On the knife-edge of being really clever and deeply stupid.
the embedded gadget is powered by AI
Tipping away from clever.
this post was submitted on 07 Dec 2025
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Technology
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iPhone case with e-ink display lets users read books and comics without screen glare
(www.designboom.com)
Why do all the cool gadgets only come out for the phones of people who aren't interested in cool gadgets?
Isnt Apple design the epitome of "cool" by sacrificing practicality while also having flashy useless features that are only for aesthetics? What are you trying to say here? It sounds like nonsense.
'Aesthetically cool' isn't same as 'cool functionality'.
So I looked into it and there’s a few indicators this will either be vaporware or garbage:
- It’s a Kickstarter with an original funding price of $5000, which is nowhere near enough to fund something this complex
- AI is being pushed as a major component
- Video is very high production value in some ways, but very low in others, and before the product is funded
- No technical explanation of how it’s going to do any of what it claims and no one from the development side is involved in the video. Just a pure commercial.
- Dozens of news sites I’ve never heard of all repeating the same press release with no real info or interviews
Just to name a few… My guess is that the OS will suffer from being difficult to navigate and unresponsive from all the garbage they try to cram on it and none of it will be intuitive.
There is a video review out https://youtu.be/htmETs9i4ak
My inner skeptic sees an app and just knows that they’re collecting everything that goes through it. Not to mention it will probably a brick in a few years. It’s a product that’s a neat engineering accomplishment but I doubt it would actually get much more than a few hours of use on its couple of years of existence before you get your next iPhone that this no longer fits.
Side thought: this could have been a MagSafe attachment which would have made it compatible with a much wider range of models.
That's brilliant! Now, when users replace their phone, they also have to replace a second device. Hooray for planned obsolescence!
Lets be honest. When they upgrade their phone they're not gonna bother replacing the ereader thing.
This device is neat in concept, but probably going to be awful in practice.
Cool in theory but I can guarantee you will not enjoy reading books on that thing
many people do, not specifically on this but on other compact handheld e-readers.
Yeah I had a 5 inch one and it’s acceptable if you have nothing else but I just got a kobo and it’s simply night and day
Tho yes there are people who will prefer this but I’m confident the average consumer will not
Tho perhaps the low power notifications or calendaring is useful 🤷♀️
a lot of tech is designed not for the average consumer but for a specific subset of people who want specific functionality
I did not consider that here. You’re right
Kobo is fantastic
A Kobo is a hell of a lot bigger than that.
Phones are tall and narrow. For reading books you don't want to be reading 5 words then having to go down a line. Ebook readers are typically closer to 4:3
I wasn't talking about a kobo. I was taking about something like this https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005010052351492.html
I've also just heard from many people who use devices like this for reading when on the go in the in between time between doing things. It's a neat little device to have.
Edit: Especially people like me with really clear vision
This might finally be a use case for folding phones.
This makes no sense to me. If you don't like glare on your phone then just get a matte screen protector. If you specifically want e-ink then just get a small ebook device that's a similar size to this case.
I just don't see a use case
Neat.
So a yota phone but with more steps?
You can already get a better version of this that isn't tied to a specific model of phone and just attaches to the back with a magnet and is perfectly usable on its own if you want.
https://www.theverge.com/news/838885/xteink-x4-e-reader-magnetic-apple-iphone-google-pixel
And this product actually exists.
I mean, kinda exists. It's a preorder status set to ship Christmas eve. Have they shipped any? Is it actually existing?
I already have an e-ink second screen that sits on the back of an iPhone... 4? 5? It's collecting dust in a drawer, but I swear this is a recycle of an old project. It's already been done!
Also, I have an old Yotaphone.