The Ambient Orb, made by the company that makes the Ambient Umbrella is a frosted glass ball that lights up and changes colors to give you information from a variety of Ambient channels, such as weather information, changes in the stock market (a market index or personal portfolio), pollen count, traffic congestion, UV ray levels, and whether someone's available on instant messaging. It even has a politics channel that tells you the likelihood of a candidate being elected or presidential approval ratings.

It connects wirelessly, and without a subscription fee, to parts of the Ambient Information Network, but for a fee you can subscribe to premium channels. The device is $150 at Ambient Devices. And we're giving one away to an email subscriber soon, so look for it in your Popgadget newsletters. (In today's newsletter, Ambient Devices is giving away an Ambient Umbrella, which forecasts the weather.)

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