Among the highlights on the Club MacStories+ Discord: How’s the performance of your long-lived Reminders lists these days? (Link) Members shared their thoughts on dictation apps. (Link) Want to join the Club MacStories+ Discord?Upgrade toClub MacStories+ or Club Premier, then visit theAccount page....
Letterboxd Reveals Details of New Video Store Available December 10 on Web, iOS, tvOS, and More
Letterboxd today announced full details of its previously teased Letterboxd Video Store, along with a launch date of December 10. It was also revealed that members will be able to access films on the platform via the existing Letterboxd app on iOS, iPadOS, and tvOS, as well as AirPlay, Chromecast, Android, and web.
Letterboxd claims Video Store is “the next evolution of the platform’s core mission of film discovery”. It builds on the hugely successful community platform, where members can log, rate, and review their film-watching, as well as follow and interact with other members’ reviews and film lists.
Video Store will follow a transactional video-on-demand rental model with no subscriptions, and the company says, “each title has been selected based on genuine member demand, while leaving room for discoveries the community has yet to find”. Pricing will take into account country, film availability, and life cycle. Launch films will be priced between $3.99 and $19.99 in the U.S.
Video Store will launch with just nine films, which seems to indicate how hand-picked the titles are and how difficult they may have been to procure. The initial batch – split across two themed “shelves” with more to come – includes Todd Haynes’s directorial debut, a restored Filipino classic, and a Cannes 2025 award winner.
Regarding the launch, co-founder and CEO Matthew Buchanan said:
We’re incredibly proud of what we and our community have built. We take their lead, and believe that has been integral to Letterboxd’s success. They tell us what’s really happening—a 1980s action film suddenly trending, a festival title from two years ago still being added to watchlists.
Video Store lets us act on that real demand, whether it’s helping a distributor unlock value from a forgotten gem in its vault or giving a filmmaker direct access to the audience they’ve been building on our platform. It’s our way of saying to the industry: let’s harness this interest to get films to the people who want them most.
Despite the very small collection of launch films, this is a big move for Letterboxd, a company that has so far resisted expanding beyond its core, beloved community framework. As a frequent user of the platform, I will be interested to see how they build on this and which films they add going forward.
Letterboxd wants this to be a way to champion filmmakers, find hidden gems, draw films out of vaults, and support the filmmaking ecosystem as a whole. In a time when traditional film studios are being swallowed up by big tech, it’s a refreshing approach to work directly with filmmakers, sales agents, and distributors to make films available to viewers.
What’s also interesting is the technological access to Letterboxd Video Store. Renting these titles will be as easy as opening Letterboxd’s existing app, and having direct access via Apple TV is a big win in my book.
Letterboxd Video Store launches December 10 at Letterboxd.com and in the Letterboxd app for iOS, iPadOS, tvOS, and Android. It will be accessible in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Spain, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Austria, Italy, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Belgium, Switzerland, Greece, and Cyprus.
iPhone vs $2000 Pro Camera — How Close Are They Really?→
I constantly see articles or videos proclaiming that iPhones are better than traditional cameras or that traditional cameras will always be superior to the iPhone’s camera system. So it’s great to see a measured opinion – with plenty of comparisons – from someone who clearly loves shooting with both pieces of hardware.
That’s exactly what designer and creator Oliur has done with his latest video and blog post.
I took the new iPhone 17 Pro and the Fujifilm X100VI out with me, shot the same scenes, edited everything the same way I normally do, and then mixed them up to see whether anyone could guess which was which.
Some of the results genuinely surprised me.
I originally posted the challenge on X to see who could figure out which camera was which, and out of all the comments, only one person got them all right.
What’s striking is how, despite the Fuji camera’s evident technical prowess, it’s not so simple:
Technically, the Fuji should win. But in real-world photos — especially the kind most people share online — the gap isn’t as big anymore.
While the blog version is good, I’d recommend Oliur’s YouTube version for more in-depth breakdowns and an interesting conclusion.
The iPhone’s convenience and computational power make it competitive in almost every normal scenario. If someone told me they rely solely on their phone for photography today, I wouldn’t argue with them.
As someone who loves photography but doesn’t want to commit to a dedicated camera, it’s good to know that after some adjustments, the iPhone’s input can now result in an output that is competitive with a traditional camera – at least for my use cases.
This Mini MagSafe Stand Was One of My Black Friday Hits
We’ve all been there: you want to take a big family picture, but even if you use the Camera app’s built-in timer or the Camera Remote on your Apple Watch, you have nowhere to prop up your iPhone. One person could take the photo, but then they wouldn’t be in frame to mark the occasion....
Elevated Cats, Claude Applications, and More
Among the highlights on the Club MacStories+ Discord: Member jwhitley showed off the “elevated” way his cats take their place at work. (Link) Evan shared a great example of how he has been using Claude to develop applications that streamline work on his computer. (Link) FlohGro opened up a TestFlight for a new photo review...
Nostalgic Features Apple Should Bring Back
Back in 2015, with the release of the 12” MacBook, Apple began removing the ever-popular MagSafe power connector from its laptop lineup. The design change was almost universally hated. People loved MagSafe mainly because it would disconnect easily if someone tripped over the power cable; so many MacBooks were saved from certain death. Thankfully, starting...
MacStories Feedback, Tag Automation in Readwise Reader, and More
Among the highlights on the Club MacStories+ Discord: Member Bram posted some thoughtful feedback on the direction of MacStories regarding AI coverage. This started an engaging conversation on the subject that, more than anything, emphasized how great this community is at having respectful, considered discussions. (Link) Dennis shared a way to automatically apply tags to...
AI Projects, Stream Deck Fans, and More
Among the highlights on the Club MacStories+ Discord: The new #ai-talk channel was very busy, with members sharing numerous projects, both personal and otherwise. T.G. Cid created a wild MCP setup at home. It’s too detailed to describe here; you have to see it for yourself! (Link) John shared an example of how he’s using...
MD Vinyl
I’ve spoken before about my love of vinyl and how I enjoy the process of putting on an album as an intrinsic part of the music listening experience. In fact, my very first piece for MacStories Weekly was about how I’d used an iPad app called Quanta to take the audio from my record player...