Mixtapes and Sidekicks
No, not that Sidekick.
We're somehow a month into May and it's only the middle of May. But it's fine that just means summer will hopefully feel twice as long this year. Though rumors are that it's going to be scorching hot so I'm not looking forward to that. Anyway, here's Cool Supply.
in this issue:
📻 Make your own Mixtape
📸 Snapseed 4.0
🎛️ EP-136 K.O. Sidekick
📻 Make your own Mixtape
At this point, I'm sure you've heard of the game Mixtape. It's taken the internet by storm because millennials like myself yearn for Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 and new old music that isn't served to us by an algo(with no)rhythm. But I'm not here to tell you about the game. Go play it, it's amazing. I'm here to tell you about the music discovery service that the game launched with. If you go to the launch website and click on the little sticker in the top corner you can scroll through a seemingly endless supply of mixtapes that real people have made and uploaded to the site. You can pick the songs, give your mixtape a title, and even add doodles and stickers.
Once you make your mixtape it gets published to the website and you can share it with your friends aka flex on them with your awesome music taste. That's the whole point of mixtapes isn't it? I've been jamming all morning to music that complete strangers are putting me onto and I have to say, it's fun as hell. Here's a link to the mixtape I just made. Feel free to tell me how awesome my music taste is.
📸 Snapseed 4.0
There are a lot of things that I love about iOS, but the one aspect of being on Apple that I miss the most is access to a plethora of camera apps. There are some on Android but it's slim pickings over here. Thankfully, the built-in Samsung camera on the S26 Ultra is good enough but it just doesn't hit the same as messing around with Halide, Dazzcam, or the (Not Boring) Camera. There are a few on Android that I've been messing with for a few weeks like Zerocam but I'm always on the lookout for a new one. This week we finally got one from the unlikeliest of places: daddy Google.
Google bought Snapseed way back in 2012 and it has remained more or less an afterthought. But we finally got a complete refresh last week and man, I really love it. This is exactly the kind of whimsical camera experience I've been looking for. Give me a powerful camera app with a whimsical UI and I'm happy. I plan on digging deep and doing a full review at some point in the coming weeks but definitely try it out if you're looking for a fun new camera app.
🎛️ EP-136 K.O. Sidekick
Every time Teenage Engineering releases something my wallet shudders in fear. The design team over there must have clones of me in their focus groups because they have yet to release something that I don't want. Well, besides that weird car thing. Cool, but just not for me. The newest addition to their lineup is the EP-136 K.O. - Sidekick. It's a part of their EP line-up which means it's actually affordable. Rejoice! It feels weird calling something affordable when it's almost $200, but if you're unfamiliar with Teenage Engineering's game this is 10x cheaper than some of their synthesizers.
The K.O. Sidekick isn't a synth, or a beat machine, or a sampler, or anything you can make sounds with. It's more of a companion to instruments that you already own (hence the name). It's a small two channel stereo mixer with live punch-in effects that doubles an audio interface so that you can record right into your computer. I haven't pulled the trigger on it yet because I've already spent my yolo-who-gives-af budget this month on repairing an old pair of jeans, but next month is looking promising.
