Extend Engineer Builds Detailed Elizabeth Holmes Desk Simulator From Theranos Trial Documents

The environment aims to take users back to 2016. It includes iPhones with home buttons that require a finger swipe to unlock, and a MacBook Air running OS X El Capitan. Users can click around the space and look through documents made public from the court case on Holmes’ iPhone and laptop screens.

The simulator also lets users run the Theranos Edison machine, the company’s ill-fated device that was supposed to extract large amounts of health data from a single drop of blood. According to TechCrunch, the project seems mostly intended for laughs, but it is an interesting way to peruse documents from one of the most infamous court cases in tech history. It is easier to navigate than sourcing thousands of PDFs from court websites.

The website has another purpose. Lau is promoting a watch party that her company, Extend, is throwing for Nathan Fielder’s upcoming documentary about Elizabeth Holmes, “You Can See Everything.” She is also promoting Extend itself. According to TechCrunch, Extend says it can “parse, extract, and split your hardest documents with unmatched accuracy.”

TechCrunch noted that it is not entirely clear what that means, but the article said that if Extend makes something like the Holmes desk simulator possible, then the author is bullish on b2b SaaS.

Editor's Summary

Extend engineer Bo Lau has built a detailed interactive website that recreates Elizabeth Holmes’ desk using public documents from the Theranos trial. The site lets users browse evidence and run the Edison device, while also promoting a watch party for Nathan Fielder’s documentary and Extend’s document-processing software. It turns thousands of court documents into an easier, more playful browsing experience.