Zoe Romano —

(Guest post by Temboo Team)

Ever wish your Arduino could respond to the weather on the other side of the world? Or send you an email to let you know what it’s up to? Upload stuff to your Dropbox account? Or detect if you’re at risk of exposure to toxic chemicals?

Now it can. The Arduino Yún can easily grab all sorts of data and interact with tons of web-based services like Fitbit, Facebook, and Google because every Yún comes loaded with the power of Temboo. Using the Yún’s built in wi-fI capabilities, Temboo makes it easy for the Yún to connect to over 100 Application Programming Interfaces (APIs).

Don’t know what an API is or how to use one? Don’t worry. You don’t need to. With Temboo you can start using APIs with your Yún in minutes. We’ve standardized how to program with them and made sure they play nice with Arduino.

So how do you get your Yún to Temboo?

That’s easy too. When you’re setting up your Arduino account, you can quickly register for a free Temboo account right from your Arduino profile page. All you need to do for that is pick a Temboo username, and we’ll automatically email you your Temboo account details along with some ideas on where to begin. You should definitely check out the dedicated Arduino section of our website. We’ve created several how-to examples to get you Tweeting, texting, and more from your Yún in minutes. We’ve even put some examples right into the Arduino IDE (File->Examples>Bridge->Temboo).

Click on the image below to see one of the Temboo examples on Arduino IDE

What’s under the hood?

Temboo has written a special Python program on the Linino processor that interacts with the Temboo platform, sending and receiving data. A C++ library we created for the Arduino processor allows makers to communicate with the Linino-side Temboo program in a powerful yet user-friendly way. Sketch code for interacting with any Temboo process is generated live on our site for copying into the Arduino IDE. We’ve even developed a unique way for users to select the particular data they need from APIs and web-based resources, filtering out extraneous information and reducing the load on the board. For all the power that Temboo provides, our technology leaves a remarkably light footprint.

We can’t even begin to imagine all the cool stuff that makers will do with the Yún. We’ll be adding more Arduino examples to our site as we continue to brainstorm, but we’d love to feature your ideas and projects as well. Shoot us an email at hey [at] temboo.com or tweet at us at @Temboo to tell us about what you’re working on or to ask any questions.