Wonder Tools

More than 600,000 podcasts released 27 million episodes in 2025. Keeping up with even a tiny fraction of those 70,000+ daily releases is impossible. So I’ve been exploring new ways to keep up with audio: podcast summaries, audio digests, and cool new tools for finding and saving audio highlights. Podsnacks — Get podcast summaries by emailGet podcast summaries delivered to your email. Catch up on shows you don’t have time to listen to. The free digest includes AI-generated summaries drawn from 25 of the most popular news, business, and tech podcasts. For $5/month, you can get a daily digest of any five podcasts you want. Snipcast is an alternative that offers 2 summaries a month for free or 50 episode summaries for $8/month. TL;DL by Headliner — Listen to podcast digests If you want to listen to podcast summaries, try TL;DL. Pick up to five podcasts to summarize in 5, 10, 15, or 20 minutes. I like that it’s not just an AI-voiced synthesis, but includes excerpted audio clips. You can always click through to hear the full episode. Caveat: expect to wait at least five minutes for each summary, and it’s still in beta. I run into occasional errors.Examples: Listen to this summary from my recent podcast interview with Azeem Azhar. Or try this summary of an episode of Shankar Vedantam’s terrific Hidden Brain podcast.Sponsored MessageMake your own site with LovableTurn your idea into something real. Describe what you have in mind and Lovable makes it into a site or app anyone can visit online.Whether you want a new site for your business or a new portfolio for your work, Lovable is a fast way to create without hiring anyone or mastering complex tech. For inspiration, check out slick templates or hundreds of cool apps others have built with Lovable. No need to write code. Just chat with Lovable to quickly start a project. What are you going to make? Snipd — My favorite podcast app Snipd keeps improving. I rely on it mainly because it lets me save highlights from podcasts I’m listening to by tapping my AirPods. The app also provides detailed podcast summaries so I can decide what to listen to. Among the new features I like most: * Skip intros and outros that clutter up many podcasts. * AI chat with any episode to ask for best quotes, must-listen moments, key takeaways, clarification of a complex idea, or whatever else you want. * I love the new “mentioned books” tab. It shows all the books discussed on a particular podcast. Click on a cover to learn more about the author and to see a list of podcasts where that book was discussed. * Search by guest. Find and listen to all the podcasts where your favorite author/musician/guru has been interviewed. * Listen and highlight audiobooks. Connect a Libro.fm audiobook account and import books with one click to listen to and highlight on Snipd. (Libro supports your local bookstore). Alternatively, find free public domain audiobooks at LibriVox. You can manually upload your own audiobooks.Podcast Magic — Save a key audio momentWhen you’re listening to a podcast on Spotify or Apple Podcasts and want to save a highlight, take a screenshot and email it to podcastmagic@sublime.app. You’ll get emailed back an audio clip and transcript of the key moment to save or share. It’s a clever way to easily save and share a quote or anecdote. Example: One show I highlighted recently was Audio Flux, which The New Yorker picked as one of the 10 best podcasts of 2025. The all-star audio duo commissions and spotlights bold, short-form audio stories. (You can also follow Team Audio Flux on Substack).Listen Notes Search for podcast mentionsFind podcast episodes where you’re mentioned. Type in your name or the name of your organization and search. Or look for interviews with a favorite author or musician. Other useful features: * Curated Lists: See recommendations from publications, like the 6 health care podcasts or 7 podcasts for bookworms the NYTimes recommended. * Listen Later: Make and share a curated podcast playlist. The playlist has an RSS feed that you can add to any major podcast player. Here’s a playlist of a few shows I like. Here’s a longer list of my favorites. Podchaser is a good alternative when you’re looking by topic. I discovered new podcasts about tennis and classical music. Also try the new advanced search by combining terms.EarBuds Podcast Collective, founded by podcast guru Arielle Nissenblatt, shares well-curated podcast recommendations. Each week a guest picks five shows to recommend. Example: 5 podcasts about bodies and how we see ourselves. Also: CBC’s Podcast Playlist (RIP) was a great show featuring highlights from all sorts of podcasts. The archive is full of great episodes.Perplexity Voice Mode for Web, iOS and AndroidWhen I don’t have my computer, I prefer searching with my voice to thumb typing on my phone. Querying Perplexity verbally when I’m walking or when my fingers are freezing is convenient because it answers with audio quickly and accurately. I can ask follow-ups for clarification or elaboration. These iterative search conversations let me steer the exploration toward what’s most useful. Example: a screenshot of Perplexity’s short reply when I asked what voice search is useful for. Tip: ask Perplexity for its sources to verify its results; voice searches don’t surface those unless you ask. Voicebox — Collect audio feedback Create your own inbox for voice input. Give anyone your Voicebox link or QR code, and they can leave you an audio message. No typing, no downloads, no forms to fill out. They just share their thoughts in a simple voice memo. It’s like an answering machine for the digital era. Voicebox is marketed as a B2B tool, but anyone can use it as an individual.Try it: Leave me a voice message about one thing you do that AI will never be able to replicate. Optionally include your name and email. Send an audio note: Tuttu is a super simple free site where you can record and share a voice note. Then email a link to that audio or embed it. Here’s a quick example I recorded about 3 ways you can use Tuttu.Alternative: VideoAsk is a slick