Thread by @forrestmaready

Does this product already exist? Would you want something this?

It’s battery-powered off-grid Wifi/Internet that will keep working even when everything else doesn’t. Plus a few other cool tricks.

Any interest? I’m working on a prototype.

Someone PLEASE stop me.

When I was growing up, we had a shelf in our den where important books were kept: A medical reference. A dictionary. A home repair guide. An encyclopedia. Where are those books now? We don’t own them anymore—we get that info through the internet.

What if the internet goes out?

On that same shelf were our photo albums. The first things we would grab in case there was a fire. Where are those photo albums now? For many, they’re in iCloud or Dropbox Google Photos.

What if the internet goes out?

I can’t stop thinking about losing access to the most important things to me—all because someone else took away my internet.

You’ve seen people lose access to their bank accounts recently. I don’t imagine losing internet access would be considered MORE controversial than that.

We have few reference books in my house to look things up if the internet went out—and that bothers me.

Most of our photos are stored in the cloud rather than in our house—and that bothers me.

I’ve been sketching out a rugged, battery-powered Wifi router with Superhero powers. Let’s call the thing Flint. It’s loosely based on the form factor of the Zoom F6 Field Recorder. Imagine something a bit shorter and with fewer knobs.

Flint's most important feature—it doesn’t connect to the internet. At all. Ever. It comes with a few “sites” preloaded in storage. You can archive other websites on your own and add them if you like, but the device itself is designed to never connect to the internet.

It would have 2 SD card slots for external storage. You can do what you want with those. You could save—and stream—your music library to anything connected. Most people would use it to back-up their photos and videos from their mobile devices.

Software on the Flint would allow you to view and organize your backed up photos just like iCloud or Dropbox—except those photos would never touch the internet. They would only exist on your phone and your Superhero device. (h/t: Bala UX via Dribbble)

Flint would be rugged and powerful. It would come with a Gain knob so that you could control the Wifi signal. If you’re in a small location and wanted to save battery life, you could turn it down. If you’re at a campsite and want others to connect, you could crank it to 11.

It would use the Sony NP-F battery, an extremely popular and versatile battery system.

nofilmschool.com/2017/03/watch-…

Obviously, you could plug it straight into a normal electrical outlet or car charger, but the battery options would provide a lot of flexibility. (h/t Zoom F6)

You could put some kid-friendly videos or games on there and have a data-plan free Wifi hub for your family’s next roadtrip. Super cool? Please tell me it’s not.

The interesting part comes when Flint devices connect to each other. It would make it super-easy to connect with people you trust and share messages, news, photos, and a few other things—and never connect to the actual internet.

It would be a localized internet served only by people you know and trust. If you’re in a rural area, you might carry your device with you to the grocery store to purposefully “get the local news” from other nearby devices.

Instead of a paperboy, that same kid might make morning rounds throughout your neighborhood with his Flint device in order to “seed” everyone else’s Wifi router with the latest news, messages, and other local information.

Localized digital currencies could even be created and supported through this network of devices—with transactions that would never touch the actual internet at all. It would only exist within the circle of friends and neighbors whom you decide to trust.

I realize most people think they will never be cut off from the internet, but I don’t. There are already many things being hidden or blocked from us seeing. I don’t expect things to get better. A Flint device might help in some way.

Having a rugged, off-grid digital backup system that also had a few important reference sites permanently available to any mobile device would really ease my mind.

Please tell me this is a dumb idea. I really don’t want to try and make this.

There are a couple of other things a Flint device could do, but I’m begging someone to finish up a prototype and put it up on Kickstarter so that I'm not even tempted to.

I will THROW money at this project if it existed. Maybe there are others out there who would, too?