This Week's Sponsor:

Direct Mail

Professional Email Marketing Built Just for Mac Users

Direct Mail 7: Professional Email Marketing Built Just for Mac Users [Sponsor]

If you run a business, a side hustle, a podcast, or just want to stay in touch with a community, you know how important great email marketing can be. That’s where Direct Mail comes in — a native macOS app that makes it incredibly easy to design, send, and track email campaigns that get results. Unlike web-based alternatives, Direct Mail is designed specifically for macOS, with the speed, polish, and Mac-first integration you expect.

The brand-new Version 7 is a huge leap forward. This update brings a host of new features, including a reimagined user interface, smarter list management, powerful email signup forms, upgraded reporting, and all-new tools to help your emails stand out. Whether you’re sending to 10 people or 10,000, Direct Mail gives you the tools to do it professionally and painlessly.

If you’ve ever been frustrated with clunky, web-based email marketing tools, or just want something that feels right at home on your Mac, check out Direct Mail. It’s free to download and try, with flexible pricing plans to match every budget — including pay-as-you-go options. You can be up and running with your first campaign in just minutes. Our friendly customer support reps are available via live chat to help with any questions, ensuring you’re never stuck. Get started today and expand your reach with powerful, Mac-first email marketing tools.

Our thanks to Direct Mail for sponsoring MacStories this week.

Podcast Rewind: WWDC Announcement Details and Apple Original Film Echo Valley

Enjoy the latest episodes from MacStories’ family of podcasts:

AppStories

For our second WWDC episode of AppStories, Federico and John dig into the details they’ve learned about what was announced by Apple this week at WWDC 2025.

This episode is sponsored by:

  • Clic for Sonos – No lag. No hassle. Just Clic.
  • Elements – A truly modern, drag-and-drop website builder for macOS.

Magic Rays of Light

Sigmund and Devon break down Apple’s tvOS and visionOS announcements from WWDC25, grade their predictions, and highlight Apple Original film Echo Valley.

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Stephen Hackett on Opening Up a ‘Macintosh’ Screensaver Treasure Trove→

As detailed on 512 Pixels, Stephen Hackett managed to break into the beautiful ‘Macintosh’ screensaver and uncover the details of how it was constructed.

When looking for macOS Tahoe’s wallpapers, I was reminded of this project. I went digging through the SSD on my MacBook Pro, and my journey through Finder has yielded great fruit.

The screen saver is actually an Extension, residing at /System / Library / ExtensionKit / Extensions / WallpaperMacintoshExtension.appex (spaces added for legibility).

Right-clicking to “Show Package Contents” unveils a treasure trove:

The screensaver itself is not a video one, as evident by the way it randomly displays its designs when activated. Until now, it was somewhat of a mystery how this was dynamically created, so it’s great to peek behind the curtain.

I won’t spoil the details as they are pretty fun, and not really what you would have expected. Stephen has also collected all the image files in HiRes, should you wish to download them.

As someone who absolutely adores these designs to this day (so much so that I have not one but two of them as tattoos - the pixelated cursor and the smiling Mac), this was a delightful little discovery.

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Albums: Algorithm-Free Listening for Music Lovers [Sponsor]

Albums is the player that cares as much about your music library as you do. Made by music-obsessed solo developer Adam Linder, Albums provides the best alternative to the built-in Music app for true music lovers.

MacStories readers can redeem an extra-long two-week free trial of Albums Premium.

Albums is the infinite, high-tech CD binder or vinyl crate you wish you’d had in high school. Relive the glory days of the iPod with album shuffle, and use robust tagging and filtering options to build the album collections of your dreams—you can even tag music not in your library to check out later.

Beyond playback and organization, Albums is packed with features to enrich your musical life; the Release Feed keeps track of new and upcoming music from artists and record labels in your library; the app tracks your play history and generates regular listening reports; and the Insights tab offers dozens of personalized collections to help you experience your library in a new way.

Albums is deeply integrated with iOS system features, including comprehensive Shortcuts support, a first-class CarPlay app, and interactive widgets. It is available for iOS and iPadOS, with a macOS app on the horizon. Coming up on six years of iterative improvement on the App Store, the app is the best it’s ever been—and only getting better.

