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Just over two years ago, Light Phone debuted on Product Hunt to become “your second phone.” The idea was a phone for “going light” — aka leaving the house without the distractions of an app-filled device.

“We intentionally designed it to be used as little as possible. You can make and receive phone calls (keeps your same number!) while maintaining the peace of mind that you are reachable and still able to called your loved ones,” co-founder Joe Hollier wrote on Product Hunt at the time.

Joe, who is an artist and designer, met his co-founder Kaiwei Tang, another designer, in 2014 at Google’s “30 Weeks“ incubator. When they first launched the Light Phone, it was intended as more of an experiment than an actual product.

Some initial reactions:

“This is the ultimate "zen" phone. Be present. Be more aware of your surrounding. Showing up by slowing down." - Kendrick

“Maybe this is secretly the iPhone 8. They got rid of the headphone jack last year, so maybe Jony Ive decided to just get rid of everything else. Except the price of course.” - Evan

“The price is right and the concept is spot on. I would love to use this on weekends or when traveling...in other words, moments when I really want to check out.” - Amy

Now, Light Phone has come out with a new version of its minimalist phone and it aims to eclipse your smartphone entirely. 📱

While the original Light Phone only let you store nine contacts in its address book, the latest version has an unlimited address book, texting, directions and faster connectivity speeds. For $350, it’s an escape from the never-ending cycle of mindless scrolling, posting and liking that goes on in your smartphone. You can actually be offline when you want to be, without losing connectivity altogether.

In Light Phone’s own words, the team is looking to fix how our phones have become so addictive that they’re now a form of glorified procrastination.

“There’s is no way for us to appreciate anything, and appreciation gives our lives meaning and purpose,” they wrote on Medium.

Would you get this? 🤔

P.S. The Light Phone isn’t the only app-less phone available. The Fox Mini 1 is another “dumb” phone and only $30.

Coloring books for adults hit a nerve on Product Hunt yesterday.

Colorables, a collection of printable coloring pages, launched from Maker Mackenzie Child and claimed the #1 Product of the Day spot.

“A while back I had a few people reach out and ask if they could get an outlined version of my illustrations after I shared them on Instagram and Twitter because they wanted to color them in. I thought that was a pretty great idea, and found it pretty rewarding watching people having fun with my art.” - Mackenzie

The idea is to “escape from the craziness of our normal day to day lives” by focusing on a fun, analog task...or to give the pages to your children.

The project is a refreshing launch in the sake of creativity — the pages are all free to download and no email is required. Sometimes you just need to feel like a kid again.

If you’re looking for more suggestions to help you turn off your adult mind, we’ve got you covered:

🙌 Lake Coloring Books are more coloring pages from Instagram illustrators

😍 Pikazo turns any photo into a coloring page

💯 Cessabit is a relaxing, peaceful puzzle game

😉 Logosweeper is an adult take on minesweeper

Yesterday, a tool launched on Product Hunt that makes it possible to go back in time. Sort of. 👀

Backtrack is for all those conversations or moments you wish you captured, but didn’t hit the record button. The app works by recording the last 60 minutes of audio your Mac hears over and over throughout the day. It keeps deleting the running recording until you hit save on the last 60 minutes. 🗣

Maker Justin Mitchell shared Backtrack’s origin story, beginning on a flight home from San Francisco after a brutal VC meeting.

“We walked out of the office and all we could think was ‘Damn, wish we'd recorded that.' Thus, the idea for Backtrack was born.” - Justin

Beyond important meetings, Justin imagines Backtrack being useful in everyday life, like when you’re brainstorming or white boarding at work. Of course, recording everything can become an iffy habit, since two party consent laws are often at play. Justin says "don’t do it" when it comes to recording someone without their permission. You could also just ask them.

What some other folks want to use Backtrack for:

“As a remote PM for a distributed team, and a remote founder with a small team, I have to take a lot of calls everyday, and while I don't record most of them, I really wanted the ability to just go back and listen to something, if need be.” - Anmol

“Love this because now I can take notes AND have a live recording of my mentorship meetings all from one device.” - Emilio

“This is genius. One of those simple and well-executed ideas you didn’t realize you needed until you see it. I love how it stays out of your way most of the time but it’s there when you need it. Although it does kind of reminds me of a Black Mirror episode...” - Phil

Would you use this? Tell us.

If you’re not ready to record all your conversations, here are some other recording options.

🎙 Otter is a sleek voice note recorder

🎙 Awesome Voice Notes records and automatically transcribes your notes

🎙 MikMe Pocket is a failsafe audio recorder for videos

🎙 Kristalic automatically generates notes from your recordings

🎙 REKK lets you record and transcribe calls quickly

Last week, Product Hunt member Pavlo Pedenko brought up employee engagement among remote teams in Discussions.

“How do you know employees are writing code for you instead of playing Fortnite?”

The Remote Work Report recently found that 91 percent of distributed workers think remote work is a good fit for them (out of 486 people surveyed). 96% of those surveyed would also recommend remote working to a friend. But of course, some of the pitfalls of remote work include employees feeling lonely, communication gaps among teams and high churn.

