A small dashboard. Off the phone.

01Why this is a useful gift

The student won't buy it for themselves. They probably should.

Many students wouldn't buy something like this on their own. They'd keep using a phone calendar, miss the lab report, and panic in the library at 1 AM. A small, single-purpose dashboard on the desk solves a problem they don't yet know is a problem.

A subscription, an app, another tab open in Chrome: those things add to the noise. A piece of e-paper that sits beside the laptop and quietly says this is due Tuesday takes some of the noise away. The difference is the whole product.

And it asks nothing new of the student. It only reflects what's already in their class portal and their Todoist: no new app to open, no habit to keep up, nothing to remember to check. It can't become one more thing they fall behind on. At worst, it's a quiet object on the desk; at best, they stop missing things.

02What it actually does

One screen. Everything due. Organized by course.

Margin is a small e-paper screen that sits on the student's desk. A browser plugin on their laptop reads their school's online class portal (Canvas, Blackboard, D2L, or Moodle) and writes every assignment into their Todoist as a real task, organized into one project per course. The device reads from Todoist on every refresh and shows today's tasks at the top, this week below, and a small status footer. It doesn't do anything else.

It doesn't make sounds. It doesn't refresh while watched. There are no notifications, no feed, no scroll. The screen draws zero current between refreshes, so you can leave it plugged in all semester without thinking about it.

One quiet upside of organizing by course: when the student is sitting in PHYS 211 and the professor adds a problem set, it shows up under their PHYS 211 project on their phone, on the device, and anywhere else they use Todoist. Same task, three places, one source of truth.

If you want the longer version, the homepage walks through it. The specs page has the hardware details. The FAQ has the answers we'd give a friend.

03What it isn't

When not to buy it.

Margin isn't a smartphone replacement. It won't read email. It won't text you back. It won't help if the student isn't already trying to keep up. It doesn't track grades, and it doesn't pester anyone to study.

It also won't solve a procrastination problem on its own. If the student is academically struggling, a desk object is one helpful piece of furniture, not a tutor. Please don't buy this hoping a single device will turn things around. Buy it because it removes a small daily friction. That's all it claims to do, and that's all it does.

If the student already has a paper planner that works for them, they don't need this. The honest answer is: stick with the paper planner.

04The practical bits

What to expect, plainly.

Requires a free Todoist account. Margin's data pipeline runs through Todoist (the popular task app), which the student can use on their phone and laptop too. The free tier is enough for a typical four-to-six-course schedule. If the student doesn't already have a Todoist account, the onboarding walks through creating one, and they keep using it after graduation.

Setup. Plug the device into USB-C (the cable comes with it). Install a small browser plugin on the student's laptop, connect it to their Todoist, and map each of their courses to a Todoist project. Five to ten minutes, one time.

Size. Roughly the footprint of a small hardcover book. Sits beside a laptop, not in front of it. Black anodized aluminum bezel, black plastic back housing, a red line down the left side of the screen that's the whole brand.

Price. Expected $189. The final number lands at the Kickstarter launch later in 2026. We'll write the day pre-orders open. No newsletter, no marketing blasts.

Packaging. Kraft cardboard, unmarked enough to wrap directly. A real gift-wrap option comes with batch two.

Warranty. One year limited, thirty-day returns. If something breaks in normal use within the first year, we repair or replace it. Full terms on the specs page.

05If you're still reading

A small note, from one of us to one of you.

I'm a physics major, and I built Margin because I was tired of opening five tabs every morning to figure out what was due. Most of the first fifty are going to people like me. A few of them are going to people who someone like you decided to buy one for. That's a different kind of gift, and we think about it that way.

If you have a question that didn't get answered here, write to hello@margin.computer. I read everything. If a Margin isn't right for the student you're thinking of, I'll tell you that, too.

— Mitch