With Twitter, Ryan Rose gets short messages about what his friends are cooking for dinner, the latest updates from blogs and home improvement tips from the Home Depot. Oh, and now his washing machine tweets when a load of clothes is done. [via latimes]
The TiVo senior programmer from San Jose spent a week modifying his 25-year-old washing machine to send a message to Twitter when his laundry is ready. Rose, 35, admits his less-than-reliable memory has been to blame for the mildewed clothes that have piled up after he's left a load sitting in his machine too long.
But no more, thanks to Twitter text message alerts to his cellphone from his hacked washer, which he dubbed PiMPY3WASH. After some attention last week from various blogs, Rose's washing machine now has 152 followers on Twitter -- meaning every time he does laundry, 152 people hear about it.
One subscriber to PiMPY's laundry feed is Whirlpool's Twitter account. Brian Snyder, the company spokesman who oversees the appliance manufacturer's social media accounts, reached out to Rose on YouTube after spotting the video. He said the company was "always looking for new ways to connect our appliances to the Internet."
Rose told Whirlpool that he's excited about the potential to bring this technology to a mainstream audience. "I said, 'Look, I could probably get these things installed for less than $20 -- [the amount] it cost me in parts.' Why aren't these things out on the market yet?"
The washing machine isn't Rose's first compelling hack. A few years ago, he made a Christmas wreath that plays Simon Says.
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