Welcome to Gadgective: Words About Tech Products
Part media lab, part soapbox, and part potluck, Gadgective is inspired by early gadget blogs. It’s a home for stories and takes we wouldn’t otherwise get to share. As such, you may find the coverage here… eclectic and created with disregard for SEO.
Gadgective was co-founded in 2025 by longtime tech industry analyst and commentator Ross Rubin
Ross Rubin is the founder and principal analyst at Reticle Research, a technology research and advisory firm. Ross has been an industry analyst focusing on innovation in products, services, and enabling infrastructure in the tech, media and telecom markets for more than 30 years, writing columns for Engadget, ZDNet, and Fast Company, among other publications. You can contact him on LinkediIn and BlueSky.
A Note About Crowdfunding
Gadgective often covers products that are being launched on crowdfunding sites such as Kickstarter and Indiegogo. These sites typically help small and often inexperienced creator teams to get products into the hands of backers as rewards for pledges, often at a discount from the eventual retail price. Many excellent and pioneering products have been launched using these services, including ones that evolved into the Meta Quest and Ring doorbell line. As both websites make clear, however, pledging to support a project does not guarantee that you will receive it as a reward.
Crowdfunding entails risk. Sometimes, campaigns are frauds. More often, however, projects fail to deliver their rewards (or deliver rewards that don’t meet expectations) for many legitimate reasons, even when well-intentioned creators take extraordinary steps to avoid this. Creating devices for mass production can be extremely challenging. Projects often exhaust their funding, and it may be difficult or impossible to recoup funds after a crowdfunding campaign ends.
Gadgective’s coverage of a prerelease product doesn’t constitute endorsement of that product or its creators. We conduct no research into creators’ ability to deliver rewards and recommend caution when backing a product still in development. While researching the project and the creators’ reputation and track record can reduce the risk of losing pledge money, we recommend pledging only as much as you can afford to lose. Caveat emptor.