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.

This issue of Creativerly is sponsored by Popt, a fresh take on mobile note-taking: private, fast, fun, yet packing more smarts than meets the eye.

Hey and welcome to Creativerly 340 👋

New week, new newsletter, and well, it is a packed one again, we are keeping the momentum. While we the newsletter is filled with some fresh news, updates, and lovely articles, what gets me most excited is sharing the news that I have published another long-form post, another deep dive.

In case you are tired of complex note-taking apps and you are looking for a mobile notes app for iOS that focuses on smart, unobtrusive note-taking app, then I encourage you to read on, and check out my deep dive about Popt down below. While there are countless specialized apps for to-dos, shopping lists, recipes, and whatnot, Popt keeps the simplicity of a standard notes app but adds a layer of intelligence that makes capturing all those things feel more natural and connected. They just released their v1.0 on the App Store, and you can grab it straightaway and give it a try.

Find the deep dive linked down below, enjoy reading it!

As smart and seamless as note-taking can get – with Popt

During the peak of the pandemic, we got swamped with new note-taking apps. It almost feels like as if every single month there was a new app preaching to change your life and turn you into the most creative and productive person. At the same time we saw the rise of productivity gurus and influencers pushing all those note-taking apps, as well as courses which were teaching complex and unnecessary systems, which sounded interesting in theory, but simply led to procrastination, as people spend hours, days, weeks, perfecting their systems instead of focusing on the real reason someone invests in a note-taking app, which is, well simply taking notes.

Loads of those apps no longer exist. Most of those productivity gurus have jumped on the next hype-train. And people have realized that they do not need systems to be more creative, and instead just have a solid piece of software and focus on the actual writing and note-taking part.

You should not have to worry about creating a bunch of backlinks, connections, numerous folders in order to get the most out of your note-taking practice. Note-taking should simple, plain, fast, smart, seamless, and fun. And with this post, I am excited to introduce you to a fresh new app that ticks all those boxes. Let us dive into Popt.

Read the whole post here:

As smart and seamless as note-taking can get – with Popt
Tired of complex note-taking apps? Discover Popt, a smart, simple iOS app that auto-tags contacts, places, and dates, making notes fast, fun, and effortless. Read on and learn more about it.
CreativerlyPhilipp Temmel

Rediscover iPhone notes on the go

Sponsored Message

Popt is a fresh take on mobile note-taking: private, fast, fun, yet packing more smarts than meets the eye. As you type, it quietly suggests tags for dates, contacts and places, never interrupting your flow. With one tap, your words become reminders, contact cards, maps and mentions that make your notes pop to life.

Try it today and help us shape the Popt of your dreams – no sign-up, no ads, and 100% free for early adopters.
Discover Popt

This is an affiliate link 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.

Fresh Updates, news, and discoveries

A New Social introduces Bounce Beta, a cross-protocol migration tool →

A New Social is a venture by Anuj Ahooja, an engineering leader and writer dedicated to building a viable open social web, and Ryan Barrett, en engieneering leader who has spent over two decades building infrastructure, organizations, and open source social web projects, with the mission to liberate people's networks from their platforms, enable The Last Network Effect and leveling the playing field across the open social web. Their goals are to help users keeping their online relationships no matter which open social platform they choose, making it easier for platforms, publishers, and users to onboard the open social web, keeping social platforms accountable on their promises of openess, and edcuating and building tools to help users navigate the open social web.

In early June, they previewed Bounce, a cross-protocol migration tool. Fast forward to today, and Bounce just entered Beta and is live and ready for users to try out. The idea of this beta is to introduce it to enthusiasts and early adopters and collect feedback. Bounce lets you migrate from one social network to another, keeping all of your followers, and keeping many of the people you follow. As of writing this, you can use Bounce to migrate from Bluesky to Mastodon or Pixelfed, but the team at A New Social is planning to add support for more sites and social networks and more directions in the future.

Chaps turns your apps into conversations – by the makers of Craft →

The team behind Craft recently introduced the dev and creator beta of Chaps, a new app they have been building to turn your apps into conversations. The idea for Chaps stems from the general-purpose "do-it-all" agents falling short of that promise, as they promise magic, but deliver ambiguity. Those agents seem good for digging up information, but for everyday lives, that is just scratching the surface, as Chaps is stating in its manifesto. Chaps' goal is empower developers, product builders, and business owner to offer their products through a more human interface.

Seeing the team at Craft building a new AI-driven product seems surprising while it is not surprising at all if you think about it. The field of productivity apps has been trying for years to indoctrinate us to believe that we need all those task management, note-taking, project management apps, and complex systems in order to be productive and get work done. And now, they are doing the same with those AI hyped apps, connecting everything, integrations everywhere. So, the apps and systems they have created, now need to be automated to be productive, although, we got promise to be productive if we are using those apps and systems in the first place.

I have used GitHub, Todoist, and Linear, and whenever I had to do something within those apps, I have never thought about the need to chat with them, delegating tasks that took me a couple of seconds. So, it seems clear to me that I am nowhere near the target group of Chaps.

Deta Surf is gearing up for their v1.0 Beta →

Deta will be launching Deta Surf v1 into beta this month. Early users will start receiving some sneak peaks. The team announced in a recent email that they have rebuilt Surf from the ground up, reworking performance and the overall user experience, while keeping users' data local and aiming to support their best work.

While we saw loads of new browsers launch and fading away over the past couple of years, it will be interesting to see how Surf is trying to stay relevant, as well as providing a fresh new experience to interact with the internet.

Mental Wealth

❯ Ritualize anything – “I love a habit. I adore a routine. Doing things in a certain order, or certain time, or certain way. Over and over. I love the dependability. I love the resonance, the echo, the beat. I love the surprising power. Layering one small movement over another and another until the tiniest action builds itself into a structure. A wall of your identity’s home.”

❯ Seeding for creativity – “I recently went through my RSS backlog and inbox where articles, blog posts, and emails are constantly piling up, which is fine for me, since I have a personally curated place of all sorts of topics tailored to my interests, where I can choose on my own time to read through stuff, and discover new things and ideas. So, while doing that recently, I stumbled across a post from Ivaylo Durmonski, who is writing Farview, a newsletter fostering long-term thinking in a world driven by impatience. This specific newsletter issue of Farview was written around the question of "At what point does piling up resources to read/watch becomes a problem?". I felt aimed at, as I scooped out this newsletter from my very own pile of resources to read. ”

❯ Easy Acts of Creativity That Keep Us Happy and Connected – “Do you remember Flat Stanley from childhood? That paper-thin adventurer was mailed from one classroom to another, collecting stories, postcards, and laughter along the way. Born from a beloved children's book, he became part of a school project where kids shared a paper cutout of Stanley with friends and families around the world.”

❯ An Holistic Framework for Shared Design Leadership – “Picture this: You’re in a meeting room at your tech company, and two people are having what looks like the same conversation about the same design problem. One is talking about whether the team has the right skills to tackle it. The other is diving deep into whether the solution actually solves the user’s problem. Same room, same problem, completely different lenses.”

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Appendix

❯ ICYMI

Substack is back in the news for the worst reasons. It is still bonkers that so many independent writers are using Substack to publish online. In my newest post Is there really a choice for independent writers in selecting a platform, I explored the ethical and financial dilemmas independent journalists face when choosing platforms like Substack.

❯ Quick Bits

Thank you to the sponsor of this issue, Popt, a fresh take on mobile note-taking: private, fast, fun, yet packing more smarts than meets the eye.

Till next time! 👋‌‌‌‌

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