Enjoy the latest episodes from MacStories’ family of podcasts: Comfort Zone Chris simplifies his backpack, Matt has complex feelings about the new Affinity Studio, and Niléane’s challenge has her questioning the sanity of the American suburbs. On Cozy Zone, everyone reveals what … | Continue reading
Quite the scoop from Mark Gurman yesterday on what Apple is planning for major Siri improvements in 2026: Apple Inc. is planning to pay about $1 billion a year for an ultrapowerful 1.2 trillion parameter artificial intelligence model developed by Alphabet Inc.’s Google that would … | Continue reading
Late yesterday, Epic Games and Google announced a settlement of their Google Play Store litigation that, subject to court approval, would open Google’s storefront more widely than ever before. Like Apple’s revisions to its store in response to the European Commission, Google’s se … | Continue reading
Nintendo fans in Japan have had a “My Nintendo” storefront app for everything Nintendo for five years. Now, it’s finally here for the rest of us, rechristened Nintendo Store for iOS and iPadOS. With the release of the Switch 2, the Nintendo eShop’s performance is much better than … | Continue reading
Enjoy the latest episodes from MacStories’ family of podcasts: AppStories This week, Federico and John look at the hype surrounding AI browsers to see if there’s any there there. On AppStories+, Federico explains his experiments with lightning fast alternative AI models in Typing … | Continue reading
Today, Apple released version 26.1 of its full family of OSes. Every platform received attention, including the proverbial “bug fixes and feature enhancements,” but it was iOS 26.1 and iPadOS 26.1 that received the most changes that are likely to be noticed by users. Liquid Glass … | Continue reading
Today, Apple launched a web version of the App Store, with a twist. I’ll admit that this wasn’t on my “things Apple will do this fall” bingo card. I’ve wondered since the earliest days of the App Store why there wasn’t a web version and concluded long ago that it just wasn’t some … | Continue reading
MiniMax M2 with interleaved thinking steps and tools in TypingMind. In addition to Kimi K2 (which I recently wrote about here) and GLM-4.6 (which will become an option on Cerebras in a few days, when I’ll play around with it), one of the more interesting open-source LLM releases … | Continue reading
Enjoy the latest episodes from MacStories’ family of podcasts: Comfort Zone Niléane is experiencing the lowest lows with gaming, but Chris is full of joy. Meanwhile, the gang’s attempts to use local LLMs ranges from similar low lows to joy as well. In the Cozy Zone, Niléane chall … | Continue reading
Today, Apple announced its 2025 Q4 earnings, posting quarterly revenue of $102.5 billion, an 8% increase over the same quarter last year. Apple CEO Tim Cook had this to say of the results: Today, Apple is very proud to report a September quarter revenue record of $102.5 billion, … | Continue reading
Kimi K2, hosted on Grow, running in TypingMind with a custom plugin I made. I’ll talk about this more in depth in Monday’s episode of AppStories (if you’re a Plus subscriber, it’ll be out on Sunday), but I wanted to post a quick note on the site to show off what I’ve been experim … | Continue reading
There is a variety of new content coming to Apple TV+ this month, and this is your handy guide to all of it, including trailers and calendar links you can use to be sure you don’t miss their premieres. Pluribus (November 7) Vince Gilligan, creator of Breaking Bad and Better Call … | Continue reading
Enjoy the latest episodes from MacStories’ family of podcasts: AppStories This week, Federico and John consider whether Apple made the case for running local LLMs and gaming on the M5 iPad Pro and discusss who should consider buying it. On AppStories+, we explain how Claude Skill … | Continue reading
For the past week, I’ve been testing the Belkin Stage PowerGrip. It’s an iPhone accessory that adds a DSLR-like grip to your iPhone while simultaneously charging it. Belkin isn’t the first company to make an accessory like this, but the Stage PowerGrip delivers a bigger battery a … | Continue reading
Enjoy the latest episodes from MacStories’ family of podcasts: Comfort Zone Matt reviews basically every phone of 2025, Chris has Apple silicon Christmas in October, and the whole gang gets creative on their phones. In the Cozy Zone, the gang discusses everything in their travel … | Continue reading
Earlier this year, Andrej Karpathy wrote an in-depth analysis of four sleep tracking methods that Federico recently recommended I read. I’m glad he did, Karpathy, an AI researcher who has worked at OpenAI and Tesla, took the kind of nerdy, data-driven approach that I love. Over t … | Continue reading
