Source: Razer. Yesterday, Brendon and I wandered into a ballroom where Razer was showing off its latest hardware. We weren’t expecting much beyond super-powerful gaming laptops (✅) and lots of RGB lights (also ✅). However, just as our guided booth tour was ending, we asked about … | Continue reading
One of my favorite surprises during CES 2025 so far was when Brendon pointed to a small device sitting on a table at the GameSir booth and asked ‘What’s that?’ It turns out it was a prototype Game Boy-style smartphone controller that doubles as a battery pack. As Brendon explaine … | Continue reading
Yesterday, Brendon Bigley and I walked over 8 miles on the CES show floor in search of ‘the next big thing’ in handheld gaming. We ended a long day against the backdrop of the Las Vegas Sphere to talk about what we’d seen and our initial impressions of what it all means to the fu … | Continue reading
CES kicked off Sunday evening with Unveiled, a press-only showcase of a subset of gadgets that I found a little underwhelming. It’s not that there hasn’t been interesting tech announced at the event, but it’s buried under strata of hype, over-the-top marketing, and a sea of buzzw … | Continue reading
Two days ago was the 25th anniversary of Steve Jobs unveiling the Aqua interface for Mac OS X for first time at Macworld Expo. James Thomson published a great personal retrospective on one particular item of the Aqua UI that was shown off at the event: the original dock. The vers … | Continue reading
With a press release following an otherwise packed keynote at CES (which John and Brendon, my NPC co-hosts, attended in person last night), NVIDIA announced that their streaming service GeForce NOW is going to natively support the Apple Vision Pro…well, sort of. There aren’t that … | Continue reading
Source: Apple. Apple has announced a slew of additions to its fitness subscription service, Apple Fitness+, including new workout programs for strength, yoga “peak poses”, breath meditation, and even training for pickleball. New editions of the Artist Spotlight series are also on … | Continue reading
Source: espresso Displays. Late yesterday, espresso Displays announced the addition of a new portable display to its Pro lineup. The espresso 15 Pro joins the company’s 17 Pro, which was released last year. Highlights of the 15.6” display include a brighter 60Hz 4K screen and a n … | Continue reading
Shazam has released the Shazam Fast Forward 2025, a group of artists that the music recognition service expects to break out in 2025. As explained on its dedicated Shazam Fast Forward 2025 website: These are Shazam’s Predictions for breakthrough artists in 2025. 50 artists from t … | Continue reading
PowerPhotos is the ultimate toolbox for Photos on the Mac. It works in conjunction with the Apple Photos app, filling in missing features that Photos itself doesn’t provide. PowerPhotos allows you to work with multiple Photos libraries and store them wherever you want, including … | Continue reading
Today, I began packing my bag full of the gear I’m bringing to CES. I’m excited because it’s shaping up to be a very NPC CES. Brendon, Federico, and I started NPC: Next Portable Console because we each sensed that handheld gaming had reached a tipping point. Thanks to the Nintend … | Continue reading
Packing for CES has been a little different than WWDC. The biggest differences are the huge crowds at CES and the limits the conference puts on the bags you can carry into venues. My trusty Tom Bihn Synapse 25 backpack isn’t big, but it’s too large for CES, so the first thing I d … | Continue reading
NPC has been a lot of fun to produce this year. If you haven’t tried the show yet, this week’s episode is a good place to start because it brings together so much of what we’ve covered since launching the show in June. NPC: Next Portable Console To close out 2024, Federico, Brend … | Continue reading
Enjoy the latest episodes from MacStories’ family of podcasts: AppStories This week, Federico and I round up the tech and productivity projects we have planned for our annual holiday break. On AppStories+, I explain the refinements he’s made to my reading setup. Comfort Zone Chri … | Continue reading
Yesterday, the team at Lux announced that they are working on the next major release of their pro camera app, Halide, which will be dubbed Halide Mark III. The next iteration of Halide, which Lux hopes to release in 2025 will focus on three areas: Color Grades: Like Kino, their A … | Continue reading
In 2024, I came to grips with the fact that I’ll never be an E Ink-first reader. Most of my reading is web-based, and I like having all of my reading-adjacent apps available too much to use a Kindle, Boox Palma, or other reading-first device regularly. That’s why I was immediatel … | Continue reading
