Concentration and productivity apps abound, all to help you avoid the many distractions coming from your phone. Or the annoying people at your open office. Digital wellness tools can turn off notifications, limit apps like TikTok and Instagram, and help you focus on the task at hand. But you can also deactivate them very easily whenever you feel like you haven’t scrolled enough endlessly.
This is where Flipper Busy bar comes into play, a hardware clock with an LED display that also serves as a dedicated clock and timer. Press the big button in the middle and the screen displays a bright red “BUSY” sign or other message that lets people around you know you’re busy. (Maybe try “GO AWAY” or “GET OUT OF MY ROOM, MOM.”) The bar is on sale today and costs $249.
“How do you let people know politely, but firmly, that you don’t want to be bothered?” » says Callum Tennent, creative writer at Flipper. “We decided the most polite way to do it was to shine a huge red light on your desk.”
Courtesy of Flipper Devices
Beaters does it Pinball Zeroa $200 handheld hacking tool that hit TikTok in 2022 for using a Tamagotchi-like dolphin character to detect wireless frequencies and potentially break RFID-controlled locks. This was a device that raised many security concerns. Canada proposed a device ban for fear that this could enable car thefts. In 2023, U.S. Customs and Border Protection entered 15,000 Flipper Zero devices, then finally released them. Flipper is currently working on another model, the Pinball Onewhich has even more advanced capabilities.
Between these most controversial devices is the Busy Bar. The bar also works with the separate Application busyyet another one of those productivity and focus tools living on your phone. What it doesn’t have is the ability to hack anything. “We’re the ones doing it here at Flipper, but there’s no real connection with them,” Tennent says. “These are totally disconnected products.”
Basically, the Busy Bar is expensive “On Air” lighting. It offers many of the same productivity features that are likely already built into your phone’s operating system, like blocking notifications on your phone. But Flipper argues that, just like the Brick, a hardware gadget you press to block access to certain applications. Having a hardware option to turn off distractions around you is a lot different than just trying to use software productivity tools on your device.
“It seems absolutely crazy to have to pick up your phone to stop yourself from picking up your phone,” Tennent says. “I’m so brainwashed that I’ll pick up my phone to do this and immediately get distracted by the notification on it.”
The busy bar has manual buttons. A switch changes modes, a dial lets you set periods of time, and a giant button at the top starts or pauses the session. For tuning purposes, the bar can set timers that replicate the Pomodoro techniquea productivity practice that relies on timed work intervals and short breaks.
The Busy Bar is also Certified materialmeaning it can be programmed to work with other smart devices. Once integrated, it can control smart speakers or trigger lights. If you have light bulbs that change color, for example, you can flip the switch and turn all the lights in the house red to show everyone that you really need to be left alone. The bar can also be used offline. There is an app, but it is not required. If you want it to connect to your phone, you can simply connect the bar and your phone with a cable and control it from there.
On a Zoom call or while recording a podcast? You can set it up so that when your microphone is active, the Busy Bar automatically indicates that you’re busy, so you don’t even need to press the button at all. You can also control it remotely via Wi-Fi, so you can mount it on a door or wall instead of placing it next to your desk. The large LED screen faces towards you, but there’s a monochrome screen on the back so you can also see how much time is left on the clock.
Courtesy of Flipper Devices
Courtesy of Flipper Devices
“I’ve seen people online calling it too sophisticated,” Tennent says. “But I think once they get the device in their hands and understand what you can actually do with it, it suddenly becomes clear that this is so much more than the screen we started with when we designed it.”
The idea came from Flipper founder Pavel Zhovner, who wanted a better way to indicate when he was busy in the office. (Zhovner did not speak with WIRED for this story. He was likely busy.) Flipper says the device is open source and can easily be taken apart if parts need to be replaced. The Busy Bar already has a disassembly guide on the iFixit repair site.
“We knew that everyone would try to hack us in any way possible,” says Aleksandr Semin, marketing specialist at Flipper. “This is why we pay great attention to the security and reliability of the systems. »
