Hugo Barra, coming by way of his Google+ page, recently reached out to Xiaomi users looking for help in naming and a new product. Barra referred to this as a clever little gadget, and included some potential name ideas of Mi Button and Mi Key. More to the point here, this clever little gadget turns your headphone jack into a clickable button.
This concept may sound a bit familiar to some as we’ve already seen something similar on Kickstarter. This other project was around last year and called Pressy. The concept and overall functionality appears to be close to the same, however Pressy seems like it had a bit more in terms of device support.
In his posting, Barra mentioned how users would be able to “plug it into your Xiaomi phone headset jack.” That bit sort of suggests support only for Xiaomi devices. Further details here mentioned how the Xiaomi gadget is a “clickable button” that can store “up to 10 actions for 10 different click types.”
While the Pressy Kickstarter was from 2013, the product page on the Get Pressy Button website shows pre-orders are available and expected to begin shipping in the spring of 2014. The Xiaomi button looks like it will be available on an international basis. But so far we have yet to see anything firm in terms of a date, or a price. Not to mention, how the folks at Pressy will feel about this clone.
[Update] Xiaomi, by way of their official Weibo page, have announced the MiKey will be priced at RMB 4.9 (roughly $0.80) and available April 8th.
SOURCE: +HugoBarra, Pressy, Tech In Asia
Wondering how to get 10 pcs of these… I am sure there will be plenty of third party apps to support this thing. Pressy did not deliver and actually stole my money…