Source: OpenAI Sky, the AI automation app that Federico previewed for MacStories readers in May, has been acquired by OpenAI. Nick Turley, OpenAI’s Vice President & Head of ChatGPT said of the deal in an OpenAI press release: We’re building a future where ChatGPT doesn’t just res … | Continue reading
Claude’s new in-context screenshot tool. Anthropic introduced a couple of new features in its Claude Mac app today that lower the friction of working with the chatbot. First, after giving screenshot and accessibility permissions to Claude, you can double tap the Option button to … | Continue reading
Enjoy the latest episodes from MacStories’ family of podcasts: AppStories This week, Federico and John discuss what might be next for Apple Intelligence and how it fits into the broader AI market. On AppStories+, Federico and John cover the fallout from the Sora app and why AI ca … | Continue reading
In addition to the M5 iPad Pro, which I reviewed earlier today, I also received an M5 MacBook Pro review unit from Apple last week. I really wanted to write a companion piece to my iPad Pro story about MLX and the M5’s Neural Accelerators; sadly, I couldn’t get the latest MLX bra … | Continue reading
Text messages are a chronicle of our lives. But by the same token, those conversations remain locked away in Messages. The app’s search has improved with macOS Tahoe, which I appreciate, but finding past snippets of a chat log doesn’t allow you to understand the full arc of conve … | Continue reading
The M5 iPad Pro. How do you review an iPad Pro that’s visually identical to its predecessor and marginally improves upon its performance with a spec bump and some new wireless radios? Let me try: I’ve been testing the new M5 iPad Pro since last Thursday. If you’re a happy owner o … | Continue reading
Get Notify for instant alerts when any website changes, RSS feed updates, your scripts or devices need your attention – right from your iPhone or iPad. No accounts, servers, or technical setup needed. Start Monitoring in Seconds Add any website or RSS feed with a tap. Send notifi … | Continue reading
Wireless charging is great, but historically it’s been slow. That’s starting to change for the iPhone with Qi 2.2, the latest wireless charging standard that the iPhone 16 and 17 series phones support. With Qi 2.2, a compatible iPhone charges wirelessly at 25W. By comparison Qi 1 … | Continue reading
Enjoy the latest episodes from MacStories’ family of podcasts: Comfort Zone With Matt on Safari, Chris brings a brick, Niléane does an AMA, and the two have a listening party with some groovy tunes. In the Cozy Zone, Matt and Chris quiz Niléane on U.S. geography. MacStories Unwin … | Continue reading
Apple announced today that it will be the exclusive U.S. broadcaster for Formula 1 racing. The five-year deal begins next year and will also include integrations with Apple News, Maps, Music, and Fitness+. Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Services, said of the deal: We’ … | Continue reading
Earlier today, Anthropic released Haiku 4.5, a new version of their “small and fast” model that matches Sonnet 4 performance from five months ago at a fraction of the cost and twice the speed. From their announcement: What was recently at the frontier is now cheaper and faster. F … | Continue reading
Source: Apple. The MacBook Pro wasn’t the only Apple computer to receive an M5 update today. Both the 11” and 13” iPad Pros were updated with the company’s latest chip, too. As you’d expect, the performance boosts to the iPad Pro line closely resemble the enhancements to the 14” … | Continue reading
Source: Apple. Today, Apple debuted the new 14” MacBook Pro with its latest M5 chip, which is available for purchase now alongside the existing M4 Pro and M4 Max MacBook Pro models. According to John Ternus, Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Engineering: MacBook Pro conti … | Continue reading
Today, Apple announced the first revision to the Vision Pro, the company’s mixed reality headset. The updated device sports an M5 chip and the new Dual Knit Band for improved comfort. The M5 chip is making its debut in the Vision Pro alongside the new MacBook Pro and iPad Pro. It … | Continue reading
Enjoy the latest episodes from MacStories’ family of podcasts: AppStories This week, with rumors of more products in the pipeline, Federico and John share what they want most from Apple before the end of the year. On AppStories+, Federico experiments with lightning fast inference … | Continue reading
One of the unsung benefits of modern LLMs – especially those with MCP support or proprietary app integrations – is their inherent ability to facilitate data transfer between apps and services that use different data formats. This is something I’ve been pondering for the past few … | Continue reading
