Tweet
Getting your daily news, old style.
Guy DupontҠdata-modal-id=â€single-image-modal†data-modal-container-id=â€single-image-modal-container†data-img-caption=â€â€â€â€>
Key Takeaways
- “Mailblocks†is a Raspberry Pi-based device that blocks push notifications on your phone when it’s placed inside, giving you control over interruptions.
- The device was created by Guy Dupont, who wanted a way to only receive notifications when he actively checked for them, similar to checking mail from a physical mailbox.
- The phone is blocked from receiving notifications when it’s outside the mailbox, and notifications are only allowed when it’s placed inside and the lid is closed, helping to reduce distractions and enhance attention.
Push notifications on your phone are a double-edged sword. While they make it easy to keep track of what’s happening and what’s being said, they can also go off during stressful or inopportune times. To combat this, a Raspberry Pi enthusiast created a “phone mailbox†that only delivers push notifications while the phone is inside it.
The Raspberry Pi-powered “Mailblocksâ€
This smart invention is the creation of Guy Dupont on YouTube, who created a video explaining what the device does. He dubs it the “mailblocks,†because it will automatically block any push notifications from arriving on his phone. The only way to get updates is to physically place the phone inside of the mailbox and close the lid.
He got the idea after he wanted his phone to have “pull notifications;†that is, the notifications would only notify him if he went out of his way to check them. He equated “pull notifications†to getting mail from a mailbox outside, so he created a phone-based mailbox with Raspberry Pi.
If the phone is outside of the mailbox, it tells Guy’s router to block any incoming connections from Google’s push notification server. The only way to get notifications delivered to the phone is to place your phone in the mailbox and close the lid. This tells the router to allow push notifications again until the phone is removed from the mailbox or 30 seconds pass. You remove your phone, catch up on your notifications, and then go about your day until you decide to go get some more.
It’s a great project that reminds us just how attention-hungry our phones can get, and you can see all the details on the Hackaday Mailblocks page. Hopefully, Guy’s invention will inspire more Raspberry Pi-based projects that will help us reclaim our lives from the constant flow of notifications on our phones.
** (Disclaimer: This video content is intended for educational and informational purposes only) **
More...
