JAN.11.2025 - #06

CES oddities, tiny computers, a magic keyboard, and FM radio making a comeback?

Hi all 👋, it's the second week of 2025 and boy oh boy, do I have a lot in store for you. If you are not already aware, the beginning of the New Year marks the start of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES)—a tech conference held every year to announce new products and innovations from companies around the world. This means tech news this week has been non-stop, and I've been keeping an ear to the ground to handpick what I think are some of the coolest finds (both clicky and clacky) this year. A small forewarning, CES recently has become less and less about “real” products and more often then not, these announcements never see the light of day (great write-up by Sam Clemente on the topic here). However, I still think it's a fun time and to me, cool stuff is cool stuff (regardless of if it ever truly gets made). I'm going to rattle these off rapid-style, and then we can get into this week's non-CES related news. Here we go!

  • Lenovo made a wireless keyboard that you never need to charge again.

  • There's a new ergonomic, auto-retractable, and accessibility focused keyboard called AutoKeybo.

  • For your consideration, Swippitt—a little device (that's totally not a toaster) that quickly swaps out a rechargeable battery on your Swippitt phone case.

  • Nvidia announced the newest lineup of “going-to-cost-you-an-arm-and-a-leg” and “uses-more-electricity-than-your-fridge” graphics cards.

  • Atari made a new-old retro gaming handheld to play all the classic titles you could think of.

  • Last, but certainly not least (and definitely my fave), LG unveiled an air-purifier that is also a cat tower, air-”purr”ifier sounds more like it amirite?

Whew! There is so much more to cover, but I am not trying to overwhelm anyone here, so I'll keep the list to that for now. Aside from CES, not too much has been going on—I've been playing the new Marvel Rivals season (their first official season), getting excited over the Lego + Gameboy announcement, and making a new little avatar using Notion's new tool "Faces".

Now, onto the clicks!!

clicks đź”—

  • The mini-est computer of them all

    → This is the Pilet by Soulscircuit, a cyberpunk-esque mini-computer with modular accessories. I have been awaiting the announcement of this Kickstarter for some time now as I originally discovered this device a few months ago in September 2024, and it is finally here! Now, I wasn't sure whether to classify this link as a click or a clack, as I feel it fits the description of both. I would call this mini-computer a cyberDeck which, like all the other “decks” I've featured, is a clack, but the focus of this device isn't necessarily on the keyboard part of it. Heck, the larger version of this device, the Pilet 7, doesn't even have one at all (it's optional). Hence, I am designating this link a click from here on out! The Pilet only debuted on Kickstarter a few days ago (January 8th), and has already blasted past the funding goal by over 2500%!! I am not sure that I am the target audience for this (I would love to have one, but ultimately I wouldn't have the time necessary to tinker with this), but I'll still be following along to see what the future holds for this device.

  • Click, click, flash

    → Here we have a beautiful new external camera flash for all you photography enthusiasts, the KF-01 by Keks Cameras. I am particularly excited for this as I have been looking to try out an external flash on my Fuji X100v and vintage film cameras for a while, but I never ended up pulling the trigger on any. I was originally looking at the Lux Junior, which is also highly rated, but I never loved the design. The design of the KF-01 caught my eye quickly—it looks like if Leica and Teenage Engineering had a little camera baby. Additionally, the KF-01 is not overly expensive, it's even cheaper than the Lux Junior, and it's fully aluminum! One downside is that it's a fairly new product from a lesser-known brand and I have not seen many reviews on this yet, so I am still hesitant. If any of you readers have any thoughts, opinions, or suggestions please let me know, I would be eternally grateful!!

  • Game Boy revived the Radio Star

    → Who said FM radio is dead? This DIY Game Boy cartridge lets you listen in on all your favorite broadcast bands within the 87.5–108 MHz range. Not much else to say about this project, what you see is what you get. You can try it out yourself and buy the PCB here. All you need is an old Game Boy (or an Analogue Pocket), a Game Boy cartridge to hollow out, and the desire to listen to FM radio (I know the last requirement is probably the hardest to acquire).

clacks ⌨️

  • There's magic in this keyboard

    → First up on the keyboard-related items today is the low-profile Magi65 by Iqunix. This keyboard has been out for around 6 months already, but I just recently found out about this board from my girlfriend, who stumbled upon Switch and Click's in-depth video review. What sets this board apart from other low-profile keebs is the mounting system. Usually, due to the form factor, low-profile boards forego costlier and more complicated mounting systems in favor of integrated or plate mounting options (great resource here if you are confused about all these names being thrown around). But this board adopts what it calls the “Le-tray” mount which, to me, looks like a hybrid tray/gasket mounting system. This gives the Magi65 a lot of flex in the board and typing experience, leading to a quiet, soft, and thocky sound profile. I would definitely buy this board to check it out, but with the newest member of my collection, the Work Louder Nomad [E], and all my other low-profile Nuphy boards, I am a bit at capacity right now.

  • Celebrating amazing creators

    → Earlier this week, the YouTube team highlighted and showcased the mechanical ke’yboard community on their Culture and Trends blog. In this blog post, they outlined the massive number of people watching mechanical keyboard-related videos, and shouted out a few creators and their content. Along with this blog post came a custom YouTube logo (apparently called a “Yoodle”, who knew) and playlist with some videos from lovely creators (you can find that playlist directly linked here).

  • This clack is… a klack??

    → To end off this week's issue, here is a small utility for macOS I discovered to make any keyboard sound like a mechanical one. Klack, created by @henrikruscon, allows you to add instant key-clackiness to your keyboard by emulating the mechanical sounds through your computer’s speakers. It has a few different keyboard switch options to choose from and it has ultra low-latency, so there is no delay between when you click your keys and hear the clacky sounds! This is, without a doubt, the cheapest and easiest way to get into mechanical keyboards, without actually getting a mechanical keyboard.

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!!