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 327 👋

I am writing those lines while sitting outside in the sun, on the terrace of the cottage where I am staying and working from for the upcoming couple of days, surrounded by vineyards and nature. It is not only a change of scenery compared to my usual workplace, it is a change of feelings and emotions, creative sparks, and ideas. I am looking forward to soak in everything, get some work done, focus on some side-projects, and head out for some rides with my road cycle, which I obviously brought with me. I am thankful for this opportunity, and I definitely do not take it for granted.

On another note, enjoy this week's newsletter, I really enjoyed writing and curating it, especially since it includes two new news posts (the one about Adobe, and another one about OpenAI and Jony Ive) in which I gathered my thoughts and impressions.

Enjoy!

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Fresh Updates & News

Vivaldi's 7.4 update is all about polishing and simplifying →

Vivaldi's newest release is all about thoughtful improvements that make the beloved browser faster, and smarter, while also introducing more ways to customize your experience with it. You now get even more control over keyboard shortcuts, as you can now fine-tune your keyboard shortcuts on a per-site basis. This ensures that your shortcuts work just the way you want. Besides that, the Address Bar is now smarter, faster, and more consistent. And starting Vivaldi is now faster and less cluttered thanks to the new simplified profile picker. To read the full changelog, head over to the linked post.

Things introduces a new cloud system, built from the ground up →

Things has rebuilt Things Cloud from the ground up to provide a system that keeps your to-dos in sync even faster, built with modern technology, and ready for the future. Things Cloud has kept the to-dos of loads of users in sync across devices for over a decade. And those users greatly appreciated its reliability. If you want to find out why Cultured Code, the company behind Things, still decided to built up a new cloud system from the ground up, head over to their blog and give the behind-the-scenes post a read.

Yet another reason to ditch Adobe →

Adobe decided to add unlimited credits for powering generative AI image tools like Photoshop's Generate Fill, and 4.000 monthly credits for "premium" AI video and audio features like Generative Extend in Premiere Pro, to its new Creative Cloud Pro plan (previously named Creative Cloud All Apps plan) for users in the US, Canada, and Mexico. As a result of that, they decided to significantly bump the pre-tax monthly price for individual Creative Cloud All Apps subscribers on an annual contract from $59,99 to $69,99, or from $659,88 to $779,99 annually. Monthly prices for rolling, non-contracted subscribers will also jump from $89,99 to $104,99, and contracted prices for teams start at $99,99 per month, which is up from $89,99, and student and teacher plans will jump from $34,99 to $39,99 monthly on renewal.

OpenAI acquires Jony Ive's AI startup for $6.5B: A match made in tech heaven or hell? →

OpenAI announced that it has fully acquired Io, a joint venture it co-created last year with Jony Ive, British designer who designed more than two decades of Apple Products, and founded the American collective of designers and creatives called LoveFrom.

In a 10-minute video, Ive and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman mentioned that the Apple pioneer's "creative collective" will "merge with OpenAI to work more intimately with the research, engineering, and product teams in San Francisco". Although, they are talking for nearly ten minutes about musings on technology, they never share exactly what it is they are building.

Jony Ive's AI startup launched last spring as part of a joint project between OpenAI and LoveFrom. In the fourth quarter of last year, they entered into an agreement for OpenAI to receive a 23 percent stake in Io, Ive's bespoke AI startup. With this acquisition, OpenAI is now buying the entity outright.

Mental Wealth

❯ How Convenience Kills Curiosity – “I’ve been thinking about the death of curiosity. Remember when you had to figure out how a new piece of software worked by poking around its menus? When finding an obscure fact meant wandering through library stacks, accidentally discovering three unrelated interesting things along the way? When getting somewhere required unfolding a paper map so massive it would never fold back correctly?”

❯ Minimum Viable Humans. – “A link for The Algorithm of Sacrifice landed in a group chat recently. The post details Microsoft's recent 6,000-person layoff amid record profits and $125 billion in cash reserves. The piece paints AI as the villain, arguing these employees were being sacrificed to automation after ironically building the very systems replacing them. Good story but it's missing the plot.”

❯ Opinionated vs. Flexible Software – “We recently switched over to Linear to manage our work, after some years getting by with GitHub Issues. The team onboarded and transitioned. Two weeks in, a few questions were discussed about some specific pieces we introduced into our workflow. Later, one of my colleagues asked about this statement in Linear’s Method: “Flexible software lets everyone invent their own workflows, which eventually creates chaos as teams scale.””

❯ What Are People Still Doing on X? – “This has been a banner month for X. Last week, the social network’s built-in chatbot, Grok, became strangely obsessed with false claims about “white genocide” in South Africa—allegedly because someone made an “unauthorized modification” to its code at 3:15 in the morning. The week prior, Ye (formerly Kanye West) released a single called “Heil Hitler” on the platform. The chorus includes the line “Heil Hitler, they don’t understand the things I say on Twitter.” West has frequently posted anti-Semitic rants on the platform and, at one point back in February, said he identified as a Nazi. (Yesterday on X, West said he was “done with antisemitism,” though he has made such apologies before; in any case, the single has already been viewed tens of millions of times on X.)”

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Appendix

❯ ICYMI

Reading, summarizing, and extracting data from research papers should not be limited to researchers only. As part of my writing processes, I like to dive deep into specific topics, and Elicit is an incredible tool that makes powerful research practices accessible to everyone. It helps you automate time-consuming research tasks like summarizing papers, extracting data, and synthesizing your findings. Learn more about it in my deep dive.

❯ Quick Bits

Till next time! 👋‌‌‌‌

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