FedericoThis week on MacStories Unwind, Federico shares the backstory of Apple’s Pro and Tell event this week, and he and John take a detour into American and Italian cuisine.
Also available on YouTube here.
Mini to the Max
The iPad mini marches to its own beat. Its update schedule has been all over the place in recent years. Its hardware updates haven’t followed a consistent pattern either. Some models arrived with older chips and familiar designs, while others featured chips introduced that same year. It’s a quirky mix for a device that isn’t...
Touching the Future of the Mac
A couple of days ago on social media, I characterized the addition of Touch to the MacBook Pro as long overdue. I inevitably heard from someone who suggested that Touch couldn’t be overdue since no one wants a touchscreen Mac. Fair enough for that person, I suppose. Not everything made by Apple is for everyone,...
One Month with Dot
About a month ago, I attended OpenAI’s DevDay conference where the biggest announcement was Dots, a dedicated, single-thread agentic assistant that lives at the top of ChatGPT’s sidebar. I’ve been using my Dot every day for a month, so I thought this would be a good time to check in and see how it’s going....
Interesting Links
Nick Indge, writing for Ars Technica, covers the $60 M-Vave FM-1 pocket synth that Redditors have created custom firmwares for, greatly expanding the bargain device’s capabilities. (Link) The Verge linked to a YouTube video of a New York CompUSA store from 2000, which is a fun trip through computer history. (Link) Stephen Hackett has...
Reading on the iPhone Duo
The iPhone Duo is a great device for reading. Folded, it approaches the tiny E Ink readers that are all the rage, and unfolded, you have a screen that’s not far off from a Kindle Paperwhite in size, but in glorious OLED color. I’ve been messing around with a bunch of reading apps to see...
Spotlight on Club MacStories: Extra Buttons, Portable Keyboards, and Local AI
Among the highlights on the Club MacStories+ Discord this week: Members explored ways to pair a real keyboard with the iPhone Duo. (Link) A member’s new Mac Studio began a round of local AI experiments and discussion about choosing models, optimizing for memory constraints, and getting good performance for different types of work. (Link) Also,...
App Radar
Claude Anthropic has updated Claude with some great features. First of all, voice mode is now available via CarPlay, which ChatGPT has had for a while. The second change is that artifacts now load beside your chat conversation on the iPhone Duo and iPads instead of covering the conversation thread. The effect is similar to...
Previously, On MacStories
OpenAI Adds iCloud Calendar and Mail Plugins and Dot Texting MacBook Pro with Touch: A Mac for the iPad Generation Apple Kicks Off Touch on Mac Developer Resources with Videos and Labs Apple Brings Touch to the Mac with New OLED MacBook Pros Apple Creator Studio to Add MotionVFX, AI Assistants, and MCP Support in...