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The Wall Dashboard That Finally Lets You Make the Clock Bigger

2024 · From the Tech with Asher channel · Watch below or read on

I have publicly begged Google and Amazon for one feature: let me make the time on the screen bigger. In one video I literally said, if anyone is listening, please. They have not. Then an AI chatbot I was talking with about smart displays mentioned the DAKBoard CPU, any size display, any customization. It sounded too good to be true, so I got one and put it on a 27 inch screen. Here is what I found.

The hardware, briefly

A palm-size box: USB-C power, two micro HDMI outputs, audio in and out, USB-A ports for a keyboard and mouse, and an Ethernet port for rock-solid connectivity. Plug it into anything with HDMI, portrait or landscape. Strictly speaking you do not even need the box, the whole thing is a web portal you can open on any computer, but the CPU runs the dedicated DAKBoard operating system and everything feels smoother on it.

The clock test

I opened my template, clicked the time, clicked edit, and set the font size to 100. It just took it. A clock readable from the far end of the house, on a 27 inch screen, exactly what I had been asking the big brands for. Twelve or twenty-four hour format, date format, time zone, all adjustable in the same panel.

Blocks: build the wall your family actually needs

Everything is a block you add from a menu: monthly calendars, agenda views, to-do lists tied to Google Tasks (add an item by voice from your phone and it appears on the wall), stocks and exchange rates, photos, text labels, fitness data. I connected my Nest account and dropped the downstairs hallway temperature onto the screen, sized it up, and typed an Indoor Temperature label above it. Then I duplicated my calendar block and added my wife's calendar beside mine; there is no real limit to how many you add.

The honest caveats

Being web-based, there is occasionally a beat of lag. The first setup takes longer than a plug-in smart display and rewards a little patience. And full disclosure: DAKBoard sent me this CPU to review, though everything above is my own configuration and opinion. The conclusion I keep coming back to: for a household that wants one glanceable screen, readable across the room by every generation in the house, sized and arranged your way, this is the most flexible way I have found to build it. Even a 70 inch TV can be your family dashboard.