Skip to main content

Time flies, or at least floats, with Flyte's levitating story clock

Flyte, the startup company that already created a floating light bulb and a floating planter, recently launched another project on Kickstarter. Its new campaign is for the Story Timepiece, a levitating clock that uses magnets to guide a chrome ball around a wooden base.

What’s so special about the Story clock? Well, aside from the fact that it levitates horizontally, vertically, or at a 60-degree angle — which means you can lean it against a stand, hang it on your wall, or display it flat on a table — it also has other cool features.

The clock has three modes: journey mode, clock mode, and timer mode. In journey mode, you can set the clock to a certain date, like a birthday or anniversary, and the Story clock will hit the 12-o’clock position when that dates arrives. Basically, it serves as a count down until your special event. In clock mode, the chrome sphere will float around each hour of the day; and, in timer mode, you can set the levitating clock for an hour, for instance, and it will make one full revolution during that hour time frame.

In addition to its modes, the clock also has an LED display that shows digital time in the center of the clock. The Story clock’s backlight allows you to take advantage of its extended features. If you connect it to the mobile app, the clock will illuminate real time meteorological data. The backlight can mimic things like the moon’s phases, a sunrise and sunset, and temperature.

The floating clock is gaining a great deal of crowdfunding support. The campaign already raised nearly $250,000 from more than 550 backers, which is more than three times its $80,000 all-or-nothing goal amount. With 42 days left until its April 1 campaign deadline, the project is seeing huge success.

The clock costs a small fortune, when you compare it to other plain wall clocks. You’ll pay between $399 and $499, depending on how early you pledge and the color you choose.

As with all crowdfunding projects, before you pledge your hard earned money, it’s wise to use caution and conduct research. Backing a project on a crowdfunding site is not the same as buying an item at a store, even if it’s from a company like Flyte, that has a history of making other cool products.

Erika Rawes
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Erika became a professional writer in 2010, and her work is published all over the web on sites ranging from USA Today to…
Early Black Friday chest freezer deals: up to 40% off today
The Insignia 7-cubic feet chest freezer placed in a garage.

Update 10/29/24: This starts our Black Friday coverage of chest freezers, and we like what we see so far. The following deals are from a variety of good brands, show a wide range of prices, and most importantly come in various sizes, so you can pick what is right for your home.

While Black Friday officially starts on November 29, retailers are getting started early this year. That means great early Black Friday deals, including on things like chest freezers. Here, we search high and low for the best deals on chest freezers to hit the market. That means we're looking at sources like Walmart's, Amazon's, and Best Buy's early Black Friday deals among others to get you the best deals possible. Whether you're wanting to store ice cream, meat, or a party's worth of frozen pizza, these are the best chest freezers for you.
Hisense 5 cu. ft. Garage Ready Chest Freezer — $165 $189 13% off

Read more
Best cordless drill early Black Friday deals: DeWalt and more
A DeWalt drill being used.

Update 10/28/24: This marks the beginning of our drill coverage for 2024's Black Friday shopping season, and all of the major brands have at least one great deal. While we're excited for what is to come, this is a fantastic start and there's really no reason to not go ahead and get prepped by buying something now.
If you're buying anything this Black Friday, there's a big chance you might want a drill/driver to go with it. A drill/driver is one part drill, one part (screw)driver and it can help out in many situations. For example, say you take part in one of these early Black Friday TV deals, you very well might want to wall mount it. Then, say you grab up an easy coffee maker from Keurig's early Black Friday deals. An extra side table in your study would sure go nice with that and a drill/driver could very well make the table's construction much easier.
Really, with so so many of your early Black Friday purchases, there might be a chance to pick up a cordless drill or driver and get to work. As such, we've compiled a list of the best cordless drill deals throughout Black Friday deals that are available now, so you can get a head start on prepping for the savings that are to come.

Skil Pwr Core 12 Drill/Driver — $50 $59 15% off

Read more
Best Roomba deals: Top robot vacuums from as little as $170
iRobot Roomba 692 Robot Vacuum.

If you come home and don't really look forward to doing the day-to-day dusting and vacuuming that's required to keep everything clean, then robot vacuums are a great solution. Probably one of the best-known brands is Roomba, and if you're looking to pick up a new one, then Roomba has a lot of great options you can pick from.. Whether you're looking for a budget-friendly option or something a little bit more high-end that comes with a self-emptying station, we've gone out and collected some of our favorite Roomba deals below.

That said, if you don't necessarily want a Roomba, you can check out these general robot vacuum deals, and for the more substantial messes, there are always these vacuum deals and cordless vacuum deals too.
iRobot Roomba i1 -- $170 $220 22% off

Read more