The internet can be a very interesting place if you know where to look at. Discovered will do the digging and bring you the best, new and interesting apps, browser extensions or websites so you don’t have to.
This week’s finds include an alternative Spotify web player, a Chrome extension to make your Gmail look like Inbox and a Game of thrones inspired game.
Xpotify
The Spotify alternative app is thanks to Microsoft’s Centennial. The desktop bridge technology allows existing Win32 program to convert into a Windows Store app. There’s hardly any UI difference with the official app that’s sadly not available on the Windows store
Xpotify is a Progressive web app(PWA) with Fluent design system with smooth and snappy animations that gives users a more native Spotify experience paired with Windows 10 elements. This means that Xpotify allows you to:
- Adds features that aren’t available on Spotify’s desktop app
- Create and pin Live Tiles for each artist in the Start Menu
- Customize albums
- Compact overlay
- Switch to a Mini-View mode
- Integration with the multimedia bar and the Task bar
- Xpotify is available for both Spotify Free and Spotify Premium accounts
The only downside is that there’s no offline streaming but that wouldn’t hurt a lot of users if you’re always connected to the internet.
Download it here.
H/T: Windows Central
Simplify Gmail
Simplify Gmail is a new Chrome extension by the co-creator of the now dead Inbox app for Gmail. The extension simplifies the Gmail interface by making numerous small tweaks as manually done here.
It does this by:
- Hiding the left and right sidebars behind a pair of menu buttons
- Minimizing the search bar at the top of the screen
- Calendar, Keep, Tasks condensed in the bottom right.
- Moving the compose email button from the top left to the bottom right
- Removing the Gmail logo
- Dark Mode
The extension has been downloaded over 15,000 times since launching this month. Simplify to run entirely in your browser and doesn’t serve ads or collect analytics of any sort. For now, it’s free even though Michael Leggett, the owner of Simplify has received offers from buyers to sell it. The former lead designer of Gmail has toyed with the idea of building a completely separate paid service in the future.
The Winterfallen
Gearing up to Game of Thrones third episode on its eighth and last season is the greatest battle ever to happen on Westeros, the battle of Winterfallen where the living fight the walking dead popular known as White Walkers lead by the Night King. The Winterfallen lets you predict and share who you think will die in the upcoming Battle of Winterfell. It’d be fun to try and guess who’s not going to make it and then compare predictions with friends.
Another Game of Thrones app to try out is the Game of Fonts. This is a game of thrones font generator you can use to stylize photos, videos and messages. You can choose from 3 styles including Fire, Ice and Iron fonts and photo filter to stylize texts or photos & videos for IG stories.
Keep up with the Game of Thrones memes from the second episode here.
SpringRole
SpringRole is a LinkedIn alternative on the blockchain. SpringRole is a decentralised attestation-based professional network built on top of Ethereum and enables everyone’s #VerifiedProfessionalProfile on the Blockchain. SpringRole is powered by Blockstack and uses its GAIA decentralised storage system.
GB Studio
GB Studio is a free and easy to use game creator for the GameBoy and brings that nostalgic feeling.
Unmailto
Unmailto solves the frustrating issue of clicking an email address in your browser only to open the email client. Unmailto is a free Chrome extension that makes mailto links copy-able and blocks the email client just exactly how they should be.
The next time you click a contact us link, you won’t be sneakily directed you to an email client.
IRL Glasses
IRL Glasses allow you to block the light from LCD/LED displays found in TVs ala Black Mirror tv show and they also work to as sunglasses to block UV light by using horizontal polarizers.
Flixier
Flixier is a powerful video editor runs on your browser. This online video editing tool does 1-minute video rendering for any video on any computer or device with advanced video editing features, streamlined collaboration, and plenty of cloud storage.
Goodbye Final Cut Pro, perhaps?
The Word Of The Day Is
The Word Of The Day Is is a daily guessing game in Slack where you can win up to $1,000. This is a new way to waste time at work if you use Slack.
Here’s how it works: A word is selected bt game runners each day and then contesters log in to a private Slack channel and try to guess the word for a chance to win $1,000. If no one guesses the word by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time, then the game is scrapped and contesters begin trying to guess the next day’s word.
When a user gets it right, a bot identifies them and the creators send them their money. So far only one winner has been successful. The game now has 500 people in the Slack room at all times, with about 30 more joining each hour. Some users even play for hours straight.
Doc Scanner
Doc Scanner by Zoho is a powerful document scanning iOS app. It scans unlimited documents and saves them as PDF files. The app also does a whole range of actions such as e-sign, extract, translate, share and create workflows.
Another alternative app is CamScanner made by CC international that has other document scanning apps.
Taskade
Taskade is a minimal and sharable task list. You get to capture your ideas and stay organized. You can also instantly share your lists and collaborate with your friends, family, and teammates with no signups required.
It is available on all platforms and there’s a Chrome extension that turns your new tab into a checklist, note, or outline.
Birdfie
Birdfie is an an intelligent selfie app for birds. It does this by detecting the presence of birds and take photos accordingly, identifying birds, and blurring the background after localizing the main object of interest.
Bird watchers and lovers will find the app useful when out and about. Enjoy the pics here.
Managed by Q Task Management
Managed by Q Task Management enables workplace teams to manage employee requests. It helps office operations teams collect, organize, and analyze employee requests and office issues.
Friend Theory
Friend Theory is an Android and iOS map-based app that connects you to your friends of friends and your community buddies network. If your friend knows a guy then so you can always find and connect with a trustworthy connection anywhere in the world.
This Meme Does Not Exist
This Meme Does Not Exist is a website that shows you GAN generated memes. The captions are generated by a deep artificial neural network with the maximum text length limited for sanity. This shows we’ve hit peak AI as robots are now making memes.
Flitr
Flitr lets you find out if your crush on Instagram likes you back. On the app, type in any username or visit their profile to send winks and waves. The winks are anonymous unless they wink back and waves will show your username.
