Notes app

A developer has released BraiNOTES, an open-source tool that lets users add handwritten notes directly onto lecture PDFs from within a browser tab. The tool, shared on the developer forum Hacker News, is available on GitHub and has drawn early interest from the community. It targets students and academics who want to annotate course material without dedicated note-taking apps or software installs.

A writer has described another failed attempt to move his personal notes out of Emacs, returning to the editor after trying something else. The post, shared on Hacker News, is part of a familiar debate among Emacs users about whether its plain-text workflow is worth the lock-in compared with newer note-taking apps.

Apple has showcased its new HomeView app, drawing attention across several countries including France, the Netherlands and India. German coverage notes the feature will not be available in Germany at launch, prompting disappointment among local users. Discussion is focused on what the app offers and why Apple has restricted its rollout to certain markets.

The latest edition of the Questionnaire, a recurring interview series in the Miscellanea newsletter, features Sam Howard, a conversion copywriter and strategist. The six-question format asks her about the books she reads, the apps she uses, and how she approaches note taking, offering readers a look at the tools and habits of people working in writing and marketing.

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 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.

Google has begun rolling out its new top-tier model, Gemini 4 Argon, in the Gemini app for subscribers on the AI Pro and AI Ultra plans. The rollout is gradual and has not yet reached all users in Sweden. Tech commentators are noting the update as Google's latest push in the competitive AI assistant market, alongside related projects like Antigravity and Google DeepMind's ongoing model development.

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.