In the base game, Minecraft encourages players to farm and become self-sustaining. However, it can get quite boring to keep planting the same crops over and over again. That’s where this list of Forge farming or food mods come in!
This guide will go through mods available for Minecraft Fabric that adds either new crops, food, or farming mechanics to Minecraft. While most add a multitude of new culinary treats, there is one mod below that lets you create your own custom food items. So whether you’re hosting a survival multiplayer server or you’re playing alone, you’ll find a mod that opens up your world even more!
If you’re interested in more mods for Minecraft, check out the Minecraft interest!
Note that the game versions available may change since the time of publishing. Most photos were taken using BSL Shaders and Optifine in 1.16.5.
By default, hunger and saturation is hidden, but with AppleSkin that changes. The main features of this mod are the addition of food value information to tooltips and visualization of saturation, hunger, and exhaustion on the player HUD.
If you’d like to add more farming to the world but don’t want to include a multi-file mod (see below), then try Croptopia. This mod adds over 200 new food items, plus plantable crops and trees. Paired with the Patchouli mod, your server can also have a recipe book for their culinary adventures!
Have you ever needed a resource but just didn’t want to have to go mining for it? That’s where Mystical Agriculture comes in. Now you can just grow resources with crops! This mod adds a bunch of resource crops, tools, armor, and fun blocks to add a unique mechanic to Minecraft. It even integrates with other mods like Applied Energistics 2, Industrial Revolution, Tech Reborn, and more!
As the name implies, this mod allows you to grow any Minecraft plant inside a 1x1x1 jar. While it might not appear to have practical use, you can use them to farm for resources. Plus, it makes for fantastic decoration in a build!
This is a mod that does more than you’d think based on the name. While, yes, you can create your own sandwiches (and make them as tall as you want), it also adds multiple new food mechanics to Minecraft. You can make cheese, use a toaster, extract salt from ocean water, and even make pickles! Sandwichable is a great mod to add to a multiplayer server or a singleplayer world!
While singleplayer worlds allow players to speed up crop growth via tick speed, that’s not possible in a multiplayer world. Croptosis adds four new fertilizers and fertilized variants of dirt, farmland, and sand, that help crops grow 2x the normal rate.
If you’re a farmer who prefers the vanilla game experience, but also crave slight variety, then Farmer’s Delight is for you. This mod expands on Minecraft’s farming and food items with the addition of more meals, a way to improve soil, and even some gear to help with adventuring!
One of my biggest pet peeve with hoes is that even if you upgrade them, they don’t really do much. Improved Hoes fixes that by making farming with hoes quicker and easier. Each type of hoe has a tiered range of blocks that it can till, harvest, and (for some) replant crops!
Who doesn’t love a good taco? Now you can make one inside Minecraft! With over ten variations of tacos to try and the crops to make them, TacoCraft is a great food addition to any game.
While this can’t be fully considered a farming mod, it fits the aesthetic enough to be on this list. It’s a simple-to-use mod that allows players to carve their own pumpkins into any design they can dream up!
The longer you play Minecraft, the more you realize that early-game tools just won’t cut it. Exploring the enchantment feature of Minecraft can be exciting, but also intimidating. Rather than worry about researching enchantments, below are the best enchantments in Minecraft! To learn how to enchant items, check out this guide! In this guide, you’ll see
Introducing Howchoo, an enigmatic author whose unique pen name reflects their boundless curiosity and limitless creativity. Mysterious and multifaceted, Howchoo has emerged as a captivating storyteller, leaving readers mesmerized by the uncharted realms they craft with their words.
With an insatiable appetite for knowledge and a love for exploration, Howchoo’s writing transcends conventional genres, blurring the lines between fantasy, science fiction, and the surreal. Their narratives are a kaleidoscope of ideas, weaving together intricate plots, unforgettable characters, and thought-provoking themes that challenge the boundaries of imagination.
If your 3D printer is located in your room, office, or some other area where you like to spend your time, the sound it makes while printing can be maddening. The “whining” and “whirring” noises generated by your 3D printer are caused by the cheap stepper motor drivers used on the stock motherboard.
In addition to reducing noise, an upgraded mainboard uses higher quality stepper motor drivers and other components, improving overall print quality.
Today I’ll show you how to perform this board upgrade on your Ender 3 or Ender 3 Pro. This is one of the best Ender 3 mods for the money.
1 – Choose a board
I chose the V1.1.5 upgrade board from Creality.
Before choosing an upgrade board, I took a look at both third-party boards and those created by the original manufacturer, Creality.
Creality upgrade boards
Creality offers an upgraded board for under $50 that uses TMC2208 stepper motor drivers instead, eliminating stepper motor noise.
This upgrade effectively reduces the printer’s sound output from 48dB to 36dB, with the remaining noise comes from the Ender 3’s fans, which are also easy to upgrade.
This is the board I’ll be using: the Creality Silent Mainboard (v1.1.5). I chose to go with a Creality-made board as they’re reportedly more stable and reliable.
Third-party boards
There are also numerous third-party board upgrades available for the Ender 3. A popular choice is the SKR Mini E3, which uses TMC2209 stepper motor drivers and adds 32-bit support.
Keep in mind, some third-party boards, including the Mini E3, have been reported to have issues—including input errors and power back-feeding. Therefore, third-party boards are less of a direct replacement and may require some troubleshooting. Still, if you’re up for the challenge, they’re a great upgrade option.
2 – Unplug your printer
Before starting, unplug your Ender 3 from the wall. This is for safety reasons and also to prevent shorts when swapping the board out.
3 – Remove the main board cover
Using the M2 hex key your printer originally came with, remove the 3 screws securing the main board cover.
Then, unhook the fan connector and set the cover aside.
4 – Remove the old board screws
With all the wires still connected, use your M2 hex key to carefully remove the four screws securing the board to the printer chassis.
🛈 These screws are shorter than the cover screws, so don’t mix them up.
5 – Remove the hot glue
At the factory, Creality’s employees added some hot glue to each connector to prevent them from shaking loose during shipping.
Carefully remove these bits of glue using your fingers. You can also use a dot of acetone to help dissolve the glue, but don’t let it get on anything else (i.e. plastic) since acetone is a solvent for many types of plastics.
I just peeled each piece of glue off with my fingernails without using acetone.
🛈 Unless you plan on shipping your printer, you probably don’t need to add hot glue to your new connectors.
6 – Swap the wires
You’ll need to move each wire to the new board so that everything is wired exactly the same. You have two options for doing this:
Option A: Label everything
Carefully label each wire with tape and marker and draw a map of where each label goes. Pay attention to the labels printed on the PCB. Then, remove all the old wires and connect them to the new board. Take lots of photos.
Option B: Do a 1:1 swap (my approach)
Before removing any wires, place the new board on top of the old board. Then, swap wires from the old to the new—one at a time—taking careful notice of placement. This approach can save you a lot of time if you’re vigilant. When you’re done, you can unhook individual wires to route them more cleanly.
Get to swappin’
Swap the wires from the old board to the new one using your preferred method. I used option B: swapping the wires, in place, one at a time.
In addition to swapping connectors, you’ll also need to use a small flathead screwdriver to move wires between terminal blocks. For safer and more effective conductivity, I recommend stripping and cutting the tinned solder off of each terminal block wire before reinserting it.
