Cool links

MacBook Neo. Apple has announced a new entry-level MacBook. Colorful and equipped with an iPhone chip (A18 Pro), it starts at USD 599 (without Touch ID, available only in the most expensive version). Will it be a hit?

Vykar Backup. The creator of BorgBase and Vorta has launched a new backup app. Vykar promises to be a complete backup solution, something that Manu says is lacking in the market. For now, he asks that Vykar be used in parallel with other more traditional solutions — errors can happen with newly released software.

Lock Scroll With a Vengeance. If you've never known what this key is for, this post has videos demonstrating how it works. It's a key created for spreadsheets. It still works today — as it was designed — in Excel.

Snake on the terminal. Just run the command ssh snakes.run and start playing. (Apparently it's multiplayer.)

I collect cool, interesting links spread all over the web and share them here every Thursday. Hope you enjoy! More of them in the archive.

A phone that’s also a lighter, Engadget. Oukitel’s WP63 is one of those bulky cell phones that people take into the woods, with a giant battery (20,000 mAh), flashlight, and a loud speaker. New this year is that it comes with a lighter, like the ones that used to be in cars. For USD 500.

Motorola Razr Fold announced. Motorola already had foldable phones, but they were small. The Razr Fold is the first large one, similar to Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold7, and features a massive 6,000 mAh battery with new silicon-carbon technology. In Europe, it will cost € 2,000. The device will also have a commemorative edition for the Men's Football World Cup.

Telegram update brings WhatsApp features. Looks like the tables have turned, right? Tags for group members and stickers from photos are two of the new features “inspired” by WhatsApp. There are others, including the use of Telegram for authentication in apps and websites (don't do this).

AI slop images on the Standard Notes website. Riding on the news about the end of Simplenote's development, someone recommended Proton's Standard Notes. I visited the website and… what are those terrible images?

FairScan. A simple, no-frills app for capturing documents with your phone's camera and converting them to *.pdf or image. Free, FOSS, for Android.

10-year anniversary of Stardew Valley. I had no idea it had been that long. Development began in 2012, four years before its release. This video, presented by the game's creator, Eric “ConcernedApe” Barone, shows footage from the beginning, when it was still called “Sprout Valley.”

Walkman.land. A tribute website to the pioneer of music on the go, the Walkman (and similar devices).

I collect cool, interesting links spread all over the web and share them here every Thursday. Hope you enjoy! More of them in the archive.

Apple announces iPhone 17e. With the 17 series chip (A19), double the storage (256 GB), and finally, magnets on the back (MagSafe). Suggested price is the same as the previous model, USD 599.

Microsoft bans the use of the word “Microslop” on Copilot's Discord server and then shuts it down, Windows Latest. I know some readers are fed up with AI, but this is too funny to pass up.

/e/OS 3.5. The new version of the European “degoogled” Android brings security fixes from LineageOS 22.2, WebAssembly support in the web browser, and improvements for the Fairphone 6.

Splittio. An app for splitting expenses, similar to Splitwise and Splid, for Android and iOS. Free, with paid AI features.

WalletWallet. Don't worry, it's not a rerun. Alen, who develops this web app that creates cards for the iOS Wallet app, sent an email to let us know the new features: real-time preview, barcode scanner, logo uploading, and an API for developers. And it's still free.

Glyph Navigator. A beautiful website with original navigation featuring various glyphs.

I collect cool, interesting links spread all over the web and share them here every Thursday. Hope you enjoy! More of them in the archive.

Meta: Parents will be alerted if their children search for suicide and self-harm. The alert will be triggered if the minor searches "repeatedly in a short period" for terms related to these subjects. It will begin "in the coming weeks."

HBO Max’s password-sharing crackdown will expand globally in 2026, The Wrap. The practice has already been curbed in the US since last August. We can't have good things, can we…

Samsung’s redesigned Galaxy Buds 4 lineup has retooled sound, improved ANC and new features, Engadget. The slap on the wrist given to Samsung's designers had the desired effect and, unlike the Buds3 Pro, the new model is not a copy of Apple's AirPods Pro. (The features are identical, however.)

Typhoon. This weather forecast app has been rewritten in Qt 6. The look hasn't changed, but it's become more flexible (window resizing, transparency effects) and now has a Windows version in addition to Linux.

Random colour. A color fills the screen. Each time the page is reloaded, the color changes.

Movie Game. Watch the trailer and try to guess the movie's IMDb rating.

I collect cool, interesting links spread all over the web and share them here every Thursday. Hope you enjoy! More of them in the archive.

Samsung unveils Galaxy S26 series. The main new feature unrelated to AI is the Galaxy S26 Ultra's “Privacy Screen,” which obscures the screen at wider angles, on demand. Even notifications (and only notifications) can be obscured. All three models are now available, and more expensive than S25 series.

