Current Kickstarter-du-jour Instacube just announced new planned Facebook integration, which will allow it to stream photos from that social network as well as its newly-acquired subsidiary Instagram. The company decided to add Facebook as a stretch goal incentive, and will offer it up when it hits $500,000 in its campaign. Which likely won’t take long, given that it’s at nearly $440,000 as of this writing and still has two weeks to go in its funding campaign.
Instacube started with a relatively lofty goal for its Android-powered digital photo frame at $250,000, but hit that mark pretty quickly (it took less than a week). Since then, the project’s creators have set two stretch goals including the Facebook one announced today. The first were black and white versions, which were unlocked when the project hit $400,000. Then, earlier this week, Instacube announced a partnership with SmartThings, which will allow the cube to display notifications for things like visitors arriving or leaving the lights on. It’ll also be able to control home automation systems that SmartThings can operating, making it much more than just a pretty face.
Facebook integration is a logical addition, especially since despite Instagram’s success, it’s still far and away the more popular venue for sharing photos with likely over 200 billion shared at this point. For users, that means that the Instacube becomes a much more broadly useful tool, which is likely exactly why the company behind it is using it to see if it can’t stretch out its funding even further beyond the original goal.