⚡ 27JUL2025: Airbag-derived drop protection

Happy Sunday everyone!

This week, I've been getting nostalgic while poking around this beautiful 3D vintage Nokia Phone museum, setting a reminder to grab one of these beautiful LEGO Game Boy sets when they launch in the fall, testing out the privacy-friendly AI assistant launched by the Swiss privacy wizards at Proton, playing with this fantastic video game map resource, experimenting with using Cora to triage my work emails, and looking for a good AI calendar assistant (help me out if you know of one!)

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On to the good stuff!

🔋 Powerbug MagSafe Charger - The Apple product-loving geniuses over at twelvesouth have come up with a really clever and obvious offering in the Powerbug. It is a small puck-shaped power plug, no larger than an AirPods Pro case, that plugs into any power outlet and has a MagSafe-friendly charger right on the back of it. No need for cables or a fancy docking station. You can just attach your phone right to the plug. That said, it does have a discreet USB-C PD port that can deliver up to 35W of fast charging for other, non-MagSafe devices. I plan to grab one of these and use it in my kitchen.

🖼 Shakkei for MacOS - Rahul (of the excellent Hulry Newsletter) and his wife released a beautiful MacOS app this week that transforms your desktop background with dynamic, relaxing, hand-painted landscape scenes. It also optionally adds nature sounds and chill music to help you focus. It's a great concept, well executed, and a one-time purchase after a free demo. (Remember when all apps were like that?)

📷 VSCO Capture for iOS - VSCO has finally launched an app that they should have made ages ago—a camera app that lets you apply their fantastic, customizable photo filters to your photos in real time as you take them. The app features all the manual controls you might expect from a "Pro" photo app, with an elegant live view that shows you exactly what your photo will look like with the filters and manual controls applied. I don't think this is going to replace the Leica LUX app as my go-to iPhone camera, but it's a great alternative.

📱 Ostand Q3 Air for iPhone - I've joined team "no case" for my iPhone this summer just so I can keep my pockets as slim and light as possible during the hotter months here in Austin. HOWEVER, if I was rocking a protective case, I'd be grabbing the newly announced Q3 Air. It looks to be a major improvement to my favorite case design, featuring a MagSafe-friendly ring on the back that can be used both as a grip aid and as a versatile kickstand for propping the phone up in any orientation, or for magnetically attaching it to any sufficiently ferromagnetic surface. This new update adds a fun high-tech aesthetic, airbag-derived drop protection, and satisfyingly clicky buttons.

⌚ Big Idea Design Ti GMT Watch - Let me preface this by saying I am wary of featuring Kickstarter projects, but the folks at Big Idea Design have done an impressive 51 launches on Kickstarter, and I happen to own and love a good number of their products… They're a great company churning out good-looking everyday carry gear. So, with that all said, I'm really intrigued by the beautiful new titanium-bodied GMT watch that they just launched this week. It features a beautiful double-domed sapphire crystal with an anti-reflective coating over a bright, good-looking full dial lume. For those not familiar, a GMT watch features an additional hour hand that you can set to keep track of time in a different time zone by pairing it with the 24-hour bezel on the face of the watch. It's a handy feature for travelers, and also just a super fun complication to add to mechanical watches. They're limiting it to just 300 pieces and plan to ship to backers next month.

That's it for this week! May you discover at least one interesting thing about how your inner world works.