šTala Snacks, Pockit Computers, and Playbox
Bring musical ideas to life
Hello from the frigid land of Tennessee. Itās still in the mid 50ās here most days. How was last week for you?
My week was a veritable ācarnival of errorsā as they say. It started with taking our daughter to the hospital (nothing serious - we were disturbed to notice she wasnāt using her arm one afternoon, and the doctor said it was a pinched nerve), our car broke down, and we encountered a few bouts of food poisoning!
Phew!
Everyone is finally feeling better though, and I hope this week will go off to a better start.
I found some Coke Starlight last Monday, and I have to say that itās pretty good! I hope they make it a permanent flavor. It tastes a bit like some kind of berry vanilla combination . . . like some combo you might make at one of those Coke Freestyle machines.
Your best bet to getting it would be from a delivery service - because itās very hard to find in grocery stores.
Now my next mission is to find some Nitro Pepsi.
Did you see Azuki go to THE MOON this week? Every anime-related NFT project is popping off right now.
Azuki has already flipped MAYC. Will it flip BAYC?
What is the next Azuki?
Dunh dunh duhhhhhh
I picked up another really awesome Rosko this week. I sold my Goopdood and Dezuki, and decided to pick this up. Iām on the hunt for some decent projects with my current liquidity so let me know if you know of anything good.
Letās hop on in, shall we?
šTala Snacks
When the word āfruit snackā comes to mind, what pops in your head? Iāll go out on a limb here - and guess this.
Gushers are one of the classic brands that come to mind . . . or maybe one of those organic ones that tasted somewhat like Gushers.
Yeah - they tasted good - but never as good as the Gushers.
Well - thereās a new snack called Tala coming to town.
Tala is reinventing the fruit snack, so to speak.
We started TALA with a simple philosophy: Fruit snacks should be made of fruit. We grew up enjoying fruit snacks of all kinds but corn syrup isn't a replacement for nature's best! So, we package freeze-dried fruit into convenient pouches to offer a single ingredient fruit snack that's guaranteed to satisfy. (source)
Tala reminds me of those freeze-dried fruits you might find in the baby aisle - but for adults. Mind - Iām not saying thatās a bad thing - they actually taste pretty decent. No - I promise I donāt steal many from my little son.
With a snack like this - Iād argue that the āheart and soulā of the brand lies in the branding - rather than in the snack itself.
After all - whatās to stop you from just buying the freeze-dried fruit at the store?
PRETTY COLORS AND COOL FONTS.
The branding is very minimalist - Iād buy these just for the aestheticc.
Like - tell me you woudnāāt buy these awesome snacks just for the box alone.
THESE ARE AWESOME.
Tala currently has 4 flavors - mango, banana, pineapple, and dragon fruit.
Check it out at the link!
š»Pockit Computer
Remember Project Ara? Googleās attempt to create a modular phone?
but then they said - NAH. Letās keep selling people unmodifiable lumps of plastic instead of revolutionizing the cell phone market.
Project Ara might be deader than Quibi (at least Roku bought out Quibi), but Pockit may just be continuing the Modular dream.
The same concept as Project Ara applies.
You have a base magnetic board - and you add on different modules to create different applications - such as a game console.
The project seems to have started in 2019 - and the creator has been making steady progress ever since.
At the moment - the creator has a working prototype - and it works just like the original vision of the Project Ara Phone.
He envisions āhardware as elastic as softwareā with āhardware-agnostic software.ā
Blank magnetic smart surface ā Embed the modules you want.
Itās mind-boggling watching him take different blocks and stick them on the board - and watching them work effortlessly.
Oh - a light? Boom.
A light with a screen and power button? Say no more.
A computer? Yup.
A night vision camera? Fantastic!
Here - skip around the first few minutes if youāre short on time - Watch THE WHOLE THING if you can.
Itās mindblowing to finally see the concept of modular electronics work in real life.
Go check out the website and hop on the mailing list! Iām eagerly awaiting the day this ships.
šµPlaybox Music
Iāve often wondered how AI will intertwine with music creation - and - until now - Iāve mostly just found AI tools that create random midi sequences.
They can be kinda cool - but donāt stimulate the same way messing around with a tool like Output Arcade might.
Meet Playbox.
Playbox is a consumer-facing product for introducing new musical ideas.
Goodbye writers block, hello inspiration. Overflowing with samples, chord sets, effects, and presets, PLAYBOX comes loaded with everything you need to generate musical ideas. From igniting your creativity, to providing the final layer to complete a production, PLAYBOX lets you do it all. No matter your style or experience, PLAYBOX is a workflow gamechanger, giving instant and one-of-a-kind results for every music maker. (source)
The branding is absolutely wild - with jello, aesthetic spheres, squishy squares, and other fun vibes.
Check out these fun colors and shapes. Iāve never seen anything . . . so cute . . . in the plugin space.
Playbox allows you to create all kinds of really interesting sounds with different voices, Bass lines, Synths - and you can even import your own sounds too!
You can roll virtual dice to mix up your sounds - and import the ones you like into your DAW for later use.
Honestly - thatās probably the coolest part to me. Sometimes we find sounds that we like - but arenāt sure how to use them. Rolling the dice and meshing them with new sounds or different combinations could be just the juice you need for making a new track.
Heck - even if youāre not a musician - this sounds like a great way to fool around with creating fun sounds.
Check out this video for a deeper dive . . .
I think itās only a matter of time until we see a software like this that can completely generate new songs.
If youāre interested in playing around with Playbox, you can get a free month of their subscription service - or pay to have access to it forever. I plan to sign up and mess around with it as soon as I get a chance.
Maybe Iāll even generate some new tracks. Who knows!
š¦The Land of Random
The Random links you desire, just for you
Can I plz have Tinder?
Find your cat someone 2 love.
Generate Your Own Vybey City
Load the page to create a generative city wallpaper. Something different every time! Check out more about the project here.
10 Most Lived In Game Worlds
I will say this is one of the most important game aspects to me. Out of all these - I find Dishonored 2 the most ārealā world. How important is the ālifeā of a game to you?
Download a Page
With this handy chrome extension, you can save any web page as an HTML file. Very useful for archiving websites for analysis.
Maglit Link Shortener
This Link Shortener allows you to encrypt links so they can only be opened with a particular password. Very cool! Itās open-source, so you can inspect the code on Github at your leisure. To test it out, go to this link - and enter the password: random
Macroblank Vybes
This Japanese album has some amazing vibes . . .
Homemade Ice Cream
Applying the Keurig and Sodastream formula to an ice cream machine thatāll make you ice cream in 2 minues? Say no more!
šµTikToks You Canāt Miss
Favorite Batman comic limited series of all time
Oooh. I would love some Minecraft Pizza
I mean Iām leaving class and buying BTC
Iām not really a āPranktokā fan but this is funny
Thatās some serious skimboard action
Well, thatās all for this week! As always, if you want to reach out and chat - please respond to the email.
See ya!