14 DAY TRIAL // Crowd-soured projects seem to be doing better and better with every year that passes, making websites like Indiegogo and, in this case, Kickstarter gain more and more fame each week. But that's not what we're going to talk about here. Instead, we're going to look at one of the latest projects there.
Said project is for a very specific sort of dual-band Wi-Fi router, one that has a touchscreen on the side. And we don't mean just any touchscreen.
After all, this would not be the first time that a device, regardless of the sort, featured a small touch control panel.
No, the router, called Soap (that's also the company name), actually has an LCD touch panel almost as big as it is itself. It makes the whole item look a lot like a smartphone really, when beheld from a certain angle.
The 7-inch display is a capacitive touch panel that allows you to manage the network on the go, either straight from the router or from a phone (with iOS or Android).
The interfaces are the same in both cases, or close enough, and the router can send notifications of important network events.
Moreover, the router software can be used for various security-related functions, like managing connected devices, prevent the network from appearing in a network list (makes it difficult for hackers to find it), and set up parental controls.
It even has a spy feature that lets you stream the screen of a device connected through it to the touchscreen. An integrated ad-blocker is available as well.
As for the actual hardware, you'll be pleased to know that the Soap is a dual-band router, meaning it taps into both the 2.4 GHz and the 5 GHz wireless spectrums.
Also, it has a pair of USB 3.0 ports, Bluetooth 4.0, RFID, and four Gigabit LAN ports. Everything is run by a Freescale i.MX6 Quad Cortex A9 Quad-core processor.
There are some extras too, but they depend on which version of the Soap you want. Soap Essentials doesn't even have the touchscreen and can only be controlled through another display by using an HDMI port or through the App. Soap Touch, though, has everything.
To get the router, you'll need to pledge $200 / €145, or $100 / €73 for Soap Essentials. You might even be able to pre-order them for less if you hurry. Shipments will start in September if the funding goal is met. Which it will, since it was short of just a few hundred dollars of the minimum $80,000 / €58,000 at the time of this writing.
