John Voorhees

5429 posts on MacStories since November 2015

John is MacStories' Managing Editor, has been writing about Apple and apps since joining the team in 2015, and today, runs the site alongside Federico. John also co-hosts four MacStories podcasts: AppStories, which covers the world of apps, MacStories Unwind, which explores the fun differences between American and Italian culture and recommends media to listeners, Ruminate, a show about the weird web and unusual snacks, and NPC: Next Portable Console, a show about the games we take with us.
@johnvoorhees@macstories.net
@johnvoorhees.macstories.net
voorhees@macstories.net

Apple Names Deirdre O’Brien Vice President of People

Long-time Apple executive Deirdre O’Brien was named Apple’s Vice President of People today. O’Brien, who has worked at Apple for 30 years, most recently as its Vice President of Worldwide Sales and Operations, will report directly to CEO Tim Cook. As Vice President of People, O’Brien will take on HR functions including talent development, recruiting, benefits, compensation, business support, and Apple University.

Tim Cook had this to say:

“As long as I’ve been at Apple, Deirdre has been the glue that bonds our operations, sales, marketing and finance teams to deliver products to our customers,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “Deirdre deeply understands Apple’s unique culture and that people join Apple to do the best work of their lives. She is a superb leader and I’m thrilled she will be bringing her experience and talent to this critical role.”

O’Brien added:

“I love Apple and, like so many of my colleagues, I’m honored to have made it my life’s work,” said Deirdre. “I’m excited to begin this new chapter, supporting 120,000 incredibly talented people around the world who are motivated to do amazing things every day. It is a privilege to work among such a diverse and talented team, and to help them thrive here at Apple.”

O’Brien is scheduled to assume her new role in the fall.

Album

John

Slightly Cynical Sarcasm In A Sticker A combination of 50’s-style illustrations combined with sassy sayings like ‘Don’t call lazy something that is actually selective participation.’ These stickers are perfect for snarky conversations with your pals. Funny Pictograms These are the sort of stick figures that you’d normally find on street signs doing all kinds...

App Debuts

John

The Snail The Snail is a new visual approach to tuning instruments and analyzing sound. The macOS version of The Snail is $99, but you can get the iOS version for just $1.99. The app analyzes sound received by the iPhone’s microphone and plots it on a spiral graph according to various characteristics of...

Q&A

Question: When trying to share content such as Safari webpages, or even video links from apps like ProTube, I just want to quickly share it to Twitter. Except now with iOS 11, there are no integrated social accounts, which makes the standard share to Twitter extension useless. I presumed that since share extensions have been...

AppStories, Episode 14 – Pick 2: Ulysses and FullContact→

On this week’s episode of AppStories, we pick two apps and discuss how and why we use them for our work. For the first installment of Pick 2, Federico covers Ulysses and how he’s used it over the past year and for the iOS 11 review he is currently writing; John explains how he uses FullContact to keep in touch with developers and sponsors of MacStories and AppStories.

Sponsored by:

  • Audible - Audible books inspire and entertain anywhere, anytime.
  • Hello Weather - The exceptionally useful, no-nonsense weather app.

https://staging.macstories.net/podcasts/appstories/episodes/14/embed/

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Nintendo Switch Online App Released Ahead of Splatoon 2

On Friday, July 21st, Nintendo will release Splatoon 2, one of its marquee titles for the Switch console, which will be the first game to take advantage of the Nintendo Switch Online app for iOS. The app is available to download now, but won’t be of much use until Splatoon 2 is released Friday. In the meantime, you can download the app, sign into your Nintendo account, and review instructions on how to invite friends to play. Invitations can be sent over social media like Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, and Line. The app will also allow players to chat with friends using a headset connected to their iOS device.

Nintendo Switch Online is a free download on the App Store. Nintendo’s online service is free while it is in beta, but will cost $19.99 per year or $3.99 per month when it launches in 2018.

Isabel Ge Mahe is Apple’s New Managing Director of Greater China

Apple has announced that it has named Isabel Ge Mahe Managing Director of Greater China, a newly-created position within the company. Ge Mahe most recently led Apple’s wireless technology engineering teams working on cellular, WiFi, Bluetooth, NFC, location, and motion technologies. She has also overseen the engineering teams developing Apple Pay, HomeKit, and CarPlay.

Apple CEO, Tim Cook, had this to say about the appointment:

“Apple is strongly committed to invest and grow in China, and we are thrilled that Isabel will be bringing her experience and leadership to our China team,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “She has dedicated a great deal of her time in recent years to delivering innovation for the benefit of Apple customers in China, and we look forward to making even greater contributions under her leadership.”

Ge Mahe, who will start in her new position later this summer in Shanghai, added:

“I’m honored to have this opportunity to represent Apple in China and work more closely with our incredibly talented team,” said Isabel Ge Mahe. “Everyone at Apple is proud of the contributions we make to the communities where we do business, and I am looking forward to deepening our team’s connections with customers, government and businesses in China to advance innovation and sustainability.”

As Ge Mahe’s appointment underscores, China is an important market for Apple. The country accounted for 29% of Apple’s revenue in the March 2015 quarter according to Recode. Since then, however, revenues generated in China have slipped as the iPhone has lost market share to other mobile phone manufacturers.