QuietMeet QuietMeet is a brand new Mac app that pauses your music when it detects that you’ve opened a video call service in Safari and Google Chrome and in some apps like Zoom and FaceTime. Other services supported include Google Meet, Webex, and Microsoft Teams. It’s worth noting that the app is detecting the opening...
Interesting Links
Usually, these types of devices are reserved for CES, where they become part of wacky gear roundups, but Dyson must have decided that this bizarre mask with integrated headphones was just too good to share the spotlight with anything else. (Link) Cory Bohon, a developer at MartianCraft, goes into detail about his home office development...
Extending Federico’s On My Mind Shortcut to Drafts
Here are the highlights from the Club MacStories Discord this week: Club member FlohGro adapted Federico’s On My Mind shortcut that was designed to work with Obsidian to work with Drafts. Want to join the Club MacStories+ Discord? Upgrade to Club MacStories+ or Club Premier, then visit the Account page....
MacStories Unwind: PS Remote Play and Xbox All-Access
This week, Federico explains the many ways to play the PS5 remotely, and John recommends Microsoft’s All-Access Pass as an entry point into the Xbox universe of videogames.
Show Notes
Federico’s Pick:
- PS Remote Play
- PS Remote Play Mac and Windows apps
- Chiaki, open source PlayStation Remote Play
John’s Pick:
Was It Worth It?
Whenever Apple releases new, expensive hardware, there’s inevitably a debate online about whether the new gear is ‘worth it.’ That makes a lot of sense. After all, it’s the question anyone considering buying something should ask themselves. The trouble is, the debate usually assumes not only that there’s a clear-cut answer but that the answer...
CARROT Weather 5.6 Adds Locations Lists, New Layout Sections, and More
CARROT Weather 5.6 is out today with a handful of excellent new features that pick up where previous updates have left off, with more ways to customize the app and make it your own.
My favorite new feature is Locations Lists. From CARROT Weather’s Locations tab, you can search for the weather in any city you like. That works well for one-off checks of conditions somewhere else, and CARROT saves your most recent searches at the bottom of the Locations tab making it easy to rerun a search. Locations can also be saved as favorites.
Location Lists extend CARROT Weather’s location-based functionality further by letting you go beyond a simple list of favorite locations. Tap the Info button next to a place you’ve marked as a favorite, and you can choose to ‘Show Forecast in Locations List.’ Doing so opens up additional options, including an hourly or daily forecast, a chart or stack layout, and a choice from among many data points to highlight alongside the forecast. Once a location has been set up the way you want, you’ll see a card-like UI for each city you’ve added with the data you’ve chosen. Whether you’re keeping tabs on a destination for an upcoming trip or just want to know if the weather is nice where a friend or family member lives, the new Locations List provides an excellent overview without requiring you to tap into the details of each city. In the future, I’d love to see Location List forecasts added to CARROT Weather’s set of Home Screen widgets.
I used to hide CARROT Weather’s tab bar, but the new Locations List has given me a reason to keep it visible, making it easier to access my favorite locations and features like the app’s weather maps. The tab bar is now customizable, so you only need to display the tabs you use in the order you prefer. Just visit the Layout settings and choose Arrange Tab Bar to customize it.
CARROT Weather’s Layout sections continue to expand with version 5.6 too. The latest update includes Solar, Moon, Air Quality, Pollen, and Tide sections. CARROT Weather already offered ways to surface the information in these new sections as data points. However, with the new Layout sections, you get more detailed and glanceable information than before.
The maps and radar functionality have also been expanded. Maps now show when a wintery mix of precipitation is falling. Fortunately, we’re nearing the end of that kind of weather in the Chicago area, so I haven’t seen a wintery mix in CARROT’s weather map here. However, the good people of Wisconsin and Michigan are enjoying a bright pink wintery mix this morning, so you can see what that looks like in the screenshot above. The radar feature also reports hail and debris from tornados that are detected, which I’d prefer not to see any time soon, but I’m also glad it’s available.
With the latest update, I’ve added daily forecasts to my Locations List for the cities where my kids live. I’ve also added Pollen and Air Quality sections to my weather layout, which will be handy as the weather warms up and I head outside more. I’ve also simplified my tab bar to mirror how I use the app, which makes one-handed use easier.