Some tips from remote Makers:

“In our team we share weekly updates on what we've accomplished and what we are working on next. We have project docs that outline our milestones and timelines for getting things done.” - Abadesi

“Set up clear communication channels that allow you to be in touch with your team every day, through the day.” - Alex

“Weekly 1 to 1's with people — this has a lot of advantages but mostly gives you a place to talk to employees about what they are working on, what problems they are facing and what they would like to accomplish" - Jakub

Another report published earlier this year found that 64% of employees work remotely at least part of the time and 67% would quit if their workplace became less flexible. Over the past month, we’ve seen five products for remote teams launch on Product Hunt. Over the past three months, there’s been sixteen product launches to improve the remote working experience.

A few of our favorites:

📘 Remote Company Culture Book is a guide to remote culture best practices

👋 Workspace helps you stay connected with your remote teams

✈️ Airmadic finds cheap flights for remote workers

💯 Tandem is a virtual office for digital teams

🌍 Location Finder helps you find the optimal place to meet with your team

🤖 DailyBot sends automated daily follow-ups for remote teams

🍕 Pizzatime hosts a pizza party for your remote team (we’ve tried this — it’s amazing!)

Crowdfunding isn’t a new phenomenon — we’ve seen countless examples of people giving up their money to invest in startups, pay for student loans and fund clean energy projects over the years.

What we haven’t seen is using crowdfunding to buy an island — until now.

Let’s Buy an Island is a platform that lets investors buy a piece of a private island currently dubbed “Islandia.” Investors buy in at $3,250 and anyone can become a “citizen” of Islandia for a small donation. Citizenship will buy you insider deals on rent when the island is eventually bought. 🌴

The exact location of the island is tbd at the moment, but Coffee Island in Belize, Malaipo Island in the Philippines, Mannion Island in Ireland, Nangashanti Resort in Southeast Asia and Panama Island in Panama are all in the running.

Let’s Buy an Island was started by an international community of like-minded investors and travelers who wanted to reap the benefits of owning a private island at a fraction of the cost. The group is dedicated to creating a socially responsible, eco-friendly, self-sustaining island that other people can visit.

Maker Jodie Hill jumped into the Product Hunt comments to explain the collective vision, which may include laws against single use plastics. When asked about currency on the island, Jodie mentioned that the group already accepts bitcoin for share purchases. 🤑

“Certainly a benefit to our investors will be that they get to use the island! We will likely ring-fence some of the peak season for paying guests, but investors will be welcome on the island at other times of the year. Depending on demand, a system will be put in place to ensure fair access.” - Jodie

In terms of revenue, there’s already business plans in place for each island.

“We plan to have something basic up and running ASAP so we can generate some revenue immediately (e.g. glamping) with something better to follow.” - Jodie

Would you buy part of an island? Tell us why or why not here.

The business of keto, the diet that banishes carbs and embraces fat, is heating up. 🔥

Chances are you know someone who’s given the keto craze a try, or you’ve gone keto yourself. Doctors have been prescribing ketogenic diets to treat epilepsy for nearly a century and it may offer a solution for Type 2 diabetes.

Keto as a trend popped up in the last year or so, a reincarnation of the low carb Atkins diet that became popular in the 1970s. 👀

Keto has even extended to Product Hunt. First there was HVMN Ketone ($2.6M raised), a nootropic startup that came up with the a ketone ester. It's like keto in a bottle.

“The research behind ketosis is very compelling, and I'm really excited to see how HVMN Ketone will impact people's productivity and health.” - Hiten

In the past six months, there's been three product launches around keto meal planning, including Keto Meal Plans, Keto Food Search Engine and Keto Daily Recipes.

Earlier this year, Magic Spoon landed on Product Hunt with a beautifully branded, healthy cereal offering at $39/case (4 boxes). The cereal quickly went on backorder, seemingly hitting a nostalgic nerve for health-conscious consumers.

“I grew up loving cereal, like most people, and when I started to pay more attention to health and nutrition, I stopped eating cereal as often as it’s not the healthiest option. It came together by combining this food from my youth and recognizing that there’s this massive aisle in the grocery story that’s about an $11 billion market domestically, and it looks the same as it did a decade ago,” - Magic Spoon co-founder Gabi Lewis

Lewis told us why Magic Spoon could be the next pressed juice, and why selling healthy cereal direct-to-consumer is working.

“People deeply love cereal and are trying to avoid unhealthy food in general. People with restrictive diets like Keto even love it.”

Read the full story here.

Peloton, the exercise bike startup that lets you stream indoor cycling classes from your home, just filed for an IPO. 🚲

And now for a quick trip down Product Hunt memory lane...

Peloton was founded by former Barnes & Noble e-commerce executive John Foley in 2012, when he realized that his instructor-led workouts were much more rewarding than his solo gym sessions.

With a $3.5 million Series A in the bank and a Kickstarter campaign for its internet-connected bike, the company garnered popularity by tapping celebrity fitness instructors to lead remote classes.