7 – Secure the new board
Reattach the new board using the four mounting screws. The front-left hole has no matching stud, so leave that hole empty.
If you have giant hands, this will probably be the hardest part of the project.
🛈 Protip: Use a pair of tweezers to place each screw and then secure it in place.
8 – Close the control panel and reconnect the fan
Reconnect the control panel fan to the only empty board connector.
Then, reattach the control panel cover using the three control panel cover screws. The longer screw goes in the back.
9 – Run a test print
Power on your printer and run a test print to make sure everything is running smoothly. If it isn’t, remove the cover and inspect your wiring.
10 – Next: Check and update firmware
The Ender 3’s firmware can be updated using a cheap Arduino.
This version of the board is supposed to ship with an updated Marlin firmware version (v1.1.8) that adds thermal runaway protection. You can verify this in the printer menu by selecting the About Printer menu item.
If your board shipped with an older firmware version, or if you’d like to update your firmware to the latest version (v1.1.9+), check out my Ender 3 firmware update guide!
Blender is one of the most popular open-source 3D creation suites today. It doesn’t cost a dime to use and everything you create is yours to own for good. The community is robust and the dev team still releases new updates on the regular. If you want to get the latest version, you may have
Introducing Howchoo, an enigmatic author whose unique pen name reflects their boundless curiosity and limitless creativity. Mysterious and multifaceted, Howchoo has emerged as a captivating storyteller, leaving readers mesmerized by the uncharted realms they craft with their words.
With an insatiable appetite for knowledge and a love for exploration, Howchoo’s writing transcends conventional genres, blurring the lines between fantasy, science fiction, and the surreal. Their narratives are a kaleidoscope of ideas, weaving together intricate plots, unforgettable characters, and thought-provoking themes that challenge the boundaries of imagination.
Nobody wants to spend the whole day troubleshooting. Do you have a problem with your hand held?
Nintendo doesn’t offer official support anymore, so we’re stepping up with our own official Gameboy troubleshooting guide! In this guide, we’re taking a look at some of the most common issues to arise from the Nintendo Game Boy.
1 – Game Boy shell is damaged
How it happens
Shell damage is often caused by natural wear and tear. Game Boys were made to be mobile, so it’s common to find scrapes, scratches, dents, and much more on the outer shell.
How to fix it
The Game Boy shell can be removed to be cleaned with warm water and dish soap. If the damage is beyond something you can fix yourself, it might be necessary to replace the shell completely.
Head over to our Game Boy shell replacement guide to get started!
How to replace an original Game Boy shell In this guide, I’ll be updating a back-lit Game Boy with a yellow Play It Loud shell.
2 – Game Boy buttons are sticky
How it happens
Another common problem with mobile devices is the inevitable build up of grime. This can cause some serious issues with moving parts and is the leading cause of sticky buttons.
How to fix it
You’ll need to open the Game Boy and thoroughly clean the internal components. There are several pieces that need to be addressed, including buttons, contacts, and silicone pads. You can find more information on fixing sticky buttons on your Game Boy here.
How to Fix Sticky Game Boy Buttons You can’t play anything like this. Let’s fix it!
3 – Game Boy is missing parts
How it happens
It doesn’t take much for something important to wiggle loose and completely out of sight. Some of the most common components to go missing on a Game Boy are link port covers, screws, and battery covers.
How to fix it
Official support for the Game Boy from Nintendo is no longer available. Parts must be replaced from used Game Boys or using third party reproductions. The Game Boy community is alive and well. It’s not hard to find several online retailers with custom parts, components, and shells.
4 – Game Boy screen has scratches
How it happens
Game Boys were released with plastic bezels (the front plate covering the actual screen). This plastic is very sensitive to scuffs and scratches—especially after almost 30 years of gaming.
How to fix it
Scuffed screens can be easily replaced with aftermarket bezels. Vendors offer custom colors, designs, and even tougher materials like glass.
5 – Game Boy screen is hard to see or blurry
How it happens
Game Boy screens are already hard enough to see. Anything that makes it harder isn’t doing us any favors. But if you’re struggling to make out those pixels, it’s not the end of the world!
How to fix it
Make sure of the obvious stuff is out of the way and find yourself a good lamp. It’s impossible to make out a Game Boy display without an appropriate light source. But if lighting isn’t your issue, you may have to look a little deeper.
The Game Boy features a component not found on modern hardware. The contrast can be adjusted with a small wheel found on the side of the device. Use this to adjust the display until you find the perfect resolution.
6 – Game Boy has vertical lines
How it happens
This issue is caused by micro-tears and general breakdown of the display cable wires. This ribbon cable is very delicate. As a result, it’s common to find vertical lines on the display as it breaks down.
How to fix it
The wires can be reheated using a soldering iron. This rebuilds the broken connections and allows display information to pass through again. You can find more information on how to fix Game Boy vertical screen lines here.
The most common reason that your Game Boy won’t turn on is due to battery corrosion damage.
This is a common issue for Game Boys that have recently been dug out of storage. Many Game Boys end up in storage with a full pack of batteries. Battery corrosion can cause a multitude of problems if it reaches the internal components.
How to fix it
Battery acid damage does not mean the end of the world for your Game Boy. Most of the time, all you need is a little patience to get the hardware restored. Follow our guide here to learn how to clean the battery contacts on your Game Boy.
If your Game Boy has no audio, the cause is likely due to one of these three components—the speaker, the speaker wires, or the headphone jack. Damage to any of these pieces can cause a complete lack in audio.
How to fix it
It can be tricky to identify the problem component, but each can be resolved by soldering a replacement into the Game Boy.
9 – Game Boy games won’t save
This is actually an issue with the game, not the Game Boy, but it’s easy to fix by replacing the battery in the game. Learn how to fix your Game Boy games that won’t save.
Backlit Game Boys draw a lot of power. This draw can cause a serious strain on the components inside. If you find your backlit Game Boy extra whiny, it’s time to do something about it.
The Game Boy can be upgraded with a specific capacitor to let more power through, reducing whine from the speaker. I wrote an entire guide on how to fix Game Boy speaker whine!
Now that your Game Boy is up to snuff, let’s get to modding!
Ever wanted to play your Game Boy in the dark? Or install a bigger screen or new Game Boy case and buttons? Check out my ultimate Game Boy modding guide!
You’ve put so much work into setting up RetroPie or EmulationStation. You load it up with legally obtained ROMs only to find that custom theme you installed—you remember, the one from my RetroPie themes guide—has a big blank spot for box art! The Best RetroPie Themes (And How to Install Them)You deserve some personal flair! RetroPie: Build Your
Introducing Howchoo, an enigmatic author whose unique pen name reflects their boundless curiosity and limitless creativity. Mysterious and multifaceted, Howchoo has emerged as a captivating storyteller, leaving readers mesmerized by the uncharted realms they craft with their words.
With an insatiable appetite for knowledge and a love for exploration, Howchoo’s writing transcends conventional genres, blurring the lines between fantasy, science fiction, and the surreal. Their narratives are a kaleidoscope of ideas, weaving together intricate plots, unforgettable characters, and thought-provoking themes that challenge the boundaries of imagination.
