FEB.15.2025 - #11

Hi all 👋, I had such a blast writing this issue, I felt very inspired and connected to the community this week. So, I wanted to thank everyone again for reading and following along—it's the little interactions, feedback, and responses I get that really help me push to make this project of mine greater and greater!

This week, while writing this issue, I've been testing out Tapestry (another all-in-one RSS/social/blog/feed reader app), and I finally got my hands on Amber (you may remember them from Issue #05) which is now in TestFlight beta. Also, I loved watching and learning about hacking's cultural impact from this intriguing website of curated videos. Additionally, just in time for Valentine's Day, I spent some time reading about love and its many different forms, collected in this thread from Joe Fabisevich (creator of the Plinky app). Speaking of Valentine's Day, a few keyboard vendors are offering sales over the weekend, including Canadian vendors AshKeebs, and BeaverKeys, as well as others like OmniType, MechBox, and Epomaker just to name a few. In my downtime this week, I've been re-watching the Defenders saga (in preparation for Daredevil: Born Again—due to release on March 4th), and Severance Season 1 which has got me feeling like a TV zombie 🧟.

Let's jump in and explore the clicks and clacks this week!

clicks 🔗

Glyphs for good

→ Starting off this week, I have to share with you a wholesome, creative, and collaborative type face called DCZ Glyph. Described as a "font of many, made by many"—DCZ Glyph was created by many talented artists and creatives across the digital design space. This font is available for purchase on Gumroad here—it is only available until February 17th, and all of the proceeds generated from it go directly to the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund. The PCRF are an incredible non-profit dedicated to providing medical aid and relief to children across the Middle East. I first heard about this project from Trevor Basset over on Bluesky, but there are so many wonderful people from the design community at large who contributed their efforts to this project—I highly recommend you check out this post I made on Instagram to see the full artists credits 🇵🇸 ❤️.

🎵 Like a record, baby 🎵

→ This is Record Club, a new social network all about sharing, reviewing, and rating your favourite music with a fantastic growing community. Recently announced on February 10th, the service will at last be available to the public after almost a year of private beta-testing. They have both a web version and an app for iOS (currently only on TestFlight but available in the App Store soon™). I created my account as soon as I heard this announcement—you can find me here if you are interested—and I have had such a blast setting up my profile so far. The app is intuitive, easy to use, allows you to follow some of your favourite artists, and encourages whole album listening/sharing, which I love. There are no playlists, AI curation, or Spotify slop—just people sharing what they love jamming out to.

Focus timer

→ Next up is Pomo, a cool gadget I discovered thanks to Taurean (you may remember him as the one who helped create the Bluesky starter pack to ease users' transition from Posts → Bluesky, back in Issue numero 08). The Pomo device is a simple, physical Pomodoro timer (link to the Wiki page for the Pomodoro technique for those who have no idea what that is) to help you focus on the task at hand and stay productive. This device doesn't look like a tomato-timer that belongs in the kitchen and has much more suitable aesthetics for desk work. This product is early in the stages of development as well, so I am hoping to follow along with this journey and see where the next iterations go!

clacks ⌨️

40s Day

→ Every year on the 40th day of the year, users from the r/MechKeys Reddit community and the 40% keeb Discord share photos of their collection featuring their fave 40% keyboards. These boards are quite small and usually don't include a number row and specific characters like quotes and symbols. You can find a super detailed write-up here by Switch and Click if you want more information on 40% keyboards and all the other keyboard sizes. I'd like to highlight some of my favourites that were shared on the r/MechKeys Reddit for this year's 40s Day (February 9th). They include this incredible top-down shot from user u/Seirin-Blu, this trio of pastel/red velvet/mysterious script from u/forbidden404, and an amazingly colourful spiral shot from u/kaso_. It's so nice to see users coming together on this day to share their "niche within a niche" boards. I personally never wanted a 40% board, but this year I've seen so many cool looking creations that I may just be swayed.

Anime and gaming artisan caps

→ Feast your eyes on these gnarly keycaps from FRUMPZKEYS—inspired by anime like Naruto, One Piece, and Fullmetal Alchemist and video games like Marvel Rivals, Helldivers, and Dead Cells. You can check out the full collection and lots of behind-the-scenes content on their Instagram here. I was particularly drawn to the Marvel Rivals keycap (due to being obsessed with the game since its release, heck even before that) after I got this Instagram Reel recommended to me (thank you algorithm 🙏). I'll definitely be highlighting FRUMPZKEYS more soon when I receive the Marvel Rivals keycap I ordered, so stay tuned to my Instagram/Threads to see more!

types furiously on keys…"I'm in" 😎

→ In case the title of this link wasn't clear enough, that is totally how hacking works, that's me hacking into the mainframe, and all the coolest hackers wear sunglasses—don't fight me on it. Anyway…the last clack I have to share this week is the Ultimate Hacking Keyboard (UHK) from Ultimate Gadget Laboratories. This split keyboard is fully customizable, built for "extreme productivity", and has a plethora of module accessories to alter your typing experience. They recently released the 80% version of the UHK, with full wireless connectivity, an upgraded display, and (as the 80% name implies) a full function row of keys. As per usual, I am particularly drawn to the blog portion of the UHK website, where their founder László Monda provides updates and a detailed behind-the-scenes look into the development of the UHK.

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!!