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Our ultra-fast Daily: Three takes on new products. Yesterday’s top ten launches. That’s it.

Organizing visual inspiration with moodboards

Moodboarding is the grown-up version of cutting up magazine images and creating collages, right? That’s if you don’t consider the formatting, sizing, and background removal.

Those were some of the troubles this maker went through that made her decide to build set.new, a moodboarding tool for creatives of all sorts. “I was working on an interior design project and collating my ideas in... Google Slides! It certainly was NOT fun seeing how much time I was wasting,” she shares.

What’s really cool about set.new is it lets you create right away. No sign-up or unnecessary onboarding. The tool offers an infinite canvas where you can upload images. It also tidies up your boards with three automatic layouts: cluster, rows, and columns.

The background removing option seems to be popular as well, just like the many tools we’ve recently seen launch – ClipDrop and Magic Retouch to name a few.

If our spec-cat-ular moodboard got your creative juices flowing, here’s a few more new design tools that you might want to consider:

Miro Two-Way Integration lets you sync Miro cards to tasks in other apps like Asana, Trello, Jira, automatically.

OpenGrph is a lightweight canvas for creating cover images and open-graphs for your blogs and videos.

Visily helps non-designers create web and mobile app mockups using templates and components.

If you’re looking for your next creative challenge, we’ve covered 3D design tools here and alternatives to Canva and Figma here.

This meeting could've been an email

Talking about remote work is so last year (and the year before that, too). Spend enough time looking at operating principles of tech companies and you might see this more and more: “We default to asynchronous work and tools.”

We don’t blame them. We do it too. The discourse around the topic is also interesting. While most in this thread agree and embrace the flexibility of async work, striking a balance and finding the right tools to do it can be a challenge.

That’s where products like Werk come in. Werk acts like an OS for remote and hybrid teams that want to have their asynchronous communications centralized in one place. The tool allows you to record and share your screen for others to see later. You can also add tasks into a customizable task manager, create docs, and use thread chats so you don't miss a topic while chatting.

Claap, which got a lot of love from the community, focuses on the video aspect of async collaboration. The platform helps you get contextual feedback with annotations and time-stamped comments that others can add to your recordings.

Async workflows can help us reach that uninterrupted focus time to actually get $#*% done. That does mean work can get lonely and isolating sometimes. There are things we can do, though. Virtuelly curates, manages, and delivers team events and off-sites to help build connections across distributed teams. You can choose from 150+ experiences, including dumpling making, interactive Bollywood parties, and murder mystery challenges.

What’s your async tech stack? Let us know.

Hipmunk team publicly launches new flight search engine

What do chipmunks and penguins have in common? This time, it’s founders and early employees. We’re talking about sunsetted travel metasearch engine Hipmunk and its recently launched successor, Flight Penguin.

If you’ve been around the tech space long enough, you might remember Hipmunk and its distinct flight search design. The service got acquired by corporate expensing platform Concur in 2016 and shut down four years later, in 2020, after co-founders Steve Huffman (Reddit CEO) and Adam Goldstein tried to buy it back.

Flight Penguin launched yesterday on Product Hunt as a browser extension. Similar to Hipmunk, flights are shown visually over a timeline, each color representing an airline with layovers in-between. They can be sorted by pain (think long layovers), price, and convenience. The community seems to be particularly excited about the launch: “Some of us were dying a little inside every time we booked a flight without Hipmunk. Flight Penguin may just revive us,” someone commented.

News about Flight Penguin appeared last year when access was limited by a waitlist. Now that it has been lifted, the team is running a crowdfunding campaign for early users that kicks off today at 12 PM EST. “Adam and I were both extremely frustrated that Hipmunk was shut down. There's no one else out there with as compelling of a user experience. We figured out how to address the failures of Hipmunk while building on the great legacy of successes in building Flight Penguin,” Max Morlocke, co-founder and CEO of Flight Penguin shares on Wefunder.

With flights sorted on Flight Penguin and several new options for unique stays on the new Airbnb, all that’s left is to decide on a location. Shepherd’s hut in the British countryside? Vineyard villa in Tuscany? Sign us up.

What’s up, NFT market?

It’s… complicated. You might’ve seen a NonFungible report sparking discussions in the community in the past few weeks. The report looked at recent NFT data, claiming the explosive growth we’ve seen in 2021 has leveled off, and may even be in decline. Other sources are reassuring crypto enthusiasts, highlighting that “despite fluctuations in transaction volume, the number of active NFT buyers and sellers continues to grow.”

While the cause of these fluctuations is multifaceted, there’s one thing we know for sure: makers are making. Since our Web3 feed debuted less than a month ago, we’ve seen over 600 new projects added to the category.

Rarify is one of them. The NFT Data API provides Web3 developers with NFT data on pricing history, trade performance, volume, authenticity, and ownership across all marketplaces on Ethereum and Polygon.

