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

You’re being watched 👀

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.

New iPhone, who dis?

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.

Stripe just dropped a corporate card 👀

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. 👈

NEW from Samsung: A closet

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

NEW from Facebook...Tinder?

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.

RIP your smartphone

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.

Warning: adults only

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

An app for time traveling

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

The remote revolution

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!)

Wanna buy an island?

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.