Hi all 👋, this week while writing clicks 'n clacks I've been watching HTX Studio's behind-the-scenes Q&A, wandering through my neighbourhood in a tiny recreation of Toronto, and being in complete awe of the massive new Godzilla Lego set that is dropping just in time for the new movie. One of Zero is starting up some Black Friday deals early, GMK and Falba Tech have released some keyboard-themed advent calendars for the upcoming holiday season, and KeyBay added a fun Optimus Prime-inspired switch to their store I'm seriously thinking about picking up for a new build.
Let get into this week's features!
clicks 🔗
Courtesy of winhanced.com
→ This is a project I featured way back in February of last year — it has come a long way since and just had its official 1.0 release over the weekend! Winhanced is a windows app that overhauls everything about how you control your gaming handheld's system. The interface is super controller friendly, you can add games into one shared library, browse all storefronts with wish-listing and price-drop notifications, create game profiles with hardware control and power tweaking, the in-game overlay adds game guides, social Discord integration, or even music control, and so much more was included with 1.0! I have my own Asus ROG Ally X now to test it out, and Winhanced goes above and beyond what any OEM software is doing — blowing Microsoft, Steam, Asus, or Lenovo right out of the water. It only launched on the 31st, and Joseph (aka Floop, the main dev) has already pushed 3 hot fixes and patches, so development is moving quickly with the help of a passionate and dedicated community.
Courtesy of @jon.soini on threads.com
→ One of the best things about making the switch to Apple Music is having the ability to explore indie apps like this. Golden, created by Rift Notes dev Jon Soini, is a fun 8-bit retro inspired music player I've been messing around with this week. It's something that could never be done on Spotify due to their hefty API limitations and restrictions, meanwhile, the amount of data and integration that Apple Music allows is pretty exciting. Golden has a cool feature that displays song info like beat, tempo, scale, and chords — a fun visualization to go along with the rest of the terminal-inspired UI elements. This was also one of the many apps I've seen that have been created to work great on the iPhone Duo — the new form factor is certainly spurring some interesting developments and creativity across the board in the indie app world.
clacks 🔗
Courtesy of thegithubshop.com
→ Launching as an exclusive drop for the Universe '26 developer conference, Omnitype is teaming up with GitHub for a “surprise box” version of their Bauer Lite board. Included in the $175 kit is a randomized colour of the top case, bottom case, switch plate, bumpers, and accent keycaps. Every board will also come with a full base set of GitHub grey PBT keycaps and 70 of Omnitype's upcoming Hawk linear switches. Considering there are 8 billion unique Bauer combos to be made (according to Omnitype's very own Bauer customizer), you're bound to get something special. I've said before that the Bauer is a great deal on a solid board, and adding in a full keycap set and yet-to-be-released switches, I'd say this just sweetens the deal — as long as you're down for a colourful surprise.
Courtesy of thetypingcat.com
→ There are lots of websites out there to practice touch typing and learn how to speed up your words-per-minute, but I was drawn to these resources from TypingCat. They offer official and community generated courses to help speed up your fingers with real world examples like writing code or typing out terminal commands. Their keyboard layouts page was particularly helpful and will definitely be my go-to reference/suggestion for anyone who isn't yet familiar with all the keyboard setups. Many of these layouts I often mention here, like ortholinear or staggered-split, and the 3D animated videos of each layout helps to visualize how these affect your hand, wrist, and finger placement.
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!!
