Guided Meditation & Sleep Guided Meditation & Sleep is a new meditation and sleep app for the iPhone with an extensive library of content. You can download the app for free to try a selection of its 200+ meditation programs that range in length from a few minutes to 45 minutes. A subscription unlocks...
Interesting Links
FedericoJosh Miller, CEO of The Browser Company, shared a candid letter explaining why the company pivoted from Arc to their new AI-focused browser Dia. (Link) Fantastical can now automatically create calendar events from forwarded emails using AI, in a feature that seems reminiscent of Todoist’s LLM integration over email. (Link) Simon Willison released LLM...
First Look: Obsidian Bases
Bases is a brand new Obsidian feature that’s currently only available as part of the app’s early access program. However, I’ve been playing around with it this week, and the beta documentation is available to anyone, so I thought I’d share how it works for anyone who already has access and hasn’t tried it as...
EU Sets DMA Compliance Deadline in App Store Anti-Steering Dispute
Last month, the European Commission (EC) fined Apple €500 million for violating the Digital Markets Act. Today, the EC issued its full 67-page ruling on the matter, giving Apple until July 23 to pay the fine or face accruing interest on the penalty.
The ruling focuses on Apple’s anti-steering rules, which were the focus of the contempt order recently entered by a U.S. District Court Judge in California. According to the EC:
Apple has not substantiated any security concerns. Apple simply states that some limitations, such as linking out only to a website that the app developer owns or has responsibility for, are allegedly grounded in security reasons. However, Apple does not explain why the app developer’s website is more secure than a third party website which the app developer has taken the conscious decision to link out to. It also does not explain why this limitation is objectively necessary and proportionate to protect the end user’s security and therefore has not provided any adequate justifications in this regard.
(EC ruling at p. 22). In other words, “the App Store isn’t more secure than the web just because you say it is.”
Apple has until June 22 to bring the App Store into compliance with the EC’s ruling or face additional periodic penalties (EC ruling at p. 67). As we reported in April, Apple has said that it intends to appeal the EC’s ruling.
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Founded in 2015, Club MacStories has delivered exclusive content every week for nearly a decade.
What started with weekly and monthly email newsletters has blossomed into a family of memberships designed for every MacStories fan.
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Apple Acquires Indie Videogame Studio RAC7 and Is Rumored to Be Working on a Dedicated Games App
Giovanni Colantonio of Digital Trends broke the story today that Apple has acquired RAC7, the two-person game studio responsible for the hit Apple Arcade game Sneaky Sasquatch.
On the one hand, this news isn’t that surprising. Sneaky Sasquatch was a launch title for Apple Arcade when it debuted in 2019, and it has been highlighted in several keynotes in the years since. As Colantonio notes in his story, Apple Arcade Senior Director Alex Rofman specifically called out Sneaky Sasquatch as an Apple Arcade success in a 2024 interview with Digital Trends.
On the other hand, however, this is Apple’s first known game studio acquisition and a very small indie studio acquisition at that. Out of context, that seemed like an odd acquisition. However, not long after Digital Trends broke the acquisition news, Mark Gurman reported for Bloomberg that Apple will unveil a dedicated Games app, which lines up with a previous report by 9to5Mac. Not much is known about the rumored app at this point, but it certainly puts the RAC7 acquisition in a different light. I wouldn’t be surprised if we hear news of other indie studios joining Apple in the coming months.
Access Extra Content and Perks
Founded in 2015, Club MacStories has delivered exclusive content every week for nearly a decade.
What started with weekly and monthly email newsletters has blossomed into a family of memberships designed for every MacStories fan.
Club MacStories: Weekly and monthly newsletters via email and the web that are brimming with apps, tips, automation workflows, longform writing, early access to the MacStories Unwind podcast, periodic giveaways, and more;
Club MacStories+: Everything that Club MacStories offers, plus an active Discord community, advanced search and custom RSS features for exploring the Club’s entire back catalog, bonus columns, and dozens of app discounts;
Club Premier: All of the above and AppStories+, an extended version of our flagship podcast that’s delivered early, ad-free, and in high-bitrate audio.
Shareshot 1.3: Greater Image Flexibility, New Backgrounds, and Extended Shortcuts Support
If you have a screenshot you need to frame, Shareshot is one of your best bets. That’s because it makes it so hard to create an image that looks bad. The app, which is available for the iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Vision Pro, has a lot of options for tweaking the appearance of your framed screenshot, so your final image won’t have a cookie-cutter look. However, there are also just enough constraints to prevent you from creating something truly awful.
You can check out my original review and coverage on Club MacStories for the details on version 1.0 and subsequent releases, but today’s focus is on version 1.3, which covers three areas:
- Increased image size flexibility
- New backgrounds
- Updated and extended Shortcuts actions
With version 1.3, Shareshot now lets you pick any output size you’d like. The app then frames your screenshot and fits it in the image size you specify. If you’re doing design work, getting the exact-size image you want out of the app is a big win because it means you won’t need to make adjustments later that could impair its fidelity.