Age requirements for apps distributed in Brazil, Australia, Singapore, Utah, and Louisiana. Brazil is the most affected by this round of changes, as a result of a new law (“ECA Digital”) that takes effect in March.

Projectivy Launcher. Alternative launcher for Android/Google TV, with no ads or recommended content.

Mixflow. Music streaming to listen to in the background while you work or study. It supports account creation; I don't know what the difference is between that and just listening without signing in.

Dither Image Online. Another image editor with the dither effect. In the Tool menu, there are more similar effects.

I collect cool, interesting links spread all over the web and share them here every Thursday. Hope you enjoy! More of them in the archive.

AI kill switch in Firefox. As expected, Firefox 148 comes with a button that turns off all AI features in the browser. Now available.

I played it. App to manage your “backlog” or the list of video games you want to play. Free, for iOS/iPadOS, and developed by reader Hugo dos Anjos.

Letters to a young creator. The Steve Jobs Archive has released a new free book, Letters to a young creator, featuring letters from public figures telling “What it takes to make something great.”

Experiment with Pixels. Neal's new game is a simulator of everything, with materials that react like in real life, with a pixelated appearance.

Hacker Typer. A fake terminal that is filled in from any key pressed. Except for F, which (de)activates full screen. Press Alt three times to receive an access granted message.

I collect cool, interesting links spread all over the web and share them here every Thursday. Hope you enjoy! More of them in the archive.

Wikipedia blacklists Archive.today, starts removing 695,000 archive links, Ars Technica. The people behind archive.today did some nasty things to a blogger who tried to identify them: they launched a DDoS attack against the blog and altered archived pages to tarnish his reputation. When an archive becomes susceptible to tampering, it ceases to be reliable.

Meta director of AI safety allows AI agent to accidentally delete her inbox, 404 Media. This is the person responsible at Meta for ensuring that AI does not do things that are harmful to people.

Ente Locker. New app from Ente for storing important documents. The code is open source, and you can store up to 100 items for free. (Paying subscribers have a higher limit of 1,000 items.)

Cine. A new, attractive player for Linux (Gnome/GTK). Under the hood, it's the reliable mpv that does the heavy lifting.

Global Animal Consumption. Using data from official sources, this website displays the growing numbers of animals slaughtered for human consumption. (The numbers are frightening.)

Accessibility for Everyone. This and other books from the late A Book Apart are being distributed free of charge by the authors. They seem to be a little outdated, but there are some timeless titles.

I collect cool, interesting links spread all over the web and share them here every Thursday. Hope you enjoy! More of them in the archive.

AsteroidOS 2. There is a Linux-based operating system for smartwatches. And the second version has just been released.

Chrome gets split viewing and PDF annotations. Does anyone here still use Chrome?

Hello, Mario! A Nintendo app for kids to play with the face of the famous Mario. (Reminiscent of the Super Mario 64 home screen, right?) Free for Android and iOS.

CleanSweep. Private and offline app to review photos from your gallery in a Tinder-style UI. FOSS, for Android. I haven't tested it; use at your own risk.

CSS optical illusions. They're kind of obvious (I guess?), but it's cool to see them implemented in CSS.

WikiCommute. Enter your commute time (or anywhere else) and this site returns Wikipedia entries that can be read in that time. Just don't do it while driving!

I collect cool, interesting links spread all over the web and share them here every Thursday. Hope you enjoy! More of them in the archive.

KDE Plasma 6.6. One of those updates full of small new features, fixes, and improvements. Coming soon to your favorite distro.

Apple begins testing end-to-end encryption for RCS in iOS 26.4 beta. e2ee messages will be identified by a padlock, which will also appear in iMessage.

macOS 26.4 and iPadOS 26.4 bring back compact tab layout in Safari. Yes, please! We've been missing this layout. (Thanks for the tip, Gabriel!)

Current. The RSS feed app from the guy who asked a few weeks ago why all apps of this type look like email apps. Behind the scenes. For iOS, iPadOS, and macOS, one-time purchase of USD 9.90.

Searching for birds. One of the most beautiful and well-designed pages I've seen in recent times. “An interactive story about the birds that capture our curiosity, told through data, visuals and illustrations.”

Reaction time test. My record was 55ms. Tip: it's easier to lower your time using a computer keyboard.

I collect cool, interesting links spread all over the web and share them here every Thursday. Hope you enjoy! More of them in the archive.

Sony WF-1000XM6 review: Facing tougher competition (in English), Engadget. Billy Steele, from Engadget, was not impressed with the new version compared to its competitors. And it got more expensive, USD 330.

App for Google Messages. Clarissa (my business partner at Célere) created a wrapper around Google Messages that puts it on system tray to monitor unread messages and opens the service's website in a window outside the browser. Tested only on Windows 11.

Voice on duck.ai. DuckDuckGo's private AI chatbot, duck.ai, can now receive voice commands.

