Kudos to the Flipper Zero team for making such a desirable toy. Build a thing, get a couple Wired articles written up about it, make several million dollars.
I feel like you’re giving it an unfair shake. They didn’t just _build a toy_ those of us who originally supported through kickstarter saw a huge chunk of the work that went into building this device, the flipper team (10ish people?) has and continues to overcome so many crazy things (Covid, chips, supply chains, shipping) just to have the flipper device available world wide. The dev/modding community behind it is pretty amazing.
Full disclosure I was a very early backer. I have used my Flipper for fun and business. I can’t think of any other $120 _toy_ I use as much. Maybe I’m biased, and took your comment out of context.
You seem to be interpreting my usage of the word "toy" negatively. I mean no disrespect. I only just missed the Kickstarter. I have one and it's great. I built a keyboard for it on the GPIO and wrote an app. As far as toys go, as an adult, I didn't give up toys, they just got (way) more expensive (like my motorcycle or my friend's Porsche).
It comes with a tamagotchi in the stock firmware so it's hard not seeing it as a device for fun and whimsy aka a toy.
In calling it a toy, I'm saying it's a B2C product, neatly packaged up with few sharp edges. It has an easy to use app. I don't have to dig deep into some cross-compiler setup to build firmware for it. Professional HW dev should be so easy!
My underlying point was that the Wired article and subsequent press has launched the product far further than originally thought.
Why does the word toy connotate so negatively for you?
In some countries for some age-groups it is implied that only children play with toys. Equating the use of it, to be someone who is a child.
While you can't control interpretation of the word, you're now aware of its connotations in certain cultures and how you can be interpreted. The burden of its possible misuse is now on you.
> While you can't control interpretation of the word, you're now aware of its connotations in certain cultures and how you can be interpreted. The burden of its possible misuse is now on you.
What a ridiculous and pedantic take. Language has always been contextual and nuanced. One of those contexts is obviously culture. In situations where clarity is needed, it can be sought.
There is no burden of misuse, much less more than any other word in english.
I'm not GP but I have used it to debug my car remote. It was unlocking but not locking. Used the Flipper to confirm that the remote wasn't sending anything on lock button presses. Solved it with opening up the key and some cleaning of the PCB. Was very helpful there as it was otherwise quite tricky to work out where the problem was.
Otherwise haven't found any use for it. I wanted to use it to clone my garage remote but couldn't get it to work.
Yeah I guess so. Though it's something I'm not familiar with. And the Flipper was something I had at home already. To be fair until then I couldn't find any use for it.
In my opinion the whole appeal of the Flipper is that it bundles a bunch of radio gadgets and makes them easy to use and accessible. Are there better tools for each job? Definitely! But I presume setting up an SDR would have involved a fair bit more research and work. On the Flipper it took five minutes of trying out the different modes.
I feel like you’re giving it an unfair shake. They didn’t just _build a toy_ those of us who originally supported through kickstarter saw a huge chunk of the work that went into building this device, the flipper team (10ish people?) has and continues to overcome so many crazy things (Covid, chips, supply chains, shipping) just to have the flipper device available world wide. The dev/modding community behind it is pretty amazing.
Full disclosure I was a very early backer. I have used my Flipper for fun and business. I can’t think of any other $120 _toy_ I use as much. Maybe I’m biased, and took your comment out of context.