Daft Music asks a question that’s been on my mind for a long while: what if Apple Music started over with a new Mac app? As a service, I love Apple Music. I’ve been a subscriber since day one. But I’m less enamored with the Music app, especially on the Mac. Music on the Mac […] | Continue reading
Setapp is the easy way to get the right Mac and iPhone apps – 250+ curated tools under one subscription so you can work smarter and finish on time. Hand-picked, worthy apps only Faster picks, smoother routine One predictable monthly fee MacStories Special: An extended 30-day free … | Continue reading
Enjoy the latest episodes from MacStories’ family of podcasts: Comfort Zone Chris tries to sell us some new Logitech gear, Matt tries to sell some old challenges, and both of them try to sell Niléane on something from IKEA. In the Cozy Zone, the gang review their charging habits. … | Continue reading
Brad Linder, writing for Liliputing: Earlier this year Synology announced that you’d need to use Synology-branded hard drives in its 2025 line of “Plus” branded network-attached storage devices if you wanted full functionality. While you could theoretically use a non-Synology dri … | Continue reading
Liquid Glass is the sort of change that takes some getting used to from the perspective of both users and developers. The design language shifted a lot over the course of the summer beta season, which made developers’ lives tougher than in some years. This has resulted in a varie … | Continue reading
Well, that didn’t take long. In yesterday’s second developer beta of iPadOS 26.1, Apple restored the Slide Over functionality that was removed with the debut of the new windowing system in iPadOS 26.0 last month. Well…they sort of restored Slide Over, at least. In my review of iP … | Continue reading
Enjoy the latest episodes from MacStories’ family of podcasts: AppStories https://youtu.be/_ZIVOsfI-SAVideo can’t be loaded because JavaScript is disabled: Making Sense of MCP: The Standard Connecting AI to Apps | AppStories | Episode 455 (https://youtu.be/_ZIVOsfI-SA) This week, … | Continue reading
OpenAI announced a lot of developer-related features at yesterday’s DevDay event, and as you can imagine, the most interesting one for me is the introduction of apps in ChatGPT. From the OpenAI blog: Today we’re introducing a new generation of apps you can chat with, right inside … | Continue reading
Amazon’s Big Deal Days runs today and tomorrow (October 7–8), so I thought I’d share some of the best deals I’ve discovered so far. We’ll be keeping an eye out for other deals and posting them on the MacStories Deals accounts on Mastodon and Bluesky, too, so be sure to follow eit … | Continue reading
Yesterday, Digital Foundry published their review of the iPhone 17 Pro, which as you’d expect, focuses on the Pro model’s gaming capabilities. Tested against iPhone 13 and 15 Pros and using a series of benchmark tests as well as real-world gameplay, Digital Foundry’s tests reveal … | Continue reading
Gamery is the ultimate video game library app for iPhone and iPad—designed to look and feel right at home on Apple platforms. With a simple, stunning design now refreshed for iOS 26 and a beautiful new app icon, Gamery makes managing your games as sleek and enjoyable as playing t … | Continue reading
Enjoy the latest episodes from MacStories’ family of podcasts: Comfort Zone Niléane gets sporty and frosty, Chris is drowning in new Apple products, and Matt oversees the battle for the nicest iPhone wallpaper (where everyone wins). MacStories Unwind This week, Federico tries to … | Continue reading
Late yesterday, Apple pulled ICEBlock and similar apps from the App Store under pressure from the U.S. Department of Justice, according to Fox Business News. ICEBlock is a crowd-sourced app used to track the location of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. We reached out t … | Continue reading
Enjoy the latest episodes from MacStories’ family of podcasts: AppStories This week, Federico and John follow up after a week with new Apple hardware and dig into watchOS and visionOS 26. On AppStories+, John is mixing up his link and data organization systems - again. This episo … | Continue reading
There’s a lot coming to Apple TV+ this month, and this is your handy guide to all of it, including trailers, and calendar links you can use to be sure you don’t miss their premieres. Let’s dig in. The Lost Bus (October 3) First off this month is The Lost Bus, which is premiering … | Continue reading
Source: Logitech. Today, Logitech introduced an updated version of its MX Master series mouse dubbed the MX Master 4. It’s a good upgrade, but the changes are largely incremental; while I like it a lot, the MX Master 4 won’t be for everyone. Logitech sent me the MX Master 4 to tr … | Continue reading