Links of the day

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

GNOME 50 “Tokyo”. One of the most feature-packed updates in recent memory, with support for “fractional scaling” and variable screen refresh rates, new parental controls, various accessibility improvements, and a comprehensive file annotation system *.pdf in the Document Viewer (Papers) app.

Death to Scroll Fade!. He could have just used “lorem ipsum” to make his point. Web designers of the world, listen to this man.

Obsidian’s “Reading Mode.” Obsidian’s Web Clipper extension got a new feature that redesigns a web page to make reading easier. (Several browsers offer this natively.) I liked the look. To use “reader mode,” you don’t need to have Obsidian installed on your computer or phone.

Fedora Asahi Remix 43. The Linux distro for M-series Macs has gotten a major update, with support for the Mac Pro and additional features on the MacBook Pro M2 Pro/Max, as well as major updates to core components of Fedora, such as RPM 6.0 and DNF5.

Moody. Another ingenious use for the notch on recent MacBooks: as a teleprompter. (Too bad the app is so pricey.)

Aeris. A beautiful, real-time visualization of commercial flights. Unlike other apps and sites of its kind, this one is “3D” in the sense that you can see the altitude of the aircraft.

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

Meet Kit, your companion for a new internet era. Mozilla has officially unveiled Firefox’s new mascot. This “new internet era” is, according to Mozilla, “shaped by AI and a web that’s harder to trust.” I believe the two phenomena are deeply connected.

Free VPN, split window, and more: new features coming to Firefox 149. The free VPN will use Mozilla’s infrastructure, has a 50 GB data cap, and, unfortunately, will initially be available in only a few countries — US, France, Germany, and UK. Two split-screen sites in the same window and tab notes are the other two new features coming to Firefox 149, which is set to launch on March 24^th.

Samsung to stop selling USD 2,899 TriFold phone after three months, Bloomberg. You could say it flopped, but that argument is hard to sustain given that Huawei is selling its dual-fold screen phone well in China.

Garmin gets a WhatsApp app. The app offers features common to other smartwatch OSs, such as reading and replying to messages, reacting with emojis, and viewing recent message history. Compatibility is limited to the most advanced/expensive models. Link to the app in the Garmin store.

Affinity Updates: From the Light UI to Smoother Workflows. The first major update to Affinity under Canva’s umbrella highlights the new light interface. Since when is dark mode the default/priority?

Tumblr: Chain reblogs now have their own notes. Automattic stirred up a hornet’s nest by changing Tumblr’s note system (likes, comments, and reblogs). The backlash was so strong that, within two days, company leadership decided to reverse the change.

RMF. An interactive map of Brazil showing the locations of ERBs, radio/TV antennas, and fiber-optic cables.

Scroll speedometer. Scroll the page as fast as you can, in the same direction, for five seconds. On the MacBook Air trackpad (cheating, I know), I managed 4,419 pixels per second.

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

The new Ubuntu folder icons, Omg! Ubuntu. The changes will come in Ubuntu 26.04, scheduled for release in April. In addition to the folder icons (I think they’re prettier!), the LibreOffice and Calculator icons have also been updated.

Eye of the Match. It’s fascinating how every activity gets turned into a video game. In this game, still in development, you take on the role of the virtual assistant referee (VAR) in a football game.

CAPTCHA Hell. In this other even more absurd game, the challenge is to solve CAPTCHAs — those puzzles that many websites impose on you to prove you’re human (or a competent robot). Is it actually fun?

Super Tux. I didn’t know there was another game (this one, a platformer) featuring Tux, the Linux mascot. The new version (0.7) includes a level editor. Free, FOSS, for Android (*.apk), Linux, macOS, and Android.

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

Microsoft quietly scraps plans to bring Copilot to notifications and Settings on Windows 11, Windows Central. “Boss, people are saying they don’t like spoiled food. What do we do?” “Change the name to just ‘food,’ without the ‘spoiled,’ and keep serving the same slop.”

I tested Firefox’s new AI “smart window” in beta, Omg! Ubuntu. Yeah… it looks like the home screens of “AI browsers” like Comet (Perplexity) and Atlas (OpenAI). It’s fascinating how much time, resources, and manpower Mozilla spends to reinvent the wheel (and it still comes out a bit square). Since it’s in beta, things may change before the official release.

GIMP 3.2. The main new features in the first update of the 3.x series are “link layers” (equivalent to Photoshop’s “smart objects”) and the creation of vector layers. Free, FOSS, available for Linux, macOS, and Windows.

Marknote 1.5. This Markdown editor from the KDE project skipped 2025, but has already received two major updates in 2026. It looks great for those running KDE Plasma.

“Hello, world”, @Gargron@mastodon.social. Exactly ten years ago, the first post ever was published on Mastodon.

AltStore on the fediverse. AltStore, an alternative app store for iOS, is on the fediverse. Apps, including updates and news, can be shared across the fediverse, and users can view Fediverse likes directly in AltStore, as well as connect their Mastodon or Bluesky accounts to like apps without leaving the store app.

Just the Article Please. Paste the URL of a post/article/text and this site, as the name suggests, returns only the text.

Cool Stuff. We’re being pretty literal today. A page with… cool stuff, organized in a mosaic of images.

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

Parent managed accounts on WhatsApp. That's right, we're going to normalize children under 13 using WhatsApp. On LinkedIn, the head of WhatsApp for strategic markets said that children's accounts will not have access to Meta AI, channels, and Status. I innocently asked if, even as an adult, I could remove these things from my WhatsApp. I feel like I won't get an answer, but if you want to increase the pressure, here's the link.

