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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444 — November 30, 2024

Interesting Links

INTERESTING LINKS

Great reads and links from around the web.

John

Microsoft has wanted to open a smartphone-based game store for years and finally got an opening earlier this year thanks to a court ruling against Google. Microsoft is ready to go, but Google got a reprieve this week from the judge in the case, who has given the company more time to comply with the order, according to mobilegamer.biz. (Link)

Samantha Cole at 404 Media reported this week that someone at Hugging Face released a dataset of one million Bluesky posts for training AI. (Link)

444 — November 30, 2024

App Debuts

APP DEBUTS

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

Federico

Scribe

There are plenty of AI-based transcription apps on the App Store (believe me, I must have tried at least 10 different ones this week, and I barely scratched the surface), but how many of them use a plastic-wrapped CD as their whole aesthetic? Scribe does. The app does the same thing as dozens of similar utilities on the App Store, but at least this one has a UI design that doesn’t suck, a clear subscription-based business model that doesn’t feel scammy, and – most importantly – intuitive interactions that let you record, transcribe, generate a summary, and export. The simplicity of Scribe is refreshing, the app is pleasant to use, and it doesn’t feel like it’s constantly trying to trick you into subscribing to another plan or joining a company’s mailing list. Transcription also runs on-device, so your audio notes won’t be stored on anyone’s servers.

444 — November 30, 2024

ChatGPT's Last Mile Solution for Apple Frames: ImageMagick

John

THE EXTENSION

Exploring topics beyond our day-to-day coverage.

ChatGPT's Last Mile Solution for Apple Frames: ImageMagick

John

Last Sunday morning, I woke up to the sort of message from Federico that wormed its way into my brain. He didn’t need to throw down a gauntlet to issue a challenge. A simple “what if” was plenty.

As Federico recounts in his story about version 3.3 of Apple Frames, a change to the way Apple saves screenshots on its latest devices tripped up Shortcuts. The app removed transparency from some framed screenshots, which didn’t look good. What made the issue worse was that the problem seemed to arise randomly, so it was hard to reproduce.

Monthly Log — November 27, 2024

The Future is Matte

John

The Future is Matte

John

Long ago, Apple made MacBook Pros with matte displays. But more than a decade ago Retina Displays were introduced, and the MacBook Pro’s matte finish was no longer offered. For years afterward, the MacBook Pro’s and every other Mac’s displays were glossy.

That began to change with the introduction of the Pro Display XDR in 2019 and not long after that, the 27" iMac. Both included nano-texture displays that came with Apple’s famous polishing cloth for buffing out fingerprints. The Pro Display XDR is still being sold today. However, with the discontinuation of the 27" iMac in 2022, it felt like Apple’s experimentation with nano-texture Macs may have ended just as it was getting started.

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443 — November 23, 2024

GamePal →

John

MACSTORIES RECOMMENDS

Great apps, accessories, gear, and media recommended by the MacStories team.

GamePal

John

In the AppStories+ pre-show for next week’s episode, I talk to Brendon Bigley, my co-host on NPC: Next Portable Console, about how we track our videogame playing. We cover a bunch of app and web service options, but of them, the newest is GamePal.

I linked to GamePal in App Debuts earlier this fall, but it has already come a long way from its 1.0 release, adding a steady stream of terrific features. As I mentioned in App Debuts, one of the cornerstones of GamePal is its focus on journaling. That’s what initially caught my eye because it’s so well implemented, but there’s a lot more to the app that I wanted to cover today.

443 — November 23, 2024

Interesting Links

INTERESTING LINKS

Great reads and links from around the web.

John

Musi, an iPhone app for streaming music from YouTube, was recently removed from the App Store over copyright violation allegations. Ashley Belanger at Ars Technica has the story of the app’s loyal users who vow not to update their iPhones until the app is reinstated on the store. (Link)

This week, Amazon introduced a massive, 21”, 1080p Echo Show for $400 according to Jennifer Pattison Tuohy of The Verge. (Link)

443 — November 23, 2024

App Debuts

APP DEBUTS

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

Federico

Nightstand

I covered a similar app last week, but Nightstand is another solution to keep track of your book reading list and organize your collection. You can set daily reading goals, take notes, assign ratings to books, and check out stats about your reading patterns. Nightstand also comes with AI-powered recommendations based on your personal reading history, which I’m sure Apple will eventually consider for their own Books app and store.