AUG.23.2025 - #38

Hi all 👋, this week is a shorter issue and was written a few days in advance—when this goes live I should be in the air, flying away for some vacation time ✈️ 🍹. Most of this week was spent prepping and packing for the trip, but I did enjoy testing out Dame's new web-app for the Bluesky/AT protocol called Anisota—a fun, new, gamified way to interact with social media. I also spent some time (okay maybe a lot of time) re-organizing and overhauling my Obsidian vault now that their Bases feature is publicly available.

Let's jump into this week!

clicks 🔗

Study bean buddy

→ A new productivity app by Hank Green and Honey B Games has shot to the very top spot on the iPhone app store and dethroned giants like ChatGPT and Google! It's called Focus Friend and is a cute companion-based timer and distraction-blocking app to help you reduce screen time, boost productivity, and reclaim the day. All actions in the app are gamified, so while you take breaks from screens or apps and focus on work, so does your little bean buddy. While you're concentrating, the bean will knit socks and scarves that you can trade in after focus sessions are completed to deck out and accessorize the bean's room. Best of all, it's free with absolutely no ads, and of course, independently made. I love the cozy vibe and I hope to see it stay at its #1 spot for just a little while longer 🥇.

Fantastic film

→ Made by Jack Bogdan, Lutíere is a photo editing app for iPhone that makes it incredibly easy to transform your pics into film-shot stunners! Instead of adding another camera app to your phone, Lutíere takes the approach of applying filters and edits across all your photos, no matter how they were taken. You can apply the presets (of which there are plenty, and based on real film-stocks to boot) with one-tap to your entire library to view en masse what looks best. The edits are not fully applied to photos until export, so they are non-destructive and grant you the ability to edit many photos at once. It is a paid app—monthly for $2.99, yearly for $12.99, or lifetime for $49.99—not too bad considering other software prices today, and I think it's important to support independent creative developers like this one. I'd also play around on the website (linked above), it's like a mini version of the app, with many fun interactions and film presets to check out!

clacks ⌨️

There is no escape

→ Teased as far back as April (#20), the MDR Dasher keyboard by Atomic Keyboard is available to back now (the Kickstarter launched on the 19th). This Severance-inspired board is made out of a heavy aluminum case with a solid steel top plate, trackball module, and custom keycaps that look like they came straight out of Optics & Design. The plates on this board make it possible to change layouts to one of three options: Innie, Outie, and Dasher, with each having its own specialties and use-cases. Innie is the most show-accurate, Outie contains more functional keys, and Dasher being Atomic's own take on the board showcasing how it can be used with an additional numpad. The trackball intrigues me the most—seeing it in this device entices me to purchase a separate unit for my own setup (another tech rabbit-hole to fall down I see). This MDR Dasher is one-of-a-kind, limited to only 5,000 units, and starts at $700 🤯 for the full-kit—check it out soon if you're dying to nab one!

Tilted typers

→ Many keyboards attempting to improve the ergonomics of hand placement while typing often opt for styles like a split board, ortho-column stacked keys, or a concave shape (some like the Dactyl combine all three). Buying a whole new keeb to fix these problems isn't always the easiest, especially when custom boards can get quite expensive. Enter 3dkeycaps, a custom keycap designer and manufacturer that helps solve this problem with their line-up of retro-fitted products. These items—like their newly announced MX-tilters v3—make it possible to alter the angle and height of your keycaps on any existing board. They act as a bridge between switch, stem, and keycap to add 3 height options to your typing experience—reaching top rows of keys becomes easier and should be less fatiguing over time. Along with their tilting kit, they make ergo keycap sets, artisan keys, MX→other switch adapters, and more.

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!!