26JAN2024: A Minor Water Bottle Addiction
An over-tech'd water bottle, apps to make you and your Mac look better, smart lighting for the outdoors, and more!
Happy Sunday, everyone! We had quite the winter spell this week in Austin, even enjoying a rare snow day.
While cooped up inside, I launched the first issue of my monthly column at the excellent Foofaraw web ‘zine, which will be hosting my Hiro Lab reviews of contentious tech products for the year. This month, I wrote about a fantastic entry-level starter drone that has a decent chance of being banned in the U.S. later this year. Let me know your thoughts!
Other highlights this week included Bob Fett’s excellent write-up on his analog, everyday note-taking setup, discovering this new art print from Ravi Zupa, and falling in love with Lost Pixels’ work, where a fountain pen mounted on a plotter creates stunning algorithmic city maps.
Note: This issue is not sponsored. However, links with an asterisk next to them are affiliate links that may generate a small commission to help offset the hosting fees for the newsletter at no additional cost to you.
On to the good stuff!
• 🖥️ Replacicon - Replacicon lets you swap out the icons on your Mac apps to better fit the theme or aesthetic you’re going for, similar to what’s become popular on iOS. A standout feature is its ability to automatically search the web for alternative icons for your system and third-party apps, letting you pick your favorite. You can even turn any PNG image into an app icon. Fun!
• 🚰 LARQ Bottle PureVis™ 2* - I’ve mentioned my minor water bottle addiction before, and this one may be my next purchase. It has a built-in filtration system to remove contaminants, self-cleans every two hours to prevent bacteria buildup, and connects to your phone to track hydration levels. Is it tech overkill and possibly overpriced? Probably. Has that ever stopped me in the past? Never.
• 🔠 Fontanello - Fontanello is a simple browser extension for Chrome, Firefox, and iOS that identifies fonts on webpages you visit. Highlight some text and it’ll show you the typeface, spacing, size, weight, and more. I’m going to be geeking out with this a lot—though I wish they had a Safari extension for Mac.
• 💪🏽 Ladder* - Thanks to Alex for recommending Ladder to me. Here's the premise: choose a team and coach based on your preferred workout style—powerlifting, CrossFit, yoga, HIIT, etc.—and get daily workouts, a supportive community, and an engaged coach who checks in with texts and video messages. I’ve only been at it a few weeks, but I’m really enjoying it. The link above should get you a free week trial if you want to check it out.
• 💡 Govee Permanent Outdoor RGB Lights* - I picked up a set of these over the holidays and have been thrilled with them. These string lights mount under the eaves of your house to project a pleasant downlight effect. They’re HomeKit-compatible thanks to Matter integration, making them fully programmable and automatable. I have them set to turn on at sunset, off at bedtime, and twinkle in holiday-themed colors and patterns on special days. Delightful!
That’s it for this week! May you find lots of quiet pockets of peace in the days ahead.