John Voorhees

5825 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.
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Apple Debuts New Apple TV Ad, ‘Father Time’

Actor Michael B. Jordan and NBA legend Kobe Bryant star in a new Apple TV commercial called ‘Father Time’ that highlights the Apple TV’s Siri integration. Bryant who announced his retirement at the end of the 2015-16 NBA season, sits down on a couch with Jordan and says “Siri, open the NBA app.” The app opens and the two begin watching footage of Bryant’s early career. Bryant explains to Jordan, “That’s the guy you’re playing in this movie, a cold blooded assassin.”

Jordan clearly has something different in mind. He grabs the remote and asks Siri to play The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and then to fast forward to 20:36 where he pauses the movie on an image of Brad Pitt as an old man and says “Now that’s the guy I’m playing in this movie”, at which point Bryant kicks Jordan out. The minute-long advertisement is funny and cleverly manages to incorporate both sports and movie content on the Apple TV, while also demoing some of the core Siri features on the Apple TV.

Tips

John

This tip goes well with the favorite this week, Boom 2. The volume button on a Mac have 16 increments between no sound and full volume. If you hold down Option-Shift while adjusting the volume using the volume buttons on the function keys, the volume will increase and decrease in quarter increments. Instead of...

Member Requests

Question: How can I quickly append a word (along with its definition) that’s been highlighted and/or copied to the clipboard to my Evernote note “Words to Learn”? I only see the action “Show Definition” in Workflow but I’m not sure how I can get those results into the note. I’ve also tried using Terminology but...

Ongoing Development

If You Can’t Find Time, Make It Making time is easier than finding it. A couple weeks ago I spoke at CocoaConf Chicago. The closing speaker was Jaimee Newberry. Jaimee challenged the audience to stop making excuses and start making something. It was a great talk, but one thing in particular that Jaimee said stuck...

Microsoft Launches Hub Keyboard for iOS→

Microsoft has been on a roll on iOS lately. In addition to the news from the Outlook team that Sunrise integrations are coming back as Calendar Apps for Outlook on iOS, Microsoft Garage, its experimental apps project, launched an iOS keyboard called Hub.

Hub, which has a nice clean design, is tightly integrated with Microsoft Office 365. Hub has an extra row at the top of the keyboard that lets you paste from a clipboard history, your contacts, or your OneDrive and Sharepoint documents. Hub, which is a free download on the App Store, can also help you translate what you type into other languages.

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Reddit Launches Official iOS App

For a long time, Reddit was unique among large online communities for its lack of an official mobile client on any platform. That gap was filled by third party developers who made popular Reddit clients like Alien Blue and Narwal. Then in 2014, Reddit purchase Alien Blue, which has been the official Reddit client for the last 18 months.

Today, Reddit launched a new official iOS client called appropriately, Reddit. At the same time, Reddit has removed the iPhone version of Alien Blue from the App Store. The iPad version of Alien Blue remains in the App Store and is free because for now at least, Reddit is iPhone only.

Some of the highlights of the new Reddit app include card and compact views, a dark mode called ‘Reddit night’, which was also available in Alien Blue, a ‘safe for work browsing’ toggle, and support for multiple accounts. In addition, if you log into Reddit during launch week, you get a free three-month trial of Reddit’s gold membership, which is normally $3.99/month or $29.99/year. Based on my initial use of the app, Reddit is a solid debut. The card view is nice for browsing media, but switching to compact mode is great for skimming through lots of items quickly. I also appreciate the inclusion of a night mode.

Reddit, which is iPhone only, is available for download on the App Store for free.

See the World With Streets 3

I almost didn’t get this review finished. While I should have been writing, I found myself wandering the globe with the help of Streets 3, a browser for Google Street View from FutureTap. I started at a remote church on the coast of Iceland, stumbled into a pub in London, and then made stops in Kings Park in Perth, El Calafate, Argentina, and finally, Plaza Navona in Rome. From the remotest location to the biggest cities, Streets’ panoramas were gorgeously detailed and easy to navigate.

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Starz Comes to iOS and Apple TV

According to BusinessWire, Starz launched a new streaming service today that is available on iOS devices and Apple TV. The service is noteworthy because like HBO NOW, it is a standalone offering that does not require a cable subscription, though existing cable subscribers can use the service too. The Hollywood Reporter adds that on iOS:

The app allows up to four users to watch simultaneously and offers virtually unlimited downloads, a first for a premium cable channel app. Existing Starz subscribers can authenticate and view Starz programming through the app as well.

On Apple TV, Starz supports universal search with the Siri Remote.

Starz features more than 2400 items each month, including original series like Outlander, and movies from Disney and Sony, which will include Star Wars: The Force Awakens later this year. A Starz streaming subscription costs $8.99 per month.