The bttn is an interesting little gizmo that reminds me of a Griffin PowerMate but without the volume-dial component.

What looks like a simple colored button (hence the name) is actually a web-connected device capable of executing interesting commands, similar to those of one of our favorite services, IFTTT. In fact, IFTTT is a service bttn is capable of tying into, along with Facebook, Twitter, SMS, and even home automation tools like SmartThings.

Built-in LEDs indicate the status of your commands:

• Green means "success"
• Yellow means "wait"
• Red means "error"

Given its extensibility, the sky is theoretically the limit on what bttn can be programmed to do. After school, a kid could hit the button to send an alert to their parents that they made it home safely. Or you could keep a bttn at work and have it lock your house doors if you forgot to do it on your way out that morning. And I'm not even scratching the surface here.

Me? I would probably just open-palm slam the thing to issue tweets in the most satisfying way possible.

bttn is set to release in October 2014, but you can pre-order it now for 69€ (~$94).