tool for collecting video or audio feedback instead of a dull form. You can gather 20 minutes of input each month for free. Collecting 100 monthly minutes costs $24/month billed annually. Rover AI — Get audio briefs to answer questions Rover is an early-stage app that answers your questions with AI-generated audio briefs. Type in a query, wait a few minutes, then listen to your 2-3 minute audio conversation between two AI hosts. Unique feature: Choose from three alternative responses to your query. Example: Listen to a short audio debate about whether Jonathan Franzen is overrated or a genius.Alternatives: NotebookLM, which I’ve written about, does a fantastic job of creating audio summaries —or even debates— exploring complex topics. And Huxe, which I wrote about last week, creates useful personalized audio updates. Rover is an earlier-stage experiment, by contrast, focused on brief audio answers to eclectic queries. Become a tester to try it out. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wondertools.substack.com/subscribe

Azeem Azhar is the kind of guy who loves both old-fashioned pens and advanced AI. It was a delight talking with him, not just because he’s a successful entrepreneur, author, and interviewer, but because we share quirky tech tastes. Azeem and his team publish Exponential View — a Substack with 140,000+ subscribers — about how tech is shaping our future. In our live conversation, we talked about Azeem’s AI — and analog — workflow. The discussion also touched on 18 sites, apps, and gadgets summarized below.📺 Watch the video for the full chat, or check the highlights and tool list below.🔎 On AI Research Beyond Google and WikipediaAzeem consistently tweaks how he figures out where tech is heading. Check his “Boom or Bubble” dashboard on whether the AI market is overheated for an example of his analysis.Key takeaway: Azeem’s research workflow has moved almost entirely away from traditional search:* Why he quit Google and Wikipedia. [16:20] “I spend virtually no time on Google searching for things, nothing on Wikipedia at all, not a moment now.” Instead, he surfaces what matters to him with AI searches and custom tools his team has developed.* Manus is his research assistant. Azeem and his team use Manus (a Chinese-founded AI startup recently acquired by Meta) the way you’d send a research assistant to “find color—go off and find the case studies, the anecdotes, the famous quotations.” The team runs queries overnight for 30-40 minutes each.* Shortwave helps with investor intel. This AI tool is superb for searching within your email. Azeem has 40 startup investments. To support founders, he uses Shortwave to search past email to help explore questions like, “How well are they sticking to their milestones? Have they changed the goalposts? Where do they seem to have problems where I can be helpful?” Azeem uses Shortwave to search across 15 years of Gmail messages.* Julius is a resource for data science. He uses this tool, which he’s invested in, as an AI number cruncher. [My post on Julius]🤖 How Azeem Uses AIAzeem set up custom instructions directing ChatGPT to aggressively challenge his assumptions: [6:41] “It can be quite exhausting… it’s like being constantly interrogated.” His follow-up? “I often have to copy the answer and put it into Claude and say, explain this to me like I’m a bright high schooler.” He considers Claude the best coding model and also uses it for text refinement. Bottom line: Azeem uses the two AI models sequentially to force himself to think deeper.Other AI Assistants* Gemini Pro Azeem builds interactive apps with Gemini. “I might explain what I’m looking for, have a discussion, then ask it to build the interactive platform app. Then I can play with the parameters.”* Perplexity Azeem’s go-to for “instant answers” when he doesn’t need deep research.* DeepSeek Azeem’s default for “good enough” queries to cut costs. “In general, it’s really good enough. And if on the occasion I don’t think it is, I can fire it out to one of the other models.”* Grok Azeem experiments with this occasionally as part of his testing.✒️ “I Dip the Pen in this Bottle of Ink”Azeem has a fountain pen without an internal ink cartridge. Why? [9:30] “If I am writing and every 10 or 15 words I have to stop to dip the pen in ink, I’m slowing myself down... In a world where I can move really quickly, I will slow myself down. I’ll get very haptic in the experience and look at what I’m writing and force myself to cross out mistakes, and feel frustrated about mistakes, so therefore slow my thinking down even more.” In a conversation about AI acceleration, Azeem deliberately builds in friction. 🎙️Voice and Writing Tools 🖊️ * Wispr Flow Azeem reads his handwritten notes aloud into Wispr Flow, editing in real-time as he speaks.* Kolo Tino Fountain Pen Azeem likes the feel of pen on paper and its deliberate pace.* Paper Republic Trifold Leather Journal Azeem’s folio holds three separate notebook inserts: “You can have one that’s just for your jotting of your to-do list and then others are for thinking time.”😰 Azeem: “Are You a Bit Stressed, Jeremy?” 😖In our recent conversation, Azeem teased me for repeatedly referencing resources for relaxation. “Are you a bit stressed? Because you’ve talked to me about your squeeze ball. You’ve talked to me about Headspace for meditating. You’ve talked to me about your CMY cube to chill you out. I don’t want to go all shrink on you, but there’s a little hint of intensity there.”Fair point. I do have a lot of calming tchotchkes on my desk. We both shared a bunch of tools we use, analog and digital, for coping with busy-ness and overwhelm. Below are three Azeem recommends: Focus & Wellness* Pzizz Azeem’s most-used app: “[The app’s] run time is probably 10 hours a week on average and has done for a decade.” He paid $50 for a lifetime subscription and uses it for naps, overnight flights, and jet lag recovery.