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Cipher Credit Card Stylus Looking for Launch Support on Quirky

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The Cipher is a credit card shaped stylus for your touch screen device like the iPad or iPhone or Android tablet or smartphone. Quirky wants users to let them know if this product deserves to show up in their store and how much you’d spend. Its part of their new Quirky Evaluation beta program.

Quirky offers products designed by people who send them to Quirky. The new Quirky Evaluation beta lets the site’s customers choose which products should end up in the store. It fits in the Kickstarter realm as a company that gives users the ability to invent and potentially bring their products to market.

You don’t invest in a product the same way you do with Kickstarter, but you can tell them whether you’d buy and how much.

Users evaluate products by answering four questions. They want to know what price is too expensive, expensive but worth it, too cheap and seems like poor quality, and finally a good value or bargain.

Quirky Evaluation Options

After you answer the questions, they show you what others answered and tell you what is the current projected price.

The PowerCurl, which helped MacBook users keep their MagSafe power adapter wires under control, was a Quirky product that I reviewed it over at Notebooks.com last year.

Quirky would like your opinion on the Cipher, a project TUAW recently reported. It fits in your wallet just like a credit card, but adds a thick capacitive material on one of the longer sides of the card. You hold it like a pen and use the corner to tap on the screen.

the cipher from quirky

The Cipher potentially solves one frustration with using a stylus. Carrying it around! Unless your touch-screen device includes a silo to hold the stylus, like Samsung might add to the next version of their Samsung Galaxy Tab, you have to get a special case with a stylus holder. You could keep it in your bag, purse or pocket, or carry along with the tablet or smartphone. I know I’ve lost a few nice styli thanks to this problem.

You will get two Cipher cards in a pack and they fit with all your other plastic. One side will let you add your contact information for branding as a giveaway to customers, clients or employees.

the cipher can be branded

I like the ingenuity of the Cipher, but I’m not sure I’d actually buy it. When you want to quickly ink on your screen, getting a card out of your wallet seems just as cumbersome as pulling a stylus out of your pocket. The stylus fits the way we normally write.

I’m not sold on the idea until I get my hands on one to test it. Would you order one at the current projected price of $4?

Quirky offers a bunch of interesting products for your evaluation. Here’s a couple other Quirky Evaluation Beta products I like:

  • Siphon – a USB headphone/stereo output splitter that looks really nice and lets you switch between two or three headphones, speakers or stereo outputs on your computer
  • Pod Power – an extension cord with 5 outlets that also includes retractable power cables and adhesives to install permanently anywhere you need it and Quirky already announced they’re making this one
  • Ray – a solar charger for USB powered devices with a suction cup so you can stick it to your car window or airplane window if you’re lucky enough to sit in the windows seat on the plane.

Are you interested in using Quirky?

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