No matter how good your wallpaper looks, once your desktop fills up with files, the icons blend into the background and everything starts to look cluttered. My desktop often has a lot of files on it, so I started wondering whether a wallpaper could detect where my icons are and generate a scene around them in real time.

After discussing the idea with AI, I found out it was possible—and it doesn’t actually need AI to detect the icons or generate the visuals. The program can read the icon positions directly and generate scenes in real time using predefined designs. It’s lightweight, and there’s no particularly complex technology involved.

Here’s the result.

https://deskland.app

I’ll keep adding new themes and improving the existing ones. I also plan to add a more interactive game mode in the future.

The meadow and beach themes are free and open source.

https://github.com/BLEZZ0102/Deskland

All the current themes are 2D, which keeps their impact on computer performance minimal. I’m also considering adding 3D themes, while balancing visual quality with performance.

Procedurally generated visuals do have their limitations. If AI computing becomes much cheaper in the future, AI generation could be an option, opening up the possibility of creating almost any scene. For now, though, generating a desktop with AI in real time is clearly still too expensive. I’m considering experimenting with locally running AI generation. It would still be GPU-intensive, but it could be a lot of fun.

Hi everyone! As an educator, I'm always looking for ways to make learning more engaging and hands-on. A few months ago, I started experimenting with this idea of making comprehensive books that feature interactive diagrams, equations and code. So I started with a chapter on sorting but it then snowballed into a 22-chapter book that took nearly 6 months to complete.

Some unique features of the book include: • 300+ fun interactive visualizations to explain concepts and walk-through solutions visually. • All 250+ code snippets featured in this book can be interacted with, and have a visual debugger that shows how variables change as the program runs. You can also play, pause, rewind, and step through each snippet. • There are a variety of solved problems for each topic, accompanied by an embedded minimalist python IDE. You can solve problems directly in the book and view multiple solutions per problem. • Each solution is also accompanied by live visualizations and python implementations.

You can check out the book here: cartesian.app

I’d genuinely love to hear what you think, especially if you’re a student, educator, or a self-taught learner!

I’m a big cat lover (despite being terribly allergic), and back during the pandemic I spent way too much time on Animal Crossing. My completionist self was obsessed with filling out the fossils, fish, and insects list…

Fast forward a few years, now that I have more iOS experience under my belt, I thought it would be fun to recreate this feeling but with cats in my own personal “cat-a-log.”

The app is simple:

• Snap cat pictures.

• Identify breeds and get an information sheet.

• Collect cats as cute stickers in your personal collection.

• Organize your catalog by cat names or breeds.

• Share the cats you’ve met as stickers through WhatsApp, Messages, and more.

Right now you can scan one cat per day for free. I’d love for you to give it a try and let me know what you think:

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/cat-identifier-catsnap/id6749846041

Hey Reddit,

So I have this little iOS app called MojiCode. It's a pretty simple side project of mine: you type in text, and it spits out a string of emojis. The idea was for friends to send goofy, coded messages to each other. I built it to be a fun toy, basically.

A few days ago, one of my first paying users emailed me about a minor bug. We sorted it out, and just out of curiosity, I asked him: "By the way, what are you and your friends mostly using the app for?"

I was expecting to hear something about secret crush confessions or gossiping in class.

His reply blew my mind. He said:

"Oh, I don't use it for chats at all. I use it as a password manager."

I was so confused, so I asked him to explain. His system is brilliant:

He set one single, memorable Super Key for the app. Now, whenever he needs to save a password, he encrypts it with MojiCode (e.g., "MyAmazonP@ssw0rd0922" becomes 😍🍑🖤🥥😛...etc.). He then saves that harmless-looking emoji string in his unsecured notes app.

To anyone who snoops on his phone, it just looks like he's saving weird emoji combos. But for him, he only needs to remember his one single Super Key to decrypt any password he needs.

I, the creator of the app, had never even considered this. I made a toy for passing secret notes, and this guy turned it into a personal, low-tech password vault.

It's such a wild and humbling feeling... Has anyone else had their project's users completely surprise them with an unexpected use case? I'd love to hear your stories.

EDIT: by popular demand, a newsletter for future updates: https://www.mma-defence.com/

Hey everyone,

I’ve been working on a little side project where I trained a custom architecture to remove the MMA fence from fight footage. The idea is just for fun and curiosity, I wanted to see what fights might look like if there was no cage between the camera and the fighters when viewing the octagon side footage.

Disclaimer

• This is still an early prototype.

• The resolution is lower because full HD training would take several days.

• The results are far from perfect, but you get the idea.

I’ve been experimenting with a desktop wallpaper that reacts to your position using the webcam.
When you move left/right, the background shifts perspective so it feels like you're looking through a window.

I'm still working on smoothing the movement and reducing jitter.

Curious what you think:

• Does the illusion work?

• Is it distracting or cool for daily use?

• Any ideas to improve it?

EDIT: A lot of people asked similar questions (privacy, how it works, etc.),

so I added answers and a small FAQ here:

https://holoscape.yktis.com/

Also opening a small waitlist for the beta if people want to try it later.

