Evidence-first research

A few months and lots of updates later: Zenteek 1.8, a native macOS music player

I first posted Zenteek here a few months ago, shortly after launch. I've been building pretty much nonstop since then, and I thought it was time for an update because the app has changed substantially. I'm a solo developer and a lot of your initial feedback has made it into the current version. ### PROBLEM I love physical media and lossless audio, but every macOS player forced a trade-off: native feel, library management, file format support, presentation, hardware support, performance - pick some, lose the rest. Even the ones I liked would in the end silently resample my audio the moment I touched the equalizer. So I thought "There has to be a way", stopped looking for the right player and began building. A few things that set Zenteek apart: - **Source-rate DSP that doesn't lie to you.** A new modular DSP system and a four-channel gapless local transport architecture, all without silently resampling your files. - **It plays almost anything you throw at it.** CD ripping, SACD ISO, 1-bit DSD via DoP, DFF, DST, 5.1/7.1, OPUS - formats most players treat as edge cases, Zenteek treats as normal. - **Your library, actually explored.** Full discographies, wishlisting, credits graph, smart matching, front and back artwork, concert dates and links. And then there's **Zen-A-Llama**: a new optional controller window that runs classic Winamp skins. Yes, really. Your music library can look like it's 2001 if you want it to, right down to the pixel-y sliders. (added in my recent "birthday

Show HN: Slock – A one-bit messenger inside your capslock key

Two computers, one bit. Hi — I built slock, a small macOS menu bar app that connects two people through their capslock lights. Hold capslock on your Mac, and the other person’s capslock light turns on. Let go, and it turns off. That’s all. A tiny way to interact someone without opening a chat window. Invent a blink language, try Morse code, or just bother someone who agreed to install this with you. If you both opt in, the same key also becomes a push-to-talk walkie-talkie. It’s open source: simple Swift, end-to-end encrypted, no accounts, no analytics. While it’s running, capslock takes a break from capitalizing things. Pause it to get your old capslock back. Please enjoy this very elaborate way to blink a light. Thank you for checking out my little project!

DockDuck: I spent a year building the file manager I wanted. Dual pane, workspaces, servers, cloud drives, batch tools. Native, one-time purchase.

Hi r/macapps, developer of DockDuck here. I move files around all day and Finder always felt like it was built for someone who doesn't. The alternatives that do have the power mostly look like they stopped getting design attention a decade ago. So I spent the last year building the middle that I couldn't buy: Finder's feel, without Finder's ceiling. Native AppKit/SwiftUI, no web views anywhere. Workspaces just shipped this week, so it felt like the right moment to finally post here. **Problem:** The moment you need two folders side by side, a rename across 40 files, a server connection, or to grab that file you copied three folders ago, Finder sends you to extra windows, extra apps, or the terminal. I wanted all of that in one place that still feels like macOS. **Browsing:** * Icons, List and Columns views, configurable list columns, one-click filter chips (Images, Documents, Code, Videos...). * Tabs with session restore, pinned tabs, and **named Workspaces**: save a window's whole tab set ("Client X", "Video project") and reopen the layout later. * **Dual pane** on a real AppKit split view (the divider drag is buttery, that took embarrassingly long to get right), plus a **folder comparison mode** that visually links matching files between both sides: same name, different size or date. Syncing two folders by hand stops being guesswork. * **⌘K switcher** that searches every open tab across every window. * A Home dashboard: drives with free space, pinned items, recent activity,

Musicer v3.6 is out! A lightweight retro‑styled local music player for macOS, and the first AI‑controllable music player.

**Problem:** Hope to have a retro-style mini local music player that can directly read and play audio files in folders, manage music via traditional folder hierarchy, and support a wider range of audio formats. **Comparison:** Compared with the system native Music App, this player focuses purely on local playback without redundant cloud, subscription and online library features, featuring smaller size and flexible window modes. Different from mainstream third‑party players, it adds waveform progress visualization, one‑click switch between three window sizes and menu bar quick controls, with a minimalist customizable UI and full lossless format support including FLAC. Uniquely, it supports MCP stdio, enabling AI Agents to directly search, play and control playback — something most music players do not offer. When matched against ultra‑simple players, it provides broader audio format compatibility and richer visual interaction details, balancing practicality and appearance customization, plus the new AI‑controllable capability. **Pricing:** Lifetime Access: $3.99 **Changelog(v3.6):** This update adds support for MCP stdio mode and updates the app icon. I gathered lots of feature requests from my [last Reddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/macapps/comments/1v9591e/musicer_v30_is_out_lightweight_retro_local_music/) promotion. Now Musicer v3.6 is here! Six versions have shipped since that post, bringing plenty of new features. Feel free to share more interesting use‑case ideas and feat

Show HN: I made a retro falling block puzzle, with a twist ;)

I've loved stacker type games for as long as I can remember. But I've always wanted a version with a bit more strategy and puzzle dynamics. Blocknado is a game I've always wanted to play, maybe others will too.

@logan__woolf @praeclarum I will stipulate that its usefulness when really multi-tasking is retarded compared to a simple taskbar like Linux/Windows. Thanks to your comment, I found Raycast and Rectangle which may make it less retarded. Mac

OS uses App switching vs L/MS Window switching apparently.

