Podcast Rewind: Weird Sliding Handhelds, Sky, and Wishes for Apple Intelligence and Shortcuts

By Devon Dundee

Enjoy the latest episodes from MacStories’ family of podcasts:

AppStories

This week, John shares his first impressions of Sky, the alpha AI-powered Mac automation app from the creators of Workflow and Shortcuts, and then he and Federico share their Shortcuts and Apple Intelligence wishes for WWDC 2025

On AppStories+, John and Federico consider what AI means for developers and the App Store in the year ahead.

This episode is sponsored by:

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P: The water reminder and hydration app.

NPC: Next Portable Console

This week, with the Switch 2 launch just around the corner, Federico and John round up the latest Switch 2 news, get excited for a bunch of weird and wonderful upcoming handhelds, and more.

On NPC XL, John walks listeners through the setup process for installing NVIDIA GeForce Now on the Steam Deck, and Federico reveals a new controller and plans to stream from his gaming PC to handhelds when he’s away from home.

Podcast Rewind: Replacing Dropbox, Little Touches in Media Trackers, and an Immersive Film from Bono

By Devon Dundee

Enjoy the latest episodes from MacStories’ family of podcasts:

Comfort Zone

The gang goes old school with media apps, Chris and Matt recall tales from their youth, and Niléane reminds everyone how young and hip she is in comparison.

MacStories Unwind

This week, John quits Dropbox, Federico wraps up Friends, and John recommends a pair of movies and a Quentin Tarantino movie deal.

Magic Rays of Light

Sigmund and Devon share their thoughts on the first full-length Apple Immersive film, Bono: Stories of Surrender, and look back on the first season of The Studio.

Podcast Rewind: Wishes for macOS and visionOS, Ticci Has a Surprise, and Robb’s Got Stickers

By Devon Dundee

Enjoy the latest episodes from MacStories’ family of podcasts:

AppStories

This week, Federico and John share their WWDC wishes for macOS and visionOS.

On AppStories+, John explores how Apple hardware and software got so out of sync when it comes to AI use cases.

NPC: Next Portable Console

This week, Federico drops a big gaming surprise on John after the two of them cover the latest Switch 2, MSI, and Anbernic handheld news.

This week on NPC XL, a cautionary tale from Federico’s experience installing SteamOS on the Lenovo Legion Go. Plus, Federico wants to know which handhelds will John take with him to WWCC in June.

Ruminate

HMRC have a problem with poppadoms, Robb started a sticker shop, they talk about PS2 emulation, and finally Apple might like gaming again?

This episode is sponsored by:

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Podcast Rewind: A Dock-Free Experiment, WWDC Reunion Plans, and an International Treasure Hunt

By Devon Dundee

Enjoy the latest episodes from MacStories’ family of podcasts:

Comfort Zone

Chris brings some new apps, Matt defends himself for another hardware purchase, and Niléane’s no-dock challenge has brutal results. Then, Matt and Niléane really let Chris down with his end-of-show question. Like really, really let down.

This episode is sponsored by:

Inoreader – Boost Productivity and Gain Insights with AI-Powered Intelligence Tools

MacStories Unwind

This week, Federico and John share the news that they’ll be at WWDC together for the first time since 2023. Then, Federico recommends Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, an RPG that has taken a lot of gamers by surprise, and John is into Duster, a new JJ Abrams TV show set in the ‘70s. All that, plus a Raiders of the Lost Ark deal.

This episode is sponsored by:

Inoreader – Boost Productivity and Gain Insights with AI-Powered Intelligence Tools

Magic Rays of Light

Sigmund and Devon highlight Apple Original film Fountain of Youth from Guy Ritchie, break down the new features of CarPlay Ultra, and revisit feature documentary Deaf President Now! upon its streaming release.

This episode is sponsored by:

Inoreader – Boost Productivity and Gain Insights with AI-Powered Intelligence Tools

Podcast Rewind: Handheld Rumors and Airbnb Executives on the App’s Redesign

By Devon Dundee

Enjoy the latest episodes from MacStories’ family of podcasts:

AppStories

This week, Federico and John interview Airbnb Vice President of Product Marketing, Jud Coplan, and Vice President of Design, Teo Connor.

On AppStories+, Federico explores running LLMs locally on an M3 Ultra Mac Studio.

This episode is sponsored by:

Inoreader – Boost Productivity and Gain Insights with AI-Powered Intelligence Tools
TRMNL – Clarity, at a glance. Get $15 off for 1 week only.

NPC: Next Portable Console

This week, Federico and John round up the many new Switch 2 details that have emerged as launch day draws near. Plus, they share two new and interesting handheld rumors from Anbernic and Miyoo and more.

