07JUN2026: Veridis Quo

Happy Sunday everyone!

As I hit send on this, I'm boarding a flight back to Austin from a fun workshop in Chicago. This week, I've been jamming out to Idris Elba DJ'ing for Black House Radio and to Courseval's medieval-style cover of Daft Punk's "Veridis Quo", being totally dazzled by this performance from the Apkhazeti Ensemble Dance Company, playing with the new Halide Mark III photo app and trying my hand at Color Snap again now that the iOS app is out, and spending WAY too much time playing Ball x Pitt on the Switch 2.

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On to the good stuff!

🔈 Teenage Engineering APC–2 - The mad men and women at Teenage Engineering introduced the APC-2 this week— a professional record-cutting lathe for making one's own vinyl records. It features a direct-drive motor on a polished tungsten shaft, DAW-controllable pitch for locked grooves, and as one might expect from TE, it's all wrapped in 140kg (308 lbs) of gorgeous powder-coated aluminium and granite. The fact that they make you email them for a price gives you a sense of just how absurdly expensive this thing will be. If I win the lottery, I won't be audacious about it, but there will be signs...

🧘‍♀️ Muse 2 Neurofeedback - After last week's health tech issue, a reader (hi Gord!) kindly reached out to share some of his favorite health tech, one of which was this device which had been on my radar for a while and I'd been itching to try. I took it as a sign to pick one up and I'm loving it. In short, the Muse 2 headband measures your heart rate, movement, and EEG brain waves while you do mindfulness exercises and gives you real-time feedback to help you settle into deeper meditative states. Naturally, it's not as good as a clinical device, but it seems great for detecting trends and getting some data to track one's progress in meditation.

📏 Craighill Metrolog Ruler - This one straddles the line between modern art piece and functional desk tool. Craighill took the humble desk ruler and made it into a drool-worthy precision instrument. It's CNC-milled anodized aluminum, 8 inches / 20cm on dual imperial-metric scales, but the trick is the telescoping neck that slides out so it doubles as a set of analog calipers — actual depth and outer-diameter measuring, no batteries, no screen, just a satisfying machined glide and a pop of bright yellow on the indicator. I do not need this but whooboy do I want it.

🎶 Playback - You know that depressing feeling where you've got thousands of songs in your library and still end up playing the same fifteen? Playback is a great-looking little iOS app from designer Dan Eden that uses local algorithm magic on your Apple Music library to resurface your old favorite songs and playlists. It's got some really fun knobs for having the app build custom playlists for you based on intensity, mood, and more. The whole thing is voice- and Shortcuts-friendly (Siri can shuffle up a mood playlist hands-free), and perhaps best of all, there are no accounts, no tracking, and no subscription. It's a one-time purchase and your library never leaves your device. I'm digging it!

🧳 Peak Design Roller Bag - Peak Design has a sale going on their newish roller bag which knocks the price down from stupid expensive to really expensive. I decided to take the plunge as I needed a new bag for some upcoming summer travels. I have to admit, it's really great! The wheels and extendable carbon fiber trolley handle are ridiculously smooth, and I really like the layout inside with lots of spaces to hook things in and tie them down. It looks great and I like that you can keep it really slim or expand it out as needed. My only gripe is the outer "laptop" compartment which really should not ever be used for a laptop; it doesn't provide nearly enough protection. I honestly wish they'd given that space over to more internal storage. I do not recommend getting this at full price, but on sale it makes for a really nice (if pricey) bag.

That's it for this week! May you be happy, healthy, and at peace.