THE EXTENSION

Exploring topics beyond our day-to-day coverage.

The Business Dilemma of iPad Apps on Apple Silicon Macs

• Ryan

There’s a lot about Apple Silicon Macs we simply don’t know. Apple has said that controlling the silicon in their laptops will mean they can do a lot of new things, but exactly what those new things will be has mostly been saved as a surprise. We can guess that Apple Silicon Macs will likely follow a more predictable upgrade schedule, similar to the iPhone and iPad Pro (though it’s worth noting that the iPad Pro’s chip cycle was thrown off this year with the inconsequential A12Z update). We can also likely assume that more hardware innovations birthed on iPhone and iPad will come to the Mac sooner than they have in the past (Face ID anyone?). But outside of those reasonable assumptions, there remain plenty of question marks around whether the Mac will finally gain touch support, LTE options in laptops, and so on.

One of the only things we do know with any certainty is that Apple Silicon Macs will be able to run iPhone and iPad apps natively, without any changes required by developers. In fact, developers only really need to decide whether they want this to happen for their apps or not. If they’d prefer not to have their iPhone and iPad apps made available for download on the Mac App Store, they can uncheck a box to stop that from happening, otherwise come this fall when the first Apple Silicon Mac launches, it will have access to a myriad of not only Mac apps, but also iPhone and iPad apps that can run unmodified on the device.

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THE EXTENSION

Exploring topics beyond our day-to-day coverage.

Apple Podcasts Is Regressing at the Worst Time

• Ryan

I’m not normally one to write columns like this, featuring headlines like this. Generally I’m a pretty optimistic, positive person and that translates into my coverage of Apple. I aim to be realistic and not ignore issues I experience with Apple’s products, apps, or third-party apps, while also recognizing that issues can easily be overblown if they’re isolated from what’s good. But for today at least, I need to write a different kind of column, one that doesn’t have much of an upside to it, because I think Apple is making a big misstep with its redesign of Apple Podcasts in this fall’s OS updates.

Against the trend of many techies I know, I think Apple Podcasts until now has been a pretty good app that works well for most people. No it doesn’t have advanced features like Overcast’s Smart Speed or Voice Boost, or a great queuing system like Castro, but it’s relatively simple and straightforward, and all of the “non-techies” in my life who use it don’t seem to have any problem with it. In fact, I’ve used it myself for the majority of the last few years and have been happy with it.

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THE EXTENSION

Exploring topics beyond our day-to-day coverage.

Our Widget Wishlist

• Ryan

Widgets are the sort of feature where the summer beta releases of iOS, iPadOS, and macOS don’t quite provide the full picture of what will be possible when those new OS versions launch this fall and third-party apps offer new widgets of their own. So while Federico, John, and I have been enjoying the first-party widgets available in the summer betas, and even a few third-party ones we’ve been able to try, we can’t help but think about the kind of widgets we hope are made available this fall and beyond. Here are some widgets currently on our wishlist.

Castro

As I wrote in the June Monthly Log, I switched to Castro as my podcast client a couple months ago following the debut of iOS 14’s first beta. Until that time I’d been using Apple Podcasts following an extended Overcast stint, but I don’t care for some of the changes to Podcasts in iOS 14. One of my biggest issues has been addressed in the latest beta release, but I’m still happily sticking with Castro for now.

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