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.

Hey and welcome to Creativerly 328 👋

Well, I am back from my workcation last week, and I am still riding the energy wave that got initiated by it, as long as I can. I am also gearing up to finish a bunch of posts for Creativerly, as well as my personal blog. Working in a different environment with reduced distractions also helped me to reflect on my work as well as my side-projects, as I usually like to take some time and sit down to do some planning as well as asking myself if the current focus is still what interests me most. By doing that, I keep my energy and morale high while working on all sorts of things.

But besides work and side-projects, last week was all about enjoying scenic views of vineyards while riding my road cycle. I am so happy I started road cycling as simply riding through nature for hours has been the single thing that kept me sane. I love it. In case you are also in road cycling I might have something of interest for you soon. I will probably write about that here anyway, but this might also be a good time to plug my personal newsletter Datest, where I have not published anything until today, but might act as a more behind the scenes view of the things I am working on.

Other than that, enjoy this week's newsletter.

Fresh Updates & News

The Browser Company of New York reflects on Arc →

While 9to5Mac, The Register, or KnowTechie report that Arc by The Browser Company is shutting down and being discontinued, or even dead, I read through the Letter to Arc members 2025 by CEO Josh Miller, which created the impression that they are not trying to shut down Arc, as they recognized that many users rely on it, and therefore, expressing hope for Arc's future by either selling or open-sourcing it.

However, what fascinates me is that The Browser Company is simply dropping a beloved product for no good reason, as Josh Miller stated that they will fully shift their focus over to Dia "an entirely new environment – built on top of a web browser", powered by AI. I expected that in the AI hype area we are currently in, Dia would at least get the same hype Arc received when it first got introduced, however, instead of seeing Dia in the news, I read way more posts about how people lost their beloved browser, which was Arc. Arc had an audience, Arc had momentum, yet The Browser Company decided that this is not what they are after.

So, to my understanding Arc is not shutting down nor has it been discontinued, you can still use it, it will still receive security updates, but there will be no new features, as The Browser Company is now all-in on Dia, unfortunately. But still, Arc's future is unclear. With the major focus shift to Dia, it is unclear how long Arc will actually stay in what I would call maintenance mode.

BundleHunt's new macOS Power Bundle is live* →

BundleHunt's newest macOS bundle is live, featuring 45 macOS apps, straight from developers, massively discounted.

This bundle is packed with apps like QuartzCode, an app that bridges the gap between developers, designers, and animators, which you can grab fro $3,00 (discounted from $79,99), Hype, an HTML5 animation creation app for $4,99 (discounted from $49,99), File Cabinet Pro, a file manager that sits in your macOS menu bar for $2,99 (discounted from $29,99), ContactsMate, a contact manager to gather contacts from accounts and files for $3,00 (discounted from $49,99), Duplicate Finder, an app to find and delete duplicate files easily for $3,00 (discounted from $39,99), and a lot more.

I have been a fan of BundleHunt for quite some time, and it always amazes me how many powerful apps they offer at huge discounts. This new Power Bundle definitely stands out though.

Twos launches AI Chat feature to chat and have conversations with your notes →

Twos has been a bit of an underdog within the world of note-taking apps, however, I always get surprised and excited when they put out a new feature or general improvements. One of their most recent features is called Twos Chat, which allows you to ask questions and have conversations with your Twos and all the notes, reminders, tasks, journals, etc. you have captured within the app. Once you have enabled this feature in the settings of the app, you can ask clear questions using keywords or phrases you have written down in Twos. There are scenarios in which Twos Chat might not find what you was looking for. The reasons for that could be that you did not write down what you was looking for, the wording in your question does not match how you initially wrote it down, or Twos Chat misunderstood the timing or context.

This feature is currently still labeled as beta as Twos is planning to incrementally roll it out, improve its features, and also monitor the costs of it, as Twos Chat is currently free to use.

Here is a small but important caveat: Once you opted-in for Twos Chat, your data will be transferred to what Twos refers to as well-known, highly-secure vector database. Your lists and things will then ran through an LLM API to return chat-bot like responses. So, be aware of that. What I like about Twos approach is that this feature is opt-in rather than opt-out what unfortunately become a common practice in our current AI-hype-driven world. But Twos puts privacy at the core of their ecosystem, and provides you with the necessary information in case you want to use this AI feature.

What is also interesting to read is, that Twos eventually create personal LLMs or SLMs, i.e. trained/memory-capable models, for each user. Give it a try, check it out, and watch this video for more context.

Mental Wealth

❯ LLMs are Making Me Dumber – “Here are some ways I use LLMs that I think are making me dumber: When I want to build a Chrome extension for personal use, instead of actually learning and writing the JavaScript, I Claude-Code the whole thing in a couple of hours without writing a single line of code. Instead of taking the usual route which would leave me with more actual familiarity with JavaScript, I now shortcut the process, leaving me with barely any JS knowledge despite numerous functioning applications.”

❯ The creative power of constraints – “For those in the business of creativity, the creative act can be both the most rewarding and the most frustrating experience in life. Sometimes the mind is drenched in free, flowing ideas. Other times, the mind feels just like a desert, producing nothing.”

❯ Signs of progress: The power of collaboration and creativity in breaking barriers – “In the last 20 years of digital design, I have seen the technological landscape change beyond recognition. The products that existed in the early 2000s, from the internet to the smartphone to streaming, have seen more iterations and phases than I could have imagined. But I am often interested in the decisions behind these iterations that drive this innovation.”

❯ Reasons for Failure – “I unintentionally got my first intern in 2007. I was a designer, freshly promoted from being a junior designer. The company I worked at brought on an intern, and no one seemed to be helping them. So I stepped in. I had them shadow me for a bit each day and made myself as available as I could to when they got stuck.”

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Appendix

❯ ICYMI

Discover the rise of decentralized social networks like Mastodon and Bluesky as traditional platforms increasingly face criticism. Learn about essential third-party tools enhancing these networks, from clients like Ivory and Ice Cubes to cross-posting apps like Croissant. In my post The tools for decentralized social networks I provide you with loads of apps and tools to interact with Mastodon and Bluesky.

❯ Quick Bits

Till next time! 👋‌‌‌‌

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