A story about entertainment, the technology around it, and the friction we learned to accept.
presents
Satori Zen
Coming Soon
Get launch news, early-access opportunities, and updates only for the products you choose.
What we're building now
Satori Zen is still in the works. In the meantime weβve been building for the problems already sitting in every household β the recurring duties nobody wants to keep track of. BinPilot took the bins. ChorePilot takes everything else.
Built for Ontario, Canada
Most people missed this
Recycling in Ontario is changing β and chances are, no one told you.
It's not just you. A province-wide shift is redrawing who handles your bins, what you're allowed to put in them, and where you go to find out. Here's what's actually happening, and why one simple question suddenly got so easy to get wrong.
Sound familiar?
The truck already came and went β and your bin's still full at the side of the house. Another two weeks.
Recycling week or garbage week? The only calendar you've got is last year's, stuck to the fridge.
That takeout container β blue box or not? The rules changed, and you're not even sure who to ask anymore.
Your garbage comes from one organization. Your recycling, from another. Same house. Same address.
The change, explained
What changed
For decades, your municipality ran recycling. Now Ontario's Blue Box program has moved to the producers β the companies that make and sell the packaging β under the Resource Recovery and Circular Economy Act. Recycling is coordinated through a new province-wide collection system run by organizations such as Circular Materials, alongside Ryse Solutions, Landbell Canada and EnvironFocus. It now sits separate from your garbage, organics and yard waste, which still come from your municipality.
Why it changed
The idea is producer responsibility: the companies that put packaging on shelves now pay for and operate its recycling, instead of municipalities and property taxpayers. The province expects municipalities to save more than $200 million collectively, and over time to move everyone onto one standard, province-wide list of what's accepted β the goal being to recycle more materials, more consistently.
What it means for you
Your recycling may now have a different operator than it used to β and a different collection day than your garbage. The list of what belongs in the blue box is being standardized, so rules you've followed for years may have quietly changed. And depending on your community and when it switched over, the who, the when, and the what can all be new. That's why a simple question β "what goes out this week, and can I actually recycle this?" β now depends on knowing who serves your exact address and checking the current rules.
The relief
Never wonder what goes out this week again.
This is exactly why we built BinPilot. Enter your address once, and it works out who now serves your home, tracks the current rules for what's accepted, and pulls your garbage, recycling, organics and yard waste into one calendar β even when they fall on different days β with reminders so nothing slips. It stays current as providers and rules change. No lookups. No guessing. No missed weeks. Just: this is what goes out, and this is when.
Coverage
Now live in 74 communities across Ontario, Canada.
BinPilot has grown well beyond where it started. It now reaches from Windsor to Ottawa and from Niagara to Thunder Bay β including nine of Ontarioβs ten largest cities, and the regional services that many smaller municipalities collect under. London is the one still to come.
74Communities served
69Cities & towns
5Regions & counties
See every community
Greater Toronto Area
Ajax
Aurora
Brampton
Brock
Burlington
Caledon
Clarington
Durham Region
East Gwillimbury
Halton Hills
Halton Region
Markham
Milton
Mississauga
Newmarket
Oakville
Oshawa
Peel Region
Pickering
Scugog
Toronto
Uxbridge
Vaughan
Whitby
Hamilton & Niagara
Brantford
Fort Erie
Grimsby
Hamilton
Lincoln
Niagara Falls
Niagara Region
Niagara-on-the-Lake
Pelham
Port Colborne
St. Catharines
Thorold
Wainfleet
Welland
West Lincoln
Southwestern Ontario
Blenheim
Bothwell
Cambridge
Chatham
Chatham-Kent
Dresden
Guelph
Ingersoll
Kitchener
North Dumfries
Oxford County
Region of Waterloo
Ridgetown
Thamesville
Tilbury
Tillsonburg
Wallaceburg
Waterloo
Wellesley
Wheatley
Wilmot
Windsor
Woodstock
Woolwich
Central & Eastern Ontario
Barrie
Kingston
Kingston ON
Merlin
NOTL
Ottawa
Peterborough
Sudbury
Thunder Bay ON
Northern Ontario
Greater Sudbury
Thunder Bay
Not yet available
Belleville
Brant County
Georgina
Grey Highlands
Kawartha Lakes
Keswick
King
London
Markdale
Norfolk County
North Bay
Orillia
Port Dover
Richmond Hill
Sarnia
Sault Ste. Marie
Simcoe
Simcoe County
Whitchurch-Stouffville
These communities are not covered yet. BinPilot will tell you so plainly rather than show you a neighbouring townβs collection day.
Coverage keeps growing as more municipal and regional collection sources are added. If your community is not on this list yet, tell us below β that is how we decide where to go next.
