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Live shopping is having a moment. Far from new, the concept first became popular during the late 70s and 80s, when TV networks like QVC would broadcast hosts showcasing products and pitching directly to consumers. What we’re seeing now is an updated version of that from our mobile devices.

Social shopping has seen great success in the Asian eCommerce space, where it’s set to reach $423B in sales this year according to Shopify, and new launches seem to indicate it’s gaining momentum elsewhere, too.

Ukrainian-based Infinite launched a few days ago and helps retailers embed the experience into their own shops using its white-label SaaS platform. The tool allows businesses to communicate with customers in a live chat and publish shoppable recordings of these streams to drive sales post-live.

Ownvibe is tackling live shopping differently. The buying happens directly on its app. With a TikTok-style feed, the product aims to help consumers easily discover a “new wave of Gen Z shops,” which have sustainability in mind. Whatnot has also seen massive success in the collectibles market. Founded in 2020, the company raised three rounds in 2021 alone, quickly becoming a unicorn in the live shopping space.

Big names are also jumping on the bandwagon. Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok already give creators the ability to add links while they’re live-streaming. During Coachella this year, Youtube allowed those watching its live stream to buy commemorative t-shirts as part of the experience. However, it actually started experimenting with live shopping last year when it launched a weeklong “YouTube Holiday Stream and Shop.”

Snap is also making moves in the eCommerce space. Yesterday it announced its new Dress Up feature that allows users to try on clothes using AR.

The biggest challenge here will be distribution. While most of the experimentation so far has involved influencers, celebrities, and household names, it will be interesting to watch how other retailers will be able to benefit, compete and emerge with other tactics and offerings.

Photography used to be an art reserved for those who could afford expensive (and ginormous) equipment. Technology changed that. Everyone’s a photographer in the smartphone age, and with VR/AR gaining momentum 3D seems like an interesting place to be building in. Whether 3D will take over the design space has also sparked discussions.

We take snapshots of our day-to-day life, places we visit, and people we love, but you can still spot professionally made images. You know, the ones you see in Instagram ads and product campaigns. A big part of that is due to how those images are processed and rendered.

Enter Colorful, a browser-based tool for creating 3D images. If that makes it sound too complicated or like you need to be a professional photographer, you don’t. You can think of it as a virtual photo studio for those who have zero experience with 3D modeling but still want to create aesthetically pleasing shots.

“Virtual photography / 3D rendering is not accessible to everyone. Most 3D software is hard to learn and powerful desktop computers are needed for photorealistic renderings, so we decided to offload all the heavy lifting into the cloud, making 3D renderings truly accessible for the first time on any computer,” one of the makers shared on the launch today.

Colorful lets you build your scene from scratch or by using pre-made templates and thousands of 3D props. Need to see how a chair would look in your new living room? Just drag and drop it into your existing frame. You can play around with the (virtual) light and the (virtual) camera to position your subjects and also collaborate with your team and clients to get feedback and create together.

Colorful is not the only one of its kind. We’ve seen some interesting launches in the 3D space recently.

Spline wants to build an easy-to-use 3D-first design tool, Unreal Engine 5 is a tool that offers game developers and creators real-time 3D rendering, and Kaedim Platform and r3DPhoto help turn 2D images into 3D. The same applies to 3D resources, which we’re seeing plenty of. Retro 3d illustrations, 3D Bay for Canva, and Lottie in 3D are only some of the interesting ones.

The Colorful team is looking for feedback from the community as it’s rolling out the beta, which currently offers its PRO plan free of charge. Feel free to share your creations with them or chime in in the comments.

Writing is a real form of art. We soak in great pieces of writing because we understand how much there is to consider when sitting down in front of a blank sheet of (digital) paper.

If you’re writing an email, you’ll need to consider your tone of voice, length, and clarity. If you’re writing a blog, you might be concerned about SEO keywords and how to make your content better than your competitors. Storytelling? Every word counts, but don’t miss the forest for the trees.

Fortunately, you’re not the only one who struggles with words. We often see tools launch which generally make us feel less alone in our (absence of) thoughts, from those that function as our Editor to those that can do our keyword searching for us.

