Alternatives
Products that do what I built an app to beat end-of-day Netflix fatigue does
Hey folks, After a long workday, I'd automatically switch on Netflix and let reruns play in the background—almost mindlessly. I spend all day on screens, so the extra screen time before bed felt draining. I love Lenny's Podcast, but it often felt too intense right before sleep. I've tried reading books as a nighttime ritual, but as a mom of a young kid and a startup founder, it's tough to stay committed to one book over two weeks with so many interruptions and shifting contexts. So I built Tales.so—a platform that converts books into fun, conversational podcasts. It covers everything from…
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2018 · podflix.app
- 3BA
Hey guys, I drive to work a lot, spending on average of 2 hours each day. So I have plenty of time to listen to Podcast and audiobook on my ride. And I think it would be nice to be able to do the same with my reading list, but I couldn't find any decent app on the market that doing this. So I set out to do it myself. Sooo this is the product: http://sendtopod.com/ You may ask why? The reasons are simple: - It's more convenient to listen to articles while you driving, running, or even before going to bed. - Listen take less effort than reading. - Your eyes need to rest after…
2022 · sendtopod.com
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- 5IM
Hello everyone I made a web app with an audio track that helps you sleep fast. It works in a pretty simple way : it just calms your mind if you focus on the audio and you fall asleep :-)
2024 · sleepfast.io
- 6BY
I've just published my app and I would love to have more feedback on it. I got the idea when I was busy moving around several projects during my last semester. And I always don't know which project I should work on next. Even worse, whenever I'm busy with something, I no longer have time to "read book", "go jogging" etc. That's when I thought it would be great if there is an app that keeps track of all the tasks that you want to do and habits that you want to make. And here it is! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKVr0k9Hax0…
2014
- 7IF
Hello there! I hope you're doing well today! I wanted to share something with you. Recently I was on the hunt for the best way to journal daily. Well, I had this idea - what if I could feed all my daily entries to an AI (ChatGPT), and create a friendly, supportive character like Socrates or Simon Sinek? This way, I could ask any questions about my life and mental health, and get some amazing advice on how to improve myself! The results have been absolutely mind-blowing ! I even made a short GIF to show you how it works - check it out! - https://gifyu.com/image/SdHLH I've…
2023
- 8LT
I struggle with wanting to read heaps of stuff I come across on the internet daily, as well as being subscribed to a bunch of tech-related newsletters that I never get around to reading. I made this to get through that content much faster while working or otherwise multitasking. Check it out and please lmk your thoughts! Also, curious if others also feel this pain of too much interesting content to get through daily. FWIW I probably listen to this for >1 hour daily atm.
2024 · lavalamp.ai
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2022 · podsnacks.org
- 10IF
So, after many years of kicking about little apps and not putting the full effort in, I decided to bite the bullet and get on with it. Very much inspired by patio11 and Bingo Card Creator, I present Griddol (http://www.griddol.com) a tool to create and play word searches. Intended mainly for teachers, but encouraging those who like a word search too. This been churning around in my head for over a year in various forms, and I used the concept to help learn CoffeeScript, CouchDB and node.js, so even if the product itself is a failure, the learning process has been valuable. I'll be the first…
2011
- 11IM
Hey HN, the full story is on the page, but here's the TL;DR: I'm 35 and somewhere along the way I lost the ability to finish reading articles. I'd open them, read 2-3 paragraphs, get distracted, and close the tab feeling like a failure. My "Read Later" list became a graveyard of 2,000+ unread articles. I tried everything – focus apps, reader modes, blocking extensions. Nothing worked. Then I realized. 'maybe the problem isn't me'. Modern web articles are designed for engagement metrics, not comprehension. Sidebars, popups, related articles, comment sections – everything is optimized to pull…
Jan 2026 · parsely.obasic.app
- 12ER
Hi, the maker here. Like most developers, I stare at my work screen for many hours a day, completely forgetting that my eyes need rest. Yes, in an ideal world you need to go for a walk, do eye exercises, and also sleep well, etc. I tried different techniques and reminders, but it only lasted me for a couple of days. So I decided to make a browser extension that contains exercises and a timer to switch from routine tasks to short exercises, this allows you to switch tasks and really helps relieve stress. In development, I used scientific articles with an evidence base and chose exercises for…
2023 · chrome.google.com
- 13IM
Hey HN, I follow a lot of podcasts and the episodes are often 2-3 hours long, so I made a web app that gives me a structured podcast summary with applicable habits and recommendations. My goal isn’t to discourage you from listening to the podcast, but rather to help you decide whether the episode is worthwhile and to provide notes. The endgame is to give you a personal feed of podcasts that you follow, maybe even deliver it to your inbox or via RSS. My tech stack is quite simple - React Router(v7), node.js and PostgreSQL with Redis. I'm using OpenAI API to generate the summary from the…
2025 · wisdomsnap.com
- 14IB
I built Read Fast after realising I was saving hundreds of things to read and reading almost none of them. It automatically turns saved content into a scheduled briefing and sends it to my inbox at whatever time I choose. New version since last post actually allows you to bulk upload URLs. So you can just dump links here and Read Fast will scrape and brief for you. Great for actually reading the things I want to. Curious if that resonates with people?
Dec 2025 · read-fast.replit.app
- 15TL
I was tired of having to constantly scramble to find a podcast I want to listen to when going for a walk or just running on the treadmill. I, however, usually have an abundance of blog posts or articles around the web that I'd like to read. The problem is walking is not very conducive to reading. So I made this quick and dirty site that pretty much works anywhere, no app install, no copy paste, no nothing. Just add the domain playthis.link before any URL in your browser and hit enter. It will redirect to an audio file that automatically starts playing. You don't need to click a 2nd button to…
2020
- 16II
I was tired of wasting time in traffic jams every day and wanted to use my commute to learn. I tried finding podcasts on specific topics, like explain MOE like i’m five or the pros and cons of TCA vs. MVVM in SwiftUI, but finding a single episode on niche subjects like these is kinda hard. I’ve tried tools like NotebookLM, but they require you to manually find and collect all the source material first. I wanted something simpler, that i can just ask a question and get an interesting discussion to listen to. So I spent the last three months working part-time to build InstaPodz. It's a simple…
2025 · apps.apple.com
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I built this app in less than 4 hours over a busy and noisy weekend to help me stay focused while studying, during my college days. Since then I have been maintaining this open source project. Its been quite a fruitful and enjoyable ride. Hope you all like it :)
2023 · github.com
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- 20HD
Hey HN! Started out with an idea over the holidays to start building a system that creates daily digests of content I follow as a podcast, such that I can listen to it when commuting. The first one is one that takes the top articles of HN in the last 24 hours and builds them into a podcast. It took forever to tweak it in such a way that it doesn't sound 100% AI, isn't too sensational, but also not extremely boring. I've been tweaking over the past weeks to get it just right and I'm pretty happy with what comes out of it now. I've just submitted / got them all up and running on Spotify…
2025 · hackernews-daily.thepodcastcollective.com
- 21IM
Hi HN! Writing has been a big part of my life for the last few years. It's helped me make sense of the world around me through journaling, and my blog and technical books have made wonders for my career as an engineer. Something I've always been missing is an online community where I can practice my skills and learn from other aspiring writers. I built Tavern, hoping to solve my own problem. Its main concept is that every Monday everyone in the app gets asked the same writing prompt and you have seven days to submit your answer. You can look at what others have posted, but only after you've…
2023 · writerstavern.io
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We do the reading, so you can do the thinking.
14d ago · brieftime.app
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