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Over the past few months, we’ve written a lot about making podcasts, from a guide to new podcasting tools to Spotify’s podcast strategy to why no one should ever start a podcast.

Podcasts are undoubtedly in, meaning the day where you decide to produce a podcast will inevitably come. Descript just launched (with its recent Lyrebird acquisition) to be there when that happens. 👀

In the PH comments, Descript CEO Andrew Mason (who previously founded Groupon) described the product as “an end-to-end podcast production studio wrapped in a user experience that was as approachable and flexible as a document.”

Descript essentially answers the question of “How do I make a podcast?” in a product. You connect a mic to your computer, hit record and then edit to your heart’s content The editing aspect is particularly intriguing — Descript is designed to be super intuitive (like a document) and has cool features like “Overdub,” a tool that lets you correct voice recordings with text. 🎙

“It's the first of many AI-powered features we plan to ship together to reduce the friction of creative expression.” - Andrew

Earlier this week, the company announced it raised a $15 million Series A from Andreessen Horowitz and Redpoint, which is plans to use to hire more and expand the business.

Some initial reactions from podcasters and future podcasters:

“I've been looking for a tool that would allow me to "type" podcast ad reads and output with my voice to save me time and avoid long approval delays. I'll have to give the new Descript a try." - Ryan

“Descript is an incredible tool. Within minutes of finishing a podcast recording I've got the episode transcribed and ready for editing.” - Nico

“This looks amazing—congrats on getting it here, folks! I've been looking at Descript since the early days and seeing it turn into such a mature and futuristic take on audio editing is awesome.” - Marius

Today’s Daily Digest was crafted by Product Hunt and sponsored by our friends at Blockstack.

A quick recap of the past few weeks:

• An Instagram vulnerability exposed user accounts and phone numbers
• The DMV is selling your data for millions
• The popular CamScanner app was exposed as a vehicle for malware
• Biometric data for over a million people was left for the taking

It’s getting so bad, in fact, that Google and Facebook have joined Microsoft by resorting to paying people for finding and reporting apps that misuse people’s data. It seems we’re fighting a losing battle.

But our friends at Blockstack have been working on this problem for a while now. They just closed another $23 million in a historic SEC-qualified token sale to continue supporting a new generation of apps that can’t abuse users. In these apps, data always lives with the user and isn’t exposed in large honeypots to be bought or stolen.

Since July, 85 new apps that “can’t be evil” by design have been added to the Blockstack network, which counts over 250 apps in total. Here are a few exciting recent additions:

🔎 Land Ho! is an incognito search engine

💯 BlackHole is a blockchain-based file transfer

🙌 Social Vault is encrypted storage for your Facebook data

📓 Safe Notes lets you securely annotate and store your PDF docs

👋 Help A Stranger Out lets you give anonymous acts of kindness to strangers

👏 POW! lets you securely take charge of your menstrual cycle

🔓 ProperPass is a password manager that keeps your data safe

💸 trakkin.me pays you for the data you generate when browsing

Even if you’re not ready to switch from your favorite centralized app, you can show your support for the “apps that can’t be evil” movement by setting up a Blockstack ID and getting your free stickers. 🙌

Last month we wrote about Gin Lane, the branding agency behind startups like Hims, Everlane, Warby Parker, Recess, Harry’s, SmileDirectClub and Quip, and their big pivot away from their clients. The company announced it was rebranding itself to Pattern, a new holding company for up to five different lifestyle brands.

The first said lifestyle brand launched yesterday and it’s around — *drumroll* — cookware. The new brand is called “Equal Parts” and it’s essentially a mix (or equal parts, heh) of cooking tools and on-demand guidance. Their demographic is millennials, who apparently cook less than any other living generation. 🥘

The Pattern team's inspiration came from their own burnout; they found solace in cooking against “the stream of emails and notifications following us home each day.”

The brand launched with five kits of cookware (which start at $249 and max out at $575 for the “complete kitchen“), which comes with eight weeks of a text-based personal cooking coach. The idea is congruent with Pattern’s ”Direct With Consumer“ ethos, which brings guidance to new customer experiences. With this mind, we could imagine future Pattern launches of, say, bedding supplies alongside a sleep app or exercise guides to complement workout gear.

