<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"Nobody should have to stay glued to their computer screen. But what if you step away for a moment and miss that vital email? Is there a way to tell from across the room that it came in? How about checking on the weather, or the health of your laptop, or any other digital information you can imagine, without waking your computer? \nNow you can do all of that with the help of blink(1), an LED creation (and Kickstarter project) launched Monday by San Francisco startup ThingM.\nBlink(1), a tiny device you plug into your USB slot, is a red-green-blue LED that you can program to discreetly alert you to virtually anything. \nSet the gizmo to watch for that email you\u2019ve been waiting for, and save yourself the frustration of constantly refreshing your Gmail window. Once you see that blinking purple light (or whichever color pattern your prefer), you\u2019ll be able to rest easy. \nHook blink(1) up to Skype so you can know when your friends are available, without windows popping up every time someone signs on. Use it as a physical \"busy\" indicator in your office so colleagues will know when you're in a meeting, or simply set it to flash to the beat of your music. Groovy. \nThe project can be found on Kickstarter here. Ultimately, the startup plans to sell the blink(1) for $30 a pop.\nWhat would you use a color-coded device like this for? Let us know in the comments.\n"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2012/07/09/blink1-usb/>