This episode is sponsored by:

Inoreader – Boost Productivity and Gain Insights with AI-Powered Intelligence Tools

On NPC XL, Federico shares tablet gaming recommendations with John, reevaluates whether he’s hung up on specs, and looks at what Lenovo is doing to integrate its tablets with two all-new controllers.

Hands-On with Sound Therapy on Apple Music

By Devon Dundee

I’ve always been envious of people who can listen to music while they work. For whatever reason, music-listening activates a part of my brain that pulls me away from the task at hand. My mind really wants to focus on the lyrics, the style, the mix – all distractions from whatever it is I’m currently trying to do. It just doesn’t work for me.

But under the right circumstances and with the right kind of music, you can create an environment that is conducive to focus. At least, that’s the idea behind Apple’s recent collaboration with Universal Music Group. It’s called Sound Therapy, a research-based collection of songs meant to promote not only focus, but also relaxation and even healthy sleep.

The effort comes out of UMG’s Sollos venture, a group of scientists and music professionals focused on the relationship between music and wellness. Founded in 2023, the London-based incubator has used its findings to put together a library of music that, as Apple says, “harnesses the power of sound waves, psychoacoustics, and cognitive science to help listeners relax or focus the mind.”

Hands-On with Guest User Mode in visionOS 2.4

By Devon Dundee

The Apple Vision Pro is a device that begs to be shared with others. Sure, mirroring your view to a TV or iPhone via AirPlay is a decent way to give people a glimpse into the experience, but so much about visionOS – the windows floating in real-world spaces, immersive videos, 3D environments, spatial photos, and more – can only be truly understood by seeing them with your own eyes. That’s why Guest User mode is so vital to the platform.

Guest User was included in the very first version of visionOS, and Apple has iterated on the feature over time, most notably by adding the option to save a guest’s hand and eye data for 30 days in visionOS 2.0 to speed up repeat sessions. With this week’s release of visionOS 2.4, Guest User has received another major update, one that I think Vision Pro users will be very happy about.

Apple Highlights the Mac’s Role in the Creation of Severance

By Devon Dundee

In the wake of last week’s jaw-dropping Severance season two finale, Apple has released a behind-the-scenes video and a Newsroom story showcasing the ways the Mac was used to edit the show. Both feature Severance’s editors discussing the process – creative and technical – behind the show’s editing. It’s worth checking out both pieces because each offers interesting insights into how Severance is made.

The video shows on-set footage of director and executive producer Ben Stiller leading preparation for the season finale’s marching band sequence. It then follows supervising editor Geoffrey Richman’s process of combing through the 70 different camera angle options assembled into a single multicam clip on a Mac to find the right shot for each moment. The video also features insights from editor Keith Fraase and composer Theodore Shapiro about different aspects of the editing process throughout the season, which involved three editors, three assistant editors, and 83 TB of footage.

In the Newsroom story, Geoffrey Richman dives deep into his editing workflow across various Macs. Richman uses a combination of an iMac at home, a MacBook Pro on the go, and a Mac Mini in a post-production studio to get his editing work done. He puts a lot of emphasis on the flexibility the Mac affords him:

I can work on my laptop and I can work on my iMac, and I can work at the post facility or I can work at Ben’s office, and as long as I’m logged into my account, everything I do shows up everywhere… That aspect of Mac I find very handy — to not think about which system I’m physically at.

Richman points out other aspects of working on the Mac, like macOS’ built-in multitasking tools and the MacBook Pro’s HDMI port, that make the Mac the right tool for editing a TV show like Severance.

Lumon Terminal Pro.

You can read the full story on Apple’s Newsroom. The video, Behind the Mac: Editing Severance, is available to stream both on YouTube and, in a fun twist, on Apple’s fake product page for the Lumon Terminal Pro. While our dreams of refining data on a real Terminal Pro have yet to be realized, you clearly can make great TV on a Mac.

Hands-On with Multiple Pinned Item Lists in Callsheet

By Devon Dundee

It’s been over a year and a half since the debut of Callsheet, the app from Casey Liss for looking up information about films and TV shows, and the app has grown a lot in that time. From new app icon variations to more fine-grained spoiler settings to actors’ heights and ages, Callsheet has gained many new capabilities. My favorite addition thus far is the indicator for mid- and post-credit scenes in movies.

The app’s latest update expands greatly upon a feature that’s been present since the beginning: pinned items. Users can now create multiple separate lists of pinned items and organize them to their hearts’ content. As someone who watches quite a bit of TV and covers it regularly, I could certainly benefit from this feature, so I decided to give it a try.