This $60 Magnet Changed How I Use My iPhone
The Brick is a physical magnet designed to help users reduce their screentime by blocking certain apps on their smartphones. Launched in 2023, it utilizes NFC technology to lock and unlock apps through a simple tap, providing a tangible way to manage digital habits. Users can customize settings and create multiple modes for different scenarios, making it a versatile tool for those looking to improve their digital wellbeing.
- ▪The Brick is a $59 magnet that helps block apps on smartphones.
- ▪It uses NFC technology to lock and unlock apps when tapped.
- ▪Users can create up to 10 customizable modes for different occasions.
2 outlets in our directory ran this story, first to last over 2 hours. All of the coverage we found sits in one bucket: centre. That one-sidedness is itself worth noticing.
- ▪ How to use NameDrop to exchange iPhone contacts in seconds — AppleInsider
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| Original publisher | CNET — News |
| Canonical URL | https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/this-60-magnet-changed-how-i-use-my-iphone/ |
| Publication time | Thu, 21 May 2026 23:55:00 +0000 |
| Retrieval time | 2026-05-22T00:46:36.498Z |
| Last seen | 2026-05-22T00:46:36.498Z |
| Headline source | Publisher (no WeSearch rewrite) |
| Excerpt source | publisher body |
| Excerpt method | First ~120 words (~800 chars) of extracted publisher body, fair-use limited. |
| Summary | WeSearch · cerebras-chat (WeSearch summarizer) |
| Summary source text | contentText |
| Citation coverage | Summary is a WeSearch-generated derivative; primary citation is the original publisher URL. |
| Cluster | 2-Gbo6A7l3Sp · 2 stories |
| Cluster logic | Grouped by semantic title/content similarity across sources within a rolling window. Same-publisher template collisions are excluded from coverage comparison. |
| Ranking reason | Story pages are not engagement-ranked. Hub feeds use recency, with optional source-diversified chronological ordering (cap consecutive stories per source). No personalized ranking. |
| Publisher visit | Yes — open original |
| Substitutes article? | No — link-out required for full text |
Rights status (four layers)
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| Indexing | May the item be indexed (stored, ranked, made findable)? | Allowed |
| Snippet | May a short excerpt of the publisher's text be shown? | Allowed |
| AI summary | May WeSearch generate its own short summary of the article? | Limited |
| Retrieval / RAG | May the content be exposed for third-party retrieval-augmented generation? | Not asserted |
| Model training | May the content be used to train AI models? | Not asserted |
| Commercial reuse | May the content be reused commercially? | Not permitted |
Basis: Derived from the published RSS/Atom feed. Contact: [email protected]. Reviewed: 2026-07-24.
Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
The Brick isn't a traditional screentime app. It's a physical magnet that's the key to blocking certain apps on your phone. Jeffrey Hazelwood/Anna Gragert/CNET; Brick/GettyImages Table of Contents This $60 Magnet Changed How I Use My iPhone How to cement the Brick into your life My experience, brick by brick Is the Brick worth $60? My final thoughts My forever goal is to spend less time on my iPhone to protect my mental health. However, as a wellness writer whose job is to keep up with the latest health tech trends and news, it can be tough for me to decrease my screentime.
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Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at CNET — News.
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