03NOV2024
High tech and low tech coffee gear, great unexpected apps, tech to keep you comfy wherever you are and more!
Happy Sunday, everyone! I’ll admit, I’m having a hard time letting go of Halloween, so I’m indulging in these epic readings of Edgar Allan Poe stories by Iggy Pop, Christopher Walken, and others. In the same spirit, I’m also excited—both as a tech nerd and a monster enthusiast—to see the sneak peek of the incredible animatronic classic Universal Monsters currently in development. Can we agree to keep the spooky season going a bit longer?
To distract myself from election coverage, I’ve been geeking out on coffee resources like this printable PDF chart for measuring your grind size shared by CoffeeGeek, and latte art tutorials by Lance Hedrick and others. If you have anything you think I should be checking out, just reply to this email- I'd love to see what you all are in to these days.
On to the good stuff!
- 🔠 Alphabet in Motion - This pop-up book for grown-ups who love typography and design looks amazing. Described as an interactive museum of lettering history and typeface technology in book form, it promises to be both beautiful and fun despite its potentially dense subject matter.
- 👾 New Nintendo Stuff - It’s been a good week for Nintendo fans with the release of the iOS version of the Pokémon Trading Card Game and the Nintendo Music app within days of each other. I’m thoroughly enjoying both—the card game captures the excitement of opening packs, collecting cards, and battling, with well-executed design and animations. (If you need a buddy in the app, feel free to add me!) The Nintendo Music app is perfect for listening to classic game themes while getting some focused work done. While we all really just want Nintendo to release the Switch 2.0 and stop antagonizing their own fans, it’s great to see Nintendo continuing to release fun and out of the box stuff like this.
- 🌬 Smart HVAC Vent With Matter Support - I haven’t tried this yet, but as a natural born sweater always longing for cooler temperatures, I’m intrigued. These units replace your home’s air vents and have built-in motorized fans that reportedly increase airflow by 30%. Plus, they integrate with Apple HomeKit through Matter, which makes my sweaty little nerd heart race.
- 🥤 Aerflo - Ever been on a long hike and thought, “I wish my water was carbonated?” No? Same here! That said, despite their outdoorsy marketing, I really like the idea of this portable water bottle that holds CO2 cartridges for making sparkling water on the go. (Thanks to Adelle for flagging this!)
- ☕ Subscale - This is one of the cooler kitchen/coffee gadgets I’ve seen in a while. It’s a dosing cup for measuring out coffee beans or loose-leaf tea before brewing, with a built-in scale and a light-up display on the inside of the cup showing the weight. It’s food safe, water-resistant, and even lets you brew espresso directly into it. Definitely going on my Christmas list.
That’s it for this week—stay safe and healthy, everyone!
And look, for me, participation is what it's all about. While I can't imagine anyone would care how I'm voting, lest there be any doubt, here's where I stand: I'm voting for democracy, human rights, and kindness. None of that should be controversial or even political, but here we are. We can debate all the many other important political issues later, and I hope that we will! So, I'm voting for a president who will protect all Americans' rights, including the right to disagree with her. Without that, I personally believe we're not America anymore.
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