Thursday, July 12, 2012

Info at a Glance

I am currently passively obsessed with visual information trackers/notifiers -- tools for giving you information at a glance.

I was fascinated by the Ambient Orb when it first came out.  But it was pricey, and its functionality seemed limited (I think it started as a stock market or weather indicator).  The company has evolved its devices, with the original Ambient Orb now an Energy Orb that tracks and displays the price of energy.  You can also have it track other kinds of information, but what the Orb can display is still tied to what's available on the Ambient network.  The restriction limits its usefulness to me.

Enter blink(1) over on Kickstarter.  I especially like the fact that it will work with IFTTT.com, another thing I've been passively obsessed with.  I just pledged for one.

I am slowly gathering together pieces of some kind of fun DIY kit, thanks to Kickstarter (TeagueduinoTwine, MaKey MaKey...is there a pattern here?)  For what?  Still TBD.