Awesome things that you might not know about

A collection of things that I think are good interesting or enjoyable. I try not to list things that are made by big corporations, or which are already well known. For example, I don't list Minecraft as a game although I think it's great because you likely already know about it, and I don't list the numerous software packages that I use and enjoy but which are made by big corporations. I have written more elaborately about my policy on recommending things.

Apps

In addition to the criteria laid out in my policy, I also don't want to recommend apps with unnecessary subscriptions. That is apps which do not have significant recurring costs that charge a subscription.

• Data Jar: Persistent data between shortcut runs, syncs between all shortcuts enabled devices - enables much more advanced shortcut flows. - Time tracking, Workout app, Microsoft todo's day like reminders, smart suggestions, and more.
• Close-up: A very simple and very fairly priced app that lets you take a selfie every day, and export videos of your selfies over a range of days.
• Happy Cow: Vegan restaurants, or restaurants with vegan offerings near you. Has a very active review community, which has the advantage compared to other more mainstream platforms of the reviews specifically targeting the vegan food. So you will no longer find a restaurant with excellent non-vegan food, but poor vegan options. In my experience, it has a much more complete index of vegan restaurants, and vegan options than mainstream platforms. The clear highlighting of entirely vegan restaurants is useful when you're going out as a group and want to gently nudge people in the right direction.
• PiPifier (open source): Forces picture-in-picture videos on websites which actively disable it. (useful on mobile devices where it's often disabled.)
• Signal (open source): All the useful stuff, none of the fluff. You likely already know about this app, but it's worth reminding you to use Signal if at all possible. With the username support they solved 1/3 of my problems with the app; the others being no good backup solution for iPhone (although it is possible to decrypt the local database on desktop), and no support for having multiple accounts on one phone making it a poor choice for work communications, or separating your contacts.
• Voice tools: Useful for analyzing voice characteristics. Spectrum view: More advanced, but also more difficult to use.
• AltTab (open source): Brings Windows style alt-tabbing to macOS. I consider this essential functionality which is missing. (if you don't want to enable screen recording permissions, you may consider my fork which disables screen recording.)
• Userscripts (open source): Run custom css and javascript in Safari.
• Smiling Mind: Developed by a non-profit, smiling mind is a free meditation app that has expanded into being an all-round mental health app. Although simple, it's a good alternative to the for-profit apps.
• Electricity Maps (partially open source): Visualizes electricity consumption & production, import & export, and breaks it down by region or country and by type and carbon intensity. It summarises it all by showing how carbon-intensive the electricity is in a given region.

Games

In addition to the requirements specified previously, I also require that games respect my time which in practice means I tend to enjoy games with an ending, and games which are short (ideally less than 10 hours). I also tend to like games that are artistic in nature, and I have a soft spot for games with a strong visual style. I also like games to be cozy, and have low stakes if any stakes at all. Although I don't exclusively play cozy games. Desktop games get bonus points for not requiring a launcher.

• A Short Hike: One of my favorite games. With its beautiful art style, and quirky characters, it brings you on a no-stakes adventure where you can help people on the way, explore a small community, the island, and climb to the top of the mountain.
• Sky: Children of the light: The lessor known title from the creators of Journey. A multiplier version with a similar vibe. I like to play it as a visitor to avoid falling in the trap of rerunning old maps to collect candles and engage with the micro transactions to buy cosmetics. The final map was too scary for me, so I didn't go far in that map. The early maps are more relaxing. I sometimes come back for the events.
• The Last Campfire: Beautiful voiceover. Touching theme although the symbolism can be a bit on the nose sometimes. Puzzles were very simple, but makes up for it by the charm of the characters.
• Lego Builder's Journey: Visually stunning, innovative controls albeit clunky at times, but very touching story about rekindling your creativity as an adult minimally told through gameplay.
• Unrailed: A chaotic local coop multiplayer game in which you gather resources to build the tracks as a train proceeds towards its destination. If the train runs out of tracks, you lose. It requires coordination and teamwork between the players to make the train reach its destination safely.
• Islanders: A minimalist relaxing city builder puzzle game where you need to create synergies between different buildings and the environment to collect enough points to unlock the next level.
• Kingdoms and Castles: A little fantasy city builder with a charming art style. The late game can become a bit stale as most of the challenge disappears. Updates have attempted to fix that, but I haven't felt the need to go back to game, as there is not enough variety to make subsequent play-throughs interesting. Yet still a fine game if you're okay with leaving it after a single play through.
• Wildfrost: A pay-once rogue-like card game not dissimilar to Hearthstone, but with deeper mechanics that require more strategic planning.