The variety of mods available for Minecraft is just as vast as the worlds within the game itself. Most likely, any mod you could want or dream of has already been developed. As an avid Minecraft player, I’ve recently become obsessed with Forge Minecraft mods and expanding the world of Minecraft, literally.
This guide will go through mods available for Minecraft Forge that either improve the base game’s biomes or adds in new ones! If you’ve ever wanted to roam and explore new environments or dive deep into a cave, below you’ll find a mod for either. So whether you’re hosting a survival multiplayer server or you’re playing alone, you’ll find a mod that opens up your world even more!
Note that the game versions available may change since the time of publishing. Most photos were taken using BSL Shaders and Optifine in 1.16.5.
A perfect welcome gift for players! Nature’s Compass is an item that allows players to search for a biome’s location in the world. It will automatically list biomes added from other mods, so all you need to worry about is the travel time!
While Twilight Forest is a large mod, it is certainly worth it. This mod adds a dimension that’s focused on exploration and adventures. It’s not for casual players as it will require a lot of work to even survive, but Twilight Forest is filled with new creatures and loot to discover. It also has integration with other mods, like Tinkers’ Construct and Chisel, to provide more content.
If you’re bored with Minecraft’s standard mineshafts, then download this mod to your world. It expands mineshafts with tunnels, loot, abandoned workstations, and more! There are nine biome variants, including a rare mushroom mineshaft.
Much like the above mod, Better Caves overhauls Minecraft’s cave systems. It adds in lava caverns, underground lakes and rivers, flooded caverns and more! It’s perfect for those wanting more exploration in caves!
If you’ve ever felt like the Minecraft world felt a little empty, then add Valhelsia Structures to your modpack. It generates new structures throughout the world, like abandoned houses, dungeons, and witch huts. There are also some new decorative blocks added for builders.
This is my new favorite biome mod to add to a survival world because it adds over 80 biomes that each are unique. They’re not just in the Overworld either! This mod adds new biomes to discover in both the Nether and End! It comes with over 40 trees, 28 wood types, and 200 new blocks and items. It’s a great mod if you’re tired of seeing the same places over and over again.
This mod takes vanilla Minecraft structures and makes them better! By adding biome variants or just new versions of structures, each building feels like it belongs in the world instead of standing out. It’s perfect for any servers that wants the players to explore.
The BetterEnd mod fills up the void that is the End dimension. It adds a bunch of new blocks, items, and game mechanics. Biomes include crystal mountains, chorus forest, sulphur springs, and more! It’s also compatible with a handful of other mods, even ones that add other End biomes!
Another well-known mod is Biomes O’ Plenty which adds a multitude of new biomes to your Minecraft world. Each biome comes with unique plants, trees, and building blocks, and it integrates with other mods on this list as well!
One of the best dimension mods out there, Gaia is a realm filled with crystals and magic. There are a handful of unique biomes, cave dungeons, towers, and special mobs to interact with. It’s a great addition for servers with many people who like to mine and explore!
With this mod, you’ll discover underground settlements of villagers that are filled with loot and resources to gain. Each village has multiple rooms and floors, with abandoned sections for players to explore.
The longer you play Minecraft, the more you realize that early-game tools just won’t cut it. Exploring the enchantment feature of Minecraft can be exciting, but also intimidating. Rather than worry about researching enchantments, below are the best enchantments in Minecraft! To learn how to enchant items, check out this guide! In this guide, you’ll see
Introducing Howchoo, an enigmatic author whose unique pen name reflects their boundless curiosity and limitless creativity. Mysterious and multifaceted, Howchoo has emerged as a captivating storyteller, leaving readers mesmerized by the uncharted realms they craft with their words.
With an insatiable appetite for knowledge and a love for exploration, Howchoo’s writing transcends conventional genres, blurring the lines between fantasy, science fiction, and the surreal. Their narratives are a kaleidoscope of ideas, weaving together intricate plots, unforgettable characters, and thought-provoking themes that challenge the boundaries of imagination.
Minecraft is a sandbox game that lets you explore and wander to your heart’s content. That world usually includes various wildlife and even villagers. However, sometimes you want more variety in your gameplay, which is where this mod list comes in!
This guide will go through mods available for Minecraft Fabric that add new mobs, pets, and villagers to Minecraft. While some add mini-bosses, others improve upon Minecraft villagers. So whether you’re hosting a survival multiplayer server or you’re playing alone, you’ll find a mod that opens up your world even more!
You might be questioning why the world needs more creepers, but trust the process. This mod adds in various new variations to the standard creeper based on biomes and environment. Based on its variation, their explosions effect the environment. For example, the earth creeper explodes into a dirt pile, while the water creeper leaves behind a water fountain.
After some time on a server, trades with Minecraft villagers can get boring. This mod adds multiple new jobs for villagers, along with workstations and unique trades. Some professions you’ll see are netherologist, forester, engineer, florist, and hunter!
This is a unique mod that I recommend for any server type. Identity allows players to transform their appearance to various mobs within the world. A few identities even have their own abilities. For example, the creeper form explodes the nearby area, while the enderman form lets you teleport around.
Have you ever looked at a golem and thought, “Why can’t you be different?” Golems Galore is your answer! It adds a variety of golems (some with special abilities) that generate in villages or can be crafted.
Inspired by Terraria, Terrarian Slimes adds slime mob variants to the world. Slime variants spawn throughout the world instead of just in a slimechunk, and come in different sizes and colors. There is also a boss slime called The King Slime, which can be summoned and defeated to gain a tool that will make all slime peaceful towards the player.
NPC Variety adds something the villages greatly lack, a variety in appearance. While it doesn’t add any new professions for villagers, it does add eight skin tones and five eye colors, both of which can be passed down to their children. It also closes their eyes as they sleep, which isn’t something I thought about until right now.
One of the worst things about creepers is how they tend to destroy dropped items when they explode. This mod helps prevent that by dropping all blocks that a creeper explodes! It also allows for configuration for creeper explosion distance, strength, and more.
One of the hard parts about breeding animals is remembering to feed them. This mod adds a block that mobs will eat from and breed as if the player had fed them. It’s great for mob farms!
Mooblooms are adorable cows that mimic the flower or organic material they’re named after. For example, the Blue Orchid Moobloom is a cow that grows blue orchids on its back. This mod also comes with four similar chicken variants called Cluckshrooms!
If you’re a challenge seeker or someone who just wants to die a lot in Minecraft, then consider adding this mod. Eldritch Mobs adds dangerous and unique mobs to your world. There are three tiered categories of modified mobs with configurable abilities, health, and dropped loot. Abilities could include yeeter, where the mob launches the target into the air, or duplicator, where the mob will occasionally create a clone of itself!
The longer you play Minecraft, the more you realize that early-game tools just won’t cut it. Exploring the enchantment feature of Minecraft can be exciting, but also intimidating. Rather than worry about researching enchantments, below are the best enchantments in Minecraft! To learn how to enchant items, check out this guide! In this guide, you’ll see
Introducing Howchoo, an enigmatic author whose unique pen name reflects their boundless curiosity and limitless creativity. Mysterious and multifaceted, Howchoo has emerged as a captivating storyteller, leaving readers mesmerized by the uncharted realms they craft with their words. With an insatiable appetite for knowledge and a love for exploration, Howchoo’s writing transcends conventional genres, blurring the lines between fantasy, science fiction, and the surreal. Their narratives are a kaleidoscope of ideas, weaving together intricate plots, unforgettable characters, and thought-provoking themes that challenge the boundaries of imagination.
