MacStories Unwind: I’m 35, I’ve Had a Hot Dog!

[audio_player src=”https://cdn.simplecast.com/audio/0de98bba-5e4d-4879-94dc-8c76a3a88322/episodes/4b9b484c-9800-4fff-b988-bef82530ce87/audio/09ba9b68-8bca-4414-9abe-6c6122170e68/default_tc.mp3?nocache” mime_type=”audio/mpeg” total_duration=”00:24:01” caption=”“] [subscribe_to_unw … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

Mercury Weather: A Crystal Clear Design for Every Apple Device

There’s something for everyone in the weather app category. There are incredibly technical, complex apps, apps with a narrow focus, ones junked up with ads that don’t respect your privacy, and everything in between. One of my favorite newer entrants in the category that I’ve been … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

AppStories, Episode 347 – A Classic Pick 2

This week on AppStories, we each share two app recommendations in a classic Pick 2 episode. [subscribe_to_appstories] Sponsored by: Fitbod: Get stronger, faster with a fitness plan that fits you. Get 25% off your membership. On AppStories+, Federico has a mini surprise, and I exp … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

Zenitizer: An Simple, Elegant Way to Practice and Track Meditation Sessions

Zenitizer 1.2, an iOS, iPadOS, and watchOS meditation app by Manuel Kehl, was released yesterday, adding iCloud sync support. The update means that progress toward your meditation goals and routines you create on any version of the app will sync across all devices for the first t … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

The Verge Marks the iMac’s Silver Anniversary

Yesterday, the iMac turned 25, and The Verge had an excellent trio of articles, plus a visual history, covering the computer’s impact on Apple, the computer industry, and culture. The series includes a look back at the introduction of the iMac in 1998 by Jason Snell and the many … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

Finalist: A Notepad-Inspired Task Manager

Finalist is a new iPhone and iPad task manager that combines elements of note-taking apps, Kanban boards, and calendar apps in a unique and interesting way. The result is a lightweight app that’s simple and quick to use but unlikely to replace a fully-featured task manager for mo … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

Game On: Papers, Please Milestones, Netflix Eyes TV Gaming, Vampire Survivors and Rolando News, Plus an RPG for the Weekend

Lucas Pope’s critically acclaimed dystopian puzzle game Papers, Please celebrated a big milestone this week. As reported by Engadget, the game just passed its 10th anniversary and has sold 5 million copies, which is huge for an indie title. Of course, the game is on every platfor … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

MacStories Unwind: The Beanie Baby Craze

[audio_player src=”https://cdn.simplecast.com/audio/0de98bba-5e4d-4879-94dc-8c76a3a88322/episodes/10f212be-8d8f-4b51-a830-aadd0dc34ccb/audio/ce1b8b58-3baa-4b5d-a6df-c66bd8643d66/default_tc.mp3?nocache” mime_type=”audio/mpeg” total_duration=”00:22:12” caption=”“] [subscribe_to_unw … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

AppStories, Episode 346 – Why The Way Apps Are Made Has Changed

This week on AppStories, we look at how making apps has changed along with the evolution of Apple’s hardware lineup and what that means for the future of apps on those platforms. [subscribe_to_appstories] Sponsored by: Concepts - Sketch, Note, Draw. Zocdoc: Find the right doctor, … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

Söka: An AI Assisted App to Track Your Bucket Lists

Just before I hopped on a plane to head to WWDC, I noticed a new app called Söka, an iOS and iPadOS bucket list tracker by Roddy Munro. I didn’t have time to dig into the details or test it, but there was something about it that caught my eye, so I made a note […] | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

Apple Music Gains New Algorithmic ‘Discovery Station’

Juli Clover, writing for MacRumors on a new addition to Apple Music: Apple Music today gained a new “Discovery Station,” which is located under the “Listen Now” section under Top Picks in the ‌Apple Music‌ app. The customized radio station is paired with the personalized radio st … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

Callsheet Provides Movie and TV Details with an Uncluttered Native Interface

Today, Casey Liss released a brand new app called Callsheet for looking up cast and crew information about movies and TV shows. The app, which works on the iPhone and iPad (and Apple silicon Macs in compatibility mode), has a lot in common with movie and TV show tracking apps tha … | 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: AV Club Edition: Silo, on Apple TV+

[audio_player src=”https://cdn.simplecast.com/audio/0de98bba-5e4d-4879-94dc-8c76a3a88322/episodes/6b4a0850-ea2f-4926-ae39-8ee80a52d17b/audio/9fe62b66-6902-4b93-99a1-44db50927558/default_tc.mp3?nocache” mime_type=”audio/mpeg” total_duration=”00:34:30” caption=”“] [subscribe_to_unw … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

Apple Reports Quarterly Revenue of $81.8 Billion for Q3 2023, A 1% Decline Over Q3 2022

Today, Apple announced $81.8 billion in Q3 2023 revenue, a drop of 1% year-over-year that was likely driven by a soft global economy that has caused an industry-wide reduction in smartphone demand. The results mark the third consecutive quarter of revenue declines for the company … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

AppStories, Episode 345 – Where Is The App Economy Heading?

