My biggest pet peeve with meeting apps is that each one has a different shortcut to mute your microphone or turn off your webcam. It’s hard to remember which keys do what when you’re in the middle of a meeting trying to make a point or ask a question. I’ve always wanted a physical, universal button for mute and camera control – something I could press without thinking. Project Mirage’s Dune, a small aluminum keyboard with three keys – about the size of a piece of chewing gum – that plugs into your MacBook’s USB-C port, does just that.
The $119 gadget has three buttons, and it changes context based on which app you’re looking at. For example, in meeting apps and websites, it could be on/off microphone, on/off video, and bring window to front. For Excel or Sheets, it can be copy, paste and undo. For Chrome, it could be refresh, jump to the URL bar, and paste. You get the gist. Developers can also use it with apps like VS Code or GitHub to merge, approve, or close a pull request.
The startup builds each device to match your specific Mac model, so it sits flush with the laptop without gaps underneath. If your ports are already in use, you can connect it via a dongle instead. Dune has no battery and needs no separate charger – it draws power directly from the MacBook.
Currently, the startup supports M2 Air or later and M1 Pro or later models of MacBook running macOS 15 Sequoia or a later version.
The device looks and feels nice, but I felt the keys had more resistance. Right now, it’s easy to press a key by mistake. A few times I accidentally shot myself up or killed my camera because my hand brushed the device while reaching for a water bottle or coffee mug. It shouldn’t be that easy to press a key.
Dune comes with a companion app for configuring shortcuts, either per app or the entire system. Within a given app, you can assign a Dune key to a keyboard shortcut, command, or link that opens an app or URL.
Through the app, Dune also syncs with your calendar and shows your next meeting a few minutes before it starts, so you can join, decline or send an “I’m running late” message with a single tap.
If you want deeper customization, you can write and run your own Python script. If you don’t code, Dune has easy integration with Claude Desktop: you describe the shortcut you want in plain language, and Claude writes it and assigns it to a key for that app – no manual setup required.
I built a shortcut that, whenever I’m on a startup’s website, provides a quick map of the company: its competitors, investors, and questions I could ask if I booked a meeting with them. For anyone whose job involves rapidly scaling businesses—investors, founders, operators—it’s a task tailor-made for Dune. I also built one that converts images to JPG so I can quickly upload them to WordPress or social platforms. Both were easy to build and required no manual configuration, although it still takes some back and forth to get a shortcut fully functional with Claude, including debugging when you actually run it.
The app also has a marketplace from which you can explore skills made by other Dune owners. If the marketplace takes off, it could become the core of Dune’s growth and retention strategy—hardware as a thin front-end for a Claude-powered skills ecosystem, where each new skill gives owners another reason to stick around.
But currently there are only limited skills. Plus, there’s no way to test a skill without assigning it to the hardware button—ideally, the app would let you preview a skill before committing it to hardware. The startup will also proactively add more of its own suggested skills to various apps for its users.
Project Mirage’s device retails for $149 after its introductory price expires, and it’s a solid choice for anyone who’s productivity-minded. MuteMe only covers mute/unmute and Stream Deck offers business-focused macros, but Dune is easier to customize on both hardware and software.
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