Flipper Devices Launches Its Next Product After the Flipper Zero: The BUSY Bar Smart Display
Considerably less likely to be banned in Canada than its inaugural device, the BUSY Bar is a smart timer and more with an open SDK.
Flipper Devices, best known for the Flipper Zero "hacker's multitool," has announced a new device — and this one's a lot less likely to land it in trouble: the BUSY Bar.
"BUSY Bar is a device that was born of our own frustration," the company explains. "It's really important for us to work together as a team in the same room, but at the same time, it's hard to concentrate on deep, thoughtful, creative work that requires focus. And then there are those damn funny cat videos. We tried the Pomodoro technique, but it's tough to explain to everyone in the office that you're in hyper-focus mode and shouldn't be disturbed for the next 20 minutes. That’s how we came up with BUSY Bar — a please-let-me-concentrate device."
The Busy Bar is, effectively, a wirelessly-connected smart display — but with one particular use-case in mind. Inside the custom housing is an STMicroelectronics STM32U5M microcontroller, driving two displays: a 72×16 RGB LED matrix on the front and a 160×80 monochrome LCD on the rear. There's also a Silicon Labs SiWG917 communications processor, providing single-band 2.4GHz Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.4 Low Energy (BLE) connectivity.
The top of the gadget has a rotary encoder, an oversized push-button connected to a mechanical keyboard switch, and a mode selector — and it's these that provide direct control over the display's primary use-case: letting people know when you're trying to focus, flashing up a large "BUSY" sign on the LED matrix and setting a countdown timer. "The main problem with all similar products is that they’re incredibly hard to use," Flipper Devices claims. "We've tried every LED sign on the market, and they’re all terrible — every time, you have to remember what each button does, how long to hold it, and how to switch to the mode you need. That’s why we decided to use mechanical controls that are simple to use and impossible to forget."
That's not the only thing you can do, of course, or that Wi-Fi and BLE radio would go unused. The display connects to a cloud service and companion app, and when focus mode is engaged locks the smartphone into a distraction-free mode — meaning that you can't doomscroll until the timer expires or you manually cancel it. The radio can also be used to integrate the display into a home automation system, controlling lighting or ventilation to support a focus sprint. Naturally, Flipper Devices also provides a software development kit along with samples apps including a weather display, clock, and social media follower counter.
"We don’t like it when products limit creativity and customization," the company claims. "That's why we built BUSY Bar with a fully open API, so developers can integrate the device into their own systems and completely reimagine how it works. Libraries will be available for Python, JavaScript (TypeScript), and Go. You can access the API completely offline via USB Virtual LAN, without any internet connection, or through our cloud or your own self-hosted solution. No vendor lock-in."
Compared to Flipper's inaugural device, the Flipper Zero, the BUSY Bar represents a much more conservative approach: the Flipper Zero, originally billed as a "hacker's multitool," provides a range of facilities for capturing, analyzing, replaying, and otherwise attacking wireless and wired systems including sub-gigahertz radio controls, infrared, and near-field communication (NFC). Its — sometimes overblown — capabilities have even led to questions from the Canadian government as to whether it should be banned in the country.
The BUSY Bar, by contrast, is unlikely to be banned any time soon — and is now up for sale on the official website for $249.
