Waste Energy Recycling Smartphone Case Kickstarts, Grabs $50,000 In Five Days

Last month HotHardware reported on how Ohio-based Nikola Labs wowed the crowd at the Disrupt conference — and the Internet — by presenting a smartphone case. Of course, it didn't trot out one of your typical keep-the-dings-off smartphone cases, though, but one that can capture the 90 percent of waste energy pumped out by a typical smartphone in the form of radio frequencies (RF), and convert that energy into DC power that can be channeled back into the encased device to provide it with a 30% energy boost. 

Science or science-fiction? Too good to be true? The punditry and would-be scientists served and volleyed the idea for a cycle or two, weighing the announcement against an impending Kickstarter campaign, before backing away to consider subsequent change-your-life-and-how-to-live-it announcements. 

What goes around comes around, and now the Nikola Labs smartphone case is back for another bite at the Apple...er, apple, with the launch last Thursday of its promised Kickstarter campaign and the news that just four days into the 42-day project the company has already attained over $50,000 in pledges against a $135,000 funding goal. In fact, would-be believers have already scarfed up all of the lowest-tier Early Bird $89 pledge slots, which promise delivery of one (1) Nikola Labs phone case sometime next February. 

Powered smartphone cases are hardly a new concept. The Nikola Labs case is different from those that came before not only in how it provides energy to your phone, but also in how it is able to do so while also maintaining your pocket or purse pal's all-important slim and sleek profile (this because there is no supplementary battery on-board). 

Of course, the Nikola Labs case provides easy access to the charging port and headphone jack, while protecting your digital wunderkind with a layer of protection borne of high-strength, lightweight polycarbonate material available in a variety of different colors. 

On a final note, since the initial coming out of the potentially revolutionary Nikola Labs smartphone case in early May, the company has expanded their initial run to include cases that will fit not only iPhone 6 devices but Samsung Galaxy S6 phones as well.