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.
Last June at WWDC, Apple announced Swift Assist, a way to generate Swift code using natural language prompts. However, as Tim Hardwick writes for MacRumors, Swift Assist hasn’t been heard from since then:
Unlike Apple Intelligence, Swift Assist never appeared in beta. Apple hasn’t announced that it’s been delayed or cancelled. The company has since released Xcode 16.3 beta 2, and as Michael Tsai points out, it’s not even mentioned in the release notes.
Meanwhile, developers have moved on, adopting services like Cursor, which does much of what was promised with Swift Assist, if not more. A similar tool built specifically for Swift projects and Apple’s APIs would be a great addition to Xcode, but it’s been nine months, and developers haven’t heard anything more about Swift Assist. Apple owes them an update.
Brendon, Federico, and I are back for another week of handheld news, including a tiny bit of Switch 2 news, an up and down week for Retroid, DS handhelds inch forward, Samsung wonders if thumbholes are the perfect complement to thumbsticks, and AYANEO decides thumbsticks aren’t worth the trouble. Plus, Brendon shares NextUI and the 8BitDo Ultimate 2 Controller.
NPC XL
This week, Federico, Brendon, and I take listeners on a tour of our handheld and console gaming histories.
Apple revealed a new Immersive Video title for the Vision Pro. As announced at SXSW today, Vision Pro users will be treated to a live performance of three Metallica songs: “Whiplash,” “One,” and “Enter Sandman” on March 14th.
According to Metallica’s press release:
This project marks a new foray into immersive technology, using ultra-high-resolution 180-degree video and Spatial Audio to give fans unprecedented access from vantage points as close up as the Snake Pit to wide-angle views. It brings the live show to a whole new level, and to achieve this, Apple built a custom stage plot featuring 14 Apple Immersive Video cameras using a mix of stabilized cameras, cable-suspended cameras, and remote-controlled camera dolly systems that moved around the stage.
For its part, Apple released a trailer for the video on YouTube:
along with an interview by Zane Lowe with Metallica’s Lars Ulrich:
Today’s Metallica news follows the recent Immersive Video announcements of VIP: Yankee Stadium and Bono: Stories of Surrender. It’s great to see new content coming to the Vision Pro, especially live concerts and sports, which are a perfect matches for the format.
For the past 10 days, I’ve been testing the iPhone 16e – but not in the way I typically test new hardware. You see, I didn’t buy the iPhone 16e to make calls, send email, surf the web, post to social media, or anything else, really. Instead, I got it for one thing: the camera.
The obscurity of a tip is in the eye of the beholder, but I’ve gathered three today that I don’t think many people know. The first two are related to long-pressing on the iPhone, which is something I do a lot in certain circumstances but don’t experiment with enough. That’s why I was surprised to...
A new startup called Sesame AI recently showcased their Conversational Speech Model (CSM), which aims to generate more natural and human-sounding AI. I played around with it earlier this week, and it’s…eerie. It is, by far, the best speech model I’ve ever heard from a digital assistant. I’m curious to see if this becomes...
Pediapal Created by Adrian Eves, Pediapal is a new iPhone app that helps parents track their children’s health measurements and medicine needs. The app lets you record stats like height and weight, set up medication reminders, and create shareable care plans for babysitters or other caregivers. I’ll let you guess the first contact I...
I think about this Ferris Bueller quote a lot: Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it. I love the “carpe diem” energy of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. But today, I’m going to point that energy at workflows instead of slacking. Just a few...
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