I had great hopes for Skully when I first heard about it in 2013. The company had been working on an augmented reality motorcycle helmet that put GPS, rear mirror view and speed readouts into a transparent display on the visor.

Sadly, the product isn’t likely to hit the streets. TechCrunch reports that the company has shut down operations, following the departure of CEO and co-founder Marcus Weller last week.

Skully has raised more than $14 million from investors and crowdfunding campaign backers. It reportedly informed fans by that it would deliver all 3,000+ helmets to customers through this summer, but that’s not going to happen.

So not only will backers and pre-order customers not receive their orders, but at least 50 employees will be let go.

TechCrunch noted that the shutdown is likely due to a rift between Weller and Skully’s board, a deal with Chinese firm LeSports that went south, and issues with manufacturing.

It isn’t clear if there’s any scope for reviving the company or the product, which seems like a natural evolution of the traditional motorcycle helmet that every rider can get behind.

Update: Skully shared the following statement with TNW on July 28:

Huawei just asked Leica to help make better smartphone cameras

Buyers, beware: a Huawei device with a Leica camera might be in the works.

Chinese telecom Huawei just announced an ambitious partnership with iconic German camera manufacturer Leica in an effort to offer “uncompromising quality” in smartphone photography.

According to the press release , Huawei and Leica will join forces, “in a long-term commitment to the art of craftsmanship, meticulous engineering and the spirit of winning collaboration” that will see the two companies “create a powerhouse in the reinvention of smartphone photography.”

It is not yet clear what form the alliance will take, but more details will follow “as the partnership continues.”

Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei, says the collaboration will focus on “combining innovation and design, enhancing user experience and continuing to inspire amazing advancement in human technology through exceptional premium imaging quality.”

“The technology partnership with Huawei offers Leica Camera an excellent opportunity to introduce its proven optical expertise into a new product segment and to unlock exciting business areas in the field of mobile devices,” CEO of Leica, Oliver Kaltner, continues.

Given Huawei’s growing popularity and Leica’s legendary status as a luxury brand, this partnership presents an excellent opportunity for both companies to strengthen brand awareness and benefit from each other’s areas of expertise.

➤ Huawei and Leica strike phone camera partnership [The Verge]

Tovala smart oven is Blue Apron for people who don’t actually want to cook

It’s not that I don’t know how to cook or that I don’t want to cook – I just don’t have the counterspace to do so in my tiny New York apartment.

At least, that’s what I tell my mom about my constant take-out habits.

Y-Combinator backed Tovala aims to fix this issue for many young professionals and busy parents by taking the Blue Apron model of DIY dinner kits and creating an appliance for you to actually cook your meals in.

The business is split into three parts: First, the hardware is a smart oven that can read barcodes from premade Tovala meals so it knows how to cook each meal (steam, broil, bake, convection), at what temperature, and for how long.

Second, the app lets users control the cook time and get notified when their meals are ready. They can also customize cooking presets for when they’re not heating up Tovala-approved meals. Lastly, the food delivery subscription lets users choose from weekly menu rotations of meals created by a team of professional chefs.

In my demo, we cooked a spinach, cheese and mushroom-stuffed chicken breast with a side of asparagus topped with a lemon pesto sauce. The protein and vegetable come in two separate tinfoil containers, and they pop into the Tovala oven together as they are designed to cook at the same temperature for the same amount of time, making dinner ready in 15 minutes.

Tovala meals are purposely designed to take between 15 to 30 minutes to completely cook, and will offer meals that cater to various dietary needs (kosher, paleo, vegetarian, etc.) Tovala co-founder David Rabie says the company has already raised $500,000 in funding, but it now looks to Kickstarter to make an additional push and secure the first set of buyers before shipping in Q4 of this year.

At launch, Rabie says it will have two facilities creating and shipping the meals out across the United States to get fresh ingredients out to customers without freezing or adding preservatives.

Over time, Tovala hopes to grow a community where users can submit their own recipes and earn royalties for popular meals that become a Tovala-approved menu item.

It’d also be interesting to see Tovala take a Keurig-like model in which it partners with local supermarket chains to create barcodes for fresh, pre-packaged foods that can be instantly cooked in its smart oven. God knows even the most technologically-apt millennial can manage to burn microwave popcorn.

A limited early bird pledge of $199 will get you the oven, with each meal estimated to cost $15 per portion. After the discounted pledges are sold out, the Tovala oven is expected to retail between $330 to $400. Maybe it’s not the cheapest appliance out there, but when you compare it to another smart oven that launched last summer at the price of $1,495 , it makes Tovala look like a bargain.

➤ Tovala