A recommendation guide · ten tools from labs.llc
Start with the job. We’ll say which tool fits — even when it isn’t ours.
BEST FOR sorts ten labs.llc tools by the task each one is good at. Every review tests the tool, sets it beside two or three well-known alternatives, and ends with who it is best for, who it is not for, and one line: pick this if…
Plainly: eriks.best is published by LABS, the studio that builds labs.llc, so these are our own tools. That is why each review shows its measurements and names what a rival does better. How we pick
- Find your task below — written as the job, not the tool’s name.
- Read our pick and why it suits that job, with the evidence in the review.
- Check “look elsewhere if”. When another tool does the job better, it is named on the card.
The guide, by task
Ten jobs, ten picks
- Check it before you send it
- Look it up properly
- Watch the sky and the ground
- Go out, or stay in
- Just for the eyes
Check it before you send it
Two tools that read a photo or a passage of text — and keep it on your machine.
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When you need to
See what a photo gives away before you post it
Our pickGlass
Reads the file byte by byte in your browser and says in plain words when a photo carries its location.
Look elsewhere if you need to edit fields, or strip them without re-encoding: ExifTool.
Read the Glass review — See what a photo gives away before you post it -
When you need to
Find the invisible characters in text someone sent you
Our pickWatermark
Eight detectors, every finding with its offset, and a cleaned copy with a diff — all without the text leaving the tab.
Look elsewhere if you want to encode a hidden message of your own: ASCII Smuggler.
Read the Watermark review — Find the invisible characters in text someone sent you
Look it up properly
Answers that arrive with their sources named.
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When you need to
Put one question to papers, code, books and forums at once
Our pickSearch
Sends one query to as many as seventeen public feeds and shows each answer on its own line, named and timed.
Look elsewhere if you are after a shop, a business or an ordinary web page: DuckDuckGo.
Read the Search review — Put one question to papers, code, books and forums at once -
When you need to
Check a domain’s DNS — and whether its email can be forged
Our pickResolver
Asks Google and Cloudflare the same question side by side, and turns SPF, DMARC and MX into one sentence.
Look elsewhere if you need blacklist, SMTP or named-selector DKIM checks: MXToolbox SuperTool.
Read the Resolver review — Check a domain’s DNS — and whether its email can be forged -
When you need to
Price a coin — and know where the number came from
Our pickCrypto
Streams 32 assets from a named exchange, says which one, and shows a dash rather than a number it cannot source.
Look elsewhere if you want a portfolio tracker or a coin outside the top thousand: CoinGecko or CoinMarketCap.
Read the Crypto review — Price a coin — and know where the number came from
Watch the sky and the ground
Public sources, read live, with the record behind them.
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When you need to
Read a place’s forecast beside its weather history
Our pickWindy
A 16-day forecast, air quality and the ERA5 record back to 1940 for the same spot, with every map frame time-stamped.
Look elsewhere if you need official watches and warnings: weather.gov.
Read the Windy review — Read a place’s forecast beside its weather history -
When you need to
Find out which US volcanoes are restless today
Our pickVolcano
Every US volcano above normal, in the observatory’s own words, against the number the survey monitors.
Look elsewhere if you want webcams, earthquakes or live world coverage: VolcanoDiscovery.
Read the Volcano review — Find out which US volcanoes are restless today
Go out, or stay in
A city to eat in, and four decades plus techno to listen to.
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When you need to
Choose a New York restaurant — and see who recommended it
Our pickNew York City
1,748 restaurants, each carrying the list that named it, most matched to the city’s own licence register.
Look elsewhere if you need this week’s events or an inspection grade: Time Out New York or ABCEats.
Read the New York City review — Choose a New York restaurant — and see who recommended it -
When you need to
Rediscover a decade’s music and play it where you already listen
Our pickSong
5,018 tracks by year and genre, a shuffle that never repeats early, and every track handed to five services.
Look elsewhere if you want the music simply to play, from any country: Radiooooo.
Read the Song review — Rediscover a decade’s music and play it where you already listen
Just for the eyes
One illusion, taken apart and handed back to you.
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When you need to
Play with the spinning-sphere illusion — and keep a clip
Our pickMind Sphere
Fifty reproducible versions, every setting live, and a PNG or WebM of exactly what you made.
Look elsewhere if you want to understand why the rotation flips: Michael Bach’s Kinetic Depth Effect.
Read the Mind Sphere review — Play with the spinning-sphere illusion — and keep a clip
Reading a review
Every review ends the same way
Best for
- The situations where the tool is the pick, tested
Not for
- Where it isn’t — usually with a better choice named
Above those two cards sits a “which one to pick” table that matches needs to tools, rivals included, and below them a single line — pick this if… — for anyone in a hurry. There are no stars and no scores: a tool is either the right fit for a job or it is not, and the review shows why.