⌨Keyboard iPhone, The Anbernic 35XX, and Make Plant Milk

Plant Milk from Scratch

Jan 08, 2024

Hey friends!

Welcome to this week’s edition of The Land of Random.

Hope your January is off to a great start - I’m back into the swing of things with work and such.

We’re planning to go hard on our garden this year - and we may even add a dwarf apple tree or two!

One of my favorite things about gardens is that our children can run outside and enjoy a vegetable or fruit. I quite enjoyed my garden as a small child.

I’m looking forward to seeing what kind of crazy contraptions come out of CES this year. I imagine a lot of ai stuff, maybe some more bendable screens . . .

Did you hear that a private fan server for City of Heroes was given the green light to keep operating in an official capacity? A rare occurrence in the world of old online mmo’s.

I think private servers for old defunct MMO’s should be allowed to exist - if a game company isn’t going to keep the game online, why are the fans not allowed to keep playing?

In other news - I FINALLY got access to airbuds on Android. This app is so much fun! It’s a small widget that allows you to see what your friends are listening to.

Let’s dive in, shall we?

⌨Keyboard iPhone

How would you like to go back to the world of physical keyboards WITHOUT getting a new phone?

That’s the idea behind Clicks - by Michael Fisher and Kevin Michaluk, the founder of Crackberry.

People are still discussing their Blackberry devices on the forums - they may not be many anymore, but they endure.

It’s quite interesting to watch as different apps and things stop working on the older Blackberries, and users do their best to try and get them to work.

ANYWAY - I digress.

Here’s the Clicks keyboard.

It’s essentially an iPhone case with a built-in keyboard.

An interesting choice in 2024. However, it is the perfect time to cash in on nostalgia. Everyone loves old-school phone vibes these days.

It makes the device look HUGE - but I can’t lie when I say that it looks fun.

The biggest argument/benefit for the device highlights how much space keyboards take up on screens.

That is true - and annoying.

Another benefit mentioned by Michael is “Sensation” - the feel of the keyboard. It’s satisfying!

just like your old phone in the 2010s.

If you like shortcuts - the keyboard can do quite a few! That’s a neat perk.

Personally, I think I’d much rather have a sliding keyboard case - like this old thing.

Michael Fisher’s video about the keyboard is very well done. Watch it if you get a chance.

Check out Clicks at the link!

Clicks!

🎮The Anbernic 35XX

There’s a growing market for retro game emulator devices - from POWKIDDY to Anbernic, and others.

Essentially, these devices are “bootleg game boys” with the ability to emulate all the way up to PSP and beyond! The Anbernic 35XX can go up to PS1.

More powerful devices like the RG353V can do a lot more (all the way to PSP!)

I’ve been meaning to pick up an Anbernic 35XX for a while - but never got around to it . . . until December.

I got that $20 off TikTok Shop coupon and said “why not.”

After about a week and a half of anticipation, it finally arrived in the mail.

It was a lot smaller than I expected. A LOT SMALLER. The screen is at least a decent amount of real estate.

It comes packed with TONS of games, but if you want to add your own - get ready to roll up your sleeves and put on some pirate music.

Retro ROMS (game files) live in a very legally grey area - but aren’t a big “target” at the moment when it comes to being able to find them. A simple search for “Game Boy Color roms” pull up sites that aren’t even very sketchy.

Think Project Free TV of the old days - compared to the sites available today.

The ROM world / hombrew game world is a LARGE and very helpful one. If you ever buy one of these AND want to add your games - reddit + various forums will become your best friend.

There’s nothing like downloading an old game file and seeing 2003 as the file date. It took me 30 minutes to properly install a PS1 game because I had to download two different file tools to change formats AND do research to figure out if I was on the right track.

Don’t even get me started on the ABSOLUTE rabbit hole that custom operating systems bring up for this device. Explore this page to learn more.

The games run pretty decent - but the build quality and UI/UX can be pretty wack.

As the subreddit for the device shows - lots of people have issues with their devices.

Mine appears to be working just fine, but . . . you never know haha.

If you’re interested in taking the plunge and exploring the world of emulation, check out the official Anbernic website at the link, or get one cheaper at Aliexpress.

No affiliate links here. Don’t worry.

Anbernic 35XX

The RG35XX Plus came out recently too. If you want to do a bit of an upgrade, check this out.

I kinda wish I bought this one instead but oh well. I think I’d rather upgrade to the 353V.

This YouTuber’s videos are great. Check out more of his stuff if you like retro gaming!

🥛Make Plant Milk

Have you ever wanted to make plant milk at home?

The Milky Plant is a countertop machine for making plant milk with almonds, potatoes . . . whatever ingredients you want!

We tend to use almond milk creamer + honey in our coffee (no lie I get stomach distress from normal creamer) so I’m always curious about advances in the plant milk sphere.

Almond milk + oat milk tend to be expensive - but getting out the blender regularly can be a pain too!

As opposed to other “cool devices” (Hey June) this one has a justifiable day-to-day use.

Here’s another shot of the machine.

It’s a pretty cool device! I do not doubt that you could save a decent amount of money using this instead of buying almond/oat milk each week.

We use regular dairy milk at home - so we don’t really need it.

It does cost 275 pounds . . . which is quite expensive in USD.

I do think it would be awesome for those who have dairy intolerances or vegan preferences!

Check it out at the link.

Milky Plant

🐙The Land of Random

Let’s Get Random!

Neon Maxima

Possibly some sort of ARG. Possibly an art project. All I know is this is a wild rabbit hole. nothing NSFL/NSFW seen but don’t hold me to it. All I know is this is one of the crazier links I’ve seen in a while.

Deep Web Clip Art