Two weeks ago, Apple released the first beta version of iOS 18.4. Among some smaller updates and additions – including the long-promised Priority Notifications – was the unexpected appearance of a new Ambient Music feature. Accessible via Control Center, Ambient Music includes four different modes that offer a different variation on the theme of ambience:...
Brute-Force Myself Into Focusing with ScreenTime+
While working on my column for last week, I discovered how bad my muscle memory was for picking up my iPhone during work. I’m certainly a creature of habit, so I knew that curbing this behavior would be far more complicated than just deciding to use my phone less. I needed something more tangible –...
Sill is Yet Another Way I’m Curating My News Intake
{bio} I wrote a few weeks ago about how I’m dealing with my tech anxiety by changing my approach to tech news. The following week, after the U.S. election, I applied that same philosophy to world news. A downside of this change is that there are a few stories that I feel have passed me...
Weather Up: The Interactive Weather Widget I’ve Been Looking For
After several years of non-interactivity, widgets became interactive again last year in iOS 17. What we mostly saw emerge were widgets with buttons – either huge, chunky buttons like on the Shortcuts widget or small buttons like on the Reminders widget. Those are great and all, but some developers decided to push those boundaries. The...
Tech Anxiety and Dealing with the News Firehose
I don’t think I’m the only one who’s recently had the feeling that tech news is becoming more toxic – that more and more product releases have this semi-political commentary or opinion attached to them. What is a photo? Is AI making a positive difference? Should we have more choices regarding what apps we put...
The End of Juno, Quick Notes in Drafts, and More Great Photos
Among the highlights on the Club MacStories+ Discord: Some sad news for Vision Pro users: Christian Selig’s YouTube app Juno has been removed from the App Store, as linked to by Lachlan. Juan made a handy shortcut for creating a quick note, but in Drafts instead of Notes. Sid captured some fantastic travel photos on...
Adding Tracks to Multiple Playlists with Shortcuts
For all its flaws, I do enjoy using Apple Music. I’ve tested going back to Spotify before, but I find the UI too busy. With the addition of podcasts on Spotify, too, I’ve just found the Music app to be much more pleasant. Nevertheless, one thing I’m not a massive fan of is the way...
Home Screen: Jonathan
{.no-bio} [[public]] I’ve kept a relatively steady Home Screen and Lock Screen for a while now, but two things in the last week have pushed me to radically change how I interact with my iPhone. First, the iPhone 16 Pro with its new Camera Control arrived on my doorstep. (I had ordered it; it wasn’t...
New Apple Device Day, Controller Attachments, and More DMA
Among the highlights on the Club MacStories+ Discord: Chris Z linked to a fun-looking controller attachment for the iPhone. If you use Working Copy, you would do well to check out this message from the developer, linked by Niléane. Folks shared their thoughts – and their setups – while reading Federico’s iOS and iPadOS 18...