A tiny pixel cat that keeps you company while you work.
Loaf FM is a little clock radio with a cat living inside it. She wanders, naps when it gets late, watches the rain and the snow, and purrs when you pet her. Tune in to one of Loaf FM's own stations, music composed live in your browser that never plays quite the same way twice, or one of her calm sounds (a purr, soft rain, ocean waves, a crackling fire or brown noise), sit with her for twenty quiet minutes, or just leave her running. Free, no account, nothing to install.
How to use it
- Hold on the cat to pet her. She closes her eyes, purrs, and hearts float up. Keep going long enough and she'll fall asleep.
- Tap the desk anywhere to call her over with a soft “pspsps”.
- Her box sits at the end of the desk. Now and then she hops in and peeks over the edge; tap the box and she'll come and climb in (tap it again while she's inside and she ducks).
- Loaf FM's own stations are composed as they play, right in your browser: Late Shift (warm electric piano and a sparse beat), Rainy Window (keys, a soft lead and rain), CRT Dreams (an analog pad and a slow arpeggio), Sunday Loaf (jazzy chords and brushes, with a purr underneath) and Desert Night (a slow pad, distant bells and crickets). No recordings, samples or third-party streams: everything is composed and synthesised live in your browser.
- Press play and her purr starts; it's the sound she's set to on your first visit. Pick one of the stations above, or rain, ocean waves, a fireplace or brown noise; all of them are made right in your browser, so they work offline and never play quite the same way twice. The display shows what's playing, with a little spectrum underneath.
- Treats: tap the fish button whenever you like. A fish drops onto the desk, she trots over, eats it and purrs, with a few hearts.
- Volume and brightness sit right under the board. The speaker icon (or M) mutes and unmutes.
- Pick a palette from the six tiles. Pegs, the default, is a glowing pegboard like the light-up peg toy many of us had as kids: a different colour for every digit, a rainbow desk, and now and then a peg in the wrong place. The others are mostly one colour, like the old displays they're modelled on, each with a warm glint here and there: Teal VFD (a stereo display), Amber (a clock radio), Phosphor (a terminal), Moonlight (for late at night) and Ember (a red LED by the fire).
- Sit (the chunky Z) starts twenty quiet minutes, the length many meditation practices use, often twice a day. She curls up and sleeps beside you, the board dims, and the dots along the desk edge light one by one as the time passes. A soft low tone marks the end; then take two unhurried minutes before you get up. When it's over she gets a fish. Press the Z again to stop early.
- Float (the window button, on a computer in Chrome, Edge or Safari) puts the board in a small window that stays on top of your other apps. In Chrome and Edge she's fully alive there: you can still pet her and call her over, and a speaker button in the corner mutes the sound (or press M). In Safari the floating window's pause button mutes and unmutes. Close the little window to bring her back.
- Install it from your browser's address bar (or "Add to Home Screen" / "Add to Dock") and it opens like an app, without the rest of the website around it.
She has her own little moments too: loafing with her paws tucked in, grooming, a big yawn, glancing about, gazing up at the rain or the stars. She dims and gets sleepy in the evening, and the music sets her tail flicking. If you step away for a while she curls up and dozes; when you come back she yawns, stretches and wanders over.
Her sky
At night the stars come out, along with the real phase of the moon. The season comes from the date: snow in winter, petals in spring, fireflies on summer nights, leaves in autumn. Each day has its own weather too, so some days it rains. None of it needs your location; it's worked out from your device's date and time zone.
Make it a desk clock
Got an old tablet in a drawer? Open Loaf FM, add it to the home screen, set the tablet to stay awake while charging, and lean it against a shelf. That's it: a pixel clock with a cat, for free.
Where things come from
- Music and sounds: composed and synthesised live in your browser by Loaf FM's own code. No recordings, no samples, no radio.
- Fonts: Fraunces, Roboto and Doto, all under the SIL Open Font License, served from this site.
- The cat and the board are ours.
Contact
Questions, ideas, or just a photo of your cat: hello@loaffm.com.