As useful as they are for finding misplaced belongings, AirTags and other item location trackers are also misused to track people. Today, Apple and Google announced a joint effort aimed at creating an industry standard to combat unwanted tracking. According to a press release fro … | Continue reading
Mona is a brand new, highly customizable Mastodon client from Junyu Kuang, the developer of Spring, which is one of the few remaining third-party Twitter clients that still works and pioneered many of the features found in Mona. Mona, which is available on the iPhone, iPad, and M … | Continue reading
Are you tired of juggling multiple browser tabs while working on your Mac? Unite 4 for macOS revolutionizes your browsing experience by allowing you to transform any website into a tailor-made app for your Mac. Leveraging a lightweight, WebKit-powered browser as a backend, Unite … | Continue reading
Vertical split view in Fiery Feeds. A few weeks ago on Mastodon, I shared a simple feature request: a split-screen mode for iPhone RSS readers that would allow me to scroll headlines in the one half of the screen and preview actual articles in the other. If this sounds familiar, … | Continue reading
[audio_player src=”https://cdn.simplecast.com/audio/0de98bba-5e4d-4879-94dc-8c76a3a88322/episodes/3e96ae07-6ea2-42cf-a88f-ffbe99d2a33f/audio/6e5898c9-1cec-4ac0-9d67-a5bfbea50b97/default_tc.mp3?nocache” total_duration=”00:36:43” caption=”“] [subscribe_to_unwind] Welcome to the all … | Continue reading
I’ve been thinking about app scalability a lot lately – most recently in the context of TestFlight, which I find is incredibly frustrating to use, at best, and, on the Mac, often unusable. This isn’t a new problem for me, but I haven’t mentioned it much in the past because I’ve s … | Continue reading
MacStories Unwind began as an experiment that sprung from the 2020 pandemic lockdowns. It started as a recap of the week at MacStories paired with a couple of quick media picks for listeners who were stuck at home. Early last year, we refocused the show on the media picks, which … | Continue reading
This week on AppStories, Federico explains his return to the Mac, including his hardware setup and the apps he’s using, and I recommend some apps he should try. [subscribe_to_appstories] Sponsored by: Dropshare – The most flexible file-sharing solution for macOS and iOS that just … | Continue reading
Because Club MacStories now encompasses more than just newsletters, we’ve created a guide to the past week’s happenings: MacStories Weekly: Issue 365 Federico’s Dashboard note in Obsidian includes an ‘On My Mind’ section that he prepends notes to using Shortcuts. Moving windows o … | Continue reading
Streaks is one of the best-known habit-tracking apps on the App Store. In addition to linking to the Health app to help improve your health and wellbeing, you can use it for anything! Work, hobbies, exercise, timers, and more - it’s extremely customizable. We’ve just released Str … | Continue reading
[audio_player src=”https://cdn.simplecast.com/audio/0de98bba-5e4d-4879-94dc-8c76a3a88322/episodes/28013c75-aeb8-4054-bf7f-8804a3fa6fcf/audio/d847ff37-3553-4462-bc9f-d67217351e4b/default_tc.mp3?nocache” mime_type=”audio/mpeg” total_duration=”00:16:49” caption=”“] [subscribe_to_unw … | Continue reading
Hyperduck is a recent utility from Sindre Sorhus for sending URLs from an iPhone or iPad to your Mac that has some very interesting applications. Hyperduck hasn’t replaced my use of AirDrop, Handoff, and other Apple technologies that move data between devices, but it has extended … | Continue reading
This week on AppStories, we dig into third-party apps with excellent shortcuts support. [subscribe_to_appstories] Sponsored by: Viso – Beautiful minimal image viewer for macOS. On AppStories+, My Mac Studio is in the shop, so Federico and I are both using MacBook Airs. We deliver … | Continue reading
Last spring, I reviewed Bike, Jesse Grosjean of Hog Bay Software’s excellent outlining app for the Mac. The app’s simple, elegant design keeps the focus on the outline you’re creating, while its rich, keyboard-driven set of features enable ideas to be organized quickly and effici … | Continue reading
Because Club MacStories now encompasses more than just newsletters, we’ve created a guide to the past week’s happenings: The Making of S-GPT, Part 1: Using the ChatGPT API with Apple’s Shortcuts App to Have Conversations with OpenAI’s Assistant Last week saw the return of Federic … | Continue reading
MenuBar Stats is a suite of 9 menu bar modules for monitoring your Mac developed over the course of 10 years of listening carefully to customer feedback. The app tracks your Mac’s: Battery Bluetooth CPU Disk GPU Memory Network And, with a helper app, your Mac’s temperature and fa … | Continue reading