The variety of mods available for Minecraft is just as vast as the worlds within the game itself. Most likely, any mod you could want or dream of has already been developed. As an avid Minecraft player, I’ve recently become obsessed with Fabric Minecraft mods and run a survival multiplayer server (SMP)!
This guide will go through mods available for Fabric Minecraft multiplayer servers that add tools for server management or improves performance. The following list includes not just one type of mod, but a large variety. So whether you’re hosting a server that’s PVP or casual, you’ll find something for any type of Minecraft player!
Note that at the game versions available may change since the time of publishing. Most photos were taken using BSL Shaders and Optifine in 1.16.5.
1 – Xaero’s Minimap and World Map
By xaero96
Game Versions: 1.12, 1.14, 1.15, 1.16, 1.17
These are two mods I’ve grouped together for obvious reasons. This is an easy to use, completely customizable minimap that also benefits from the larger World Map mod, but doesn’t require it. It has an infinite amount of waypoints and integrates with the Waystones mod. It also displays dots for various items or entities on the map. I highly recommend these mods and use them frequently in my own playthrough.
Spark is a mod made for Minecraft to monitor and report on performance. It has a CPU profiler, inspects memory usage and issues, and even server health reporting. All you need to do is install it and use commands to get whatever information you want!
If there’s ever a mod that server admins need to learn, it’s WorldEdit. My entire gameplay and building has changed since learning to just the basics of WorldEdit. This is the best Minecraft map editor mod out there. Change the landscape, copy or paste blocks, import schematics, and so much more. It’s the best mod to use when wanting to build a world spawn area in a server.
The Origins mod changes the gameplay of a world by having the player choose a character origin at the beginning of the game. Each origin has its own abilities and weaknesses that affect how they’ll play Minecraft. For example, the Avian origin moves quicker and has slow falling, but can’t eat meat or sleep at low altitudes. The Fabric version has many more add-ons than the Forge alternative. A few are Mob Origins, Classes, and Expanded Origins!
An essential mod for a server, OptiFabric enables the use of Optifine for players. Without it, no one will be able to use shaders and have those beautiful screenshots to share!
This is a must-have for servers that want to foster community as well as exploration. This adds a proximity chat to the server, which can be set for push to talk or voice activation. It’s completely configurable for volume control, and you can even test your microphone with a playback feature to make sure the quality is good.
7 – Feed the Beast Mods
I’ve bundled all the Feed the Beast (FTB) mods together because they’re great as a package and tend to rely on one another for full functionality. They’re what I currently use for a modded Minecraft server! My main complaint, however, is the lack of accurate documentation for some mods. Just something to keep in mind for consideration.
FTB Backups Game Versions: 1.12, 1.14, 1.15, 1.16 Provides a configurable backup system for servers and creates them only when players are online to save space from clutter!
FTB Quests Game Versions: 1.12, 1.15, 1.16 For those that want a server with quests, this is a great mod to have. It makes it easy to create custom quests for players.
FTB Chunks Game Versions: 1.15, 1.16 This mod comes with its own world map and minimap. More importantly, it allows for players to claim chunks. Only those the player allies with will be able to interact or affect blocks in the claimed area. I highly recommend using in conjunction with FTB Teams for full functionality.
FTB Teams Game Versions: 1.15, 1.16 This mod adds the ability for teams to be made. On its own, it’s not very impressive, but matched with FTB Chunks and FTB Quests, servers run smoothly.
FTB Ultimine Game Versions: 1.12, 1.15, 1.16 This is a great VeinMeiner alternative for newer game versions. With a configurable key, players can harvest multiple blocks at once. You can also configure a whitelist of blocks for the server!
FTB Essentials Game Version: 1.16 This mod adds utility commands that are essential to running and maintaining a server. It allows players to teleport to one another, change nicknames, set homes, and more!
FTB Ranks Game Versions: 1.15, 1.16 This is essential if you want to enable permissions on a server. Completely configurable, you can set ranks for new players, moderators, and any other type that give specific access to mod commands.
This is a mod for clients that makes chat just a little more developed. It adds the player head beside their messages, which makes it much easier to tell people apart in a larger sized server.
One of the more annoying aspects of Minecraft are the floating leave blocks that sit in the air after you’ve chopped down a tree. This mod speeds up leaf decay, so you can get your loot and airspace back in seconds!
This mod is essential for Fabric multiplayer servers where players spread out and claim areas for themselves. Fabric Waystones adds blocks for the player to return to once they’re activated. There’s also Abyss Watcher and Pocket Wormholes which players can have on hand to use to hop to a waystone they’ve already found. It’s very customizable for server administrators to set the cost and permissions.
When running a server, you need to find ways to reduce lag everywhere. Experience orbs are one of the most forgotten aspects, which is why Fat Experience Orbs is a perfect mod for servers. It groups together XP orbs into one entity and makes the player collect them once they’re touched to help reduce lag.
12 – Dual Riders
Photo is from the sister mod, Two Players One Horse! CurseForge
This mod is an essential for troubleshooting or just optimizing both a singleplayer world and server. Lithium is made to improve tick times through powerful optimizations of mob AI, physics, world generation, and block ticking!
14 – Gunpowder
By Martmists
Game Versions: 1.14, 1.15, 1.16, 1.17
Gunpowder is actually a full customizable mod with multiple parts. Instead of having every module in one, the developer has broken them down, so server admins can pick and choose what features they want. This certainly helps save space, loading times, and from having duplicate features in one server. Below is a brief explanation for each module you can download:
Currency adds money and commands to pay between users.
Discord Whitelist enables admins to connect a Discord server to the Minecraft server based on specific roles.
Market allows players to buy and sell items and requires the Currency module.
Permissions sets up a list of permissions based on player groups.
Signshop turns chests with signs into shops for players to buy from.
SleepVote enables the night to pass without needing everyone to sleep.
Teleport adds useful teleportation and home commands.
Utilities add miscellaneous commands that are functional or fun.
This is a mod that protects pets from others and the player themselves. We all have those oopsie moments where we accidentally switch to a sword instead of a steak. This mod prevents any pet from being damaged (emotionally or physically).
For those that want to just get right into exploration or resource gathering, I highly recommend Prefab. Not only can you preview builds in real time, but modpack creators or server admins can give new players blueprints to get them situated easily in the world.
If you’d like to host a server that’s hardcore but also stays active for longer, then consider using Hardcore Questing Mode. It lets players experience hardcore mode without only having one life or being banned from the server. While quests aren’t in the mod already, there is an in-game editor. It also has a tiered reward system and death counter/tracker.
This mod adds some fun to player and mob names by adding cosmetic changes to their appearance. Once an entity has been hit, you can spot their names and even see how their health is based on its color.
Carrier is a mod that enables players to carry various blocks and entities at the cost of slowness and increased hunger. That’s right, you can finally carry your tamed pets and place them own wherever you want them!
