JAN.25.2025 - #08

Hi all 👋, I found myself drowning in a sea of content (mostly of the political variety) that I didn’t necessarily want to see this week. But it was a good reminder to myself to change it up—pet a cat (or dog), get active, read a book, and step away from the noise. Even though this newsletter is all about things online, it’s important to know when to take a break.

A lot of my time this week was spent over on Bluesky, where there has been a major influx of users coming from Posts. If you haven’t heard, Posts and Read.cv (a “show don’t tell” social platform) announced last week that their team was acquired by Perplexity and that they would be winding down operations of their sites. This means that a lot of creators and people have been finding (and creating) ways to keep connected to the community gathered there over the past few years. Alex Dee put together a concise little list of what people are working on as we near the end of this platform. I personally love the Folks website and the Bluesky starter pack—if you are interested in design, product, or just cool people making cool things, I recommend you check out the community flocking over to Bluesky.

Other than that, I’ve been reading about the gems (plugins, themes, content) from the Obsidian community in 2024, watching the behind-the-scenes of this awesome stop-motion animation, and feeling Wii-stalgia (that’s nostalgia for the Nintendo Wii if you were confused) while playing Nintendo Switch Sports with my girlfriend.

clicks 🔗

• Bye bye, Algorithm 👋

  

  → This succinct article, written by Joey Einerhand, outlines how useful and easy it is to switch over to an RSS reader for all your news/blog/social content. The RSS (Really Simple Syndication) technology has been around in different forms for over a decade, and as users become more fed up with the way social media(s) owned by tech giants are run, the search for something simpler always comes back to RSS. I’ve written briefly about RSS and the many options for its apps/readers before in this newsletter, and I likely will again (perhaps even in a blog post coming soon 👀). But I have found it to be much more productive than doom-scrolling on social media, hoping I find something interesting. This article even pointed out a few tips and tricks that I didn’t know about, specifically the URL filters for Reddit, and the RSS-Bridge website. RSS is super useful, incredibly easy, and in my opinion, well worth setting up—check it out.

• “Crystal Clear Thinking”

  

  → I’m stealing the main tagline from this link to use as the title here because it’s too good. This is a transparent note-taking tablet from Supernote, in collaboration with Lamy. I’ve been super into transparent tech lately (cough, cough, Nomad [E]) and funnily enough, the name of this notepad is also the Nomad. The see-through backing of this notepad allows you to see into the internals of the device for a retro, rugged look. Additionally, the pen for this device was designed by Lamy, who are known for their timeless fountain pens and other writing instruments (yet another niche hobby to fall into and spend money on 🙃). I’ve personally been debating whether to get a digital note-taking device for a while now, but I am simply too used to jotting things down the analogue way. However, this device’s allure makes my decision much much harder.

• “Tote”ally stunning bags

  

  → Next up on the clicks for this week is the Analog Company, created by @annaandbull, with their handmade, small-batch, canvas tote bags. They popped up on my Instagram/Threads feed this week, and I was instantly drawn to them by the colours and aesthetics of their bags. Useful for holding your laptop and all other tech items (even your bubble tea—yes, its got a cup holder), these bags are just too cute not to mention.

clacks ⌨️

• Hybrid profile keyboard

  

  → Something that I’ve never seen before in the world of keyboards is a board which has both low-profile and normal-profile switch types. That is what Nuphy claims to have achieved with the Kick75 keyboard. This is the newest board in Nuphy’s lineup, it’s available in "pre-launch" now, and will officially release sometime this year. Not too many details have been revealed about this keyboard yet, but it has me incredibly intrigued—will you truly be able to mix-and-match switch profiles? Or is this more like a quick-swap between the two situation? Either way, Nuphy has been pumping out a lot of entertaining new products and collaborations lately (like this GameBoy-inspired artisan keycap), and I’ll be keeping a close eye on the Kick75 to see what it shapes up to be.

• Fun and function 🤝

  

  → Coming hot off the release of Aperture Priority (highlighted in Issue #05), Timothy from Akuko Labs is debuting a brand new keyboard! The Motif65 is a super colourful, fun, and bright keyboard, inspired by the Motif keycaps (also designed by Timothy). This totally matches the theme of the Analog tote bags from earlier on in this issue and I am loving it—what a colourful week!! Additionally, MVKB & oh.type (keyboard and keycap designers) are also releasing an artisan keycap in collaboration with Timothy for this keyboard. Can’t wait to see this board in action.

• Keyboard Simulator 2025

  

  → The last link I have for you this week is a free 3D tool created by @crsnbrt on GitHub. This tool allows you to customize, design, and test a keyboard, all within your browser. It’s got keycaps sets, colour themes, case-designs, and even a built in typing test to prove your WPM (words-per-minute) skills! You can even design your own board and share it anywhere with a unique perma-link. If you decide to try this tool out, I'd love to see what you come up with—reply to this email with your link or send it to mail.clicksnclacks.com!

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!!