As we head into the weekend, we wanted to let everyone know that we’ve extended the Automation April Shortcuts Contest to Friday, April 21st, at 5:00 PM Eastern US time. That gives you four extra days to finish your shortcuts and submit them. Remember: You can submit up to two sh … | Continue reading
[audio_player src=”https://cdn.simplecast.com/audio/0de98bba-5e4d-4879-94dc-8c76a3a88322/episodes/a26979d2-e1ed-490b-a9a5-5b2cff9efe84/audio/10a7e907-ed1d-4caf-bccb-a3e8b6e03c20/default_tc.mp3?nocache” mime_type=”audio/mpeg” total_duration=”00:18:04” caption=”“] [subscribe_to_unw … | Continue reading
A core perk of a Club MacStories+ or Club Premier membership is the wide variety of discounts on our favorite apps and services we offer in partnership with developers. Our app discount program brings Club members a long list of deals that regularly rotate, so there’s always some … | Continue reading
Source: furbo.org. Yesterday, Craig Hockenberry announced a free Apple TV app he created called Blank. The app blanks out your TV screen until you press a button on the Apple TV remote. That way, you can listen to music or a podcast through an Apple TV without also watching the a … | Continue reading
S-GPT 1.0.2. I just published version 1.0.2 of S-GPT, the shortcut I released last week to have conversations with OpenAI’s ChatGPT and integrate it directly with native features of Apple’s OSes. You can find the updated download link at the end of this post, in the original arti … | Continue reading
In 2021, I reviewed the Loupedeck Live, a programmable control panel for the Mac and Windows PCs for Club MacStories members as part of my Macintosh Desktop Experience column. It’s an excellent device, but its price put it at a disadvantage to a similarly-sized Elgato Stream Deck … | Continue reading
This week on AppStories, I explain my new link management workflow, combining a series of apps and shortcuts, and Federico shares more about his S-GPT shortcut that integrates ChatGPT with Apple’s OSes. [subscribe_to_appstories] Sponsored by: Zocdoc – Find the right doctor, right … | Continue reading
Because Club MacStories now encompasses more than just newsletters, we’ve created a guide to the past week’s happenings: MacStories Weekly: Issue 363 Evil-GPT A tip from Federico on how to ensure the Apple Watch defaults to dictation for text input when running a shortcut. Custom … | Continue reading
BetterTouchTool is an essential Mac application that has stood the test of time since it was one of the first to be covered by MacStories back in November 2009. In its early days, BetterTouchTool was a simple application primarily designed for adding customizable gestures to MacB … | Continue reading
[audio_player src=”https://cdn.simplecast.com/audio/0de98bba-5e4d-4879-94dc-8c76a3a88322/episodes/bee00697-19b9-462b-88f4-b91707455b25/audio/f93a6c77-33c8-4a40-a42c-1d533c761729/default_tc.mp3?nocache” mime_type=”audio/mpeg” total_duration=”00:25:27” caption=”“] [subscribe_to_unw … | Continue reading
I just released a small bug fix update for S-GPT, my shortcut to integrate OpenAI’s ChatGPT large language model with the Shortcuts app on all Apple platforms. Version 1.0.1 of S-GPT is a relatively minor update that comes with an initial round of improvements based on early feed … | Continue reading
S-GPT for Shortcuts. It’s the inaugural week of the second annual edition of Automation April, and to celebrate the occasion, I’ve been working on something special: today, I’m introducing S-GPT, an advanced conversational shortcut for ChatGPT that bridges OpenAI’s assistant to n … | Continue reading
Jack Wellborn, one of our Automation April Shortcuts Contest judges, has a great post on his website that’s perfect for Automation April. As Jack explains, apps built for a general audience require some features to make way for the ones that most people use. While the approach is … | Continue reading
Links are the currency of information overload and distraction. There’s more media available than we could ever get to in a lifetime, and more things we might want to buy, places may want to visit, and other things to explore online than can be fit into a day. The same problem ex … | Continue reading
This week on AppStories, we check in on the shortcuts we use the most and the types of tasks we get the most bang for the buck from by automating. [subscribe_to_appstories] On AppStories+, Federico tours the world of wireless earbuds and shares his favorite AirPods Pro replacemen … | Continue reading
We’re very excited to announce the second annual Automation April Shortcuts Contest, which, along with all of Automation April is dedicated to the memory of Alex Hay, the developer of Toolbox Pro and other apps. As we had hoped when we introduced Automation April last year, the A … | Continue reading
