News Release – MARCH 25, 2015 Hamburg, Germany
Get ready, set, GO!
Crowdfunding begins for digital wall calendar
Your domestic bliss has been saved! A Hamburg-based start-up company has developed an innovative wall calendar with E-Paper display especially designed for families. The Calou synchronizes itself fully automatically with smart phones and then displays all of a family’s dates, appointments, and deadlines. The project has already been getting a good bit of attention before series production. As of this upcoming Friday, the devices can be ordered per Crowdfunding.
1.4 million EUR in 30 days
As of Friday, March 27th, the long awaited Crowdfunding campaign to finance the series production will begin. The innovators of the Calou are looking to collect approximately 1.4 million EUR in 30 days time. By Sunday, April 26th, Calou fans can ensure themselves a unit at a special price in advance. The fairly limited special-offer prices are between 99 and 329 EUR (including VAT, plus shipping and handling) and with that, are available for far below the planned sales price of approximately 450 EUR. The price advantage should be incentive enough to participate in the Crowdfunding. In addition to the standard Calou, individualists will also be offered the opportunity to have a special finish with the paintwork and an applied motif of their choice. The campaign is being conducted at “Indiegogo” (www.indiegogo.com), one of the two largest leading US American platforms whatsoever. If all goes as planned, the finished Calou units will be delivered by December this year.
Direct link to the campaign at www.indiegogo.com
Direct link to the campaign:
https://www.indiegogo.com/campaigns/calou-e-paper-wall-calendar
NOTE:
The link will first start working as of the first day of the campaign on Friday, March 27th at app. 8:00 pm and will be inactive until this time!
About Crowdfunding
We’ve come to see that, most especially in the USA, many innovative products have ended up being very successfully launched via Crowdfunding. Please note that a Crowdfunding is not a type of web shop or traditional retailing outlet: Crowdfunding is about gathering required investment capital via a large mass of supporters (“Contributors”). As a service provided in return for the support, rewards are often offered, so-called “perks”.
As part of the Calou campaign, the Calou itself at a one-time special price is being offered as a “perk” in thanks for the support. The Contributors will receive an invoice showing the exact value added tax and including the delivery time and the warranty.
The Procedure for the Calou Campaign
There is a fixed, determined runtime and a target amount that has to be reached. The Crowdfunding campaign is first considered a success if we reach the target amount within a runtime of 30 days. The target amount has been set to the minimal amount necessary for a payable series production.
The members of the Calou Team do not themselves initially receive any money. The Crowdfunding platform “Indiegogo” (www.indiegogo.com) collects all of the payments centrally. If enough supporters come together within 30 days and the target amount is achieved or exceeded, the campaign will be deemed a success. In this case, all the payments minus the “Indiegogo” and “PayPal” fees will be transferred to the Calou Team. First then can the series production begin.
If not enough supporters come together and the target goal is not reached within 30 days, the campaign will automatically be reversed by “Indiegogo”. All contributors will automatically get their full payments returned to them. Should this happen, then the Calou won’t be placed into series production.
The Calou
The Calou combines the advantages of a classic wall calendar made of paper with those of an electronic calendar, such as the advantages provided by Google or iCloud. It is the first ever product of its sort. At the current time, there is no other competitive product like it on the market.
E-Paper instead of paper
With a Calou, you no longer have to write down dates, appointments, and other scheduling items and events. The Calou automatically synchronizes with all digital calendars and smart phones per Wi-Fi. It displays the calendar contents centrally. Schedules can also be entered manually and directly on the device via the touch screen. Serving as a display is an energy-saving e-paper screen much like those that are commonplace with eBook readers. Thanks to either rechargeable or normal batteries, the Calou doesn’t have you tangling about with any messy cables.
Everything at a glance
Every smart phone calendar is represented by a column in the Calou. This leads to a clear presentation of the stored information, for example, “Mother | Father | Child 1 | Child 2″, as is often the case with normal paper calendars. The Calou’s encasement is round and made of wood. The front side of the device also serves as a magnet board and thus, it can be used as a bulletin board and calendar in one.
Apps from the store
The Android system well known from mobile phones serves as the device’s operational system. As such, the user has access to the Google Play Store and can also install all sorts of various apps on the Calou. The user can also program his or her own individual apps for the Calou. With that, the Calou is open for new technologies and developments such as cooking recipes or shopping list apps, news readers, a kitchen web-based radio (thanks to a built-in speaker system) and much more.
Versatility
The Calou is primarily being targeted for young couples, residential communities, and families with smart phones who want to maintain a common overview of appointments in their household. For them, the Calou offers a perfect alternative to paper calendars, because little work actually needs to be done by hand. The Calou is also very useful for companies, authorities, and other facilities, for example, in planning layouts for meeting rooms or keeping track of vacation periods.
About ourselves
The Calou is a product manufactured by TECHNIKmanufaktur Hamburg. The TECHNIKmanufaktur is a young start-up company from Hamburg that was founded by native ‘Bremian’ Hannes Dziggel at the beginning of 2014. His goal in this start-up was to make the Calou a reality. The Calou and its software were developed independently in Hamburg within a year without any financial support. .
Additional information, video, and picture material:
– Direct link to the campaign:
https://www.indiegogo.com/campaigns/calou-e-paper-wall-calendar
– Website: www.mycalou.com
– Video: http://youtu.be/ErdP59OLw4M
– Pictures: >> Download (7.34 MB, Format: jpg, ZIP-File)
http://www.mycalou.com/pressrelease/pr1501-1/pictures-pr1501-1.zip
– This Text as PDF: >> Download PDF (0.15 MB)
http://www.mycalou.com/pressrelease/pr1503-2/pressrelease1503-2-en.pdf
Contact:
Mr. Hannes Dziggel
press@mycalou.com
Telephone +49 (0)40 22 82 10 340
Fax +49 (0)40 22 82 10 349