When you’re ready to level up your music-listening experience, redeem your two-week trial of Albums Premium. If you’re looking for something a little different, you can also check out Adam’s chaotic neutral music-discovery app, Univershuffle, which shuffles all of the music on the Apple Music catalog. Seriously!

Our thanks to Albums for supporting MacStories’ WWDC coverage this week.

Podcast Rewind: Chatting with Apple Design Award Winners, Favorite WWDC Announcements, and Transatlantic Tea Talk

Enjoy the latest episodes from MacStories’ family of podcasts:

AppStories

For their first WWDC 2025 AppStories episode, Federico and John interview finalists and winners of the Apple Design Award.

This episode is sponsored by:

Comfort Zone

Comfort Zone does WWDC! Federico Viticci joins the show to talk about our favorite things revealed at Apple’s developer conference.

Ruminate

Snack news dropped just before recording, Robb’s been buying more notebooks, and John and Robb discuss videogame news.

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“Opinionated Design”: Early Reactions to Apple’s Liquid Glass Design Language

If there was one thing you could guarantee to come out of a major OS redesign, it’s that people would have opinions, and lots of them. Combine that with the fact that the new Liquid Glass design stretches across every Apple platform, and you’ve got a recipe for many, many hot takes.

Amidst the big reactions, both positive and negative, there has been some excellent commentary on not just the content of this new design, but also the whys and wherefores of one of the largest redesigns Apple has ever carried out.

One thing I think we should all be reminded of is the fact that this is the very start of the beta period. This is a time when much is broken, and a lot will change before the update is released to the general public. What is clear about Liquid Glass is that it is an opinionated design that, certainly at this point of development, will not please everyone.

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tvOS 26: The MacStories Overview

Source: Apple.

Source: Apple.

On Monday, Apple announced tvOS 26, the latest chapter in the platform’s nearly decade-long journey of bringing best-in-class experiences for TV shows, films, and apps to the living room – available this fall and currently in developer-only beta. In a first for the company, this year sees the debut of a new universal design language across all of Apple’s platforms simultaneously. Liquid Glass aims to make the transition from one device to another a seamless, almost indistinguishable user experience while placing greater emphasis on content in a way that’s both free of immersion-breaking distractions and perfectly suited to Apple TV.

Source: Apple.

Source: Apple.

Compatible with Apple TV 4K (2nd generation) and above, the new visionOS-inspired material design aims to achieve those lofty ambitions by cleverly simulating refractions and reflections to create the illusion of specular highlights within the different UI elements inside of tvOS 26, adding a subtle three-dimensionality to every control, button, and app icon border as each element adapts to its surroundings thanks to real-time, on-device rendering. Though the adoption of Liquid Glass has been executed with subtle and delicate delivery in most parts of the system, the glacial elements exhibited within Apple TV’s video player controls and Control Center elevate both otherwise unchanged OS elements to noteworthy showpieces while still keeping the focus first and foremost on what’s playing.

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WWDC 2025: Subsequent Discoveries

Source: Apple.

Source: Apple.

After the initial rush following a WWDC keynote, the next few days are typically spent mulling over new features and design changes. This is often a fruitful time for discovering modifications and additions that weren’t covered in the keynote. This year is no different, so I’ve collated a roundup of some of the most significant ones below.

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watchOS 26: The MacStories Overview

Source: Apple.

Source: Apple.

Earlier today, Apple announced watchOS 26 and with it, a selection of updates and new features for the Apple Watch. Alongside all of Apple’s other platforms, watchOS will adopt the new Liquid Glass design language, albeit in a less significant way.

watchOS didn’t feature any Apple Intelligence features when it launched last year, and that continues to be the case, even though it is merely a technicality now. That’s because the new Workout Buddy feature, which you interact with from your Apple Watch, still requires an Apple Intelligence-capable iPhone nearby. This is presumably a technical limitation that may be overcome in the future with a more advanced Apple Watch chipset.

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