WinterFest 2024: The Festival of Artisanal Software is back with a fantastic new collection of carefully crafted software for writing, research, and thinkings. Innovative software often comes from small teams, fired with imagination and a vision of a better way to work. There are … | Continue reading
About six months ago, Josh King posted on the SBCGaming subreddit about a 3D printed iPhone game controller he’d created called the M-Con. The post was accompanied by a YouTube video walkthrough that lent credibility to the Sony PSP Go-like design, that connected to an iPhone usi … | Continue reading
Enjoy the latest episodes from MacStories’ family of podcasts: Comfort Zone Niléane has a new webcam, Chris is downing in keyboards, and everyone installs some web-ass web apps. Magic Rays of Light Sigmund and Devon share their favorite shows, films, apps, and more of the year. T … | Continue reading
In September, I wrote about two interoperability proceedings commenced by the European Commission (EC) against Apple. As I wrote then: In a nutshell, the EC is unhappy with connectivity between iOS and third-party devices and plans to tell the company how to comply. The second pa … | Continue reading
My 11” iPad Pro. For the past two years since my girlfriend and I moved into our new apartment, my desk has been in a constant state of flux. Those who have been reading MacStories for a while know why. There were two reasons: I couldn’t figure out how to use my iPad Pro for […] | Continue reading
Enjoy the latest episodes from MacStories’ family of podcasts: AppStories [[audio_player]] This week, Federico and I explore the trends that shaped the App Store in 2024. NPC: Next Portable Console As the year comes to a close, handheld makers haven’t slowed down. We have new dev … | Continue reading
Delta, the MacStories Selects App of the Year, received an important update today that allows users of the game emulator to support its development via Patreon from inside the app. Existing patrons can connect their Patreon accounts from Delta’s settings, too, allowing them to ac … | Continue reading
Apple’s App Store has published its year-end list of the top free and paid apps and games, along with its top Apple Arcade games. The top free apps are about what you’d expect. There are social networks, shopping apps, a few streaming music and video apps, Google, Gmail, McDonald … | Continue reading
Have you noticed an increase in unwanted robocalls or texts? At best, spam calls are an annoyance and a total waste of time. At worst, they’re targeted attempts to scam you for money or collect data that can be used for fraudulent purposes. Why You’re Getting Spammed on iOS Your … | Continue reading
Enjoy the latest episodes from MacStories’ family of podcasts: Comfort Zone Matt felt like bringing an intentionally controversial topic, Niléane refuses to admit she’s created a sticky note-based task manager, and everyone gives the iPad some much needed love. Magic Rays of Ligh … | Continue reading
Tim Hardwick, writing for MacRumors, on a strange limitation of the Apple Intelligence rollout earlier this week: Apple’s new Mail sorting features in iOS 18.2 are notably absent from both iPadOS 18.2 and macOS Sequoia 15.2, raising questions about the company’s rollout strategy … | Continue reading
Do you remember Music Memos? It was an iPhone app launched by Apple in 2016 that acted as a scratchpad for musicians. The idea was to quickly save musical ideas that could then be exported to GarageBand to be fleshed out. The app didn’t get many major updates and was discontinued … | Continue reading
iPhone App of the Year winner Kino. Source: Apple. Apple has revealed its annual App Store Awards winners, recognizing the standout apps and games of 2024. This year, the company picked a collection of apps and games from 17 developers across 12 categories, including new categori … | Continue reading
Today, Apple is releasing iOS and iPadOS 18.2, the second major updates to the iPhone and iPad’s latest operating system versions. Once again, this release’s main highlight is a wave of new Apple Intelligence features that are now available to the public. And just like in October … | Continue reading
The ChatGPT integration in iOS 18.2. Apple is releasing iOS and iPadOS 18.2 today, and with those software updates, the company is rolling out the second wave of Apple Intelligence features as part of their previously announced roadmap that will culminate with the arrival of deep … | Continue reading
Enjoy the latest episodes from MacStories’ family of podcasts: AppStories This week, Federico and John reveal the winners of the 2024 MacStories Selects Awards, which celebrate the exceptional design, innovation, and creativity of apps across the iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watc … | Continue reading
