LittleBits' latest module lets you connect your creations to the internet

   

The magnetic, interconnecting circuit boards that make up LittleBits' library of electronic modules make it easy to build all sorts of neat (and noisy) devices with almost no technical knowledge at all -- but if you want to create something that connects to the cloud, you're out of luck. Well, you were: today LittleBits is announcing the Cloud Bit, a new module that, as company CEO and founder Ayah Bdeir puts it, allows builders to "just add internet" to almost anything. Bdeir tells me that it's gives the average person an easy and open way to contribute to the Internet of Things without wasting time prototyping devices from scratch. She also says that the module is a landmark in changing the perception of LittleBits from toy, to tool.

"I don't like the LEGO comparison," she says, bemoaning a misconception that LittleBits is little more than an educational child's toy. LEGO was an inspiration when she started the company, she admits, but so was C++ and more complicated hardware projects. "In the beginning... a lot of the stuff you could do with it was sort of more boyish and playful, so that's what the world saw us as. Since the beginning of the year we've been launching more powerful modules." More complex modules -- like the Arduino module and today's WiFi-enabled Cloud Bit -- raise the ceiling of complexity for potential LittleBits projects. It's her hope that the product will be used for rapid prototyping of new ideas in addition to being a fun hobby toy. "If you wanted to recreate a Nest or recreate a Sonos or a DropCam, you could. If you wanted to create the next billion dollar idea, you could do that as well." It's about versatility, and the more modules LittleBits creates, the more it has.