JUL.04.2026 - #74

Hi all 👋, it's issue 74 dropping on 07/04!! This week I've been watching season two of X-Men '97, building an oversized cart of games from the Steam Summer Sale, witnessing the construction of an unnecessary music video time machine, and reading about Costco's inherently anti-Amazon existence.

This week I also discovered an unusually high number of keyboards made out of materials you wouldn't think of. Notable features include concrete, everyone's favourite dessert Tiramisu, a slab of marble that took two years to make, and a gnarly, burly, wooden board.

Weird keebs aside, let's dive into this week!

→ The app landscape is littered with subscriptions—monthly or annual, it's a huge pet peeve of mine when I discover a lovely app and am presented with a mandatory subscription-based access model. While I completely understand the benefits of recurring revenue (especially for indie devs), if every app I used was subscription-based, I'd be broke. On the flip side of this scenario, I love when apps offer Lifetime Access—one-time purchases, subscription free, and loaded with the same great features. App Atlas created by Geo is a directory for applications and services that do just that. The project's in its early stages, but Geo is active on Threads and updating the directory with new finds often. Give it a browse—it has some fantastic features you may recognize or have even seen in this very newsletter before!

→ Speaking of lifetime access, I discovered Cooldock this week—a macOS dock add-on/replacement tool that is sticking to the one-time payment model. This fully customizable dock adds some great widgets and glanceable information to your Mac environment. The flexibility is what initially drew me to Cooldock—it can act as an entire dock replacement, a productivity panel that neatly tucks away when not in use, or as an always-on floating toolbar. I chose the second option—most useful for my already packed setup—so it displays the time, date, weather, upcoming calendar events, and now playing media directly over top of the native dock when I mouse over it. The colour picker became my most used feature, which collects a library of any colours I find. I previously used Raycast for this, but now HEX codes are neatly sorted (instead of lost in the sea of clipboard management).

→ In past c 'n c issues, we've transparent-ified pens, screwdrivers, e-readers, mice, keycaps, and of course, keyboards! Stationery titan Kokuyo is here to transform the rest of our desk setups with a brand new collection called Transparent Mechanism. It includes a staple-less stapler, two-way blade/scissor combo, and correction tape dispenser—all sporting ultra clear casings to highlight the inner workings of each product. There are a few different colour variations for each item as well, and I love that they all stay under the $30 USD price point. Kokoyu does have a global online store you can purchase these from, but it would be great to see these items make it to my fave Canadian/Japanese lifestyle store, Oomomo.

→ The Wing by Clever is a brand new premium 60% board available in a group buy via Omnitype. It's loaded with a whole bunch of outstanding options that I've been loving in other GBs lately—3 layouts (WKL, WK, HHKB), 2 colourways (Solare Orange & Polare Blue), and 3 PCBs (MX, HE, DynaCap/EC). The choice offered here is great, and is just enough to get exactly what you want while not being overwhelming. This aliferous board gets its name from a detachable bottom bar (wing if you will) that acts as a riser, giving it a steep typing angle of 9°—something I'm also seeing more of in boards I would like to try. The removable wing additionally shows off the underglow from the bottom plate-mounted RGBs—yet another trend I'm seeing lately, so this board really feels like a culmination of board culture recently.

→ Double keeb week! Pixtendo Lab and Key Kobo are teaming up to launch a nostalgia-filled board called the Pixel 67. I really appreciate the prebuilt versions here—they take the mess out of the buying process, and with a lower price point compared to other premium boards, I think this is a great option even for non-enthusiasts. Sealing the deal for me are the paired Key Kobo keycap sets that come with each prebuilt colourway—some, like the Riddim Supertone (featured on my personal fave Terminal Green version) aren't even released yet!

→ In the wake of Drop shutting down, with the brand still operational but in a semi-revived/new state, I bring more good news for lovers of the old Drop format! Folks from Apos Audio—an online audiophile equipment retailer—recently announced they'll be bringing back a plethora of keeb related projects, group buys, and interest checks, just like the heyday of Massdrop. Many people currently employed by Apos were at Drop during the height of its popularity and have kept an ear close to the ground of the keyboard community. They see a hole that can be fulfilled, and being an already trusted name in the audiophile community with many friends and contacts in the keyboard space puts them on the path to success. A few keycap sets are already proceeding with ICs on the site, and I've heard nothing but great things from the Apos crew in the past, so I think this is a big win!

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!!