from Hacker News

DeskHog, an open-source developer toy

by constantinum on 6/11/25, 1:37 PM with 106 comments

  • by seveibar on 6/11/25, 6:30 PM

    Hardware is becoming more accessible, so more software companies are going to release hardware products or build hardware products for internal purposes. The future of physical world innovation isn't going to come from legacy hardware corpos, but from software companies that run hardware experiments that become real hardware products. Hats off to Posthog for making it cool!

    The reason hardware has sucked in the past is poor tooling. But now open-source solutions are getting pretty good, and AI is covering many knowledge gaps.

  • by socalgal2 on 6/11/25, 9:57 PM

    It's a amazing to me what can be made / sold for so cheap. A friend recently got one of these

    https://www.surenoo.com/products/23280116

    (note: the picture with the hand is way off scale. Thing is slightly larger than a MagSafe phone charging ring (since one way to power it is to put it over such a ring)

    $25

    Unfortunately I have no experience on how to mod it and after searching for 10-15 mins it seemed like more work than I wanted to deal with. Seems like you need to build your own firmware and re-flash it. I found someone had used it to build a nest like control for Home Assistant

    https://community.home-assistant.io/t/guition-1-8-360x360-es...

    If I'd found an easier way to just write some python or JavaScript I might have spent a few hours/days making some round games or demos.

  • by joshdavham on 6/11/25, 5:58 PM

    This looks really cool, but I'm not really sure why they made it. PostHog is primarily web analytics software from what I understand. Why build hardware?

  • by rideontime on 6/11/25, 5:32 PM

    I still can't believe this company is named "post hog."

  • by mananaysiempre on 6/11/25, 5:42 PM

    > Can it play Doom?

    >...We're working on it.

    Seriously though, can a ESP32-S3 Reverse TFT Feather[1] (dual-core Xtensa @ 240 MHz, 512KB built-in RAM, 2MB external PSRAM, 4MB Flash) play Doom? As usual with these microcontroller-type things, it looks like storage poses a harder limit than compute, but maybe just a bit of Doom could be crammed in?

    [1] https://www.adafruit.com/product/5691

  • by INTPenis on 6/11/25, 8:34 PM

    I instantly pictured this being a rubber duck. And then I started thinking, how could a virtual rubber duck help you deduce things?

    Mostly you'd want it to listen and be supportive I guess.

    But maybe, just maybe, could AI somehow summarize a very short suggestion or response based on what you say.

    That is something I'd buy. Tactile, can be thrown around a bit, listens at the press of a button, responds with a random short suggestion or idea.

  • by jasperry on 6/11/25, 9:43 PM

    I like the idea of this enough to search a bit for similar projects. The deal breaker on this for me is the 1.14-inch screen. Middle age has made it much less pleasant to look at things that small.

  • by teraflop on 6/11/25, 8:27 PM

    Don't get me wrong, this seems like a fun thing to play with. But it feels very weird to see so much marketing and branding poured into something that's literally just a plastic enclosure and software for an off-the-shelf dev board made by somebody else.

    Like, the page says:

    > Want more hardware? We included an I²C expansion port, just for people like you.

    No you didn't! Adafruit did! You didn't even add a connector.

  • by kreetx on 6/11/25, 9:29 PM

    Enjoyed the joke in the cookie banner! Have been mildly surprised how people controlling larger websites haven't been casually poking fun at this before.

  • by newman314 on 6/11/25, 8:41 PM

    While cool, instead of buying this, I wonder if anyone has tried to used their Flipper for this use case.

  • by smallbread on 6/12/25, 1:57 PM

    If you want something with ESP32-S3 and a bigger touch screen to hack on (the current software is very young), there's the UM squixl. https://unexpectedmaker.com/shop.html#!/SQUiXL/p/743870537. They also make a WOPR kit that can tie into home assistant.

  • by bradleykingz on 6/11/25, 5:45 PM

    Working at Posthog must be fun

  • by tomjuggler on 6/13/25, 10:08 AM

    The S3 is a really amazing upgrade to ESP32, dual core with FreeRTOS and Arduino side-by-side.

    I'm using the same chip for my upcoming product launch - having a good look at this firmware now to see if I can learn something..

  • by bitwize on 6/11/25, 5:10 PM

    Hog Speed. You're a hedgehog that runs fast. Sounds like a lame game concept with niche appeal at best.

    This thing looks seriously cute and next to useless. Like a mini Chumby. A perfect gadget for "the street to find its own uses for".

  • by sibeliuss on 6/11/25, 5:38 PM

    This thing is rad.

    So many props on the Series D fundraise. Well deserved. (Best company ever.)

  • by kamranjon on 6/11/25, 7:14 PM

    Well that’s certainly one way to make me want to work at your company.

  • by UK-Al05 on 6/12/25, 2:12 PM

    It looks way to small to be of any practical use. To small to display useful information, to small to play games on it?

    What's the use of this?

  • by bieber on 6/13/25, 7:05 AM

    DeskHog pops up with cute animations when builds finish or tests pass—like a digital high-five.

  • by voidUpdate on 6/12/25, 9:31 AM

    Ive had a project a lot like this on my infinite todo list for a while now

  • by stuaxo on 6/13/25, 5:40 PM

    What is this?

    If it's not a hackable toy pig it'll be disappointing.

  • by swyx on 6/11/25, 6:25 PM

    i would buy it if the screen looked a bit better. based on this website it looks really small and not super useful for the "keep analytics up on screen" usecase

  • by fnord77 on 6/11/25, 5:48 PM

    FYI, my Pihole is blocking this domain.

  • by doubleorseven on 6/11/25, 6:41 PM

    i still wish i had a small keyboard with like 9 configurable keys that can execute what ever i want like "start debug" or "open tty at a specific folder" or "git status a specific repository" and so on...

  • by madh on 6/11/25, 8:05 PM

    epaper version would be cool

  • by citrus1330 on 6/12/25, 5:32 PM

    but what is it for?

  • by quinndupont on 6/11/25, 9:36 PM

    The hardware is UGLY.

  • by slajob on 6/13/25, 9:21 AM

    Idk... I don't see any real use. Just another gadget toy

  • by anigbrowl on 6/11/25, 9:20 PM

    Chuckles in M5stack