Roomy. An open alternative to Discord, compatible with ATproto (Bluesky) and, soon, ActivityPub. Still in alpha, though.

Mouse Finder. Set the parameters and this site will return mouse models compatible with the size of your hand. (The recommendations are for the US market, but some are available in Brazil.)

Fediverse Near Me. A filter for OpenStreetMap that displays instances of the fediverse (ActivityPub) around the world.

I collect cool, interesting links spread all over the web and share them here every Thursday. Hope you enjoy! More of them in the archive.

Apple Releases macOS Tahoe 26.3, MacRumors. I’ve heard those silly misaligned anchors to resize windows are fixed. All other Apple’s OSs were updated as well.

Information Superhighway. A super simple app that displays random Wikipedia entries for you to read. Just words, nothing else. Free for all Apple platforms.

Backgroundese. A typographic font that makes no sense, suitable for use in games. Free and with a permissive license, even for commercial use.

The Startup Graveyard. A directory of startups that would change the world, but went bankrupt before they could.

I collect cool, interesting links spread all over the web and share them here every Thursday. Hope you enjoy! More of them in the archive.

Selfie video: a new, simple, and secure way to recover your Google Account (pt_BR). Is it worth handing over your soul, I mean, your face to Google to make it easier to recover your account if something bad happens to it? Brazil is the first country to get this new feature.

Telegram: New design, gift making, and more. The “massive redesign” is for the Android app, which has been given a Liquid Glass revamp. The gifts, on the other hand, have to do with the NFT scheme — the questionable part of Telegram. If you can, avoid it.

Digital Carrot. Another app that promises to tame digital compulsions, but with a different approach: it grants access upon completion of tasks, such as walking a certain number of steps or finishing your daily to-do list. Available for various operating systems.

CSS Stats. Enter a website URL and the system returns a super detailed objective analysis of the CSS files. (My goodness, the Manual's is a mess!)

Tone3310. Web editor for composing and recalling ringtones from the old Nokia brick phones.

I collect cool, interesting links spread all over the web and share them here every Thursday. Hope you enjoy! More of them in the archive.

Busy months in KDE Linux. The KDE project is about to release the beta version of KDE Linux, their own distribution. The post reports on several developments, highlighting delta updates and the new plasma-setup and plasma-login-manager packages.

Discord launches teen-by-default settings globally. Starting in March, adults will have to confirm that they are of legal age (what age? The press release does not specify) to use Discord without the limitations intended for teens. Verification can be done through facial recognition or by sending ID documentation.

The biggest update ever for Ente Photos. The flagship feature is the ability to comment and like photos. There are several other useful new features, such as downloading albums in a compressed file and the shared album administrator function.

Jellyfin for Samsung TVs with Tizen. The official app is now available in the Samsung store.

NetNewsWire 7.0 for iOS. After the macOS version, now it's iOS (and iPadOS) turn to receive the revamped NNW with Liquid Glass. Free and FOSS.

Mecha Comet, Omg! Ubuntu. A modular, pocket-sized device that runs Linux. Available for pre-order — through crowdfunding — starting at USD 189.

Brazilian Alternatives. Directory of Brazilian technology services — LGPD compliant, customer service in Portuguese, payments in Brazilian real.

I collect cool, interesting links spread all over the web and share them here every Thursday. Hope you enjoy! More of them in the archive.

Google confirms that AirDrop compatibility will come to more Android phones, Android Authority. So far, the feature (which I've used with a friend, it's really cool!) only works with Pixel 10 phones. Google has not provided any dates or information on which models will be eligible.

Hotspot Peek. Track the amount of data consumed in real time in the macOS menu bar when using your phone as a hotspot. One-time purchase of USD 4.99.

CreepyLink. A URL shortener that makes your links look very suspicious.

pandoc in the browser. Pandoc 3.9, released on Thursday (5^th), brought support for Web Assembly, which enables its direct use in the browser.

I collect cool, interesting links spread all over the web and share them here every Thursday. Hope you enjoy! More of them in the archive.

How Rodrigo (it’s me!) brings a humanistic view to consumer technology. Buttondown, the service I use to manage Manual‘s newsletter and which sponsors Lerama, has a series of interviews with customers. They published mine.

LibreOffice 26.2. The usual package (performance improvements, compatibility, and bug fixes), plus support for importing and exporting Markdown.

Doppi 6.0. The new major update features a home screen with suggestions for most-played songs and new releases; widgets; and a new album view (Art Stream) reminiscent of Apple's late “Cover Flow.”

DASUNG Paperlike 103. An external E-Ink display with a 60Hz refresh rate sounds too good to be true. If you want to test it out for us, it costs USD 339.

PrivacyPack. Create your own package of free alternatives to big tech to share elsewhere. (Made by Ente.)

SFD Engine. “This tool generates and visualizes emergent behavior in complex adaptive systems.” The website's creator warns: there is no right way to interpret the results.