JAN.24.2026 - #55

New year, new look, new features—welcome to the freshly redesigned and revamped clicks 'n clacks newsletter! I thoroughly enjoyed my time off during the holidays and came back with a rejuvenated drive to transform this project into something that more closely resembled my original vision. It's a bit more mature, more elevated, and hopefully, a much more pleasant reading experience. No shade to the old design, but it was definitely time for a change. I am still keeping the retro vibe, maintaining the essence of the old colour palette, throwing in a few hand-drawn elements, and drastically changing up the icons and fonts. Speaking of fonts, the new header and logo uses Monocraft by Idrees whom you may remember from amazing past features such as PicoChat, AC Mail, or Pocket Bird! I spent a lot of time/effort creating this new look, but it's ever-changing and I'd love to hear what you think—shoot me an email at [email protected] if you have any thoughts, questions, or feedback you'd like to share.

This year while writing (and redesigning) clicks 'n clacks I've had an overwhelming amount of collected ideas that I didn't get to talk about during my break, so I am very glad to be back and sharing once again. I paid close attention to the many CES announcements, including a trackball by Keychron you can add to any keyboard, a powerful PC by HP crammed into a keyboard, a 3-in-1 retro camera by Fujifilm, and everything Pebble showed off. I also had lots of time this past week to play around with my new Xteink X4 e-reader, and admire this beautiful GMK pastel keycap set, which I hope I can get my hands on in the future.

Let's dive in to this brand new issue!

→ Personally, the most exciting news emerging around the CES hype are two new product announcements from Clicks, who make physical keyboard-cases for phones. Now, they are releasing the Clicks Communicator and Power Keyboard—a stand-alone Android phone purpose-built for messaging, and a universal slide-out MagSafe keyboard attachment. As hinted at in the title of this feature, these products tick all my boxes for devices that I love and have featured here time and time again. The Communicator boasts many power-user friendly features, including a custom homescreen/app launcher, a physical mute-switch, 3.5mm headphone jack, touch-sensitive keyboard, fingerprint sensor beneath the spacebar, and expandable storage. The Power Keyboard lands even closer in my wheelhouse as I sorely miss being able to use a phone landscape-style, and the MagSafe attachment method plus the external battery are huge wins. Can't wait to use it to superpower writing on-the-go.

→ I'm describing this next device as if a Flipper Zero had a baby with a Raspberry Pi but was raised in a household of gaming handhelds. The POOM is a versatile penetration testing tool for cybersecurity enthusiasts that can do so much more, featuring an I²C connector for DIYers, NFC chip for everyday use/card storage, and a mini-display, motion-sensors, and d-pad for gaming. The open-source project is live on Kickstarter right now and I won't go into detail on all the pentesting capabilities, but the backer page has a few great videos showing off the tool in cyber-action.

→ This discovery was a game-changer for me while I was designing and creating the rebrand. Delphi Tools are a collection of free mini-tools for creative work made by Ruby Morgan Voigt—no logins, no data-collection, all handmade. The background remover was (and still is) incredibly useful for all my daily work, the contrast checker kept me in the zone for AA WCAG 2.1 compliance, and the palette generator was so much fun to mess around with. There are even some palette collections of popular keycap sets to view. Many of the tools I haven't even begun to test and try yet, but this website will be a fantastic addition to my toolkit. Long live the handmade web!

→ The tease of new projects from previous feature Typeframe (back in #51) have already come to fruition with Jeff Merrick's PS-85—a distressed, robust, handheld computer with a 40% hot-swappable board built right in. Heavily inspired by the Weyland-Yutani corp from the Alien movies, the device rocks a brutalist design with keycaps from SP Keyboards (also inspired by Alien), and a flashy LED MU/TH/UR matrix—purely for looking cool 😎. Just like last time the entire build guide is open-sourced, so you can have a crack at creating one UR/SE/LF.

→ Manufacturer Keyboard Science is bringing back this F1-inspired keycap set designed by KEI. The set is named 1950s after the very first world championship race: the British Grand Prix taking place at Silverstone Circuit in, you guessed it, 1950. The kit is Cherry profile, has a white and red colourway, and features nifty novelty keys sporting designs including a checkered flag, gearbox, helmet, and retro F1-car side profiles. The caps are beautiful, but the highlight for me is the Silverstone Circuit deskpad that depicts a top-down decal of the track along with technical details of the circuit.

→ Keyboard accessory company Clackify just dropped the final boss of keyboard stands. This 3D-printed beast comes in 17 colourways, holds five keyboards (each shelf capable of holding 15 lbs while the top can hold up to 25 lbs 🤯), comes with anti-slip cork pads, protective rubber bumpers, and slots for storing pesky wireless dongles. The cherry on top is the IKEA Skadis compatible pegboard slots on the back of the device, meaning you can accessorize with an already huge ecosystem of organization products. Additionally, Clackify has teased they'll be releasing their own line-up of Skadis accessories soon to further customize the stand.

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. Email [email protected] (or reply to this issue!) and have a great weekend!!