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Snapchat and Amazon are teaming up to give you shopping superpowers.

Starting today, you'll be able to snap a picture of anything – sneakers, purses, lamps, snacks, books – and immediately purchase directly from Amazon.

This is a natural extension of what Snap's been pushing toward with their camera-first focus. Coincidentally, Pinterest launched a similar feature two years ago. Pinterest Lens introduced visual search to its pinning population to contribute to the network’s 600+ million monthly searches.

"Steve built a computer and called it a phone. Evan is building a phone and has called it a camera." – Ben Basche

This also isn't the first time Snap's blended camera and commerce: in February, Nike pre-released Air Jordan III “Tinker” sneakers directly inside Snapchat through an immersive AR experience. The shoes sold out in 23 minutes. 😮

An AR future is coming. Check out the full list of 20+ Augmented Reality apps before it's too late to join the OASIS. 🏖️

While most tech companies hoard data and patents, a small contingent are slowly open-sourcing internal tools to help the rest of the world design beautiful and accessible apps.

Just this weekend, Lyft's design team launched Colorbox, a design tool used to build accessible color systems. There are an estimated 285 million people in the world who are visually impaired – Colorbox makes it easy to design interfaces that anybody can interact with, not just those with 20/20 vision.

"Color is instrumental in how we perceive the world, and that could not be more true within interfaces. At Lyft, we believe in an inclusive future where anyone can pick up a product and be successful." – Kevyn Arnott

Lyft isn’t the only unicorn giving things away. Facebook published a collection free design resources. Uber released their distributed deep learning framework. Airbnb's design team open-sourced Lottie, a tool to add high-quality animations to any native app:

"In the past, building complex animations for Android, iOS, and React Native apps was a difficult and lengthy process. You either had to add bulky image files for each screen size or write a thousand lines of brittle, hard-to-maintain code. Because of this, most apps weren’t using animation — despite it being a powerful tool for communicating ideas and creating compelling user experiences." – Airbnb Design

It's that time of the year. 🎄

Swarms of Apple fans around the world are "working from home," waiting for UPS to deliver their brand new iPhone Xs or Xs Max. At the same time, thousands are waiting outside their local Apple stores to get their hands on the new Apple Watch Series 4.

Fun fact: the first official sale of the iPhone Xs went to Mazen Kourouche and Teddy Lee (above) in Australia about 16 hours ago. 👏👆

For the rest of us anxiously checking UPS.com, there's a better way. The Shopify team launched a powerful app to track all of your packages. Arrive automatically syncs with your email, pulling tracking numbers from any online order. You'll get helpful notifications every time your package moves on planes, trains, and automobiles until it's delivered.

Shopify's Robleh Jama and team even did a deep dive into the history of airmail and international shipping. Watch the video. 📦

Shopify isn't the only team improving shipping worldwide. The USPS now offers Informed Delivery, which emails you pictures of your physical mail before you actually receive it. Downside: you'll remember that you have credit card bills. Upside: it makes you seem psychic. 🔮

Jeff Bezos had a biiiiig day yesterday.

First, they quietly launched Amazon Scout, a Pinterest competitor powered by machine learning to help you discover (and purchase) your next favorite product based on what you 👍 and 👎.

Right now, most everybody visits Amazon with specific intent to purchase something – AA batteries, new socks, or maybe a case of LaCroix. But nobody browses Amazon just for fun. Their next big opportunity is window shopping, encouraging consumers to discover and buy things they weren’t necessarily looking for.

Pinterest started with this use case (of course, broadly focused on imagery but a large portion of pins are product-specific) and are now attempting to close the loop with buyable pins.

This isn't the first attempt to create a browsing experience by Amazon. They launched Interesting Finds and Launchpad a few years ago. We'll have to wait and see if Amazon Scout is as sticky as Pinterest, which pulls users back into the site with friends, messages, and notifications.

Next... someone leaked the news about Amazon’s two upcoming Alexa-powered devices. The first, an integrated subwoofer, is an attempt bolster the audio quality of the Amazon Echo, which some say can sound a bit "thin." Just like a Sonos system (which launched their developer platform a few weeks ago) or Apple's HomePod, the new Echo Sub can pair with up to 2 different Echos.

