Apple Music Replay Is Out, but for a Deeper Look at Your Music Habits, Try Last.fm

Yesterday, Apple released Apple Music Replay, its annual recap of Apple Music subscribers’ listening habits. The site is beautifully designed with images of artists coming to life with video when you’re not scrolling the page. Included this year are: A highlight reel Top artists … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 12 months ago

Play 2.0 Adds YouTube Channel Support, Folders, and a New Premium Subscription

Marcos Tanaka’s Play has become the way I watch YouTube, which isn’t something I expected would happen as much as I’ve enjoyed the app since its launch early last year. The app, available on the iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV, started as a way to save YouTube links to watch late … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 12 months ago

AppStories, Episode 361 – Nerding Out for the Holidays (Part 2)

This week on AppStories, we conclude our tour of their geeky holiday projects. [subscribe_to_appstories] Sponsored by: Notion – Do your most efficient work with Notion AI. Try it free today. Vitally – A new era for customer success productivity. Get a free pair of AirPods Pro whe … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

Stupid Companies Make AI Promises. Smart Companies Have AI Policies [Sponsor]

It seems like every company is scrambling to stake their claim in the AI goldrush–check out the CEO of Kroger promising to bring LLMs into the dairy aisle. And front line workers are following suit–experimenting with AI so they can work faster and do more. In the few short months … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

MacStories Unwind: The Untold Story of Turkey Pardons

[audio_player src=”https://cdn.simplecast.com/audio/0de98bba-5e4d-4879-94dc-8c76a3a88322/episodes/e8f123e1-2d7c-4cce-a671-988b304f6e74/audio/7ce9221e-8b48-449b-9c3a-d2ffef387eb9/default_tc.mp3?nocache” mime_type=”audio/mpeg” total_duration=”00:20:16” caption=”“] [subscribe_to_unw … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

Introducing the New MacStories Setups Page

Federico’s setup (left) and John’s (right). Setup optimization is a never-ending journey at MacStories. We’re always looking for the fastest, most efficient, and often, most portable way to do everything in our lives. The result is constant change. Hardware and apps are swapped i … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

Spotlight on Club MacStories+ and Club Premier App Discounts

When we launched Club MacStories+ and Club Premier in 2021, we offered members exclusive deals on around a dozen of our favorite apps and services. In the two years since expanding the Club, our discount program has grown substantially. Now, thanks to the generosity of the develo … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

Over 300 Indie Apps On Sale From Black Friday Through Cyber Monday

It’s almost Black Friday, and Matt Corey gathered indie developers to organize an app sale that runs from November 24 to November 28th, 2023. Corey, the maker of Bills to Budget, Signals, and other apps that are part of the sale, has put together a collection of over 300 apps tha … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

20% Off MacStories Shortcuts Icons (Classic and Color), Perspective Icons, and Club MacStories+ and Premier Memberships

Federico’s Dynamic Island featuring the Launcher live activity with Shortcuts Icons (Classic). Black Friday and Cyber Monday are upon us, and we’ve prepared deals to celebrate the occasion at MacStories: starting today, November 22nd through Monday, November 27th with 20% off the … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

Procreate Dreams First Impressions

Artwork source: Procreate. I’ve been playing with Procreate Dreams for about a week. The brand new animation app from Procreate shares a lot of DNA with the company’s flagship drawing and painting app. As a result, despite my limited time and scant artistic talents, I expect Proc … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

Quiche Browser Is a Beautiful and Modular Web Browser for iOS

As part of my ongoing experiment with third-party web browsers for the iPhone, I recently stumbled upon a new indie browser for iOS, which I was instantly drawn to thanks to its adorable name. Quiche Browser is a beautiful browser developed by Greg de J that focuses on UI modular … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

AppStories, Episode 360 – Nerding Out for the Holidays (Part 1)

This week on AppStories, we share our geeky holiday season tech projects. [subscribe_to_appstories] Sponsored by: Vitally – A new era for customer success productivity. Get a free pair of AirPods Pro when you book a qualified meeting. On AppStories+, Federico and I revisit artifi … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

