The Roundup

Everything old is new again, they say. We’re certainly seeing that sentiment echoed in the tech industry, with more and more ~retro~ tech products launching.

On Friday, it was Poolside FM, a summer-y music website inspired by the ‘90s. When you land on the site’s landing page, you’re prompted ’Press Space to Enter the Pool’ and the virtual vacation of upbeat bops. The collection of songs (about 250 tracks) is pulled from SoundCloud, and listeners can watch short video clips of summer in the ‘80s.

“There's a lot of stuff to be sad about in the world at the moment, so we've created a virtual getaway – an healthy dose of serotonin straight to the brain,” Poolside FM Maker Marty Bell wrote on Product Hunt.

And the community loved it.

“This should be used as a case study for every web developer! From the responsiveness to the design to the easter eggs, Poolside FM is a masterpiece.” - Josh

“4 hours later, still playing 😎” - Julie

A sampling of some other inventive retro products if you want to go back in time (especially to the ‘80s):

👀 Retro App Store is the App Store, but in the ‘80s

👂 Retro AirPods are AirPods, if they were invented in the ‘80s

🎮 Playdate is a simple black and white gaming system (with a crank)

👾 Neon Drive is an ‘80s-style arcade game set in the future

🙌 Retro Patents are bespoke prints of keystone inventions

😍 The Internet Arcade houses over 900 classic arcade games

📱 WANLE iPhone Case turns your phone into a Gameboy console

And if you want to go back to today in Product Hunt history, you can always time travel here.

Product Hunt pro tip: Launches that inspire the most engagement tell a story. 

Products that tie into culturally relevant moments like this new startup from Game of Thrones’ Maisie Williams, viral surprises like Facebook-acquired tbh, and big releases from well-known companies like GitHub often attract the most interest. 

We (the Product Hunt team) try to learn from the community and build for things they do (not just what they say). So, back in late 2017 we started exploring how we might deliver tech news and stories in our own unique way.

By early 2018, we launched Sip, a tappable, no-spam tech news digest app that surfaced the most interesting and important tech stories via silent notification every day. 

By all accounts, the launch went well:

• It received 2,375 upvotes
• It became the #1 Product of the Day
• It reached #4 Product of the Month

TechCrunch wrote about it. The Next Web wrote about it. 

The community seemed to like it, too:

We were off to a good start. But starting is the easy part.

In January 2019, we quietly discontinued Sip. 💀

What happened? We decided to share some takeaways in this post mortem. 

We also tease a new project we’ve been working on. Here’s a hint. 🥞

P.S. We want to hear your post mortem stories. Submit them to Maker Stories here.

Today in distracting technology: you can now watch Netflix at work and make it look like you’re on a conference call. 

Last week, Netflix Hangouts, a Chrome extension that disguises Netflix as a fake four-person conference call, made a splash on Product Hunt. During the “call,” your show of choice will appear in the bottom right grid, while three fake coworkers will appear in the other feeds. 

The concept is clever, though your coworkers might get suspicious if you’re hangin’ in a Hangout all day. Or if they catch Michael Scott in your meeting. 

Some instant reviews: 

“This is a terrible idea guys! So terrible it's gooooood” - Robby 

“Already watched season 3 of Stranger Things” - Mike 

“I don't see how this could possibly go wrong” - Sharon

The maker behind the project is Daniel Greenberg out of Mschf Internet Studios. Over the years, Daniel has made some truly weird, hilarious products that are very internet-y. Most recently, there was Track This by Firefox (opens 100 tabs to distract trackers), The Texting Doorbell (what it sounds like), FlexTime (FaceTime simulations with Kim Kardashian, Post Malone, etc.) and The Persistence of Chaos (malware art), to name a few. 

Check out all his projects here. 

Now go forth and watch Netflix! Meaning go to work. 😳

Remember Evernote? 

