John Voorhees

5409 posts on MacStories since November 2015

John is MacStories' Managing Editor, has been writing about Apple and apps since joining the team in 2015, and today, runs the site alongside Federico. John also co-hosts four MacStories podcasts: AppStories, which covers the world of apps, MacStories Unwind, which explores the fun differences between American and Italian culture and recommends media to listeners, Ruminate, a show about the weird web and unusual snacks, and NPC: Next Portable Console, a show about the games we take with us.

Sega Releases Samba de Amigo: Party-To-Go on Apple Arcade

Today, Sega released Samba de Amigo: Party-To-Go, the latest incarnation of the rhythm game franchise, on Apple Arcade. Samba de Amigo debuted in 1999 in arcades, with a Sega Dreamcast version coming the next year. In those first versions of the game, you played by shaking a pair of maraca controllers to the beat of the music.

Party-To-Go has turned in the maracas in favor of touch gestures, controllers, and keyboards with a release that’s available through Apple Arcade on the iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV. Over the past several days, I’ve tried all but the Apple TV version of the game and have details and first impressions to share.

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Apple Announces Media Event for September 12, 2023

Apple announced that it will host a fall media event on September 12th at 10:00 am Pacific US time. Like last year, this fall’s event will include an in-person component. The event will also be streamed.

It’s expected that Apple will unveil the iPhone 15 lineup and Apple Watches. The company may update the media on the Vision Pro too.


Relay FM Kicks Off Its 2023 Fundraiser for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital

Today, Relay FM kicked off its annual fundraiser for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital to help combat childhood cancer. We’d love it if MacStories readers joined us in supporting this cause.

You can make a donation by visiting here.

If you’re a MacStories reader, there’s a good chance you have listened to one of the shows Federico co-hosts on the network or have another favorite, in which case you may have already contributed. However, if not, please consider donating.

St. Jude plays an important role in the fight against childhood cancer, treating kids, and doing research with other medical facilities around the world. Your donations help ensure that families aren’t charged for treatment, travel, housing, or meals, so their sole focus is helping their child get better.

Relay FM, which has raised $2.2 million for St. Jude over four years, will be raising money through the end of September, culminating in the Podcastathon, a 12-hour video streaming event featuring the hosts of many of Relay FM’s network of podcasts that will be held September 22nd. As in past years, the Podcastathon will be streamed on Relay FM’s Twitch channel.

Like last year, you can create your own fundraising campaign to help Relay FM achieve its goal and earn limited edition rewards in the process.

Thanks in advance for checking out Relay FM’s fundraiser for St. Jude and to all who donate.


An RSS, Bookmarking, Read-Later, and Highlighting Update

When it comes to RSS, bookmark management, read-later services, and highlights, the experiments never truly end. I’ve been trying a few new things recently that I thought I’d share today. RSS First, I’ve tentatively decided to abandon Feedly as my RSS sync service when my one-year subscription ends this fall. As a sync service, Feedly...


Reminders, Home Servers, Watch Bands, and Obsidian

Here are the highlights from the Club MacStories Discord this week:

Stephen asked for and got a bunch of recommendations from Club members on utilities for adding tasks into Apple Reminders quickly. Niléane explained how she repurposed an old MacBook Pro as a home server running Linux. Burim kicked off a great conversation about...


App Debuts

[[John]] Tizipizi Tizipizi is an interesting new time zone tracking app for the iPhone and iPad. The app supports tracking multiple time zones that can be renamed with titles that are more meaningful than city names. The app also tracks daytime hours and uses a slider system to allow you to line up availability across...


Framing iPhone Screen Recordings

Not too long ago, I reviewed Detail Duo and Detail for Mac, apps that my son Finn works on. Detail Duo, an iPhone and iPad app for filming social media-friendly video, recently added a Shortcuts action that lets you frame iPhone screen recordings in a hardware frame. It’s a lot like Federico’s Apple Frames shortcut,...


A Week Off For AppStories and a Beta Beat Update

As the summer draws to a close, Federico and I have decided to take one week off from AppStories to recharge. We’re working on a bunch of new episode ideas for the fall, including an upcoming episode about bookmarking and link organizers. We’ll be back on September 3rd with a new episode of AppStories+ for...


Interesting Links

[[John]] Philips Hue looks like it’s about to enter the security camera market based on rumors gathered from multiple sources gathered by The Verge. (Link) Sony introduced PlayStation Portal and over-the-ear and earbud headphones this week during Gamescom that offer remove play from a PS5 over WiFi and lossless wireless audio. (Link) Charlie Warzel, writing...