In a surprise announcement following a string of daily releases this week, Apple today announced a major update to AirPods, the company's wireless earbuds. As widely speculated over the past several months, the new generation AirPods come with support for hands-free 'Hey Siri' ac … | Continue reading
Instagram has announced a new in-app checkout feature that will allow consumers to purchase items from brands they follow from within the app. In a press release, Instagram explains that when you tap on a product from a participating brand, you’ll see a new ‘Checkout on Instagram … | Continue reading
Today, Apple has updated its online store with improved iMacs. Although the iMac Pro models were updated in December 2017, the non-Pro version hadn’t seen an update since June 2017, the longest time ever between iMac revisions according to MacRumors. The new iMacs, which were ann … | Continue reading
On this week's episode of AppStories, we discuss our favorite reading apps including Apple Books, Kindle, Comixology, and Shonen Jump. Sponsored by: Hoban Cards - Thoughtfully designed letterpress-printed business cards & stationery for creative individuals and small businesses. … | Continue reading
In celebration of Garageband's 15th anniversary this year, Rolling Stone was granted special access to the studio where Apple's music apps come to life. If I had one major takeaway from the article, it would be that the amount of thought and effort Apple's team expends in Garageb … | Continue reading
Today Apple has updated its online store with two major new products now available: an iPad Air with a 10.5 | Continue reading
Setapp is the Mac app suite that should have been and now is. It’s not an app store; it’s more an app buffet. You pay just one fee and gain immediate access to an ever-growing collection of over 130 of the best Mac apps, curated to make your day more productive. Setapp is elegant … | Continue reading
Over 400,000 people participated in the Apple Heart Study, which used the Apple Watch to collect irregular heart rhythm data from participants for eight months. When an irregular rhythm was detected and suggested the possibility of arterial fibrillation, the Watch sent the user a … | Continue reading
Apple's Phil Schiller was a guest on the latest episode of ATP. I listened to the interview this morning, and I think Marco, Casey, and John did an excellent job in getting Schiller's perspective on how Apple approaches WWDC, the relationship with indie developers and bigger comp … | Continue reading
In a lengthy response, Apple has addressed many of the allegations leveled against it by Spotify earlier this week. As we reported, Spotify has filed a complaint with the European Commission alleging that Apple’s treatment of the music streaming service is unfair and anti-competi … | Continue reading
Finding a way to convey the benefits of privacy isn’t easy, which is why I like Apple’s ‘Privacy on iPhone – Private Side’ video so much. The video, which runs under a minute, opens with images of several ‘No Trespassing,’ ‘Keep Out,’ ‘Beware of Dog,’ and other signs. In a series … | Continue reading
Today Apple announced the dates for WWDC 2019. The annual developer conference will take place June 3-7, hosted for the third year in a row at the McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, California. WWDC is where Apple traditionally lays out its software plans for the year ahead, … | Continue reading
Stephen introduces his co-hosts to a groundbreaking iPad drawing application, Federico starts a new mini-series and Myke buries the lede concerning Spotify. On this week's episode of Connected, we started a new mini-series about improvements we'd like to see in Apple services, st … | Continue reading
Twitter today announced a change to its iOS app that will be rolling out over the next few days: the in-app camera has been redesigned, and it will now be only a left-swipe away from your timeline. See it? Tweet it! Our updated camera is just a swipe away, so you get the shot fas … | Continue reading
Today Spark launched a new Delegation feature for teams, which is available on both the Mac and iOS. Delegation enables team members to assign emails to one another, with optional due dates attached, and follow the progress of those emails over time. It's a feature that addresses … | Continue reading
Daniel Ek, CEO of Spotify, writing on recent actions the company has taken against Apple: Spotify has filed a complaint against Apple with the European Commission (EC), the regulatory body responsible for keeping competition fair and nondiscriminatory. In recent years, Apple has … | Continue reading
Rolando was one of the earliest break-out games on the App Store when it debuted in 2008. Millions of fans downloaded the game, which featured colorful round characters that you maneuvered through four worlds with the help of the iPhone’s accelerometer. However, as Federico highl … | Continue reading
On this week's episode of AppStories, we dive back into our collections of iOS and Mac utilities and discuss four more favorites: Retrobatch, Grape for GitHub, Gladys, and Sofa. Sponsored by: Daylite - Win more business & get more done. ExpressVPN - High-Speed, secure & anonymous … | Continue reading
Later this year the team at Niantic will launch a new game based on a very popular IP: Harry Potter. The game's full title is Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, and it will come to both iOS and Android as an AR-centered gaming experience in the vein of Pokémon GO, Niantic's biggest hit … | Continue reading
Today Apple announced a special event at the Steve Jobs Theater for March 25, 2019, at 10:00 am Pacific time. Matthew Panzarino of TechCrunch posted an image of the press invitation to Twitter: Please join us for an Apple special eventat the Steve Jobs Theater in Cupertino. March … | Continue reading
Editor’s NoteThe following story was originally published in Issue 163 of the MacStories Weekly newsletter on February 15, 2019. We wanted to share it as an example of the type of longform stories exclusive to Club MacStories members. Every year, we publish around 60 issues of Ma … | Continue reading
Strike is a beautifully-designed, modern writing app for the Mac and iOS that brings together all the tools you need whether you’re working by yourself or with colleagues. Strike streamlines the process of writing allowing you to get ideas down quickly with its Smart Markdown sys … | Continue reading
When a productivity app feels like it's reached maturity, it's in a dangerous position: if active development is neglected, the app will start to stagnate amidst a changing world, but on the other hand, if change is pursued for its own sake, the app can easily become bloated and … | Continue reading
If you’re an Apple Music subscriber, you’re probably familiar with its playlist artwork styles. Some work well to tie together collections of related playlists like Decades, Essentials, and Deep Cuts. The trouble is though, that has also bred a certain sameness across Apple Music … | Continue reading
