Most of the apps I cover for MacStories relate in some way to productivity, a theme that extends to the apps normally dominating my iPhone’s home screen. Writing and note-taking apps, task managers, communication apps, and tools like Shortcuts all help me get things done each day … | Continue reading
Backups of your computer’s files have to be trustworthy. If you can’t trust your backups, they’re not really backups. The reason Stefan created Arq Backup for the Mac back in 2009 was because he couldn’t find an online solution that felt like real backup. Most online backup provi … | Continue reading
Thoughtful take by Jason Snell on the recent discussion around the idea that Shortcuts may be coming to the Mac and what that could mean for macOS automation. Snell imagines a scenario where Quick Actions, introduced last year with Mojave, could act as a bridge between old-school … | Continue reading
Stephen returns order to the podcast after two weeks away, Myke reads some Hex color codes and Federico turns on his hype machine. Some interesting discussions about apps and using Twitter on this week's episode of Connected. You can listen here. Sponsored by: Hover: Extensions f … | Continue reading
Where better to get a little 'color' on Apple's earnings than from a full transcript of the company's earnings call with Wall Street analysts published by Six Colors? As in the past, Jason Snell has transcribed Apple's presentation to Wall Street analysts along with the question … | Continue reading
Apple has just published its financial results for Q2 2019, which is the company’s holiday quarter. The company posted revenue of $58 billion. Apple CEO Tim Cook said: Our March quarter results show the continued strength of our installed base of over 1.4 billion active devices, … | Continue reading
HomeRun 1.2 was released today from developer Aaron Pearce, the latest evolution of the Apple Watch app for controlling HomeKit scenes from your wrist. Its last big update introduced the ability to create custom complications on the Watch, which was a fantastic addition because i … | Continue reading
On this week's episode of AppStories, we take a deep dive into two apps we’ve been using a lot lately, Moment Pro Camera and the recently-released MindNode 6. Sponsored by: Hype Professional – Design beautiful HTML5 interactive pieces and animations. Direct Mail – Create and send … | Continue reading
With Apollo: Immersive Illumination, you can unlock unlimited creativity over a single Portrait mode photo with the app's powerful relighting tools. Apollo enables an infinite number of lighting variations that let you create a dull, dark, spooky, magical, or night club feel to y … | Continue reading
Yesterday, The New York Times published a story drawing on interviews from makers of parental control apps that had been removed from the App Store or modified at Apple's insistence. The third-party apps monitored kids' screen time and limited their access to apps; functionality … | Continue reading
Today, Marco Arment released an update to Overcast with a new podcast clip sharing feature. Arment explains why he created the new feature on Marco.org: Podcast sharing has been limited to audio and links, but today’s social networks are more reliant on images and video, especial … | Continue reading
Marvis is a music player that launched on iPhone just two months ago, yet in a 3.0 update today expands its usefulness immensely thanks to a major new feature: full Apple Music integration. With today's release, Marvis joins the growing list of third-party apps that use Apple's M … | Continue reading
The European duo covers the latest in iPad keyboards (and DIY kickstands) before they consider the future of Mac automation and Shortcuts. At the end, Myke is sad about folding phones. This week's episode of Connected features, among other topics, a good discussion on the future … | Continue reading
Juice is a Bluetooth device manager for the Mac styled to look like Apple's Home app. I didn’t expect to like the utility much because I don’t like the Home app's design. It turns out though that for an app like Juice, Home's mostly monochrome tile UI works and the app does an ex … | Continue reading
When MindNode debuted its last major version, it brought a major revamping and modernization of the core app experience. The update was a resounding success in my view: adopting the document browser, an adjustable panel system, and drag and drop made MindNode a shining example of … | Continue reading
Over the last few weeks Apple has quietly debuted a new YouTube channel dedicated to one of its services: Apple TV. The Apple TV channel is home to a variety of videos, like trailers for upcoming films and TV shows, exclusive behind the scenes clips and interviews tied to popular … | Continue reading