Meta: Fighting scammers and protecting people with new technology and partnerships. There are some measures announced to combat scammers who pay Meta, but it's always good to remember that 10% of Meta's revenue comes from known misleading/scam ads.

Motorola explains update policy: “Updates aren't always good” (pt_BR), Tecnoblog. And I don't think he's wrong, you know? The Motorola executive is referring to major Android updates (ie. 15 to 16), not security updates, which he believes are the ones that really matter. A stable Android, which continues to get security updates, is almost like Debian for mobile phones.

My WordPress. Visit this site and get a ready-to-use, persistent WordPress instance linked to the device you are using. It's a weird proposition, but Automattic has bigger plans for this service, something like the first step towards everyone having their own website. Will it work?

WordPress 6.9.4. Meanwhile, Automattic has released three WordPress minor releases (6.9.2, 6.9.3, and 6.9.4) in just two days. This leads me to think about how much vibe coding is being written into the software these days…

Ads of up to 30 seconds that cannot be skipped are coming to YouTube on TV. It's symptomatic that the announcement was made to advertisers, without any communication to the public/users. And, of course, the idea is to reach the audience “with Google's AI.”

Musicmap. A “family tree” of music. Use the scroll to zoom in and click on the titles to open playlists (with embedded YouTube videos or Spotify) to listen to the songs.

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

Meta hires duo behind Moltbook, Axios. I thought Meta already had social platforms for robots (Facebook and Instagram). The price of the acquisition was not disclosed.

PeerTube 8.1. The new version of the fediverse alternative to YouTube brings optimizations to audio files (for podcasts) and images, and makes the new player that debuted in the previous version the default.

tinydot. An app for iOS and macOS that turns a Finder directory/folder into a static website. Completely free while on beta.

Defuddle. Convert any web page with content to Markdown. You don't even need to visit the site: just add Defuddle domain before the page you want to convert, or use curl.

Dialed. Can you remember the color and reproduce it? I scored 40.54 on my first attempt.

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

Jay Graber Steps Down as Bluesky CEO, WeDistribute. She remains in the company, now as director of innovation (CIO). Replacing her on an interim basis is Toni Schneider, former CEO of Automattic and venture capitalist.

A brief history of domains. Today I learned that the domain system preceded the web.

Why I put my life in a database. This psychopath… I mean, guy compiled almost 400,000 data points about himself, collected since 2019, and published several charts. I found it funny when he said he wouldn't give details about months when his mood varied “for privacy reasons.”

Share on Mastodon. A new official share button that remembers your instance. Should we use it here in the Manual? 👀

Services on the AT protocol. A non-exhaustive list of services built on top of the AT protocol, the same one used by Bluesky.

Synthsational. Make music by pressing the keys on your keyboard. (The visuals are very nice.)

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

A new look is coming to Firefox on computers. Codenamed Nova, the visual redesign is very colorful and features rounded corners. I don't know… It’s weird. The work is in its early stages and there is no release date yet. (I don't even know what language this blog is in; click for the screenshots.)

“Desktop mode” comes to Android. In the newly released Android 16 QPR3, just connect your phone to a display, keyboard, and mouse for an experience similar to Windows or macOS. Now that macOS officially runs on an iPhone chip (in MacBook Neo), why not do the same, Apple? (We know why: because then the company would sell only one device instead of two.)

What you give up (and to whom) when you verify your LinkedIn profile. Spoiler: a lot, and to dozens of unimaginable “partners.” At this point, it is recommended to at least be wary of anything that big tech platforms offer. Hot tip from Marco.

digiKam 9.0. An update that lives up to the jump from the 8.x line to 9.0, with tons of new features and improvements. digiKam is a photo manager and editor, similar to Lightroom. FOSS, for Linux, macOS, and Windows.

Ensu. The folks at Ente have launched a “private AI” that runs on the device. It's not even close to commercial/cloud-based AI, but it's an alternative to chatbot therapy with ChatGPT or Gemini.

List of public/open Jitsi instances. Jitsi is video calling software, an alternative to Zoom and Google Meet, that works surprisingly fine.

imbored. A website with lots of micro-experiences to alleviate boredom.

your ai slop bores me. A website where you pretend to be an AI and respond to and draw things that other people request. (You can choose whether you are the AI or the person asking the questions.) Hot tip from Luz Clarita.

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

Google and Epic announce settlement to end app store antitrust case, Ars Technica. The 30% fee reduction charged to developers comes with several caveats. The changes stem from an agreement with Epic Games, which had beaten Google in court after accusing the company of monopolistic practices with the Play Store.

For adults only. Apparently, you must be over 18 to use the Zed code editor.

ActivityPub for WordPress 8.0.0. The big news is that you can like and boost a blog post without leaving it. It's a bit of a hack, but it seems to work.

NetNewsWire with backward compatibility. It's not every day that a new version of an app highlights compatibility with the previous operating system (15  Sequoia, in this case). Those who didn't like Liquid Glass and are still using the old version are grateful.

Escargot. They're trying to resurrect the old MSN Messenger.

PersonalSit.es. A directory of personal websites. (I wasn't sure if I had already shared this in the links of the day, but I guess it doesn't hurt to repeat it, right?)

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 in daily posts. 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 in daily posts. 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 in daily posts. 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 in daily posts. 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 in daily posts. 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.