John Voorhees

5890 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.

Apple Unveils HomeView: A Smart Home Display Powered by Siri AI

Source: Apple.

Source: Apple.

Today, Apple announced the highly anticipated HomeView, a Siri AI-powered device for controlling your HomeKit devices and accessing other apps and services like Apple Music, your calendar, Reminders, Apple Podcasts, and more.

The table top HomeView's screen tilts. Source: Apple.

The table top HomeView’s screen tilts. Source: Apple.

HomeView comes in two configurations, each of which is $299 and will launch on November 13 and can be preordered today. The first sits on a flat surface and has a domed aluminum base and a 7-inch Liquid Retina True Tone display that tilts. The base houses a downward-firing woofer and two force-cancelling passive radiators and the display has two drivers that support Spatial Audio.

The Wall Mounted HomeView. Source: Apple.

The Wall Mounted HomeView. Source: Apple.

The second HomeView model is meant to be hung on a wall, but the functionality of both is roughly the same. The main difference being that the wall-mounted version lacks the other model’s base and its woofer.

HomeView faces. Source: Apple.

HomeView faces. Source: Apple.

The HomeView features a series of customizable faces that are navigated by swipe gestures. There are faces for photos, weather, a clock, for example, which are reminiscent of Apple Watch faces. There are also tiles for controlling HomeKit devices and widgets for things like the weather and your calendar, which are similar to the iPhone’s StandBy Mode widgets.

As for apps, Apple includes a selection of their own apps like FaceTime, Music, Podcasts, TV, News, and Messages along with select video and audio apps from third parties. As a smart home hub, HomeView allows users to watch HomeKit camera feeds and control locks, thermostats, lights, blinds, and other compatible devices. Of course, Siri AI is a big part of the HomeView story, too, serving as a means for navigating the device’s UI, interacting with apps, and requesting information conversationally.

Source: Apple.

Source: Apple.

Under the hood, the HomeView is powered by an A18 chip with Secure Exclaves for processing audio and video data. According to Apple, Messages and Calendar content are only available when a user is recognized and their paired iPhone or iPad is present and recently unlocked.

Overall, I love the look of the HomeView and have been thinking about where I’d place it in my home as I write this. I also like the blend of concepts that draw from the Apple Watch, StandBy Mode, and widgets. My hope, though, is that the third-party developer story expands beyond the limited audio and video apps mentioned in Apple’s press release.

Preorders are live now in Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, the UK, and the U.S. and will begin on Thursday, October 15, at 9 a.m. SGT in Singapore. The HomeView is not available in the EU because Siri AI is not available there.

For the wall-mounted version, Apple is offering a $59.95 USB-C Wall Connector and a $79.95 AC Wired option, both of which are available for preorder now in the U.S. A Power Mount PoE option will be available in early 2027 for $129.95 in the U.S., too.


Apple Kicks Off Indie Games Week with Six New iPhone and iPad Games, Plus No Man’s Sky Preorders

Source: Apple.

Source: Apple.

Today, Apple announced Indie Games Week, a celebration of some of the best games from independent game studios. To kick things off, the company announced seven big titles that are making their iPhone and iPad debut today or are coming soon.

Apple’s Carson Oliver, the head of App Store Worldwide, had this to say in the company’s press release:

Indie games are constantly pushing the boundaries of creativity to deliver unique gameplay experiences to Apple users, and we wanted to take a moment to celebrate these games and the teams that take creative risks to push gaming forward.

Sifu.

Sifu.

The games available today include:

  • Sifu ($7.99), a stylish martial arts fighting game where you play as a kung fu student out for revenge.
  • Vampire Crawlers ($9.99), a deck-building spin-off of Vampire Survivors where the dungeon battles are playable at your own pace.
  • Little Kitty, Big City (Free with $9.99 full-game unlock), an open world game where you explore a cityscape as a cat.
  • Dome Keeper ($9.99), a mining and defense game where you must mine for resources while keeping an eye out for enemy attacks on the surface.
  • Yes, Your Grace 2: Snowfall (Free with $4.99 full-game unlock), a kingdom-management game that poses moral dilemmas as you are forced to make choices to save your empire.
  • 9 Kings (Free with $8.99 full-game unlock), a card-based strategy game where you assemble your army for battle with rivals, managing troops and resources.
Coming Oct. 28: No Man's Sky.

Coming Oct. 28: No Man’s Sky.

Also announced today is that No Man’s Sky is making its debut on the iPhone and iPad on October 28th with preorders available today. Originally announced as a 2022 release for the Mac and iPad, the game has clearly taken longer than expected to adapt to Apple’s platforms.

