Jonathan Reed

276 posts on MacStories since February 2024

Jonathan is a freelance graphic designer. As well as being a long-time Apple user he is a huge film and television aficionado and is very interested in the intersection between the two mediums and technology. He lives in London with his wife and daughter and is writing his bio in the third person.
@jonathanreed@techhub.social
jonathan@macstories.net

Kagi is the First Search Engine That’s Better Than Google

When Google launched its search engine in 1998, the leading players in search were AltaVista, Yahoo!, and Ask Jeeves, to name three. Considering how huge and dominating Google Search has become, it’s incredible to look back on those days. Google now accounts for around 80% of all search traffic. Even with buzzy alternatives like ChatGPT,...

Podcast Players, Replay ’23, and Stream Deck Mail

Among the highlights on the Club MacStories Discord: Ryan asked about Jellyfin (a Plex alternative), which started a discussion about, well, Plex alternatives. Robb shared a shortcut for helping improve performance when querying Health Samples from the Health app. After this week’s issues with the podcast app Castro, members started talking about how they use...

Creating Open Window Reminders with Pushcut

I don’t want this to come as a surprise, but human beings tend to forget things. Obviously, some are worse than others. I happen to be one such person. One area in which I’m a bit forgetful is around the home. I leave lights on, music playing, and, sometimes, the windows open. HomeKit automation can...

Spotlight on Club MacStories

Black Friday, Backing Up Photos, and a Wild Apple Watch Case. Among the highlights on the Club MacStories Discord: We started a Black Friday channel for sharing the best Apple-related tech deals with other members. Feel free to post an offer if you think people will like it. T.G. Cid recommended a system for backing...

Attempting to Make StandBy More Useful

StandBy was one of the banner features of iOS 17, and while there was some initial excitement for the feature, the enthusiasm seems to have tailed off. Indeed, I’ve heard several people, from podcasters to members of our own Discord, say that they tried to make it work, but ultimately, it didn’t bring much benefit...

So Many Thoughts on the Ai Pin, Note-Taking Apps, and A Reddit App

This week on the Club MacStories Discord, members were talking about Niléane’s excellent menu-bar weather shortcut, discussing reference vs. work file organization, and of course, comparing podcast players. Among the other highlights: thewaytozion started an excellent discussion on note-taking apps. jwhitley had great suggestions for getting better emoji when you are suggested ones that you...