Here are 6 fresh tools for when words escape you.

Dabble is a tool created specifically for book authors, because storytelling isn’t usually formed in a vacuum or as one consecutive thought. The tool helps you organize your story elements, focus, set a writing schedule, and drag and drop pieces of your work.

Smart Copy Everywhere from Unbounce helps you with creative copy on the spot, whether it’s generating it from scratch, or remixing a sentence you already wrote to offer a better option.

YouWrite is like assigning out your copywriting work. As an example, you can simply type in the keywords “dental cleaning Monday” and the tool can generate a comprehensive email you can send to your patients, even reminding them to bring their insurance card.

YouWrite, a new product from Richard Socher and team at You.com, joins an increasingly crowded space.

Mark Copy, Simplified AI Writer, and Frase 2.0 are also three more competitors in the AI-assistant space to check out. They can help you cut writing time from hours to seconds.

Historically speaking, Notion is our most searched keyword. It doesn’t take much to realize how many of you love this productivity app. When the team launched its Template Gallery in 2019 and opened the door for makers to build and showcase their own templates, no-code lovers went nuts.

We’re lucky to continue seeing makers build great tools using Notion. We’ve rounded up some of the more recent launches you should check out if you’re a fan or are looking to bring some organization to your life.

The Notion Automation Hub has over 100 pre-built automations for the most common use cases and workflows people use Notion for. These templates will show you how to transfer data from apps to Notion and create triggered automations.

Some cool automations this bundle contains: enter a LinkedIn people search and scrape all the results into a Notion database or automatically open your next meeting on Google Calendar with Notion notes when the meeting is about to start.

Notion Freelancer OS works like an operating system that helps you manage your freelance business in Notion. It lets you visualize each aspect of the projects you’re working on: timeline, tasks, meetings, and progress. You can also set up a client pipeline using the provided CRM, which syncs to your existing projects.

Notion Website Suite’s template helps you create and publish your own no-code website using more than 100 component blocks. This can be used as your portfolio or as a blogging page.

Notion Pack for Product Managers contains templates for daily standups, agile retrospectives, a 1:1 meeting planner, and a space to keep track of objectives and key results. These templates also come with widgets to increase your productivity, like a Pomodoro timer and a Spotify focus playlist.

Notion Personal Finance Dashboard allows you to log expenses and income, set budget goals you want to meet, analyze your spending status and top expenses, and break it all down by category.

Zenly is not a new app. We first saw its launch back in 2016, a year before getting acquired by Snapchat for a whopping $213M. Despite being an inspiration for Snap’s map feature, Snap decided to continue running Zenly as a separate product.

Over the weekend, the team launched Zenly 5.0 and earned Product of the Day. If you need some context as to what Zenly is – it’s a social maps app that marks all the places you and your friends have been. The app lets you see where your friends are, using always-on GPS, so no need for check-ins. You can then message them from the app to make plans and hang out.

The Paris-based team has been heads down working on its biggest redesign to date for its now 35 million monthly active users. One of Zenly’s makers shares “you’ll see new features like public profiles and auto check-ins for places (this is our antidote to curated posts on other social platforms). You’ll also find your footprints (your virtual scratch map) that show all the areas you’ve uncovered and haven’t yet been on your map.”

Looking at the versions side-by-side, the update feels a lot more grown-up, elegant, and aligned with today’s design trends. The initial playful, colorful, emoji-filled appearance has been replaced by a dark mode mixed with trendy gradients. As expected with major redesigns (remember Snapchat’s 2018 update?), reviews have been mixed, although most of its supporters seem to be excited about the new features.

If you haven’t heard much about the app, that’s not surprising if you’re in the US. Since its inception, Zenly has been mostly focused on growing in Europe and Southeast Asia, and it’s growing in popularity in Brazil and India.

We recently saw Snapchat's Q1 results show that the photo-sharing app is growing faster than its rivals Meta and Twitter. Snap’s CEO, Evan Spiegel, is taking over from Zenly’s founder soon, and it will be interesting to see where he takes the social app.

