27OCT2024
A couple of awesome under the radar apps, a retro tech toy kit, fun nerdy media rec’s, and more
Happy Sunday, everyone! This week, I’ve been lusting over the newly announced relaunch of the classic Scout SUV in EV format and this absurdly priced Reporter Jacket made in collaboration with Leica. I also really enjoyed this great, short video by World Barista Champion James Hoffman describing what a great cup of coffee tastes like in the most abstract and delightful way. For longer viewing, my kids, wife, and I thoroughly enjoyed Netflix’s animated Ultraman: Rising movie, which I was inspired to watch after I read James Huff’s excellent blog post explaining his love for Ultraman. I love kid-friendly Kaiju movies!
Lastly, I’ve been debating setting up a Discord server just so I can implement this fascinating Blog2Pod project, which automates turning articles on your reading list into audio via AI, then outputs a downloadable MP3 podcast feed you can subscribe to from any podcast app. Genius for anyone using a “read-it-later” app without built-in audio conversion.
On to the good stuff!
- 📝 Capture for iOS/Mac - Capture does one thing incredibly well. It lets you “capture” anything—a quick thought, a reminder, text, a webpage, a phone number, a photo—and save it to an inbox. You can later go through your inbox and send items to various apps—send a reminder to the Reminders app or Things, send a thought to a note or email, add a webpage to a Bear note, and so on. It’s a simple concept, but it’s great for freeing up mental space and ensuring you don’t forget anything.
- 👾 Solder Your Own Retro Game Kit - I haven’t gotten my hands on one of these yet, but I fully intend to. It’s a simple, build-it-yourself kit that creates a little LED dot matrix board running retro games like Tetris, Snake, and Space Invaders. I really dig the vintage electronics aesthetic.
- 📷 Nitro for iOS/Mac - My all-time favorite photo editing app was Apple’s Aperture, which was sadly discontinued. Since then, I’ve been stuck with Adobe Lightroom, but I’ve longed for Aperture’s simplicity (and price). Enter Nitro, built by a former Aperture developer. It’s a powerful, full-function Lightroom alternative for both Mac and iOS. It integrates natively with your Photos app and doesn’t require a separate library. At $29.99/year, it’s about 1/4 the price of Adobe’s offering.
- 📓 OrbitKey Folio* - I first wrote about this lovely LWG-certified leather folio a year ago and still love it after a year of hard use. With the new iPad mini launching this week, it’s worth mentioning again. Available in A4 and A5 sizes, it’s perfect for holding a bullet journal or notebook and an iPad mini, with thoughtful organization for business cards and a pen. In Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, a nice leather folio probably sits right around self-actualization in terms of urgency—but it’s really nice. *Amazon Affiliate link to support my tech addiction.
- 🩸 Glu Sight for iOS - This one’s a bit niche, but if you’re managing diabetes, check out the newly launched Glu Sight app for iOS. It’s a beautifully designed, Apple Health-connected glucose tracker and insulin reminder app. It’s so refreshing to see thoughtful design in a niche often lacking aesthetic appeal.
That’s it for this week! Stay safe, stay healthy, and go support democracy in the voting booth if you haven’t already!
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