14JUL2024

Happy Sunday, everyone! Let’s jump straight to the good stuff this week—

• 📝 Bear App - Bear is my favorite writing and note-taking app. There are many great options out there, but this one fits how I like to capture information. It has a clean, minimal design that effortlessly syncs your writing across its Mac, iOS, and iPad apps. It also handily supports back-linking to other notes within the app. While it’s not as powerful as Obsidian or Notion, it excels for my informal zettelkasten / PKM method for keeping notes on books, my favorite things to order at various restaurants, my friendly mechanic’s name and backstory, etc. Easy to write and easy to reference— In fact, I draft all my weekly Hiro Reports in Bear.

• 🔎 Upscayl - Upscayl is a handy web utility for increasing the resolution of old photos. Think of the “enhance” button in old cop procedurals when zooming in on a suspect’s license plate. Have old digital photos from the 90s you’d like to view without wincing on your fancy iPhone Retina display? Give it a try. Thanks to Marco for flagging this.

• 🌎 Whole Earth Catalog Archive - From the site’s description: “The Whole Earth Catalog was an American counterculture magazine and product catalog published by Stewart Brand several times a year between 1968 and 1972, and occasionally thereafter, until 1998. The magazine featured essays and articles but focused primarily on product reviews. The editorial focus was on self-sufficiency, ecology, alternative education, ‘do it yourself,’ and holism, featuring the slogan ‘access to tools.’” This archive is a treasure trove—vintage tech, original R. Crumb art, hippy manifestos, and articles by Ursula K. Le Guin, Ken Kesey, and more!

• 🎵 Music Match - I love music and sharing it with others. However, as an Apple Music subscriber, I often get sent Spotify songs and albums, which can be a pain to look up in my streaming platform of choice. Music Match solves this problem. Set your default music platform (Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube, Tidal, etc.), and it redirects any music links you receive to your preferred app via its Safari and share extensions. Likewise, when you want to send a friend some music, you can use the share extension to create a universal link that will let your friends decide what service they want to listen in. Simple. Magic.

• 🪄 10 Types of Magic - Speaking of magic, this short video from Kevin Parry uses simple camera effects to demonstrate the 10 classical forms of magic (Levitation, Vanish, Production, etc.). It’s really fun and well done.

Alright, that’s it for this week. Be well, everyone, and thanks for reading!