The second leak: An Alexa-enabled smart plug to power anything on or off with your voice. While we’ve seen devices like this before, it will let Alexa-lovers everywhere integrate more of their house onto Amazon's voice-powered stack.

Your doctor is now downloadable on the App Store. 👀

A wave of startups has arrived to make getting prescriptions for difficult health issues as easy as answering an online survey. Similar to Warby Parker and Casper, these new direct-to-consumer medtech startups make it easy to buy their product by issuing prescriptions online and shipping direct to your door.

Meds for men: Ro just raised $88M to help men get the medications they need. Ro's first product line focused on erectile dysfunction medications. Instead of going into a doctor's office and talking to people, you can get a prescription online and the medications delivered to your door for free.

Yesterday, they dropped their second product line, Zero, an all-in-one medical kit, designed to help you quit smoking. It includes medication, nicotine gum, an app to track your progress, and digital counseling from their on-staff physicians.

"Really excited to be an investor in Roman. There really hasn’t been any kind of trusted brand for men before. This is great example of a beautiful, needed services designed for the digital age." – Alexis Ohanian, Reddit cofounder

They're not the only competitors in the space. SF-based Hims is focused on the same market, with their line of stunningly-branded meds for hair loss, ED, and cold sores. They've raised $98M from Forerunner Ventures (and others) and even launched their own skincare line two months ago.

Meds for women: Nurx has raised $41M from YC and Union Square Ventures to help women get digital prescriptions for birth control and HIV medications. While there are a number of startups that offer HIV medication online, Nurx is one of the few to offer at-home testing kits as well, making it easier for them to treat more afflicted women. They're hiring for 10+ positions in SF.

"Holy crap I just ordered birth control in < 5 minutes. Hands down most useful product I've found on PH to date."– Kelsey Whelan

Modern Fertility, backed by Y Combinator last year, makes it easy for women to test their fertility at home, no visit to the clinic required, for a fraction of the price. They've raised $7M to make sure all women get the fertility data they deserve. Currently hiring for 6+ positions.

Online shopping is coming to Augmented Reality.

Shopify just launched a magic tool for online sellers to build augmented reality experiences into their stores. Soon, you'll be able to test out your next bike in AR or visualize your next sofa directly inside your house before it arrives.

This feels like a natural extension of the Shopify platform (which launched their App Store a few weeks ago). We can't wait to see AR pop-up shops all around San Francisco (and the world). 🌉

The timing is perfect. Just last week, Apple announced the inclusion of the new A12 Bionic chip in every every iPhone Xs and Xs Max. It's nearly as powerful as the processor in a brand new Macbook Pro, making previously impossible AR experiences possible.

Shopify isn't the only e-commerce giant to dip their toes into the augmented reality water. Amazon's AR view lets you try products in your house before you order. Lululemon competitor Outdoor Voices launched an AR shopping experience for their new running line. IKEA took things one step further with a completely VR furniture shopping experience.

We’ve seen a toooon of apps explore augmented reality this year, as you’ll discover in the AR topic on Product Hunt (followed by 34K+ people). ✨

"This fall’s must-have accessory for billionaires: An esteemed publication that‘s recently had a rough go of it." – Laura Nelson

Time Magazine just found a new $190M home. 📰

Salesforce founder Marc Benioff and his wife, Lynne Benioff, just acquired the publication, less than a year after it was acquired by American media conglomerate Meredith Corporation.

Benioff isn't the first billionaire to purchase his own media publication. Jeff Bezos purchased The Washington Post in 2014, Patrick Soon-Shiong purchased the Los Angeles Times earlier this year, and Laurene Powell purchased a controlling interest in The Atlantic in 2017.