* Oura ring Azeem uses this for health tracking, as have I, since I first wrote about it in 2021. * Lacrosse ball Azeem’s essential travel item: “A really hard lacrosse ball to put into your pressure points, like your glutes and your hip flexors, because you want to do that massage, especially once you’ve been on your second 10-hour flight in five days.”🎧 High-End Audio: Headphones and DJ Mixing Azeem tests headphones with “Sultans of Swing,” a song by Dire Straits, Bach’s Goldberg Variations, as well as dance tracks. * Solitaire T Headphones Azeem travels with these for high-end sound with noise cancelling for long flights.* Beats Fit Pro His everyday choice.* DJ Studio Azeem uses this digital audio workstation to create DJ mixes while traveling.🌟 Notable Quotes * Azeem on the skyrocketing cost of cutting-edge AI: “All of this is expensive. I mean, we spend as a team, I would say probably between $350 and $500 per person per month.”* My take: we’re nearing a new digital divide. Free alternatives like Jan AI help (see my post), but if you use the best contemporary AI models, your bills add up fast.* Azeem on why no single AI company will “win” the market. "I haven't seen a strong reason to think that a network effect will emerge.” * His rationale: “If you get the unique data for clown makeup, and I get the unique data for vineyards in Italy, if I'm not interested in clowns, I'm not going to use your LLM.”* Azeem says OpenAI’s strategic dilemma, as reported by The Information, is whether to focus on power users or those who just want quick replies. * [29:23] “They have 1,000 researchers who have built amazing deep research tools, and most people just want to know which movie should I watch tonight, or draw my dad as if he was Spider-Man for his 70th birthday card.”* On accountability in the AI era: “We’ve essentially said to the team that we don’t have hallucinations at Exponential View because everything is owned by a person. If you copy and paste something out of an LLM that’s got a hallucination in it, that’s you saying it, that’s not the LLM saying it.”* On the swift pace of change: “I would think that 70% to 80% of my workflows today, the things that I do, are different to how I did them three months ago.”Thank you to Romaric Jannel, Abbey Algiers, Aysu Kececi, Ondrej Prostrednik, blaine wishart, and many others for tuning into the live video conversation with Azeem Azhar. You’re Invited! Join me next Wednesday, January 21 at 10am EST for Just Start Writing: Tools For Busy Creators In 2026, a free workshop I’m leading for Medium.com. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wondertools.substack.com/subscribe

I rely on Ideogram, an AI image generator, to help me create posters, banners, social posts, newsletter illustrations, and video thumbnails. Context: Ideogram competes in an exploding market. Gemini’s new Nano Banana Pro makes remarkable infographics, ChatGPT’s image generator produces fantastic illustrations, and Canva, Adobe, and Midjourney keep getting stronger. Yet I still find myself returning often to Ideogram. Read on for 10 reasons why — and a guide to getting started. 10 reasons I like Ideogram * Your prompt gets automatically improved. Ideogram’s magic prompt algorithm refines your initial query. You can then approve it or revise. * Choose from four options. Each time you submit a prompt, you get back four generated images. Getting to choose one gives you a bit of editorial input.* Public image galleries are helpful for inspiration. Build on others’ prompts. Browse images of all shapes & styles, and top-ranked images, for ideas. * Get accurate text within images. Ideogram generates accurate text for social media graphics, thumbnails, banners, and logos. Ideogram’s guidance on text & typography includes excellent examples of prompts and text designs.* Pick from a variety of styles. Choose from dozens of styles, from Pop Art and Watercolor to Doodle, Travel Poster, and Surreal Collage. I often choose “auto” because I can’t make up my mind. I tend to opt for a clean, modern look for a presentation image, or a more abstract, artsy vibe for creative projects.* Use negative prompts. Paid subscribers can list specific elements NOT to be included in an image. That can be helpful if a particular detail could prevent your image from being usable, as in the burger example below. * Choose your image orientation. You can generate horizontal, vertical, or square images. Free users have 11 orientation options. That’s helpful for generating images that will fit your slide, podcast, newsletter, ad banner, site header, or whatever else. Paid subscribers get additional dimension choices.* Remix anything. Modify images you or others have generated with Ideogram’s remix button. I often tweak what I’ve generated to get closer to what I want. Be specific with your remix query: “dog” may yield a golden retriever instead of the poodle you envisioned.* Extend images. Ideogram’s Canvas feature lets paid users edit, extend, or combine images. Here’s a 45-second video with examples. * Create custom styles of your own Upload or pick a few images to generate a new style you can use repeatedly for a consistent look. 📺 Watch the promo video below to get a sense of it.👇 How to start using Ideogram* Visit Ideogram.ai and sign up for free with your Google, Apple or Microsoft account. * Check the welcome guide for starting tips, examples, and sample prompts.* Explore the public gallery to see others’ images and the prompts they used. * Describe an image you envision in a few sentences. Don’t worry about precise wording. You can opt to let Ideogram refine your prompt.* Choose a style. Decide if you want an illustrated or photographic-style image. Or pick ‘auto’ to let the algorithm decide. You can also select a color palette. * Choose dimensions. Pick a wide, vertical or square image. I mostly generate wide images, which match the width of presentations or web pages.