Some people, for whatever reason, don't always love having their messages arrive on the same device that's also their bank, their news source, their subway fare, and their camera. For those people—and for those who just love a bizarre little computer—Eric Migicovsky has "a little side project" for you: Beepberry.

Beepberry is the fusion of a backlit BlackBerry Classic keyboard (with the logo button and all) and mini-touchpad, a Raspberry Pi Zero W, and a Sharp Memory LCD 400x240 screen—the kind of e-paper e-paper-like screen you'd commonly see on programming calculators. It's meant to be used with Beeper, the all-in-one chat service that can also relay SMS, including iMessage (typically through signing in to a Mac server remotely; more on that in Beeper's FAQ). It's available now for preorder for $99 if you want a Pi Zero W included and for $79 if you already have one you're willing to fuse in. You'll also need an SD card.

In a Twitter thread, Migicovsky, co-founder of Beeper and creator of the pioneering Pebble smartwatch, wrote that he wanted a "weekend device" that kept him in touch but didn't lead him into typical smartphone distractions. "I imagined a tiny, hackable e-paper screen with a physical keyboard, powered by a Raspberry Pi, useful to chat around my home…and pretty much nothing else," Migicovsky tweeted.

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But, as thoroughly emphasized in Migicovsky's blog post on Beeper, this is not a retail purchase. It's not even a Kickstarter-esque early access project. The Beepberry is a keyboard, a Pi Zero W, a screen, and a battery that is, at least in one demo video, secured to the package with a rubber band.

"You must be familiar with Linux in order to get any sort of value out of this device!" the post reads. "There is no case (though you can 3D print one!), the battery hangs off the back, and you need to configure/set up the software. Don’t expect something perfect."

While the first use case might seem narrow, any device based on a Raspberry Pi and open hardware access will quickly see novel uses arise. LTE modems and LoRA are two possibilities already presented. Time will tell if the Beepberry can live up to the "cyberdeck" framing that Beeper and SQFMI are peppering into their low-key marketing materials.

Preorders from SQFMI will ship in two-three months, though 50 hacker-developers can sign up for access to the first 50 units ready now. The device ships worldwide, and you can cancel any time before your order ships. There is, notably, "No warranty. It's a devkit!"

Listing image by Beepberry/SQFMI