“We understand that NFT data is the foundation for anyone trying to build in Web3. Without these data points easily at hand, it’s challenging to make key decisions such as investment and appraisal. Our API provides a robust data infrastructure that enables developers to build with ease and empowers users to make smarter decisions,” maker Lasha Antadze explains.

Another interesting launch from the past week is Highlight. In plain English, Highlight allows people to create exclusive-access communities with no code. When you join a new community, you get ownership of an NFT that gives you access to updates, photos, videos, and music from the community creator. If you’re a creator and want to go the extra mile for your community, Rove can also help you build a metaverse for it.

What’s your take? 🐂 or 🐻?

Tinder-style recipe app that grocery shops for you 🛒

Deciding what to eat can be easy, but it can also be really tough. Some of us spend what feels like hours scrolling through food delivery apps and restaurant reviews, some look inside the fridge for inspiration, while others have their life together and meal prep. And let’s not forget about the meal-kit delivery services fans.

If you’re looking to cut down on costs, get inspiration, and enjoy more wholesome home-cooked meals, that’s where an app like Manna Cooking comes in handy.

The app takes users through the meal lifecycle: from search and discovery to shopping, cooking, and sharing. You can swipe on recipes that you’re interested in making, save them for later, or swap out certain ingredients to fit your eating requirements – think gluten-free, vegetarian, or lactose intolerant. This takes away some of the work that goes into finding the ingredients of that delicious-looking meal you saw on Pinterest or Instagram.

One of the problems that prompted the makers to start working on Manna is shopping for ingredients. According to a recent consumer survey, 80% of American shoppers use recipes as their starting point for online grocery shopping. Often that means searching for each and every ingredient and manually adding it to your cart. The app bypasses this by automatically adding ingredients in the right quantities of selected recipes to your Amazon Fresh cart. The team is also working on adding new vendors.

The food-tech space seemed to be quiet for a while, but some interesting products are launching nonetheless. Take yhangry, for instance, which launched a couple of months ago as a marketplace where you can book a private chef for your dinner party for $40pp. Instacart also recently confidentially filed for an IPO, despite seeing declining sales compared to the pandemic growth it experienced.

One disclaimer: swiping through the app might make you hungry. If you’re willing to take a chance, let the makers know which recipe you’re trying out tonight.

Google's first smartwatch; New AR glasses are coming

Google I/O was this week, Google’s annual developer conference. Interestingly, it was new hardware that took up most of the stage time, but that does make sense once you dig in.

Pixel Watch made its official debut after lots of whispers and leaks, especially after Google bought Fitbit for $2.1B last year. Although third-party smartwatch producers already use Google’s Wear OS (like Samsung and its Galaxy Watch), the operating system has lacked features like biometric tracking tools, which are Fitbit's bread and butter. Now the new Pixel Watch features a deep integration with Fitbit software, packaged on a sleek circular screen that’s nearly bezel-less.

Another biggie: the Pixel Buds Pro are Google’s first earbuds that have active noise cancellation (ANC), and when paired with a compatible Pixel phone, they’ll support spatial audio too. A Silent Seal adapts to your ears to maximize the ANC or relieve pressure for comfort. The buds even have bone-conduction capabilities to help pick up your voice for clearer calls, and a feature called Volume EQ that helps maintain a balanced sound profile when you change the volume.

As for the phones, the Pixel 6a is similar to the Pixel 6 that came before it except smaller at only 6.1 inches. And that’s a good a thing because with Google’s newer Tensor chip, the phone delivers most of the same features as the more expensive Pixels, which is a "big deal for a phone at this price,” Google’s SVP of Devices and Services said.

Google gave us a peek at the Pixel 7 but didn't give much information on it yet.

In some ways, we’re most excited about Google's tease of its next-generation AR glasses. The video shows a demo of real-time language translation on the lenses, “sort of like subtitles for the world.”

It’s been a decade since Google Glass debuted at I/O 2012…will Product Hunt kitty make an upgrade?

An app for screen addiction strikes a chord

Congratulations, you made it to Thursday, which is in fact an accomplishment. It can be hard to step away from your phone period, let alone give your tired thumb a break from doomscrolling when troubling news looms.

That’s why the chatter around Zario today is giving us hope. The new app uses psychology-backed concepts to help you understand your screen addiction and overcome it. Co-founder Ondrej Zak shared his experience, and it’s resonating with many in the community.

“I reached my lowest when my boss approached me one day after a meeting. She told me to never turn on Tinder during meetings again. 😅 The scary thing was that I wasn't even aware of having used it…"

Zak turned to the book Indistractable by Nir Eyal. “I started exploring how my brain 🧠 was unconsciously programmed to reach for the phone every time I felt the slightest discomfort,” he continued.

Then came Zario. It works to help you find digital balances with “science-backed challenges” on your phone. Examples include things like turning your phone to black & white to make it less appealing and making an origami. The challenges aren’t meant to transform your life instantly, but help you find short-term relief that adjusts your behavior over time (“sooner than later my brain found a workaround.”)

