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 303 👋

I already started working on and writing Creativerly‘s Favorite Apps 2024, a little content series I started writing at the end of each year since 2021 (in the meantime check out the previous posts for 2021, 2022, and 2023). It is always a fun practice looking back the last 12 months and reflect on all the apps I wrote about, explored, and used. While I used to cycle through different apps at a constant basis, I started to simplify a lot of my workflows throughout the last two years, which also got reflected in the number of apps I use daily. I like to keep things simple. Software is ephemeral. I don‘t want to spend countless hours with bloated software, just to figure out a specific system.

Creativerly‘s Favorite Apps also marks the last post of the year, which means when I hit publish on that post, the year is officially over for Creativerly, and I am heading into the new year.

What are your favorite apps of the year?

upload in progress, 0
The best new app for newsletter reading.

Meco is a distraction-free space for reading newsletters outside the inbox. The app is completely free and packed with features designed to supercharge your learnings from your favourite writers. Become a more productive reader and cut out the noise with Meco - try the app today!
Get started for free

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

The Browser Company teases its new AI browser called Dia →

A couple of weeks ago, The Browser Company announced that they have been head-down building something transformational. To the surprise of probably every single Arc user, it wasn't Arc 2.0 (although Josh Miller, CEO of The Browser Company, has been constantly talking about that the weeks before), but rather they decided to build another browser. Arc will only receive stability updates, but no major improvements, since all the work will focus on their new AI-focused browser. Since the beginning of December, we know what this new AI browser will be called, as The Browser Company teased Dia, in what I would call the most cringe video ever produced by them (you can find it on Dia's website).

In general, The Browser Company now claims that AI won't exist as an app. Or a button., as they believe that it will be an entirely new environment – built on top of a web browser. In the video, you can see some early prototypes of Dia's features. One of them is a tool that turns your insertion cursor into an AI writting buddy that helps you write the next sentence or fetch facts from the internet. It seems like that AI writing buddy understands your browser window, which I am not really too keen about. What I do need to give to The Browser Company, is that they have been developing lovely interactions and patterns. That stood out to me when using Arc, and it also came through watching this early demo of Dia.

Nevertheless, it still feels a bit arbitrary to leave a product loved by hundreds of thousands of users behind, to build something completely new, with the idea to ship a browser that does actions on your behalf (which you can also see within the demo video). We will see how this all evolves.

Your Bluesky posts might get used to train AI →

In November the news broke that a Hugging Face employee made a huge dataset of Bluesky posts intended for machine learning research. Within a few hours after the post about it got published, hundreds of people replied that they were outraged about their posts were scraped without permission. The Hugging Face employee quickly reacted, took the dataset down, and apologized. Bluesky‘s infrastructure is a double-edged sword, since it gives users more control over their content because of its decentralized nature, this also means every event on the site is within a public feed.

After the recent incident, people started increasingly trolling Bluesky users and one-upping each other my making massive datasets of non-anonymized Bluesky posts taken directly from the platform.

Bckgrnd is the all-in-one platform to manage your design projects →

Bckgrnd is a new app with the goal to help designers manage projects, files, list tasks, collaborate with clients, and deliver work without the bother of being on multiple apps. It is interesting to see that after companies unbundled software to build niche tools, Bckgrnd takes the different route of putting all the operational tools you need as a solo designer, part of a creative team, or someone running their own agency into a single space. Bckgrnd packs the ability to create projects, manage clients, and track progress with tasks, receiving feedback and managing approvals, storing, organizing, and sharing your files in a single app.

As a designer, I always get excited about apps specifically built for and aimed at the creative scene. I will definitely keep an eye on this one. If you want to do so too, you can sign up for Bckgrnd‘s waitlist right now.

Add the Dynamic Island to your Mac →

Over the past couple of months, there has been a new app category that gained quite a lot of attention, and that app category is all about adding the Dynamic Island from iOS to your Mac. If you briefly browse the web for those kind of apps, you will probably stumble across a lot of them. However, I wanted to highlight Alcove, which is the most recent one I discovered in this category, and it stood out to me because of its gorgeous website, but also because it has such great executed features. With Alcove, well you get a Dynamic Island for your Mac, and that Dynamic Island will then be a handy UI element that displays instant notifications, live activities, swipe gestures, lock screen presence, and beautiful fluid transitions.

Mental Wealth

❯ Unpacking “Craft” in the Software Interface – “As more research, explorations, and speculations into “the future of UX” (and AI’s role in it) come online, one idea is continually held up, like a shield, in front of the practice of designing the software interface. That’s the idea of “craft” as a central pillar of the discipline—a singular differentiating factor between human- and machine-driven digital production. And the more I see craft mentioned as a power of the designer, the more I feel that a definition or working understanding is urgently needed. After all, as I wrote in response to Figma’s “make designs” feature back in late June 2024, if we can’t define a term, we probably shouldn’t be resting our careers on it.”

❯ Why we worry: The ABC method for mindfully managing worry – “We spend a lot of time worrying. About work, money, friends, family, the future. For most people, it’s not the kind of paralyzing worry that prevents us from getting anything done. It’s more akin to background noise which we can be pretty good at ignoring. But it’s still there.”

❯ The Art of Wintering: How to Find Strength in Slowing Down – “As the end of the year settles in, you might notice a distinct downshift in energy, both in yourself and the world around you. Messages flood in about “finishing strong”, yet everything feels like it’s naturally winding down.”

❯ A journey of craft built on trust, confidence, and focus – “One year ago, I joined Linear as a designer, excited but uncertain about what lay ahead. Linear’s reputation for craft and velocity was both inspiring and intimidating, and I wondered whether I could live up to their high standards. Over the past year, I’ve not only learned more than I could have imagined about design, collaboration, and trust, but I’ve also been able to contribute to some incredible projects—redefining the UI, improving workflows, and exploring entirely new surfaces. Each project has challenged me to grow while leaving an impact I’m proud of.”

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

In my most recent post you can read about the reality behind personal knowledge management: why complex productivity systems fail, how true note-taking thrives, and what remains when the hype fades. A critical look at the PKM landscape.

❯ Quick Bits

Till next time! 👋‌‌‌‌

Support: Do you have a friend who is looking for inspiration, news about design, and useful tools and apps? Forward this newsletter to a friend or simply share this issue and show some support. You can also show some love by simply clicking the button down below and keep this newsletter a sustainable side-project by buying me a coffee. ☕️ 🥰

Some of the links in my newsletter and my blog posts are affiliate links. Those links are marked by an asterisk. If you buy something through the link, the product will not cost you anything more, but I will receive a small commission which not only supports Creativerly and my work but also helps me to keep this publication a sustainable side-project.

Creativerly is proudly published with Ghost*.