Greetings, ghouls, goblins and imps on this All Hallows Eve. Though it may be Halloween, it’s anything but scary around Electric Imp. In fact, it’s downright spooktacular! As we do every month, it’s time for another tasty brew of updates directly from our boiling Internet of Fangs cauldron, so like a zombie, let’s shuffle to it.
Monstrously Cool New Quirky Products
Our friends at Quirky & GE have just released the first wave of Wink: Instantly Connected smart consumer products – which, of course, feature Internet connectivity from Electric Imp – and they are now available at Home Depot stores throughout the US.
In the coming weeks, we’ll be telling you more about Electric Imp’s role as the connectivity backbone in the Wink product line. If you’re interested in more information in the meantime, you can check out all the devices on Quirky’s website or at Home Depot.
Our Frighteningly Awesome New Website
We’re super excited to formally introduce our redesigned and expanded website to the world. The updated site features a sleek, clean look and new content. We hope you like it as much as we do!
The site also showcases two new videos, the first of which is below and features Electric Imp Co-founder Hugo Fiennes discussing the inspiration behind the founding of the company and its place within the Internet of Things movement. The second video provides an overview of BlinkUp™, our easy setup solution that enables users to connect products and services to the Internet through a smartphone or tablet.
Grand St. – A New Haunt for Electric Imp Products
We’re pleased to announce that the fine folks at Grand St. are our newest retail distributor. Not only do we love Grand St. but it’s clear they love the imp too, as demonstrated through this useful tutorial they recently posted.
If you’re interested in picking up a few imps or learning more about Grand St., visit their website or take a look at the recent Google Hangout On Air they did with us.
Expanding Our Not So Skeleton Staff
We’re happy to introduce Bob Sutterfield and David Kurtz, the newest members of the Electric Imp team.
Bob joins our DevOps team, focused on the performance and reliability of the Imp Cloud. Prior to Electric Imp, he led operational teams for cloud-scale services at a variety of companies including Google, ChargePoint, and CheapTickets. A mid-westerner, Bob attended Big 10 conference schools Northwestern University and The Ohio State University.
Bob is excited to join Electric Imp because he feels our Internet connectivity platform enables device creators to do their best work without having to worry about the underpinnings.
As an avid cyclist, Bob’s ultimate Imp-enabled device encompasses a sensor that would automatically open the garage door at his house the moment he rides into the driveway, since he admits he’s a bit too lazy to push the remote button after arriving home from work.
Front End Engineer David Kurtz comes to Electric Imp looking forward to “helping build excellent tools and the opportunity to work with a group of insanely bright and talented people.”
David has held roles at Beats Music, MOG, Technorati, and has a degree in French Literature from UCLA.
David has a big garden at home, so his ideal imp-enabled device would connect an array of moisture and pH sensors tuned for individual plants to an automated drip system. It would be able to track levels and water usage per section and then have an interface for both monitoring levels and adjusting volume and frequency of watering.
Looking at the Internet of Things, David believes all makers face the challenge of building things that satisfy practical problems without unnecessarily exposing complexity to the people who use them.
We completely agree, which is why Electric Imp exists. Welcome, Bob and David!
If you’re interested in joining Bob, David and rest of our talented team, please visit the Jobs section of our website.
Scary Good New IDE and Agents
Finally, just in case you missed it, earlier this month we announced the rollout of the new IDE and agents designed to expand your device’s flexibility and capability. If you haven’t had a chance to work on your imp project since we introduced these features, they’re definitely worth taking a look at.
Mercifully, I’m nearly out of bad Halloween puns, so we’ll wrap things up – like a mummy! Okay, now we’re done. Until next time, Happy Halloween, everyone!
Tom Sarris
Communications Manager