A few first impressions on Product Hunt:

“Prioritizing healthy habits while working long hours at a startup DEFINITELY took a toll on me. Like any fitness and healthy eating routine, you need to find what works for you and your schedule. Peloton definitely accomplished that for me. Since purchasing the bike in November, I've cleaned up my act and have lost close to 30 pounds.” - Giselle

“I've become a metrics junky; the bikes ability to record everything and show progress is great.” - Mario

A bike costs $2,200, in addition to Peloton’s digital library of fitness classes (which can be streamed live or on-demand), which cost $39 per month.

In 2018, Peloton launched Tread, a connected treadmill that will run you $4,295. For context, you can typically buy a new treadmill for under $1,000, or one off Craigslist for a few hundred dollars.

“Very ambitious and lots of challenges to overcome convincing people to drop $$$. But I could see this cutting into the market of high intensity interval training gyms like Orangetheory. Being able to take those types of classes on demand/on your own time and getting a similar experience could be its biggest selling point.” - Brad

To date, Peloton has 1.4 million community members (people who have a Peloton account). Last year, the company raised a $550 million Series F at a $4.15 billion valuation. Peloton reported $915 million in total revenue this fiscal year, an increase of 110% from 2018. It’s losses, however, were significantly higher than last year, at $245.7 million up from $47.9 million.

The company also gave rise to more at-home fitness startups, like Mirror (an interactive home gym that’s a mirror), Tonal (a digital strength training system), ClassPass Live (live-streaming at-home workout classes) and Studio (digital running coaching), to name a few. 💪

Peloton plans to raise $500 million in its Nasdaq offering will trader under the ticker PTON.

Podcasting is heating up, they said.

According to recent reports, more than half of Americans have now listened to a podcast, and ~32% of Americans listen to podcasts monthly, a 26% increase from last year. In a staggering statistic, there’s now more than 700,000 podcasts out in the world and over 29 million episodes. And let’s not forget that big tech companies are competing for a piece of the podcast pie — with Spotify acquiring two major podcasting startups earlier this year.

The TLDR: We’ve seen 11 new podcasting products launch on Product Hunt in the last 30 days and 22 new tools in the past three months. We’re breaking down some of the standouts here.

🗒 Spext is a podcast editor that looks more like a document than an audio editor

“The goal is to create something that works like a doc but is a powerful podcast editor - delete “ums”, “uhhs” mix in intro music, add background music and splice in ads - all WITHOUT looking at waveforms.“ - Spext Maker Ashutosh Trivedi

Note: It’s similar to former Groupon CEO Andrew Mason’s startup Descript

👀Podcast List is a database of over 200 podcasts to help you find and pitch podcasts to either interview you, feature your business or run your ads

“Most podcast lists are designed for people trying to find new podcasts to listen to, which is only marginally helpful for marketers. For Podcast List we’ve designed the ideal list for entrepreneurs and marketers trying to find the right podcast to pitch their story to––either as an organic story/interview or as an advertisement.” - Podcast List Maker Matter Henderson

🎙SquadCast lets your record professional sounding audio remotely

“Our mission is to empower & encourage creatives to engage in meaningful conversations without barriers.” - SquadCast Maker Zachariah Moreno

For more on the latest podcasting tools, go here.

Recently, Product Hunt member Andrew Lutsyna brought up a hot-button topic in Discussions — meditation.

“What do you think about meditation?”

Though simple, it’s a loaded question, touching on a habitual practice that conjures up self-reflection, focus, self-control, silence and creativity — aka a lot of things that can help Makers. 👀

Responses varied.

“It sounds so cliche but it has changed my life, it's given me control over my emotions and instincts and impulses in a way that I feel makes me a better human.” - Abadesi

“I prefer a quiet or slightly quiet environment and I try to meditate every day. The best thing I learned so far is if you get distracted during meditation it doesn't mean you are doing it wrong.” - Rahul

Do you meditate? Share your process here.

While some of the market leaders in meditation apps — Calm and Headspace — may be pricey as a starting point ($59-95/year), there are other options out there. If you’re not an avid meditation practitioner, these products (that have launched in the last three months) might help you start:

📱Declutter the Mind is guided meditation for iOS

🎵Wave Meditation is music-guided meditation that you physically feel

😌Unwind is a distraction-free breathing companion

😯Breathing Training is an app focused on... breathing training

And if you want something more tangible, try Worry Dolls. They’re physical dolls that reduce anxiety.

We’ve hit peak 2019.

Yesterday, a Friend NDA Generator (aka “frieNDA”) launched on Product Hunt and it’s...exactly what it sounds like. Next time you want to share a confidential secret, you can procure legal protection first.

How it works: You and your friend enter your full name, email address, secret, and sign. A non-disclosure agreement will then be emailed to you both. 🤫

The friend-to-friend NDA agreement goes as follows:

“I, friend 1, agree to not disclose any sensitive information from friend 2 about secret.“

The product — which is sure to ruin friendships everywhere — got some mixed reactions.

“Where has this been all my life?” - Aba

“I know some people who could use this” - Julie

Sign your first frieNDA here. 👈