MacStories Unwind, AV Club Edition: Super Mario Bros. Wonder

[audio_player src=”https://cdn.simplecast.com/audio/0de98bba-5e4d-4879-94dc-8c76a3a88322/episodes/f6a8c609-6a68-4e7a-af45-e37aa7d6146d/audio/06ccce9a-e5d3-45c3-a09a-c142636a9185/default_tc.mp3?nocache” mime_type=”audio/mpeg” total_duration=”00:30:16” caption=”“] [subscribe_to_unw … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

Apple to Support RCS Messaging in 2024

In a surprising move, Apple announced today that it will adopt the RCS messaging standard. The company, which has been under pressure from government regulators around the world and competitors like Google and Samsung, told Chance Miller of 9to5Mac: Later next year, we will be ad … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

I Tried to Run Cities: Skylines 2 on My M2 MacBook Air via Apple’s Game Porting Toolkit… And I Discovered A Great App Instead

I have always been a huge fan of city-building games. The first video game I ever played was SimCity 3000, on my uncle’s bulky PC running Windows 2000. I then went on to play SimCity 4 throughout middle and high school. Sadly, EA’s reboot of the franchise in 2013 was a sizable di … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

Apple Announces Close to 40 App Store Awards Finalists

Today, Apple announced the finalists for its App Store Awards, a selection of apps that the App Store Editorial team picks each fall to recognize “their excellence, inventiveness, and technical achievement” in ten categories. Introducing award finalists is a departure for Apple f … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

Using the iPad Pro as a Portable Monitor for My Nintendo Switch with Orion, a Capture Card, and a Battery Pack

Tears of the Kingdom on my iPad Pro. Those who have been reading MacStories for a while know that I have a peculiar obsession for portable setups free of the constraints typically involved with working at a desk or playing games in front of a TV. It’s not that I don’t want to hav … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

AppStories, Episode 359 – Getting Your Digital Life in Order

This week on AppStories, we tackle the struggle with staying organized in the face of the never-ending stream of files and other information. [subscribe_to_appstories] Sponsored by: Notion – Do your most efficient work with Notion AI. Try it free today. On AppStories+, The Chambe … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

Coming Soon: The Sixth Annual MacStories Selects Awards, Readers’ Choice Award, and Lifetime Achievement Award

The sixth annual MacStories Selects Awards are just around the corner. The awards honor our favorite apps in a wide variety of categories. Winners will receive a physical MacStories Selects award designed by MacStories’ own Silvia Gatta. As with last year, awards will be selected … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

The Dirty Secret of OS Updates [Sponsor]

Getting OS updates installed on end user devices should be easy. After all, it’s one of the simplest yet most impactful ways that every employee can practice good security.  On top of that, every MDM solution promises that it will automate the process and install updates with no … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

Crash Detection Saves Unconscious AppleInsider Writer

The Apple Watch and iPhone’s crash detection has saved a lot of lives, and you probably think of it as something for when you’re driving your car. However, as AppleInsider’s Daniel Eran Dilger discovered, it works with scooters, too. Dilger was in a serious accident while riding … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

MacStories Unwind: A Trip to Flavortown

[audio_player src=”https://cdn.simplecast.com/audio/0de98bba-5e4d-4879-94dc-8c76a3a88322/episodes/0e4f46f0-b50b-4337-b6c3-31e14d3ccc43/audio/35dadffd-5826-466b-a06e-3012f31c2baf/default_tc.mp3?nocache” mime_type=”audio/mpeg” total_duration=”00:26:19” caption=”“] [subscribe_to_unw … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

Widgets Upon Widgets: Interactivity Everywhere

Ever since Apple updated its OSes, I’ve been trying a long list of widgets. We’ve written about a lot of them, but there are always more, so I gathered up some additional favorites that are worth trying if you haven’t yet. Let’s have a look. Music Widgets Doppler, Longplay, and W … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

Garage Access as a Service: The Chamberlain Group’s Anti-Consumer Approach to the Smart Home

