John Voorhees

5220 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.
@[email protected]
@johnvoorhees.macstories.net
voorhees@macstories.net

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SoundSource

New Year, New Audio Setup: SoundSource 6 from Rogue Amoeba

MacStoriesDeals Returns with Hand-Picked Bargains on Gear and Media

Today, we’re bringing back MacStoriesDeals, an outlet for sharing deals with the MacStories community. You can follow our curated collections of gadget and media deals here:

Long-time readers may remember the MacStoriesDeals Twitter account, which we stopped posting to almost seven years ago. We used that account as a way to share the deals that we came across. Over time, though, Apple slowed its app affiliate spending and then ended it altogether in 2017. That’s when MacStoriesDeals went from a useful resource for readers that also made us a little extra money to a chore we couldn’t justify spending the time on any longer.

However, times change. Today, affiliate linking is bigger than ever, and MacStories’ coverage has grown to encompass more gadget reviews and stories, our Setups page, and other media coverage on MacStories Unwind and NPC: Next Portable Console. Plus, with the latest automation tools at our disposal, we can do more with MacStoriesDeals than we ever did before with less effort, which is why we’re bringing it back.

There are plenty of other social media accounts and websites out there that aggregate deals, but MacStoriesDeals is going to be a little different. As we’ve noted in our Prime Day coverage the past couple of years, we only recommend deals for gear and media we’ve tried and brands we trust. In other words, these aren’t just any deals; they’re deals we think are worth your time and consideration based on over 25 years of collective editorial experience.

The links you’ll find on MacStoriesDeals are affiliate links, usually from the U.S.-based Amazon and Apple storefronts, that will earn us roughly 2-7% when you use one and buy something. Of course, that will be disclosed in the posts, as it already is in the MacStories Privacy Policy. Affiliate link revenue is a small part of MacStories’ annual income, but with the changes the Internet and online media are undergoing, every little bit helps us continue to bring you MacStories’ unique perspective on the Apple universe and beyond. Rest assured, our approach to MacStoriesDeals is the same as it is everywhere at MacStories: we aren’t going to promote deals we don’t believe are worth your time and attention.

We’re excited to be revitalizing MacStoriesDeals. It was a great resource for readers looking for bargains in the early days of the site, and we aim to make it so again. We’re also working on ways to do more for readers with MacStoriesDeals in the months ahead.

Thanks for supporting everything we do at MacStories. We hope MacStoriesDeals adds a little more to the experience and you consider following along with the deals we recommend on Mastodon and Bluesky.

AppStories, Ep. 448 - 35 minutes

The iPadOS and macOS 26 Public Betas

FedericoJohn

This week, Federico and John share their experiences with iPadOS and macOS 26, which are now available as part of Apple’s public beta program.

On AppStories+, Federico and John discuss the state of engagement bait posting about Apple and how it’s affecting the discourse about the company and its products.

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AppStories+ Deeper into the world of apps

AppStories Episode 448 - The iPadOS and macOS 26 Public Betas

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AppStories+ Deeper into the world of apps

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Interesting Links

John

Adding an object to an image in Photoshop is nothing new, but the app’s new Harmonize functionality does a much better job of matching lighting, shadows, and colors, making it harder than ever to judge what is real and what isn’t in a photo. (Link) App developers are slowly beginning to support Elgato’s Stream...

App Debuts

Jonathan

Uncorked It must be said that I don’t drink wine too often, certainly not enough to log the bottles I drink. Nevertheless, if I did, I could see myself getting a lot of use out of Uncorked. This new wine tracking app has a lovely, clean design and allows you to log the wines...

Game Like It’s 2008

This week in the post-show segment of AppStories+ for subscribers and Club Premier members, Brendon Bigley and I compiled a list of the games that defined the iPhone as a mobile gaming platform. It was a lot of fun and led me down the path of revisiting some of my favorite games from the early...

Apple Reports Q3 2025 Financial Results

Apple’s third-quarter 2025 earnings are out and Apple reported revenue of $94 billion, a 10% year-over-year gain. The diluted earnings per share was $1.57 an 12% year-over-year gain.

Tim Cook had this to say:

Today Apple is proud to report a June quarter revenue record with double-digit growth in iPhone, Mac and Services and growth around the world, in every geographic segment. At WWDC25, we were excited to introduce a beautiful new software design that extends across all of our platforms, and we announced even more great Apple Intelligence features.

Going into today’s earnings, Reuters reported that the Wall Street consensus was for 4.2% growth in revenue to $89.34 billion, reflecting ongoing concerns over tariffs and the slow rollout of Apple Intelligence features.

Today’s results are substantially better than expected, led by double-digit gains for iPhone, Mac, and Services sales. Apple’s board of directors has authorized a $0.26/share dividend, too.

Five Nice Things

I try new gadgets and gear all the time, some of which I never get around to writing about. So today, I thought I’d share five things I’ve been using that I haven’t written or talked about much yet. I may end up covering some of these things in greater depth on MacStories at some...

macOS Tahoe: The MacStories Public Beta Preview

Author’s Note: Apple released the public beta of macOS 26 Tahoe last Thursday, two days after developer beta 4. Instead of rushing a preview of Tahoe to publication at the risk of missing important aspects of the release, I chose to spend the time necessary to thoroughly test Tahoe first.

A year ago, the macOS Sequoia public beta debuted with a long list of caveats. Many of the features that had been shown off at WWDC 2024 weren’t in that initial public beta release or even the initial macOS 15.0 release, and some features, like a smarter Siri, still haven’t shipped. That made Sequoia feel incomplete.

The release of macOS Tahoe 26 promises to be different. The features highlighted during WWDC 2025 are all in the public beta. Some are more polished than others, but everything is there to try today. With its surprisingly long list of new system apps, changes big and small at the macOS system level, and, of course, Liquid Glass, Tahoe’s public beta release is a fun one for users who like to explore Apple’s latest macOS innovations as early as possible.

I’m not sold on every feature, but it’s still early, and this is a beta, so I’ll reserve my final judgment for the fall. However, there’s a lot coming in macOS Tahoe, which makes it worth taking a closer look at today, so let’s dig in.

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Folio: A Promising Read-Later App with a Strong Foundation

I’ve been using read-it-later apps since before I had an iPhone. For those of us who were Wi-Fi-only iPod touch users before owning iPhones, apps like Instapaper were great for reading on the go.

Like in those early days, the read-later universe is once again hyper-competitive, with a lot of relatively new entrants such as Matter and Readwise Reader. That’s led to other apps shutting down. ElevenLabs bought and closed Omnivore, and most recently, Pocket, which debuted ages ago as Read It Later and was eventually acquired by Mozilla, shuttered.

In the wake of Pocket’s demise, Nick Chapman, who used to work on Pocket, and the team at Less is Better debuted Folio, a new read-later app for the iPhone, the iPad, Android, and the web that they say is designed to capture the essence of Pocket. I used Pocket on and off over the years but always considered it a step behind alternatives, so my expectations for Folio weren’t high.

Still, I was curious to see what Folio had to offer, especially because it must have been put together very quickly in order to be launched as Pocket shut down. Despite my initial reservations and some gaps in the app’s functionality, the Folio team has laid a great foundation with an excellent reading experience that’s worth keeping an eye on.

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