☕️ The Great Starbucks Replacement, Headphones with Screens, and Cool Music Tools
Need some new vibes?
Hey friends - and welcome to this week’s edition of The Land of Random.
The world feels like a crazy place these days - I won’t get into it, but I’m sure all of our emotions feel a bit like this. macabre humor I know.
I have a new collection of Aliexpress items to review - a few that I’m really excited to share (and one that’s quite literally a steal at $3.99). I’ll hopefully be able to share the video in the second week of July. Sorry for the delay - I had to order a few more things because the first batch only had one good item.
I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of Dutch Bros (I hadn’t either)- it’s a quick coffee chain that opened a new location here in Columbia. I discovered their Rebel energy drink and I gotta say - It Got Me Lit. Blue Raspberry flavor, fizzy, and lots of caffeine.
I’m craving another right now . . .
Oh! I’m planning to utilize Substack’s new referral program - Here are the reward tiers I’m considering.
Tier 1: 10 referrals - You now get the newsletter early - as soon as I finish writing
Tier 2: 25 referrals - I will research a topic for you and write up a section with my findings!
Tier 3: 50 referrals - I will send you an Aliexpress Mystery Box!
What do you think? Feel free to leave a comment or email me directly by responding to the newsletter. I’m open to all ideas!
I discovered a new zombie movie that has been quite interesting - It’s called Exit Humanity and it takes place in post-civil war America. I haven’t finished it yet - but it’s probably the most creative zombie film I’ve found in a while.
We’re currently watching From and the second season of The Bear.
The Bear is amazing - other than Food Wars, I can say it’s one of the few cooking dramas that I’ve enjoyed! Super fun show - great characters, food, and hilarious lines.
Shall we dive on in?
☕️ Starbucks Replacement?
Do you follow Andrea on Twitter?
Andrea runs the really, really cool Snaxshot company.
The other day she mentioned Foxtrot Market as a possible replacement for Starbucks.
Huh - I said to myself. Now THAT’S an interesting idea.
A grocery store that’s also a cafe. Why not?
I think it appeals to younger generations who yearn for a “one-stop shop but with aesthetics.”
As GenZ and Millennials grow older and older - tastes change. I want the convenience of a grocery store but with the aesthetic of a coffee shop.
Need to pick something up or some ingredients for lunch or dinner AND work for an hour or two?
You can do it all at Foxtrot!
I think the following image really embodies the “vibe” of Foxtrot in a single image.
Space for sitting/eating/working/laughing - and shopping.
Stores like Whole Foods or Sprouts have places to sit - but it’s all within the vision of a shopping experience.
When was the last time you planned to hang out with a friend at Whole Foods?
I should also mention that Foxtrot is extremely tech-forward.
You can shop from their app and get items for pickup or delivery (grocery or cafe) - and ship certain items across the country.
Currently, Foxtrot is only in a few cities - I hope they expand to Tennessee at some point soon!
Go check out Foxtrot at the link!
🎵Headphones with Screens
I know, I know - everything is getting a screen these days - even our microwaves.
Yes - there’s a microwave with a 27-inch android tablet in it.
What if your headphones had a screen too?
That could be pretty cool - like if you had album art on one side, and a music visualizer on the other.
This design by Olga Orel evokes some pretty cool vibes.
If you find the square shape of the cans inspired by the retro design of headphones from the yesteryears, you are absolutely spot on. Olga wants to create unison between retro looks and modern technology while keeping the functionality of headphones at the forefront. According to the designer, “Future Nostalgia as a visual style became a source of inspiration for this project.” (source)
Sounds cool!
I immediately went to the internet to see if anything like this has ever made it to the real world.
Indeed - there were a pair of headphones with screens on them - way back in 2017.
The Vinci headphones were planned to be a standalone music device - complete with storage, Bluetooth, Android, and an AI voice assistant.
Here are the remnants of the Kickstarter page.
A boon for tech minimalists who still want Spotify, but want to downgrade to a dumber phone.