Spoiler alert: It’s not dead. If you weren’t (or aren’t) a die-hard user, it’s a note-taking up that was hugely popular a few years go. The company was founded in 2008 and reached unicorn status in 2012. To date, the company has raised nearly $300M in venture backing. 

However, Evernote’s growth began to slow in 2015, and the company went through multiple rounds of layoffs over the past few years. According to a recent NYT article, Evenote is joining a cast of dying unicorns, or "zombiecorns," which also includes once-hot companies like Foursquare and Quora.

Some comments from Evernote’s 2014 PH launch: 

“Great piece of kit, would certainly recommend! I'm a premium user, and it's worth every penny.” - Giacomo

“Still my fave. Very easy to use. I have premium subscription so I am very satisfied.” - Liz

“The second brain” - Felix 

And what users thought of Evernote’s reboot in 2017: 

“I want to love you again Evernote” - Brian 

“I too want to remember everything! Always love you Evernote... sometimes you make it difficult, but always love.” - Austin 

“Great to see Evernote doing something new. I love it as a service. It's like Dropbox for my brain.” - Samuel

With fierce customer appreciation, Evernote continues to serve a dedicate pool of users. Today, Evernote’s apps are still downloaded 50,000 times per day, but the company faces stiff competition. Other popular apps in the world of note-taking: 

Notion combines the best features of Dropbox, Excel and Google Docs 🗒

Google Keep lets you save your thoughts wherever you are 💭

Taskade lets you create tasks, notes, and video chat on the same page ✔️

Bear is a well-designed, flexible writing app for notes (and prose) 📝

Things is a productivity app for the hyper-organized 💯

Milanote is a notes app for more ~creative~ work 🧠

Todoist makes entering new tasks lightning-fast ⚡️

Tell us what you think of Evernote today here.

About two years ago, the Product Hunt community got a first look at Superhuman, an app that promised to be the “fastest email experience in the world.” 60,000 people subscribed to get access. 

Today, Superhuman remains invitation-only and its larger waiting list is 180,000 people long. How? There’s evidently a demand for a faster and more sophisticated email client than the 15-year-old Gmail. 

“So...Superhuman has basically changed my life. 10/10 would recommend” - Camille Ricketts

“‘Sent via Superhuman’ is the blue checkmark of email.” - Leah Fessler

"I've been using Superhuman for a couple weeks now. When people ask me what it does for me, I reply 'Superhuman is like the Marie Kondo of email'" - Alexandre Scialom

So what happens when you do get that coveted Superhuman invitation (and pay the $30/month price tag for access)? 

Superhuman plugs into your existing email account, but only works with Gmail and Google G Suite addresses right now.

Some of the app’s features: Superhuman lets users undo sending an email, track email opens and send follow-up reminders. It’s more ~unique~ features include keyboard shortcuts for everything, “instant intro” for moving introductory email senders to bcc and a scheduling tool that automatically pulls up your calendar when you’re typing out a day of the week. 🙌

Last week, Superhuman announced a $33M investment by Andreessen Horowitz, bringing the company’s total funding raised to $51M. The company is valued at roughly $260M. 

We spoke with Superhuman founder, Rahul Vohra — who previously founded Rapportive (another email startup that sold to LinkedIn in 2012) — about the news, as well as the lessons he learned building a product that hasn’t actually launched yet. 

“You'll see that folks love Superhuman for three main reasons: they get through their inbox twice as fast as before, they respond to important emails faster, and many see Inbox Zero for the first time in years. The funding will be used to double down on all three. Superhuman is already the fastest email experience in the world, but we are going to make it even faster” - Rahul 

Read the full interview here.

