The Roundup

Shopify stock has skyrocketed since the e-commerce giant went public 5 years ago. We talked about their growth in more detail earlier this year.

E-commerce is having a moment right now with more businesses turning to online selling.

Swell, launched last month, offers a powerful ‘headless’ e-commerce platform for modern brands, startups, and agencies.

The platform offers unlimited product options, flexible discounts, subscriptions, customizable checkout, and multiple integrations.

With so many e-commerce platforms on the market, it can be difficult to compete with established household names. The creators of Swell believe that headless e-commerce with a no-code editor is the way to go.

In case you’re wondering what headless means, Michelle Teo, one of the makers, explains, “The front end and back end are completely separated, which means brands get freedom of expression to build whatever and however they want.”

Here are some early impressions from the community:

“Eric, Joshua, and the rest of their team are so thoughtful when it comes to the future of the space. Swell is going to crush it, love what they have built.” – Taylor Clauson

“Looks like Shopify Plus on steroids. Really nicely done. And those illustrations are just so captivating.” – Jake Disraeli

“Really impressed by the performance and speed. I've checked out some websites that use swell, and they're quite fast. Good stuff.” – Celik Nimani

If you were waiting for a sign to start selling online, this may be it.

Last year, Steven Soderbergh released “High Flying Bird,” his second consecutive film, shot entirely with an iPhone. It’s available on Netflix. 🤯

Recently, Nat Martin dropped Diorama, a tool for making beautiful movies with your phone.

Nat, CEO of Litho and one of the makers of Diorama, says now you can create Jurassic Park-like films anywhere from your bedroom to the beach. You can produce far more sophisticated animated visual effects than ever previously possible on your phone.

This is great news for makers and creators who want to create better content without spending a fortune. The iPhone is a pretty powerful machine as explained by Nat, “If you have an iPhone with an A12 chip or newer, actors can also interact directly with the props in your scene through body tracking, and the app has a selection of live video filters, which help blend virtual objects with the camera feed.”

To get the most out of Diorama, you’ll need an iOS device with ARKit support (generally iPhones no older than 5 years will support this) and a Litho AR controller which costs $99.

We’ve seen smartphones replacing photo cameras and now with the latest AR developments, we’re seeing smartphones getting into the big screens. Just imagine how many more talented producers will get a chance to bring their visions into reality.

Here are some reactions from the community:

“Wow. That is sick. I've never seen such an interesting use of AR. Just awesome.” – Mi Wy

“The UI and workflow shown in the second video is just amazing.” – Aidan Wolf

“Looks cool! I like that you are recognising that accessibility and ease of use are a key to make it go viral!” – Sabina Weiss

Dreams of becoming a movie star suddenly don't seem so far fetched. 🎬

When your product raises $185 million and is celebrated among makers, big tech notices.

Google’s in-house incubator Area 120, launched Tables last week, a tool for collaboration, workflow, and automation.

This new Google tool is drawing some direct comparisons with the no-code giant Airtable, which recently upgraded its new platform with Sync, Marketplace, Apps, and Automation while raising $185M. We wrote about this in more detail.

Google positions Tables as a project management tool to get teams on the same page (and the same virtual table) with bots, automation, and seamless integration to other Google products like Sheets, Groups, and Contacts.

While there are many productivity tools in the market and many adopting a Kanban board approach, Trello, Monday.com, Asana to name just a few, Google has an advantage of tapping into its existing user base of millions of users already invested in Google’s ecosystem (Gmail, Drive, Docs).

The product was launched in a Google-like freemium fashion.

You can use Tables for free, with support for up to 100 tables and 1,000 rows. The paid plan includes a 3-month trial, starts from $10/month/user giving you up to 1,000 tables and 10,000 rows/table.

Would you switch to Tables?

In an unusual time, Apple held an unusual virtual Fall event revealing new hardware and software, but leaving out the much anticipated iPhone.

Here's a quick recap of the highlights ICYMI:

⌚️ Watch SE is a new, more affordable watch (starting at $279) with fall detection, advanced fitness features, and Family Setup with watchOS 7.

🩸 Watch Series 6 expands the health capabilities of previous models with a new feature measuring blood oxygen levels. Should be available from Sep 18, starting at $399.

✏️ iPad 8th Gen features the Neural Engine, updated hardware, and a low price tag of $329 for the basic model.

🆔 New iPad Air features an all-new and larger screen design (similar to iPad Pro), next-generation Touch ID and it comes in a bunch of pretty colors. Should be available next month starting at $599.

🏃‍♂️ Fitness+ is a new personalized fitness experience built for Apple Watch and can be used in combination with iPhone, iPad, or Apple TV. Clear launch date is not yet available, but Apple promised it’s arriving later this year.

