15SEP2024

Happy Sunday, everyone! Lots of Apple announcements this week—while they mostly felt iterative, I’m pumped to see Apple introducing sleep apnea detection and hearing aid features to their product line. I set my alarm on Friday and snagged the new iPhone 16 Pro in black, which I’ll promptly be throwing into this vintage iMac-inspired Spigen case*.

Outside of Apple news, I’ve been diving into old 1980s and 1990s news interviews with early computer hackers, dreaming about building this gorgeous DIY espresso machine, and experimenting with YouTube Music for music discovery (already found a gem in Ikebe Shakedown).

On to the good stuff!

• 🎮 XUMini M Retro Handheld - As Marco recently pointed out, the retro handheld market is booming, with new models launching constantly. I’ve bought…a few over the last year. My current favorite is this relative newcomer from XUMini. It’s small enough to be pocketable but far more comfortable and performs better than my previous favorite, the Miyoo Mini+. Bonus: mine came preloaded with 100+ GB of retro games. If you’re brave enough to venture into AliExpress, you can often find crazy deals on these devices.
• 💧 HydraPak* - After a hiatus due to back issues, I’ve been getting back into rucking this year. It’s a low-impact way for me to get a solid cardio workout while exploring the outdoors without wrecking my knees. The one catch? I’m a natural-born sweater, so I need a lot of water to stay hydrated in the Austin heat. Enter the HydraPak, a rugged but slim option for carrying water, complete with a magnetic bite valve that attaches to my bag for easy access. It’s a common concept, but I’m liking this one much more than the CamelBaks I’ve had in the past.
• 📡 Heltec V3 / Meshtastic - This is a fun rabbit hole to dive into. Meshtastic is an open-source, off-grid, decentralized mesh network that runs on low-power devices. Imagine being in Texas during the 2021 winter storms—power’s out, internet’s gone, and cell towers are down. Meshtastic provides a way to still communicate with friends, loved ones, or emergency services. It works over impressively long ranges as long as there are nodes or other users within radio range to relay messages onward. The Heltec V3 is a cheap and pocketable entry point that pairs with your iOS/Android phone via Bluetooth to let you send messages over the mesh network— all without touching the internet or the cellular network.
• 📓 Resketch Notes Brand - We all know the 3 R’s: Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. While most notebook companies focus on recycling paper, Resketch tackles the “reuse” part. Their notebooks are made of "reclaimed"/repurposed (not recycled) paper, meaning each page is a mix of lined, graph, or even printed scraps. It’s like a paper collage, bound into a unique and highly aesthetic notebook. I love my Baron Fig notebooks, but I’m intrigued by Resketch and will definitely give them a shot when I run through my current stash.
• 📷 Halide Process Zero - I’ve talked before about how much I love the Halide camera app for iOS. It’s my go-to for more technically complex shots, like capturing the recent solar eclipse where I needed precise control over exposure and color balance. Halide’s newly released “Process Zero” mode uses no software processing, HDR, or AI, giving your photos a raw, unpolished look. It’s perfect for capturing images that are closer to what your eyes actually see, without the over-polished iPhone magic (which I still love!). Check out their blog for some awesome example photos.

That’s it for this week… but I have one more thing—iOS 18 releases tomorrow (Monday), and I’ve been beta testing it for the last three months. I’m loving the quality-of-life updates, and I’m even more excited about the new features developers will be able to add to their apps. I’ll share some of my favorite indie iOS app updates in next week’s issue. If you know of any apps I should be checking out, just reply to this email!

Thanks and be well, everyone.

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