I love gaming. Unfortunately, I never have the time to sit and spend hours on a console game, so mobile gaming is often the solution. The only time I really get to use a console is if I take the bus to work on a rainy day and bring my Nintendo Switch along with me....
Tusks Is a New Mastodon Client with an Interesting Twist
Blogging has experienced many stages of popularity over the years. It reached a peak in the early ’00s before subsiding as social media platforms like Twitter became the most common way to share quick thoughts rather than longer essays. The decline of Twitter had a huge effect on blogging, as it rose again to the...
Letting Loose, Dictation Summaries, and Another Federico Meme
Among the highlights on the Club MacStories+ Discord: The #let-loose-event channel was full of reactions from members both during and long after the event. There were lots of interesting points of view shared. We also ran a small poll in the channel to gauge members’ buying plans. Interestingly, many members are waiting to see what...
Apple’s CarPlay Needs To Go In For a Safety Check
Almost two years ago, at WWDC in June 2022, Apple unveiled the next version of CarPlay, their popular standard for mirroring certain apps onto your iPhone’s car infotainment screen. I remember watching it and thinking, “This looks very cool, but won’t it be super distracting for the driver?” The fact that no cars on the...
Some CAPS Inspiration
It’s been a few weeks since Federico introduced his Contextual Apps Plugin System (CAPS) in Issue 409 of MacStories Weekly , and I detailed last week how I tried to replicate the functionality on my Mac. This week, I’m returning to the OG CAPS on iPhone with some examples of contextual shortcuts I’ve been launching...
Eclipses, Redesigning for visionOS, and Trakt
Among the highlights on the Club MacStories+ Discord: Vidit, Club member and developer of the great app LookUp, linked to his new blog post about redesigning the successful dictionary app for visionOS. Members were posting images of the eclipse that they captured this week. Roman provided some good starting points for those wanting to look...
Mac MultiButton: An Action Button for the Mac
I know I’m far from the only one, but ever since the Action Button was introduced with the iPhone 15 Pro, I’ve been a little obsessed with playing around with its functionality. First, I started using it with quick action menus, taking my previously created ‘Lock Screen Launcher’ and moving it to the Action Button....
Using Omnivore’s Excellent Text-to-Speech Feature with Custom Text
As John covered in the Plus segment of this week’s AppStories, there are many text-to-speech apps and services out there, and they all vary in price and quality. While I feel it should be the law that we hear all of John’s articles in the voice of Snoop Dogg on Speechify, many people — myself...
Extracting Data from Notion to Reminders
I’ve long been a fan of Notion. There are lots of similar platforms and apps out there, but there’s something about the aesthetic of Notion, along with its excellent branding and visual identity, that I’ve always enjoyed. It’s also very powerful while maintaining a low barrier of entry. If you want to try out some...