🍏 Apple One offers Music, TV+, Arcade, News+, Fitness+, and iCloud in one simple plan promising you the biggest bang, binge, and blast for your buck. Launching later this Fall with a starting price of $14.99/mo.

And finally, the new iOS updates (iOS 14, iPadOS 14, and WatchOS 7) are coming today across the Apple device lineup around the world.

TLDR; Apple revealed new Watch Series 6 and SE, updated iPad, redesigned iPad Air, and announced Fitness+ and Apple One subscriptions.

What are you most excited about?

The summer may be coming to an end for some, but this doesn't mean summer vibes need to be over too.

Last week, Poolside FM launched its hotly anticipated iPhone app. Now you can enjoy summer vibes all day, every day.

If you’re familiar with Poolside FM, you already know it’s an instant download. If you’ve never heard of it, well, you can thank me later 😉.

Starting out as an experimental web player, Poolside FM is a summer music radio station that pairs nostalgic retro graphics from the 80s with feel-good electro and disco tunes. You can listen to 5 different channels: Poolside FM, Indie Summer, Hangover Club, Tokyo Disco, and Friday Nite Heat.

Trust us, this app is rad. Just look at what the community has to say about it:

“TODAY IS A GOOD DAY!!!” – Razzy Lee

“I've paid yearly for Spotify and not using it for 3 months because of Poolside FM. Great for background music while working. 🌴” – Yigit Pinarbasi

“App is snappy AF and UX of the app is also great! I already replaced the spotify app I had in my iphones dock with poolside. Rock on!” – Ignacio

“Me: I want to catch the last bit of summer fun with Poolside FM Poolside FM: summer now lasts all year long!” – Jun Gong

Poolside may become your favorite place to chill and take a break from 2020.

Best of all, it's free.

Last month, college student Liam Porr tricked everyone and went viral on Hacker News with a GPT-3 generated fake blog post. In his own words, “it was super easy, actually, which was the scary part.”

We’ve seen a ton of GPT-3 powered projects since it was introduced by OpenAI in July. Last week, scientist and maker, Samanyou Garg launched another one: Magic Email, an app that summarizes and generates emails using AI.

The creator of previously well-received TLDR This extension returned with a GPT-3 powered email assistant that summarizes and generates professional emails from one-liners. It’s currently in beta, join now to get early access.

Whether it’s fake news or smart algorithms, AI is taking over communication. With tools like GPT-3, there will be even more innovation and viral stunts.

From email summaries, narrated podcasts, copywriting to networking, AI is capable of replacing boring time-sucking communication habits.

Here are some other promising AI-powered products from the community:

IdeasAI is an AI-powered startup idea generator

Say Less works inside Gmail so you can write shorter emails with AI.

Kriya AI finds relevant professionals and writes smart email intros.

VWO Humans vs AI is a competition to test GPT-3 generated web copy against humans.

Kafkai is a fully AI-powered unique content generator.

Podcastle converts to natural human speech podcasts using machine learning.

GPT-3 Job Description Rewriter does exactly what it says using OpenAI's GPT-3 model.

LALAL.AI uses AI to split any song into vocal and instrumental tracks.

Shortly is an AI creative writing assistant generating new creative plots and story developments.

M-Files survey shows that 83% of employees recreate existing work documents because they can’t find them in their company network.

Conclusion? Documentation sucks.

Last week, Joaquin Roca launched Minerva a dynamic way to share processes online. It’s the modern day Clippy, but with less eyebrows.

With this Chrome extension, you can easily capture and share clickable instructions for anything on the internet. No screenshots, red arrows, or screencap videos needed.

Documenting processes, SOPs (standard operating procedures), and internal workflows can be a pain to write, but are crucial precautions for well-functioning orgs.

Having recently secured a $1.1M seed round, Minerva aims to simplify documentation for customers, colleagues, and trainees.

The launch was well received by the Product Hunt community:

“It’s great to watch someone’s face light up after about the third minute of a product demo. Minerva has truly solved a very annoying problem.” – Brian Cohen

“Minerva is a dream come true! No more lengthy documentation and lost or unscalable process knowledge!” – Tania Luna

“I am a fan of this product because of how easy it makes it for anyone to create, share and follow directions. Some processes online take SO many clicks, hovers, drop-downs and new windows that open, which can be confusing.” – Amy Chen

Here are some more products to help you with interactive onboarding, documentation, and online training:

Scribe watches you work your magic and automatically turns what you do into a PDF guide.

Helppier integrates with Canva designs so you can create popups, banners, and tours.

