Notes app

A French-language guide circulating on Mastodon, part of a 'Day 4' series on running Android without Google, recommends HeliBoard, an open-source keyboard available on F-Droid. The author argues default keyboards can send what users type to third parties, and walks through installing HeliBoard and setting it as the system keyboard, noting it learns words locally without sending data elsewhere.

Blogger Jack Baty has written about another failed attempt to move his personal notes out of Emacs, concluding that he could not stick with an alternative and returned to his long-standing setup. The piece has struck a chord with readers who recognize the familiar cycle of trying new note-taking apps, migrating content, and ultimately going back to a trusted, customizable text editor.

WhatsApp is reportedly testing scheduled message sending, currently limited to select Android beta users. The feature, which lets users set messages to be sent later, comes with restrictions on timing and attachments, and questions remain about how it will work with privacy settings and group chats. Rival messaging apps have offered similar scheduling functionality for some time, and observers are noting that WhatsApp is catching up on a long-requested feature.

A former Plaud executive has raised $26 million for Ambi, a startup building AI apps for iPhone, Mac, and Apple Watch that passively listen to conversations in the background and capture them as notes. The funding signals continued investor appetite for ambient AI capture tools, though privacy questions around always-listening software are likely to follow the product's launch.

A woman named Elle, posting under the handle ellespeaks, says her payments have been stalled for five days and is asking for $295 to cover her remaining necessities for October. She notes her building's laundry machine also took $10 from her, and says any amount helps. She directs donations through Cash App, PayPal and Ko-fi, and thanks the mutual aid community sharing her appeal.

A How-To Geek guide laying out open-source replacements for everyday Google apps is circulating online, recommending swaps like Brave for Chrome, Aegis for Authenticator, Organic Maps for Maps, Fossify Calendar for Calendar, and notes apps for Keep. Readers are sharing their own suggestions and discussing privacy, independence from big tech, and how viable these free alternatives are for daily use.

The Mastodon Android app has released version 2.13.4, adding support for displaying Collections where a user's server supports the feature and reworking push notifications under the hood. Developers say the notification changes should not alter behavior for most users but modernize the underlying implementation. The release notes point users to GitHub for full details of the update.

The developers behind Lock It: Calculator Vault, an Android privacy app, have set up an official presence on Mastodon. The app works as a functioning calculator that, when users type an equation and press equals, opens an encrypted vault for photos, notes, passwords and two-factor codes, secured with AES-256. The team says this is its official account for updates.

With few spectators in the stands at a cricket match in South Australia, viewers are noting how much more of the on-field sound comes through on the broadcast microphones. Commentators' chatter, player noises and stump-mic audio are clearer than usual, and some listeners are even picking apart the audio mixing decisions made by the broadcast producers during the quiet passages of play.

An Android user reports completing a full backup of installed apps using Swift Backup, part of a self-described 'Android crisis' countdown with 40 days left in an initial phase and 82 until a second. They note the backups are limited because app data cannot be copied without root access, though the process itself went faster than expected.

A blind gamer recording an hour-long gameplay video of The Sims for accessibility commentary realized afterward that the screen reader speech was never captured. The NVDA settings needed for the recording software to pick up the app's audio were not open, so the video has no narration. They plan to upload it anyway and explain the mistake in the show notes.

Amazon has launched a new line of Alexa-branded tablets, retiring the long-standing Fire tablet name. Reporting notes the devices are more Android than ever, a shift that raises questions about their relationship to Google's Play Store and app ecosystem. The rebrand and closer Android alignment are drawing attention from tech commentators discussing what the change means for Amazon's hardware strategy.

Mac & i, the Apple-focused magazine from German tech publisher heise, has released its 5/2026 issue featuring hands-on tests of AI-assisted 'vibe coding' to build a Mac app, navigation apps with CarPlay support, and note-taking apps. The issue also includes reviews of current iPhones, AirPods and Macs, offering readers practical guidance on consumer Apple hardware and DIY AI development.

A new German-language tutorial walks through the first steps of setting up a notes app on a UGREEN NAS, part of a growing interest in self-hosting everyday productivity tools on home network storage. The guide is aimed at users getting started with their NAS and covers initial setup steps for taking notes locally instead of relying on cloud services.

Google has begun rolling out version 5.10 of its Health app on Android and iOS this week. The release is described as a smaller update, adding a trio of new features across the app. Coverage has focused on the release notes and what the incremental changes mean for users tracking their health data on both platforms.

A medium-severity vulnerability, EUVD-2026-97612, has been catalogued against SiYuan, the open-source note-taking application from siyuan-note. Versions 3.1.12 through before 3.8.6 fail to restrict the Sprig template function map in the /api/icon/getDynamicIcon content parameter, allowing attackers to cause resource exhaustion. Users are advised to update to v3.8.6 or later.

A former executive at AI note-taking company Plaud has raised $26 million for a new startup building an AI app that listens to conversations in the background and turns them into useful notes or insights. The funding signals continued investor appetite for ambient AI assistants, though always-on listening apps also raise familiar privacy questions.

Security researcher Gareth Heyes-adjacent commentator gsuberland prompted discussion after a claim about how YouTube handles Shorts videos. Reply threads show users surprised by the behaviour, with several saying they avoid YouTube's own apps entirely, instead using self-hosted Invidious instances and external media players to watch content. Uploaders note they still use YouTube Studio for publishing, but browsing has largely shifted to third-party tools among privacy-conscious viewers.

Moonshot, a crypto trading app, runs an affiliate program paying 35%, 10% and 5% of trading fees in USDC after each referred trade. A review scoring it 5.5/10 notes the payouts come from a named Delaware company, but the agreement admits individuals only, renews three months at a time, and its terms restrict where referral links can be posted.

Cybersecurity researchers are warning about a suspected phishing site hosted on a Vercel subdomain, sharing the address in defanged form and publishing a technical analysis of the page via the URLDNA scanning service. The alert circulates in infosec communities, with observers urging caution around unsolicited links and noting how free hosting platforms are commonly abused for quick phishing deployments.

An iPhone 6s user reports that the Mail app on iOS appears to remember exactly where you left it. If you return to the home screen without closing the app while inside a message or mailbox, it reopens in that same spot next time. To make it open on the mailbox list instead, they suggest exiting while the list is showing. The user notes this is based on personal experience, not a confirmed specification.

Google is rolling out a new classification system in the Play Store that sorts apps into five different labels indicating how well they are optimized for large screens such as tablets and foldables. The change is meant to help users identify which apps genuinely deserve to run on a big screen before downloading. Tech commentators note it puts pressure on developers to properly adapt their apps rather than simply stretching phone layouts.