âš¡ 24MAY2026: Fidgety takes on a balisong
Solar powered websites, homemade digital cameras, a Japanese calendar app, my next fidget toy, and killer film emulation
Happy Sunday, everyone!
This week, I've been scrolling this great reminder of just how much data is collected on us as we surf the web, enjoying this Low-Tech Magazine that runs on a solar-powered website on a server on someone's balcony (especially this article on how to dress and undress your home for winter/summer), learning that I inadvertently have been doing the Spanish Fighter Pilot Method of journaling for years (thanks Mako), and drooling over this Brushed Steel Frama T-Lamp.
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The beloved to-do list app, Stuff, has finally released for Mac-- and Hiro Report subscribers get a free first year with the app.
Stuff is built from the ground up for speed, focus, and organization. Instantly capture tasks with Quick Toss (⌃Space), stay in the flow with keyboard shortcuts, and manage your day across multiple windows. With seamless sync with its delightful iOS and iPadOS apps, task dependencies, and powerful local-AI powered features that can let you handwrite or verbally process your to-do's and automagically turn them into to-do items, Stuff helps keep your life clean and organized so you can focus on getting stuff done.
Get your first year free with code HIRO
On to the good stuff!
📷 WLV-01 Monochrome - Full Spectrum Waist Level Camera - Malcolm-Jay's Camera Hacks channel just dropped a ~16-minute walkthrough of WLV-01, the monochrome waist-level digital camera he's been hand-building for months on a Raspberry Pi 5 and a Sony IMX585 full-spectrum sensor — his own firmware does focus modes, Brenizer mode, double exposure, aspect-ratio overlays, slider mode, a dedicated video mode, and a web interface for tethered control, all wrapped in a 3D-printed body. The camera has a Sony E-mount, so you can adapt almost any lens to work on the system. It's available as a DIY kit or fully assembled. Love seeing indie experimentation in the photography space.
🗣 Sesame — Voice Companion Research Preview (Maya & Miles) - Sesame is a pretty wild voice agent startup from Brendan Iribe (Oculus co-founder) and Ankit Kumar. While it's still in beta, you can spend up to 30 minutes per session talking to either Maya or Miles — two voice companions that are really pushing the uncanny valley with breath, micro-pauses, and laughter that make them seem like they're on the phone with you rather than reading a script. While still not as capable for real-time search as something like OpenAI's advanced voice mode, I find Maya and Miles to be far more realistic sounding and engaging. Fun preview of where all this tech is going.
📆 Okuri Japanese Lunar Calendar for iOS - I'm a sucker for beautifully made, purpose-built apps. Obed Willhem's free Okuri app recreates the traditional Japanese Himekuri daily tear-off paper calendar with realistic page-flip animation, moon phases, zodiac animals, the daily Rokuyo fortune, your local sunrise/sunset, and your calendar events (or to-do list) all on a single beautifully typeset sheet. It's honestly just a total delight to look at.
🪀 Switchkraft Fidget Toys - I've written before about what a sucker I am for fidget toys. The algorithm gods appear to have heard me, because I recently stumbled upon these absolutely insane, modular, fidgety takes on a balisong or butterfly knife. Instead of a swift instrument of death, however, these alternately cute and techy toys feature things like Lego mounts, Flipper Zero cases, a built-in flute, a 20-sided die display, mechanical keyboard clickers, Beyblade launchers, and more, all mountable on these reconfigurable fidgets that you can flip and twirl like an expert in Filipino knife craft. They are super weird, and I've already ordered several for myself and the kids to try out.
🎞 theLAB Film Simulation for macOS - Caleb Salvadori just dropped v3 of theLAB, his film-emulation app which features dozens of classic film emulations, 190 real cinema film scans, RAW support, new scan corrections, 10 new borders, and 30 new textures. It is a standalone app, but you can configure Lightroom and others to open theLAB anytime you want to bring in that analog film aesthetic for your edits. It's a hefty one-time purchase, but was an easy buy for me — I really like the look it gets.
That's it for this week! May you find a window for uninterrupted, unencumbered play time.
My thanks again to Stuff for sponsoring this week's issue and for giving all Hiro Report readers a free year with code HIRO