It’s remarkable how much customization is now available in CARROT Weather. Version 5.0 was a big leap forward, but Brian Mueller has continued to refine the app and add new and interesting options that have taken the app’s personalization to a new level that I love.
CARROT Weather is available as a free update on the App Store. The app offers multiple subscription tiers, with different features at each level, which you can read more about in the app’s Settings.
Paper’s 10th Anniversary→
It’s hard to believe that it’s been a decade since the drawing app Paper was released on the iPad. Andy Allen, a co-founder of FiftyThree, the company that released the app in 2012, marked the anniversary with a post on Andy Works that recounts the app’s origin story during the early days of the iPad.
According to Allen, Paper was born from the ashes of Microsoft’s prototype device called the Courier, which was never released:
While Paper was born in 2012, its roots go back a few years prior when we co-founders first met at Microsoft working on the idea for a new device called Courier. Before the iPad, this was a two-screen digital journal + pen with an entirely new OS and apps designed for a very un-Microsoft customer—creative types. Despite internal excitement for the product, Ballmer shut down Courier in 2010, and if it wasn’t for a leaked prototype video that caused a stir online, things might’ve ended there.
Allen’s post also describes the unconventional design decisions that drove Paper’s unique look and interaction model, which anyone interested in the history and process of app design will love. What really struck me, though, was Allen’s observations about the Paper’s resilience, which is more an exception than a rule:
Most apps from the early App Store-era that were hailed for their design are no longer with us (Path). Yet Paper is still here. And in much the same form as when it was first released having weathered the many tides of changing UI trends (flat design) and iOS updates. The same principles continued guiding it through new features, experiments, and even full rewrites. Every part replaced, yet its soul intact.
Yet, despite Paper’s longevity, even it isn’t immune from the impermanence of modern apps:
In writing this article, I wanted to get the original version of Paper 1.0 running on an old iPad. I tried for a full day but failed. A reminder that our work is transient—here for its moment and then gone.
I’m glad Allen shared these stories about Paper. Too many of the tales of the early App Store have already been lost, and Paper is an important milestone in that history that illustrates the kind of creativity and innovation that the iPad made possible.
AppStories, Episode 267 – State of the Platforms, with Apple’s Vivek Bhardwaj
This week on AppStories, we had the pleasure to interview Apple’s Vivek Bhardwaj about Universal Control, Shortcuts, Live Text, and more.
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On AppStories+, Federico and John discuss the irony that the Studio Display contains the hardware of a base-model iPad, Federico explores the best way to trigger Shortcuts from app launchers, and John reports on Netflix’s iOS gaming efforts.
We deliver AppStories+ to subscribers with bonus content, ad-free, and at a high bitrate early every week.
To learn more about the benefits included with an AppStories+ subscription, visit our Plans page, or read the AppStories+ FAQ.
Last Week, on Club MacStories: The 8th Installment of Federico’s Obsidian Series, John’s Studio Setup, and an Afterparty Town Hall
Because Club MacStories now encompasses more than just newsletters, we’ve created a guide to the past week’s happenings along with a look at what’s coming up next:
AV Club Town Hall: The Afterparty
AV Club is a monthly event held in the Club MacStories+ Discord community. Club members vote on a movie, TV show, videogame, book, or music to enjoy as a group. It’s like a book club, but for all kinds of media.
This month, we watched the Apple TV+ series The Afterparty. Then, last week, we held a live audio AV Club Town Hall in our Discord community. Alex and I were joined by Sigmund Judge and Jonathan Reed, two Club members who write at Screen Times, to discuss the show and take questions from members who listened live.
If you’re a Club MacStories+ or Club Premier and missed the lively discussion, it’s available as a Club-only podcast that you can enjoy on the Club website or subscribe to from your the Club Podcasts page.
MacStories Weekly: Issue 313
- Federico shared the eighth installment of his Obsidian Setup series, which includes a Shortcut called On My Mind for saving ideas to Obsidian from multiple contexts.
- John shared his studio setup, which has been evolving since last summer.
- Plus:
- App Debuts
- Highlights from the Club MacStories+ Discord
- Interesting links from around the web
- A sneak peek at what’s next on MacStories’ podcasts
- and more