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Jonathan Reed

Contributor

Mastodon: @jonathanreed@techhub.socialEmail: jonathan@macstories.net

Jonathan is a graphic designer at DesignStudio. As well as being a long-time Apple user he is a huge film and television aficionado and is very interested in the intersection between the two mediums and technology. He lives in London with his wife and daughter and is writing his bio in the third person.

484 — October 3, 2025

Taking Inspiration From the Apple Watch Ultra to Imagine a Future iPhone Pro

THE EXTENSION

Exploring topics beyond our day-to-day coverage.

Taking Inspiration From the Apple Watch Ultra to Imagine a Future iPhone Pro

The iPhone Air is an incredible feat of engineering. I think it’s hard for anyone to argue with that statement. What Apple has done with the hardware, including how they’ve moved almost all of the iPhone’s internals – save for the battery – behind the camera bump (sorry, ‘Iconic Plateau’) is incredible.

Unfortunately, this development in “thinnovation” has sparked a significant amount of discourse surrounding Apple’s potential desire to make all iPhones thinner. Lots of people love that idea, but, equally, many don’t. Many users prefer the heft of a thick iPhone and are unwilling to compromise on features like battery life and camera options.

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483 — September 26, 2025

Some Tiny iOS 26 Features I’ve Been Enjoying

TIPS

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

Some Tiny iOS 26 Features I’ve Been Enjoying

Now that iOS 26 is out and gradually making its way to everyone’s iPhones, I thought I’d share some smaller, lesser-known features that I’ve been enjoying the last few months over the beta period.

Pinned Music Albums

This is probably the most well-known of these tips, but I wanted to point out how I’m using it. I’ve long used MusicBox to bookmark albums that I want to listen to. It’s a great app, but the issue (which is a “me” problem, for sure) is that I have to actively think about opening the app regularly.

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482 — September 20, 2025

New iPhone Day is Exciting Again

THE EXTENSION

Exploring topics beyond our day-to-day coverage.

New iPhone Day is Exciting Again

Source: Apple.

Today (when I’m writing this) is New iPhone Day. It’s also New Apple Watch Day and New AirPods Pro Day, but for now, I’m going to talk about the iPhone. This year, New iPhone Day is different from any other in the past. This year, I had to make a choice, and it was exciting.

Every other year, as far back as the Pro line has existed, I’ve always gone Pro. I took a brief dalliance with the dearly departed iPhone mini, but aside from that year, Pro has been the way to go for me. I’ve always wanted the best, and with features like ProMotion and ProRAW – plus an extra zoom lens – the iPhone Pro wasn’t even a choice; it was just the one I had to get.

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481 — September 12, 2025

How I Made a Podcast

THE EXTENSION

Exploring topics beyond our day-to-day coverage.

How I Made a Podcast

This week, I launched my new podcast on MacStories. First, Last, Everything is a series of conversations with guests about their relationships with technology told via their first loves, last obsessions, and the tech that meant everything to them.

I’ve been popping up on various MacStories podcasts for a while now (including for interviews), so the process of recording the podcast itself didn’t seem too daunting when I started planning it late last year. That said, I knew it would be very time-consuming. The barrier to entry for making and distributing a podcast these days is very low, but knowing how to do it is another thing. Today, I’m going to share how I made First, Last, Everything in the hopes that anyone else thinking of starting their own podcast might pick up some tips.

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480 — September 5, 2025

Filming a Two-Sided Interview Using Two iPhones, Two Mics, and Final Cut Pro for iPad

THE EXTENSION

Exploring topics beyond our day-to-day coverage.

Filming a Two-Sided Interview Using Two iPhones, Two Mics, and Final Cut Pro for iPad

I’m the sort of person who has a long list of tech projects that I want to start, but due to life, they often get put off. Recently, I was able to get around to a project with my parents that I’ve had on my radar for a long time.

My parents are in their mid-70s now, yet there are several periods of their lives that my brothers and I don’t know a whole lot about. For instance, my Dad was born in Australia and lived there until he was nine. He also visited Israel at the age of 18 and then hitchhiked all the way back to England. I wanted – nay, needed – to know more.

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480 — September 5, 2025

App Debuts

APP DEBUTS

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

Acorn

Flying Meat’s image editor was updated to version 8.2 this week, adding a diffing tool to the app’s export feature. Now, when you export an image, you have the option to view a highlighted overlay of any changes made to it. There’s also a new feature that adds non-destructive linear and radial multi-stop gradient filters to images. I’m a little out of my image editing depths when it comes to such things, but I’m sure if you understand what that means, you’ll probably be happy with the change. There are a bunch of other smaller changes in this release that you can read about on the Flying Meat blog, as well as an update on preparing the app for Liquid Glass.

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