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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.

471 — June 20, 2025

(Not Boring) Camera

MACSTORIES RECOMMENDS

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

(Not Boring) Camera

I’ve been a fan of Not Boring Software’s apps for a while, as I’ve detailed in MacStories Weekly before. So when I heard they were releasing a camera app, I was intrigued, to say the least. Not Boring Software have pitched themselves as developers of useful, intuitive software that is visually wild and expressive. It should come as no surprise, then, that (Not Boring) Camera continues that trend. Let’s take a look.

(Not Boring) Design

You can customize your camera to be any color you want.

Before you even start using an app from Not Boring Software, the first thing that jumps out at you is its bold, colorful design. With !Camera (as the app is referred to outside of its App Store listing), customization begins from the moment you open it, when you are asked to select a color scheme from some pre-set options. Choosing one recolors both the UI and the front of your imaginary camera, which is really only visible in the app’s Home Screen widget.

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470 — June 14, 2025

The Ups and Downs of WWDC

THE EXTENSION

Exploring topics beyond our day-to-day coverage.

The Ups and Downs of WWDC

Source: Apple.

Well, WWDC is over for another year. Going into it, my expectations weren’t terribly high, and, like many, I was just very tired of all the goings-on at Apple over the last year. I was excited for pretty new things, but I wasn’t confident the company would be able to land the plane.

Thankfully, this was a delightful WWDC with plenty to discuss – almost all of it tangible – featuring a range of interesting ideas, both good and bad. Apple seemed to be more focused on its strengths this time around, rather than swinging wildly at any AI ideas it could half-think up. Even so, there were certainly some ups and downs during the one and a half hours of over-produced, glossy video presentations. Here were the ones that resonated with me.

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469 — June 6, 2025

Interesting Links

INTERESTING LINKS

Great reads and links from around the web.

Steven Levy at Wired interviewed Nobel Prize winner Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google DeepMind, about AI and where it’s heading. (Link)

Rolling Stone’s Christopher Cruz interviewed Mario Kart World producer Kosuke Yabuki about the challenges of producing an open world racing game that’s accessible to a wide audience. (Link)

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469 — June 6, 2025

What I’ll Be Looking Out For at WWDC

MACSTORIES EXTRAS

More stories for Club members.

What I’ll Be Looking Out For at WWDC

Even after one of the roughest years for Apple in recent memory, I’m still excited for next week’s WWDC. Well, maybe “excited” is going a bit far, but I’m certainly looking forward to it. More than ever, all eyes will be not just on what Apple announces but how they announce it.

So with that in mind, here are the three areas I’ll be paying particular attention to and why the way Apple discusses them will be so interesting to see.

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468 — May 30, 2025

Seeing Past the Hype of the Jony Ive & Sam Altman Collaboration

THE EXTENSION

Exploring topics beyond our day-to-day coverage.

Seeing Past the Hype of the Jony Ive & Sam Altman Collaboration

I think it’s fair to say that the dust has adequately settled on the OpenAI/Jony Ive/io news from last week. It’s been on my mind quite a bit as I’ve seen all the hot takes, both positive and negative. Most of the conversation has been focused on the new device that Ive and the team at io have been working on. While many people see this as the big news, that’s not the part of the announcement I’ve been thinking about. That honor goes to a sentence right at the end of the statement on OpenAI’s website, which I’ll dig deeper into shortly.

First, let me acknowledge that this is, indeed, big news. A collaboration between OpenAI and the designer of many legendary Apple products, working on new hardware together, was always going to be huge. Yet, I feel headlines like “Jony Ive’s OpenAI Deal Puts Pressure on Apple to Find Next Big Thing” are way overblown. I’m sure Apple is feeling stung right now, but let’s remember, this device – whatever it is – isn’t due to be released until late 2026 at the earliest. And even then, there’s no guarantee it will be any good.

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467 — May 23, 2025

OneMenu →

MACSTORIES RECOMMENDS

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OneMenu

The proliferation of small but mighty menu bar utilities for the Mac continues. My latest favorite is OneMenu. It focuses on four core features: window management, system monitoring, clipboard history, and keyboard cleaning. Let’s start with the simplest of them all.

Keyboard Cleaning

After it’s installed, the OneMenu app will appear in your menu bar. From there, you can access all of its functions and tweak its preferences. The menu contains a singular switch that will block all input from your keyboard when activated. This allows you to… well, I think you can guess. When you’ve finished cleaning, simply use the mouse to access the menu and turn the switch off.

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