Last is not least in the case of this mod. This mod contains a hole filler item that fills up a hole with dirt or your chosen block. This is an incredibly lightweight and handy mod to have, especially when creepers are spawning in the world.
The longer you play Minecraft, the more you realize that early-game tools just won’t cut it. Exploring the enchantment feature of Minecraft can be exciting, but also intimidating. Rather than worry about researching enchantments, below are the best enchantments in Minecraft! To learn how to enchant items, check out this guide! In this guide, you’ll see
Introducing Howchoo, an enigmatic author whose unique pen name reflects their boundless curiosity and limitless creativity. Mysterious and multifaceted, Howchoo has emerged as a captivating storyteller, leaving readers mesmerized by the uncharted realms they craft with their words. With an insatiable appetite for knowledge and a love for exploration, Howchoo’s writing transcends conventional genres, blurring the lines between fantasy, science fiction, and the surreal. Their narratives are a kaleidoscope of ideas, weaving together intricate plots, unforgettable characters, and thought-provoking themes that challenge the boundaries of imagination.
Figuring out what constitutes “slow media” for Waldorf-inspired education is not easy. But media that Waldorf kids can watch does exist! However, the criteria for what media is acceptable to expose kids to is so vastly different for media-conscious parents than the typical age recommendations. Common Sense Media, for instance, offers age recommendations for kids, but it sometimes disregards important factors in a piece of media, like subtextual themes, subtle violence, and irreverence for human life and dignity. This is a problem that so many media recommendation aggregators for parents have. They provide recommendations that are too generic to be of any good.
I was homeschooled by media-conscious parents who, until I was ten, let only a few choice pieces of film and television into my life. But that was in the 1990s, and VHS cassettes were still top-dog technology! Now, it’s nearly impossible for parents to curtail their child’s media interaction—especially since many parents are so busy and stressed that being able to place the kid in front of a screen is one of the few ways for the basic tasks of life to get done. And that’s not even considering all those parents who have to work from home!
For kids, all media is educational: anything they’re exposed to will be something that helps them become who they will be—tomorrow, as well as later in life. Looked at this way, media for kids is all about finding the right balance between media that is engaging while also supporting skills in introspection, media literacy, and reverence for life. This is where a concentration on slow media, for younger kids especially, becomes so vital.
What are media-conscious parents supposed to do?
In 1994, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Educational Research and Improvement published guidelines that pointed out the importance of parental guidance for the media kids interacted with:
“Parental monitoring is a key factor, since the research studies show that increasing guidance from parents is at least as important as simply reducing media violence. Children may learn negative behavior patterns and values from many other experiences as well as TV programs, and parental guidance is needed to help children sort out these influences and develop the ability to make sound decisions on their own.”
And Renee Hobbs, expert in media literacy, made this point:
“Just because our students can use media and technology doesn’t mean they are effective at critically analyzing and evaluating the messages they receive. Students need a set of skills to ask important questions about what they watch, see, listen to and read. Often called media literacy, these skills include the ability to critically analyze media messages and the ability to use different kinds of communication technologies for self-expression and communication.”
However, just as media can have extremely detrimental effects on a child’s development, it can have positive effects as well! The key is ensuring that children are accessing only that sort of media that is appropriate to their development, will offer them tools for greater self-awareness and compassion, and will help imbue them with an advanced sense of reverence for the world around them. Reverence, especially, is a vital factor in understanding a modern approach to Waldorf-inspired education. With parental guidance, sound training in media literacy, and a deep concentration on the experience of compassion and reverence, it is possible to bring media into a child’s life in a wholesome and holistic way.
Criteria for inclusion
The most important thing to note about this list is that not all shows should be viewed in a vacuum. I’ve provided important details and a unique rating system to help parents explore this content and decide if it is appropriate for their kid. However, children don’t all develop at the same pace, and the experience and media that a child accesses elsewhere in their life may cause them to have unexpected experiences with any new media!
It’s vital that parents check in with their child and ask them questions that help the child enunciate their thoughts and feelings regarding the media they are exposed to. Likewise, parents should attempt to interact with their child’s media themselves whenever possible, and be present to discuss things with the child that the child may not understand.
Whatever you do, don’t assume that just because something is labeled as “good for kids” it actually is! So much of the content created for children, especially these days, features all manner of implicit violence, humor, social norms, and political subtext that kids simply aren’t able to parse on their own (and which will become part of their unconscious processing of the world). Likewise, the pace of so much media “for children” tends to be extremely hectic, reinforcing unfortunate attention issues as well as behavioral issues when that hectic pace is attached to scenes of action and, or, humor.
Luckily, some great options for kids do exist, and you can find them here!
1 – Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood (1962)
Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood (1962)
Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood changed so many lives over the course of its existence as one of the longest-running television series ever, and it still has the power to inform and inspire young viewers today.
Recommendation
Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood (1962)
Fred Rogers believed that media needed to be slower, needed to engage with kids in a different way than all those other shows they had access to, and he provided the sort of content in his series that acted as a balm to some of the damage caused to children by the increasingly hyperactive and violent media directed their way.
Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood is available in full on DVD, and I suggest starting out with the very earliest episodes and working forward. That’s a lot of viewing time and a whole lot of wonderful information as well.
2 – Noggin the Nog (1959)
Noggin the Nog (1959)
Noggin the Nog offers a delightful tale of the Viking King Nog of the land of Nog, a place filled with all manner of the fairy tale fantastic, from talking birds to dragons. The stories all concentrate on Nog’s adventures, usually opposed by the machinations of “Nogbad the Bad,” who wants to take Nog’s throne for himself.
Recommendation
Noggin the Nog (1959)
The story is told through stop-animation, with narration and simple voice-acting bringing the world and the characters to life. In this way, it’s more like experiencing an animated storybook than a modern animation.
3 – Mr. Benn (1971)
Mr. Benn (1971)
Mr. Benn is the story of a typical businessman who wears a suit and black bowler hat most of the time, but who also knows a wonderful secret: if he visits the costume shop and dons a costume, he can walk through the door at the rear of the shop and be transported into an infinite number of possible worlds on imagination.
Recommendation
Mr. Benn (1971)
Mr. Benn works brilliantly for younger children for a number of reasons, not the least of which is due to the extremely simple animation style, which is little more than a moving picture-book with delightful narration. Kids won’t be caught up in a violent swell of frenetic action as with so many series aimed at children—instead, each episode will see them following Mr. Benn as he takes an adventure of the imagination in gentle, slow style. There’s always a gentle moral in the story, but nothing too preachy.
4 – The Moomins (1977)
The Moomins (1977)
The Moomins are the central characters the series is named for, fairy tale creatures who live in their house in Moominvalley. Their little family has all sorts of adventures and meet all manner of interesting characters, and there is contained within their lives a most wonderful appreciation for all the complexities of life—wrapped up in the perfect form for a child to enjoy.
Recommendation
The Moomins (1977)
The Moomins has had a few television incarnations, but this is one of the best, with lots of great input directly from Tove Jansson who created the Moomins comics. The 1990s Japanese animated version is also wonderful, however, and can be shown to kids a year or two later when they start to have more exposure to fully animated works (it’s better to start kids off with stop-motion and other slow forms of animation first).