For those who have been patiently waiting, though, the news is very good. The iPhone and iPad versions support all of the past updates to No Man’s Sky and will work on every iPhone from the iPhone 11 forward and the iPad Air (3rd generation) and later. The game will also feature touch controls, and both mouse and keyboard and controller support. However, similar to the game’s Switch debut, it will not include multiplayer, Settlements, cross-save, or cross-play at launch. No Man’s Sky will be free to download and try with a full-game unlock offered as a $19.99 In-App Purchase.

Dome Keeper.

Dome Keeper.

I’ve had a chance to play each of the games available today on my iPhone and iPad and it’s a great collection. What sets them apart from previous releases on other platforms is the attention each has paid to the unique features of Apple’s platforms. Many, including Dome Keeper, Sifu, and Vampire Crawlers, support Game Center and Family Sharing. By and large, the touch controls are well done, too, but I appreciate the games that offer controller support the most since that’s my preferred way to play.

I’ve had a lot of fun trying the betas of each of these games and am looking forward to No Man’s Sky later this month. There’s something great here for anyone who loves iPhone and iPad gaming, but be sure to check out the other gems Apple is highlighting in this App Store editorial feature, too.


Full Disk Access in the Age of Agents

This week on AppStories, Federico and John start realizing the benefits of their attempt to automate all administrative tasks and explain why Apple’s vague developer blog post about Full Disk Access and AI agents should concern all Mac users whether or not they use AI.

On AppStories+, as John nears the finish line on his podcast production suite for the Mac, he explains how the project started and what it’s done to improve his podcasting workflow.

Also available on YouTube here.


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AppStories+ Deeper into the world of apps

AppStories Episode 505 - Full Disk Access in the Age of Agents

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AppStories+ Deeper into the world of apps

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New Podcast Feeds and Phone Free Shows

This week on MacStories Unwind, John updates listeners on MacStories’ podcast migration, John is heading to see a live show, Federico’s watching one on TV, and we have an Apple TV pick for listeners.

Also available on YouTube here.


New Podcast Feeds and Phone Free Shows

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App Radar

Tailscale A couple of nice quality of life additions were added to Tailscale this week. First, you can pin devices on iOS making it easier to find and manage your most frequently used devices. Second, Taildrop, which is the service’s peer-to-peer file transfer feature, now works with text selections and URLs, too, making it...


This Week On MacStories Podcasts

This week on MacStories podcasts: AppStories This week on AppStories, John is back from OpenAI DevDay, so he and Federico cover the history of AI agents, the current landscape, and what OpenAI is doing with Dots. On AppStories+, Federico provides a sneak peek at what’s in store for his Reminders, Notes, and upcoming CLIs. Listen...



Our Favorite Indie Apps for iOS 27, Vol. 3

We have another collection our favorite indie apps that take advantage of Apple’s latest OS features. Today, we’re highlighting: Haven, Structured, Capture, Scrappy, and Fin.

Haven

Haven is a HomeKit and Matter pairing code utility by João Franco for the iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch that added Siri AI features this fall. The app is exactly what you want with this sort of utility because it makes storing codes for safekeeping fast and easy. Later when you need to re-pair a smart plug behind a couch or a lightbulb in a hard-to-reach spot, you’ll be glad you dropped the codes into Haven.

Retrieving codes is made even simpler, thanks to Haven’s Siri AI integration. Just ask for a code based on the name of your device in Haven, and Siri will fetch the code for you without opening the app. The feature works with both HomeKit and Matter codes and is compatible with natural language queries. The app also supports tagging and the ability to use Apple Intelligence to suggest a tag from among your existing tags.

In addition to the new Apple Intelligence and Siri AI features, Haven can track the home where your device is installed, its room, category, brand, model, serial number, protocol, power source, and status. You can mark items as favorites and add notes and attachments, like a photo of the device, too.

That’s a lot, which will appeal to the HomeKit nerds out there, but as a free download that offers unlimited pairing codes for just $6.99, it’s worth setting up Haven even if all you do is name your device, add the room where it’s located, and then search for it when needed via Siri. Siri AI is perfect for databases, and as anyone who is deep into the HomeKit world knows, a database is the best way to keep your smart home humming.

Structured

I had the pleasure of meeting the Structured team at WWDC this year. It was fun to walk through the app with them, learning about all their plans for the summer development season. But it’s been even more fun to actually play with the final product on the iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch.

Structured is a day planning app with a beautiful and unique design that made it a finalist for both the 2025 iPad App of the Year Award and an Apple Design Award. I have a bad habit of overstuffing my workday, which is precisely the problem that Structured is designed to solve by visualizing your day and work on a timeline. The app can integrate with Reminders, your calendars, handle recurring tasks, start focus timers, and more.