Facebook has finally unveiled its blockchain plans following numerous rumors about its “GlobalCoins” project. Last week, the company announced that the global cryptocurrency will actually be called “Libra.” 👀

Here’s what we know:

• Libra will launch in 2020 along with a blockchain-based network
• Facebook is also launching a digital wallet called Calibra, which will have its own app and be built into WhatsApp and Messenger
• Calibra promises to keep your crypto dealings and your Facebook data private
• Founding members of the Libra Association, a not-for-profit which oversees the token’s development, includes Visa, Uber, Lyft, Spotify, PayPal, Mastercard, Stripe and Andreessen Horowitz, to name a few
• Facebook, Calibra and these other founding members will earn interest on the money users cash in (it will be held in reserve to keep Libra’s value stable)

Some initial reactions: 

“If Facebook can make this right then we potentially have one global currency” - Edul

“I'm very very curious how this matures. Facebook is one of the few companies that can accelerate cryptocurrency adoption to the mainstream (whether the crypto communities like it or not).” - Ryan 

“Now Google and Apple will compete and it will really boost the industry.” - Seth 

In the white paper Facebook published last week, the company states its mission is to “enable a simple global currency and financial infrastructure that empowers billions of people.” 

Between the lines, Facebook may be poised to scale a global cryptocurrency (more so than Bitcoin or Ethereum). In Facebook’s words: 

“Mass-market usage of existing blockchains and cryptocurrencies has been hindered by their volatility and lack of scalability, which have, so far, made them poor stores of value and mediums of exchange.”

On the selling side, Facebook has relationships with 7 million advertisers and 90 million small businesses. On the consumer side, it’s estimated that 2.1 billion people use Facebook (which includes WhatsApp, Instagram or Messenger) each day.

If successful, Libra could become something akin to the next PayPal — an easy to set up payment method that’s universal and decentralized. Ironically, David Marcus, co-creator of Libra and long-time Facebook exec, is the former President of PayPal. It could also become a competitive banking system by offering access to folks in developing countries, reducing money transfer fees through Calibra and offering loans and credit to users. 

This is big news, so we want to here what you think too. Tell us here.

Last week, a certain ~trending~ celebrity surprised the crowd at Microsoft’s Xbox event to announce CD Projekt Red’s new game, Cyberpunk 2077. It was Keanu Reeves. 

Reeves took to the stage (Apple Event style 🤔) after the trailer to the open-world adventure aired, in which he plays a part. How the game works: The new RPG takes place in "Night City," where players will fight through a world of corporations and street-level games. It's a loose continuation of the Cyberpunk board game and sequel Cyberpunk 2020. If you don't remember those titles, that's because they were released in the late 80s early 90s, respectively. 

Still, the PH community was psyched: 

“For the love of Keanu” - Baris 

“KEANU REEVES!” - Amrith 

“This game already looked incredible... but adding Keanu just took it to a whole new level of awesome.” - Chad 

Reeves also announced that the game will come to Xbox One and Windows 10 on April 16, 2020. 

That’s a long ways away, so we’ve rounded up some entertainment for you in the meantime. Here’s a few games that have launched in the past year: 

🎮 Playstation Classic for retro, preloaded games 

🐯 Animar for augmented reality Tamagotchi 

🐴 Red Dead Redemption 2 for the closest thing to West World 

🧠 HQ Words for a brain game 

🧀 Cheeze Wizards for a blockchain battle royale

🙌 Jelly Mario for a trippy Mario game in your browser

And don’t worry, you’ll be the first to know when the worldwide rollout of Harry Potter: Wizards Unite happens later this year. ⚡️

Last week Apple hosted its annual WWDC event – dub dub as the cool kids call it – to unveil all the new things they've been secretly working on.

But before that, we asked the Product Hunt community to share their predictions. Unfortunately we didn't see a Daft Punk AR helmet. Or a privacy-focused search engine to compete with Google. Also no wild 4 camera iPhone.

But, Tim Cook and team revealed a few exciting things:

iOS 13 now with dark mode (queue the applause).

macOS Catalina now with less iTunes (now you can stop using this).

iPadOS now with its own OS (best feature: multitasking).

watchOS 6 now with a dedicated App Store (and ways to stay fit)

New Mac Pro now starting at $5,999 (but it's powerful).

