Podcast Rewind: Building Personalized Software, Steam Machine Pricing Rumors, Matt Podcasts Solo, and Ted Danson

AppStories

This week, Federico and John complete their tour of holiday projects with a look at the tools both of them built with the help of Claude Code, Codex, and other tools.

On AppStories+, John pushes Claude Code by building a Safari web extension that integrates with Notion.

NPC: Next Portable Console

This week, rumors swirl about the Steam Machine’s pricing, AYANEO pauses to collect itself, and GameSir’s Pocket Taco goes live – plus, the lack of foldable phone controllers and our first videogames.

On NPC XL, Federico, John, and Brendon share what they do when they’re not obsessing over handheld consoles.

Comfort Zone

Matt’s on his own for this one, as Chris and Niléane managed to both get sick at the same time. Fear not; we get to rant and rave about the latest “Xbox”!

On Cozy Zone, we roast each other’s backpacks. One’s all black, one’s full of color, and the other is just a mess.

MacStories Unwind

This week, John shrugs off a once-in-a-decade winter storm and watches a great movie, while Federico has a returning comedy series to share.

AppStories, Episode 468, ‘A Very “Just Build It” Holiday’ Show Notes

Holiday Coding Projects Continued

Federico’s Projects:

HTML tools collection (12+ tools) inspired by Simon Willison’s approach

MacStories Markdown Preview tool

MarkdownFixer (Python in browser via Pyodide)

Custom MCP servers for: Feedbin, Readwise Reader, YouTube Transcript, and Raindrop

Home automation tools: NAS Control, Roon Visualizer, Custom TV Remote (LG webOS + Philips Hue Sync Box)

Notion tools: DailyNote Append, DailyNote Viewer, Notion Clippings web app, YouTube Watch Queue

Liquid Glass CSS design guide for web apps

Using Claude Code vs OpenAI Codex comparison

Remote coding workflow with Termius and Pushover notifications

John’s Projects

MacStories Common (shared code library)

Podcast production tools (loudness matching, transcription improvements)

Obsidian plugins for sending to Matter and Readwise Reader

Article Highlights tool

Notion OAuth integration

Reviving Blink app (Objective C to Swift/SwiftUI conversion)

Other Tools and Services Mentioned

GitHub

Cloudflare Workers

Tailscale

Secure Shellfish

FFmpeg

Wispr Flow

AppStories+ Post-Show

John’s LinkSlinger Safari web extension for Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS

Subscribe to AppStories+

Visit AppStories.net to learn more about the extended, high bitrate audio version of AppStories that is delivered early each week and subscribe.

NPC, Episode 64, ‘Foldables, Fex, and a Forgettable CES’ Show Notes

The Latest Portable Gaming News

Steam Machine pricing may have leaked

Meta has closed three VR studios as part of its metaverse-focused layoffs

GameSir Pocket Taco phone controller Kickstarter is now live

AYANEO Pocket PLAY delayed

AYN Thor gets major OTA update, Batch 2 shipping January 15, prices rising for Batch 3

Retrocade is coming to Apple Vision Pro

A FEX announcement is coming

Subscribe to NPC XL

NPC XL is a weekly members-only version of NPC with extra content, available exclusively through our new Patreon for $5/month. Each week on NPC XL, Federico, Brendon, and John record a special segment or deep dive about a particular topic that is released alongside the “regular” NPC episodes. You can subscribe here.

Comfort Zone, Episode 84, ‘Where Is Everybody?’ Show Notes

Main Topics

ROG Xbox Ally X

Matt’s Review

Cozy Zone

For even more from the Comfort Zone crew, you can subscribe to Cozy Zone. Cozy Zone is a weekly bonus episode of Comfort Zone where Matt, Niléane, and Chris invite listeners to join them in the Cozy Zone where they’ll cover extra topics, invent wilder challenges and games, and share all their great (and not so great) takes on tech. You can subscribe to Cozy Zone for $5 per month here or $50 per year here.

MacStories Unwind, ‘Snowmageddon, Billionaire Blackmail, and Water Beds’ Show Notes

Snowmageddon

Ice threat continues to grow as weekend winter storm nears Carolinas

When was the last time Charlotte had a significant ice storm?

Picks

Federico’s Pick:

A Man on the Inside on Netflix

A Man on the Inside Season 2 Cast, Plot, Release Date: Meet the Stars Joining Ted Danson, First Look Photos

John’s Pick:

Licorice Pizza

Unwind Deal

? The Super Mario Bros. Movie is just $9.99 in the TV app.