This week on AppStories, we examine the latest app trends and where Apple’s system apps are heading to try to answer the question of where the world of apps is heading. [subscribe_to_appstories] Sponsored by: Vitally – A new era for customer success productivity. Get a free pair … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

Game On: More Netflix Gaming, Return to Monkey Island, Spaceplan, and Jelly Car Worlds

Oxenfree II. Not long ago, I linked to an in-depth profile of Netflix Games published by The Ringer. It seems Netflix has been busy getting the word out to more publications because not long after The Ringer’s post, Ash Parrish of The Verge published a story about Netflix Games f … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

Apple and Others Announce Alliance to Develop Open Source 3D Technology

Today, Apple announced that it, along with Pixar, Adobe, Autodesk, and NVIDIA, have formed the Alliance for OpenUSD (AOUSD), to “promote the standardization, development, evolution, and growth of Pixar’s Universal Scene Description technology.” OpenUSD is a 3D screen description … | 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: It’s Easy to Break Your YAML

[audio_player src=”https://cdn.simplecast.com/audio/0de98bba-5e4d-4879-94dc-8c76a3a88322/episodes/7e52349c-3ee4-43b3-a036-4208dee0339e/audio/4274da40-a1b1-4c11-b7dc-cc51a3cd369d/default_tc.mp3?nocache” mime_type=”audio/mpeg” total_duration=”00:28:39” caption=”“] [subscribe_to_unw … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

AppStories, Episode 344 – macOS Sonoma and iOS and iPadOS 17 Public Betas

This week on AppStories, we talk about Safari, videoconferencing, Messages, and gaming on macOS Sonoma, plus stickers and widgets on iOS and iPadOS 17. [subscribe_to_appstories] Sponsored by: Concepts - Sketch, Note, Draw. Notion – Do your most efficient work with Notion Projects … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

Four Brand-New Deals for Club MacStories+ and Club Premier Members

One of the perks of a Club MacStories+ or Club Premier membership is discounts on a long list of great apps and services. Today, we’re pleased to add four new Mac apps to the growing catalog of deals available to members: Lasso – 30% off Lasso. Lasso is a Mac window manager that … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

Apple Announces visionOS App Evaluation Process, Labs, and Developer Kits

As previously announced at WWDC, Apple today rolled out more details on three programs it has created for helping developers build apps for Vision Pro. Developers will be able to submit their visionOS, iPadOS, and iOS apps for Vision Pro compatibility evaluations. Apple has inclu … | 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: What If a Donut Was a Line?

[audio_player src=”https://cdn.simplecast.com/audio/0de98bba-5e4d-4879-94dc-8c76a3a88322/episodes/dd5ae1b1-ebf7-4a44-afb0-0193ace66efc/audio/9655f761-9020-40b5-adef-9b95fb3c8d1e/default_tc.mp3?nocache” mime_type=”audio/mpeg” total_duration=”00:23:40” caption=”“] [subscribe_to_unw … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

Game On: Pokémon Sleep, Stardew Valley+, Dead Cells, Netflix Gaming, Unity’s PolySpatial Beta, and Epic Games’ Battle with Apple

The videogame industry is huge, surpassing movies and music by wide margins. Apple has seen a lot of success with mobile games, but it’s history with desktop gaming leaves a lot to be desired. However, one thing is clear. Apple wants to expand its presence in the videogame indust … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

A Quietly Big Year for tvOS

Speaking of catching up on my reading queue: here’s Chris Welch, writing at The Verge last week about tvOS 17: tvOS 17 isn’t trying to reinvent any of this. There are now six icons in each row, so you can add yet another app to your main “dock” at the top of the screen, but […] | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

More on iPadOS 17’s Stage Manager

As I always do every summer, I read other journalists’ opinions about the new versions of iOS and iPadOS after I’ve published my preview story. This week, as I’m catching up on my reading queue (yes, I’m still using the Reading List/Notes setup I described here), I was pleased to … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

Netflix’s Slow and Steady Infiltration of the Videogame Industry

Last week, The Ringer published an in-depth look at Netfix’s foray into videogame publishing, which, to this point, has primarily consisted of mobile games on iOS, iPadOS, and Android. The story goes back to 2017, when Netflix published a retro-style game tie-in with Stranger Thi … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

Unity Launches PolySpatial Beta Program for visionOS Developers

What the Golf? running on visionOS. Source: Unity. Today, as promised at WWDC, Unity launched a beta technology for visionOS developers called PolySpatial, which is designed to help developers bring their apps and games to the Vision Pro, which Apple has said will debut in early … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

An In-Depth Look at StandBy and the StandBy Chargers We Recommend

John: Part of the widget story for all of Apple’s OSes this fall is StandBy, an iPhone-only mode that displays widgets, a clock, or photos when your device is stationary and charging in landscape orientation. When StandBy was first rumored before WWDC, I was skeptical. It didn’t … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

The App Store’s New Apps and Games of the Week Collections

The App Store is at once infinitely large and impossibly small. As a digital storefront, the App Store can accommodate an endless number of apps on its virtual shelves. However, at the same time, the App Store has to contend with screens as small as the iPhone SE’s 4.7” display. … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

