You can find hundreds, maybe even thousands of great projects on Kickstarter. There are also seemingly useless gadgets too. Surprisingly, the latter usually get funded quite quickly. This is the case with Nope, the webcam cover. Last year, the Nope 2.0 gadget managed to raise 4258% of its goal on Kickstarter. Now, Ananda Svarupa Das launched a new crowdfunding project and already raised almost double of its initial goal. There still are 34 days to go until the campaign ends, so we might see it raise a lot more by then. This time around, it has something new to offer too: the Nope Sound Blocker.
The Nope Sound Blocker and webcam cover were created with the user’s privacy in mind. The gadgets protect users from hacker attacks by blocking their mobile devices’ webcam and microphone whenever they don’t use them. We must admit that nowadays it’s extremely easy to hack into one’s smartphone and access their camera or microphone without them knowing. This way, a decent hacker can listen to your conversations and watch you even when you don’t use your smartphone. The natural solution is to cover the camera and the microphone of your device with something. Even though a piece of tape could do it for your camera at least, the Nope is a more elegant solution to the problem. It is basically a piece of aluminum combined with a polymer sheet that has a small sliding device. This way, you can cover and uncover your webcam easily.
The sound blocker is a little more complex. The Nope Sound Blocker features a micro electronic circuitry that turns off the device’s on board microphones and blocks out sound. The developing company even offers a Nope Sound Blocker keychain holder that can hold two sound blockers. While I don’t argue with the fact that these gadgets do look a lot more stylish than a piece of tape stuck to a webcam, their utility is rather questionable. They aren’t exactly cheap either. Those who would like to get a Sound Blocker need to fund the campaign with at least $15. For $20, you can get two Sound Blockers and the afferent keychain holder. If you would like to have three webcam covers too, you will need to pledge $25 for the cause. The final products will start shipping in October. You can use both gadgets with smartphones, tablets, desktops, and laptops.
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