The social space is getting a lot of buzz right now, but it’s notoriously difficult for newcomers to break through. We’re excited to see new and old players build and innovate. What are your thoughts on Zenly’s take on social? Let the team know in the comments.

2022 has been a challenging year, to say the least. This, in part, played a role in derailing climate progress. A recent UN climate report found we’re “on a pathway to global warming of more than double the 1.5-degree (C, or 2.7-degrees F) limit that was agreed in Paris in 2015.”

We like to be cautiously optimistic about the future, but when things are not looking too bright, it’s important to reflect, assess what went wrong, and consider how the world is working towards a solution. Earth Day is an opportunity to highlight makers who are building paths to a greener future.

Last week we spoke about Stripe’s new initiative, Frontier, to purchase $925M worth of carbon removal, and Climeworks, which uses direct air capture technology to capture carbon dioxide on a filter.

The Pledge to Fix is working to grow the Circular Economy, asking individuals and companies to make a pledge to fix a product the next time it breaks instead of throwing it away, as well as opt for refurbished items. While there’s no doubt we need governmental agencies and large corporations to step up, initiatives like this offer us a way to work together towards reducing our footprint.

If you want to do more, also in the circular shopping space, Changing Room recently launched Eco-Index so users can evaluate the environmental and social impact of the products they’re shopping for. The browser extension shows real-time, lower-impact alternatives.

Verdoo is a browser extension that allows online buyers to offset their carbon footprint for free. Every time you make an online purchase, the Verdoo team plants at least one tree.

Do you know any GreenTech products you’d like to share with the community?

You may have heard tales of start-ups being sold on eBay (see: Justin Kan’s first start-up, Kiko), but a big part of the coverage in today’s tech news tends to be focused on large acquisitions. The world of M&A goes beyond tech giants acquiring smaller companies though.

EarlyAcquire is launching today as a marketplace for buying and selling side projects. What makes this different is that the team aims “to provide the best curated deals under $10k before anyone else can get them on other networks,” as well as allow anonymous acquisitions. Once you submit your project, the EarlyAcquire team reviews and publishes it for others to see. When someone is interested in buying, you can start negotiating using its internal messaging system.

EarlyAcquire is not the first of its kind. MicroAcquire made a splash when it launched a couple of years ago, with almost 7,000 of you upvoting it. The product has seen 500+ acquisitions since its debut and over $300M in closed deals. Yesterday, MicroAquire’s founder announced the first $10M deal. Some called it a MassiveAcquire.

Golden Kitty Award winner, Tiny Acquisitions, also recently launched its second iteration. While the platform started with the premise of strictly allowing deals under $5k, it recently announced it’s expanding to accommodate listings of projects up to $100k.

If you’re a micro-SaaS founder and considering making an exit one day but need a little help growing, SaaSmate.co launched today to help makers find product partnerships, reduce customer acquisition costs, and mutually expand customer bases.

There was a time when crafting a logo or designing a landing page was strictly reserved for those who either owned expensive software or had years of design experience. If successful Internet stories have taught us anything, it’s that makers turning outdated technology into mainstream tools is something to bet on. Especially when those can be used by anyone willing to explore the abundant resources and tips.

Canva and Figma are two of those success stories. While they don’t guarantee you’ll be the next Jony Ive, they’ve been an inspiration to others building tools that address design needs through different approaches. Here are some recent launches that caught our attention:

Kittl recently launched its graphic design platform that aims to bridge the gap between traditional design tools like Photoshop and Illustrator (which tend to have a steeper learning curve), and Canva. The makers describe the comparison as “Kittl is more an easy-to-use version of Illustrator whereas Canva is more a version of InDesign.”

The tool also provides a community-built library with thousands of ready-to-use templates, fonts, and graphic elements.

Spline Beta, which scored a whopping 1200 upvotes on its launch day, makes 3D design more accessible through real-time collaboration, animation, and 3D modeling. You can enable interactivity on your objects and control their textures.

