Issue 25
  1. A pen, stylus and phone charger in one
  2. Comment and collaborate on websites
  3. A smart security camera
  4. Turn notes into presentations
  5. Leather skins for your gadgets
  6. An iOS time zone converter widget

Hello everyone!

Happy 25th issue! The Modern Desk started on January 29th and over the last 6 months has grown to more than 4600 readers. Thanks so much for signing up and following along! Really looking forward to finding out where this little project will go from here. By the way, there is now a simple archive page with access to all back issues of TMD.

If you have any comments or questions that could help me improve this newletter, please get in touch (just reply). And as always I much appreciate you sharing TMD with friends and colleagues. (Here's a web-version of this issue.)

Last weekend I finally had the chance to finish up some long articles that I've been reading in chunks: Tim Urban's Tesla piece is an exhaustive and well-researched read on the future of cars, the oil industry, and global warming. Reading Chris Sacca's collection of what Twitter could be had me longing for a better, more exciting Twitter experience.

Have a great week!

Kai

 

This Weekʼs Line-Up

A pen, stylus and phone charger in one
01

"A pen and a phone charger. The two most borrowed items in the entire world, finally united in one ground-breaking device." — A bit dramatic, but the premise of combining a stylus, ballpoint pen and (emergency) phone charger into one object that you always have with you makes sense.

 
Comment and collaborate on websites
02

Point is a little Chrome plugin that allows you to comment on websites and highlight specific sections. It's great for your own bookmarking and note-taking, but it's especially powerful if you do online research with a team.

 
A smart security camera
03

Nest, known for their beautiful thermostat, now also makes cameras. Their first such product looks promising. The accompanying mobile app allows you to speak and listen in in real time, go through historical recordings, define activity zones to alert you if something moves in specific areas of the captured video, and a lot more. Oh, and the night vision feature is pretty sweet too!

 
Turn notes into presentations
04

Deckset is a brilliant little Mac app that creates great-looking slides from simple Markdown files. Spend more time writing good presentations and less time worrying about the way they look.

 
Mujjo
Leather skins for your gadgets
05

I'm a sucker for high-quality European leather products. Dutch label Mujjo offers a slick line of cases, sleeves and wallets for popular Mac products in a variety of colours and materials.

 
An iOS time zone converter widget
06

There are a million and one clock and time zone apps on the App Store, but none of them are handily accessible when you need them. That's where Klok is different: it lives in your notification panel. No matter what you're currently doing on your phone, get global times through a simple swipe down.

 
Just set one day’s work in front of the last day’s work. That’s the way it comes out. And that’s the only way it does.
— John Steinbeck