modem-thing
Hardware
modem hardware hacking
SHOW HN2026
210points
37comments
#270of 4,366 in 2026
Top 7%of 2026 by points
How HN took it
CuriousMostly questions and neutral comments
7 positive, 14 neutral or asking, 0 mixed, 3 critical, out of 24 comments about the project. Thread score +0.22.
Performance: 0 for, 2 againstIdea: 2 for, 0 againstDesign: 1 for, 0 againstExecution: 0 for, 1 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Cool cyberdeck-like project; Clicks keyboard repurposing praised
From 4 comments
This is a really cool project! A mini cyberdeck that doesn't seem too impractical to use. Repurposing the Clicks keyboard is a genius idea.
xx_ns on HNThis is the coolest dang project
dividedcomet on HNI love this
koinedad on HNReally cool!
dgf18 on HN
Objections
Hardware is too old and weak for AI agents
From 2 comments
What it has at its core is a smartphone chipset from 2014 - MSM8916 or so. Not exactly an AI compute powerhouse.
ACCount39 on HNTruly, I couldn't imagine a worse platform to put a coding agent on. What even would be the point? It's got less than 512GB of RAM, no package manager, and virtually no storage.
RIMR on HN
Unclear what the point of the project is
From 1 comment
This is cool and all, but what is the point? I have a feeling it could be useful for me but what is it really for?
DingleDodies on HN
Requests
Guide to cheap MSM8916 platforms
From 1 comment
Oh, if it isn't the MSM8916 himself! Fancy seeing you out there in the wild - posting on HN no less! Is there a guide for cheap MSM8916 platforms you would recommend? There is a…
ACCount39 on HN
Questions
How to read SMS through the web interface on a laptop
From 1 comment
How do you check sms/OTP/text using web interface on your laptop?
newhotelowner on HN
Alternatives named
postmarketOS on Zhihe LTE dongles
From 1 comment
Postmarketos works well on those and they have lots of info and links. [1] My biggest tip is to carefully back up every partition of the original firmware - there are many many…
djfergus on HN
Armbian MSM8916 build
From 1 comment
Not tried but seems like a fairly recent Arabian build (last release was June) https://github.com/Crychic-Band/msm8916-armbian
Matsta on HN