WonderCube for $45, with shipping scheduled for August. The product is expected to retail for $69.
Your thoughts? Is this something you’d like to see dangling from your keychain?