One of our favorite third-party podcast clients, Castro, was updated today with improvements aimed at offering a better discovery experience. Through curated podcast collections, new buttons to add podcasts to your library, and instant search, Castro's development team has brough … | Continue reading
In a bit of unexpected gaming news, Sony has released PS4 Remote Play, an iOS app that allows PS4 owners to play the console’s games on an iPhone or iPad over WiFi. Although it’s a surprising development this late in the lifecycle of the PS4, it’s great to see Sony continuing to … | Continue reading
Federico talks about the new MacStories Shortcuts Archive and the guys check in with iOS 12 halfway through its lifecycle. On this week's episode of Connected, we reassess the impact of iOS 12's major new features. You can listen here. Sponsored by: ExpressVPN: High-Speed, Secure … | Continue reading
After several months of work, I'm pleased to announce the MacStories Shortcuts Archive – the official repository for shortcuts I've created over the years (including when they used to be called | Continue reading
Today in an update to its iOS and Mac apps, the email client Spark has introduced new rich text formatting options to enable greater flexibility in styling your messages. Spark already included the expected bold, italics, and underline options, and its macOS version previously al … | Continue reading
On this week's episode of AppStories, we discuss our iOS 13 wishes for the Files app and iPad home screen. Sponsored by: DEVONthink – Information management reinvented: Save, organize, and recall all your documents whenever you need them. Use the link above or the code: promo-app … | Continue reading
When you visit a website, few things are more frustrating than when your browser doesn’t work as expected because the site has disabled common interface features. StopTheMadness is a Safari and Firefox extension that prevents sites from modifying how your browser works when you v … | Continue reading
A week from tomorrow is International Women’s Day. To mark the day, Apple has announced a series of events throughout the month of March. In the US, Apple is partnering with Girls Can Code to bring programming to more girls and young women. The program includes Swift training for … | Continue reading
Soor, a third-party client for Apple Music created by indie developer Tanmay Sonawane, is based upon a fascinating premise: unlike other standalone music players for iPhone, Soor works with Apple's native MusicKit API, enabling direct integration with Apple Music; unlike Apple's … | Continue reading
After skipping follow-up, Myke and Federico try to explain the new USB branding, discuss fingerprint sensors and the merits of Evernote in 2019, and wish for apps that don’t exist (but should). On this week's episode of Connected, I share more details about my Evernote experiment … | Continue reading
Juli Clover, writing for MacRumors about the latest rebrand in USB spec land: The USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF), this week announced a rebranding of the USB 3.0 and USB 3.1 specifications, under the USB 3.2 specification. As outlined by Tom's Hardware, USB 3.0 and USB 3.1 will … | Continue reading
What should a wrist computer ideally do for you? Telling the time is a given, and activity tracking has become another default inclusion for that category of gadget. But we're talking about a computer here, not a simple watch with built-in pedometer. The device should present the … | Continue reading
On this week's episode of AppStories, we discuss some of the trends we expect will drive app development on iOS and the Mac this year and into the future. Sponsored by: MacStadium – Private clouds and dedicated Macs for developers and teams doing iOS/Mac app development. Start a … | Continue reading
Every few months, I like to use Twitter's official app for iPhone and iPad for a while and reassess its advantages over third-party clients, as well as its shortcomings. This is something I've been doing for several years now. While I've often come away unimpressed with Twitter's … | Continue reading
I’ve used Grocery on and off for a long time, but what finally made it stick in a way that it never did in the app’s early days was the addition of a HomePod in my living room/kitchen area. The app is built on top of Apple Reminders, which means that even from the earliest […] | Continue reading
Apple's Home app is great when it comes to controlling your smart home accessories. But once you start adding automations to your home, you quickly encounter the limits of the Home app. HomeKit is much more capable and flexible than what Apple has to offer. There is another Home … | Continue reading
Molly McHugh writing for The Ringer: The saturation of iOS and Mac products means more and more people own Apple devices—which means more and more people need help using them. Each iOS and MacOS release reveals a new suite of tools and capabilities, but also new challenges and co … | Continue reading
Mitchel Broussard of MacRumors recently published an in-depth look at the problems classical music fans have with Apple Music's approach to that expansive genre. Unlike many other common genres, such as hip-hop, pop, and country, the range of music deemed 'classical' bears its ow … | Continue reading
Jason Snell writing about a recent Apple hire for Macworld: This past week we learned that the company has hired a new head of home products, which makes me ask the question: What exactly does Apple expect Sam Jadallah to do? Is his job to make deals with HomeKit partners and mak … | Continue reading
I last covered Eventail in April 2018, when its developer Jozef Legeny brought support for the iPhone X and new color schemes to his compact calendar widget for iPhone and iPad. With version 3.1 released today, Eventail (which over the past year also gained support for overdue re … | Continue reading
The boys dive into a sea of rumors after Federico explores San Jose's municipal websites, Myke gives everyone a gift and Stephen returns from a journey. On this week's episode of Connected, we discuss the latest Marzipan rumors and consider the implications of a 6K display made b … | Continue reading
A week ago, Apple sent an email to developers announcing that it would require two-factor authentication for all developer accounts beginning February 27, 2019. The message linked to an Apple two-factor authentication support page that applies to all Apple IDs. The trouble was, t … | Continue reading
Jason Snell's podcasting setup is similar to mine – he wants to hear his own voice, record his local audio track, and have a conversation with multiple people on Skype, who also need to hear his voice coming from an external microphone. And he wants to use one computer to do it a … | 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. After several years without updates to a product that, somewhat oddly, | Continue reading