Chris Dragan's Corner

I have an idea for an Android device which I want to share with you.

At some point in my life I started using calendars on portable devices, first on Palm Z22, then on iPod touch. Whenever I am I can always turn on the device and check if I have anything to do this day or the next day, so I can plan ahead. There is so much going on that it’s hard to remember all the things I have to do, let alone things planned months ahead, such as dentist appointments for example.

But when I am home, the problem is I have to walk to the place where I put my device, unlock it, then open the calendar app. This costs time.

This is easily solvable by having a calendar hanging on the wall in the central place of the house such as the kitchen. Another good place is the door of the fridge. But a static, paper calendar can only be looked up where it is placed. I cannot check it when I am away from home.

Android to the rescue! I’ve seen people using their Android tablets as picture frames. Why not use an Android tablet as a calendar? There could even be a device especially suited for this task. The nice thing about Google calendar is that you can share it with other people, so you could have a common family account and all members of the family would share their calendars with it (you can have multiple calendars with your Google account).

The device I am looking for could be described as follows:

• It is an Android tablet.
• It is very thin and very light.
• It has an e-ink screen so it does not consume much energy. The screen will display the last image even if the battery is discharged.
• It has a low power CPU. The CPU can be slow, it does not matter for this purpose.
• It does not need to have any connectors.
• It has WiFi.
• It has a solar cell with which it charges its battery. No charger necessary.
• It has a touch screen as an input device.
• No other gimmicks necessary, no Bluetooth, no camera.
• It can be hung on the wall, it can stand on the shelf or it can be attached to the fridge door using magnets on its back.
• It has no unlock screen. In the default mode it displays the calendar app.
• It is cheap. The upper limit would be $50, but $25 price tag would be perfect. There are e-ink readers which cost less than this (although they are subsidized). Some printed calendars cost this much.

I would certainly purchase such device if it was available. So far I failed to find one. If you find a similar device, let me know.