The news comes just a day after another kitchenware brand launch on Product Hunt from Our Place. Our Place’s mission is to make products inspired by traditions, and they’re starting with dinner. The result is a collection of sleek and minimalist pans, plates and glasses “designed for rising rents and shrinking cabinet space.” 💯

“I didn't think I could feel this way about a pan.” - Sam

In fact, we’ve seen a bunch of cooking launches within the past 30 days. A few to check out:

🍳Becooked lets you make recipe cards

🍳Ckbk is like Spotify but for cookbooks

🍳Feast is home cooking delivered straight to your door

🍳CookUp helps you save and cook recipes you find online

Your location data is a hot-button topic. Spotify wants to know where you live. Facebook is defending its use of location data. And that’s just last week. That’s why it’s refreshing to see a product launch that wants to protect your location data instead of (potentially) exploiting it.

Arcane Maps launched on Product Hunt last week as a blockchain-based alternative to Google Maps. 🔎

“As we keep hearing about data breach news of big companies, it is harder for us to keep trusting them with our personal data, especially our location history. It made us think about finding a better way. We believe the best way to keep data secure is by not having them in the first place. That's why we choose the server-less and encrypted solution with the help of blockchain.” - Arcane Maps Maker Walterion

How it works: You can pull up Arcane Maps in your mobile or desktop browser. The clean design is reminiscent of Google Maps (it’s almost scarily similar), and you can easily type in wherever you’re going. Like Google Maps, you can “favorite place"," but all of your search history will be private, safe and secure, using blockchain-based cloud storage.

Arcane Maps is the latest from Arcane Office, self-described as “the first decentralized office suite” on Twitter. Arcane also launched decentralized versions of Google Docs, Google Sheets and Google Photos this year. Read this for a behind the scenes look from Walterion.

Would you use this instead of Google Maps? Tell us here. 🗺

There’s something special about personal websites. When you own a site that’s your first name + your last name dot com (or some variation of that), you can showcase yourself however you want — independent of social media profiles and old-school resumes.

If this already has you thinking about how your personal site could use a makeover — good news. HUMANS is full of #inspo. 🙌

Over the weekend, HUMANS launched a curated gallery of beautifully designed personal websites. It’s a little like Dribbble and a little like Pinterest, in that it’s essentially a mood board of gorgeous personal pages. Click into any page, and you’ll find the site’s color palette, a design overview, and the tech used to make the website (i.e. React, Angular, Vue, Wordpress, Wix, etc.).

Maker Koby Ofek says he decided to build HUMANS after needing inspiration for his own site (he still hasn’t built his personal site because he’s been so busy building this).

“I knew I wanted to created something from scratch and I didn't want to copy anybody's design, but I definitely needed some inspiration. I wanted to see what kind of things people are building online for themselves, and most importantly, I wanted to see what people like me are building - designers, developers, the people who build the internet” - Koby

To find sites for the gallery, Koby says he looked through awards sites, Dribbble, Behnace and Twitter. 👀

Now, Makers can submit their own site to be featured on HUMANS.

We want to see your personal sites! Show them to us here. 👋

Over the past several years, a myriad of doodads, apps and wearables have cropped up to help with our (collective) poor posture. It turns out most people slouch more as they stare at a computer screen all day.

Most recently there was Postura, a Headspace-like app with daily stretches for your back. There’s also been personal posture trainers, a portable laptop stand for neck alignment, posture monitors to wear, and an ergonomic arm rest for shoulder pain.

But what about something that — like your mom who yelled at you to stand up straight — literally watches you?

Yesterday, Fix Posture launched on Product Hunt with a ~creative~ tactic to solve your slouch.

The app was made by UX designer Olesya Chernyavskaya, and it simply blurs your screen if you don’t maintain good form while you work. How? It checks your position using your webcam.

Rightfully so, some people had some concerns about your webcam so brazenly watching you.

“Really nice concept and idea! But obviously the app needs the webcam on all the time. That's a hard no from me.” - Arda

However, the app claims to store no user information, and Olesya is upfront about building the app in public on Glitch.

This isn’t actually the first time we’ve seen a health app that wants to watch you. Two weeks ago, a digital training app called Onyx launched to count your reps, correct your form and bring tracking to all of your exercise.

ICYMI: The latest #AppleEvent was yesterday.

The TLDR; Apple took the hood off iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, the Apple Watch Series 5, the 7th Generation iPad, and revealed launch dates for Apple Arcade and Apple TV+.

A few more details...

Apple kicked off the event with Apple Arcade, the company’s upcoming subscription service for video games, where users will get access to over 100 new and exclusive games. It’s officially launching on September 19th in 150 countries, and it’ll cost you $4.99 per month.

“Is this the end of free games on the App Store?” - E.B.

Good question, E.B. We’ll see. 🤔

Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston once again showed up to the Apple event, but only on screen this time. Their new show, The Morning Show, will premiere November 1st, along with more original programming for Apple TV+, an ad-free streaming platform that Apple's been working on for years. It will also cost $4.99 per month unless you buy a new iPad/iPhone/Mac/Apple TV — in that case it's free for a year.