Source: The Chamberlain Group. When you install a garage door in your home, you expect to have full access to how it works – at least, that’s how it worked historically. As Jennifer Pattison Touhy explains for The Verge, that’s not at all the case with The Chamberlain Group, whic … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

Apple Announces the Swift Student Challenge Will Begin in February 2024 and New Everyone Can Code Resources

Source: Apple. It’s hard to believe that it has been over nine years since Apple announced the Swift programming language at WWDC. From the day it debuted, one of the pillars of Swift has been Apple’s education efforts, which have included Swift Playgrounds, materials for teacher … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

Using Shortcuts to Display the Temperature from My Outdoor Sensor in the Menu Bar

I have always enjoyed having the current temperature in the menu bar on my Mac. Even though macOS Sonoma now supports adding a Weather widget of your choice directly to the desktop, I still prefer how a menu bar item is always glanceable and visible regardless of how crowded the … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

AppStories, Episode 358 – The Trouble with Task Management

This week on AppStories, we explore why there are so many good task managers, but none is a perfect fit with the way we work. [subscribe_to_appstories] Sponsored by: Zocdoc – Find the right doctor, right now with Zocdoc. Sign up for free. Vitally – A new era for customer success … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

Apple Updates Logic Pro for iPad and Mac

Source: Apple. Today, Apple announced updates to Logic Pro for the iPad and Mac. Both platforms gain support for 32-bit float recording and Mastering Assistant, which the company says “can instantly analyze the audio and make expert refinements to the sound, adjusting elements su … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

Stupid Companies Make AI Promises. Smart Companies Have AI Policies [Sponsor]

It seems like every company is scrambling to stake their claim in the AI goldrush–check out the CEO of Kroger promising to bring LLMs into the dairy aisle. And front line workers are following suit–experimenting with AI so they can work faster and do more. In the few short months … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

MacStories Unwind: You Know I Have a Problem with Controllers

[audio_player src=”https://cdn.simplecast.com/audio/0de98bba-5e4d-4879-94dc-8c76a3a88322/episodes/9f01e223-1f2c-43a6-8d2c-663f59cda40d/audio/345c9009-98d8-4a5c-a192-db76f1afa578/default_tc.mp3?nocache” mime_type=”audio/mpeg” total_duration=”00:21:23” caption=”“] [subscribe_to_unw … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

Apple Reports Quarterly Revenue of $89.5 Billion for Q4 2024

Apple’s last quarter marked a 1% decline in revenue compared to Q3 2023. Going into today’s call, expectations were for another roughly 1% revenue decline over the prior year’s fiscal fourth quarter, with consensus expectations of about $89.28 billion in revenue. The iPhone 15 se … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

Apple Reports Quarterly Revenue of $89.5 Billion for Q4 2023

Apple’s last quarter marked a 1% decline in revenue compared to Q3 2023. Going into today’s call, expectations were for another roughly 1% revenue decline over the prior year’s fiscal fourth quarter, with consensus expectations of about $89.28 billion in revenue. The iPhone 15 se … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

Audio Hijack Gains Beta Audio Transcription Feature

I’ve been playing around a lot with OpenAI’s Whisper speech-to-text engine this year. Whisper isn’t perfect, but it does a remarkably good job, substantially lowering the effort and cost of generating transcripts. There are dedicated apps to transcribe using Whisper like MacWhisp … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

Jason Snell’s Hands-On with the M3 MacBook Pros and iMac

Jason Snell of Six Colors got a sneak peek at the new Macs announced at yesterday’s Scary Fast Apple event. A lot of specs were thrown around by the company yesterday, but a software feature called Dynamic Caching really stood out because it’s clear that Apple is doing all it can … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

Shot on iPhone: Behind The Scenes of the Scary Fast Apple Event

Jess Weatherbed writing for The Verge: Behind-the-scenes footage of Apple’s Monday evening Scary Fast event reveals how it was filmed using an iPhone 15 Pro Max… with the aid of a full suite of professional recording equipment and studio lighting. Still images and a video reveal … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

