Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

It is like a crime against all of technology that there is no equivalent of this today.

We have smartphones, but battery life sucks and they have no real local mesh support, and no expansion port.

We have lots of dev boards, but no real finished products without exposed PCBs, and with a proper app-capable OS. And the ones that are reasonably polished are far too expensive for a semi-novelty.

The closest is maybe... pwnagotchi? A graphing calc?

I just want like, a little ESP32 handheld, with an m.2 slot or something in the traditional place for cartridges, and the ability to run apps from files on SD cards(Even if they're just MicroPythons).

But somehow all the "Hacker's handhelds" and the like seem to go nowhere, and are basically just an Arduino with a screen, meanwhile phones never get the expansion pack and local mesh capabilities the cybiko had.

Cybiko was a lot of fun. It would have been better with some AAA games, but it was still awesome.



Consider applying for YC's Fall 2025 batch! Applications are open till Aug 4

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: