This month, amidst the increasingly chaotic rumblings of the world in the news, I found myself looking for a new distraction. Since Civilization VII wasn’t out just yet, my eyes quickly turned to the vinyl record player that my partner and I had been storing in its cardboard box … | Continue reading
Enjoy the latest episodes from MacStories’ family of podcasts: Comfort Zone Niléane is developing an obsession with remotes, but she swears she’s finally got The One, Chris has found a box that lets him store anything, and another color-based challenge leads to controversy (who s … | Continue reading
Source: FlatpanelsHD. FlatpanelsHD has discovered that Netflix, long a holdout that was unavailable in Apple’s TV app, is beginning to prompt users to add the service to the TV app: Today, FlatpanelsHD received a prompt on Apple TV 4K to integrate Netflix into the Apple TV app, a … | Continue reading
Next Wednesday, Apple is holding a launch event for what Tim Cook described on X as ‘the newest member of the family.’ The cryptic post is accompanied by a short video of a shimmery Apple logo framed by a circle with a rainbow border. Quoting Cook’s post on X, Mark Gurman of Bloo … | Continue reading
In iOS 18.2, Apple introduced the ability for users to set their default apps for messaging, calling, call filtering, passwords, contactless payments, and keyboards. Previously, it was only possible to specify default apps for mail and browsing, so this was a big step forward. Wh … | Continue reading
Yesterday, it was reported that Apple had resumed advertising on X (formerly Twitter). The company ceased advertising on the site without comment in November 2023, but earlier this week, ads for a Safari privacy feature and the Apple TV+ show Severance began appearing on X. Apple … | Continue reading
Apple has released its TV app on the Google Play Store for Android users. In a press release, Apple stated: Available around the world, the Apple TV app for Android was built from the ground up to deliver Android users a familiar and intuitive interface. Android users can subscri … | Continue reading
Federico’s Todoist shortcuts. Earlier today, Federico released a collection of four advanced Todoist shortcuts as part of his Automation Academy column, an exclusive perk of Club MacStories+ and Club Premier. Federico started using Todoist again a few months ago specifically beca … | Continue reading
Enjoy the latest episodes from MacStories’ family of podcasts: AppStories This week, Federico and I say goodbye to the AppStories+ pre-show and hello to the new post-show. Then, for the main event, we update listeners on how MacStories plans to cover AI news and tools. On AppStor … | Continue reading
Yesterday, Apple published a support document explaining how to migrate purchases from one Apple Account to another for users everywhere except the EU, UK, and India. This process solves a very particular problem for users who have separate Apple Accounts for digital purchases ac … | Continue reading
Today, Apple announced a broad-based research study that is being conducted in a partnership with Harvard’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital. The study, which U.S. residents can access through Apple’s Research app, aims to evaluate how technology can play a role in understanding heal … | Continue reading
Source: Beats. It’s been six years since the original Powerbeats Pro debuted, so it’s no surprise that Beats has finally updated them. The new wireless headphones, which are great for running and other activities because they hook over your ears, have a slimmer, more vertical des … | Continue reading
In this week’s extended post-show for AppStories+ subscribers, Federico and I covered the AI tools we use. NotebookLM is one we have in common because it’s such a powerful research tool. The service allows you to upload documents and other files to a notebook and then query what … | Continue reading
Enjoy the latest episodes from MacStories’ family of podcasts: Comfort Zone Matt made an app and brings a very, very unbiased take on it, Chris has solved some of his tech paper cuts, and Niléane probably won yet another challenge by bringing a really rad Apple TV remote. MacStor … | Continue reading
Joseph Menn, writing for *The Washington Post*: Security officials in the United Kingdom have demanded that Apple create a back door allowing them to retrieve all the content any Apple user worldwide has uploaded to the cloud, people familiar with the matter told The Washington P … | Continue reading
Busy day at Google today: the company rolled out version 2.0 of its Gemini AI assistant (previously announced in December) with a variety of new and updated models to more users. From the Google blog: Today, we’re making the updated Gemini 2.0 Flash generally available via the Ge … | Continue reading
Tapestry (left) and Reeder. Writing at The Verge following the release of The Iconfactory’s new app Tapestry, David Pierce perfectly encapsulates how I feel about the idea of “timeline apps” (a name that I’m totally going to steal, thanks David): What I like even more, though, … | Continue reading
Apple Invites is now available on the App Store as a free download. The app, which Apple just announced, is iPhone-only allows users to send and receive invitations to events – yes, invitations, invites is not a noun. Here’s what the onboarding looks like: The app can generate fu … | Continue reading
Average scores from the 2024 Six Colors report card. Source: Six Colors. For the past 10 years, Six Colors’ Jason Snell has put together an “Apple report card” – a survey to assess the current state of Apple “as seen through the eyes of writers, editors, developers, podcasters, a … | Continue reading
Back in 2021, Silvio Rizzi, developer of the all-time great RSS client Reeder , released Mela, an app for importing, collecting, and sharing recipes. Right from the start, Mela stood out as a delightful take on the recipe app genre. Just like Reeder, it features a beautiful desig … | Continue reading
Enjoy the latest episodes from MacStories’ family of podcasts: Comfort Zone Matt is unable to defend himself as he’s on the lamb, Chris is exploring that Mac life, and Niléane has some snazzy new headphones. Then Chris edited with AI to pretty good effect and Niléane tried using … | Continue reading
Fascinating blog post by Vidit Bhargava (creator of the excellent LookUp dictionary app) about how he worked on his master thesis with the aid of Google’s NotebookLM. I used NotebookLM throughout my thesis, not because I was interested in it generating content for me (I think AI … | Continue reading
Apple’s Anhui, China store. Source: Apple. Last quarter, Apple reported revenue of $94.9 billion, which was a 6% year-over-year gain. Today, first-quarter 2025 earnings are out and Apple reported record revenue of $124.3 billion, a 4% year-over-year gain. The diluted earnings per … | Continue reading
Enjoy the latest episodes from MacStories’ family of podcasts: AppStories This week, for episode 420 Federico and John are joined by Matt Birchler, co-host of Comfort Zone and many other projects to talk about web apps, email, AI, and more. On AppStories+, Matt, John, and Federic … | Continue reading
Game Tracker is a new videogame tracking app for iPhone, iPad, and Mac from Simone Montalto, who is probably best known to MacStories readers for developing the excellent Book Tracker. In fact, Montalto has created an entire suite of tracking apps that also includes Movie Tracker … | Continue reading
Bookshop.org launched in 2020 as a way to sell books online while still supporting local bookstores, which have become a rarity in the U.S. The company has seen success selling physical books online. As Boone Ashworth explains at Wired: For physical books, Bookshop lets buyers di … | Continue reading
Behold, the BlingPod. Source: Sotheby’s Sotheby’s is auctioning the estate of renowned designer Karl Lagerfeld. The auction house, which is auctioning the estate’s assets in multiple lots includes several collections of classic iPods and custom iPods, like the ultra-blinged-out o … | Continue reading
Starting them young. Source: Apple. The drip, drip, drip of Apple Intelligence continues with iOS and iPadOS 18.3. There are still some big-ticket features announced at WWDC 2024 that are yet to come, but with today’s release, Apple keeps ticking items off its list. The biggest c … | Continue reading
DeepSeek’s newfound popularity has made it impossible to log in as of the publication of this story. And just like that, ChatGPT has been dethroned from its perch at the top of the App Store’s free app list, replaced by DeepSeek, another AI app. What’s interesting is that DeepSee … | Continue reading
Source: Apple. To honor Black History Month, which starts in February, Apple has released a new Black Unity Collection. Similar to 2024’s collection, the 2025 edition includes a Sport Loop band, iPhone and iPad wallpapers, and an Apple Watch face. According to Apple’s press relea … | Continue reading
We’ve updated MacStories’ iPad hub. You may not have noticed before, but it’s linked right there in the masthead, and it’s an amazing resource. The iPad hub collects over a decade of Federico’s coverage of years of iPad hardware and iPadOS. It’s a fantastic historical resource an … | Continue reading
Enjoy the latest episodes from MacStories’ family of podcasts: Comfort Zone Matt has an announcement to make (and a cool app to talk about), Chris brought a bag of goodies, and Niléane brought a fun challenge around using our mice in interesting ways. Magic Rays of Light Sigmund … | Continue reading
The Epic Games Store, which is available in the E.U. on iOS as a result of the Digital Markets Act and globally on Android, is expanding. During a press briefing, Epic’s Tim Sweeney said: Our aim here isn’t just to launch a bunch of different stores in different places, but to bu … | Continue reading
YouTuber Two F Zero T has a first look at the STRUTT ev¹, a personal mobility device that was shown off at CES and can be controlled with the Vision Pro. The video, which I first saw linked by Apple’s Mike Stern on Mastodon, demonstrates the impressive tech packed into the STRUTT … | Continue reading
Enjoy the latest episodes from MacStories’ family of podcasts: AppStories This week, Federico and John look ahead to WWDC and beyond to consider how Apple Intelligence could be used to change the way we use our iPhones, iPads, and Macs. On AppStories+, Federico has grievances abo … | Continue reading
I’ve followed Netflix Games’ journey closely for the last three years. The company has dipped its toe into a wide variety of genres but stood out for its deep catalog of artistic indie games, including recent additions like Monument Valley 3. However, based on an earnings call re … | Continue reading
Jennifer Pattison Touhy has a story on The Verge today about a technology debuting soon that turns existing smart lights into motion sensors: Sensify is a proprietary technology based on wireless network sensing (WNS) that works with Zigbee-based smart devices, like Hue smart lig … | Continue reading
I’ve been intrigued by the BANG!CASE ever since it was introduced by Bitmo Lab as a Kickstarter campaign about a year ago. The case includes a programmable button that can be used to automate actions using your iPhone’s accessibility features. However, because I don’t normally us … | Continue reading
Enjoy the latest episodes from MacStories’ family of podcasts: Comfort Zone In this very special episode, the gang makes their “Pro” and “Pro Max” predictions for tech in 2025 and oh my, does it get wild! Who’s best clued into the tech coming this year? Who is just wish-casting t … | Continue reading
MacStories’ video rollout on YouTube continues today with MacStories Unwind, the podcast where Federico and I swap funny stories about the differences between life in the U.S. and Italy and share media picks and deals. The show is released every Friday, just in time to enjoy a go … | Continue reading
Earlier today Nintendo announced the first official details about the Switch 2 console. There are still a lot of unknowns, but there are interesting details that can be gleaned from Nintendo’s video announcement. Join Federico, Brendon, and me for our reactions to the announcemen … | Continue reading
The second half of 2024 saw a lot of change to my setup and Federico’s. We launched the MacStories YouTube channel, expanded our family of podcasts, and spent time chasing the ultimate portable gaming setup for NPC: Next Portable Console. The result was that our setups have evolv … | Continue reading
Sindre Sorhus has released more apps than most indie developers I’ve covered, and many are among my favorite utilities. I suspect that a big part of Sorhus’ success is the tight focus of most of those apps, which are designed to eliminate specific points of friction for users. So … | Continue reading
Sebastian Vogelsang, the Berlin-based developer of Skeets, an alternative to Bluesky’s official client, is working on a new photo-sharing app called Flashes that is built on the same codebase as Skeets. As reported by Sarah Perez at TechCrunch: When launched, Flashes could tap in … | Continue reading
Enjoy the latest episodes from MacStories’ family of podcasts: AppStories This week on AppStories, Federico and John predict what we’ll see from Apple in 2025. From agentic AI to App Intents and Siri, they explore what will shape the year ahead and the implications to users and d … | Continue reading
Introducing 1Blocker 6, the most powerful version yet of the trusted Safari content blocker. Now available for iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Vision Pro, this update marks almost a decade of innovation and dedication to creating a better web experience. For ten years, 1Blocker has been y … | Continue reading
Enjoy the latest episodes from MacStories’ family of podcasts: Comfort Zone Niléane is out, so Chris and Matt are left to fend on their own. Chris steals like an artist and Matt defends a new purchase. Ruminate Some snack reviews from the festive period, Robb was on another podca … | Continue reading
Just over two years ago, MacStories left Twitter behind. We left when Elon Musk began dismantling the company’s trust and safety infrastructure, allowing hateful speech and harassment on the platform. Meta is now doing the same thing with Threads and Instagram, so we’re leaving t … | Continue reading