AppStories, Episode 357 – Apple’s Scary Fast Event with Stephen Hackett

This week on AppStories, I was joined by Relay FM’s Stephen Hackett for a recap and thoughts on Apple’s Scary Fast event, which was recorded live in the Club MacStories+ Discord. [subscribe_to_appstories] Sponsored by: Notion – Do your most efficient work with Notion AI. Try it f … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

Apple’s October 2023 Scary Fast Event: All The Small Things

Apple’s presentation moved fast this evening, and since the event concluded, more details have emerged about everything announced. We’ve been combing Apple’s product pages, social media, and other sources to learn more about everything announced, which we’ve collected below: The … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

Apple’s October 2023 Scary Fast Event: By the Numbers

Today’s Scary Fast online Apple event was packed with facts, figures, and statistics throughout the presentation and elsewhere. We’ve pulled together the highlights. M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max Chips These are the first chips built on a 3-nanometer process. This process can fit up to … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

Apple Introduces the New MacBook Pro in Three M3 Chip Configurations

Source: Apple. One of the things I’ve enjoyed about the rollout of Apple silicon Macs is that the old rules don’t apply, and the new ones are still being written. The cadence of releases is still settling in, and today, in the face of speculation that Apple was struggling to rele … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

Apple Reveals New M3 iMac

The new iMac. Just over two years ago, I spent the summer with a 24” M1 iMac on my desk and loved it. The elegant simplicity of an all-in-one Mac with just a couple of cables trailing off the back side of the computer is wonderful. The all-in-one design of the M1 iMac wasn’t new, … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

Apple Announces Pricing and Availability Dates for New MacBook Pros and iMac with M3 Chips

Spooky Ternus. At this evening’s ‘Scary Fast’ Apple event, the company announced the new generation of M3 chips – M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max – that will power three new models of MacBook Pro and the updated iMac, which is getting a refresh for the first time since its redesign featur … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

Apple’s October 2023 Scary Fast Event: Replay Today’s Keynote

If you didn’t follow the livestream of today’s ‘Scary Fast’ Apple event, you can replay it on Apple’s Events site or YouTube. The keynote video can be streamed here and on the Apple TV using the TV app. A high-quality version will also be available through Apple Podcasts as a vid … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

Astropad’s Rock Paper Pencil Delivers A No-Compromise, Simple Paper-like Experience on iPad

It’s been years since I took a serious run at handwritten notes on the iPad. However, that changed with my recent experiments with the Boox Tab Ultra, which led me back to the benefits of jotting down handwritten notes as a quick capture system while I work. That’s why Aspropad’s … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

The Dirty Secret of OS Updates [Sponsor]

Getting OS updates installed on end user devices should be easy. After all, it’s one of the simplest yet most impactful ways that every employee can practice good security.  On top of that, every MDM solution promises that it will automate the process and install updates with no … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

MacStories Unwind: Don’t Bend the Fiber

[audio_player src=”https://cdn.simplecast.com/audio/0de98bba-5e4d-4879-94dc-8c76a3a88322/episodes/140a63c0-aab2-48cd-a97b-fc6be9ca8d60/audio/360e7bff-3bc0-452d-914a-0801cdf8725e/default_tc.mp3?nocache” mime_type=”audio/mpeg” total_duration=”00:19:19” caption=”“] [subscribe_to_unw … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

watchOS 10: The MacStories Review

In my watchOS 9 Review last year, I spent the introduction reminiscing on the more exciting days of watchOS yore. Those early years were full of whimsy and foolishness, with many wild and ambitious new features that failed far more often than they succeeded. By my count, it took … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

iOS 17.2 Beta’s Sticker Reactions Need a Different Approach

The first developer beta of iOS 17.2 was released earlier today, and among a variety of new features (I’ve been sharing some of the highlights on my Mastodon), there’s the highly anticipated expansion of Tapbacks with custom sticker reactions. The problem is that, put simply, thi … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

With Version 1.2, Matter Now Supports over 20 Device Types

Jennifer Pattison Tuohy, writing for The Verge on the latest update to Matter, the interoperable home automation standard: Matter — the IOT connectivity standard with ambitions to fix the smart home and make all of our gadgets talk to each other — has hit version 1.2, adding supp … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago