We’re trying something new in the newsletter today.
Instead of a deep dive on one particular product (our usual style), we’re recapping the week’s big/small/weird/creative/futuristic product launches, along with a few other things you may have missed across the Product Hunt ecosystem. We hope you dig it, but please share your honest feedback
here.
Big Tech 💻
Facebook News, a dedicated place for journalism on Facebook,
just arrived. The “News Tab” is available today to certain U.S. users, and will roll out more widely in the coming months. The idea is to drive revenue back to media companies — the Facebook News homepage will by curated by journalists with “editorial independence.” Tell us what
you think.
Google launched a new set of apps designed to help you balance your life with technology this week. The “Digital Wellbeing” experiments debuted in the Play Store, and include apps like “Unlock Clock” to tell you how many times you unlock your smartphone per day, “Post Box” to control when (and how often) you get notifications, “Morph” to show you different apps based on the time of day, and “WeFlip” to help you unplug during IRL time with others.
Productivity ✍️
Coda, a startup reinventing docs,
just took the hood off of a refresh. The update is sleeker, simpler and faster to give makers a more efficient space to collaborate on projects. Todoist also released
a big update, which includes new task views and the option to create sections for to-do lists.
“Well, this update is simply great. Love it. I used Todoist since 2010, closed 39'840 Tasks and reached a Karma of 58'480. But I have to say that this update is almost perfect.” - Daniel
Kapwing made a splash this week to introduce real-time collaboration on multimedia projects. With its new tools, creaters can edit video, animate, add music, caption images, make ads, design graphics, create memes...should we keep going? Since Kapwing came out of stealth about a year ago, it’s grown 10X (to more than 1 million users) and just raised a $11 million Series A.
Hardware 👀
Fujifilm is making interesting moves. Their new
X-Pro3 digital camera is reverting, in a sense, to include more analog features. The idea is to replicate a film-like experience on a digital camera, meaning make it slower and more deliberate. When you want to review your photos during a shoot, you have to actually stop and “open” the screen.
The Weird and Wacky 😜
An unexpected pairing:
an app that recommends stock investments based on your astrological sign. Will it actually help you make money? According to Maker Daniel Greenberg, the answer is yes.
“For a Leo born on August 18, 1997, Bull & Moon’s algorithm recommended 6 stocks. Over the duration of Q3 2019, the portfolio returned 7.47% versus a market baseline of 1.7% in the same quarter.” - Daniel
Predictions 🔮
The first analytics tool for TikTok influencers just launched. We think we’ll be seeing a lot more of these type of tools in the coming months. Stay tuned.
Some other stuff from this week...
An
AMA about fundraising, intellectual property and mixing nostalgia with tech. A debate on paying for ad-free YouTube. Some
honest feelings about AirPods. And a podcast about growing from
zero to eight figures in 24 months.
Reminder! 🚨
Registration for our Makers Festival in partnership with Snapchat is open! You can register here anytime before October 31st at 11pm PST. 👻
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