Alfread (iPhone only) is essentially a read-it-later app like Pocket or Instapaper but with added features aimed at helping you build better reading habits. (Great copy on their website, too.)

This little web app magically deletes elements you select from photos and fills the empty space so that the edit doesn’t seem too obvious. I just tried it a few times and it works surprisingly well.

A messenger that only delivers messages once a day? Pony is definitely not an app for time-sensitive, casual chats. Perhaps a tool for more mindful, medium-length communication between close friends or family?

Browse through over 2000 models of mobile phones going back decades. Exploring the site reminded me that I once owned this Siemens sliding phone. There is a non-profit behind the website which not only catalogues all models digitally, they actually photograph the (donated) phones themselves and then store them securely. What a great initiative! (Send them your old phones!)

The Life You Can Save →

A philanthropic manifesto

Australian philosopher Peter Singer wrote this book more than ten years ago, making a convincing case for why we should use our money to help others out of poverty. It’s since become one of the most influential books on philanthropy. Singer launched a charity by the same name and later acquired the distribution rights to his own book, allowing him to make the ebook and audio version available for free on their website.

Demystifying Disability →

A handbook on disability issues

Understanding the needs of people with disabilities can seem daunting, in part because we don’t want to do/say the wrong things. Luckily, disability rights activist Emily Ladau has written the ‘cheat sheet’ for us: “An approachable guide to being a thoughtful, informed ally to disabled people, with actionable steps for what to say and do (and what not to do) and how you can help make the world a more accessible, inclusive place.”

Between denial, dread and despair, it’s hard to know what emotional response to the climate emergency is actually warranted and indeed useful. I acknowledge that many people around of the world don’t have that luxury, but at least for some of us, recognising that things will fall apart and we’ll still somehow be alright, is one way to avoid the debilitating effects of this crisis and give us the energy to make the necessary adjustments. “...we could borrow the term ‘apocaloptimism’, defined as the attitude of someone ‘who knows it’s all going to shit, but still thinks it will turn out OK’. This is an oxymoron, of course. But it’s a potentially useful one, in that it short-circuits the whole question of whether or not we like what’s happening, instead redirecting attention back to what’s happening, and how we’re called upon to respond.”

I have to thank Anab Jain (whom we interviewed for Offscreen issue 22) for opening my eyes to the ideas of planet-centric design and interdependence, some of the concepts summarised in this short manifesto for dezeen. “We need to remember that we are not just on this Earth: we are of this Earth. The interdependence is real: humanity as ecology, ecology as humanity. Both the head and the heart demand this mental leap, this act of surrender.”

It’s hard to deny that Facebook is causing a lot of harm. But if #DeleteFacebook is not making a difference and governments are too slow to act, what can actually be done about it? Farhad Manjoo says ‘doing nothing’ is one option: just let the company make itself irrelevant. “Once-indomitable tech companies have fallen before. Facebook still makes lots of money, but it has lost consumers’ trust, its employees are upset and leaking left and right, and because most of its popular products were acquired through acquisitions – which regulators are likely to bar in the future – it seems unlikely to innovate its way out of its troubles.” (Possible soft paywall)