Overflow 2.0 lets you create collaborative and interactive user flow diagrams. Its new version allows you to save designs in the Overflow cloud, access a full version history of any document with rollback, and integrate apps like Adobe XD, Figma, Sketch, and Photoshop.

Stage positions itself as a prototyping tool for non-designers. The app allows you to create mobile UX/UI designs using its pre-existing smart components and template screens.

And finally, Golden Kitty Award winner Uizard is a beginner-friendly, AI-powered design tool to help you create web and mobile app prototypes.

“I’ll think about this later,” you tell yourself as you read yet another Slack message or email that you very well know will forget to reply to. Until it’s time to switch off for the night and the mental note you made randomly creeps in.

The task management space is an attractive one (albeit, rather crowded) for both makers and consumers as it seems like each launch is targeted at different types of users and needs. While, generally speaking, most of these apps help you accomplish the same thing – organize and remember to do stuff – the way they do that can look different.

Mindmesh, which is launching today after three months in closed beta, integrates with all of your apps through a browser extension. What this means is that if you receive an email you need to act on but don’t have the time right away, you can send it to your “virtual desk.” The same goes for apps like Github, Slack, or Figma. Once your tasks, notes, or events are there, you can choose if you want to act upon them or hit snooze.

The makers interviewed over 300 product people to figure out what’s blocking their productivity, to which they’ve noticed a recurring pain point of having to context switch and jump from one task to another. Mindmesh aims to solve this by allowing you to set aside what’s not urgent and focus on the task at hand.

While some may choose traditional note-taking apps like Supernotes or Reflect to create a backlog of their to-dos, here are some other approaches:

🍱 Bento helps you do less by structuring your tasks into a “packing box” with only three compartments. Much like a bento box, this forces you to only focus on the essential.

➡️ Schedulist lets you add anything as a task, including images and files, which you then swipe once completed.

⏳ Taskable 2.0 and Llama Life use time-blocking to give more context to how much of your to-do list you can complete.

🎨 For the creative folks, you might want to check out these visual knowledge bases.

Finally, if you’re more of a “pen and paper” person and only need to remember tasks every once in a while, Time and Again can help remind you to water your plants, clean your room, or replace your toothbrush.

About two weeks ago, back when Twitter wasn’t the current thing being discussed on, well, Twitter, you may have seen these threads floating around of vivid, somewhat strange images. At first glance, you might think surrealism is bouncing back a century after its birth. You wouldn’t necessarily be wrong, but there’s a bit more to the story.

Images range from teddy bears working on new AI research on the moon in the 1980s, depictions of what life will look like on Mars, and probably one of our favorites – a wise cat meditating in the Himalayas searching for enlightenment.

The tool in question is the successor of DALL-E, which OpenAI introduced in early 2021. In short, DALL-E is an AI system that generates images from text, using a process called diffusion, a model that learns to create images by gradually noising and denoising its training data. You simply write down what you’d like to see and DALL-E creates an image based on that description. DALL-E 2 takes this technology and research further, adding higher accuracy and resolution, as well as the ability to create new versions of already generated images.

OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman, called the new project “the most delightful thing to play with we’ve created so far… and fun in a way I haven’t felt from technology in a while.” While that’s certainly true and its abilities are impressive, the OpenAI team is purposefully not releasing DALL-E publicly until it’s able to mitigate and better understand its risks and limitations, which is said to be this summer.

It remains to be seen how those working on Generative AI will be able to address its challenges (think deep fakes, reinforcement of stereotypes, overall bias), but there’s certainly something exciting about seeing the foundations of artificial general intelligence being put in place and what makers will build with releases like OpenAI’s project.

Until we can get our hands on DALL-E 2, here are a few other recently launched tools using AI:

Quicklines automatically creates personalized ice breakers to add to your cold outreach. You upload a CSV, wait three minutes, and receive the sheet of phrases to use in the first sentence of cold emails.

Cartoonize generates a cartoon based on your selfie.

Elai.io helps you create educational and marketing video content with AI-generated humans from plain text.

Simplified's AI writer generates written content for your ads, captions, quotes, and blog articles.