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.
Great reads and links from around the web.
It was a big week for Apple history posts:
On 512 Pixels, Stephen Hackett linked to a post by Marcin Wichary that recounts the history of the Mac’s settings from 1984–2004. (Link)
Exploring topics beyond our day-to-day coverage.
As I’ve played around more with AI tools, I’ve begun to realize that computing is going to increasingly become a lean-back experience, which I expect will change the input devices we use. Here’s where I think we’re heading.
I learned touch typing in high school. I’m comfortable with a keyboard under my hands and can type as quickly as I can think, but typing as much as I do is hard on your hands. I’ve been fortunate not to wind up with serious RSI issues, but I feel the wear and tear on my hands during busy times of the year and especially when I use a laptop or an iPad in a Magic Keyboard case a lot. In the past, I tried dictation apps to give my hands some relief, but none were very good. It’s only recently that I’ve begun to feel like Apple’s built-in dictation could replace some of my typing, but even then, I resisted.
Noteworthy new app releases and updates, handpicked by the MacStories team.
Cascable Studio 7.1 recently introduced powerful automation features for streamlining photographers’ iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Mac workflows. The app, which lets you remotely control, tether, automate, and transfer photos and video from more than 200 supported cameras over USB, Wi-Fi, or Ethernet, now supports Elgato’s Stream Deck on the iPad and Mac. The update also adds Shortcuts actions that enable complex automated workflows such as automatically connecting to cameras, filtering photos by rating and date, applying watermarks, and emailing processed images to clients. On top of that, the Mac version now supports AppleScript for sophisticated scripting, making Cascable Studio a powerful photography automation tool.
More stories for Club members.
Earlier this week in the Club MacStories+ Discord, members were discussing Grammarly’s acquisition of Superhuman and what it means for both services. I chimed in to say that I suspect Grammarly is looking to expand its AI services because its core spelling and grammar checking functionality is under pressure from AI chatbots. Even small, on-device models like Apple’s do a relatively good job at catching spelling and grammar mistakes.
Plus, if you subscribe to an AI service like ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini, it’s possible to tailor your spelling and grammar checking workflow to meet your particular needs. That’s what we’ve done at MacStories with ChatGPT. Our proofreading setup is particular to what we write about, so readers probably wouldn’t want to copy it as-is. However, it’s a good starting point and an example of how spending a little time on prompting and customization can go a long way with any chatbot, so I thought I’d share it today.
Great reads and links from around the web.
Writing for Wired, Boone Ashworth profiles the company behind TranscribeGlass, AI-enabled glasses that bring subtitles to everyday life to assist those who are Deaf and hard of hearing. (Link)
In the same week that Google brought its Calendar app to the Apple Watch, it killed Keep for the Watch, as reported by Jess Weatherbed at The Verge. (Link)
Noteworthy new app releases and updates, handpicked by the MacStories team.
Project Indigo is a new camera app from Adobe that features manual controls and claims to offer a custom computational photography process that produces natural-looking images. The app’s development was led by a couple of former Google Pixel team members. Like other computational photography apps, Project Indigo captures multiple shots, combining them into what Adobe touts as a natural film-like style. The app shoots images in DNG and JPEG formats and includes experimental AI-based denoise and reflection removal tools.
Over the past six months, I’ve been on a costly quest for a better email solution that started with Superhuman and continued with Shortwave. Both are powerful email services designed to help users process a lot of email quickly, and there’s enough overlap between the two that I thought it would be useful to highlight why I ultimately decided on Shortwave over Superhuman.
One inescapable downside of both services is their cost. Superhuman’s Business plan comes in at $396/year if you pay upfront; otherwise, it’s $40/month. Shortwave costs even more at $432 for a full year upfront or $45/month for its Premier tier. Both services have lower tiers with fewer features, including a free tier for Shortwave, but it’s the most advanced AI features of both services’ top tiers that I’ve found to be more valuable than other email apps and services.
