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NewsMaterial3 min readDisconfirmAI Editorial

The Verge's Sean Hollister: After Modding a $50 Device with Claude Code, I Believe the Value of Dedicated AI Hardware Lies Elsewhere

The Verge gadgets editor Sean Hollister spent $50 to have a Meta-sanctioned Waveshare development board shipped directly from China, then used Claude Code to transform it into an AI device capable of conversation, photography, and raising virtual pets. His conclusion is that the true reason to buy dedicated AI hardware isn't the AI assistant itself, but the ability to reprogram the entire device to perform tasks a smartphone cannot.

2026-11-01 00:05 GMT+8

Meta plans to release the Muse Charm this holiday season—a wearable AI pet hardware device. The Verge gadgets editor Sean Hollister didn't buy one; instead, he paid $50 to have a Waveshare ESP32-S3 1.75C touchscreen development board drop-shipped directly from China, using Claude Code to turn it into his own version of the Muse Charm.

This development board is one of the officially recommended Muse Gadget development kits by Meta, using Meta's open-source code and tokens to connect directly to the Muse AI cloud. Hollister plugged the device into his computer, directed Claude at Meta's GitHub repository, and paired it with the Muse mobile app. However, the out-of-the-box experience felt nearly useless: Muse treated his voice as audio clips for transcription rather than commands; responses were slow and silent; the screen displayed only a few words with no place to read full messages; there was only one static avatar named Jolly; and it failed to automatically discover smart home devices.

What truly changed everything was a few rounds of dialogue with Claude Code. When Hollister told Claude he couldn't read or hear Muse's replies, Claude built a conversation history page allowing him to swipe right to view full messages; he integrated ElevenLabs' British AI voice so the device could speak answers aloud. Complaining that the phone's front-facing camera showed an upside-down image during remote photo capture, Claude fixed the issue and added a low-quality Bluetooth real-time preview, enabling creative framing even when not connected to home Wi-Fi.

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The electronic pet aspect served as another example. He asked Claude to create a batch of different avatars and add a Tamagotchi-style mini-game where the pet needs feeding, playing, sleeping, and bathing. Finding the game too simple to hold attention, he instructed Claude to add four levels each for hunger, boredom, and dirtiness. He decided that snacks would leave crumbs making the pet dirty, and excessive play would tire it out. Throughout the process, he only needed to describe what he wanted; Claude handled the coding.

He also had Claude spend 15 minutes creating a pocket watch face with three hands that actually tells time, as well as a video player. He downloaded, edited, and loaded Mark Zuckerberg's introduction clip of the Muse Charm onto the small screen.

Hollister explicitly stated he has no programming experience and doesn't know if the code quality is good or if it contains fatal flaws. He also does not trust Meta or Muse, citing prior reports that Muse leaked a reviewer's home address; therefore, he placed the device on a guest Wi-Fi network from the start.

His final judgment is that Muse itself is not a reason to buy dedicated computing hardware, because the Muse features on a smartphone offer more functionality than the development board in its out-of-the-box state. The reason to own dedicated hardware is that you can reprogram the entire device to do things the smartphone in your pocket cannot. This raises a question about the upcoming Muse Charm: Will it allow such free programming, or should people who really want to tinker just buy a development kit?

Sources

  • theverge.comThe Verge↗
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