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 323 👋

Last week I stumbled across a post on Mastodon by Ryan Goodlett in which he shared his point-of-view of a problem with nowadays journalism, which is the fact that good, honest journalism costs money, and requires hard work and effort. In contrary to that, we get flooded with AI-generated slop, click-bait, and engagement inducing lies, which all do not require hard work and effort. As a result of that, good news sources put their information behind a paywall, which drastically reduces the dissemination of this information, and meanwhile, junk is free to spread like a wildfire.

This got me thinking.

I found myself in the situation of being kind of fed up to create an account (even if it was a free one, meaning just inputting my email) just to read a single article. It might sound mundane, but there is a certain level of friction that comes with creating an account just to read a single article, as it requires a whole account creation flow, email confirmation, and then going back to the actual article to read it. Sometimes, I feel like I would prefer a blazingly-fast checkout experience to pay to read that single article, knowing that I could contribute with a micropayment rather than my email.

Another issue might be that there are loads of people who seem to not have the fundamental grasp to understand the amount of work, effort, time, and money that goes into a specific post, as I stumble across some folks on social media commenting "paywalled" underneath a post sharing a news article, almost every single day. I mean, there is a reason that article is paywalled. And there are loads of reasons why publications need your email to read them. I am just wondering if there are additional ways to pay journalists and writers to produce impactful journalism.

Micropayments? "Day Passes" like the SĂŒddeutsche Zeitung is offering, giving readers the possibility to access the publication for 24 hours?

I am not sure. But it is definitely interesting mind-wandering around this topic. Especially, since independent journalism is still on the rise, disrupting mainstream media.

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Fresh Updates & News

MacPaw is shutting down CleanMyPC →

MacPaw, makers of beloved macOS-cleaning app CleanMyMac* as well as Setapp*, announced the discontinuation of CleanMyPC, which has been a trusted solution for cleanup and optimization on Windows. The support and distribution of the app stopped on April 22nd. CleanMyPC no longer receives updates, and MacPaw will not add any new features or performance improvements. In the linked blog post, MacPaw offers a legacy version of the app available for download, however, they can no longer guarantee the app's stability or compatibility with Windows versions.

MacPaw mentioned in an email that one of the reasons they decided to shut down CleanMyPC is their ongoing focus on building software for the Apple ecosystem.

Webstudio launches native scroll-driven animation engine* →

In August 2024, I wrote about Webstudio, shining some light on the open-source Framer and Webflow alternative, that offers a powerful, feature-rich, and flexible experience to design and build modern websites. In that post, I pointed out how impressed I was of their feature set, and that the team behind the tool is constantly shipping. The most recent update introduced yet again a lovely and powerful feature, as Webstudio is the first website builder to leverage the latest web standard – the Scroll Timeline API – allowing its users to build animations and run them at 120 FPS off the main thread.

This means, Webstudio users are now able to build silky-smooth, uninterrupted animations. The code powering those animations is light and only delivered to pages that contain animations, so you can ensure consistent performance on your website. The animation engine offers the flexibility to animate virtually any CSS property giving you complete control. And since this is built with modern web standards and a polyfill for browser that do not support it yet, Webstudio ensures that your animations will look stunning across all devices and platforms.

Ghost ships feature that allows users of ActivityPub beta to change their usernames →

Probably the most requested feature since Ghost introduced the ActivityPub beta for Ghost(Pro) subscribers, was the ability to change the username of the publication. Previously, this has been a fixed username of '@index@domain.com' and if the domain included 'www' the username would have adapted that. With a recent update though, Ghost removed the 'www' prefix for the domain for all usernames, and users are now able to customize the '@index' part to anything they like. This is a great step towards giving users more control over how people see and interact with their profiles in the Fediverse.

Mental Wealth

❯ Learning without limits: The role of innovation in digital accessibility – “According to the Higher Education Statistics Agency, nearly one in five UK students reported having a disability in 2022 – a number that is likely underreported, as many students choose not to disclose their disabilities."

❯ What the heck is a personal brand in 2025? – “We’ve spent the past decade trying to ‘build a personal brand’—but in 2025, do any of us really know what that means anymore? If you’re tired, confused, and wondering whether sporadic posting and a love of tea counts as a strategy, you’re not alone.”

❯ On fear – “ONE OF THE RHETORICAL moves I often observe in response to fear about work is a kind of casual dismissal. Someone will say to a friend or colleague that they worry about ageism in their industry, and the response will come that, oh, no, they shouldn’t have to worry about that, they’re so accomplished. Or, surely that’s paranoia or imposter syndrome talking; or, of course they’re privileged enough that they don’t need to concern themselves over that kind of thing. It can almost seem as if it isn’t respectable to admit being afraid, as if fear is irrational, nonsensical, uncouth.”

❯ The unbearable lightness of big tech – “When the Agile Manifesto was inked in 2001, it was supposed to spark a revolution, and it did: by 2023, 71% of US companies were using Agile. The simple list of commitments to collaboration and adaptiveness branched into frameworks such as Scrum and Kanban.”

Do not miss out on this ...

❉ Experience the ultimate vector editor for macOS, iOS, and iPadOS. Get started with Amadine*.

❉ Think tasks, not apps. Setapp* is you one-stop subscription to solving every task on Mac and iPhone.

❉ Fathom is cookie-free, GDPR compliant, privacy-first website analytics software. Get $10 off your first invoice and a 7-day free trial when you use this link*.

These are paid promotions or affiliate links to support Creativerly. If you are interested in putting your tool, product, or resource in front of over 2000 creative minds, consider advertising in Creativerly and book a sponsor or classified ad spot. Find all the important information at creativerly.com/advertise.

Appendix

❯ ICYMI

Are you on the hunt for simple, lightweight, and easy-to-use apps to quickly edit, convert, resize, or optimize your images? Then you should check out Part 5 of my Tiny macOS utility apps I love series, in which I gathered three apps that specifically focus on letting users edit and convert images with ease.

❯ Quick Bits

Till next time! 👋‌‌‌‌

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