Yesterday's Top Launches: 5 Tools from July 13, 2026
A new Effects SDK lets developers easily add professional video and audio features like background blur directly into their apps while keeping all processing secure and private on the user's device.
If you’re building anything with real-time video, you’ll want to check out the Effects SDK that launched yesterday. It tackles a massive challenge for developers: how to add professional-grade video and audio effects—like background blur, virtual backgrounds, and noise suppression—without building the complex AI processing from scratch. This SDK handles all the heavy lifting, from video segmentation to cross-platform performance, and the best part is that everything runs client-side. Your users’ video data never leaves their device, which is a huge win for privacy and helps keep latency super low. It integrates with popular video stacks like WebRTC, LiveKit, and Zoom, and it smartly uses the best available hardware (WebGPU, WASM) to ensure smooth performance. For any team working on video conferencing, live streaming, or social apps, this could cut development time significantly.
Shifting gears from a serious development tool to a satirical take on the development world, San Fran Sim offers a hilarious and surprisingly educational simulation of running a software startup. You begin in a garage and navigate your way toward an IPO, making decisions about shipping features, fixing bugs (which multiply if you ignore them), and managing your burn rate. A dry narrator comments on your every mistake as you learn the real impact of SaaS metrics like MRR and churn. It’s like Theme Hospital for the tech set, set in a “lovingly legally-distinct” San Francisco. The best part? It’s completely free to play in your browser with no sign-up required. It’s a perfect distraction for anyone who’s ever wondered what it’s really like to be a founder, without any of the actual financial risk.
For developers and creators who use Kickbacks.ai, the Kickbacks CLI is a neat little utility that brings your earnings and ad activity right into your terminal or Mac menu bar. The problem it solves is simple but real: constantly switching to a web dashboard to check your stats breaks your workflow. This tool lets you see your live earnings at a glance, pipe the data into other scripts, and keep a menu bar widget in sync, all without leaving your coding environment. It’s a focused solution that values efficiency, designed to fit into just a few lines of your terminal. If you live in the command line, this is a no-brainer for staying updated without the context switching.
Audio routing on a Mac has always been more complicated than it should be. SoundPipe is a new virtual audio mixer for macOS that finally makes it intuitive. Instead of fiddling with complex configurations or paying for expensive software, SoundPipe gives you a visual board where you can literally draw wires from any audio source (like an app or a microphone) to any destination. Each channel has live meters and volume control, and the whole system runs with impressively low latency. The driver installs with one click—no terminal commands needed. At a one-time cost of $10 with a free trial available, it’s an excellent tool for streamers, musicians, or anyone who needs to route audio between applications cleanly and easily.
Rounding out yesterday’s launches is Breathing In Labour, a mobile app focused on a very specific and important need: preparing for childbirth through breathing techniques. The challenge it addresses is that while birth classes teach these methods, remembering them during the intensity of labor is difficult. This app turns memorization into muscle memory with a hyper-minimalist, distraction-free interface that guides you through each rhythm. It’s completely free for the core features, with no ads or forced accounts, and includes a full guide on why each technique works. While built for expectant parents, the breathing exercises are useful for anyone managing stress or anxiety. It’s a thoughtful, purpose-built tool that does one thing very well.