⚡ 30NOV2025: Not Exactly "Cool" Looking
A few late additions to my Christmas list, what I bought on Black Friday, and much more...
Happy Sunday everyone!
This long weekend, I've been appreciating Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak's secret to happiness, contemplating this real scientific study about the Batman effect, marveling at the gorgeous work in Citizen Printer, loving the illustration and animations in this reference manual for Making Software, and doing a fair bit of Black Friday shopping.
I'm not nearly qualified to be a deal hunter guru, but here are a few deals I took advantage of that seem to be ongoing through Cyber Monday tomorrow:
• Re-upped my Plinky subscription at 50% off.
• Grabbed a Nest Thermostat at about 20% off.
• Upgraded my Synology NAS at about 20% off.
• Snagged some single dose coffee bean storage tubes at 20% off.
Note that some of the links in this issue of the Hiro Report are affiliate links and may earn me a small commission at no additional cost to you.
On to the Good Stuff!
🔦 Olight ArkPro Ultra Flashlight - I've had a few Olight flashlights and always found them to be powerful and compact, if not exactly "cool" looking... Their latest keeps with the trend. It's a very oddly shaped flat device, reminiscent of an Apple TV remote, but it features a 200m spotlight flashlight, a 1700 lumen flood light, a green laser beam, and a powerful UV light, all in a compact, USB-C rechargeable package, with a double-sided clip so you can throw it in your pocket or attach it to the brim of your baseball hat. It's a little goofy looking but would be an amazing little flashlight to keep in your EDC bag. I'm putting one on my personal Christmas list.
☕ Stoneware Coffee Dosing Tray - My old wooden coffee dosing tray is starting to show its age (and I'm not sure that my regular RDT'ing has been kind to it), so I've been on the lookout for an upgrade. I found this gorgeous handmade stoneware one while crawling Etsy, and plan to add it to my personal Christmas wishlist. Please don't buy them all out before Santa can order mine!
🖌️ Graintouch for iPadOS - Graintouch is a really delightful drawing app that lets you simulate Risograph prints to give your art a beautiful, organic texture. Very simple, very satisfying app that does one thing well.
📷 Godox iT32 Camera Flash & X5 TTL Wireless Flash Trigger - Godox released a really fascinating, modular camera flash system that lets you swap out the hot shoe of the iT32 flash depending on which camera system you're using it with (Canon, Nikon, Fuji, Sony, Olympus, etc.), and also use the hot shoe as a wireless flash trigger for when you want to shoot off-camera flash for more natural (or artistic) lighting effects. I love this idea.
🎹 Syntorial 2 for iPad + Mac - A friend of mine recently asked me for resources to help them get started with making electronic music, and while I was poking around I stumbled across this fantastic training app for learning how to program synthesizer patches by ear. It takes you step by step through all the most common knobs and sliders you might find on a synth, and most importantly, teaches you how to dial them in to get the sound you want. The lessons are typically short, 5-10 minutes long, and then have a fun challenge where they play a sound and then you have to program the synth to reproduce that sound. The first 20 or so lessons are free, definitely worth trying out if you're at all into music production, synthesizers, electronica, etc.
That's it for this week! May you discover an enchanted bookshop in the least likely of places.