⚡ 18OCT2026: Admittedly a niche recommendation
Retro video game fun, AI helpers, making music, vintage Japanese barber supplies, and more...
Happy Sunday, everyone!
This week, I’ve been adding this archaeological history of human magic traditions to my wishlist, appreciating the feminine urge to eat a heart in the marketplace, going down the rabbit hole of vintage Japanese straight razors, daydreaming about having both the budget and the lifestyle that require this tent, and skimming the nearly 2 million images from public domain books in the searchable Inside Out Library.
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On to the good stuff!
👾 Super Nt+ & Mega Sg+ - The absolute mad lads and gals at Analogue announced this week that they are relaunching their 2017 Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis FPGA consoles with a bunch of new updates and upgrades. For those unfamiliar, Analogue makes consoles that are built to play the original cartridges from retro video game systems. This is not software emulation; they are building machines to behave like the original hardware, just in a modern and more accessible way. The upgraded Super Nt+ and Mega Sg+ add support for Bluetooth and 2.4GHz wireless gamepads like those from 8BitDo, run on USB-C power, and now offer a USB-A port. Pre-orders go live next week for December shipping. Please be super cool and wait to pre-order yours until after I’ve gotten my order in, ok?
🖊️ Shachihata Jikakeru Washi Tape Base Pen - OK, admittedly a niche recommendation, but have you ever needed to write on something with a surface that just will not hold ink? This brush pen lays down a clear coat that dries into a writable surface in about 30 seconds. Once it’s dry, you can go to town on it with gel pens, rollerballs, markers, and even fountain pens. It’s kind of genius.
🚗 Twelve South AirFly Drive - For anyone out there like me driving an older car without wireless CarPlay, dongles like this are incredibly clutch. In short, rather than having to plug your phone in every time you get in the car to connect to CarPlay, this thing creates a wireless connection with your phone the moment the car turns on, allowing up to two iPhones to have wireless CarPlay connectivity for streaming music, using your favorite maps app, etc., on the go. I’ve not tried this particular one, but everything else I’ve had from Twelve South has been great, so I’m hopeful this will be better than the many others I’ve tried over the years.
🎵 Yawp: Drifting Loops for iOS - This is one of the more unique music apps I’ve tried in a while. You draw little “hills” over a set of synth tracks (felt piano, brushed clap, walking bass, etc.) to program them, and because each loop runs at its own length, they drift apart and come back together, so delightful little patches and jams basically write themselves. It’s simple enough to just noodle with on the couch, but it also hooks up to a MIDI controller and exports stems and MIDI straight into your DAW, so you can turn your projects into full tracks.
🗣 Town & Hark - These are two of the newfangled AI assistants doing the rounds lately that I’ve been playing with. I’m not necessarily endorsing either because I’ve only just scratched the surface with them, but both are off to fairly promising starts and with fewer (but certainly not none) of the privacy concerns that I have with Meta’s Muse. Both are set up to learn how you work and take repetitive or time-consuming digital errands and research off your plate—drafting and sending meeting notes, cleaning up your inbox, researching flight and hotel availability for trips, etc. I give Town a slight edge because it’s got a bunch of cute little “Townie” mascots for you to choose from and assign unique personalities to, which is kind of fun. I also like that you can use Town via the website, apps, iMessage, email, and more. I still don’t think we’ve nailed the balance of autonomy and privacy with these sorts of offerings yet, so massive caveat emptor, but I enjoy testing them out to see where these things are headed. These are leaps and bounds easier to set up and use than the OpenClaw and Hermes agents from earlier this year.
That’s it for this week. May the depth and breadth of human kindness surprise you.