* Click generate. On a free account, you can generate a limited number of images per day. * Wait a minute. The service slows free requests to incentivize upgrades. * Download the image you like and use it any way you choose. Use an AI assistant to sharpen your image promptsAvoid getting generic images when using Ideogram by prompting ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini to help you craft more detailed image prompts. Here’s how to prompt an AI assistant for this: * Type a few descriptive phrases about an image you’re envisioning* Explain how you plan to use the image (for a poster a thumbnail, etc)* Ask for five surprising, bold, image prompts based on your context for use with your image generation tool. * Iterate. Pick one you like and ask for three compelling variants. Test one or more of those with Ideogram. Pricing* Free for a limited number of image generation credits each day. Depending on traffic to Ideogram, you can expect at least five free images a day. I started on the free plan but now pay for the service * $7/month billed annually for more images, quicker rendering, and advanced features like Canvas, which lets you modify & extend images. Ideogram caveats* Limited free images. I often have to iterate on a prompt several times before getting something usable. On a free plan that may mean getting only one or two quality images a day.* Reduced image quality on downloads. Free users can only download a 70% quality JPEG image, not the full-resolution version. * Public image creation only. All images created on the free plan are public, meaning others can view and remix them. AlternativesGemini Nano Banana ProGoogle recently launched its best image generator with a surprising name and remarkable versatility. You can use Nano Banana Pro for nearly any kind of visual — from a logo, infographic, or slide design, to an edited self-portrait based on your photo or an abstract image of a dog (below). ChatGPT’s Image GeneratorChatGPT’s built-in AI image generation tool is excellent, particularly for generating cartoons, simple diagrams, or abstract illustrations. You can’t specify the dimensions of an image, but you can use an extended chat to provide context and guidance, and you can ask the AI assistant to iterate on the image result if it doesn’t satisfy you with its first attempts. You can also select an area of a generated image and prompt it to change that part. Here’s my post about it. FluxBlack Forest Labs, which makes the Flux 2 AI image generator, recently raised $300 million from investors. Flux images are dramatic and distinct. You can create 50 images for free after signing into the Flux Playground, or you can use the model on Hugging Face. Flux doesn’t require any special prompting lingo. I find Ideogram simpler to use, and it has a broader set of features, but Flux is excellent at generating accurate text inside images, and it’s a powerful tool on the rise. Here are Flux versions of the Ideogram image I created at the top of this post. Adobe FireflyAdobe has a growing suite of AI tools that keep getting better. Firefly has some unique capabilities. You can customize your image’s camera angle, lighting, color, tone and special effects, among other advanced features. Adobe has also committed to respecting creators by not training on their content without express permission. “Adobe Firefly models are trained on a dataset of licensed content, such as Adobe Stock, and public domain content where copyright has expired.”Concerns about AI image generation* Less control. With editing tools like Photoshop, Illustrator, Figma, and Canva, you have full control over the pixels you’re designing. When you generate images with AI, you have less say over a visual’s specifics. * Risk of confusion. Some AI-generated images look like real people, objects, or buildings, which can be misleading if not explained. An AI-generated photo of a person in an office might be assumed to be a real employee.* Displacement of artists. Talented professionals may see diminishing demand for their services as people increasingly look to AI services instead of hiring creatives. And lawsuits allege that AI models were unfairly trained on human work. Getty recently lost one such suit, but others are ongoing. * The rise of AI sludge. With AI image generation spreading, it’s easier than ever to mass produce visual images without thought. It is also easier to imitate anyone’s visual style, so AI-powered copycats may proliferate. * Error prone. Some AI generation tools still can’t reliably reproduce text well. Words within images may be garbled, like this mangled poster made by DALL-E in 2024. Resources for non-AI images* Creative Commons & Openverse — search for free human-made images * The National Gallery of Art lets you download and use its images for free* Unsplash and Pexels are free sources for photographs* 11 tools for diversifying your images (a Wonder Tools guide)What have you used AI images for? What works best for you? 👇 This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wondertools.substack.com/subscribe

I like pushing AI to be less predictable. When AI assistants are less bland and more bold, they challenge my blind spots and nudge me to rethink. So I asked one of the boldest AI experimenters I know, Alexandra Samuel, to share unconventional tips and tactics when she visited New York recently from Vancouver.Alex, who writes about AI for the Wall Street Journal and the Harvard Business Review, surprised me with the scale of her AI efforts. She described creating 200+ automation scripts and building a personal idea database that helps with drafting pitch emails. Her quirkiest tactic? Using Suno to generate songs to explain complex concepts.Her lively new podcast, Me and Viv, explores her unusual relationship with an AI assistant she trained to serve as her coach and collaborator. She interviews AI skeptics like Oliver Burkeman and Karen Hao to challenge her own embrace of AI. The Suno songs Alex generated serve as a recurring musical thread throughout the series.In a recent episode, “I’m So Sycophantic,” Alex confronts Viv’s most irritating flaw: her pathological tendency to flatter Alex and agree with everything she says.The show’s intriguing premise reminded me of another podcast I love, Evan Ratliff’s Shell Game, whose second season debuted recently. Both are excellent explorations of what it’s like to engage deeply with AI assistants, resourceful and flawed as they are.Five tips from Alex1. Use Suno to turn words into catchy musicWhat Suno is: An AI music generation platform for creating custom songsAlex uses Suno extensively to create songs for her podcast about AI, treating it as a storytelling tool rather than just music creation.