When it comes to productivity apps, especially those that have to work within the constraints of iOS and iPadOS, it’s rare these days to stumble upon a new idea that has never been tried before. With the exception of objectively new technologies such as LLMs, or unless there’s a new framework that Apple is opening

Let me cut to the chase: sadly, I don’t have a new iPad Pro to review today on MacStories. I was able to try one in London last week, and, as I wrote, I came away impressed with the hardware. However, I didn’t get a chance to use a new iPad Pro over the past

Today, I’m releasing version 3.2 of Apple Frames, my shortcut to put screenshots taken on Apple devices into physical device templates. If you want to skip ahead, you can download Apple Frames 3.2 at the end of this story or find it in the MacStories Shortcuts Archive. Version 3.2 is a major update that introduces

[audio_player src=”https://cdn.simplecast.com/audio/0de98bba-5e4d-4879-94dc-8c76a3a88322/episodes/6b731c78-a3ce-451f-a4bf-61a5bc816596/audio/1e4081cb-df32-4a41-8175-abc2419ab8a7/default_tc.mp3?nocache” mime_type=”audio/mpeg” total_duration=”00:24:44” caption=”“] [subscribe_to_unwind] This week, Federico and I talk about the writing process, Federico recommends Vampire by Olivia Rodrigo and I recommend Hijack on Apple TV+. Sponsored By: Kolide – It ensures that if a device isn’t secure it can’t access your apps.  It’s Device Trust for Okta. Watch the demo today!

Instagram just rolled out Threads, the company’s new text-based social network that’s been advertised over the past few weeks as an alternative to Twitter. I’m trying out Threads (you can find my account at threads.net/@viticci) and in the process of setting up the list of people I want to follow, I immediately run into an

I’m in Cupertino for WWDC this week, and after yesterday’s whirlwind of announcements and surprises, I had some time to sit down with my 12.9” iPad Pro, install iPadOS 17 beta 1 on it, and try the improved version of Stage Manager. As you know, I have a…complicated history with the iPad’s latest multitasking system.

It’s the inaugural week of the second annual edition of Automation April, and to celebrate the occasion, I’ve been working on something special: today, I’m introducing S-GPT, an advanced conversational shortcut for ChatGPT that bridges OpenAI’s assistant to native system features of iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and watchOS. S-GPT (which stands for Shortcuts-GPT) is free to

Apple announced today that later this month, it will update its Music app with a new feature called Apple Music Sing. According to Apple’s Oliver Schusser, its vice president of Apple Music and Beats: Apple Music’s lyrics experience is consistently one of the most popular features on our service. We already know our users all

Like many others over the past month, I’ve been thinking deeply about my experience with Twitter and whether I want to align my social media usage with the kind of platform Twitter is rapidly becoming. It’s a complex discussion (if my readers are still on Twitter, am I doing them a disservice by not using

When Apple Music debuted last summer I switched to it from Spotify. I wasn’t on Spotify all that long, but I did have a few playlists I wanted to take with me, including a big one with all the songs I had favorited. At the time, I found a script that logged into both services,

Today, I’m pleased to announce the release of version 3.0 of Apple Frames, my shortcut to put screenshots taken on various Apple devices inside physical frames for iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch. Apple Frames 3.0 is a major update that involved a complete re-architecture of the shortcut to improve its performance and reliability on

Earlier this week, I published my review of iOS 16. As you may have seen, throughout the eight chapters of the story, I pointed out some of the flaws of iOS 16 and aspects I didn’t particularly like. That gave me an idea. First, however, allow me to thank to everyone who read, enjoyed, and

Stage Manager in the iPadOS 16 beta is receiving heavy criticism for being "fundamentally misguided" in its approach to bringing a new level...

Sometimes I truly have excellent timing with my stories. As you may recall, a couple of months ago in the lead-up to WWDC, I published an article on my experience with using the M1 Max MacBook Pro for six months. That story was born out of a desire to get to know macOS again after

A couple of months ago, I decided to start learning Python. I say “start” because, as a hobby to fit in between my personal schedule and work for the site, learning the language is still very much a work in progress. I hope I’ll get to an acceptable level of knowledge someday. Coming from AppleScript,

Despite Apple’s message that the iPad Pro can be a viable PC replacement because, among other features, it natively supports a dedicated external keyboard, its software still isn’t fully optimized for keyboard control. This isn’t surprising at all: iOS was designed with multitouch in mind; as long as the iPad shares a common foundation with

The last time I wrote about the iPad Air in October 2020, I explained how its fourth-generation model intrigued me again. A year and a half later, here I am, once again fascinated by the iPad Air, captivated by its hybrid nature caught between a base model iPad and the aspirations of an iPad Pro.

Indie developer Alex Hay has long pushed the boundaries of what third-party developers can build with the SiriKit framework and Shortcuts integrations on Apple platforms. In late 2019, his Toolbox Pro app redefined what it means to complement Apple’s Shortcuts app with additional actions, creating an entirely new sub-genre of headless utilities designed to provide

If there’s a category of iOS apps I’m always interested in checking out, that would be text editors. I write for a living, and while a better app won’t make me a better writer, a text editor that works for me can make me type and research more efficiently. Text editors are tools, and I’m

Every single podcast feed I’m subscribed to.

“Very impressed with the new Apple Music app for PS5. Can play music in the background and there's Home menu integration with a floating mini player; real-time lyrics are supported as well as Apple Music's usual contextual menus. Really well done.”

“Very impressed with the new Apple Music app for PS5. Can play music in the background and there's Home menu integration with a floating mini player; real-time lyrics are supported as well as Apple Music's usual contextual menus. Really well done.”

“Here's a proof of concept I've put together: @obsdmd Reminders integration powered by Shortcuts. Write down tasks in Obsidian as plain text, they turn into native reminders. Could run as an automaton. I can also support reminder deep-linking. Should I continue here? 😄 https://t.co/dC4aq6s9fb”