This Raspberry Pi-powered BlackBerry beeper events prefer it’s 2009
The heydey of cell units with built-in keyboards is gone, eclipsed by greater and greater touchscreens that are actually flipping and folding. But when your coronary heart nonetheless burns for BlackBerry, the smartphone for anybody who despatched extra emails than textual content messages earlier than the iPhone got here alongside, there’s a brand new DIY undertaking you would possibly need to take a look at. It’s known as the Beepberry, and although it isn’t truly reviving the shape issue, it’s making an attempt to provide your thumbs the candy, candy really feel of a tiny telephone keyboard.
The Beepberry is a customized PCB with a teeny-tiny 2.7-inch black and white LCD display screen, a Raspberry Pi Zero W ’spherical again protecting the fundamental OS and wi-fi duties, a battery, and what appears like a real BlackBerry keyboard, together with the corporate emblem button and a tiny built-in touchpad. The gadget runs Pi OS Lite, however that’s merely a way to an finish, that finish being the Beeper app and repair. The Beepberry is supposed to interchange your telephone’s chat apps, and solely chat apps, hooking into normal SMS, WhatsApp, Fb Messenger, Telegram, Sign, Slack, Discord, and (with a little bit of customized house server magic) Apple’s iMessage.
SQFMI
Because the showman says, that’s all there may be, there isn’t any extra. Whereas the Pi Zero W can hook into native Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, the Beepberry can’t connect with cell networks with out further {hardware}, and in order for you a case you’ll must 3D print one your self. (Although they do look fairly snazzy!) As famous by Ars Technica, one of many gadget’s demo movies has the hobby-grade, 3.7-volt battery hooked up with a rubber band. This disconnected-but-still-reachable idea is strictly for the DIY tinkerer crowd, and it’s not supposed as a retail product. Although you should purchase it — $79 by itself, $99 with a Pi Zero W within the field, supply anticipated in August.
The Beepberry undertaking comes from SQFMI, a small-time studio centered on bizarre little devices like this one, based by Pebble Watch creator Eric Migicovsky. Extra severe merchandise embrace the Watchy, an open-source e-ink watch that’s mainly the Pebble’s non secular successor, and the Franky, a barebones transportable gaming gadget that the Beeper relies on. Like SQFMI’s earlier initiatives, the Beepberry is absolutely open supply and supported by each its creators and customers on GitHub and Discord.
Completely satisfied texting.
