I just joined the @AinaInterface pilot.

Precision machinery still leaves plenty of work for human hands. Not long now before Aina leaves ours and reaches our first pilots. Into the final stretch!

Basics, taken more seriously than basics usually are. That’s one way to wear Aina, for now. Launching soon! Until then, watch closely. You might spot Aina in the wild.

Some of Aina’s story is already hiding in its identity. Its name means mirror, which led us to reflection, chrome, geometry, and an identity that changes with its surroundings. There is still a lot about Aina we can’t reveal, but this is a closer look at some of the identity decisions behind it. More soon.

A finished product can look deceptively simple. But what goes into it are the nuances of manufacturing: PCBs being fabricated, components being placed and soldered, assemblies coming together layer by layer, and an enormous amount of machinery, precision, process, and coordination that you would never guess from the finished product. We’re building alongside manufacturing partners whose worlds revolve around end mills, molds, carbide inserts, and details measured in microns. This is what’s #BehindTheBuild.

Back in January, we were going to CES as a stealth startup. We needed business cards. But a business card's entire job is to tell people who you are, and we weren't allowed to say. So me and @raktimrajkalita came up with a card that would transform from saying Mirage to Aina. Every card we handed out that week was already carrying our real name concealed within it. Six months later, Mirage had faded to Aina just as we came out of stealth. No app, no QR code, nobody touching anything. Wrote up the whole build — the chemistry, the problems, the rejects ↓ aina.com/journal/business-ca…

All facets of Aina.

What a feeling to see our marketing experiment feature on the @MadOMarketing page. Have been following MOM for years, like many of us here, so getting to be on the other side of that feed has to be surreal. HUGE Shoutout to our design savants, @here_atharva & @raktimrajkalita who brought this whole idea to life. A few months ago they took plain receipt paper and turned it into a business card that gradually transforms the print to reveal our real name (Aina) over time. What stays with me is how little it took. No fancy material, no big production. Just a good read on paper most of us treat as trash the second we're handed it.

We hosted a private factory tour for some of our early pilot users today. Shared a piece of our journey with them: from the early Project Mirage days to how Aina came together, the experiments, the prototypes, and the hardware that is now going into their hands. As we start the Pilot, we will be hosting more of these. Sign up and we will see you at our next closed-door walkthrough.

There’s more here than meets the eye. 👀 We might drop another Easter egg at 9 PM IST tonight. Watch this space!

We left a little hint of Aina in our Mirage business cards at CES. Back in January, we were still building in stealth under the name Project Mirage. We went to CES and handed out business cards with the Mirage name on them, even though we already knew a rebrand was coming. We weren't ready to reveal Aina yet, so we left a little hint in the cards. The trick was thermal paper. The same paper used for receipts, where heat activates the print and makes it visible. We printed Mirage on the top layer and Aina underneath. As the thermal print faded over time, the permanent Aina print slowly revealed itself. Now that's an early Easter egg for you. 👀

Back when we were building in stealth as Project Mirage, we handed out business cards at CES '26. The catch? We knew a rebrand was coming, but we weren't ready to reveal our new name just yet. So we printed our business cards on thermal paper, the same paper used for receipts, designed to slowly fade over time. Over the following weeks, Project Mirage gradually disappeared, revealing Aina underneath. Want to now how we made it? Stay tuned.

The oldest habits are the hardest to question. July 16 8:00 a.m. PT | 8:30 p.m. IST The Mirage Lifts. To Something Larger.

July 16 8 AM PT | 8:30 PM IST The Mirage Lifts. To Something Larger.

"Dune stands out as a thoughtfully designed control device for everyday computer interactions" - @MacSrcs