On this week's episode of AppStories, we talk about our new Mac minis, the very different ways we use them, and the apps we rely on the most. Sponsored by: KiwiCo: Hands on learning and experienced based play. Get your first crate free. Moo: Custom business printing and design. U … | Continue reading
Email doesn't have to be difficult. Instead of letting it rob you of your precious time use Spark on iOS and the Mac to recover those lost moments automatically. Spark is loaded with smarts starting with its Smart Inbox that categorizes messages as Personal, Notifications, and Ne … | Continue reading
Six years ago I was a senior in high school – a laughably short timeline compared to the immensity of growth and change which took place within it. Graduation, all of college, and a lonely move across the country; a career imagined, pursued, and achieved; friends and relationship … | Continue reading
When I started reading MacStories, the site had already shifted its focus from the Mac to the iPad – and that's what drew me in. I've been an Apple admirer for as long as I can remember, but in my younger years the company's products were simply outside my budget. It wasn't until … | Continue reading
It's been a special week for us. In reflecting on the first decade of MacStories, two things have stood out to me as being crucial elements' of the site's continued flourishing: an enthusiastic, supportive base of readers, and a steady stream of great apps to cover. It was those … | Continue reading
With Earth Day just around the corner, Apple has issued a press release announcing the expansion of its existing iPhone recycling program, an Apple Watch fitness challenge and more. Last year for Earth Day, Apple took the wraps off of Daisy, a recycling robot that replaced Liam, … | Continue reading
This week, in the absence of adult supervision, Myke and Federico discuss their new favorite time zone app and consider some recent iOS 13 rumors before Ticci talks about what arrived in his mailbox. On this week's Connected, in addition to CalZones and iPad keyboards, we talk ab … | Continue reading
The Touchtype Pro is a clever new accessory created by Salman Sajid that aims to combine the iPad Pro with Apple's Magic Keyboard using a flexible cover case and magnets. Sajid launched a campaign for the product earlier this month on Kickstarter, where you can check out more det … | Continue reading
Ten years is a long time on the Internet. So many companies have come and gone in that time, making it worth considering what it is about MacStories that has endured. Having worked with Federico for roughly a third of that time, I can’t claim to be objective, but before I joined … | Continue reading
Every fall, Federico and I put our heads together to come up with new and exciting perks for Club MacStories members to mark the Club’s anniversary. In 2017 we were less than six months into AppStories, and although we love talking about apps every week, we were frustrated that t … | Continue reading
I've always struggled to find apps that understand how people work across multiple time zones. In the 10 years I've been writing MacStories, I've come across dozens of time zone conversion utilities (and I even created my own with Shortcuts), but as someone who works remotely wit … | Continue reading
MacStories was a big part of my life for over five years, from January 2011 through November 2016. I only vaguely recall emailing Federico about the possibility of writing for MacStories, though I do remember sending him two sample articles – one of which was about the iPad (natu … | Continue reading
Leander Kahney, who has previously published books about Steve Jobs and Jony Ive, takes on the ascent of Apple’s current CEO in a new book titled Tim Cook: The Genius Who Took Apple to the Next Level. When Steve Jobs passed away in 2011, many people doubted that Tim Cook, an oper … | Continue reading
On this week's episode of AppStories, to mark MacStories’ 10th anniversary, John interviews Federico about how MacStories got started, what led to the MacStories that readers know today, and what’s in store for the site and other MacStories properties in the future. Sponsored by: … | Continue reading
Today Apple published six new videos that focus on the iPad Pro. Five of them are continuations of the 'A New Way' series that debuted in January, highlighting the device's versatility in tasks like video creation, wedding planning, and serving as the perfect travel companion. Th … | Continue reading
