LaMetric: A Smart Clock for Your Desk

In this weekly series, we check out what is new on Kickstarter, Indiegogo and other similar sites, to find the most innovative and interesting projects available for crowdfunding. After all, some of the coolest technology developments like the Pebble Smartwatch and the Oculus Rift came out of Kickstarter, not from big companies. We're watching out for what comes next.

Not every project has to be groundbreaking - things that are cool, quirky or just plain fun count as well, and that's where the LaMetric - Customizable Smart Ticker for Life and Business fits in. The LaMetric is being made by a London-based team, and it is, essentially, a smart clock.

A smartwatch gives you notifications and updates through the day in addition to showing you the time, and the LaMetric does the same thing, but instead of being worn on your wrist, it's sitting on your desk. Since the notifications are therefore much more public, you need to think about what you want shown on the display - it might not be the best place to show your email inbox, for example.

One thing we really loved about the LaMetric is the design - it's a squat, brick-like thing, with chunky pixels in the display that makes it look like an old fashioned ticker, or something from a classic videogame.

The updates come from the Internet, which means it doesn't need to be paired with your smartphone, and the LaMetric also makes use of built-in speakers to double as an Internet-radio. It shows your notifications on a scroll, and can be used to display things like your RSS feeds, stock updates.

You can customise icons and set up feeds, timers, and notifications using your computer, and aside from the clock, LaMetric can show things like the weather, time before the next meeting, emails, fitness goals (it supports the Fitbit), Google Analytics, stock prices, and more.

But beyond these built-in functions, the LaMetric can be made even more powerful thanks to IFTTT support. All these functions can be set up and customised using a mobile app, and it connects to the Internet using Wi-Fi, so there's only one wire required, for the powercord. And one very cool feature (which might not admittedly be useful to most people) is that you can combine multiple clocks to make a larger display, instead of a scrolling display.

You can see it in action in the video below:

The project has already met its funding goals but it is open for funding until August 1. The $89 early bird LaMetrics are all gone, but there are still some $119 units available. Once those are all gone, you can get a LaMetric for $129 through the Kickstarter.

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