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John Voorhees

Managing Editor

Mastodon: @johnvoorhees@macstories.netEmail: voorhees@macstories.net

John, MacStories’ Managing Editor, has been writing about Apple and apps since joining the team in 2015. He also co-hosts MacStories’ podcasts, including AppStories, which explores of the world of apps, MacStories Unwind, a weekly recap of everything MacStories and more, and MacStories Unplugged, a behind-the-scenes, anything-goes show exclusively for Club MacStories members.

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A Tour of My PopClip Extensions

MACSTORIES COLLECTIONS

A Tour of My PopClip Extensions

Earlier this week, as I was digging through the details of Sindre Sorhus’ Scratchpad app, I noticed that there was a PopClip extension available. There are very few Mac apps I’ve used as long as PopClip. It’s a simple utility that pops up a menu directly above selected text, just like iOS and iPadOS do. What makes the app so compelling is that in most circumstances, you’re probably using a mouse or trackpad to select text, making a pop-up menu the perfect way to do something with that text.

Over the years, I’ve used a bunch of different PopClip extensions and even built my own, but I’ve settled on a core set that matches the apps where I tend to send snippets of text. Back in 2018, when I named the app one of my must-have apps of 2018, my PopClip lineup was spartan, consisting of relatively few extensions that I used constantly. Most of those are still part of my PopClip extension lineup today, but the list has grown, so I thought I’d offer an update.

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App Debuts

APP DEBUTS

Noteworthy new app releases and updates, handpicked by the MacStories team.

Quick Capture for Obsidian

I’ve been keeping an eye on this Obsidian companion utility for a while now, and I decided to take it for a spin earlier this week. I think it has a lot of potential, with a couple of confusing aspects I’d like the developer to work on. The idea behind Quick Capture – similar to Funnel – is that you can set up multiple capture destinations across your Obsidian vault, create new notes or append text to existing ones, attach voice recordings with transcriptions, scan documents, add images, and even send sketches. Compared to Funnel, I find Quick Capture’s design more polished and intuitive, and I’m a fan of the triple toolbar (seriously!) above the keyboard that contains formatting buttons, attachments, and destinations. However, I found the app’s setup flow for Obsidian sub-folders slightly confusing (I had to set up my Daily Notes sub-folder as a “vault” because, otherwise, the app wouldn’t save changes inside my daily note), and the integration with Todoist never worked for me. I hope the developer continues refining the app, and I’ll continue checking out its future updates.

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App Debuts

APP DEBUTS

Noteworthy new app releases and updates, handpicked by the MacStories team.

Web Apps

I mentioned this app in my story about the iPad and web apps earlier this week, and I also want to highlight it here since it received a big update this week. This app, which allows you to run web apps like Netflix, YouTube, and Figma as PWAs on the Vision Pro, now supports push notifications from web apps and has a more native visionOS launcher for all your saved web apps. You can also now download files, save images, and copy stuff to your clipboard in the app. If you want to work with web apps in visionOS, this is the app to get.

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A Collection of Hardware Doodads

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A Collection of Hardware Doodads

I don’t know about you, but I find myself endlessly browsing Amazon and other sites looking for adapters, dongles, and other small bits of tech hardware I need. The trouble is that it can be hard to judge what to buy when there are dozens of varieties of the same thing that look almost identical. Sometimes they are identical, but from different sellers. Other times, it’s a roll of the dice whether you get something useful or junky. So today, I thought I’d share some small hardware doodads I’ve discovered that have stood the test of time.

SanDisk 128GB Ultra Dual Drive Luxe

That’s quite a mouthful for a tiny USB drive. There are a lot of SSDs on Amazon and other websites, but I like this one from SanDisk best for a couple of reasons. First, it’s all metal, so you can toss it in a bag or your pocket without worrying about it too much. Speaking of which, the second advantage this little drive has is a keyring hole that allows you to attach it to your keys and take it with you or hook it to a keyring inside a bag. Third and finally, the drive swivels 180 degrees. On one end is a USB-C connector, and on the other is a USB-A connector, eliminating the need for an adapter. I have a 128GB model, but it comes in other storage sizes and is currently on sale in all configurations on Amazon.

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A Trio of iPhone Tips

TIPS

Tips and tricks to master your apps and be more productive.

A Trio of iPhone Tips

The obscurity of a tip is in the eye of the beholder, but I’ve gathered three today that I don’t think many people know.

The first two are related to long-pressing on the iPhone, which is something I do a lot in certain circumstances but don’t experiment with enough. That’s why I was surprised to discover a couple of new iOS long-press interactions recently.

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