Federico
AppStories Episode 399 - Hardware Ideas Apple Should Steal
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This week, Federico and John look at the gadget landscape to find inspiration for expanding Apple’s hardware lineup.
App Debuts
Castro The theme this week is small but meaningful updates. Castro leads the way with an update to its CarPlay implementation. It now includes support for chapters, which I know a lot of commuters will appreciate. Tubi Free, ad-supported streaming TV provider Tubi has come to the Vision Pro. The Vision Pro App Store...
This Week on MacStories Podcasts
This week on MacStories podcasts: AppStories This week, Federico and I rethink podcast apps, exploring why it’s such a tricky category to get right for the greatest number of users. Listen on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Pocket Casts Castro Spotify YouTube NPC: Next Portable Console This week, Federico returns to join Brendon and me to recap...
Interesting Links
This product feels like it was inevitable: a lap pillow for your heavy portable console. (Link) AltStore PAL eliminated its small annual subscription fee meant to cover its Core Technology Fee paid to Apple with the help of a grant from Epic Games. (Link) As Chance Miller reported at 9to5Mac, Apple has dialed back...
The Mac mini: Apple’s Most Modular Computer Could Be Even More Modular
The Latest from Magic Rays of Light, Comfort Zone, and MacStories Unwind
Enjoy the latest episodes from MacStories’ family of podcasts:
Sigmund and Devon highlight the debut of Bad Monkey, discuss the future of Apple Original Films in theaters, and go on an immersive elephant adventure with Wild Life.
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Matt has to apologize for the things he said last week, Chris tries to find out if we’re smarter than Apple Intelligence, and Niléane has a quiz nobody could predict.
This week, Federico and John discuss alligator races and distraction-free E-Ink thermostats for writers, plus a TV show pick and three videogame recommendations.
The Epic Cost of Tim Sweeney’s App Store Disputes with Apple and Google→
Epic Games launched its iOS alternative app marketplace in the EU today with three of its games: Fortnite, Rocket League Sideswipe, and Fall Guys. Those games are also available from AltStore PAL and will be available later from Aptoide, both of which offer alternative storefronts in the EU. Epic has also said that third-party games will be added by the end of the year.
According to Stephen Totilo, who interviewed Epic CEO Tim Sweeney and others earlier this week for his excellent newsletter Game File:
The company has spent hundreds of millions battling Apple and Google since 2020 to get to this point, Sweeney told Game File during an interview conducted earlier this week.
And, he added, Epic may have missed out on as much as $1 billion in Fortnite revenue in the process,
Tim Sweeney can be a little over the top at times when talking about his company’s disputes with Apple and Google, but his in-depth response to Totilo’s question about the impact of App Store fees on the mobile gaming industry are excellent and rang true to me. Both he and Altstore co-founder Riley Testut explained to Totilo that mobile gaming and Apple would thrive if fees were reduced, with Testut pointing to changes in App Review Guidelines about emulators and virtual machines as evidence of the positive results of competition.
For anyone in the EU interested in installing the Epic Game Store, Epic has published a walkthrough video on YouTube:
Interview: Game Developer Zach Gage on Pile-up Poker and Resisting Dark Patterns→
Jason Snell has an excellent interview on Six Colors with Zach Gage one of the creators of Puzzmo and a ton of other games we’ve covered on MacStories over the years. Federico and I interviewed Zach ages ago on AppStories, and more recently at WWDC, and the only thing I like more than hearing him talk about game design and theory is playing his games.
As I read the interview, I was struck by the thoughtfulness with which Zach’s games are made, including this tidbit about Pile-Up Poker, the most recent addition to Puzzmo:
We have a lot of games on the website right now that are very cerebral and based on you and trying hard and being at your peak. And for me, thinking about how we balance a portfolio of games, I really wanted to have something in there that would be a lot more random every day and would still fit the guidelines that we have for Puzzmo. The game should be healthy. It should be a thing where you are creative and clever and improve your strategy. It should be something that anybody at any skill level can play and win, but people who are really highly skilled can play at a super high level and really compete.
Poker is one of my favorite games ever. I think it’s a magical game. For me, the biggest trick of poker is that you can play poker with your friends for 20 years and then someone can show up and have never played poker before and win. And that is something that doesn’t exist with, I don’t think, any other game. So it felt like the right kind of game to bring to Puzzmo to find something that fits that space. It would be super approachable, but also there’s a depth.
If you haven’t tried Puzzmo yet, I highly recommend it.
Manual Camera App Halide Introduces Process Zero, a New Unprocessed Image Capture Mode
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Images taken using Process Zero. Source: Lux.
Today, Lux released an update to Halide, its manual control camera app. The marquee feature is Process Zero, a mode that allows photographers to take images with no algorithmic or AI processing. As Lux’s Ben Sandofsky explains it:
Process Zero is a new mode in Halide that skips over the standard iPhone image processing system. It produces photos with more detail and allows the photographer greater control over lighting and exposure. This is not a photo filter— it really develops photos at the raw, sensor-data level.
The result is that it’s possible to capture finer details than a processed photo under some conditions. The resulting image is a RAW file that’s 12 MB, significantly smaller than a ProRAW photo. In addition to Process Zero, the Halide team introduced Image Lab, a feature accessed from your Halide photo library, that offers a single dial element for adjusting your RAW photos.
Process Zero comes with some tradeoffs as explained in depth in Sandofsky’s post. The images it produces are “less saturated, softer, grainier, and quite different than what you see from most phones.”
I’ve had limited time to try Process Zero, but it was immediately apparent that the process of taking photos is different and harder compared to relying on the iPhone’s image processing. The feature requires a more deliberate, attentive approach to Halide’s manual camera settings to get a good shot. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it is clearly different, and I imagine it’s also probably the best way to really learn how the app’s manual camera settings work.
I also appreciate that the Halide team is taking a human-focused approach to photography at a time when so many developers and AI companies seem all too willing to cast aside photographers in favor of algorithms and generative AI. Process Zero’s approach to photography isn’t for everyone, and I expect most of the time, it won’t be for me either. However, I’m glad it’s an option because, in the hands of a skilled photographer, it’s a great tool.
If you’re interested in checking out Halide’s new Process Zero and Image Lab features, which are the foundation of what will become Halide Mark III, the app is currently on sale. For the rest of this week, Lux is offering Halide membership subscriptions for $11.99 per year, which is a 40% discount. The app is also available as a one-time $60 purchase.