Brief news items of note for Lifehacker readers including: get a Wii U premium bundle from Dick Smith for $349, salmon cooking tips, compelling reasons why Kickstarter is broken.
[credit provider=”Studio Ghibli” url=”/http://www.studioghibli.net/”]
- Dick Smith is currently selling Nintendo’s Wii U 32GB Black Premium bundle — which includes the games Zombie U and Nintendo Land — for $349. That’s a saving of around $150. [Via OzBargain]
- Salmon is a highly versatile dish that’s filled with plenty of essential oils and vitamins. Here are three healthy ways to cook the fish from the girls over at PopSugar Health & Fitness.
- Gizmodo has published an interesting opinion piece detailing the many pitfalls of crowd-sourced funding site Kickstarter. Before you throw down your cold, hard cash to fund some hopeful entrepreneur’s gadget, click here.
- If you’re a fan of animated movies, the name Hayao Miyazaki will need no introduction. Sadly, the critically-acclaimed director of My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away and countless other anime gems has announced his retirement from the industry. Read the story here.
Comments
One response to “Briefly: Get A Cheap Wii U Bundle, Miyazaki Retires, Is Kickstarter A Rip-Off?”
I’ve backed 13 KS projects and the biggest lesson I learnt was that most “backers” treat it like a purchase from K-Mart and expect the same delivery/service model.
Also that you take whatever lead-time the developers are saying and (x 4) at least to get some idea of when the project may be fulfilled – if ever. I’ve had a 2/3 strike rate in terms of projects delivered. Three of those took OVER a year, compared to the 2-3 months on the original pitch. One I’m still waiting for from Feb 2012. Still get updates. He’s still working on it. And I’m sure it’s cost the guy many many times what was pledged. At least he’s still going. Many others simply vanished when it all got too hard.
I’m philosophical about the whole thing. I see it as an “investment” and my return is whatever the project was about. I’ve had TWO that I’ve been really happy with, out of 13 projects and around $800 spent. One was a Floating Mug that took 10 months longer to fulfil than original pitch said it would. The other was Zooka bluetooth bar speaker for portable devices. Both are now fully fledged retail products (the speakers are in Apple stores). All the rest were either garbage or never materialised.
Personally I’m done with KS. I went in wide eyed and gave my support and $$$ to a number of “ideas” men. Happy to support development of good ideas, but I think the KS model needs a reboot. Have not tried any of the other players out there.