I vividly remember when Flipboard first debuted in 2010, kicking off the iPad digital magazine trend that spawned Apple Newsstand, The Daily, Zite and more. Of all those early publications, Flipboard remains, and it just so happens that because we published the MacStories RSS fee … | Continue reading
This year’s MacStories Selects App of the Year was never in question. No app has had a bigger political, cultural, and competitive impact on the App Store this year than Delta. On top of that, Delta is a beautifully designed, native app that takes advantage of Apple’s latest tech … | Continue reading
John: 2024 was a big year for apps, but it was also different from most. More often than not, app innovation is driven by new Apple APIs; that wasn’t the case this year. Instead, it was other trends that shaped the apps we love. Artificial intelligence played a big role, with som … | Continue reading
Transit Earlier this year, I took the time to step back from the tech news cycle and reflect on one of my favorite iPhone apps of all time, Transit. For the past decade and more — Transit first launched in 2012 — the app has been a powerful way to plan trips and look up […] | Continue reading
Enjoy the latest episodes from MacStories’ family of podcasts: Comfort Zone Niléane has taken to the skies in Flight Simulator, Chris wants to talk about yet another Mac, and the gang all looks for the best open source app (or web app!) they can find. Magic Rays of Light Sigmund … | Continue reading
If you’re looking to add a little holiday cheer to your Mac, be sure to check out Festivitas by developer Simon Støvring. The app lives in your Mac’s menu bar where you can switch between displaying colorful blinking holiday lights along your menu bar, dock, or both. The app requ … | Continue reading
Enjoy the latest episodes from MacStories’ family of podcasts: AppStories This week, Federico and I consider the differences between assistive and generative AI and cover the sort of automation tasks for which assistive AI is useful. On AppStories+, I share my skepticism about th … | Continue reading
Apple has released its annual Apple Music Replay overview of subscribers’ listening statistics for 2024. The recap can be accessed on the music.apple.com/replay, where you’ll find details about the music to which you listened throughout the year, including your top albums, songs, … | Continue reading
If you were around London’s Battersea Power Station – home to Apple’s UK headquarters – over the weekend, you might have spotted plasticine heroes Wallace and Gromit projected onto the station’s two 101-meter-high chimneys. While this could be dismissed as some giant-sized promot … | Continue reading
BetterTouchTool is a powerful macOS application that enables users to completely customize their various input devices such as Keyboards, the (Magic) Mouse and Magic Trackpad, the Touch Bar, the Siri Remote or even things like the Stream Deck. Today let’s have a look at a new fea … | Continue reading
Enjoy the latest episodes from MacStories’ family of podcasts: Comfort Zone “The gang has so much to be thankful for, including you, dear listeners. ❤️ Oh yeah, and they find new ways to listen to music before being revealing their absolute favorite Apple app.” Magic Rays of Ligh … | Continue reading
Back in 2020, John opened his review of HomePass 1.7 in this way: My HomeKit setup started out simple enough with a few Hue bulbs, but over time, it has grown to include security cameras, door sensors, electrical outlets, and more. As the number of accessories connected to my net … | Continue reading
It’s almost Black Friday, and Matt Corey gathered indie developers to organize an app sale that runs from November 29 to December 3rd, 2023. Corey, the maker of Bills to Budget, Signals for HomeKit, and other apps that are part of the sale, has put together a collection of over 2 … | Continue reading
Enjoy the latest episodes from MacStories’ family of podcasts: AppStories This week, John is joined by his NPC: Next Portable Console co-host Brendon Bigley for a conversation about Control Ultimate Edition coming to the Mac, Bluesky, a friendly interrogation about the apps and g … | Continue reading
With Black Friday sales in full swing and the holidays around the corner, we here at MacStories thought we’d each share gift ideas for the Apple nerd in your life. Some of these items are currently on sale, so be sure to get your shopping started and check them out soon. Federico … | Continue reading
Apple Frames 3.3 supports all the new devices released by Apple in 2024. Well, this certainly took longer than expected. Today, I’m happy to finally release version 3.3 of Apple Frames, my shortcut to put screenshots inside physical frames of Apple devices. In this new version, w … | Continue reading