Awhile ago I backed https://www.spark.io/ on kick started and I got the reward this week.  All in all the thing is quite cool.  Setup was easy and quick.  One minor note on setup: I use wireless mac filtering and there is not an easy way for the core to report its mac address so I had to disable mac filtering and let it connect to pull the mac from my router.  After that it connected just fine.

So what is the spark core?  It is explained here http://docs.spark.io/.  Put simply its a wi-fi Arduino that is small and cheap ($35) for the kickstarter.

What can it do? Anything an Arduino can do with a twist.  It can be controlled directly from an Android or a web interface via the inter-webs.

Enough already get to the pics you say… fine.   Any respectable Arduino is not officially un-boxed until it is running Blink.  I connected pin A0 to a resistor to a led to ground.  Then set pin A0 to digital write.  Using my cellphone I was able to toggle the pin from low (led off) to high (led on).  I could toggle this on and off from anywhere in the world since the core is connected to the “cloud” (I hate that word since its so ambiguous).