One commenter, Sarah Jordi, added “⬆️ this part is really spot on… deleting or time-restricting TikTok is only symptom control and not addressing the issue at its root…”

Co-founder Killian Fjellbakk also chimed in to explain to one commenter how the team approaches the app's challenges, explaining "Novelty and scarcity is often a trigger that draws us to picking up our phones more often; fomo. We've been relying on extensive testing… Finding the right balance is definitely key.”

Now is a great time to join the conversation and give Zario feedback about its MVP.

Forgetting web3's secret phrases

Passwords are like the headphones that used to come with your new iPhone. No one really wants them. They do the job when you have no better option, but they otherwise offer bad sound and a bad experience.

Security experts hate passwords too. At the tail end of last year, we met a new competitor in the authentication space called Stytch. Julianna Lamb and Reed McGinley-Stempel had worked together on authentication features at Plaid prior to launching their new startup, which uses APIs and SDKs to provide multiple passwordless methods that are easy for companies to integrate into their products.

Just five months later, Lamb and McGinley-Stempel are back with a new product, stepping further into the user experience of logging in (which so happens to come a week after a big update from1Password). The idea for Vessel was guided by the idea of a “passport for the internet,” relevant for web2 and web3 environments.

Vessel lets you manage both your “digital identity and crypto assets” in a secure browser extension. In other words, there’s no need to create passwords or fill out forms again and again. For crypto holders, Vessel’s fully non-custodial Ethereum and Solana wallets (more blockchains to come) eliminate the need for seed phrases. And if you haven’t delved into crypto yet, a secret or seed phrase is a really long stream of random words you’re expected to hold on to safely for life, because passwords weren’t enough already.

“Vessel is our imagination of what authentication would look like if Stytch designed that root account and provided benefits for consumers and businesses across both Web2 and Web3,” Lamb shared.

More and more large companies are experimenting with web3 integrations to help their crypto-holding users. We’ll be watching to see if and how much Vessel helps to onboard more companies into web3, which could accelerate overall adoption.

Juked sets its sights on inclusivity in eSports

Do Reddit, Twitter, and Twitch chat create a toxic environment?

Not necessarily, we presume, but it depends on the bubble you’re in and how much time you spend in it. For one e-sports community, creating a healthy place for discussion was important enough to put a stake in the ground.

We’re talking about Juked, the esports app that launched two years ago to aggregate everything you need to follow esports into one place. The app was co-founded by Chris Chan and Ben Goldhaber (aka "ChanManV" and "FishStix"), the latter of whom was also a founding team member at Twitch. Juked's new community grew quickly to start, reaching 50,000 monthly unique users. The startup also crowdfunded over $1M from on Republic last year.

Like all founders though, Goldhaber and Chan have been challenged to keep the momentum going. So, they spoke to their community.

“[We] discovered an even bigger problem: most esports fans (by our count, 75%) don't have a core group of friends to discuss the esports matches… So they rely on general use social media platforms… And as we all know, these platforms can be incredibly toxic, incredibly fragmented, and not conducive for nuanced conversations,” Goldhaber explained.

Juked’s new launch today signifies its adapted mission which is to connect likeminded esports fans in inclusive and accessible environment, and reduce toxicity in online discussion.

According to Alex Wilhem of TechCrunch, Juked plans to accomplish this through human moderation with AI in the future, in addition to its current onboarding processes which require users to sign up with a phone number and agree to terms that emphasize their community goals.

Would a healthy and inclusive environment lure you onto a new eSports community online? Share your thoughts with Goldhaber and Chan.

The couple that showers together stays cold. Before Boona.

It sounds sexy, showering together, but is it?

Whether you're getting frisky in there or not, some couples see showering together as a way to nurture and strengthen their relationship. The problem is that most showers are built to support a one-person activity. That single stream of water leaves coupled cleaners with one person in the warmth and one in waiting.

The problem caught the attention of two engineers, Brett Skaloud and Jeff Feiereisen, who met while working at Amazon. Skaloud has over 15 years of experience designing products from the ground up, including Amazon Scout and Amazon Go. He teamed up with Feiereisen, who has worked as an engineering lead at Microsoft and Amazon (where he launched Amazon Go with Skaloud) to make Boona, a tandem shower.

The makers worked on numerous iterations of their product over the last year before launching it on Kickstarter. Now Boona has over 2,900 backers kicking in over $650,000 — over 65x their original goal, with a week to go.

So how does Boona work? It’s an after-market solution, meaning it was created to work easily within the setup you already have, making it an option for renters and homeowners. It fits like a tension curtain rod at the top of your shower, with two opposite-facing shower heads on either side connected by an insulted hose. There are three pressure settings and a valve allows you to adjust the flow of water between the showerheads.

And who said you can’t shower solo and enjoy two streams all on your own? No one.

Get more details on how Boona works.