diff --git a/daily-finds.log.md b/daily-finds.log.md index 583a35b..eb152de 100644 --- a/daily-finds.log.md +++ b/daily-finds.log.md @@ -1759,3 +1759,19 @@ Items referenced: - czapek-antarctique-frozen-meteor - casio-a140-digital-watch - casio-pro-trek-prj-01 + +## 2026-07-06 — review: analogtv-full-simulation + +Graduated from find captured 2026-07-06, source: r/macapps. +Hero: reused the find's hero.jpg (App Store og card, 1200×630) — App Store screenshots weren't extractable via curl, and the promo card reads cleanly at grid size. +Category: video (new — no existing category fit a media/video creative app; should recur for video/media tools, and category pages auto-generate). +Fact-check: verified against the App Store listing (Alastair Bor / Ambor). The find held up and was undersold — it's not a filter but a physics-based simulation of the whole analogue chain (camera tube → composite encoding → RF → CRT phosphor) across 14 standards (the find named 6; added NTSC-4.43, PAL-60, SECAM-L, D-MAC/D2-MAC, 405-line/819-line, and confirmed the Apollo lunar SSTV + field-sequential color), plus 8 phosphor types, 4 camera-tube models, a service menu, virtual magnet/degauss, 14 live test patterns, teletext, NDI I/O, Metal 60fps, and arcade-game sources. Corrected commercial facts into the review: $4.99, Mac-only macOS 14.6+, $9.99 NDI in-app purchase, Photo & Video, v2.6 updated this week. +Amazon: n-a (software). + +## 2026-07-06 — review: powerhouz-starship-home-dashboard + +Graduated from find captured 2026-07-06, source: Brett Terpstra. +Hero: reused the find's hero.jpg (App Store og card). +Category: home (new — a HomeKit/smart-home dashboard doesn't belong in the Mac-desktop-UI "interface" bucket; should recur for smart-home apps). +Fact-check: verified against the App Store listing (Zysco). The find held up and undersold the reach — it runs on SIX platforms (iPhone iOS 17+, iPad, Apple Watch watchOS 10+, Apple TV tvOS 17+, Mac macOS 14+ Apple silicon, Vision Pro visionOS 1+), not four. Confirmed the 26 "systems": HomeKit accessories + cameras, surveillance mode with sci-fi video filters, Calendar/Reminders, weather, Night Stand sleep via Apple Health, activity rings + biometric telemetry, comms (call/text/FaceTime incl. emergency services), energy automation, widgets. Free with a $1.99 Premium tier; Lifestyle category; v7.04 (Jun 8); developer states no data collected. The find's "red-alert mode" phrasing wasn't confirmed by the primary listing, so the review describes the surveillance/alert theming without asserting that specific named feature. +Amazon: n-a (software). diff --git a/src/content/find/2026/07/analogtv-full-simulation/index.mdx b/src/content/find/2026/07/analogtv-full-simulation/index.mdx index 48a5f10..1029ea8 100644 --- a/src/content/find/2026/07/analogtv-full-simulation/index.mdx +++ b/src/content/find/2026/07/analogtv-full-simulation/index.mdx @@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ shortlist: true link: "https://apps.apple.com/us/app/analog-tv-simulator/id6761325301" linkText: "apps.apple.com" source: "r/macapps" +promotedTo: analogtv-full-simulation topics: [macos-apps] tags: [video, retro, simulation] description: "A Mac app that recreates real broadcast standards — NTSC, PAL, SECAM, HD-MAC, even the Apollo lunar format — so each system's artifacts behave the way they actually did." diff --git a/src/content/find/2026/07/powerhouz-starship-home-dashboard/index.mdx b/src/content/find/2026/07/powerhouz-starship-home-dashboard/index.mdx index bbc6eec..d6f5eb8 100644 --- a/src/content/find/2026/07/powerhouz-starship-home-dashboard/index.mdx +++ b/src/content/find/2026/07/powerhouz-starship-home-dashboard/index.mdx @@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ shortlist: true link: "https://apps.apple.com/us/app/powerhouz/id924503714" linkText: "apps.apple.com" source: "Brett Terpstra" +promotedTo: powerhouz-starship-home-dashboard topics: [macos-apps, apple-tips] tags: [homekit, dashboard, automation] description: "A HomeKit dashboard that wraps 26 home readouts in a neon sci-fi command deck, with a red-alert mode, running across iPhone, iPad, Watch, and Apple TV." diff --git a/src/content/reviews/analogtv-full-simulation/hero.jpg b/src/content/reviews/analogtv-full-simulation/hero.jpg new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6f0045c Binary files /dev/null and b/src/content/reviews/analogtv-full-simulation/hero.jpg differ diff --git a/src/content/reviews/analogtv-full-simulation/index.mdx b/src/content/reviews/analogtv-full-simulation/index.mdx new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f308453 --- /dev/null +++ b/src/content/reviews/analogtv-full-simulation/index.mdx @@ -0,0 +1,29 @@ +--- +name: "Analog TV Simulator" +subtitle: "A Mac app that rebuilds the entire analogue TV chain — camera tube to CRT phosphor — from physics" +date: 2026-07-06 +category: video +tags: [video, retro, simulation, crt, mac] +link: "https://apps.apple.com/us/app/analog-tv-simulator/id6761325301" +linkText: "apps.apple.com" +description: "A $4.99 Mac app that simulates the complete analogue television signal path — camera tube, composite encoding, RF transmission, CRT phosphor — across fourteen broadcast standards from NTSC to NASA's Apollo lunar format." +source: "r/macapps" +fromFind: analogtv-full-simulation +--- + +import { Image } from 'astro:assets'; +import hero from './hero.jpg'; + +Analog TV Simulator — a Mac app recreating an analogue television picture, complete with scanlines, color bleed, and CRT phosphor glow. + +*Not a scanline overlay — a simulated signal path, breaking up the way a real broadcast did.