APR.26.2025 - #21

Hi all 👋, welcome back to another issue of clicks 'n clacks. Please fasten your seatbelts, remain seated for the duration of this newsletter, and enjoy the ride (actually, you can stand if you really want to, no hard feelings)!

This week while writing this issue I got the pleasure of seeing Ryan Coogler's new film, Sinners, in an IMAX 70mm 15-perf (fantastic explanation by Coogler himself) special presentation and may I say it was incredible—10/10 watch it on the biggest screen you can get access to. Bethesda also shadow-dropped an Oblivion Remaster and now my gaming backlog has been entirely re-organized to fit this in first, and Fujifilm is teasing a new half-frame small form factor camera. I also enjoyed reading Alex's post on hosting his blog using a Nintendo Wii, and scrolling through the list of amazing creators and content that won Webby Awards this year.

Onto the clicks!

clicks 🔗

The art of music

→ Check out Sleevenote, a digital music platform dedicated to showcasing full album artworks and extras that are usually created for/included in physical CD or vinyl releases. See it in action here with alt-J's 2022 album “The Dream” for example—browse the track list, lyrics, read the thanks-you's, and my favourite part, play songs directly by clicking the embedded links on the artwork itself. All you have to do listen on the web app is connect it to an already existing premium music streaming subscription like Apple Music, Spotify or Tidal. This service really puts the emphasis on full-album listening which I love, and in my opinion, creates a pure experience and connection with the songs. Sleevenote is also creating a product to further reinforce their ethos and concept with a small square device that is powered by their web player—they recently released a blog post providing an update on the progress and showed off a new mini-prototype. It also appears that Sleevenote intends to support local files (to avoid reliance on streaming services) when the device is eventually released—another huge plus in my opinion.

Collect anything for your second brain

→ After quite a considerable amount of time (18 months) in private beta, Sublime is finally getting its public release. This bookmarking app acts as a second brain to store anything (links/quotes/images/files/you name it) you find interesting and transforms them into a “living library of connected ideas”. The vision being that your saved items are smart, can be linked, can be queried, and most importantly can be related to other publicly saved items. This “related ideas” feature especially stood out to me, it's similar to something like Pinterest where you can view recommended or similar content whenever you save something. I think this enables further exploration and also encourages you to share your own web of ideas and thoughts. The app is a bit expensive at $75 a year, but I am definitely going to give the basic free plan a go. I don't think it's going to fully replace my main bookmarking app Raindrop yet, but to me this looks more promising than mymind, as with Sublime I feel like I have more minute control over things like collections, notes, and tagging.

Keep it simple, stupid!

→ No frills to be found here—Stupid Notes by David Pfluegl is a ridiculously uncomplicated note-taking app for keeping track of all your clever ideas. It's got an interesting layout I've never seen before—notes can be organized into “notepads” similar to folders, and each note itself is composed of a free-writing section and an area for to-dos or action items. Great for someone like me, as every note I make could be a to-do list, and every to-do list I make could be a note. It's also got a super smart AI-powered search function to help you filter through the noise when all your notes become unruly. It's a brilliant idea, and I love the execution.

clacks ⌨️

Solar-powered PC

→ Before you ask, yes it can play DOOM. Evertop, made by ericjenott, is an open-source portable PC with solar panels, two huge batteries, an e-ink display, and the ability to run vintage OS's like MS DOS or Minix. This awesome cyberDeck can run for thousands of hours on a single charge, or theoretically forever with a little time in the sun, thanks to its solar panels. It's got tons of extra features including a detachable keyboard on a tether, built-in speakers, extra PS/2 ports for external keyboard support, an Ethernet port, Wi-Fi capabilities, and much more. If you want to see how this device works and some of the software in action, you should check out the YouTube playlist here.

Honey, I shrunk The Icebreaker

→ Serene Industries' The Icebreaker (featured back in Issue #05) had a little baby, and its name is Cleaver. Just like its predecessor, Cleaver is a fully aluminum, hall-effect, hot-swappable keyboard with the same edgy vibe. This bad boy is a little cheaper, coming in at $850 USD, comes in a new all black anodized aluminum colourway, and still features the perforated metal keycaps to let the RGB shine through. Serene Industries is keeping the brutalist charm with this one, and I can't wait to see some of my fave creators get their hands on this board.

Hovering hall-effect metal keeb

→ Staying on trend with hall-effect (HE) metal keyboards, the Ice Ring 63 RT by Dry Studio packs some fancy gaming features into a sleek aluminum chassis. The first component to catch my eye was the large gear-shaped knob on the left-side of the board. Inspired by the Halo video game series, this “planetary knob” enables you to quickly switch rapid trigger (RT) modes—this includes settings like switch actuation time, lighting effects, and affected keys. I love this design as it's incredibly unique, and the unibody chassis gives the appearance that the board is floating, just like a planet in orbit. This structure not only looks cool, but it also provides better heat dissipation, which in theory helps the operation and longevity of the hall-effect sensors—not something seen on most HE boards. I don't think the magnets within the switches every truly get that hot to warrant cooling, but Dry Studio's metrics state the Ice Ring's switches stay accurate even after 60 hours of gaming time (I think it may be time to step outside and touch some grass if your gaming sessions reach that time-limit).

That’s all for this week! I hope you enjoyed it, and now it’s time to hear from YOU 🫵. I want to know your opinion—what you liked, what you loved, what you didn’t like, what you skipped. Reach out at mail.clicksnclacks.com (or reply to this email!) and have a great weekend!!