My umbrella has wifi!

Temptation to buy clutter is relentless. Objects like this wifi-enabled Ambient Umbrella will indicate if there is rain, drizzle, snow, or thunderstorms in your local forecast by emitting a blue glow. It’s cool. It’s sleek. You could be the envy of all of your gadget toting brethren. But, like many objects, it is just a little minx luring you to waste your money ($100) and add to your clutter. Run far, far away from these types of temptations.

Put your gadget consumerism to rest and download any number of free weather forecast widgets for your computer’s desktop, web browser, or PDA. Heck, just try looking out the window before leaving your house, and then examine your gadget buying problem.

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Posted by Matt on Jul 10, 2007 | Comments | Tweet This

8 comments posted

  1. Posted by Jack Cheng - 07/10/2007

    I was just looking at this the other day. Yes it’s a gadget. Yet it’s expensive. But I think it can actually help you unclutter.

    1) You’re still going to need an umbrella. So this doesn’t take up any additional space.

    2) You don’t need to clutter your desktop with any additional gadgets (or have to remember to check the forecast)

    The point of this ambient umbrella is to keep you from worrying. You don’t have to think about the weather, because this will tell you at the exact moment you need to think about the weather: when you’re walking out the door.

  2. Posted by PJ Doland - 07/10/2007

    The batteries you’ll need to keep are clutter.

  3. Posted by Jack Cheng - 07/10/2007

    Good point :) I could be wrong but I believe it’s good for a year on a standard AA, so if you already have rechargables, it’s not too big of a stretch.

    To me the biggest personal benefit of uncluttering is to reduce stress and worry. I’m against 99.9% of gadgets, but I think in this case, I’m willing to make an exception if it actually helps that goal.

  4. Posted by Andamom - 07/10/2007

    I agree with the earlier posters about this umbrella. I think it looks interesting. You won’t see me buying it as my family has a poor history with remembering umbrellas — but I don’t think of it as clutter. $100 for an umbrella seems a bit ridiculous to me — but it is a far smaller purchase cost than so many other gadgets… So, I say, if you are going to use this gadget umbrella — get it. Otherwise, steer clear.

  5. Posted by mata - 07/10/2007

    I agree. The problem with this umbrella isn’t that it’s clutter — if you use an umbrella anyway, how is this more clutter than any other umbrella. The problem is the price, and whether that amount of money is justified for the information you get with it. Also, if you lose umbrellas the way I do, it would insanity to spend more that $5 to get one from the guy on the street corner. (I live in NYC.)

  6. Posted by ScottMGS - 07/11/2007

    Yes, but does it tell you if orcs are near?

  7. Posted by ihategolf - 07/16/2007

    wtf? why is there a golf ad on this page? is this kind of thing allowed here?

  8. Posted by Erin at Unclutterer - 07/16/2007

    ihategolf –

    Thanks for the spam notice. Somehow that ad got through our filtering software. Ugh. I’ve taken it down.

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