5 – Pogles’ Wood (1965)
Pogles’ Wood (1965)
Pogles’ Wood offers the tale of the Pogles, tiny magical beings who live in hollow trees in the woods. The Pogles in this story are Mr. And Mrs. Pogle, their adopted son Pippin, and a squirrel-creature named Tog.
Recommendation
Pogles’ Wood (1965)
The original series, entitled Pogles’ Wood, has some themes that are a teensy bit on the darker side of fairy tale lore, and might be better appropriate for a child one or two years older. But, overall, this series is idyllic and ideal, with bold imagination and a sweet sensibility in how it blends the real-world with the world of the childhood fantastic.
6 – Bagpuss (1974)
Bagpuss (1974)
Bagpuss is another lovely stop-motion animation created by the same people who brought Noggin the Nog and The Pogles to life. It centers on a shop where nothing is sold, and the magical inhabitants who are all different toys that come to life when a little girl Emily speaks a special poem to Bagpuss, a cloth cat doll who she loves very much.
Recommendation
Bagpuss (1974)
It’s got a great cast, a wonderful slow form of narration, and a divine series of heartwarming tales that center on things Emily brings into the shop in the hope of their finding their way back to their original owners.
7 – Camberwick Green (1966)
Camberwick Green is the small fictitious village where the series takes place. Each episode sees the villagers of Camberwick Green dealing with one or another domestic crisis (such as a water shortage or a swarm of bees) but, by the episode’s end, all the problems are worked out to the benefit of all.
Recommendation
Camberwick Green (1966)
The whole series is done with brilliant stop-motion puppets, carefully guided through their plot by the gentle voice of the narrator who describes their adventures.
8 – The World Of Peter Rabbit & Friends (1992)
The World Of Peter Rabbit & Friends (1992)
Possibly the best adaptation of Beatrix Potter’s famous tales, this version effortlessly melds reality with delightful simple animation. Each episode begins with Beatrix Potter (played by Niamh Cusack) painting in the woods or else doing her shopping in town. This live action sequence is always beautiful and shows her as she returns home to pen one of her famous stories. The stories themselves are then shown through animation. The score is of particular note with this one: hauntingly beautiful, it’s easily the best music for any adaptation of Beatrix Potter’s work.
Recommendation
The World Of Peter Rabbit & Friends (1992)
The World Of Peter Rabbit & Friends is my choice for kids for a number of reasons. It’s aesthetically meticulous, gorgeous in both photography, animation, and sound-design, and provides an immersive experience that encourages children’s love of nature. Dianne Jackson, director of the 1982 Christmas special The Snowman, was involved in the production, so if you’ve seen that (and who hasn’t!) you’ll instantly know that this series is something special.
9 – Wallace and Gromit (1989)
Wallace and Gromit (1989)
Wallace and Gromit is a claymation production featuring a man named Wallace, an inventor who loves cheese, and his more-intelligent dog companion, Gromit. Together, they get into all sorts of hijiinks and adventures, from their attempt to fly to the Moon (because it’s made of cheese), to discovering the source of the missing carrots at Halloween!
Recommendation
Wallace and Gromit (1989)
Since the whole series is made through stop-motion, the animation style has a uniquely tactile feeling to it. Some of the action in the series is a little faster, so it’s better for children who are a smidgen older and already have some media experience under their belt—likewise, a few episodes will be scary for kids who haven’t already encountered some media.
There are film shorts, feature films, and two television series of this excellent series!
10 – Reading Rainbow (1983)
Reading Rainbow (1983)
Reading Rainbow helped untold numbers of kids all over the United States, and often much farther, learn to love reading books. Hosted by the incomparable LeVar Burton, the series was a magical adventure into the topic from a children’s book, from history to hats!
Recommendation
Reading Rainbow (1983)
Considering how important it is for children to have early and wide access to good reading material, Reading Rainbow really is the ideal show for kids to watch.
11 – The Addams Family (1964)
The Addams Family (1964)
The Addams Family are happiest when it’s rainy and gray, when thunder and lightening kiss the sky, and when Halloween is near. Their delightful approach to the moribund condition of life is one of dynamic dualism: they are at once wealthy and yet eschew all value in money; they are fans of all things strange and dark yet show emotion freely and express their love for one another in little acts of kindness. In so many ways, the Addams family provides a staple vision of an accepting, open-minded, and relatively stable family system.
Recommendation
The Addams Family (1964)
This version of The Addams Family really is the definitive version, though I also highly recommend the 1991 film The Addams Family as well as the 1993 Addams Family Values for children of around 12 years old. The classic 196os series, however, offers the best version of the Addamses for younger children, while remaining intimately enjoyable by adults. The best part about the series is how it portrays a loving family and a strong spousal relationship (especially rare in television from the era). The Addams Family also offers a subtle counter-culture thread that younger kids will benefit from: seeing a family that eschews conservative social values while simultaneously offering oddly healthy alternatives.
12 – The StoryTeller (1987)
The StoryTeller (1987)
Fairy tales underpin every aspect of our culture at a primal level, and yet are so infrequently brought to life with the sort of care and reverence they require. Well, Jim Henson’s brilliant series remedies that, providing faithful, funny, dark, and brilliant adaptations of both classics and less
Recommendation
The StoryTeller (1987)
The StoryTeller might strike kids who have lots of previous media experience as a bit slow, but even so, it should capture their imaginations… if give time. For kids without much media experience, some of the portrayals of the fairy tales might be a teensy bit scary. I’d generally say that’s okay, however: the darker side of fairy tale myth is an important reason for the existence of fairy tales. Just make sure that your child gets a chance to talk about what they thought and felt after watching an episode.
Waldorf parents will know a bit about the 9-year change, the point where some of the harder aspects of growing up begin to emerge in children. This period of time is when kids start to want privacy, start to distance themselves from their parents, and start to wonder about things like “why do people die?” Fairy tales might seem a bit intense and dark, but that’s exactly what kids at this age need: because they are going through the first intense stage of their lives.
13 – The Magic Schoolbus (1994)
The Magic Schoolbus (1994)
The Magic Schoolbus follows the magical adventures of Ms. Frizzle’s class, which takes field trips to all manner of locales—in all possible times! It focuses on science and social-emotional lessons.
Recommendation
The Magic Schoolbus (1994)
I specifically don’t recommend the newer series, The Magic School Bus Rides Again because it follows the modern mode of thinking regarding children’s shows: that faster, flashier, and more frenetic is likely to capture children’s attention. As always, I prefer shows which help children develop their imaginative capacities, which is aided by slower-form media!
The 1990s series has plenty of action, though, so kids will love it—but the tone as well as the quality of the hand-drawn animation are more conducive to a child’s imaginative interaction with the media.
14 – Doctor Who (1963)
Doctor Who (1963)
Doctor Who is one of the longest-running series in existence, with untold cultural impact on both the United Kingdom and the world-at-large. The tale of a “Time Lord” with a fondness for Earth who ends up traveling through time and space with various human companions, Doctor Who is a fantastic voyage to the limits of the imagination. The first two seasons, in black and white and with highly-staged environments, are ideal for kids who are just starting to explore new media forms.