As for Siri AI, Apple’s assistant can now assist Structured users with creating and editing tasks. There’s also a color prediction feature that’s in beta that learns from your past color choices to help suggest the color of a new task. Plus, Structured got a Liquid Glass update, which makes the app feel right at home among other modern apps without sacrificing the app’s simple design and legibility. If you need help organizing your day and want to see everything in one place, you can’t go wrong with Structured.

Scrappy

I’m always on the lookout for new ways to save random things I find on the Internet. I’m a digital hoarder by nature because you never can be sure when a link, image, or article that piques your curiosity will become something more in the future. The trouble is keeping these sort of bucket apps organized.

With Scrappy, by developer Steve Harris, you can save it all: notes, images, PDFs, links, videos, photos, screenshots, and more. Harris is also the developer of Keep It a notebook and document organizer app that we’ve covered on MacStories before. There are similarities between Keep It and Scrappy, but the thing that unique about Scrappy is that it’s much more visual.

The app, which works on iPhone, iPad, and Mac, puts a handy shelf just off the edge of your Mac’s screen where you can drag items, and across all platforms, it feautures fast search and smart lists. Plus, thanks to Siri AI, you can search and open what you’ve saved and create and edit notes. There are filtering and sorting options, along with an extraordinarily long set of Shortcuts actions that make the app uniquely suited for automation. Scrappy also has a wonderfully modern card interface that takes advantage of Liquid Glass, and it displays previews of links, images, and other content. There are lots of “bucket apps” on the App Store, but Scrappy is one of my favorites.

Capture

Apps like Capture are a unique obsession of mine as the online world relentlessly accelerates. Capture acts as an inbox for text, links, images, files, and tasks that works on the iPhone, iPad, Mac, Vision Pro, and Apple Watch. While you can store information in Capture long-term, it’s really meant to act as an inbox because the app has nearly 60 integrations with other third-party apps.

Capture has been building a deep library of integrations for a long time now, which I appreciate. It’s the sort of user-first approach that also made the app a perfect fit for App Intents. That integration makes it simple to find, create, and edit items with Siri. There is also an extensive set of Shortcuts actions, making the app a great fit for cross-app automations. Capture also offers creating, finding, and editing via Siri AI, note transcription using Apple’s on-device model, and a voice-based agentic mode.

Fin

Finally, I want to shout out Fin, the personal budgeting app for iPhone, iPad, Vision Pro, and Apple Watch. Getting data into a budgeting app quickly and easily makes all the difference in the world when it comes to sticking to your budget. Fin excels at quickly recording and organizing your expenses in a clear, colorful interface that takes advantage of Apple’s modern design language.

With the latest version, Fin adds onscreen awareness that lets you ask Siri questions about what’s onscreen. The app also exposes transactions and accounts to Spotlight making it easy to pinpoint data in both. Plus, Fin lets you search, import, export, and add data to the app using Siri. There’s an extra large chart widget too. If you’re looking for a simple on-device way to privately manage your expenses, Fin’s a great choice.


MacStories Setups: A Summer of Workflow Refinements and Experimentation→

We’re back with another MacStories Setups update. I swear Federico and I didn’t coordinate our purchases this summer, but you’ll notice that both of us began experimenting with XTEINK readers and the Pebble Index 01 smart ring without discussing it in advance.

The UGREEN Thunderbolt 5 Dock and Steam Controller.

The UGREEN Thunderbolt 5 Dock and Steam Controller.

Since June, you’ll see from Federico’s changes that many revolve around fine-tuning his app workflows. From re-adding Claude and Superhuman to reluctantly adopting Chrome for agentic workflows, his update reflects a refinement of the way he works. As for gadgets, Federico has begun using the DJI Mic Mini and Pebble Index 01 for dictation and refined his work and gaming desktop setup with a UGREEN Thunderbolt 5 dock and Steam Controller.

The XTEINK 4 Pro and Retroid Pocket Nova.

The XTEINK 4 Pro and Retroid Pocket Nova.

My setup changes this summer revolve around experiments. I first tried the XTEINK 3 reader and enjoyed creating a custom UI for it so much that I also bought the XTEINK 4 Pro, which is patiently waiting for a free weekend when I can see what more I can do with it. Plus I’ve been trying a bunch of new apps like T3 Code for working with multiple AI subscriptions, Open Minis to get more out of iOS than Siri AI allows, and working with a wide variety of remote access apps, including Beam and Jump Desktop. Finally, I’ve partially abandoned my custom social media web apps for Typefully, which has more features than I’d ever want to build myself.

That’s it for this edition of Setups. Be sure to check out the links here and on the Setups page because some of these gadgets are on sale on Amazon for its Prime Big Deal Days event. Also, be sure to follow the MacStories Deals social media accounts on X.com, Mastodon, and Bluesky.

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