It might feel like a slow news day when I write about a company that makes glowing spheres coming out with a glowing box, but lo! It is not. In fact, ignoring the fact that you are paying $180 for a fancy light, the Ambient Weather Forecast Beacon is actually quite slick; the light inside moves from white the red through a rainbow of different shades, each one corresponding to the temperature in your area — the same colors that TV meteorologists use on the weather maps. Ambient broadcasts a radio signal to the device so that it can work anywhere for free, or you can upgrade for a monthly subscription to receive color notices about stock portfolio changes, news (Flash red for Gay Marriage Vote Results; seriously, you could do that), or even (god forbid) terrorist threat levels.

And as an aside, if you don't want to shell out the cash for the device, there are a variety of software-based options that will do similar thing (Konfabulator on OSX, for instance), but you won't get the spiffy lamp. And that's half of what makes this cool, really.

Read - T-Mobile Sidekick II [AmbientDevices via TRFJ]

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The Ambient Orb [Gizmodo]

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