Recommendation
Doctor Who (1963)
Doctor Who as a whole is not a something a kid should just sit down in front of to watch, but the first two seasons are excellent in terms of pace and style. I would suggest jumping from these early seasons straight to Tom Baker’s run as the Doctor in 1974. What I do not recommend is allowing kids to watch the newer shows, not until they’ve hit their early teens.
Parents should mainly be aware of the sexism that can emerge in these early series, which is incredibly casual. Likewise, the lack of minority representation is something to be aware of. The sexism, which can be particularly acute at times, is something parents should take special note to speak with their children about before, during, and after an episode.
15 – Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987)
Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987)
Star Trek is one of the best-known and most-loved franchises in the world, and for good reason. At its best, the series is a definitive attempt to imagine a healthy post-capitalist future, in which the driving force in people’s lives is not the acquisition of wealth but the betterment of self and the advancement of the species. The Next Generation is technically the 3rd incarnation of the franchise (with an animated series sitting between it and the original Star Trek). With a cast made of largely of classically trained stage actors, the pacing is frequently slow, the content is rich, and many episodes feature important ethical and philosophic content.
Recommendation
Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987)
Star Trek: The Next Generation is the one to watch if you want to introduce a kid to Star Trek, but some episodes aren’t suitable for children for various reasons. A parent that is deeply concerned about what their child is exposed to will need to make a case-by-case basis on the episodes in a season, requiring a bit more work. Some sexual themes exist in the show, but few that are unreasonable for a 10 to 12-year-old; and some feature violence that kids might be influenced by too easily. (One of these days I’ll get around to writing a kids-viewing-order list!).
I strongly, strongly recommend not allowing children to view the modern versions of Star Trek. Enterprise, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager, are more suitable for a child of 13+. Discovery, and most definitely Lower Decks feature content I would categorize as 17+ (and I wouldn’t let even a teenager watch Lower Decks, honestly. It seems that all the newest Star Trek material is anything but “slow” and frequently features the sort of casual irreverence, violence, and sexualized humor that just isn’t a good influence on kids.
All that said: Star Trek is one of the most potent introductions to the sort of stories that provide a vital alternative to the negative social norms found throughout modern society.
Board games may not be the first thing on your mind when you think of collectibles, and yet there is a deep and not-so-hidden world of board game hoarding, collecting, and trading as complex as that found within any other area of interest — perhaps deeper! There is a huge range of wonderful old games
Introducing Howchoo, an enigmatic author whose unique pen name reflects their boundless curiosity and limitless creativity. Mysterious and multifaceted, Howchoo has emerged as a captivating storyteller, leaving readers mesmerized by the uncharted realms they craft with their words.
With an insatiable appetite for knowledge and a love for exploration, Howchoo’s writing transcends conventional genres, blurring the lines between fantasy, science fiction, and the surreal. Their narratives are a kaleidoscope of ideas, weaving together intricate plots, unforgettable characters, and thought-provoking themes that challenge the boundaries of imagination.
Facebook’s Messenger Kids is a free app that allows children to make video calls and send messages on smartphones and tablets, but with more control than just giving your child access to a phone. With Messenger Kids, parents can control their child’s online experience through a variety of functions that allow them to have a safe and secure online experience.
Connecting with friends is the purpose of the app, and there’s a way you can expand or reduce the number of people who see your child’s profile that can help protect them, or allow them to find more people to interact with.
Essentially, this feature acts as a ‘public vs. private profile’ feature. When turned on, parents and guardians will still be able to managed their child’s contact list or change this setting from the Parent Dashboard. When turned on, friends of your child’s contacts will be able to see your child’s name and photo, and can request to chat with you child.
1 – How To Help Your Child Connect With More Friends on Messenger Friends
Open the Facebook app and tap the three horizontal lines in the bottom right.
Scroll down and select ‘Messenger Kids.’
Click on your child’s photo.
Click ‘Controls,’ then select ‘Help (Child’s Name) Connect.’
You’ll see a button next to ‘Allow friends of (Child’s Name) contacts to ask to chat?’ You can turn that on or off by clicking the button.
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How to Change the Windows 11 Start Menu and Button
As with every update, Microsoft has changed Windows 11 to look different than its predecessors, and while the update looks modern and clean there are some interesting changes. Arguably the most jarring of all the changes is the one made to the Windows 11 Start Menu, which looks completely different. Instead of a clean, easy-to-navigate
Introducing Howchoo, an enigmatic author whose unique pen name reflects their boundless curiosity and limitless creativity. Mysterious and multifaceted, Howchoo has emerged as a captivating storyteller, leaving readers mesmerized by the uncharted realms they craft with their words.
With an insatiable appetite for knowledge and a love for exploration, Howchoo’s writing transcends conventional genres, blurring the lines between fantasy, science fiction, and the surreal. Their narratives are a kaleidoscope of ideas, weaving together intricate plots, unforgettable characters, and thought-provoking themes that challenge the boundaries of imagination.
Tablets that use electronic ink (or “e-ink”) displays win big over the sort of screens used in iPads or other multi-use tablets, especially when it comes to reading and writing.
Studies have suggested that, because reading on an e-ink screen is more like reading on paper, heavy use causes significantly lower levels of eye strain, as well as better levels of recall for the information being read!
This is because e-ink displays work differently than traditional screens. Rather than individual glowing pixels that beam light to your eyes, an e-ink screen uses special bubble-like capsules that have different micro-particles within them, of different colors on different sides of the capsule sphere.
By applying an electrical charge, the capsule flips, and the color it displays can be switched. This technology means that an e-ink display reads like ordinary paper by reflecting ambient light, uses zero power when not updating, and can hold an image more or less indefinitely!
Because of these features, e-ink devices generally have incredible battery life and work far better than devices like iPads for extensive reading or note-taking. With the latest designs improving on e-ink technology, with increased durability and greatly reduced cost, it seems likely that this technology will be the way of the future for many types of devices across the market.
What matters
Confused? We make it easy to figure out which product has the features you need. Canva
What matters most to me when I’m looking at buying a new piece of tech is how well it functions for daily use. It doesn’t really matter how awesome the hardware is if the design and the implementation don’t follow through. I try to focus on the specifics that matter most to me, offering a user-eye view of the products on the market.
Table of Contents
1 – Supernote A5X & A6X
The Supernote is one of the best products on the market.
The Supernote products by Ratta have remained at the top of my list for two simple reasons: communication and innovation. Supernote provides extremely robust community interaction through their Reddit community, and their devices are extremely solid both in physical design and in terms of the feature progression of the software.
Ratta has continued to develop new software features for its older, Linux-based Supernote series at the same time as they’ve forged ahead with the more powerful and feature-dense products in the “X” line, such as the Supernote A5X and Supernote A6X (which feature their own Android build). What I want, when I buy a device, is to know that the company stands behind that device, and that’s what Ratta has shown they can do.
Main features
The Supernote is a powerful tool. Canva
The Supernote offers a plethora of powerful features, but the highlights are the following:
“Paperlike” sensation while writing. There’s a special film on the screen that creates resistance and really gives a pleasant writing experience. It’s not really like writing on paper, but it’s a thousand times better than writing on an iPad screen.