Kepter: everything you save on your Mac, as a camera roll you scroll

Finder is frustrating. Digging through four folders for a receipt you downloaded twenty minutes ago, searching a word you know is inside a PDF and getting nothing back, losing a file to whatever folder the browser felt like using that day. Kepter watches the folders you pick (Desktop, Downloads, Documents by default), reads what lands there, and shows all of it as one scrollable wall of pictures instead of a list of filenames. Point it at any folder or drive on your Mac, including your Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive, and iCloud folders, and it reads whatever is downloaded there. The idea is recognition instead of recall. You do not file photos on your phone and you still find them, because you know what the thing looked like. Kepter does that for receipts, scans, PDFs, screenshots, voice memos, everything else. The reading is the actual product. Every file gets read on your Mac and the words go into a local index, so you can type what you remember instead of the filename. "my flight" finds the boarding pass. A word on page 12 of a Word doc is as findable as one on page 1. Scans and screenshots get OCR'd. Audio and video get transcribed, so a phrase somebody said in a voice memo finds the memo. That all runs through Apple's own frameworks: PDFKit for document text, Vision for OCR, Speech for audio, and Apple's on-device models on macOS 26. There are no AI API calls in the read path. Your files are not uploaded and Kepter never keeps a copy of one. Requirements, and this rules

Show HN: Fast Cut Video tool for cutting video for Agents

Hi HN, Build this tool in a couple of hours with OpenAI Codex to scratch an itch. As part of my videos workflows I needed to cut the videos myself since the agent is pretty bad cutting and timing using only the transcription. But using a big app like Premiere or DaVinci Resolve was overkill so I used Astra to build an app tailored to that very task. It will be useful to others with the same problem. Tested only on Silicon Macs, so any feedback is welcome. As part of my workflow when the agent get the video it can open the app with the video or videos loaded in the timeline for me to cut and then export the cuts in a format the agent can use and continue the workflow.

Show HN: I made a retro falling block puzzle, with a twist ;)

I've loved stacker type games for as long as I can remember. But I've always wanted a version with a bit more strategy and puzzle dynamics. Blocknado is a game I've always wanted to play, maybe others will too.

@logan__woolf @praeclarum I will stipulate that its usefulness when really multi-tasking is retarded compared to a simple taskbar like Linux/Windows. Thanks to your comment, I found Raycast and Rectangle which may make it less retarded. Mac

OS uses App switching vs L/MS Window switching apparently.

Kepter: everything you save on your Mac, as a camera roll you scroll

Finder is frustrating. Digging through four folders for a receipt you downloaded twenty minutes ago, searching a word you know is inside a PDF and getting nothing back, losing a file to whatever folder the browser felt like using that day. Kepter watches the folders you pick (Desktop, Downloads, Documents by default), reads what lands there, and shows all of it as one scrollable wall of pictures instead of a list of filenames. Point it at any folder or drive on your Mac, including your Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive, and iCloud folders, and it reads whatever is downloaded there. The idea is recognition instead of recall. You do not file photos on your phone and you still find them, because you know what the thing looked like. Kepter does that for receipts, scans, PDFs, screenshots, voice memos, everything else. The reading is the actual product. Every file gets read on your Mac and the words go into a local index, so you can type what you remember instead of the filename. "my flight" finds the boarding pass. A word on page 12 of a Word doc is as findable as one on page 1. Scans and screenshots get OCR'd. Audio and video get transcribed, so a phrase somebody said in a voice memo finds the memo. That all runs through Apple's own frameworks: PDFKit for document text, Vision for OCR, Speech for audio, and Apple's on-device models on macOS 26. There are no AI API calls in the read path. Your files are not uploaded and Kepter never keeps a copy of one. Requirements, and this rules

Show HN: Fast Cut Video tool for cutting video for Agents

Hi HN, Build this tool in a couple of hours with OpenAI Codex to scratch an itch. As part of my videos workflows I needed to cut the videos myself since the agent is pretty bad cutting and timing using only the transcription. But using a big app like Premiere or DaVinci Resolve was overkill so I used Astra to build an app tailored to that very task. It will be useful to others with the same problem. Tested only on Silicon Macs, so any feedback is welcome. As part of my workflow when the agent get the video it can open the app with the video or videos loaded in the timeline for me to cut and then export the cuts in a format the agent can use and continue the workflow.

Private German rocket makes history, reaches orbit from European soil

The moral panic over data centres is foolish

Fable hacked my piano, can I release the results?

I have a self playing piano, using a system called PianoDisc Protigy. They have an online store which sells music for their system, from various modern artists along with classics such as Bach and Beethoven. Last night I saw they had released some music from Eric Satre, a 19th century French composer, which I bought. Curious if I could have just used AI to create these files, I began experimenting with Astra and Fable. Feeding the output of one into the other to critique. After an hour of LLM discussion of Rubato and fermata, solenoid response times and proper sustain pedal technique, they settled on their ultimate version of Gymnopedie No 1. I then asked Fable to compare it to the open source version I'd downloaded from Mutopia, which it promptly ripped apart. No sustain, zero rubato, upside down balance. Ok, what about the version I'd just bought? The PianoDisc versions are mp3s encoded with the right channel carrying MIDI to be played on the piano, and the left channel containing any accompanying music to be played through attached speakers (who doesn't want the harmonica on Piano Man?) I gave the mp3 to Fable, which promptly decoded the format, identifying the right channel carrying MIDI using a 2004.5 Hz square wave. It then went on to analyze the nuance of pedal lift and melody relative to the chords. Fable then asked if I wanted it to build an encoder to write my own MIDI files into the right channel of mp3s. Sounds great, and I instructed it to write the encoder. What

Antinote free alternatives

I think the antinote app is a non negotiable option nowadays and to be fair i can’t afford it so is there any free alternatives? If not i will try to save up until i get it