After 4 years, Starlight has been acquired!

What a journey! After 4 years, Starlight has been acquired!

In 2021, frustrated with the note apps available (Evernote, OneNote, NotePad++…), I started developing Starlight.

The premise was simple: increase productivity by removing note and task management overhead, letting users focus on their actual work while staying on top of the business. The app enabled that by:

     1. Adding structure using smart templates and dynamic formatting

     2. Enabling users to combine notes and inline actions

     3. Consolidating actions across all notes into an easily digestible view

Being brutally honest, I thought it would be much faster to develop than it actually was, my initial assessment was 6 to 12 months. Not quite…

All in all it took me almost two years to develop, double my original estimate.

r/depressedmemes - We do this not because it is easy. but because we thought it would be easy.

There were many contributing factors, but mainly:

  • Although SwiftUI had been around for a while, macOS support was flaky (arguably still is)
  • Smart formatting and in-line actions required significant optimization work to ensure responsiveness in long notes 
  • Integrating in-line actions and task objects in CoreData was a great feature, but very tricky to get right

No regrets though – since its launch in May 2023, Starlight has received 10 major updates and has established a small but mighty loyal user-base. 

So why sell?

Starlight is free to download and use, however keeping it updated requires significant time and effort. As I look forward I’m going to be focusing on smaller hobby projects or revenue-generating apps. 

What will happen to my data?

Your data is yours, no user data is being shared as part of this sale. 

Can I continue to use the app?

Yes! If you have already downloaded Starlight, it will continue to work as normal. 

Can I try Starlight?

Although Starlight is no longer available to download here’s some great alternatives: Obsidian, Agenda or TaskPaper

Will there be more app updates?

Starlight 1.2.2 is the final update.

I have a question!

Do not hesitate to reach out

—

Thanks to all the users of Starlight, and doubly so to those who shared feedback to make the app better!

—

All previous posts about Starlight: 

– What differentiates good from great Product Managers?

– Struggling with a basic macOS SideBar, RowList & DetailView app in SwiftUI

– Identifying combinations of dates in text using regex

– The Eisenhower Matrix

– Counting Core Data entries based on relationship entities

– Multiple Word, Random Order Search – CoreData & SwiftUI

– Using NSSortDescriptor to sort Dates and nil values

– SwiftUI modifier order matters, a lot

– Preventing edits in TextFields unless cell is selected

– MenuBar Items in SwiftUI

– Using NSTextView in SwiftUI

– Iterating on MarsManaged Palette & Icon – First Round

– Making an editable Label with SwiftUI

– Working on all new TO-DO views for MarsManaged

– Expanding TO-DO views for MarsManaged

– SwiftUI macOS Preference Pane | Preferences

– MarsManaged March update, Alpha coming soon?

– TextField Recommendations / Autocomplete – SwiftUI macOS and iOS

– Badges? Gray Badges? Color Badges!

– Creating a macOS “About” screen the SwiftUI way

– Adding an overlay when there’s no content to show – SwiftUI Empty States

– Schedule & re-Schedule any action with Dynamic Date parsing

– Replacing NSTextView text programmatically without affecting its style and format

– Bom Dia

– MarsManaged July Update: New Palette, Icon, UX Improvements…

– SideBar: The Silent Super-Feature

– MarsManaged onboarding – Unleashing a new golden age for humanity!

– Restoring macOS window after close – SwiftUI WindowsGroup

– Easily linking any AppKit or UIKit class with SwiftUI

– And just like that, MarsManaged has reached Beta!

– Leveraging SF Symbols from code

– Starlight has gone gold!

– Starlight is alive!!!

– Starlight – Soft launch, week 1 update

– Starting to code again 🙂 on in app purchases 🙁

– Settling down in the Bay & Starlight 1.0.4 is now live!

– It’s been a year? What?!

– Starlight 1.2.0

Learnings from PowerVoice Product Hunt Launch

PowerVoice ‘try before you buy’ onboarding missed the mark.  

I had aimed to minimize the time between landing on the site and experiencing value by allowing users to immediately upload their own audio files for free. While this approach works well for many apps, it didn’t work for PowerVoice.

Why? Three reasons:

– Trust: Users were hesitant to share personal recordings without clearly seeing the value upfront. However, until they uploaded a file they would not see the value, catch 22. 

– Logistics: Most users who wanted to try it did not have a relevant audio file handy. Even if they planned to come back later – the reality is that attention is very limited. If you lose the user before you show them value it’s very hard to get them back. 

– Messaging: I tested two approaches, one emphasizing the “what” and one the “why”. In terms of engaging, the “why” version performed better than the “what” one. However, it failed to show or explain features of the product – and given the ‘Trust’ and ‘Logistic’ challenges already mentioned, resulted in low conversion overall. 