* + +> Most "retro TV" effects paint scanlines and static over your footage and call it a day. Analog TV Simulator instead rebuilds the whole analogue television chain — broadcast camera tube, composite encoding, RF transmission, and CRT phosphor — from physical first principles, so the picture degrades the way a real signal actually did. + +The difference is the entire point. A filter guesses at the *look* of old TV; this simulates the mechanism that produced it. Because the artifacts fall out of a modeled signal path rather than a preset overlay, dot crawl, color bleed, ringing, and ghosting behave the way they did on the specific system you pick — and they change correctly the moment you switch standards. + +And there are a lot of standards: fourteen. The familiar NTSC, PAL, and SECAM, but also NTSC-4.43, PAL-60, and SECAM-L; the D-MAC and D2-MAC satellite formats; Japan's MUSE/Hi-Vision and Europe's HD-MAC, the dead ends of analogue HDTV; the ancient 405-line System A and 819-line System E; and — the tell that this is a labor of obsession — NASA's Apollo lunar television, in both its slow-scan and field-sequential-color variants. + +The depth keeps going past the signal itself. You choose among eight phosphor types (P22, P31, P7 and friends) and four camera-tube models with authentic lag, open a service menu of engineer-level controls, wave a virtual magnet at the screen and degauss it, and generate fourteen live test patterns. It renders on the GPU through Metal at 60fps, exports video in several codecs, runs a working teletext system with live pages, does NDI network video in and out, and can even take its picture from built-in arcade games like Pong and Space Invaders. It is closer to a software CRT than a filter plugin. + +The honest framing: this is a $4.99 Mac-only app (macOS 14.6 or later, with a $9.99 in-app purchase for the NDI I/O), and it is gloriously niche. If the phrase "field-sequential Apollo color" made you sit up, you already want it; if you just need a quick VHS look over one clip, a preset filter will do and this is far more machine than you need. But that is exactly what makes it worth the look — an app built by someone who cared about getting the physics right, not just the vibe, and still actively refined (version 2.6 shipped this week). diff --git a/src/content/reviews/powerhouz-starship-home-dashboard/hero.jpg b/src/content/reviews/powerhouz-starship-home-dashboard/hero.jpg new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6170441 Binary files /dev/null and b/src/content/reviews/powerhouz-starship-home-dashboard/hero.jpg differ diff --git a/src/content/reviews/powerhouz-starship-home-dashboard/index.mdx b/src/content/reviews/powerhouz-starship-home-dashboard/index.mdx new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a0e6ebd --- /dev/null +++ b/src/content/reviews/powerhouz-starship-home-dashboard/index.mdx @@ -0,0 +1,29 @@ +--- +name: "PowerHouz" +subtitle: "A HomeKit dashboard that turns your home controls into a sci-fi starship bridge" +date: 2026-07-06 +category: home +tags: [homekit, dashboard, smart-home, apple, automation] +link: "https://apps.apple.com/us/app/powerhouz/id924503714" +linkText: "apps.apple.com" +description: "A free, six-platform HomeKit dashboard that wraps 26 home systems — accessories, cameras, Apple Health, weather, sleep — in a neon sci-fi command deck with cinematic animations and sound." +source: "Brett Terpstra" +fromFind: powerhouz-starship-home-dashboard +--- + +import { Image } from 'astro:assets'; +import hero from './hero.jpg'; + +PowerHouz — a HomeKit dashboard styled as a neon sci-fi command deck, with panels for accessories, cameras, weather, and biometrics. + +*Home control as a command deck, not a grid of tiles.* + +> Home apps mostly aim for calm — minimal grids of identical tiles. PowerHouz goes the other way: it dresses your HomeKit setup as the bridge of a starship, with neon panels, cinematic animations, and atmospheric sound, and turns checking whether you left the garage light on into a small command-deck moment. + +Under the sci-fi skin it's a real control surface. PowerHouz offers full HomeKit accessory and camera support, a surveillance mode that lays sci-fi video filters over your camera feeds, energy management with automation triggers, and home-screen widgets. The 26 "systems" it advertises aren't only lights and locks — they fold in Calendar and Reminders, weather forecasting, a Night Stand sleep-tracking mode via Apple Health, activity rings and biometric telemetry, and communication tools to call, text, or FaceTime the people (or emergency services) tied to the home. + +The conceit earns its keep because a themed, glanceable HUD is genuinely faster to parse than a wall of matching tiles: your eye learns where each panel lives and reads state by color and motion rather than by reading labels. It's the same reason a cockpit layout beats a spreadsheet — spatial memory, plus a little theatre. + +And it reaches almost everywhere Apple does. PowerHouz runs on iPhone (iOS 17+), iPad, Apple Watch (watchOS 10+), Apple TV (tvOS 17+), Mac (macOS 14+, Apple silicon), and Apple Vision Pro (visionOS 1+) — so the bridge can live on the living-room TV, on your wrist, or floating in front of you in the Vision Pro. That's six platforms; the find undersold it as four. + +The honest notes: it's free to download with a Premium tier at $1.99, the developer states it collects no data, and it's filed under Lifestyle rather than Utilities. It is also unapologetically *a lot* — if your taste runs to Apple's own restrained Home app, PowerHouz will read as too much. But that's the whole idea, and at version 7.04 it's a mature, long-running take on the fantasy rather than a weekend novelty. It's for the person who thinks controlling the house should feel a little like flying a ship.