The color of your info

"[Ambient] makes spheres and cubes that glow different colors depending on the value of a single piece of information in a data stream—a stock quote, the weather forecast, or a custom bit of data. For example, for one person who runs a blogging service, the number of signups the system is currently processing makes the cube or sphere glow a different color."

Hey, we have the same thing! Oh wait, maybe they're talking about us. The device is about four feet from me right now, glowing a cool purple. It's neat. If my camera wasn't broken, I'd take a picture. I had some troubling groking Ambient's business model myself, though I talked to one of the founders, Nabeel Hyatt, at Pop!Tech. Rafe makes it a bit clearer.

By the way, the most interesting thing about the device, which surprises most people, is that you don't hook it up to a computer. It gets its data via a cellular signal. Because of this, the customized data stream is $7/month. It probably makes the device a little bit more expensive, as well. It'd be cool if they had a cheaper USB version for settings (like our office) where hooking it up to a computer is no problem. But it's neat that it doesn't require one.

Update: Eric has a photo.