Because Club MacStories now encompasses more than just newsletters, we’ve created a guide to the past week’s happenings: MacStories Weekly: Issue 362 Federico shared a shortcut that uses the web-based notification service Alerty I shared thoughts on where I’d like to see the MacB … | Continue reading
Today, Charlie Chapman released Dark Noise 3.0, his iOS, iPadOS, and macOS ambient noise app, with a new business model, some remastered sounds, and other updates. The biggest change to Dark Noise 3.0 is its new business model. Historically, Dark Noise has been a paid-up-front ap … | Continue reading
SaneBox is the all-in-one solution to email clutter and overload, so you can spend less time managing email and more time on what matters. It works with any email client or service, and any device - literally anywhere you check your email. Oh, and there’s nothing to download or i … | Continue reading
Today, the Steve Jobs Archive said it will publish a digital book called Make Something Wonderful: Steve Jobs in his own words on April 11th. The Archive, an online repository of historical material from Steve Jobs’ life, was announced at the Code Conference last fall. According … | Continue reading
[audio_player src=”https://cdn.simplecast.com/audio/0de98bba-5e4d-4879-94dc-8c76a3a88322/episodes/1e554e3b-3a50-49dd-9eba-7ec88020788d/audio/cce7ebd6-6490-4227-88fd-5fe6359dc712/default_tc.mp3?nocache” mime_type=”audio/mpeg” total_duration=”00:23:50” caption=”“] [subscribe_to_unw … | Continue reading
Too often, media tracking apps feel like work. There’s too much effort involved in adding and browsing items, which makes them feel more like task managers than an inviting place that helps you decide how you want to spend your precious free time. Apps in this category seem to ta … | Continue reading
Kirk McElhearn has been writing about classical music on Apple platforms for nearly 20 years, which makes his Apple Music Classical review on TidBITS a must read for classical listeners. As McElhearn explains, searching for classical works is more complex than pop music: You may … | Continue reading
Apple has announced that WWDC will be an online-only event this year, running from June 5-9, 2023, but with a corresponding limited in-person event for developers, students, and press like last year. The company also opened submissions for the Swift Student Challenge from now thr … | Continue reading
CleanMyMac X has been updated, expanding its utility beyond the borders of your Mac by tracking the battery status of connected devices and adding management of outboard storage. The new features, collectively called Connected Devices, are part of CleanMyMac X’s menu bar app. Cli … | Continue reading
Cabel Sasser thinks Apple should build a standalone password management app, and he’s right. Here’s what Cabel suggests: In my dumble opinion, Apple should: Break Passwords out into a standalone app, with an actual fully resizable window (!!), and full, proper UI for most of its … | Continue reading
This week on AppStories, we each pick two apps we’ve been enjoying recently and explain why. [subscribe_to_appstories] Sponsored by: Squarespace – Make your next move. Enter offer code APPSTORIES at checkout to get 10% off your first purchase. Setapp – More than 230 powerful apps … | Continue reading
CYME announced today that its app Peakto has added Pixelmator Pro integration. Peakto is a Mac app that uses AI to organize your photos from numerous sources, including Apple Photos, Lightroom Classic, Luminar, Capture One, and more. The app handles multiple file types and offers … | Continue reading
I enjoyed this explanation by The Verge’s Tom Warren on how Microsoft’s Phone Link app – which has long allowed Android users to connect their smartphones to a Windows PC – has been updated to support iOS notifications and sending texts via iMessage. From the story: The setup pro … | Continue reading
iOS 16.4 brings new emoji, push notifications for web apps on the Home Screen , Mastodon link previews, and more. Today, Apple is releasing iOS and iPadOS 16.4, the fourth major updates to the OSes that introduced support for the customizable Lock Screen and Stage Manager last ye … | Continue reading
Because Club MacStories now encompasses more than just newsletters, we’ve created a guide to the past week’s happenings: MacStories Weekly: Issue 322 Ulysses joined the list of discounts available to Club MacStories+ and Premier members, with 50% off a first year’s subscription f … | Continue reading
I have some sad news to share with the MacStories community. Recently, Alex Hay, the developer of Toolbox Pro and other apps, passed away after a battle with cancer. I can’t tell you how hard it is to write those words, and I can only imagine what those closest to Alex are going … | Continue reading