Your local schedule, simplified. Enter your address once and see the collection days that actually apply to your home.
One clear view. Garbage, recycling, organics, yard waste and special collection days β together in one place.
Reminders that beat the truck. Know what goes out the night before, not after the truck has passed.
Kept current for you. When your community's provider or rules change, BinPilot updates so you don't have to track it.
BinPilot Free
The essentials, for everyone
Everything a household needs to stop guessing β in every supported community.
Your personalized collection schedule
Garbage, recycling, organics and yard waste in one view
Collection-day reminders
BinPilot Household
Effortless coordination
For homes where more than one person shares the job. Everything in Free, plus:
Fair, automatic curb-duty rotation
Invite family members to share the schedule
Swap duties when life gets in the way
Proof photos, so it's clear the bins went out
Advanced, personalized reminders
Up to three household addresses
What BinPilot brings together
Your municipality
Garbage, organics, yard waste and your local collection calendar.
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Ontario's recycling system
The province-wide blue box program and its accepted-materials list, operated by the producer responsibility organizations: Circular Materials (the common collection system administrator), Ryse Solutions, Landbell Canada and EnvironFocus.
BinPilot reconciles both sides for your exact address β so you don't have to visit each one.
BinPilot brings together publicly available information from these sources. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by any municipality, any producer responsibility organization, or the Province of Ontario.
Verified before it's published. Every community BinPilot supports is checked against multiple trusted public sources before it goes live. If we can't confidently verify it, we don't publish it until we can.
The BinPilot user guide
Everything BinPilot can do, with examples, including the household features. Opens in your browser.
BinPilot is built specifically for Ontario, Canada, and coverage keeps growing across the province as more municipal and regional collection sources are added. It compiles publicly available information from municipalities, producer responsibility organizations and other trusted public sources; schedules and recycling rules can change without notice, and features shown are planned and may evolve before launch.
Don't see your community yet?
Enter your address or community in Ontario, Canada. Weβll record it to gauge where BinPilot is needed β and if you add your email, weβll tell you the moment itβs verified for your area.
We use this only to gauge coverage demand and to notify you if you leave an email. It isnβt shared, and you can ask us to remove it anytime.
In development Β· Early access opening
ChorePilot
The next one
βWhose turn was it?β shouldnβt be something a household argues about.
BinPilot settled one recurring duty: the bins. ChorePilot settles the rest of them β every chore your household actually does, whose turn it is, and whether it got done.
Sound familiar?
βI did it last time.β And nobody can prove otherwise.
The chart on the fridge lasted three weeks. Nobody has updated it since.
You asked whether the bathroom got cleaned. You got βyeahβ β and youβre still not sure.
One of them does most of it. The other has quietly worked out that nothing happens if they donβt.
The relief
Set it up once, and the household keeps itself honest.
Name the chores your home actually has, choose how often each one repeats, and decide whether it rotates fairly around the household or belongs to one person. From then on everybody opens the same calendar and sees whose turn it is β and every chore leaves a record of who owed it, when it was due, and when it was actually done. No chart. No nagging. No βI did it last time.β
Your chores, your rules. Nothing is preset. Name any chore, repeat it daily, weekly, every few days or several times a day, and set a time window or leave it open.
Fair turns, worked out for you. Rotate a chore around the whole household or just a chosen few β the dishes round three of them, the bins round two.
Proof it was actually done. Ask for a photo on the chores that need one. The personβs name and the time are burned into the picture itself.
A record that doesnβt argue. Who owed it, when it was due and when it was marked done β timed by the server, never by anybodyβs phone clock.
Everyone signs in as themselves. A chore belongs to a person, not a handset, so nobody can tick off someone elseβs job.
Swaps and excuses, handled properly. Trade a turn with someone, or ask to be let off. An administrator decides, and the request is kept alongside the outcome.
Oversight without reading their diary. Anyone in the household can keep tasks of their own that nobody else can read. Everyone else sees only that the time is taken β never what by β so the household can plan around it and each person still keeps something private.
A few examples
You write your own chores β these just show the kinds of schedule you can set.
Washing upEvery evening, rotating round the household
HomeworkWeekdays 17:00 to 19:00, each to their own
LaundryEvery Saturday, taking turns
Bathroom cleanEvery second week, taking turns
Bins outTuesday nights, 21:00 until midnight
Feed the petTwice a day, morning and evening
Walk the dogMorning and after school, taking turns
Anything elseName it, choose when, choose who
Early access
Be first in when ChorePilot opens.
