“Watches, Stories, and Gear” is a roundup of our favorite content, watch or otherwise, from around the internet. Here, we support other creators, explore interesting content that inspires us, and put a spotlight on causes we believe in. Oh, and any gear we happen to be digging on this week. We love gear.

Keychron 100-Key Macropad

When I first saw this keypad, I really couldn’t figure out what it would be used for. Besides the alphabet, a few punctuation keys, and numerals 0–9, that still left about 50-odd keys for…what exactly? Cyrillic? Hebrew? Georgian scripts?

Well, dear reader, I got it all wrong. It’s much cooler than that. Keychron’s new C100 8K is a 10-by-10 custom macropad, meaning nearly every key can be assigned to a shortcut, command, or macro. For most of us, yes, that is probably overkill. But for video editors, photographers, programmers, and even gamers, this big ass keypad can be customized around whatever commands they use most.

I sort of think I’d look like Homer Simpson at the power plant trying to use this thing, but then again I’m just a simple writer and quite attached to good ol’ QWERTY.

Amaran Desktop Mic

If there’s one thing about me, it’s that I never shut up. And if I have something to brag about, I never shut up about that either. So when a couple weeks ago, I was interviewed for The Times radio in London, it was all I could talk about (hell, it’s my profile picture on LinkedIn even!). 

The interview went well enough, but I’d like to think this is the start of my new career pivot. Here’s what I’m thinking: radio guest -> podcast host -> news pundit -> White House Press Secretary. Sure, I may have to sell my soul a bit, but I hear the tell-all book advance is pretty good. 

But to get this new career going, I need to have all my ducks in a row, and that starts with a good mic. Amaran has announced its first audio product with the Amaran Mic, a $99 wireless desktop microphone made for streaming, podcasting, and video. It has a 30mm capsule, USB-C wired or wireless use, up to 60 hours of battery life, and three noise-reduction modes: Original Sound, Standard, and AI Noise Reduction. It also has an 86-decibel signal-to-noise ratio and can handle sound levels up to 130 decibels. You can grab yours now in either grey or white with an optional boom arm coming later this year.

Tactile Turn Roswell Pen

Do you know about the Drake Equation? And I don’t mean Drake’s line in “What’s My Name” about the square root of 69 or something. I mean the equation used to estimate the number of communicative extraterrestrial civilizations in the Milky Way. In short, it goes like this:

N = R* × fp × ne × fl × fi × fc × L

Now, that may not mean anything to you, dear reader, but astrophysist Frank Drake used this equation to estimate 10,000 advanced civilizations are in our galaxy. Because of this, now might be a good time to head to Tactile Turn and purchase one of their Roswell pens to start advertising your allegiance to our alien overlords.

For this limited edition from the Texas penmakers, Tactile Turn impressively used the minimal real estate of its bolt-action pens to really commit to the theme, including a custom UFO-shaped bolt, a laser-etched solar system map across the body, UV Cerakote accents, a green acrylic finial, and a space-patterned internal. Coming in either standard or short lengths, the Roswell is priced at $149, and includes a commemorative box, sticker, and little alien figurine. You can order yours here, with sales beginning August 25.

Fake Celebrity Podcast Scams

For a brief period of time in high school, my mother started buying tabloids. She’ll deny this now, if you were to ask her, but I distinctly remember going to the dollar store on a Friday afternoon and her picking up the latest Us Weekly. “Stars,” the headline would read, “They’re just like us!”

Well, after hearing the news of the celebrity podcast scams going around Hollywood, I’d hate to agree. Mostly because I, too, would easily be tricked into throwing money to anyone who stroked my ego. As detailed by Seth Abramovitch at The Hollywood Reporter, scammers have been impersonating podcasters and radio hosts with highly specific, likely AI-assisted messages designed to flatter their targets.

In one case, Broadway performer and SiriusXM host Seth Rudetsky thought he was being booked for Nikki Glaser’s podcast, with a proposed appearance fee and a message that knew enough about his career to seem legitimate. The exchange eventually led to a fake tech setup, after which Rudetsky lost access to his Facebook page. In another, Bruce Vilanch believed he was corresponding with Terry Gross about an appearance on Fresh Air, until the conversation turned into a request for money and then a fake video call where Gross never appeared. 

While these may seem minor, they do get to a deeper concern: scams are getting harder to spot. And with AI and just a bit of research to sound convincing, it seems no one – not even Bruce Vilanch – is safe. 

Country’s First Nature Library

Having been a shy, nerdy kid, I’ve always found refuge in libraries. While most of the local libraries here offer the basics – books to borrow, 15-cent prints on the giant copier – I’m always impressed by those libraries that have thought outside the box a bit. At some libraries across the country, you can borrow power tools, pressure washers, and baking supplies. 

But Anythink Nature Library may just take the cake. Opened this month as the country’s first public nature library, the 33,000-square-foot branch sits on a 15-acre campus next to the 140-acre Aylor Open Lands. You can still check out books, of course, but you can also borrow camping gear, gardening tools, hammocks, snowshoes, birdwatching kits, bug-finding kits, and other outdoor equipment. The building itself includes indoor boulders, a dark room with star-like ceiling lights, a live plant wall in the lobby, and floor-to-ceiling windows looking out toward Denver and Pikes Peak. Outside, there’s a mud pit, gardens, a gravel trail, and an outdoor storytelling circle. No offense to my local library, but its Wednesday night chess club sort of pales in comparison, don’t you think?