John Voorhees

5442 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.

MacStories Unwind: Big Sur Widgets, Our Big Icon Sale, a MacStories Weekly Milestone, Plus Bonus Unwind Picks

AppStories+ Deeper into the world of apps
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AppStories+ Deeper into the world of apps


Sponsored by: Permute: Quick Image, Audio, and Video Conversion

This week on MacStories Unwind:

MacStories

Club MacStories

  • MacStories Weekly
    • John’s Holiday Gift Guide
    • Reading DRM-Free EPUBs in MarginNote for iPad
    • Tips for Remote Tech Support
    • Mac Dictation and Big Sur beta tips
  • MacStories Unplugged: The Year in Music, 2020 Edition
    • Federico and John share their Apple Music playlists, collecting their favorite songs of 2020, pick their albums of the year, second-guess the Grammy nominations, and each chooses five bands that define their tastes in music.

AppStories

Unwind






macOS Big Sur: Widget Roundup

Developer adoption of new macOS features is often a little slower than it is on iOS and iPadOS. However, that hasn’t been the case with Big Sur widgets. Apple wisely took the same SwiftUI-based system used for creating widgets on the iPhone and iPad and implemented it on the Mac, providing a relatively simple approach for developers to bring their existing widgets to the Mac. The result has been an immediate explosion of widget options for Mac users.

Over the course of the summer and fall, I tried several different widgets as I ran the Big Sur betas. A few of those widgets — which have been in development the longest and were highlighted in my Big Sur review — remain some of my favorites and are recapped below. However, many more terrific widgets have been released since and deserve consideration as well, so let’s dig in.

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App Store Changes and Apple’s Evolving Relationship with Developers

AppStories+ Deeper into the world of apps

AppStories Episode 195 - App Store Changes and Apple’s Evolving Relationship with Developers

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AppStories+ Deeper into the world of apps

This week Federico and John break down the App Store Small Business Program, other App Store and developer changes announced in 2020, and consider what else Apple could do to make the App Store a better place for developers.

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