Summary
- Busy Box helps boost productivity by displaying to others when you’re busy and blocking notifications.
- The device is straightforward, integrating with your phone and third-party apps to minimize distractions.
- It’s available for $249 for those who want to stay focused in their work environment.
Not a lot of you might own a Flipper Zero, but you’re probably very much aware of all the crazy, hacky stuff one of these devices can do. The creators of the Flipper Zero have just announced a new product, and while it might not be as hacky as the Flipper Zero is, it’s still pretty neat.
Flipper Devices, the folks behind the Flipper Zero multi-purpose hacking tool, have just announced the Busy Bar, a new device that wants to help you boost your productivity. How, exactly? It’s a little device that hooks up to your monitor or sits on your table/wall. When you’re doing something, like if you’re busy writing an email or you’re on a call, that device will display to others that you’re busy. And when you set your Busy Bar to busy, it can interact with your devices in a ton of ways. You can make your Busy Bar block your phone’s notifications, it can integrate with third-party apps, and you can even set automations when you set it on busy and when that busy mode ends.
Functionally, it’s just a small ticker bar. When you hit the big button on top, you’ll set it to Busy. The left knob will let you set a timer for when this busy mode will automatically get disabled, while the right selector lets you switch between different settings—the regular “Busy” mode, a custom option that lets you choose whatever message you want, or you can switch between other settings. There’s a smartphone app that you can use that lets you customize your Busy Bar and integrate it with your phone’s notifications, but you can also control it via USB if you want to have direct access to it from your computer. And if you’re a developer, you can integrate and add support for the Busy Bar into your app with an API.
Related
Flipper Zero Review: A Multi-Tool Device With Toy-Like Appeal
The Flipper Zero is a portable multi-tool electronic device in a toy-like body that’s designed for experimentation.
It has a lot in common with the Flipper Zero in the fact that they both have open hardware and both have a small monochrome screen, but they otherwise have nothing in common at all. The Flipper Zero is a multi-purpose tool meant for power users. The Busy Bar, while more complex than just putting a piece of paper on the back of your laptop with “BUSY” written with a red marker, is still a straightforward device meant for one purpose—minimizing distractions while you work.
While it has a bunch of integrations with your phone and with some third-party apps to cut down on distractions, the big thing it has going is that big bright rear display that says “BUSY” when you push down on that huge top button. If you’re working in an office or a public space, that will let co-workers and other people know that you are, in fact, busy doing something—and it will hopefully also cut down on them approaching you to distract you unless it’s something life-or-death. It won’t stop absolutely all annoying co-workers, but you might be better off. And if they do approach you, you can also passive-aggressively tap the big red “BUSY” sign while you continue work.
The Busy Bar is now available to buy for $249 off its own website, so if you’re already sold on this, make sure to get yours now.
Source: Busy Bar