Above: left focused on the what, right focused on the why

Thanks to all this feedback, I’ve completely revamped the onboarding — it now starts fully focused on the user and their unique needs. Only after they have engaged, I’ll share how the product can uniquely help them overcome their problems. 

After completing the pre-flight onboarding, knowing what the app can do for them, users can choose one of three subscription options. All including a 7 day free trial to provide peace of mind.

This experience reinforces the criticality of listening and learning from users, and how that trumps industry conventions. If you’re not familiar with PowerVoice you can learn more about it or try it here, all changes discussed above are live! 

Comments / Feedback? Find me on Mastodon, X, or Bsky

Marc

Apple Music Controller 1.1

There’s been more interest on Apple Music Controller that I was expecting, seems there’s more Apple Music Subscribers than I thought! 

The biggest request by far was adding album art, happy to oblige – enjoy your album art in all their glory

If you own the app it will automatically update, else grab it now!

Comments / Feedback? Find me on Mastodon, X, or Bsky

Marc

PS. Given I’m doing this app for fun I’m considering open sourcing it so others can contribute to it, thoughts?

Improving PowerVoice based on early user feedback

As PowerVoice launch approaches, I’ve been focused on addressing early user-feedback, fixing bugs and polishing the UI. One of the amazing things about developing on the web is how fast you can learn, iterate and deploy – such a joy. Here’s some of the changes done in the last two weeks:

1. Improving landing page to increase conversion

  • Outcome-focused: focusing on great communicators as opposed to product visuals 
  • KISS (keep it simple, stupid):
    • Simplified CTA: Moving away from the abstract “Start The Practice”, instead opting for the very obvious “Upload Recording”
    • Reworded secondary CTA: from ‘Preview Now’ to ‘View Demo’
  • Overall Polish: Minor tweaks in copy, addition of favicon and logo

2. Decreasing time to value for new customers

I’m purposely hiding some of the features with the intent of keeping first interaction with the app very intuitive and fast. 

  • Before: 1.“Start the Practice” -> 2. Choose audience -> 3. Choose goal -> 4. Choose if you want to upload a file or practice live -> Get your report
  • Now: 1.“Upload a Recording” -> Get your report

Once the user sees the value and creates an account, the additional features become available. 

3. Refining report visuals

  • Moved “Highlights” to the left, and “Scores to the right”, following how users use the app
  • Increased standard font size for increased legibility
  • Changed “Poor” label for “Review”
  • Speaker Id’s are now bold, making them easier to spot
  • When in Demo Mode, “Try Now” button appears at the top

4. Made providing feedback even easier

At the end of the day the best way to improve the product is based on user feedback. It’s now easier than ever. 

5. Many other bug fixes, tweaks and LLM improvements – some highlights:

  • Attempting to sign in, while having an active session, will take user to their dashboard
  • Improved error handling and notifications
  • PowerVoice is now a harder grader
  • Favicon now properly displays in all browsers 

—

I’m looking forward to launching, likely end of the month. If you’re not familiar with PowerVoice you can learn more about it or try it here! 

Comments / Feedback? Find me on Mastodon, X, or Bsky

Marc

Create Stations & Favorite Songs from the Menu Bar with Apple Music Controller

It’s time! After polishing rough edges and adding the ability to auto-update, Apple Music Controller is available for download for free. 

Apple Music Controller is a lightweight & distraction-free way to interact with Apple Music from the Menu Bar.

Features:

⚡ Lightning-Fast Controls

  • Create stations instantly from the menu bar
  • Add songs to your favorites with one click
  • Control playback without leaving your current app

🎯 Zero-Distraction Design

  • Minimal menu bar presence
  • Lightweight and resource-efficient
  • Native macOS look and feel

❤️ Why You’ll Love it

  • Stay in your workflow
  • Discover new music effortlessly
  • Save precious clicks and time

You can download it here.

Or know more about the story behind it here. 

Comments / Feedback? Find me on Mastodon, X, or Bsky

Marc

Apple Music Controller – Create Stations & Favorite Songs from the Menu Bar

It’s hard for me to even imagine coding without music.

In fact, for years I had my carefully curated iTunes library with a playlist for every occasion.  Yep, back when music was bought as CDs and ripped. 

JWulen on X: "@elcanalrandom https://t.co/GsUyPRGEe9" / X

I still have my library, of course,  but I’ve been using Apple Music as my daily driver for years now. I love how easy it is to discover new music, mostly by using “Favorite” and “Create Station” when I find songs I like.

