Update: An earlier version of this article referred to this feature as having been introduced in iPadOS 27, but it was actually introduced in the iPadOS 26 cycle. I missed it. My apologies.
In iPadOS’ Shortcuts app, the existing ‘Open App’ action was recently updated with the ability to launch an app with a specific window placement parameter. This means you can now automate window positions on iPad by opening a bunch of apps and programmatically selecting where their windows be placed.
Safari for iOS 27: Where’s the Share Button? In iOS 27, Apple tweaked the design of Safari’s compact tab bar mode (introduced last year) with a subtle change: the bottom-right button is no longer a generic ellipsis menu – it opens your tabs instead. I can’t tell you how happy this change alone makes me. Part of the reason I stopped using compact...
It’s my last day at Apple Park for my seventh in-person WWDC, and as I’m waiting for my final briefing just outside the Steve Jobs Theater – ever so magnificent in its polish, and yet always so strangely calm a place – I keep returning to a thought that’s been circling my head, begging for attention. I’ve never felt so “in between” phases of my career. Physically in this very moment, of course, as I’m literally sitting on an also-polished wooden bench overlooking one side of the ring, watching groups of people climb the hill to the theater and others leave. But more so mentally, insofar as I don’t recall another WWDC that’s made me feel so aware of how much things are changing around me.
At my first WWDC in San Francisco in 2016, I didn’t feel like I belonged. I was a 28-year-old blogger from Italy and somehow found my way to the most important event about the software I loved writing about. It was uncomfortable: what was I even doing there, taking notes on an iPad while folks from The New York Times or Wall Street Journal prepared articles that millions of people would read? But I didn’t mind it. I was in the middle of change; the discomfort fueled me.
10 years later, as an almost 38-year-old blogger from Italy who’s wondering just how, exactly, Apple managed to hide speakers playing music in the bushes outside the Steve Jobs Theater, I look at the content creators who are possibly experiencing their first WWDC, and realize: how am I still here, and still taking notes on an iPad, while these younger folks are shooting videos that millions of people will watch? I’m in between changes again, but I don’t mind it. The challenge still feeds me. I’m more comfortable now, but – miraculously – I don’t feel cynical or jaded. Some people are into that sort of attitude; I’ve always preferred to put in the work to be critical and enthusiastic about the things I like. In a world of complaints, optimism is a skill.
The music is still mysteriously coming from somewhere around the bushes. My friend Myke walks out the theater and tells me I’m going to love the session downstairs about AI on the Mac. “Who would have thought I’d be into that someday”, I think to myself.
WWDC 2026: The Apple Design Award Interviews In a second special WWDC edition of AppStories, Federico and John interview Apple Design Award finalists and winners, including the developers of The Outsiders and Tide Guide and the publishers of Pine Hearts and BALL x PIT.
Also available on YouTube here.
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WWDC 2026 with Special Guests Myke Hurley and Christopher Lawley Federico and John are joined this week by Myke Hurley and Chris Lawley to share their first impressions of the WWDC keynote and discoveries in the hours following the presentation.
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I just came back to my hotel room after a long day at Apple Park (I documented most of it in my Instagram stories, including a very cool shot), and, like everyone else here in Cupertino, I’m still processing the information overload from the past 12 hours. The MacStories team already covered iOS and iPadOS 27, plus Siri AI and Apple Intelligence, and we have more coming tomorrow.
Before I call it a day though, I wanted to link the first thing I read on my way back: Apple’s latest article on the Machine Learning blog about the new Apple Foundation Models that were announced today – three cloud-based models, and two on-device ones.
I’m on my way to California for WWDC, and with the conference kicking off tomorrow, I thought I’d take advantage of my 12 hours on this airplane by sharing the latest addition to the Apple Frames CLI: support for video framing.
I wanted to share a quick update to RemCTL, my CLI for Reminders that I released last week, which brings almost every Reminders feature to your agent or terminal of choice.
As it turns out, I forgot to support two more Reminders-exclusive (i.e. not available to third-party clients) functionalities in the initial version: all-day reminders and the ability to assign a reminder to another person in a shared list. The former is the feature that lets you enter a task with a due date such as “Tuesday” but without a due time;. those tasks can now be properly read and written by RemCTL.
Additionally, while RemCTL cannot share lists with iCloud (it requires a private Apple entitlement – same reason why the CLI cannot share a template via iCloud), it can now read and create task assignments from an already-shared Reminders list. In a nice touch, you can even lookup assignees by name, email address, or phone number.
You can find a detailed changelog of the latest release here. As always, the best way to update the CLI is to simply ask your agent to pull the latest version and update its installed skill to match the most recent version from the repo.
Our WWDC Automation Wish List This week on AppStories, Federico and John share their WWDC automation wishes.
Then on AppStories+, they share more details on their research setups for the summer.
Also available on YouTube here.
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Things: The award-winning to-do app.
John
