My name is Philipp and you are reading Creativerly, the internet corner where I unpack my musings, curate and write about noteworthy apps and software, and explore the latest trends in design and tech.

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Hey and welcome to Creativerly 298 👋

After taking some time off from my full-time work, I am back at my desk, writing the new issue for Creativerly. I used the time off to celebrate my 30th birthday, spent time with partner, going for some appointments, as well as working on a couple of side-projects, which I am excited to reveal a bit more about soon. It is always refreshing taking some time off, touch some grass, enjoy nature, and some time away from your usual comfort place. It always reminds me that I am not living to work, but I need work to live, which sounds mundane and trivial, I know. But this is just a reminder that logging off should actual mean that you logged off.

Logging off your computer just to check Slack or your emails on your phone does not mean you logged off, you just switched your device. Logging off means that you are done for that day, and everything else will be part of the following day.

Keep that in mind.

Now, enjoy this week's newsletter.

The exit(us) of Omnivore – from open-source to AI/VC money

Last week, we witnessed a sudden, weird turn of events, as Omnivore announced that it got acquired by ElevenLabs. But let us rewind a bit.

Omnivore was (little spoiler here) a complete, open-source, read-it-later app available for the web, iOS, and Android, with browser extensions for Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Edge, as well as plugins for Logseq and Obsidian. What a lovely offering. Besides that, Omnivore gave you access to features like highlighting, adding notes, quick and easy search, full keyboard navigation, automatically saving your place in long articles, adding newsletters via email, PDF support, labels, offline support, and more. Omnivore offered a lovely reading experience, and a great way to stay on top of the articles, blog posts, and newsletters you would like to read, all and everything in a single place.

With such an offering, Omnivore quickly became a beloved reading app, not only in the open-source community but in general.

Building software within the open-source community has several unique characteristics. As code gets openly shared, it can be studied which gives developers the possibility to learn from real-world implementations. Most the documentation and discussions are happening in public, which creates a vast knowledge base. The collaborative innovation is in the nature of open-source software as developers from all over the world can contribute their expertise. However, when it comes to the business model of open-source software, it can be challenging. The folks building open-source software can provide hosted solutions, build premium features on top of the open-source cores, or follow dual licensing strategies. It is never easy to find the right balance between free and paid features, and convincing users to pay when the core product is free is yet another tricky task. In case you have free and paid users, there is a certain struggle when it comes to supporting both the open-source community as well as the paying customers. And once you start pursuing commercial interest, you need to maintain the hard-earned trust thanks to your users and the folks who contributed to your product.

The list goes on, as competing with larger companies, explaining the value proposition when the core product is free, building a brand recognition, allocating time between support and product development, unpredictable revenue streams, difficulty in forecasting growth due to a free user base, scaling with limited resources, and a lot more are all challenges you potentially face when pursuing a sustainable open-source software business.

Read the whole post here:

The exit(us) of Omnivore – from open-source to AI/VC money
The beloved, open-source reading app Omnivore announced that it got acquired by a16z-backed AI startup ElevenLabs, and shuts down.
CreativerlyPhilipp Temmel

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Fresh Updates & News

Fantastical is now available for Windows →

Who would have thought that an app that has been developed exclusively for Apple devices for years would ever land on Windows? While it might seems trivial to a lot of Apple users to not fully commit to the platform, some people are forced to use and switch between different operating systems. I would not say it is a trend, but it seems like companies who initially built and developed apps for the Apple ecosystem, like Craft or Arc, decided to support Windows too.

Flexibits is the next company joining that realm, as they just introduced Fantastical for Windows.

Fantastical for Windows offers all the features you already know and love, natural language parser, tasks, mini window, calendar sets, weather, scheduling, and a lot more. Fantastical for Windows is included in the Flexibits Premium subscription, which means there are no extra purchases needed.

CoverSutra makes a comeback after being released in 2007 →

After getting teased for some weeks, Sophia Teutschler and her software studio Sophiestication Software, brought back CoverSutra after its initial release back in 2007. CoverSutra started as an iTunes controller. The new version is a standalone music player for macOS that gives you seamless access to your music right from your menu bar. Additionally, you can use CoverSutra to quickly search by album, artist, or song, without the need to switch apps or stop whatever you are working on.

As of writing this, CoverSutra is available for the introductory price of $4.99 on the Mac App Store.

Vivaldi 7.0 comes with a redesign among other things →

With the newest Vivaldi update, the browser received a completely redesigned user interface with floating tabs, a new set of icons, and a customizable dashboard that centralizes your digital tools in one space.

Thanks to the updated user interface which alos includes new themes, Vivaldi becomes even more customizable, since no matter if you prefer a minimalist setup or a more dynamic layout, with Vivaldi's customization options you stay in control. The new dashboard is your all-in-one control center where you get access to Mail, Calendar, Notes, Tasks, and even your Feed Reader. Besides that, Vivaldi's other offerings like the Feed Reader and Mail, also received some major updates.

Apple acquires Pixelmator →

After its most recent acquisitions of Mira (an augmented reality headset startup) in June 2023, BIS Records (a classical music record label) in September 2023, Datakalab (a startup specialized in data compression and image analysis) in December 2023, DarwinAI (a startup focused on machine vision intelligence) in March 2024, Apple just announced that it reached an agreement to acquire Pixelmator, the company offering exceptional tools for professional image editing.

Pixelmator has been developing its apps since over 17 years, and Apple has been a major inspiration for them since day one. You can clearly feel and experience that when using Pixelmator's app, as they feature a razor-sharp focus on design, ease of use, and performance. There were a lot of voices that said that Pixelmator's app even feel like as if they were Apple products. According to a blog post shared by Pixelmator, its apps Pixelmator Pro, Pixelmator for iOS, and Photomator will not receive any material changes at this time. However, Apple is know for either shutting down or integrating apps into their own operating system after such acquisitions.

It will be interesting to see what Apple has planned for Pixelmator.

Mental Wealth

❯ Our Brains Completely Distort How Time Actually Happens – “Time is one of those things that most of us take for granted. We spend our lives portioning it into work time, family time, and me time. Rarely do we sit and think about how and why we choreograph our lives through this strange medium. A lot of people only appreciate a time when they have an experience that makes them realize how limited it is.”

❯ Overfunctioning: The Drive to Do it All, or When Helping Others Is Hurting You – “Help your colleague fix a bug, remind the sales team to follow up with a prospect, write a detailed brief for the marketing intern, share a list of healthy recipes with your spouse, plan out a fun day for you and your friend this weekend… If your to-do list looks like this, you may be overfunctioning.”

❯ The Problem with Podcasts – “Why does every podcast have a six-minute lead of proverbial throat-clearing, self-promotion, and advertising? I can understand that mega podcasts like Joe Rogan’s have to deal with this — advertisers are throwing money at people like him and Tim Ferriss.”

❯ Becoming a better designer – “It's already October! Wow, how time flies! I've been taking some time to reflect on my growth, especially after receiving messages from fellow designers on LinkedIn and X asking how they can improve their skills. I can’t help but think that the uncertain economy and the wave of layoffs are pushing more designers to seek out opportunities and develop their craft.”

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Appendix

❯ ICYMI

There are so many different browsers available. And The Browser Company, who has been developing the popular browser Arc over the last couple of years, just announced recently that they will build another browser, heavily focusing on AI. It is a tedious and overwhelming task to find the right browser for someone's workflows. Browser just feel weird right now. In my post The Web of Choices I go on the hunt for the right browser, and you can find out why I can rule out a lot of browsers, and which are the ones that excite me right now.

❯ Quick Bits

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Till next time! 👋‌‌‌‌

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