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iCufflinks 'Pulse' Just Like Your Sleeping Mac

Friday June 17, 2011 5:48 PM PDT by Jordan Golson

For geeks with Bond-esque style, Adafruit Industries have created iCufflinks. They're electronic cufflinks crafted out of machined aluminum with the standby or power symbol, International Electrotechnical Commission 5009, engraved on it.

That symbol, better known as the Power Button Logo on Macs, doesn't just light up on the iCufflink; it pulses like the sleep indicator on recent Macs.

The company didn't just emulate any pulsing LED, either. Adafruit reverse engineered Apple's sleep indicator, a technology Apple actually patented. Apple found that the by mimicking human breathing for their sleep indicator, it was more "psychologically appealing and superior" to other waveforms.

The iCufflinks are currently sold out due to initial demand, but Adafruit hopes to have more in stock soon. They are available from Adafruit's online store for $128. The cufflinks are also open-source with source code, circuit board files and schematics published online.

Top Rated Comments

Helghast

171 months ago

Spinning basketball of death cufflinks would have been way cooler

Spinning beach ball of death? Never seen it called basketball of death before.

Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)

TMar

171 months ago

what the hell is a cuff link?!?
EDIT:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cufflink (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cufflink)
OK.... That's weird.

You can't seriously not know what cuff links are...

Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)

dawnrazor

171 months ago

Spinning basketball of death cufflinks would have been way cooler

Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)

macsmurf

171 months ago

Spinning beach ball of death? Never seen it called basketball of death before.

New in Lion.

Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)

42streetsdown

171 months ago

I do not know about you all but my Dell from 2006 has the same p[power button on the tower and the monitor. I believe this design is not exclusive to Apple but may be universal for moist computers

the symbol isn't unique, but the aluminum plus pulsing light is very apple.

Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Anonymous Freak

171 months ago

The company didn't just emulate any pulsing LED, either. Adafruit reverse engineered (http://www.adafruit.com/blog/2010/08/26/reverse-engineering-the-mac-breathing-led-2/) Applessleep indicator, a technology Apple actually patented (http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=6658577.PN.&OS=PN/6658577&RS=PN/6658577).

So, uh... I hope they licensed it from Apple, if Apple patented it.

Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)

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