Issue 015

Welcome to the June newsletter. Get some accountability friends for your side projects, manage your typefaces, and listen to some non-AI generated jazz.

stay ready

via pedro

1 — the best camera is always the one in your pocket

VWFNDR™, the company that "drives hardware and software projects that reimagine the camera from within" launched a new camera app on Android (iOS coming soon) that marries their thinking and ethos behind their long awaited new hardware camera, into a single app experience. Their goal is not to rely on conceptual photography, but is instead "built around real photographic capture, Bayer RAW imaging, and transparent provenance through Content Credentials" to bring more intention and definition for mobile photography.

2 — a font manager that isn't ass

Alright hear me out. To me, every font manager app I've tried has been ass. No, I don't want to download Suitcase Fusion like it's 2010. Also sorry, but the Font Book app on macOS may be minimal and chic, but it's severely lacking in every other way and is chaotic at it's core cause I'm sure even Apple doesn't even know it still exists.

Josh Puckett decided "fine, I'll do it myself" and created a natively built macOS font manager that is actually good. From the UI, to features like scaling and adding your own logo mark to preview it in real time is chefs kiss. Give it a shot + did I also say that it's FREE?

3 — normalize sharing more works in progress

I was with a friend of mine one day as we were discussing topics around the web and cool projects people are doing with it. In our discussion, we talked about side projects, and they showed me this site called "inprogress.works" that is a "lightweight accountability community and journal for your side projects."

Every week, you share a progress update on the thing you're working on. The twist here is that if you choose not to, you won't be able to view everyone else's update. Connie, the brain behind this project, wanted to "celebrate the process of creating and making things as I believe it's the surest path to self actualization and engaging with the world." It's a little slice of the process that I wish more people shared.

stay curious

via taurean

1 — repurposing your apple watch

There have been a handful of "smartphone-lite" devices, we've even covered them. This one is interesting in a new way, so I ordered one and will report back 🫡. I find this interesting for a few different reasons. The entire category of electronics is still interesting to me, Humane's whole pitch was that the future of tech was not on a screen. I haven't used my old Apple Watch for a while now though, it's been sitting on my desk dead. Selling a $40 3D printed thing to make better use of otherwise would-be tech waste is a different direction then from the last time I talked about this.

2 — you're listening to… train jazz

This is just fun, even if it's deeply silly. Once I saw the transition between the bars and map view, I knew I had to share it with yall. For those of you from or in NY, which note is yours? Going off of this, I guess my train was a Celesta :shrug:.

3 — they live ad-blocker

More tech weirdness. If you've never seen They Live, it's a campy 80s sci-fi thriller where a man discovers Earth was invaded long ago by aliens disguised as humans. They've taken over society, partly through subliminal messaging in ads, and the only way to see the real messages underneath is through a special pair of sunglasses. So naturally someone made an ad-blocker that does the same with the real-life ads you see while navigating the web. You should also just go watch the movie if you haven't, it has one of my favorite movie fight scenes of all time.

updates

• A new "Several people are typing..." is this Friday! We'll be talking about the hustle culture and all the efficiencymaxxing in the design world. Want in on the convo? Come through, and RSVP with Luma here: https://luma.com/qi21541o
• As you may have noticed, we've sent this issue in the middle of the month. Moving forward, we are adhering to a new schedule and are no longer going to be sending issues the first day of the month to reflect the previous month. This allows us some flexibility while also allowing us to title our issues more in line with the month vs. a more "recap" style of the previous.
• Next issue will feature a sneak peek at some of the more tactile things we're exploring at 3&3, so keep an eye for that!

Well well well, you probably thought we forgot about you… actually that's fair sorry for ghosting. Our updated schedule should make more sense moving forward and will keep you on your toes, you never know exactly when the next issue will drop. See yall next month!

✌ Pedro & Taurean
bluesky ✦ lu.ma ✦ youtube