[ojagodzinski]

~3000€ to show information in some random places in the house even though the household members have a device with a screen called a smartphone next to them 24/7 ?

Well, it's cool, but the usability of it all is below average.

Declutter your life and don't install any more screens in your home ;)

[binarysneaker]

Next time you decide to post something so snarky, maybe remember where you are. This is hackernews, people experiment and build things. Not always for the right reasons, and that's fine. If you don't like it, just move along. There's plenty of people, myself included, that are thankful for posts like this.

[unpopularopp]

It's a hobby but not for everyone. I mean if I could just throw away 3,000€ on random projects that might work or not I'd do it in a heartbeat. No different than buying a run down Porsche for 5,000€ and spending 40,000€ on restoration to original. Every hobby is like that but with different entry price points. There is a reason knitting is more popular than something like this (and even that has price tiers from 3€ for an acrylic yarn to upwards 100€ for luxury merino wool yarn)

[itsananderson]

As someone whose spouse knits, it gave me a chuckle to see knitting mentioned as a low-cost hobby :)

[ReaderOfRunes]

This is just unnecessarily mean-spirited and unconstructive

[bob001]

Pick up phone (may be in another room), unlock phone, open app, navigate to information in app (often fairly annoying due to modern low information density app design and multiple apps), return to original location.

Versus.

Just look at screen.

[amelius]

That's only when you are standing in front of the screen.

The equivalent of having the app open on your phone.

What if you are on a bus?

[ojagodzinski]

- pick up phone (unlock done automatically via face/finger/location)

- swipe finger to the right to show weather OR swipe finger to the left to show callendar

Android widgets show me much more information about weather and calendar view than these monitors (and are free: weawow https://weawow.com/i/app-download + google callendar).

[galleywest200]

Alternative: just keep your phone on your charger in your room and declutter your life by using just the one screen in the kitchen.

[lm28469]

Keep it in airplane mode until you need it, the friction is enough to keep it out of hand, and it never asks for your attention by itself. Or at least disable every notifications

[lloydatkinson]

This is exactly the type of nasty, mean-spirited, closed minded, completely lacking the hacker spirit comment I see so often on HN now.

[croes]

We waste billions of dollars so that AI creates recipes in the style of an Eminem rap and pelicans riding on a bike.

This is much more useful compared to that

[yellowapple]

For those who lack the technical aptitude to use a smartphone (e.g. children, the elderly), a device that shows information in random places in the home is much more useful.

[dave_sid]

It’s more than that. Anything like this that takes me away from constantly checking my phone, and can be glanced at by the whole family is better.

[pc86]

Plenty of elderly people have the aptitude to use a smart phone. It's shockingly ageist to assume that old == inept.

[sschueller]

I assume you do not own a wall clock?

I make these https://www.stationdisplay.com/ . They are also just as "useless" as a wall clock yet people find it a lot more pleasing to take a glance at something to give the information instantly, than having to make multiple decisions in order to take their phone out, open the app and find the place with the information they need.

[PapstJL4U]

Yeah, I doing something like this for me. An ePaper display to show local departures of public transport and QR code for my local network.

Having the departure times of my local tram right next to my door helps to not miss it by half a minute. =)

[randomtoast]

I think you could make it work for a fraction of the price if you buy a bunch of low-cost e-ink screens and combine them to create a larger display. The main challenge would be on the software side, as you'd need to control the content so it appears as a single, cohesive screen. However, I think this approach would be more appealing in terms of cost for most people.

[dave_sid]

You just don’t get it but that’s fine. I get it. If the price was more affordable I’d have one on my hall asap.

[estearum]

You should disclaim this comment by acknowledging that you have zero firsthand experience with having a device like this in your home.

You're entirely talking out of your ass. You have no clue what's more usable, cluttered-feeling, or useful.

As someone who built a similar device to this: it is absolutely awesome to have one of these, even though I have a smartphone!

[coffeefirst]

Not really. That’s akin to a nice camera, or any number of other hobbies that people spend money on. But it might be better compared to a home appliance or renovation project.

I’m not going to build one, but this is exactly the sort of creative and highly opinionated tinkering I stick around HN to see.