blog: update website banner to "Hyprnote is now Char" and add rebrand blog post

apps/web/content/articles/hyprnote-is-now-char.mdx

@@ -0,0 +1,52 @@
+---
+meta_title: "Hyprnote Is Now Char"
+display_title: "Hyprnote Is Now Char"
+meta_description: "From sales notes to AI notepad — why we renamed Hyprnote to Char, the story behind the name, and what it means for our users."
+author: "John Jeong"
+date: "2026-02-14"
+featured: true
+---
+
+We're renaming Hyprnote to Char.
+
+If you've been following us for a while, this might come as a surprise. But if you've been paying close attention, it's been a long time coming.
+
+### How Hyprnote Got Its Name
+
+The name Hyprnote originates from our initial project "sales note" — an attempt to build a notetaker for salespeople, born from my own experience. Yujong came up with _Hypernote_, but when I searched for the domain, nothing close to it was available with a `.com`. So I went with _Hyprnote_ to salvage the domain.
+
+Honestly, I was never fully happy with the name. People constantly referred to us as "Hypernote." Every single chat, every meeting title — it was always "Acme vs Hypernote." It became a recurring frustration.
+
+### The First Attempt
+
+We actually tried to rebrand back in August 2025. The name I chose was _Arx_, Latin for fortress. Yujong didn't like it. And thanks to Harshika's SEO efforts, we had constant inflows of traffic. So we grew into our name and shelved the idea.
+
+### Then Came the Letter
+
+In December, we received a cease & desist letter from a German company called Axonic GmbH. They had a product called _Hypernotes_ and had enrolled a patent with the USPTO just that November.
+
+After consulting our investors and legal counsel, we decided it was best to get a new name for our product.
+
+### Finding the Right Name
+
+We had multiple candidates: _Inklave_, _Artifact_, _Arx_ again. But we couldn't quite land on one. Either there was no acquirable domain, or it just didn't feel right.
+
+### Why Char
+
+Then the word _char_ struck my mind.
+
+`char` is a keyword in the C programming language — reserved for defining a variable with a character type. In layman's terms, `char` is used to define a text.
+
+Since Yujong and I are engineers at heart and our product is essentially a notepad, I thought it would be a brilliant name to tell our story.
+
+Going deeper, `char` is a 1-byte data type. I liked the fundamental aspect of it — every user of Char is seeking insights from their interactions with others at the most fundamental level.
+
+### What Changes
+
+The product you know and love isn't going anywhere. Same team. Same mission. Same privacy-first, local-first AI notepad.
+
+Just a new name that finally feels right.
+
+Welcome to Char.
+
+<CtaCard/>

apps/web/src/routes/_view/index.tsx

@@ -161,10 +161,8 @@ function Component() {
 
 function YCombinatorBanner() {
   return (
-    <a
-      href="https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/hyprnote"
-      target="_blank"
-      rel="noopener noreferrer"
+    <Link
+      to="/blog/hyprnote-is-now-char"
       className="group"
     >
       <div
@@ -176,17 +174,9 @@ function YCombinatorBanner() {
           "hover:bg-stone-50 transition-all",
         ])}
       >
-        <span className="group-hover:font-medium">Backed by</span>
-        <Image
-          src="/icons/yc_stone.svg"
-          alt="Y Combinator"
-          width={16}
-          height={16}
-          className="h-4 w-4 inline-block group-hover:scale-105"
-        />
-        <span className="group-hover:font-medium">Y Combinator</span>
+        <span className="group-hover:font-medium">Hyprnote is now Char.</span>
       </div>
-    </a>
+    </Link>
   );
 }