They also unveiled more Memoji customization, AirPods audio sharing, and better photo-sharing. But the most important and surprising announcement:

Apple is creating a privacy-focused identity layer for the future. Sign In with Apple comes a decade after Zuckerberg introduced Facebook Connect which has become the preferred login for millions of people and arguably their greatest innovation to date. 😯

It's given Facebook tremendous amounts of data, made it easy for users to bring their information (friends, likes, identity) with them across the web, and created lock-in among consumers and makers.

Of course this move from Apple has been in the works a long time as they've been laying the foundation for your digital identity. Memojis = Your digital avatar. Apple Pay = Your digital wallet. Contacts = Your digital (and “IRL”) friends.

We're excited to explore it at Product Hunt although us and many others have major concerns. According to Apple's updated App Store guidelines:

“Sign In with Apple will be available for beta testing this summer. It will be required as an option for users in apps that support third-party sign-in when it is commercially available later this year.”

Translation: Apps in the App Store that support Facebook, Google, Twitter, and other 3rd party logins will apparently be forced to integrate Sign In with Apple. That's very concerning and frankly a surprising bet from Apple as it and other big tech co's risk anti-trust regulation.

We'll see how it plays out. In the meantime, share your thoughts in the thread.

ByteDance, the company behind TikTok, is reportedly working on its own smartphone. 

What we know: The phone would come with preloaded ByteDance apps, which includes TikTok, chat app Flipchat, video-messaging app Duoshan, Slack-like work messaging app Lark and news aggregator Jinri Toutiao. Over the weekend, rumors broke that ByteDance is planning to launch a music streaming service. The company also confirmed it made a deal with phone maker Smartisan earlier this year — now we know why. 

ByteDance isn't the first company to make smartphones as a growth hack. Selfie app maker Meitu also builds smartphones pre-loaded with photo editing apps, and recently sold this arm of its business to Xiaomi. Amazon tried this with its Fire Phone (launched in 2014) and Facebook with 'Home' (launched in 2013). Both companies have since discontinued these products. 

Ultimately, it's pretty easy (and cheap) to download any app you want on say, an iPhone, without buying a smartphone preloaded with a suite of apps. 

On a related note, we have seen a ton of cool new smartphones launch in the past year if you are thinking of shaking things up. Some to check out: 

📱 Palm is a tiny smartphone that fits in your palm

📱 Blackview is a super rugged smartphone

📱 Redmi Go is a $65 smartphone from Xiaomi

📱 Huawei P30 is a photography-centric smartphone

📱Samsung Galaxy Fold is a foldable smart phone

We’ll keep you posted when the “TikTok smartphone” launches. Until then, send us your best Lil Nas X lip sync videos. 😉

According to reported code hidden in Uber's Android app, Uber is planning to launch a subscription service for unlimited food delivery. The 'Uber Eats Pass' will cost $9.99/month and omit Uber's service fee that's usually ~$5 or more. In other words, if you order in a lot, this could save you a lot of money. 

There's already lot of competition in the food delivery space, but Uber's going after customer loyalty. In October, the company introduced Ride Pass, a $14.99/month subscription that gives riders flat, discounted fares to save them 15% on travel. This suite of subscriptions is very Amazon Prime-esque, and it's not hard to imagine Uber offering a subscription for all deliveries in the future. 

But Uber isn’t the first to offer a delivery subscription. There's Postmates Unlimited and DoorDash DashPass (both $10/month for no delivery fee on orders over $15). With these services available, you're a lot less likely to order from apps like Caviar or Seamless if you're already paying a recurring monthly fee for a different food delivery service.

But part of the fun of ordering in these days is the democracy of places to choose from. Some other options: 

🥕 Our Harvest for fresh produce 
😋 Soylent Squared for mobile snacking 
🍎 Farmdrop for groceries from farmers markets 
🇮🇳 The Buttermilk Company for fresh Indian food 
🔥 Yummit for home-cooked meals 
🍴 AmoChef for booking a private chef