Here’s the thing though… It’s slightly distracting & unnecessarily complicated to do (i.e. go to the dock, open Apple Music, right click on the three small dots, and then create the station).

And I know it looks nitpicky, but when you’re in the middle of solving a complex coding problem, the last thing you want is to context switch. As illustrated by Jason Heeris:

r/ProgrammerHumor - Why developers hate being interrupted.

So how do I fix it? Well, for the longest time I would just ‘deal with it’ – but this past weekend, after having worked on PowerVoice for a while, I wanted to tackle a fun little project. And, a couple hours later, a lightweight & distraction-free way to interact with Apple Music was born. 

It’s been so much fun to build. I improvised a quick icon and named it with the groundbreaking ‘Apple Music Controller’ name.

Once tested enough, it’ll be available as a free download – stay tuned. (Update 2/21 -> Grab it now)

And if you’re an Apple Music subscriber and would like an early copy, hit me up! 

Comments / Feedback? Find me on Mastodon, X, or Bsky

Marc

Level Up Your Speaking Skills When No One’s Watching – PowerVoice™

I’ve always been fascinated by great communicators: Steve Jobs, Barack Obama, Winston Churchill… Great leaders tend to be masters at it – instilling a sense of purpose, distilling complex topics into simple terms, rallying individuals to achieve the impossible. And, although some individuals have innate traits, the reality is that great communicators aren’t born; they’re made. 

Churchill (pictured above) trained in oratory from a very early age. Jobs meticulously refined his pitches for maximum impact, and Obama invested countless hours in practice, preparing extensively for every major speech.

If everyone can become a great communicator though, why are there so few? 

  • Once you graduate – unless you’re lucky (or wealthy) enough to have a coach – it’s no one’s job to continue to push you to become a better communicator. You could try to improve for yourself, but are you focusing on the right things? We don’t know what we don’t know after all.

  • Asking coworkers to provide candid feedback is even harder. Most will shy away from providing it. From their perspective, they have nothing to win and much to lose, what if you don’t take the feedback well?

  • Unlike in school, there’s no ‘safe playground’ to practice, to try new things and make mistakes (note: if you have a toastmasters nearby, it’s a good idea to join – even though quality varies widely from club to club).

If you’ve struggled with this you’re not alone. So… what to do?

What if you could work with a personal coach from the convenience of your home? A coach that’s always available to practice, eager to listen to your recordings, and always there to provide actionable feedback – all for a subscription price everyone can afford. 

That’s exactly what PowerVoice™ aims to be.

Great communicators have always had the upper hand. Now, with the advent of GenAI and the masses increasingly turning to LLMs for their writing, those who excel at public speaking and verbal communication will have an even greater advantage in standing out. That’s why I built PowerVoice to be your personal communication coach, available whenever you need it.

1. How does PowerVoice work?

Start by picking your audience and goal, then either start practicing or upload a recording – that’s it! 

Once your audio is analyzed by PowerVoice, you’ll see your results – including an overall assessment and score, as well as line-by-line actionable feedback. You can easily focus on the areas that need attention by clicking on “Fair” or “Poor”.

Once done, you can go to your Dashboard where you’ll find all your previous sessions and scores – so you can see how fast you’re progressing. It’s also from where you’ll start new live coaching sessions or upload recordings. 

2. What if my audio contains more than one speaker?

PowerVoice automatically detects it and creates separate tracks for each, allowing you to easily select who you are.

3. How much does it cost?

While in Alpha, PowerVoice is free to use – please send me feedback on what you like, what you don’t and what could be made better. You can use the feedback button or email me directly at feedback@powervoice.app

Once it’s released, it will have options to subscribe either monthly or yearly (at a substantially lower price). 

4. Why doesn’t it do X?

I may not have thought about it, do let me know your ideas at feedback@powervoice.app

—

In an AI World, great speakers stand out. Ready to transform your communication skills?

  • Get unlimited coaching sessions during the alpha period
  • Shape the future of PowerVoice with your feedback 
  • Get early access to latest features 

Marc

P.S. Curious about the development journey? Follow me on Mastodon, X, or Bsky

Running models locally with ML Studio

If you’re looking for an easy way to download and run models locally on your Mac, check out ML Studio. It’s great for testing the latest models and experimenting with different quantization versions.

I used to use terminal directly, but ML Studio makes it much nicer for everyday use. If ML Studio is not your cup of tea, another option is combining Ollama with Open Web.

For complex tasks, Claude or OpenAI are still king, but more and more I find I can use local models that perform just as well for many tasks. The one I’m currently using is Phi 4 (lmstudio-community/phi-4-GGUF), not only it gives great answers, but it runs beautifully on my M1 Max. 

Marc