A related change is the ability to specify a fixed width for the image that Shareshot outputs. That means you can pick the aspect ratio you want, such as square or 16:9, then specify a fixed width, and Shareshot will take care of automatically adjusting the height of the image to preserve the aspect ratio you chose. This feature is perfect if you publish to the web and the tools you use are optimized for a certain image width. Using anything wider just means you’re hosting a file that’s bigger than necessary, potentially slowing down your website and resulting in unnecessary bandwidth costs.
Shareshot has two new categories of backgrounds too: Solidarity and Stripes. Solidarity has two options styled after the Ukrainian and Palestinian flags, and Stripes includes designs based on LGBTQ+ colors and other color combinations in a variety of styles. All of the new categories allow you to adjust several parameters including the angle, color, saturation, brightness, and blur of the stripes.
Finally, Shareshot has revamped its Shortcuts actions to take advantage of App Intents, giving users control over more parameters of images generated using Shortcuts and preparing the app for Apple’s promised Smart Siri in the future. The changes add:
- Support for outputting custom-sized images,
- A scale option for fixed-width and custom-sized images, and
- New parameters for angling and blurring backgrounds.
The progress Shareshot has made since version 1.0 is impressive. The app has grown substantially to offer a much wider set of backgrounds, options, and flexibility without compromising its excellent design, which garnered it a MacStories Selects Award last year. I’m still eager to see multiple screenshot support added, a feature I know is on the roadmap, but that’s more a wish than a complaint; Shareshot is a fantastic app that just keeps getting better.
Shareshot 1.3 is free to download on the App Store. Some of its features require a $1.99/month or $14.99/year subscription.
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Founded in 2015, Club MacStories has delivered exclusive content every week for nearly a decade.
What started with weekly and monthly email newsletters has blossomed into a family of memberships designed for every MacStories fan.
Club MacStories: Weekly and monthly newsletters via email and the web that are brimming with apps, tips, automation workflows, longform writing, early access to the MacStories Unwind podcast, periodic giveaways, and more;
Club MacStories+: Everything that Club MacStories offers, plus an active Discord community, advanced search and custom RSS features for exploring the Club’s entire back catalog, bonus columns, and dozens of app discounts;
Club Premier: All of the above and AppStories+, an extended version of our flagship podcast that’s delivered early, ad-free, and in high-bitrate audio.
Textastic: The Powerful Code Editor for iPad and iPhone — Now Free to Try [Sponsor]
Boost your productivity with Textastic, the fast and versatile code editor for iPad and iPhone. Trusted by developers, web designers, and technical writers for over a decade, Textastic combines the polish of a native app with the flexibility and professional features you need.
And now, for the first time, it’s free to try!
Textastic is free to download with a 7-day trial and a variety of upgrade options—including a simple one-time purchase or a flexible subscription. You no longer need to pay upfront just to find out if it fits your workflow.
Textastic supports syntax highlighting for over 80 programming and markup languages—including web standards like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript; mobile and systems languages like Swift, Objective-C, and C++; and popular scripting languages and formats like Python, PHP, JSON, and Markdown. You can even add custom languages using Sublime Text or TextMate definitions.
With built-in support for SFTP, FTP, WebDAV, iCloud Drive, and Dropbox, Textastic goes far beyond the standard text editor. It even includes an SSH terminal. Work smoothly with multiple files and SSH sessions—use tabs or open files side-by-side in separate windows on iPad.
Flexible settings, powerful find-and-replace, and customizable keyboard shortcuts are just a few highlights. Textastic also supports the Files app, drag and drop, trackpad and mouse input, Split View, multiwindowing, printing, and more.
Whether you’re tweaking a website, reviewing code on the go, or writing Markdown notes, Textastic adapts to your workflow.
Ready to code? Download Textastic and start your free 7-day trial.
Our thanks to Textastic for sponsoring MacStories this week.
Access Extra Content and Perks
Founded in 2015, Club MacStories has delivered exclusive content every week for nearly a decade.
What started with weekly and monthly email newsletters has blossomed into a family of memberships designed for every MacStories fan.
Club MacStories: Weekly and monthly newsletters via email and the web that are brimming with apps, tips, automation workflows, longform writing, early access to the MacStories Unwind podcast, periodic giveaways, and more;
Club MacStories+: Everything that Club MacStories offers, plus an active Discord community, advanced search and custom RSS features for exploring the Club’s entire back catalog, bonus columns, and dozens of app discounts;
Club Premier: All of the above and AppStories+, an extended version of our flagship podcast that’s delivered early, ad-free, and in high-bitrate audio.
Our 2025 macOS and visionOS WWDC Wishes
This week, Federico and John share their WWDC wishes for macOS and visionOS.
On AppStories+, John explores how Apple hardware and software got so out of sync when it comes to AI use cases.
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AppStories Episode 437 - Our 2025 macOS and visionOS WWDC Wishes
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Interesting Links
Vivaldi’s iOS app (which has been my default browser for the past month) now supports background audio playback, letting you keep YouTube and other media playing when you switch apps or lock the screen. Vivaldi has also added support for tab stacking and pinning on mobile. (Link) Apple has launched a new feature in...