"The power of Time has always been in its unique storytelling of the people & issues that affect us all & connect us all. A treasure trove of our history & culture. We have deep respect for their organization & honored to be stewards of this iconic brand." –Marc Benioff

Lately, tech CEOs have been under heavy scrutiny as their platforms (read: Twitter, Facebook, Google) heavily influence the spread of information. They control the pipes and now more of them are owning the the content as well. Which publication is next? 🤔

It's easier than ever to start monetizing your own #content. Substack and Revue let anyone build their own paid newsletter list in minutes. Although they won’t help you sell to a billionaire CEO. 💌

Yesterday, Microsoft acquired a small AI startup less than 6 months after their launch. That was fast. 😮

Lobe launched in May to make building machine learning models easy. Backed by Chris Sacca's Lowercase Capital (and others), the small team is making machine learning as easy as putting together LEGO bricks.



Their app is super simple to use:

1. Label your training set with your desired results. For instance, you could upload pictures of dogs labeled with their breed, or houses listed with their architectural style.

2. Watch as the algorithm builds itself, automagically.

3. Ship it. Export your model into Google's TensorFlow, Apple's CoreML, or directly into your app on iOS or Android.

"A holy shit moment in tech from our company Lobe. Full AI capabilities that you can put in your app but without having to write any of your own AI code! Watch the demo. It's bananas." – Chris Sacca

It's absolutely bananas. Lobe’s landing page might be the best product landing page we’ve seen since Muzzle. 🤐

TL;DR: Ship 2.0 is here, with powerful new tools for makers.

We originally launched Ship to help makers ship better products. Makers that build an audience, discuss their product vision publicly, and listen to their users before their launch stand a much better chance of success.

After seeing over 100,000 products launch over the years at Product Hunt, we noticed a pattern. Makers that built an audience early on and gathered feedback from their users, often found more success than those building in a vacuum. We launched an early version of Ship a year ago - over 2,000,000 subscribers have been collected so far.

A lot has changed since its original launch a year ago. Thousands of makers have used it to build an audience and communicate with over 2,000,000 early adopters. A few popular projects (like this one) use Ship to build a waitlist of more than 55,000 subscribers.

Today's big update includes:

✅ New tools. Now you can create a Chat room with your community, useful for managing a small beta group or gathering feedback.

✅ More customization. The most popular feature of Ship is our landing page creator, but some makers wanted to personalize their page even more. You can choose from three templates and customize everything from the background image to the button color to match your brand.

✅ AWS and Stripe perks. Pro users can unlock up to $7,500 in free AWS credits and instant access to Stripe Atlas + zero fees on the first $50,000 of transactions processed on Stripe.

✅ A powerful new dashboard. Quickly glance at the health and growth of your community, with powerful insights powered by Clearbit. Check subscriber location, open rates of messages, and deep-dive into your best users' backgrounds in an instant.

We’re here to help you build an audience, speak with your community, and ultimately ship better products. This VR for cats video explains it all. 😉

TL;DR: The first episode of PH Radio is here. Listen on TechCrunch. 🎙️

In our inaugural episode, we're joined by two notable investors, Alexia Bonatsos and Niko Bonatsos.

Alexia is the former co-editor-in-chief of TechCrunch and founder of a new venture fund, Dream Machine, where she helps founders “turn science fiction into non-fiction.”

Her husband, Niko, is Managing Director at General Catalyst, a leading Silicon Valley venture firm with investments in companies like Airbnb, ClassPass, Snap, Gusto, Warby Parker, and others.

In this episode we talk about:

• The rise of voice. As Google Home, Amazon Echoes, AirPods, and other voice-enabled devices continue to proliferate, we’ll see user behavior shift — the same way touch screens have influenced young kids — and new opportunities arise for creative founders.
• The corrosive nature of behavior online, in part influenced by today’s advertising model, and potential solutions.
• The evolution of venture capital, with the rise of micro VCs and accessibility to large amounts of capital.

Of course, we’ll also cover some of our favorite products that you might not know about, including an app to help end mobile phone addiction, a new anonymous social network (the next Secret done right?), and app that reminds you that you’re going to die.
 
We’ll be back next week, so subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Also big thanks to our sponsors: Airtable, GE Ventures, Intercom, and Stripe for their support. 😸