Coffee & Fun LLC: A Year of Building, Breaking, and Looking Ahead
This year at Coffee & Fun LLC was busy in the best possible way. We shipped meaningful updates, experimented with new tech, took things apart just to see how they work, and learned a lot along the way.
Our focus hasn’t changed:
- Build useful tools
- Stay curious
- Make tech feel more human, accessible, and affordable
Here’s a deeper look at what we worked on—and where we’re heading next.
Keeping Helperbird Awesome 🐦
Helperbird continues to be the core of what we do.
One of the biggest changes coming soon is pricing. We plan to lower the individual Helperbird plan to $25 for individuals. Accessibility tools should feel approachable, not out of reach, and this change helps make Helperbird more accessible to the people who rely on it daily.
Alongside pricing updates, we’ve been working on:
- New logos
- A refreshed design system
- Ongoing performance and usability improvements
- New features rolled out quietly throughout the year
Helperbird’s growth this year reinforced something important for us: focusing on clarity, real user needs, and long-term trust beats flashy trends every time.
VR Projects & Reality Checks 🥽
We spent time experimenting with the Apple Vision Pro, and there’s no denying it—it’s impressive technology.
The visuals, interaction model, and overall experience clearly show where computing is heading. That said, we don’t think it’s quite ready for mainstream adoption yet.
Our main concerns:
- The current foam and comfort setup makes long sessions tough
- The price (~$4,800) is far too high for widespread use
- Real-world use cases are still limited for most people
That doesn’t mean we’re dismissing it. Quite the opposite—we’re keeping a close eye on VR and spatial computing and staying ready for when the technology makes its next big leap.
You can read our full thoughts here:
👉 https://www.coffeeandfun.com/blog/our-first-thoughts-on-the-vision-pro/
We’re also very interested in Meta Glasses 2, which feel like a more realistic step toward everyday wearable tech.
Roomba Hacks & Offline Research 🤖
This was one of our most hands-on projects.
We bought a Roomba, and with the news around the company’s financial struggles, we decided to take a deeper look at the hardware itself. The long-term goal is ambitious but simple:
Figure out how these devices could work offline and connect directly to your phone.
So far, we’ve:
- Taken units apart
- Documented internals
- Written repair and teardown guides
- Started deeper research into offline control possibilities
Once everything is finished and verified, we’ll publish the guides and research openly.
For background on the situation:
👉 https://mashable.com/article/irobot-ceo-assures-roomba-owners-that-the-company-is-fine
3D Printing, Raspberry Pis & Practical Builds 🖨️
3D printing played a big role this year, especially alongside Raspberry Pi projects.
We’ve been using it to create:
- Custom enclosures
- Hardware mounts
- Experimental builds for networking and privacy tools
One standout project has been Pi-hole, a powerful and privacy-focused network-wide ad blocker.
Looking ahead, we hopefully plan to:
- Offer pre-made Pi-hole kits
- Make setup easier for non-technical users
- Send a portion of proceeds back to the Pi-hole team
Supporting open-source projects isn’t optional for us—it’s essential.
Fix-It Guides & Blog Content 🔧✍️
This year, we published 22+ guides and blog posts, covering everything from repairs and teardowns to software experiments and honest tech reviews.
You can browse them all here:
👉 https://www.coffeeandfun.com/blog/
These guides come directly from real-world use, curiosity, and sometimes breaking things just to learn how they work. That hands-on approach continues to shape everything we build.
Wins, Giveaways & Getting Out There ☕✈️
This year wasn’t just about code.
We:
- Saw real growth with Helperbird
- Gave away:
- Coffee vouchers (Starbucks, Dunkin, Amazon)
- Two iPads
- One iPhone
- Traveled to KissFest in Denver
- Went to Las Vegas to place more Coffee & Fun stickers
- Attended our first in-person event in Nederland, Texas, which was a huge milestone for us
On top of that, we shipped a steady stream of new Helperbird features throughout the year.
Looking Ahead to 2026 🚀
Next year is all about polish, momentum, and being more visible.
Here’s what we’re planning:
- Continued improvements and refinements to Helperbird
- Better help guides and clearer walkthrough videos
- New icons rolling out soon
- Hide Spoilers gaining serious traction
- The hype around Severance Season 2 made spoiler-free browsing suddenly essential
- We’re leaning into this with new features and better support
- Markdown Editor reaching over 10,000 users
- We plan to polish it further and be much louder about it online
- Launching pre-made Pi-hole kits
- Experimenting with more shareable and viral side projects
Final Thoughts ❤️
Times are tough for a lot of people right now—and we feel that too.
Our goal hasn’t changed:
- Make the internet more accessible
- More fun
- And more cost-effective
Ideas will always be copied. Tools will always be cloned.
But people stay for care, curiosity, and genuine effort.
That’s what Coffee & Fun LLC is about—and we’re just getting started.