Little Printer is now an open source messaging hardware

Not many may remember Little Printer from Berg. It was a hardware device that would print out small scraps of whatever you needed- Instagram photos, reminder lists, part of news articles, etc. Linked to the internet, the small box-device was popular till it shut down in 2014. But now, it’s coming back to life as Nord Projects- a design consultancy firm revamps the device with a new app.

While the functioning of the device remains to print tiny scraps, the redesign highlight is that Little Printer also has the ability to send messages between devices now. It was a group of enthusiasts on GitHub who got Little Printer back to life on the open-source server Sirius. Then, Nord Projects worked on the iOS app and retained original features of fonts and other features.

The workings of the IoT device are quite simple. The app connects you to the device through iOS share sheets. For the messaging, you’ll need to create a username and device key. The device key is unique for every device- like a phone number. It’s from here that you give access for other printers to message. Suppose you send it to someone you didn’t mean to, you can revoke the access and create new keys.

You know what they say- send handwritten notes! Little Printer takes a digitized way around this. You’ll actually be sending them a personal note, which is printed!