UserGuiding is an easy way to show how your product works.

Landbot is the no-code conversational app builder.

Donut makes it easy to customize and automate onboarding journeys, right in Slack.

OnboardFlow makes sense of your trials and shows how to convert more of them.

Page Flows is a library of user flow videos and screenshots from popular products.

flowmapp is a simple tool for creating user flow diagrams.

Personably creates amazing on-boarding experiences for new hires.

But if you want to add Clippy to your site for every visitor, use this.

Why is learning a new language so hard?

There are many roadblocks. Finding time to practice, boring learning material, repetitiveness, finding someone to practice with, and more.

It’s active intellectual labor and many of us already have lots of things to do.

While there’s no universal solution to language learning, there are interesting solutions that have emerged recently that may help you finally learn a new language.

Earlier this month, Ara Ghougassian launched Fluent, a Chrome extension that automatically translates words on websites.

Here are some initial reactions from the Product Hunt community:

“Used fluent for the last few weeks. The experience so far has been flawless and totally fun.” – Artur Safaryan

“I've been using the Beta since May, and it's been great. I've already picked up new French vocab and I'm really liking the features around testing comprehension without being invasive on the screen.” – Stefan Palios

“Unlike other conventional language learning apps on the market, Fluent doesn't take any extra time out of your day, but instead integrates language learning into your regular web browsing time!” – Monisha Shcherbakova

Over the years we’ve seen dozens of tools to help you learn a language. Here are a few:

MondlyAR creates an immersive AR experience in the world to learn a new language.

Reji lets you save words from language classes, movies, books, and the Internet.

Cardina is an elegant bilingual dictionary with flashcards.

Mochi turns your language notes into flashcards to study them at optimal intervals.

Mate Translate for Netflix instantly translates subtitles so you can learn while you chill.

1000 Words helps you learn the most common 1000 words of popular languages.

Vocly lets you learn vocabulary in 50 languages with fun games, quizzes, and reviews.

Fluent Forever app is based on the neuroscience principles of learning.

Duolingo Bots react differently to thousands of possible answers using AI

Automattic, WordPress’s parent company, is a pioneer in remote working since the company started in 2005. Today they have over 1,000 employees (!!!), fully distributed around the world.

This month the team at WordPress.com launched their internal remote-team collaboration tool, P2, to the public for the first time.

Email, Slack, and Zoom fatigue is real. P2 helps organize files, projects, and conversations all on one screen, meaning teams can collaborate from anywhere, asynchronously. Maker, Jon Burke, refers to P2 as the “life blood” of their globally distributed team.

Here are some initial reactions from the community:

“‘I love work emails’ - said no one ever. P2 all the way!” – Monica V. Ohara

“What I love about P2s is that it gives time and space to think about important topics. I cannot imagine asynchronous work without a tool like this.” – Artur Piszek

“Big upgrade. Communication is going this way. Nice product 👏” – Alex Papageorge

Famously a distributed team, this launch from Automattic (the creators behind WordPress) could be a step forward in realizing Founder’s, Matt Mullenweg, long-held prediction that remote work is the future.

5 years ago Matt talked to the Product Hunt community about his thoughts on this. And more recently he wrote that “Distributed work happened slowly, then all at once” in reference to recent Shelter In Place needs.

You can use P2 across multiple timezones for things like writing company-wide blog posts or acting as a 'virtual water cooler' to help teammates connect around the world. You could even plan a trip with friends and family using P2 - it's not necessarily only useful for our work needs.

Of course, many tools are emerging to help teams navigate remote working. We wrote about a few lesser-known alternatives back in March.

Whether you enjoy the remote life, or are looking forward to getting back to the office, P2 could help reduce reliance on multiple tools either remotely, in the office, or even for family life.

Last week Instagram dropped Reels, its TikTok competitor, live in over 50 countries including in the US.

Last month we wrote about Facebook’s upcoming play for TikTok which has recently dominated the headlines with speculation of a US ban or sell off to Microsoft. Naturally, many creators are nervous which makes now the best time for Reels to launch.

With Reels you can create short videos to share with friends directly on Instagram. Record and edit 15 second multi-clip videos with audio, effects, and new creative tools. Anyone can create a video to share with friends, and for public profiles these will be discoverable in the Explore section within the app.

Unlike some of its previous expansions, Threads and Direct, Instagram decided to bundle Reels into its main app. This means creators don’t need to rebuild a new following to reach their audience and consumers don’t need to try to fit yet another app on their homescreen. We’ve seen Instagram use this strategy before when they introduced Stories – clearly inspired by Snapchat – four years ago.

Are you team Instagram or team TikTok? Can you be both?