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I spent 3 years working on a coat hanger [video]

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Re: I spent 3 years working on a coat hanger [video]

#303
post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the best ideas come when you make something that you really want for yourself. In 2020, I really wanted an eink calendar to hang on my wall. Still, many people built one for themselves and never turned it into a commercial product. It’s a lot of work and some of it is boring. And you have to pay for certification and worry about all that paperwork that comes with a business. It took me 3 years: https://shop.i…

You should 'Show HN' this in its own right, this is great.

I’ve done this before and I’m afraid I’ll get banned if I do this too much.

Even though I definitely am a normal, annoying HN user. :)

Re: I spent 3 years working on a coat hanger [video]

#304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the best ideas come when you make something that you really want for yourself. In 2020, I really wanted an eink calendar to hang on my wall. Still, many people built one for themselves and never turned it into a commercial product. It’s a lot of work and some of it is boring. And you have to pay for certification and worry about all that paperwork that comes with a business. It took me 3 years: https://shop.i…

That's a pretty great price for an eink based display. Only setup thru iPhone atm? When is Android coming? Is there a webui for setup as an alternative?

Almost everything is possible with Android.

The icalendar support is very new and The Android update for it is still in progress.

Re: I spent 3 years working on a coat hanger [video]

#305

I just love the maker's mind. > I want something that does not exist, I will make it. Making things has never been so accessible, if you don't know how to start, join a community and ask, if they are hostile, just ask chatgpt and start from there. 3d printers are 200$, esp32 is the same cost as arduino nano. Want to make AI things? Make them. Want to make coat hangers? Make them. Want to make a book stand? Make it. I…

I think the best ideas come when you make something that you really want for yourself. In 2020, I really wanted an eink calendar to hang on my wall. Still, many people built one for themselves and never turned it into a commercial product. It’s a lot of work and some of it is boring. And you have to pay for certification and worry about all that paperwork that comes with a business. It took me 3 years: https://shop.i…

For that price I can purchase 3 Google home smart displays which do all this and more.

I guess the main advantage would be always-on with little to no power consumption, but all your pictures still have cables.

Re: I spent 3 years working on a coat hanger [video]

#306
My biggest issue with coat hangers - including this one - is that they are all thin so forget putting heavier shirts, sweaters, and especially jackets on them - they'll stretch out part of the shoulder and you have this visible piece of material sticking out when you put it on.

Re: I spent 3 years working on a coat hanger [video]

#307

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's great! Some small things about your website: - "Contact" page says "Kontact" in en-GB locale - Do you need a shopping cart for one product? Just have the "buy it now" and leave the cart out? - Do you need a search? There are only a couple of pages. - The Contact page might want to highlight to the user that there is a chat feature in the bottom right, if they prefer that to email. Other than those little bits,…

Oh, wow, thanks for the feedback! No I haven't done ProductHunt. I am not sure if I can disable the cart on shopify? I think I need better pictures, and I need a better shopify theme.

I think the pictures are pretty good already, but yes, perhaps.

If you wanted to dive into more feature work, possibly the next thing is thinking about CEOs who might want a) Outlook integration, and b) a way to shade off their calendar for privacy somehow. Another thing could be to stick more with consumers and have a way to display recipes on it? Maybe if there's a recipe service you could partner with that has a decent API?

But in general I reckon you should market the Google Calendar stuff, which already exists and looks awesome!

Re: I spent 3 years working on a coat hanger [video]

#308

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Making a product, certifying it and making sure it’s safe is also hard. But marketing is extremely important and it’s just a very different skill than tech. I make these epaper calendar displays. https://shop.invisible-computers.com I have invested thousands of hours into making them as good as possible. You couldn’t tell from my website :D I would probably profit much more if I just stopped improving them and focuse…

That's great! Some small things about your website: - "Contact" page says "Kontact" in en-GB locale - Do you need a shopping cart for one product? Just have the "buy it now" and leave the cart out? - Do you need a search? There are only a couple of pages. - The Contact page might want to highlight to the user that there is a chat feature in the bottom right, if they prefer that to email. Other than those little bits,…

I'm a software engineer, and the most concerned about marketing in my circle... and I still suck at it and promoting my stuff. How do I get better? I would love to work on actual marketing projects with experienced marketers as a side project.

Re: I spent 3 years working on a coat hanger [video]

#309
post #274

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This looks nice. The website is a bit thin on description/documentation. How much does the display weigh? What's the power usage (Watts)? Presumably the device connects via Wifi? Does it support WPA3? Does this work with private iCloud calenders (e.g. as described in [0])? Is all processing on-device, i.e. doesn't involve any cloud services and would work in a closed home network if the calendars are served on that n…

Hi, you are right, I need to add a FAQ section to the page! - It weights about 400g including the wooden stand. - It draws very little power. I am not sure how much, but you can run it on a battery pack for quite a while. (The power draw is so low that some external battery packs think that nothing is connected and go into standby, which is annoying.) - Yes it uses WiFI. Not sure about WPA3 to be honest. - Private iC…

Thanks. Would you open-source the server software so one can self-host it? To be honest, I wouldn’t want to disclose my calendars to a third party.

Re: I spent 3 years working on a coat hanger [video]

#310
post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the best ideas come when you make something that you really want for yourself. In 2020, I really wanted an eink calendar to hang on my wall. Still, many people built one for themselves and never turned it into a commercial product. It’s a lot of work and some of it is boring. And you have to pay for certification and worry about all that paperwork that comes with a business. It took me 3 years: https://shop.i…

You should 'Show HN' this in its own right, this is great.

It has been on here a couple of times: https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=invisible-computers.c...
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