My biggest pet peeve with meeting apps is that each has a different shortcut for muting your mic or turning off your webcam. It’s hard to remember which keys do what when you’re in the middle of a meeting and trying to make a point or ask a question. I always wanted a physical, universal button for sound and camera control – something I could press without thinking. Mirage’s Dune Projecta small three-key aluminum keyboard – about the size of a stick of gum – that plugs into your MacBook’s USB-C port, does just that.
The $119 gadget has three buttons and changes the context depending on which app you’re viewing. For example, in meeting apps and sites, this might include unmuting the mic, unmuting the video, and bringing the window to the front. For Excel or Sheets, this could be copy, paste, and undo. For Chrome, it might be refresh, go to the URL bar, and paste. You understand the gist. Developers can also use it with apps like VS Code or GitHub to merge, approve, or close a pull request.
The startup builds each unit to fit your specific Mac model, so it sits against the laptop with no space underneath. If your ports are already in use, you can connect it via dongle. Dune has no battery and does not need a separate charger: it is powered directly by the MacBook.
Currently, the startup supports M2 Air or later and M1 Pro or later MacBook models running macOS 15 Sequoia or later.
The device looks good and feels good, but I felt the keys needed more resistance. Nowadays, it’s easy to press a key by mistake. A few times I unmuted myself by mistake or killed my camera because my hand brushed the camera while I was reaching for a bottle of water or a cup of coffee. It shouldn’t be this easy to press a key.
Dune comes with a companion app for configuring shortcuts, either per app or system-wide. In a given application, you can assign a Dune key to a keyboard shortcut, command, or link that opens an application or URL.
Through the app, Dune also syncs with your calendar and shows your next meeting a few minutes before it starts, so you can join, dismiss, or send an “I’m late” message with just one click.
If you want deeper customization, you can write and run your own Python script. If you don’t code, Dune integrates easily with Claude Desktop: you describe the desired shortcut in simple language, and Claude writes it down and assigns it to a key for that application – no manual configuration required.
I created a shortcut that, whenever I’m on a startup’s website, displays a brief overview of the company: its competitors, its investors, and questions I might ask if I set up a meeting with them. For anyone whose job it is to quickly evaluate companies (investors, founders, operators), this is a task tailor-made for Dune. I also built one that converts images to JPEG so I can quickly upload them to WordPress or social platforms. Both were easy to build and required no manual configuration, although getting a shortcut to fully work requires some more back and forth with Claude, including debugging once you actually run it.
The app also has a marketplace, from which you can explore skills created by other Dune owners. If the market takes off, it could become central to Dune’s growth and retention strategy: hardware as a thin interface for a Claude-powered skills ecosystem, where each new skill gives owners another reason to stay.
However, for now, skills are limited. Additionally, there is no way to test a skill without assigning it to the hardware button. Ideally, the application would allow you to preview a skill before validating it on hardware. The startup also needs to proactively add more of its own suggested skills for different applications to its users.
The Project Mirage device costs $149 after its introductory price expires, and is a solid choice for anyone concerned with productivity. MuteMe only covers mute/unmute, and Stream Deck offers business-focused macros, but Dune is easier to customize on both hardware and software.
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Ivan covers global consumer technology developments at TechCrunch. He is based in India and has previously worked for publications such as the Huffington Post and The Next Web.
You can contact or check Ivan’s outreach by sending an email im@ivanmehta.com or via encrypted message on ivan.42 on Signal.