“I’m like a monkey with a slot machine. It’s pretty typical for me to generate the same song 50 or 100 times, maybe even 200 times,” she says.The iterative process helps her find the perfect version. She says Suno struggles with switching between male and female voices, musical styles, or languages mid-song. Alex suggests bringing your own lyrics to Suno for better results than relying on its built-in lyric generation. Here’s documentation she wrote up about how she uses Suno. An alternative she recommends: work iteratively with an AI assistant like Claude to develop lyrics that you then import into Suno.Try it for: Turning articles or announcements into short promo songs; creating engaging musical explainers; or generating a newsletter signup song.Alternatives: Udio, ElevenLabs MusicSponsored MessageYour data knows what it wants to beData doesn’t have to be dull. With Flourish, you go from spreadsheet to show-stopping visuals in seconds. Upload your data, get instant chart suggestions, and drop them right into your Canva design. It’s fast, easy, and looks amazing!2. Coda: Create your own productivity hubWhat Coda is: Software tool for creating customized documents and databases. I’ve written about how underrated Coda is as an alternative to other useful tools like Notion and Airtable.Alex calls Coda an everything hub where you can build your own tools. New AI features make it easier to use and more flexible. Alex used Coda to design her own “pitch machine,” a sophisticated story tracking system.She has one table in the pitch machine with all of her story ideas. Another table in Coda has all the publications she writes for, with editors’ names and contact info. With the press of a button in Coda, she can combine multiple story pitches into a single Gmail draft while automatically updating tracking fields and follow-up dates. It took a while to set up, but now saves her time. Who is Coda for? Alex recommends Coda for power users who like messing around with tech. She offers this test: “If you use XLOOKUP in Excel, then you should use Coda. If you don’t know XLOOKUP, you should use Notion. It’s like a nerd-o-meter.”Try it for: Project and campaign idea tracking, managing a client database, or automated email or Slack message generation.Alternatives: Notion, Airtable, Google Workspace, Obsidian3. CapCut: Create social videos with AI help What it is: Video editing platform with AI featuresAlex uses CapCut, along with custom Python scripts, to create music videos for Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. She says she has mixed feelings about CapCut because of its TikTok/ByteDance ownership, but relies on it for now. She’s been working on a system for syncing the appearance of captions on screen to the moment when song lyrics are heard.Try it for: Creating stylish, captioned social media videos or turning podcasts into videos.Alternatives: Captions, Descript, or Kapwing4. Claude + MCP: connect AI to your docsWhat it is: AI assistant connected to external databases and tools via Model Context Protocol (MCP)MCP servers let you connect sites and apps to AI platforms. That’s how Alex connected her Coda account to Claude. Now that they’re linked, Alex can pose casual questions to Claude, which can then look for things in her Coda docs.“I can actually just have a conversation with Claude and say, ‘Hey Claude, I just talked to an editor. They’re looking for articles about data privacy. Can you look at my Coda doc and see what story ideas I have that might be relevant?’”She emphasizes security considerations: journalists covering sensitive subjects should avoid this type of experimental workflow if they’re protecting anonymous source information.Try it for: Querying complex databases, finding relevant past work for new projects, analyzing patterns across your own documents, combining multiple data sources for insightsAlternatives: The Google Drive connector in Claude or ChatGPT; or a custom setup of NotebookLM.5. Claude Code: reduce repetitive workWhat it is: AI-powered coding assistant that runs locally on your computer. It helps developers code faster. It also helps non-programmers accomplish technical tasks using natural language prompts. You can use it to organize files on your laptop, create Python scripts, or make little interactive applications or games.Despite limited formal programming training, Alex has written approximately 200 Python scripts using Claude Code.She says, “Whenever you hear yourself with the deep sigh of, like, this is gonna be a drag, just go to the AI and say, hey, here’s this thing I have to do. Is there a way that could be made into a script?”Alex’s scripts have helped her combine PDFs and generate time-coded captions for video. She also used Claude Code to build her own Firefox extension for a financial tracking app.Try it for: Batch file processing, converting data, or whipping up browser extensions to solve specific-to-you problems.Alternatives: Replit, Cursor, Claude Artifacts, Windsurfp.s. CUNY’s Newmark Graduate School of Journalism is launching the first fully-online bilingual (Spanish/English) M.A program. Learn more and apply by December 5! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wondertools.substack.com/subscribe

