One factor you may positively say about Eric Migicovsky: he appears to be having loads of enjoyable. The Pebble founder left a three-year stint as a accomplice at Y Combinator to co-found the chat aggregation app Beeper. Throughout that point, he’s been dipping again into his {hardware} roots.
Again in 2017, he launched a Kickstarter for Podcase, a iPhone charging case with built-in AirPods slots. A yr in the past yesterday, he introduced plans to “carry again” the small telephone. It was a small, but devoted motion.
Such phrases can, maybe, be utilized to a brand new venture, Beepberry, which is designed particularly with Beeper customers in thoughts. As for the second a part of the title, that comes courtesy of its use of an precise BlackBerry Basic bodily keyboard. That and the 400 x 240 Sharp reminiscence e-paper-esque LCD are powered by a Raspberry Pi Zero, making it a sort of blackberry pi, if you’ll.
The concept is — partly — to return to the comparatively distraction-free nature of Beeper’s namesake. It’s a bit like a scrappier model of the Mild Cellphone, with fewer options.
There’s a 2000mAh battery inside, which presumably can run for some time, given the low-power nature of the entire deal. Simply in case you have been fearful that it was trapped within the late 90s/early-aughts, there’s additionally USB-C charging on board.
That is all as hacked collectively because it sounds. The corporate is promoting the kits at $79 a pop — or $99 if you would like the Raspberry Pi, relying on how a lot you need to d it your y. There are solely 50 out there at launch (presumably fewer as I write this, as a result of he introduced it on Twitter yesterday), which is able to possible promote out.
Past that, who can say. It’s a little bit of a distinct segment inside a distinct segment, nevertheless it’s a enjoyable return to the period when gadget running a blog felt an entire lot…hackier. Designer SQFMI expects the kits with out the board to ship in August, whereas the others will arrive the next month.