Speaking of new hardware, the seventh generation iPad comes with a smart connector so you can connect it to a full size-keyboard. And apparently you all are still using iPads for Netflix, reading, drawing, taking notes and watching Instagram Stories.

Other cool things: The Apple Watch Series 5 has an always-on display that brightens when you move your wrist and the iPhone 11 Pro has three cameras (versus the iPhone 11’s two). The iPhone 11 also has a new night mode that captures really nice shots in low light.

Quick poll! Will you buy the iPhone 11? 📱

For a full breakdown of everything Apple has release in 2019, check this out.

Today’s Daily Digest was crafted by Product Hunt and sponsored by our friends at Stripe.

If you’re using Stripe, it’s probably to accept credit cards. But starting today, you can use Stripe for corporate credit cards — complete with your own shiny logo.

Beyond the fintech company’s Corporate Card launch, Stripe also recently announced a new flexible, financing product called Capital. A little bit more on the news:

💳Stripe Corporate Card gives you 2% cashback on your top two spending categories and 1% on everything else. After your first $5,000 spent, you'll also get $50,000 in free payment processing with Stripe. There are no fees of any kind, meaning no annual, foreign transaction or late fees. All you need is a Stripe account — no paperwork required.

💸Stripe Capital allows businesses to apply for loans based on their history with Stripe. Funds typically arrive in the next business day, and cost a flat fee (with no interest). Repayment is fully automated and adjusts to your daily sales. Stripe deducts a fixed percentage of your sales until the total owed is repaid.

🤑Instant Payouts will allow U.S. businesses that use Stripe to get paid in minutes after a sale has been completed. And it’s available 24/7 (including weekends and holidays).

Stripe’s software can help you grow your startup, whether you’re accepting payments, offering subscriptions, managing a marketplace or selling IRL.

For all of Stripe’s announcement’s today, watch the full keynote from their annual customer conference now. 👈

Samsung wants you to get another closet. More specifically, the company wants you to get its AirDresser, a smart closet you can put in your closet that cleans and straightens your clothes. 👔

How it works: It’s pretty simple. After you wear your clothes, you hang your dirty shirts, pants and delicates in the closet. The AirDresser’s steaming system then sanitizes your clothes and uses various dryers to clean them inside and out. The closet has a filter that captures 99% of germs from your clothes, and will also iron any wrinkles in your pieces.

This could be particularly appealing to folks who have to wear business attire (like dress shirts), which regularly requires dry cleaning. But the coolest thing about the AirDresser may actually be the way it looks — it resembles the increasingly popular Mirror more than anything. Samsung says the device is designed to “embrace light” in order blend naturally into people’s homes.

If this inspired you to make your wardrobe “smarter,” but you’re not ready to pull the trigger on a self-cleaning closet, here are some recent launches to check out:

👖Superpersonal is a virtual fitting room

👟Puma Fi are self-lacing shoes

👕Cross & Freckle are AI-designed t-shirts

🙌The Drop sends you personalized, bespoke clothing

👠Sheertex makes unbreakable pantyhose

🤖Seismic uses “discreet robotics” in your clothes

Facebook Dating officially launched in the United States yesterday (and quickly started trending on Twitter), bringing a whole new meaning to “Facebook official.”

Facebook has always been about bringing offline relationships online, and the company is treading lightly in a crowded market where Tinder, Bumble, Dig, Vespr, Bound and Hinge already exist. Facebook Dating has a few key differences from the typical swipe left, swipe right on a stranger experience that defines most modern dating apps. In fact, it isn’t a swipe experience at all. 👀

How it works: Since most people already have a profile on Facebook, users must first opt in to Facebook Dating and create an entirely new profile. And what about all those connections you already have on Facebook? Facebook Dating won’t show other users their Facebook friends — you can even remove friends or friends of friends as potential matches.

If you’re interested in friends (or friends of friends), you can find matches that way too. Facebook Dating’s most *unique* feature is something called “Secret Crush,” where you can add up to nine Facebook or Instagram followers to a list, sort of like how you would in your 13-year-old diary. If any of the people in your list secretly crush you back, you’ll both get notified (ah!). 💕

More features that could make the online dating experience a little more human:

• You can opt to find matches who attended or will be attending the same event as you 👋
• You make IRL meetups less sketch and share the details of your date with your friends via Messenger 💬

By the end of the year, you’ll also be able to add Instagram (and Facebook) Stories to your dating profile, so you can get a feel for a person via videos before you match.

Do you think Facebook Dating will be successful? Take our poll here.