I love the idea of this and want one... I've had to use various command-line or web UI in-house tools in direct sunlight on boiling 40°C days out in the field. Dreamed of setting up a Kindle with VNC or something displayed in a web browser (before I knew about the full-size Boox tablets) but had higher priorities.
I love these kind of projects. But what I'd like is slightly bigger than kindle e-ink display that shows a webpage of my choice. And I'd like it to run off mains power.
Then I can pretty much show what I want - so it's easy to set up a rotating dashboard with the weather, my calendar, TFL alerts, whatever.
How about a new kind of flat-panel screen that has WiFi and the ability to VNC? (tunneled for security) Be able to detatch it from its stand, and use it as a tablet or an eBook reader.
I had this idea years ago! I'm glad someone finally did it. One thought. From a philosophical point of view, I would want this to be something that "lasts forever". So it would be nice if it were solar powered and ran off of an SD card rather than being web-based. Just an opinion from an HN extremist - take it in context. Still, it's scratching an itch for me. Your website is down so I didn't see how much it costs but I'll check back in a bit.
I love the idea of a home server far more than I do using typical "end-point" electronics... But one thing I'd love to see a hardware manufacturer make is a wifi monitor that functionally doubles as a tablet.
Just a light, wifi, touchscreen (with mic, speakers, and cameras) that uses my desktop, and just streams content to the device. A smart charging stand that hold it vertical, and you could use it in place of a traditional monitor too. (Pie in the sky territory: awesome remote abilities that let you control your desktop over wifi from anywhere.)
I love this idea. I'm very tempted to pre-order but the lack of a pricing page keeps away from pulling my wallet out.
Here is one use I'm really interested in. I'd love to get this for my father who is not very computer literate and needs a lot of help with it. He doesn't have strong security concerns because he only uses it for email and basic card games. Unfortunately I live hundreds of miles away and have a difficult time doing remote support for him. With this device+service it cleans up the clutter on his desk, and I hope allows for us both to connect to the VPS even though I don't have the paperweight. This way I can help him when he needs it and I can connect with ease.
I'd probably buy one just because of how polished it is while still being DIY and open source. I don't really have the resources to make one myself at the moment. Would love to tinker with one of these, especially the software side. Great project!
Hmm, I wonder how much of this could be recreated with a Remarkable 2 or equivalent tablet. Build a nice decorative enclosure with the charging port embedded in the frame, it has wifi out of the box, and you can change the screensaver with scp when it's awake. Perhaps just set a cron job to grab the latest image every 24 hours from a designated url? Obviously much smaller, but you get a tablet out of the deal too, at 10-15% of the cost.
How about a version of this with an OLPC daylight-readable screen that doubles as an eBook reader? (How about a deluxe version in 8x10" format?) I could imagine one on the nightstand, the end table by the couch, or on the coffee table. It would be in a convenient place to pick up. You could make this touchscreen, but you wouldn't even have to do that. Just have simple D-pad navigation, perhaps behind the frame.
An add-on with some simple remote control facility would make it a 3-use device. (It should be possible to control a MythTV, Tivo or Front Row with this.) Again, it would be in a convenient place.
Really love this product and the concept! I'd love if you guys would build a touchscreen tablet too, although at this point I'm probably asking too much. The tablet landscape ain't pretty with much of its electronic component were destined to landfill instead of being reusable like this.
Looks like a solid idea. I'd been thinking about something similar myself.
Would be great if you could list out some potential use-cases though to give people ideas on what all one could do with it.
Secondly is there some sort of commitment that the product will be available for at least x years ?
This is really cool. I'd love to see more devices like this. As I don't exactly have the resources to build one on my own, I'd also be interested in the opportunity to buy one.
I really want one too, but most of that is indeed from the fact that all my buddies are picking them up, and it seems like a nice gadget. For someone like my mom, grandparents, this is a perfect device. My grandpa has a shitty old WebTV for his email, because it uses a familiar interface (his la-z-boy and tv dinner table), but I could easily see him picking this up, opening emails with his finger, etc...
For me though... it's a novelty. I live in my Macbook Pro, so I don't need another webkit device to play around with on weekends. Although.... it would be really nice on plane trips. That 10hr (12hrs by David Pogue at the NYT) battery life (playing video) is going to be a game changer for sure. Tie that in with Netflix streaming, and you've got a pretty sick portable movie machine! Hopefully they do some kind of client-side caching "offline" mode, so you can get a streaming movie stored for a flight.
Seriously, it would be enormously fun and educational to do this. A weeklong guided vacation where you start with a pile of electronics and end up with a basic web app.
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