$2 WeAct Display FS adds a 0.96-inch USB information display to your computer
19 comments
·September 20, 2025ahmedfromtunis
bee_rider
I wonder if the previous generation felt that way about the little unlit LCDs that used to be in everything (although, I bet they were more than $2 adjusted for inflation).
haunter
Aand it's gone https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005009941797169.html
grizzles
Seems perfect for a YubiKey type of device. Know where your authenticating to.
derefr
Crypto hardware wallets have had little screens on them for ages now, for this same reason. Rather than trusting the app to tell you the truth about the tx it's presenting your key to sign, your key shows you the tx hash / amount to be transferred / etc, and asks you to make sure the details match before approving.
rr808
One thing I would like is a small portable hdmi display to use with my headless servers when they fail to boot. Even better would show screen over network.
mmastrac
AliExpress has a beautiful 7" screen for peanuts. It has a surprisingly clear display and has so many uses:
https://youtu.be/LC3INaZVqFA?si=2BV5N3_7TtWPRlUj
It even has USB power and speakers.
jcul
I have a portable monitor I used to use as a second screen while travelling.
I actually used it again recently while setting up a new home server, got me as far as SSH access.
It wasn't super cheap, but not that expensive either.
jsheard
How small are we talking? There are tons of cheap portable monitors built around laptop panels.
rr808
Its for my closet so I wanted smaller - like < 10 inch. You inspired me to look again and you're right they're available in this size. thanks. Still would like a network solution as well btw. :)
jsheard
I can't vouch for any particular one but there are a number of cheap network KVMs now, which enable that kind of remote management.
e.g. https://www.cnx-software.com/2024/07/08/20-nanokvm-is-a-tiny...
VladVladikoff
Would be cool if I could reprogram it for some other output, because I don’t really see the need for this except for maybe on a raspberry pi “server”.
gregsadetsky
This display is definitely programmable to show any output you'd want. A similar display is the Turing Smart Screen (linked in the article) which is a small image-over-usb display.
((I really wanted the latter display to work on my Mac, but there's unfortunately some OS-level USB buffering (I think) that ends up creating a corrupted image - https://github.com/mathoudebine/turing-smart-screen-python/i... ))
squigz
You can? As linked in the article, it's open source and supports custom themes/UIs
JdeBP
Alarm bells always go off for me when a vendor, as here, blatantly Photoshops an idealized perfectly black, flat, and non-reflective mockup image of what would be displayed onto the picture of the real display.
downrightmike
dead link
dark-star
AliExpress links are often geo-restricted and only work from some country/countries.
inChargeOfIT
works for me
For some reason, nothing says "future" to me more than having tiny screens embedded where they're not absolutely needed.
When I grew up in the 90s and 00s, screens were definitely the most expensive part of any system they belonged to. And any gadget that came with its own screen attached to it was regarded as a delicacy only for the elite.
Living long enough to see "disposable" screens cheaper than literal candy getting attached everywhere makes me happy.
Can't wait to see Gemini-2.5 Pro-level LLMs embedded inside single post-it notes and thrown away like it's no big deal.