If you're always busy on your computer, with multiple windows open - it can be easy to neglect your gmail tab in the web browser. And if you're waiting for an important email this can easily be overlooked with all the screen clutter. One method of solving this problem is to create a hardware-based gmail notifier using the instructions provided by Dhaivat Pandya. They've created a simple system that uses the open-source programming language Ruby to interrogate a gmail account, and then send notification of new emails to the serial/USB port.
This data can then be picked up by an Arduino and acted upon. Although the demonstration simply blinks an LED, you can literally go crazy with all sorts of hardware devices that can leap into action when an email is received. For example - sound a buzzer, wave a servo arm with a little flag - or display a pattern on an RGB LED cube. There's a whole lot of potential, so visit Dhaivat's tutorial to get started. And for more, we're on twitter and Google+, so follow us for news and product updates as well.
One fantastic output device for the gmail notifier would be an RGB LED cube - such as our new CUBE4: RGB LED cube kit:
It's easy to construct and use, and with an onboard Arduino-compatible board the cube can be used to display all sorts of data or create visual effects. It's easily controlled via simple text commands via the USB port - or write your own Arduino sketch. It's incredibly customisable and there's so much more. For more information and to order, visit the CUBE4 page.
