Alternative to Loom

Happy Monday! It’s a new week and that means new product launches. Scroll down to discover new tools for your day-to-day life, for managing productivity, and some just for fun like this bouncy ball that lives on your desktop. 

The headlines: 

🍎 Apple is looking at ways to incorporate its new Apple Intelligence AI into the Vision Pro.

🇪🇺 The EU isn’t happy with Meta’s ‘pay or consent’ model it uses across its apps.

🔦 iOS 18 comes with a new flashlight feature that lets you narrow or widen it. 

🗣️ OpenAI shared a new demo showcasing GPT-4o voice mode teaching languages.

I once had a boss who onboarded me by sending me WhatsApp messages with screenshots of her emails and docs. I did not last long at that job. That was no way to work — what if I wanted to pull up the directions later? How could I bookmark that? Why did I have to zoom into my screen to read it and how could I copy and paste stuff? 

My boss was an extreme, but I’ll give her this: There wasn’t really a great way of documenting instructions at the time. Creating a long document would have taken her time she didn’t have. 

If Guidde was around then, I would have sent her a link to it. Guidde lets you create engaging documentation instantly (think how-to guides, training, and support docs), complete with narration, voiceover, screenshots and more. It takes all of the work out of doing a storyline. 

Let’s say I was onboarding a new newsletter writer, and showing them how to input content into our CMS — something I actually tested with Guidde. After installing the browser extension, I clicked the button to start the capture of a new video and named it “How to create a newsletter.” Similar to Loom, Guidde starts recording, but the GPT-powered AI is taking note of my actions. I click buttons, fill the fields I need to fill, and click done. 

Ta-da. Guidde produced a video/storyboard and all the steps are divided out, with headlines and descriptions. I can edit and tweak the ones I want (few needed it), add AI-generated voiceover, edit the visuals like I would a slide deck, brand it, and so on. Then I can share it or embed it in a knowledge base. 

Guidde is free to use – you can pay to upgrade if you need more videos or things like the brand kit. So send this over to your boss like mine, or just start using it and amaze them with how much you can do. 

FOR FUN 

Ball is exactly what it sounds like. Head over to the launch page, download it, and out of nowhere a red bouncy ball will appear on your desktop. You can grab and bounce it in every direction. One cool detail is the shadow generation as it bounces. 

Digipi is a web-based midi piano. Play a one-octave piano with three distinct tones: synth, 8-bit, and piano. Switch between light and dark modes to suit your style. Perfect for learning simple songs on the go

FOR PRODUCTIVITY 

Tab Slayer is a Chrome Extension that lets you easily clean up your tabs by slaying them. You can gather up all the tabs you want vanquished, set a schedule you want the slaying to begin and watch as your browser sheds all those tabs. 

Todoist just launched a new weekly calendar feature. It lets you you manage your tasks and your time in one place and time block tasks alongside events synced from your Google Calendar to create a plan you can stick to.

FOR LIFE

SoonCall is the mobile app that helps you manage your friendships and call your friends more often. With smart reminders and catchup tracking, SoonCall aims to help you feel more connected, be a better friend and feel closer than ever.

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