15-second summary of this post: Your phone is now a pocket AI studio. Design a presentation, get voice coaching, conduct research, or make a quick infographic. The biggest players — ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, and Claude — all offer numerous free features on both iOS and Android. And a growing group of alternative AI apps now offer private AI for free. [See my recommendations for free, private AI on your laptop.] Read on👇 for a guide to the most notable features of the top AI chat apps.ChatGPT: Your Conversationalist 🗣️ iOS & AndroidAdvanced Voice Mode is the ChatGPT app’s most distinctive feature. Ask it to play a tough interviewer or a skeptical client as you prepare for a difficult conversation. Or have it ask questions to help you make a decision. Most of what you can do on your laptop you can do in the ChatGPT mobile app. * Create an image. Ask for an infographic, a cartoon, or a photo illustration. See examples of seven ways I use these images. * Ask for deep research. Get a detailed analysis with dozens of sources. See examples of nine ways I use this research. * Study & learn. This new mode helps you strengthen your skills & knowledge.* Analyze files or images. Turn a handwritten note into digital text, or make sense of any document, diagram, or manual. When I can’t figure out how to assemble or operate something, this offers faster help than a Google search. * Use integrated apps. You can now access Canva, Figma, Spotify, Expedia, and other tools inside ChatGPT. Try prompting for a graphic within ChatGPT while waiting in line with your phone, then edit it later in Canva.👇Pulse is ChatGPT’s best new pro mobile feature. It creates customized notes for me every morning. The AI assistant synthesizes info from my chat history, my Google Calendar, and what I’ve expressed an interest in learning. This morning’s Pulse note, for example, included tactics for using new Substack features, Penguin stories for sharing with my daughter, and breakfast ideas I had asked about for my rice cooker and bread machine. These aren’t news updates — they’re personalized resources prepared by an AI assistant. I don’t use or recommend relying on AI assistants for news searches, especially given AI’s struggles with news accuracy. Caveat: Pulse isn’t yet available for free accounts. Gemini: Your Creative Partner 🧑‍🎨 iOS & AndroidThe Gemini app has five special features, in addition to its core chat capability.* “Nano Banana” image generation model. Edit photos, blend multiple images, or design a poster. Worth trying: ask it to turn any image from your phone into a record album, book cover, or billboard poster.* Deep Research. Generate exhaustive reports with citations whenever you need thorough background on an issue. Try this prompt: “Create a step‑by‑step plan to adopt [tool/technology] in a team of [size]. Include costs, training time, change‑management risks, and how to measure success. Cite case studies.” See a few of my tips for strengthening deep research queries. * Veo 3 video generation. Paid accounts only. Create 8-second clips with Veo 3.1, Google’s new video model. Experiment: create a slick moving background for a slide. * Canvas. Make an infographic, a quiz, or a simple game. Quick test: make a self-grading quiz to challenge yourself on something you’re learning. * Guided Learning. Put Gemini in teacher mode to help you gradually strengthen your understanding of anything. Try this: ask it to walk you through the history of any concept or tech you’re curious about. When I choose Gemini: I use it as an alternative to ChatGPT and Claude when I want particular kinds of image edits and creative image designs. I also use it to experiment with generating short video clips, for guided learning, and for research reports. Sponsored MessageShare anywhere. Stay brilliant.With Flourish, your interactive charts go wherever your story lives. Embed them in websites, blogs, reports, or campaigns. Each one stays live, on-brand, and beautifully in sync as your data updates. No coding. No fuss. Just visuals that travel beautifully.Claude: Your Mobile Studio 👷 iOS & AndroidClaude’s app has a new voice mode I like. It waits for me to tap the screen to signal I’m done, so it rarely cuts me off when I pause to think—unlike ChatGPT, which often assumes I’ve finished talking. You can choose from five voices. Create on the GoCreate Artifacts — interactive little applications — from your phone. You can make games, learning resources, document templates or other useful mini programs. You can also now use Claude Code from your phone. What I most value about Claude is its excellent Projects feature, which lets me organize relevant documents and instructions for each distinct area of work. I use other tools (like ChatGPT, Gemini) for images and video, which Claude doesn’t do, but I rely on Claude for assistance with alt-text, SEO text, project planning, and other tasks where understanding my context is crucial. Copilot: A Flexible Assistant 🧑‍💼 iOS & AndroidMicrosoft’s Copilot app is a good free option that’s similar to ChatGPT and based on the same OpenAI models. One distinction is a new “real talk” mode that will sometimes challenge you. This helps address the sycophancy problem of AI chatbots blindly affirming your statements. Other useful features: Copilot can generate a podcast episode on any subject (like this one about Wonder Tools). It can also generate an image, run a deep research report, quiz you on a subject of your choice, conduct a voice chat. Like ChatGPT, it can even help you understand something in your environment. Turn on your camera or load something onto your screen, then ask Copilot questions something you’re looking at. Ask it about fine print in a document, a confusing gadget, a troubled plant🌾, or anything else. Perplexity: The Quick Researcher 🧑‍🔬 iOS & AndroidI rely on Perplexity for help understanding complex concepts. The mobile app’s voice mode is especially useful for quick searching and getting a summarized response instead of a list of links. For niche searches, adjust Perplexity’s settings to focus only on finance info, academic sources, or social sites for Reddit results. You can also use Perplexity to search your Outlook email or your Gmail and Google Calendar📆 for messages on a particular subject. Tip: Turn on incognito mode in settings anytime you’re searching on a sensitive or private subject. And as with all AI tools, avoid giving a thumbs up or down to a query because rating it signals that you’re OK with it being read and analyzed. Read more about why I find Perplexity