Notational Velocity for VIM

Notational Velocity is a powerful open source note-taking application for the Mac and Notational FZF brings all that power to VIM.

Notational FZF
Notational FZF Demo

This plugin allows you to define a list of directories that you want to search. The first directory in the list is used as the main directory unless you set g:nv_main_directory. If you press control-x after typing some words, it will use those words as the filename to create a file in the main directory. It will then open that file in a vertical split. If that file already exists, don’t worry, it won’t overwrite it. This plugin never modifies your files at any point. It can only read, open, and create them.

For more information and to start using this check out the Github repo that includes all the instructions to get set up.

Alfred 4

Alfred 4 is now released and includes overhauled preferences, dark mode, new workflow objects, a new debugger, rich text auto-expanding snippets, a new theme editor, and more.

Out of all those features what I’m most excited about is the new debugger.

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The new debug log’s interactive navigation includes concurrent debugging across all workflows, with filtering down to individual workflows or selected objects. Each object is hyperlinked for interactive navigation; Clicking a hyperlinked object will highlight it on the canvas.

The price of Alfred is £23 for a single user option.

Studio Neat Totebook

Totebook is a thin, light, and flexible notebook, perfect for tucking in your bag to bring with you. Made of quality materials and thoughtful details, and includes a spine sticker for labeling and archiving.

The Totebook could be great for throwing in your laptop bag and heading off to client meetings or your favorite coffee shop.

 

 

Buy the Totebook from Studio Neat for $20 for a pack of two.

Lode – A GUI for Unit Testing

Lode is a new universal app for unit testing that allows you to visualize and run automated tests using a simple interface, with a unified experience across frameworks and languages.

Lode allows you to run tests selectively and see results in real time with syntax-highlighted diffs and traces available as soon as a test fails. It currently supports PHPUnit and Jest, with more frameworks coming soon.

The app is currently in beta with the Mac version for download available now, with Windows and Linux versions coming soon. Visit the Lode website to download the beta or to join the newsletter and be notified when it officially launches.

Locking Compass Flash Drive

This locking compass USB flash drive is both unique and functional since it requires the combination to open it. Made to look like an old world compass it’s an item that is sure to turn heads.

 

This USB flash drive is currently $39.99 – $59.99 on Amazon depending on the storage size.

Playdate – A new handheld video game system by Panic

Playdate is a new handheld video game system by Panic, the makers of many apps like Transmit, Coda, Firewatch, and more.

It’s small, it’s yellow, it has a crank, and no backlight, but it still looks amazing and should be a unique gaming experience.

Playdate video game system
Playdate video game system

Playdate is both very familiar, and totally new. It’s yellow, and fits perfectly in a pocket. It has a black-and-white screen with high reflectivity, a crystal-clear image, and no backlight. And of course, it has Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, USB-C, and a headphone jack. But it also has a crank. Yes, a crank: a cute, rotating analog controller that flips out from the side. It’s literally revolutionary.

There’s more: Playdate includes games — a full season of them. The games will be delivered over-the-air, once a week for 12 weeks, and they’ll be a surprise: when the new game light flashes, you’ll never know what you’re about to play. Panic recruited some of the world’s best game designers — some well known; others under the radar — to make games exclusively for our system. Playdate isn’t just hardware: it’s a complete experience.

Playdate will ship in early 2020, with pre-orders anticipated in late 2019 for $149. You can find more about the game system on their website and also signup to be notified as soon as it’s available.

Tailwind CSS IntelliSense

Tailwind CSS IntelliSense is a VS Code extension that uses your projects Tailwind installation and configuration to provide suggestions as you type. Plus it improves syntax highlighting, and CSS previews.

Besides autocomplete, it works with @apply and config(), plus it can give you a preview as you hover over each class name:

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This plugin makes working with Tailwind CSS easier than ever and it can be installed from the Visual Studio Marketplace.

 

Take control of your privacy with Jumbo

Jumbo is a new iOS app that aims to help you protect your privacy on various apps and services. Currently, this includes: Facebook, Twitter, Google Search, and Alexa but more are planned. With Jumbo, everything runs locally and is only stored on your device.

With Twitter, it deletes old tweets, then privately backs them up, accessible only by you, on your Jumbo app. With Facebook, it will help manage all the privacy settings, and with Google and Alexa, it’ll clean your saved searches and voice recordings.

Right now the app is free but they plan to make premium features in the future to help sustain the development of the app. If you want to take back control of your privacy give Jumbo a look.

Simplify Gmail Browser Extension

Simplify Gmail is a Chrome or Firefox browser extension that brings the simplicity of Google Inbox to Gmail. Michael Leggett is the creator of the extension who was previously Gmail’s lead designer from 2008 to 2012 and co-founded Google Inbox. So it’s made by someone with deep knowledge of the product.

If you miss the simplicity of Google Inbox then Simplify Gmail might be the closest you’ll be able to get. You can find more information on its website which includes links to download the extension in the different browsers.

SynthWave ’84 – VS Code theme

Love the 80’s as much as James Halliday? Want to relive the 80’s spirit every time you open your code editor? Now you can, with the Synthwave ’84 VS Code theme by Robb Owen.

This colour scheme is influenced by the music and the cover artwork of modern Synthwave bands like FM-84, Timecop 1983 and The Midnight. By association, that means I’ve also taken heavy influence from the excellent retro-tinged artwork of James White.

synthwave-84-theme.jpg

As you can see from the screenshot, it’s a very unique theme and pretty sweet color pallet. You can grab this theme from the VS Code Marketplace, just note the glow effect is considered experimental. Install this today, fire up the Kung Fury soundtrack, and get to coding!