ChorePilot will start with a free trial, and there is no free tier afterwards β every proof photo costs storage to hold and to delete on schedule, so the product has to pay for itself honestly rather than pretend otherwise. Add ChorePilot to your interests below and we will tell you the moment the trial opens.
Set up your household and its chores in minutes
Invite each person to their own phone, or keep it name-only
Everything recorded stays recorded, whatever happens to the plan
ChorePilot is in active development. The features shown here are planned and may change before launch, and no pricing has been set. Proof photos are held for a limited period and then deleted automatically; the record of who did what, and when, is kept.
Coming soon to the App Store
Kanji ζγ
Learn Japan, not just Japanese
Most apps teach you to say things. Kanji ζγ teaches you to live in Japan.
The systems, the unwritten rules and the reasons behind them, with the Japanese for every part of it.
Our purpose
To help everyone who moves to Japan live here successfully, as a member of society, while keeping the harmony that makes Japan the country we all came to love.
Our mission
Not only language, but context, life and culture. Only then will true communication and fluency be achieved.
Why it exists
Written by someone who did it all, in Japanese, without help.
Our founder has lived in Japan for 19 years and worked for Japanese and foreign companies: visa and permanent-residency applications, tax returns, a mortgage and a house, all in Japanese. At the immigration office, the answer to βhow do you manage?β was nearly always the same: a Japanese spouse does it for them. Kanji ζγ exists so you can do it yourself.
The gaps in how Japanese is taught
Language without context. Textbooks teach γγΏγΎγγ, but not when it means sorry, thank you or excuse me.
Rules without reasons. You are told to sort your rubbish, but not why, so the rules feel arbitrary.
Systems nobody walks you through: the ward office, your residence card, health insurance, tax, renting and disaster preparation.
Culture taught as trivia, not as the values that shape how people act.
Keigo too early. Japanese children grow up hearing keigo in shops, on television and among adults, long before they have to use it, and many teenagers still struggle to speak it. Learners are often taught it from the first lesson, and their everyday, casual Japanese is left behind. Understanding keigo is listening; using it is speaking. They come in that order.
Our philosophy
Change the mindset first, and the learning follows.
Language exists so people can understand each other, and that breaks down when four things are missing. No app, textbook or teacher can supply them for you, so the course starts with them.
Empathy: seeing the situation from the other side, especially when it feels unfair.
Patience: with Japan, with the people around you, and with yourself.
Curiosity: asking βwhy is it done this way?β before deciding it is wrong.
Effort: doing it yourself, even when someone else could do it for you.
How it works, and why it works
Japan first, free for everyone. 78 Living in Japan lessons come before the language: emergencies, registering where you live, insurance, tax, schools, elections, values and communication. Each is researched from official sources and dated.
Real Japanese from lesson one. Every lesson teaches the words you will meet on signs, forms and at the counter, with natural recorded voices to copy.
Kana, then all 2,998 kanji, in the official order. The everyday (jΕyΕ) and name (jinmeiyΕ) kanji, in the order Japanese schools teach them. A placement test starts you at your level.
Reviews at the right moment. Every character comes back after 1, 3, 7, 14, 30, 60 and 120 days, stretching as you get it right. Miss one, and it starts again. You never have to decide what to revise.
Mistakes become lessons. Every miss is sorted: the reading, the meaning, the shape, or a mix-up with another character. A character missed three times in a row is re-taught on its own.
Every skill, not just recognition. Reading passages written only with characters you know, stroke-order animation and a handwriting check, listening, and speaking practice.
The story of Japanese. Where the writing system came from: the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki, the ManβyΕshΕ«, and the Tale of Genji, written in hiragana by a woman of the Heian court.
Effort is rewarded. Each grade ends with a final exam, and the better you do, the less the next grade costs.
What schools will not teach you (18+, optional). If someone curses at you, you should know what they said. An opt-in section teaches you to recognise rough language, insults and harassment, how serious each is, and how to respond calmly. Taught to recognise, never to use.
Scan with your phone. It opens Google Play on Android and the App Store on iPhone. Android: on Google Play now. iPhone: with Apple for review.
No shortcuts, on purpose.Every lesson is required, because a missed rule in Japan is like a missed character: everything after it reads wrong. Understand before you judge. That is how harmony is kept.
Kanji ζγ is on Google Play for Android now, and the iPhone app is with Apple for review. The Living in Japan lessons are free for everyone and Grade 1 of the language course is free; further grades are in-app purchases. Rated 18+ because of the optional rough-language section.
The idea lab
Every product starts with a problem someone got tired of.
BinPilot began that way. So what's yours? Tell us an everyday frustration you wish software would just handle β big or small, half-formed is fine. We read every one, and the ideas that resonate become what Unigata explores next.