We’re very fortunate at MacStories to have a terrific group of loyal readers. As MacStories turns 10 and has become known not just for the site, but also Club MacStories and AppStories, it felt like the perfect time to celebrate with MacStories’ very first official merchandise, w … | Continue reading
Later this week on Saturday, April 20, MacStories will turn 10 years old. It was Monday, April 20, 2009 when, fresh out of a job from which I had gotten fired, I decided to publish the first official post on my self-hosted blog after a few weeks of running a free WordPress.com we … | Continue reading
Agenda is a strong new entrant in the arena of note taking apps for Mac, iPad, and iPhone. It’s elegant and powerful — Agenda was the only Mac app to win an Apple Design Award in 2018 — and includes a few twists on what you have come to expect from a note taking app. […] | Continue reading
In my estimation, there are two types of nutrition-tracking apps on the App Store: those for users who want full control of all nitty-gritty details regarding what they consume, and those for people like me who just want to do simple calorie-tracking. Calory, a new iOS app from t … | Continue reading
Federico has discovered something terrible about his childhood, Stephen had an accident and Myke wants a new TV. After all of that is taken care of, the trio talk about a new iPad case that uses the Magic Keyboard and using macOS as an iPad app. On this week's episode of Connecte … | Continue reading
Every year, the National Association of Broadcasters holds a trade show spotlighting advancements in technology in the media and entertainment industries. Jeff Benjamin, who produces much of 9to5Mac’s video content, was on hand for the show this week and reports that mobile video … | Continue reading
iPad Diaries is a regular series about using the iPad as a primary computer. You can find more installments here and subscribe to the dedicated RSS feed. In the first part of my ongoing experiment with controlling and accessing a Mac from the iPad Pro, I covered FileExplorer – th … | Continue reading
On this week's episode of AppStories, we take a close look at the apps and services announced by Apple at its March 25th services event at the Steve Jobs Theater in Cupertino including the TV app, News, Apple Arcade, and Apple Card. Sponsored by: Luna Display: The only hardware s … | Continue reading
The Pixelmator team has released Pixelmator Photo, a pro-level photo editing tool that couples the core functionality of Pixelmator Pro for the Mac with the strengths of the iPad. The result, though not without a few caveats, is a sophisticated set of image editing tools wrapped … | Continue reading
There's a lot of power lurking under the hood of the Mac’s Spotlight search index, but that’s also the trouble. To make Spotlight accessible to more users, many of the feature’s most useful tools are hidden behind menus and special search syntax. HoudahSpot takes a different appr … | Continue reading
Backups of your computer’s files have to be trustworthy. If you can’t trust your backups, they’re not really backups. The reason Stefan created Arq Backup for the Mac back in 2009 was because he couldn’t find an online solution that felt like real backup. Most online backup provi … | Continue reading
In an update arriving today, Castro is introducing a new Top Picks feature designed to make managing a large number of podcast subscriptions easier than ever. One of Castro's most defining traits is its triage system: the app by default stores new episodes of shows you're subscri … | Continue reading
Beginning today, BBEdit 12 is available for download through the Mac App Store. BBEdit was previously listed for purchase through the Mac App Store, but famously left the store in October 2014. Last year, however, Apple announced on-stage at WWDC that BBEdit would be returning to … | Continue reading
Developer and musician Stephen Coyle just released a new app that enables hands-free page turning of PDFs via facial expressions. The aptly-named PageTurn utilizes the power of the TrueDepth camera system found in all iOS devices that support Face ID – the iPhone X, XR, XS, and X … | Continue reading
AirPower is dead, Powerbeats Pro are here, Federico is having a good week on Twitter and iCloud Drive deserves some attention from Apple. A good episode of Connected this week – we talk about wireless chargers, new Beats headphones, and a whole list of suggestions on how to impro … | Continue reading
Apple subsidiary Beats has announced the Powerbeats Pro, $250 H1-powered workout-oriented headphones that dispense with all wires. Apple purchased Beats in 2014 and has incorporated some of its technologies like the W1 chip into its Powerbeats and Beats Solo3 headphones, but unti … | Continue reading