Top 5 Twilio Holiday Hacks

Time to read: 2 minutes

December 21, 2012

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Twilion

Top 5 Twilio Holiday Hacks

The holidays are here! Finally extra time to work on your own projects or start a new one. Whether you’re looking to hack hardware, try something different or work on something in progress, here is a list of fun projects for you to get started on.

1. Deck The Halls With Twilio Powered Robot Cars
I remember getting a remote control car on Christmas. I opened it up, screamed, thanked my parents, scoured the house for batteries and then drove it around all day. Now, you can build your own phone controlled car using Twilio and Arduino. This tutorial walks you through how to build your robot, from writing code to soldering Arduino hardware. Want more hardware hacking? Try DIY Home Automation with Arduino and Pusher.

2. What Holiday Movie Should We Watch Next? There’s a Voting App For That (Parts 1 & 2)
Don’t argue over A Christmas Story and Elf, take it to the polls. Learn how to build an SMS voting app that displays voting results in real-time using Node.js, Socket.io and CouchDB.

3. Remind Your Family How Awesome They Are With An SMS Card
Forgot to pick up a present for Mom? Build an SMS holiday card that lets everyone in the family text in how great she is. Learn how to build it using Python and Flask.

4. Build Your Own Holiday (or Hall & Oates) Music Hotline
Put all of your family’s holiday tunes onto one music hotline. Even if your little brother likes Alvin and The Chipmunks, your Mom loves Sinatra and your dad is a Michael Buble guy, they can all call in and listen to their favorite songs with the press of a button. Rob Spectre and Michael Selvidge reveal the magic of the music hotline that powered hits like Callin Oates.

5. Turn Your Holiday Wishlist Into A Holiday Spreadsheet
It’s hard to keep track of who you got presents for, where they’re going, and where you’ve stashed them in your house. Lists can get a little messy, so try out a spreadsheet. Joel Fraunusic walks you through building a spreadsheet you can update via Twilio SMS.

If you’re new to Twilio, try these Quickstart Screencasts:

Find more Twilio-powered projects and sample code on our blog. What projects are you working on over the holiday? Let us know by emailing community@twilio.com