Another privacy-first, open-source photo storage app: Ente keeps your memories locked away – encrypted end-to-end, locally on your device and spread across three secure backups – without ads or tracking. It’s built for people who want smart features like AI-powered search and family sharing, without sacrificing trust or control.

A lightweight, offline-first web and desktop app that blends note-taking and calculations into one fluid space – letting you jot, math and convert seamlessly as you type, all without needing an internet connection. Lovely features include Markdown support, PDF and HTML export, Autocomplete and more. Friends of DD enjoy a 10% discount. Become a Friend to access specials like this.

I love good software that’s free: Convierto intelligently converts files while preserving quality, offering batch processing, format previews, and real-time progress tracking. Built with SwiftUI, it combines seamless macOS integration, drag-and-drop ease and sandboxed security.

CookShelf (for iOS and Android) lets you search across all the recipes in your entire cookbook collection by ingredient, dish type or craving – and then sends you back to the right page of the physical cookbook. Because cooking with real books is more fun. Friends of DD enjoy 90 days free. Become a Friend to access specials like this.

Josh Brake uses the comparison between e-bikes and AI to argue that we should design our relationship with new technologies very carefully. Technology should augment rather than replace human effort, because eliminating the connection between our input and results risks making us dependent on tools rather than empowered by them. “At the end of the day, we must remember that innovation is a bargain. We often consider what technology promises to enable for us, without considering what it will almost certainly disable. Most of the time, we fail to stop and consider the tradeoffs. Perhaps e-bikes may give us a metaphor to frame our thinking.”

Designer Nick Foster argues that major changes will arrive gradually and feel ordinary once we adapt to them, rather than the extreme utopian or dystopian visions we’re constantly fed. By imagining the future as an extension of our current lives, we can better prepare for what’s actually coming. “Whether we’re talking about artificial intelligence, climate change, robotics or teenage screen time, it’s incredibly easy – and incredibly lazy – to pitch the future as a place of extremes. It’s much more difficult – but much more useful – to try to understand how those things might affect something as ordinary as walking the dog.” In my view, this perspective usefully deflates ‘innovation’ hype but risks downplaying the urgency needed for issues like climate change. (Paywalled – free archived view)

Small, steady acts of care still matter. I loved hearing about a guy called Brandon, who has spent 720 consecutive weeks (nearly 14 years!) serving free homemade food on a Chicago street corner every Friday night without missing a single week. Read this if you need a reminder of the kind, constructive work happening on the sidelines. “Using his resources, he challenges the logic of scarcity; he does what he can for the people who stop by for food weekly. He talks to them, listens and affirms their humanity. He will tell you he’s not heroic and is a flawed human being. I find this to be comforting because it means that all of us can do what he does in our own way.”