A Wonder Tools Presentation ⚡️

Tools I'm sharing at this week's Online News Association Conference

I’m giving a talk about productivity tools this week at the Online News Association conference in Philadelphia. My session focuses on tools that can help busy journalists be productive and creative. Read on for a few of the services I’m sharing.

Morning 🌞 — apps to start the day

Oasis — turn spoken thoughts into outlines with AI

Thinking out loud with Oasis helps me outline article drafts and lesson plans. In addition to recording and transcribing what you say, Oasis provides a summary, an outline, and uses your transcribed words to generate whatever else you want, like an email, a LinkedIn post, or a video script. For more detail, see my post about what makes Oasis great and six ways to use it. (Audiopen is a good alternative option, though its free version is more limited.)

An Oasis for your ideas🎙️

Bloks — Get AI-generated meeting summaries

Bloks is a free desktop app that helps take notes for you. It can record any in-person or remote meeting and provide a summary and full transcription. You can set it up to associate meeting notes with calendar entries and contacts to help you later find notes related to people, companies or topics.

More on Bloks and the best AI tools for meeting notes 👇

Save Time with an AI Note-Taker 🦄

Commute 🚊 — apps on the go

Snipd — AI-created chapters for your favorite podcasts

Snipd lets you tap your headphones to highlight a section of a podcast to save or share. (Here are some podcast segments I’ve highlighted). It also creates AI chapter titles for podcasts so you can decide which episodes are of interest.

Here’s more on why Snipd has become my favorite podcast app. 👇

🎧 The best new podcast app

Libby — Read any ebook or audiobook from your library free

I’m still amazed that you can use Libby to freely access virtually any ebook, audiobook or magazine instantly from your local library. It’s easy to use and you can read on any digital device or Kindle. It’s also a great free alternative to Audible for listening to audiobooks.

Read more about Libby’s features and other great reading tools 👇

Find Books You Love 📚

Work 🗂️

Arc — finally a great browser alternative to Chrome

Having tried a dozen alternatives to Chrome, I finally switched to Arc. It’s well-designed, flexible, fast, free and fun to use. I like the way it organizes tabs and bookmarks and lets me create distinct spaces for different kinds of work.

Read more on why Arc is so appealing 👇

The best new browser 👀

ZCal — free way to let people book time on your calendar

I have long recommended Calendly as a way to save an hour a month on scheduling meetings. Here’s why I have loved it for years. I’m often asked, though, if there’s a free alternative for those who can’t afford the pro version. Having tried it for a current project, I can now recommend Zcal as a good substitute for Calendly that’s fully free for individuals. (Enterprise clients are the future revenue target). Cal.com is another good free alternative I’m still testing.

Evening creativity 🌙

Kapwing — a helpful tool for editing video easily

Kapwing is one of the most compelling new Web-based video-editing tools. It has a bunch of new remarkable AI features, including a copilot function so you can use a chat interface to ask for edits to your video like a new transition or lower music volume. If you’re curious about the new AI features, I found the 10-minute demo video an impressive summary.

You can chat with Kapwing’s copilot to simplify video edits

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p.s. Make something new this fall… Deadline Sept 8! You’re invited to apply to join the fully-online upcoming cohort of the 100-day Entrepreneurial Journalism Creators Program I lead at the City University of New York’s Newmark Graduate School of Journalism. Past participants have joined from all over the world at all stages of their careers. Watch the video of our recent open house to learn more & see what alums say about their experience. Read more and apply soon.