They certainly looked pretty cool - and they sent out demos to tech reviewers like Unbox Therapy.
They look super cool - but unfortunately, as with many techy Kickstarter projects - the whole thing went kaput.
Here’s a blog that details the downfall of Vinci - including an update that SEEMED TO BRICK A LOT OF USERS DEVICES BACK IN 2018.
The comments indicate a LOT of issues.
Now this is where things get fun.
It looks like someone on Aliexpress might still be making these things.
Maybe it’s a fake listing - who knows?
There’s also listings on Alibaba as well.
I didddd find this review from about a year ago - so either
a). This guy found a OG Vinci set somewhere from the original shipments.
b). He is reviewing one from Aliexpress/ Alibaba
Who knows!
Maybe I’ll order a pair someday and find out . . .
Until then, check out more pictures of Olga Orel’s design concept at the link!
🎹Cool Music Stuff
We all love some coooool music stuff. I’ve stashed a bunch of links recently - but haven’t shared any recently!
Link #1: Listen to chill vibes while enjoying ambient videos - City Hop Cafe
Link #2: Run a Winamp clone on a microcontroller - Check it out
Link#3: Generate some AI music loops. This tool is pretty fun, and I got some pretty interesting examples for Japanese Lofi Trap. The crazy part is that we’re only about a year or two away from AI generated YT lofi streams that sound pretty good - Check it out
Link#4: Make some beats in your browser with this lil drum machine. - Peel Drum Machine
Link#5: Enjoy Spotify with visualizations in this mini Spotify Player! - Lofi Rocks
And last, but not least - a Dark Lofi weather channel-themed mix.
🐙The Land of Random
Dive Dive Dive into the Random!!!!
Creator Club Newsletter
Sam is a fellow internet explorer - He looks for cool tools, betas, and other interesting things across the web. There’s always something interesting to explore in the Creator Club! Subscribe at the link.
Killing a Decentralized Network
A Fascinating Deep Dive into the war between the Fediverse and proprietary social media platforms by exploring the old chat protocol XMPP.
Make Your URL’s Super Long
Hahahahahahahahaha - it’s the opposite of bitly. Here’s what it turned thelandofrandom.com into.
https://loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.ng/looooooooooooOooooOoooOoOoOOoooOOoOoooooooooOooooOooooOoooOooOOooooOOOoOooooOooOoOooooOOooooooOOOOoOoooOOoOooooooooooooooOooooooooOoOOOOooooOooOooooOOooOooooOOoooooooOOOooOoooooOoOoooooooooOoooOOoOOooooOOooOOooooOOooooooOOooOooooOOoooooooOOOooOoooooOoOoooooooooOoooOOoOOooooOOoOooooooOoOoooooOOooOooooOOoOOooooOOOOoOooooOooOOoooOooOoOooooOoOOoooOooooooooOoooooong
Sandtrix
It appears that Sandtrix is back! It’s tetris, but with sand. Play it at the link!
MicroCommerce
A neat solution for creating an online store that you can embed AS A WIDGET in your existing website. That’s pretty sick.
Send Data Over Sound
Really intriguing Github - Send data and messages using sound.
What did I just watch
Yodeling until Cthulhu shows up?
Publish a Single Page to the Net
The perfect tool for when you’ve written something you want to share, but don’t want to use social media or build out a blog or website. You do have to pay 1 dollar to publish a page - I will mention.
🎶TikToks You Can’t Miss
Stopppppppp showing me these TikTok. They’re so coooool
Every time I see this tutorial, I dream.
Extremely cursed marshmallow Peep
Eyyyyyyy I remember these guys from 2019
This is what you do when there’s no such thing as a budget
🤖AI AHHHHHHHHHH
A in depth tutorial for creating those viral AI QR codes
There’s a lot of chatter about Falcoln LLM - a new AI learning language model.
A massive list of fun things for generating GPT prompts
That’s it for this week! See you next time!