AppStories, Episode 343 – watchOS and macOS Sonoma Public Beta Previews

This week on AppStories, I’m joined by Alex Guyot to talk about the watchOS 10 and macOS Sonoma public betas. [subscribe_to_appstories] Sponsored by: Concepts - Sketch, Note, Draw. Fitbod: Get stronger, faster with a fitness plan that fits you. Get 25% off your membership. On App … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

WaterMinder: Stay Hydrated All Day, Every Day [Sponsor]

It’s summertime, and with high temperatures comes the need to stay hydrated. The trouble is, you’re busy and have a lot going on every day, which can make it hard to remember to grab a glass of water, let alone keep track of how much you’ve had during the course of a day. That’s … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

MacStories Unwind: How We Write

[audio_player src=”https://cdn.simplecast.com/audio/0de98bba-5e4d-4879-94dc-8c76a3a88322/episodes/6b731c78-a3ce-451f-a4bf-61a5bc816596/audio/1e4081cb-df32-4a41-8175-abc2419ab8a7/default_tc.mp3?nocache” mime_type=”audio/mpeg” total_duration=”00:24:44” caption=”“] [subscribe_to_unw … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

The Case for Videogame and App Preservation

On the same day that the App Store turned 15, the Video Game History Foundation released a study that concludes 87% of all classic videogames released in the US are no longer commercially available. The study looked at a broad cross-section of platforms and found that this isn’t … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

David Smith on Adapting Widgetsmith’s Weather Features to visionOS

David Smith has been poking around the visionOS SDK and chronicling his efforts on his website. His latest experiment was to take the weather forecast part of Widgetsmith and adapt it to visionOS. We’ve seen a lot of developers post screenshots of what their app looks like when i … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

On the Value of Threads’ Social Graph

Jason Tate, in his always-excellent Liner Notes newsletter1, has written about the practical value of Threads’ built-in social graph and how it differs from signing up for Mastodon or Bluesky: This is a key (and likely killer) feature for onboarding someone into Threads. Like Tik … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

watchOS 10: The MacStories Preview

Apple itself is hailing watchOS 10 as the largest software update since the introduction of the Apple Watch. I’m not sure I quite agree with that characterization, but it’s certainly the biggest update we’ve seen in many years. The tenth iteration of watchOS includes an exciting … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

macOS Sonoma: The MacStories Preview

Never before have the iPhone, iPad, and Mac been as interconnected as they are today. It wasn’t that long ago that the iPhone was, well, the iPhone, the iPad was essentially a big iPhone, and the Mac was off doing its own thing. Now, the iPad has its own OS, the Mac is running on … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

iOS and iPadOS 17 After One Month: It’s All About Widgets, Apps, and Stage Manager

Apple is releasing the first public betas of iOS and iPadOS 17 today, and I’ll cut right to the chase: I’ve been using both of them on my primary devices since WWDC, and I’m very satisfied with the new features and improvements I’ve seen to date – especially on iPadOS. More impor … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

Shiny Frog Releases Bear 2.0

Today, Shiny Frog launched Bear 2.0, a ground-up rewrite of its popular note-taking app that has been years in the making. The new version has been rebuilt with a custom text editing engine and introduces a long list of features, including: Tables Section folding Tables of conten … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

AppStories, Episode 342 – The Web Apps We Use

This week on AppStories, we explore the web apps and services we use and how we use them. [subscribe_to_appstories] Sponsored by: Zocdoc: Find the right doctor, right now with Zocdoc. Sign up for free. On AppStories+, we share our first impressions of Meta’s new social network, T … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

The App Store Turns 15

Fifteen years ago, the App Store opened its doors with 500 apps. Today, the number of apps has swelled to exceed more than 1.5 million. OmniFocus for iPhone. Of those first-day apps, a few are still around, including OmniFocus. Today, Ken Case, The Omni Group’s founder and CEO, s … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

Two-Day Indie Apps Sales Event Begins Tomorrow with over 100 Apps

Amazon’s Prime Day begins tomorrow and with the Internet in a buying mood, Matt Corey gathered indie developers to organize an App Store sale that runs from Tuesday, July 11 - 12. Corey, the maker of Bills to Budget and Signals, has put together a collection of over 100 apps that … | 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: What’s the Deal with Fireworks?

[audio_player src=”https://cdn.simplecast.com/audio/0de98bba-5e4d-4879-94dc-8c76a3a88322/episodes/15ac3912-1369-4fa1-98f1-19d428eb0784/audio/07c691c6-09f7-4515-bac6-8d531187935d/default_tc.mp3?nocache” mime_type=”audio/mpeg” total_duration=”00:23:02” caption=”“] [subscribe_to_unw … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago

Chronicling: A Flexible Event Tracker with Modern Features and A Top-Notch Design

Chronicling is a brand-new event tracking app for iOS and iPadOS by Rebecca Owen. The App Store is full of apps for tracking everything from the very specific, like caffeine consumption, to apps like Chronicling that can be used to track nearly anything. What makes Owen’s app uni … | Continue reading


@macstories.net | 1 year ago