so useful🎯 Free & Low-Cost AI App Alternatives Locally AI 📍 iOS | FreeBenefits: Free. No log-in required. Fully private. No data tracking. Easy to use.Getting started. Pick a compact open-source large language model suited for your phone’s processing power. I considered options from Qwen, Meta, and Google. Qwen 3 supports 100 languages and Meta’s Llama excels at summarization. I picked Gemma 3 QAT from Google. If you’re a tech novice or don’t care about those details, just pick Gemma as your model and you’ll be fine. Brief wait to get started. I had to keep the app open for about two minutes to download the language model to my phone. You only have to do that once. How I used it: I recently asked for a custom workout, given my constraints (no equipment, limited time) and personal fitness priorities. The result was helpful and similar to what I got from ChatGPT. Nice features * Customize or personalize your responses by inputting a prompt that will guide the app across all the individual chats. You can explain your personal or professional circumstances, for instance, or your preferences for concise or detailed answers, or any other needs you have for how the AI responds to you. * Set up Siri shortcut. You can activate Siri and say “Hey Locally AI…” to run a local AI search privately with your voice. * Well-reviewed. People seem to like it: 4.8/5 average rating with 208 reviews.* Vision tools. You can use this private AI app for text recognition, object recognition or image comprehension. That’s useful if you want to use your phone privately to understand secure documents or convert personal handwritten notes into text. To get that benefit, within the app download the Qwen 2 VL model recommended for iPhone 15 or newer phones. Caveats* Not the top models. ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini perform better for image analysis than the small mobile models this app enables. * Slow start. Expect to wait several minutes each time you download a new model, including the first time you use the app. * No plug-ins. I couldn’t connect this app to other services. Sponsored MessageFree event: Become an AI Builder in a Day (No Engineering Required) – Nov 6On November 6, 12-4 PM ET, join Section for a half-day of micro-workshops. Hear from AI experts and get practical frameworks you can apply immediately, and a certificate to showcase your new skills.Private LLM | iOS and Mac | $5 Nice features* One purchase for iPhone, iPad and Mac. Family sharing means you can share the app with five family members for free. * Choose from 60+ models. Lots of models available in this app aren’t options in Locally AI. That may not matter, unless you’re eager to use a very specific model. * Change AI models’ creativity level. Unlike Locally AI, this app allows you to adjust the “temperature” setting of your AI models to control how predictable or creative responses are. A model set to a low temperature sticks to more consistent, predictable answers, while one set to a higher temperature will generate more varied, imaginative replies. Caveats* Single chat stream. You can’t create multiple distinct chats in this app. Most other AI tools, including the Locally AI app, let you separate conversations into distinct threads for different subjects. * No help picking models. Figuring out which one to try is tricky with this app. You can click a tiny information button that links to a separate Hugging Face web page about the model, but there’s no easy-to-understand summary for novices. Locally AI has helpful concise summaries showing each model’s strengths. PocketPal AI | iOS and Android | Free Nice features* Fully Private. No conversations, prompts, or data leave your device. * Create custom “pals.” Set up multiple AI assistants or “personalities,” with different settings and system prompts.* Access models from Hugging Face. Choose from many small AI models. Caveats* May not work well on all Android phones. Depending on your phone’s age, the app might feel slow. A lot of Play Store reviewers reported this problem.* Mediocre ratings. 4.1 out of 5 with 1,200 reviews is OK, but not stellar. * The user interface lacks polish. The design isn’t as elegant as what you’ll find on Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, or other top-tier apps. But it’s free, and if the AI responses are useful, you may tolerate a lower-quality interface. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wondertools.substack.com/subscribe

Claude feels like a genie to me. With its Artifacts feature I can turn any idea I have into an interactive application, visualization, or graphic. Yesterday I created a Flashcard maker and a breathing app. No coding. Just a short AI chat conversation. No complexity. I dream up an idea, and Claude makes it instantly real. I iterate with chat to make it better. Read on for a guide to making the most of Artifacts with examples and ideas you can build yourself.✨ How to turn ideas into apps (no coding)* Create a free Claude.ai account or log in if you already have one.* Navigate to the “Artifacts” tab.* Pick one of the existing templates in the Inspiration gallery to customize.* If you don’t want to use a template, click “New Artifact” in the top right corner of the Artifacts landing page. Pick a category of interest (e.g. Games, Quizzes, etc). Chat with Claude to iteratively design an artifact.* Customize your Artifact by pasting or uploading specific content you want it to use, or by defining a particular color palette or design style. Explain how you want it to work or ask Claude to guide you with questions.* Test out the Artifact. Click “Publish” when you’re ready to get a shareable link and optional embed code.* Return to the Artifact later to update or change it. * 🔁 Repeat to make as many Artifacts as you want. Free users may run into rate limits.Sponsored MessageLet your data do all the talkingTurn spreadsheets into sleek, interactive visuals without a line of code. With Flourish, you can quickly create charts, maps, and interactive content that impress clients, engage audiences, and make your insights crystal clear.💡Try These: Apps You Can Make Right Now✏️ Master Any Subject (Study tools you can make)Create a resource to help you learn whatever you want. Use specific facts, diagrams, documents, or other materials to seed the assistant, or ask Claude to suggest relevant info. The flashcard maker I created lets me paste in some text, upload a PDF, or just describe a topic of interest. It instantly generates 10 questions for me. [See my prior post on using AI for Learning].My Example: Instant Flashcard Maker📊 Visualize Your DataIn addition to summarizing documents or transforming files, you can use AI to make sense of data. Ask Claude to analyze or visualize info in specific formats or with your preferred design sensibility. You can upload reference images or your style guide, or just specify style or tone.My Example: Visualize CSV Data🎭 Design Custom QuizzesIt’s now easy to make your own version of “Which Harry Potter House Are You?” quizzes. Pick a subject and supply some questions. Or ask Claude to propose questions and you can act as the editor. These can be just silly or they can help students or colleagues figure out where they stand on an issue.My Example: What’s Your AI Personality?🔗 Make Content InteractiveInclude a link to an Artifact in your next piece of writing or presentation to add an interactive element. Invite readers or viewers to try it for themselves. Ideas: a visual story summary, a quiz, infographic, dashboard, or a customized cost calculator. 🧮How to get started: Upload or paste content you’ve created —or a transcript, if it’s audio or video— and chat with Claude about interactive supplements that might be useful for your reader.Examples - WT Conference Toolkit Guide - Note-Taking Devices — Interactive Summary Table Sponsored MessageBento Focus | In the era of AI, noise is increasing. It’s time to take your focus seriously! ✅ Test Your KnowledgeTesting yourself helps identify knowledge gaps. You can upload specific material you’re aiming to master or just ask Claude to design a quiz Artifact for you on any subject. Give it context about your level and the kinds of questions you’ll find most useful, as well as your preferred quiz length.My Example: Liquidation preference quiz🎯 Build a Decision HelperFigure out which of multiple options works for you. This kind of interactive poses a series of preference questions to determine a result based on your answers. It guides decisions based on whatever criteria and grounding info you provide. To customize my own matching tools, I use my own writing, analysis and research to serve as the basis for the Claude Artifact. I based the following examples on my own research on AI learning modes and note-taking tools.Examples - Find your preferred AI learning mode - Find Your Perfect Note-Taking Tool🧘 Create Calm (Meditation & timer apps)Claude Artifacts can employ timers and graphics. To make a simple breathing app, I gave Claude instructions about the 4-7-8 breathing pattern. 4 seconds of breathing in; 7 seconds holding; 8 seconds of exhalation. I included a link to the source article from which I drew the information, and instructed Claude to run four cycles of the breathing timer for an activity that would last about a minute.Example: My 60-second breathing relaxation app🎮 Make a GameIt’s simple to make puzzles, simple arcade-style games, or word games. Describe the game you have in mind or ask Claude to give you some ideas to work with. Create your own version of something you loved to play as a kid, or a brain teaser to give yourself a playful mental break at work.Example: Word MorphOther ideas for what to make:* A specialized assistant for single-purpose tasks like generating a QR code, cleaning up messy notes, translating phrases, or assessing headline ideas* A banner image like the one above I made for this post* A prototype site like this mood canvas to share an idea with a colleague* A document or template like this PRD maker (for product requirements) to reformat your own content* Visualizations for creativity or quick prototyping* Campaign dashboards for sharing performance metrics* Sales pipeline forecasts or other interactive charts ⚠️ Limitations to Consider* Sometimes Claude leaves out a detail or a button doesn’t work. Other times, what you’ve envisioned doesn’t look quite right. Solution: You often have to prompt the model to make corrections, which it does well.* Artifacts don’t have built-in databases to store information. So if you create a habit tracker or content calendar, what you type in during one session won’t be stored for later. You can ask it to add an export capability, but if you need the tool to store data you can return to, you’re better off with a more sophisticated AI coding tool (for so-called '“vibe coding”) like Windsurf, Bolt, or Lovable.* While powerful, these Artifacts aren’t agents that can go out to the Web and interact with multiple data sources to update an app.🔄 Similar Tools Worth TryingGemini Canvas | Google’s Gemini also excels at creating great interactives and tools. I made this little alt-text generator for Wonder Tools with a short prompt that took less than a minute. I asked it to handle multiple images and offer two alt-text options for each. Canvas is free for all users; a pro subscription gets you access to a more powerful model. Perplexity Labs lets you generate detailed reports with infographics, create visual dashboards with business or economic data, or make other interactive graphics. Here’s an example of a family museum itinerary planner, and a coffee shop’s financial dashboard. Additional examples: Check out Perplexity’s Project Gallery for inspiring ideas. Caveat: Unlike Claude Artifacts and Gemini’s Canvas, which can be used for free, Perplexity Labs requires a $20/month subscription. What will you create next? Share your Artifacts in the comments 👇 or reply to this email—I’d love to see what you build. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wondertools.substack.com/subscribe

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wondertools.substack.com/subscribe