Ceramic pens, which means that the pen nib never runs down.
Physical page refresh bar that clears ghosting with a flick of your thumb.
Full support for Dropbox integration (with manual syncing).
Advanced features like handwritten note searching, bookmarking, and more.
Supports Amazon Kindle (and also has its own in-built eReader software). This is cool because you can read library books through Kindle’s Overdrive and Libby integration.
Supports Microsoft Word documents! What originally sold me on the Supernote. It’s great being able to work on important documents wherever I am, then I can quickly sync when I get home and keep working on my desktop. Even more exciting is that Word Documents can be proofread using pen strokes!
Bluetooth keyboards are supported (just make sure to get a higher-end one that supports low-latency BT 5.0.
Pressure-sensitivity, low-latency writing and drawing, and layers for drawing.
Full PDF support and good annotation features, including functional highlighting (that is colored when transferred out).
Handwriting to type conversion.
4+ days of battery life with moderate to heavy usage.
Honestly, the feature list is superb, and their team is still actively working to improve and expand what this little device can do.
Differences between the Supernote A6X and Supernote A5X
The Supernote has a lot of awesome accessories and pen types. Canva
The biggest difference between the two models is size: the A6X is 7.8 inches and the A5X is 10.3. But the technology behind the A5X screen is also better, using a more modern plastic screen design that dramatically increases the durability of the device. This isn’t to say that I fear for the well-being of my A6X — it’s a sturdy build, with a strong plastic frame that feels robust, especially inside its leather folio. This is an important thing to be aware of, however. For both ease of access to larger documents and better device longevity, I recommend grabbing the A5X. If you really want the smaller A6X, you’ll be happy, as long as smaller really is what you want.
Cons?
There are only a few cons to this device from my perspective. – It’s not cheap, coming in at around $400 for the A6X and $600 for the A5X. That’s a bit pricey. And since the return policy doesn’t allow for open returns there is no way to send it back if you try it and find that you don’t like it. – Some features need improvement, especially the Anti-aliasing (how smooth the drawing looks) and further filtering. It’s fine on the device but printed out the edges look blocky. As of July 2021, the team was aware of this and had major updates planned to fix this in the future. – It would be nice if the device had an unlimited canvas feature. – More Android apps will be supported in the future, but aren’t yet integrated.
2 – Quirklogic Papyr
The Papyr is one of the best collaborative tools around. Pinterest
The Quirklogic Papyr is an absolutely brilliant device by a company that has long had its feet in the e-ink industry, albeit with a professional-scale product that, at 44 inches, isn’t going to be finding a home outside of a business.
The Papyr, however, at a perfect 13 inches, is ideal for anyone who needs a digital canvas on which to work and collaborate. And that’s where Papyr shines; collaboration.
The Papyr utilizes innovative software to bring the collaborative experience to life through the following major features: – Unlimited canvas. Documents in the Papyr can be placed onto an endless canvas that’s perfect for large-scale collaboration. Toss in whatever you want, write, draw, add images and documents, and see it all on one gigantic whiteboard. This space can be a collaborative project as well, viewable by others through the Papyr app. – Cross-platform real-time annotation that functions forwards and backwards. You can add a comment (or drawing, or whatever) in the Papyr and anyone with access to the document will see it instantly. They can also add to the document and their additions will be instantly viewable. This is a multi-platform option, so users with an iPad, for instance, can collaborate with the Papyr user. – Linked to Google Drive. With easy syncing options, it’s possible to maintain your workflow through the Google suite without having to deal with proprietary roadblocks. This is a huge win for modern teams. – Claims that it offers up to four weeks of battery life, actual under heavy usage is a lower, but still impressive.
How does it hold up?
We love the functionality and collaborative power of the Papyr. Pinterest
This is absolutely my recommendation if you’re working on collaboration-specific projects, where the need to interface with teams and work on shared documents is paramount. If you don’t need to prioritize that, you should probably go for either the Supernote if you want something better for e-reading as well as writing, or the reMarkable if you basically want a digital paper replacement.
The Quirklogic Papyr also has incredible quality when it comes to exporting drawings and text, something you don’t get from the Supernote (at least not yet).
3 – reMarkable 2
The reMarkable 2 outperforms the original and offers the best writing feel. Pinterest
The reMarkable made huge waves for being an e-ink device that gave buyers an experience that really felt like writing on paper.
With the reMarkable 2, major design updates provide a writing experience that is so crisp it’s hard to believe and a slowly evolving feature set that makes this one of the best paper journal replacements on the market.
The main thing to be aware of with the reMarkable 2 is that “paper journal replacement” is the most accurate descriptor. reMarkable wanted to create a note-taking experience that provided the benefits of technology without any of technology’s normal distractions. That means that it does what it was designed to do very, very well, but it doesn’t really do that much else.
The reMarkable 2 is a great device for writing but its reading features lag behind, and so far it only supports PDF files that are manually imported into the device. With no other connectivity features to speak of, it’s aiming to be the top of a very select and specialty market, ruling the roost of its own small kingdom.
The big takeaway?
There is no better paper journal replacement than the reMarkable 2. Pinterest
I wanted to love the reMarkable 2 so much when I first learned about it, but the steep price tag doesn’t come with an equally steep feature list, nor does it come with the sort of interaction from the company that you see from Ratta with Supernote or with QuirkLogic for the Paypr.
I’d still highly recommend this product for those who want the specific writing experience that reMarkable 2 offers which is, pardon the pun, remarkable. It’s about as close to actually writing on paper as you can get, and the response time and incredibly slick physical design are a treat.
It is, certainly, not a tablet replacement, and it’s hard to say how likely it is to take off since it necessitates carrying around yet another object on top of the normal electronics, but it does represent the current peak in digital paper technology.
4 – BOOX Nova 3 Color
Boox is a trusted designer and the Nova 3 Color is sure to pave the way for more color devices!
BOOX is known for creating excellent e-readers and e-notebooks, but they’re the first modern company to release a colorized e-ink tablet that allows for writing. It’s incredibly exciting because the color screen is the future of e-ink devices since most devices on the market are grayscale only.
The pros of the BOOX Nova 3 Color are obvious: – Color e-ink screen – Wide range of features and apps. BOOX has consistently tried to offer a traditional tablet replacement, with this color model being their largest step toward that goal.
But the cons are clear as well. The pen is somewhat simplistic and the overall experience of drawing and writing isn’t that special. It’s definitely not a paper-like writing experience, offering little to recommend it over more traditional tablets. Some of the physical design elements are likewise behind the curve of modern e-ink devices. There are also some general issues with the way the new screen functions and how well it works with its underlying hardware.
But should I buy it?
The best color e-ink product on the market. Pinterest
It depends. Do you really want a color screen? If that’s what matters most to you, and you need it now, this is worthwhile. But if it’s that important, looking outside e-ink is still probably your best bet. The BOOX Nova 3 (non-color) is a more solid option that handles the resources of the hardware better than its colorized cousin.
But, that said, what BOOX has done is offer the first step in revolutionizing modern e-ink expectations, and this device isn’t “bad”. I wouldn’t go for it necessarily on the fact that it’s color alone, but it does seem to promise the color screen may become a more normal part of this industry in the near future.
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