Wow, 300% and only a quarter of the way to our deadline! Thanks everyone! Also -- the iOS threshold is past 66% -- with over 170 backers all together for the cellphone-attachment spectrometer.

Now, announcements! We'd like to add a couple new rewards --

• A quickie - at $45, we're now offering the fold-up and the desktop kit together. Enough people asked -- just add $10 to your order and specify your choice.
• For educators out there, we're also going to offer a "classroom pack" of 6 "desktop" spectrometer kits for $200.

Software

And an update on the software which will be making all this run! So many people have written in with suggestions and questions about use cases and applications, that I added a few new tools and interfaes to the online software suite to make new things possible. Keep in mind that since the mobile webapp is based on the same code, these features will likely make their way over to Android (and iOS... if we make it!) soon.

First, Brian from Mystic Brewery asked for a way to see what a sample is absorbing, live -- so you can now bring up reference spectra and even mark one as a "baseline" or control sample. Check out the video below!

Second, Public Lab contributor leeuwenstein has been trying gemstone spectroscopy, so he's using a list of reference spectra peaks, like chromium at 695nm. So there's now a feature to mark a wavelength and watch the amount of light at that point, live, as you measure samples.

Third, based on work by Public Lab contributors xiphmont, alexmccarthy, and myself, our method for (wavelength) calibrating a spectrometer using the well-known spectral peaks from mercury in a fluorescent bulb, we're working to streamline the calibration process. While we are planning an "auto-calibration" system, for now it's pretty straightforward and fast to use a fluorescent light to calibrate your spectrometer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVirJ4By0MI

Finally, although people continue to post ideas in the comments section, we've put up a wiki page to help everyone collect, share, and discuss potential applications for the spectrometry kit -- like scientific papers, tutorials, etc. Check it out and feel free to add: http://publiclaboratory.org/wiki/spectral-analysis