May 18, 2023 12:00:00

The founder of smart watch pioneer 'Pebble' announces 'Beepberry', a pocket computer with a Blackberry-like physical keyboard

Eric Migikowski , the founder of ' Pebble ', which appeared earlier than the Apple Watch and became a pioneer of smart watches, announced the pocket computer ' Beepberry ' equipped with a physical keyboard.

Beepberry by SQFMI x Beeper | Beepberry
https://beepberry.sqfmi.com/

Beepberry is a Blackberry keyboard tinker toy from the founder of Pebble - The Verge

https://www.theverge.com/23727218/beepberry-cyberdeck-mini-computer-raspberry-pi-beeper-messenger

Mr. Migikowski said on May 18, 2023, ``I am happy to introduce a small project I am working on,'' and announced the `` Beepberry '' portable electronic paper-equipped computer.

I'm excited to introduce a little side project I've been working on: Beepberry - a portable e-paper computer for hackers, designed for chatting on Beeper. It's available today to pre-order for $79. It's a partnership between me ( @onbeeper ) and @sqfmi : https://t.co/hIZRQMTrvr

—Eric Migicovsky (@ericmigi) May 17, 2023

“We wanted a device that would allow us to stay in touch with friends and family without using a smartphone, so we built a small, customizable electronic paper display with a Raspberry Pi and a physical keyboard,” said Migikowski. I decided to develop the

I wanted a 'weekend' device that would let me stay in touch with friends and family, sans the distractions of a phone. I imagined a tiny, hackable e-paper screen with a physical keyboard, powered by a Raspberry Pi, useful to chat around my home…and pretty much nothing else.

—Eric Migicovsky (@ericmigi) May 17, 2023

Beepberry has the keyboard part of the smartphone ' BlackBerry Classic ' equipped with a physical keyboard ported, and the display is equipped with a 2.7-inch sharp memory liquid crystal. In addition to the display and physical keyboard, it also has a port for USB-C connection, an LED, a side button, a power switch, and a slot for general purpose input/output ( GPIO ).

Beepberry, which can be equipped with '

Raspberry Pi Zero W ' as an option, is a device dedicated to operating ' Beeper ', a service that integrates chat services such as Twitter, Slack, Discord, etc. and can be managed with one application, but it can be programmed by the user. It is also possible to modify and use Beepberry as a portable pocket computer. Below is a video showing Beepberry being used as a simple weather checker. You can see how weather information is displayed by operating buttons and keyboards.

Beeper Hardware (aka Franky) Demo-YouTube


Also, the following video shows the execution of ' STAR ASCIIMATION WARS ', which expresses the movie 'Star Wars' in ASCII art.

Beepberry-Star Wars Ascii Demo-YouTube


Beepberry's software and firmware can be downloaded online, and there is also a Discord community for users who work on 3D printed models of Beepberry cases and Beepberry mods for buyers.

The price of Beepberry is $ 99 (about 13,000 yen) for the model with Raspberry Pi Zero W, and $ 79 (about 10,000 yen) for the model without Raspberry Pi Zero W. In addition, the model without Raspberry Pi Zero W is scheduled to be shipped until August 2023, and the model with Raspberry Pi Zero W is scheduled to be shipped until September 2023, and shipping to Japan is also supported.