This week’s Enter Safe Mode briefing looks at the “State of the Dumbphone” address, a physical brick that locks your apps, and the privacy-first device actually worth buying.
Continue reading “2026 Is Officially the Year of the Dumbphone”Month: January 2026
A Must-Have for Writers: The $7 Franklin MWD-1490 Electronic Dictionary
I was deep in the weeds of Chapter 4 of my novel last Tuesday. The scene is set on a farm, and I realized I had used the word “barn” about fifty times in three pages.
I needed variety. I needed “pastoral.” I needed “agrarian.” I specifically wanted synonyms for “bucolic.”
Normally, this is the moment where I die. I hit CTRL + N to open a browser window. I type “bucolic synonym.” But while I’m there, I see a notification badge on Gmail. Or I spot a “Trending” headline about the Knicks.
Suddenly, it’s twenty minutes later and I have watched three videos of Billy Corgan talking about pro wrestling, and I have completely forgotten that I was writing about a farm.
It’s the Internet Tax. Every time you go online for something simple, you pay a toll in attention.
Continue reading “A Must-Have for Writers: The $7 Franklin MWD-1490 Electronic Dictionary”How a “Dead” 8GB Zune Became My Favorite Desk Accessory
How to turn a broken Zune into a distraction-free desk tool for deep work: tips on buying, setup, and more.
OK, so I bought an 8GB Zune on Poshmark for $22 because I wanted to try the Microsoft MP3 player I shunned back in the day. You know the one—wired headphones, retro device, looking mysteriously disconnected from the 5G grid.
I imagined pulling it out of my pocket before I long lunchtime walk, scrolling through the menu with that legendary “Squircle” touch pad, and enjoying 20 hours of battery life.
But when it arrived, reality hit me.
The battery was completely shot.
It holds a charge for exactly four seconds before the screen fades to black. It’s not a portable media player anymore; it’s a brick.
For a minute, I was ready to RePosh. I’ve never been a Microsoft fanboy—I wasn’t an iPod kid either. Maybe I was a Sansa dude? through and through. But holding the device, I realized something: I actually loved the feel of it. The matte plastic back, the weirdly futuristic typography, the “Hello from Seattle” etched on the back. It has personality.
So, I pivoted.
Continue reading “How a “Dead” 8GB Zune Became My Favorite Desk Accessory”How to Turn Your iPhone Grayscale (And Why It Cures the “Twitch”)
You know the feeling. It’s the “Twitch.”
You’re standing in line at the grocery store, or maybe you’re just waiting for the coffee machine to heat up. You have twelve seconds of downtime. Before you even decide to do it, your hand is in your pocket. Your thumb unlocks the screen, and suddenly you’re five minutes deep into a feed of people you barely know, looking at photos of sandwiches you’ll never eat.
It’s not your fault. Your phone is a carnival. It’s painted in “Notice Me” Red and “Trust Me” Blue. Every icon is designed to look like a piece of candy that your lizard brain wants to eat.
There is a whole industry of gadgets trying to solve this. You’ve probably seen the ads for those “minimalist” phones—the e-ink bricks, the credit-card-sized communicators, the devices that cost $400 just to promise you they won’t do anything.
I love those devices. I review them. But here is the secret the tech industry doesn’t want to say out loud:
You can get 90% of that “dumbphone” peace on the iPhone you already own, for zero dollars.
You just have to wash the color out of it.
Continue reading “How to Turn Your iPhone Grayscale (And Why It Cures the “Twitch”)”CES 2026: The 5 Quietest Gadgets in Las Vegas
There were 4,000 new gadgets launched at CES this week, promising to change your life. 3,995 of them just want to steal your attention to show you ads. Here are the other 5.
I waded through the sewer of dopamine-tech so you don’t have to.
CES is where tech goes to scream at you. But buried in the noise, there were a handful of products that get it. Here’s what I found.
Continue reading “CES 2026: The 5 Quietest Gadgets in Las Vegas”Tascam DR-03 Review: Best Cheap Portable Recorder vs. Smartphone
When I bought my Tascam DR-03 used at Goodwill for $22, I knew it was a great value: a portable solid state recorder that still holds its own almost 17 years after its release.
Unexpected bonus: The previous owner had left a 2GB SD card inside. When I hit play, I wasn’t just hearing audio; I was transported.
First, it was a lady practicing piano. Then, a clip of a preacher talking about God in what sounded like a cavernous hall. And even a psychology class in some lecture hall at the University of Unknown.
My voyeuristic side kicked in, and I listened. But what struck me most wasn’t what was recorded, but how it sounded.
It was spatial.
Unlike a flat phone recording that tries to isolate voice and kill the background, the Tascam’s stereo condenser mics capture the room. I could hear the silence between the piano notes. I could hear the echo of the preacher’s voice bouncing off the walls. It gave the audio dimension…like being there.
Continue reading “Tascam DR-03 Review: Best Cheap Portable Recorder vs. Smartphone”The $15 Cure for Nighttime Distraction: Westclox Baby Ben Review
My nightstand used to look like the return bin at Best Buy.
It was a tangle of cables: a watch charger, a phone charger, a Kindle, and an open bottle of water balancing precariously in the middle. But the centerpiece of this clutter was always the phone. It sat there, glowing and vibrating, demanding to be checked one last time.
The breaking point wasn’t a work emergency. It was a pickleball paddle.
I reached through the wire nest at 11:15 PM to check my calendar. I saw a game scheduled for after work, which reminded that I had seen an ad for a paddle earlier in the day. That led to a Google search for a Tesla-created paddle, which spiraled into a 20-minute deep dive on a forum about aerodynamics and Elon Musk.
I lost sleep and sanity to a rabbit hole that only existed because I allowed my phone to sleep next to my head.
The solution wasn’t to organize the cables and tuck them into the alarm clock charger. It was to remove them entirely.
Continue reading “The $15 Cure for Nighttime Distraction: Westclox Baby Ben Review”