In 2009, I was a solo iOS dev who wanted a simple feature: to see my friends’ Facebook photos when they called. That turned into MyPhone+, which went viral and completely changed my life.

By 2012, it evolved into Sync.me, doing Caller ID and spam blocking mostly on Android, because iOS didn’t allow real-time call identification.

For over a decade, we kept hitting the same frustrating wall: Apple didn’t allow real-time Caller ID. No way to show who was calling while the phone was ringing.

We tried everything: workarounds, Siri hacks, manual lookup widgets. None of it felt native, fast, or right.

Fast-forward to 2025. Apple opened the Live Caller ID Lookup API in iOS 18.2, and I immediately jumped in to finally build what I always wanted the iPhone to have.

🚀 Introducing: Livecaller
https://www.livecallerid.com

A real-time Caller ID app for iPhone:
- Shows who’s calling - live, during the ring
- Spam call blocking
- No creepy permissions
- 30-second setup
- Covers 4+ billion numbers globally
- Free to use

Would love to get your thoughts, feedback, and suggestions!
AMA about the API, tech stack, launch, or lessons from chasing this for 15 years.

Full Mario 64 in Mixed Reality! Running in real 3D natively at 90FPS and also running on my desk! 😋
Opus 5.5 + PICO CLI + Unity CLI combo made it quite straightforward.

Such a bliss to play an oldie at 90 FPS in 3D.

Disclaimer: I own an original physical copy of Mario 64. This project is not associated with Nintendo or PICO.

1. Camera captures video

2. Neural network recognizes pigeon

3. Watergun turns toward pigeon

4. Spray pigeon with watergun

Components:

• Electric battery-driven water gun (disassembled, orange)

• USB camera

• Orange Pi 5

• 2 servo motors (SG90 or MG90S)

• Resistors and a transistor for turning on the watergun (e.g. IRLZ44N)

It uses an open vocabulary object detection neural network (yolo_world_v2l), so any target can be programmed, not just pigeons. Runs on the Rockchip 3588's Neural Processing Unit.

Just launched my AI chatbot SAAS. Someone just bought a lifetime subscription for 1 billion USD. Just thought I would share this with the community.

My neighbor is smoking on the balcony, and smoke goes to my home with little kids. I talked with him several times, didn't help. It's his territory, so not much I can do, besides closing the doors. But at least i can use this fake smoke detector with VERY ANNOYING random buzzer. It starts buzzing when i connect to it my iPhone via BLE. Makes it not as relaxing to smoke on the balcony as it planned to be for him. I'm going to train this mofo with reinforcement learning like a fkn Pavlov Dog.

UPDATE: WOW, this has been an insane few days. We have been blown away by the overwhelming love and support from this community and we were not expecting this kind of attention! We have gotten so many messages urging us to keep going and telling us that this is something the world really needs. Your kindness and enthusiasm has made us more motivated than ever to see it through and build something truly great. We are working frantically behind the scenes to ensure Hereabout lives up to its potential. Thank you so much and stay tuned - there's more to come!

https://hereabout.app/

Android Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.stormbyte.ui

iOS App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/hereabout-app/id6478040527

Discord server: https://discord.gg/x2vqyDQw

You can share your story exactly where it happens.

Camera only - no uploading from camera roll. No editing. No fake AI BS.

Just real people & real places, exactly as it happened.

You can organize content into layers on the map. Think of them as communities.

You subscribe to only the ones you want.

Available on Android & iOS.

Share your communities with other people like this: https://hereabout.app/share/layer/4abf5895fea

Hi everyone, after two months of work I've put https://www.wikiboard.org (visual rabbithole/research browser for Wikipedia) online for testing. This has been a passion project for me and I'm not seeking financial gain from it, I just dislike getting lost in tabs. If you ever start on an article like Line dancing and end up on the article about the Hubble Space Telescope, WikiBoard might be for you :)

You can look up any article, browse the home screen, draw connections, add post-it nodes and save your boards locally!

Let me know what you guys think! If you'd like to get updates about the project, you can join the subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/WikiBoard/

I'm the developer of Life in Mist, an iPhone app that records your routes and gradually clears fog from a map as you explore.

You start a recording, head out for a walk, ride, or drive, and the areas along your route become visible. Your recorded trips build up on the same map. After a while, you can see your regular routes, the places you've explored on trips, and the streets nearby you haven't covered yet.

A walk around the neighbourhood adds to it too. You don't need to be travelling somewhere interesting for the map to change.

You can pick a recorded day and replay the route, check distance, duration, and speed, or import compatible GPX and CSV files from previous trips.

It's free to download, with optional Premium purchases:

• $1.99/month

• $9.99/year

• $17.99 for lifetime access

Premium includes GPX/CSV export, iCloud backup and restore, and extra appearance settings. Monthly and annual plans renew automatically; lifetime is a one-time purchase. These are USD prices and may vary by region.

Life in Mist on the App Store

If you've used a similar app, I'd like to hear what made you stick with it or give up on it. I'm particularly curious whether this is something you'd use for everyday walks or mainly when travelling.

LINK

This is a small personal project (completely free). The idea is that you practice typing on the real text you want to read.

Please give it a try and comment if you have any feedback for me (good or bad).