Jonathan Reed

263 posts on MacStories since February 2024

Jonathan is a freelance graphic designer. As well as being a long-time Apple user he is a huge film and television aficionado and is very interested in the intersection between the two mediums and technology. He lives in London with his wife and daughter and is writing his bio in the third person.

Tips for Navigating Tech as a Parent

After last week’s clash of technology and personal family matters, I thought I’d change it up this week and talk about some positive tech that has influenced my family life. I’m a (relatively) new parent of three years, and the way my daughter and I interact with tech is something I constantly think about. This...


Apple Previews a Wide Range of Upcoming Accessibility Features to Mark Global Accessibility Awareness Day

Source: Apple.

Source: Apple.

With Global Accessibility Awareness Day coming up this Thursday, May 15, Apple is back with its annual preview of accessibility features coming to its platforms later in the year. This year marks the 40th anniversary of the creation of the first office within Apple to address accessibility, and there’s no sign of any slowdown in the company’s development on this front. While no official release date has been announced for these features, they usually arrive with the new OS updates in the fall.

In addition to a new accessibility-focused feature in the App Store, Apple announced a whole raft of system-level features. Let’s take a look.

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Raycast for iOS, Legal Debates, and More

Among the highlights on the Club MacStories+ Discord: Ethan found a good use case for Raycast on iOS combined with Shortcuts. (Link) Sofia asked for everyone’s read-later app suggestions, and a surprising number of Instapaper users surfaced to say hi. (Link) Stephen asked about the tools people use for meeting notes and received some interesting...


An Apple Intelligence Nightmare and the Value of Trust

Some of you may have seen my posts last week in which I went on a mini-rant (caution: strong language) about an upsetting incident involving a notification summary. Let me provide a more detailed – and calmer – backstory. My dad woke up last week with some mobility problems on the right side of his...


The Apple Watch SE Needs to Become ’Special’

Information leaked this week about updates Apple will potentially introduce to the Apple Watch SE 3, rumored to be released alongside the Series 11 and Ultra 3 models in the fall. The leaked display sizes seem to indicate that the Apple Watch SE will take on the size – if not the form – of...


Raycast and Contact Syncing

It was a quieter week on the Discord, but members still had lots of thoughts on the launch of Raycast for iOS. (Link) Member aitorbv also had a helpful suggestion for how to keep your contacts synced between iCloud and Outlook 365. (Link) Want to join the Club MacStories+ Discord?Upgrade toClub MacStories+ or Club Premier,...


App Debuts

Simple Color Palette Prolific app developer Sindre Sorhus is back with a simple app to create and edit color palettes in an open-source, JSON-based file format called Simple Color Palette. This app speaks directly to my heart. Not only can you use it to create and edit color palettes, but you can also open...


My Shortcut for Framing iPhone Screenshots on Backgrounds

Today, I reviewed the screenshot-framing app Framous on MacStories. It’s one of my favorite apps of the year so far, and I already use it a lot (including for this very column!). Framous is a Mac-only app, though, which means there have been occasions when I’ve wanted to create nicely framed iPhone screenshots with backgrounds...


Transcribing Your Work Life, Shortcuts Via an MCP Server, and More

Among the highlights on the Club MacStories+ Discord: In response to Federico’s most recent Automation Academy lesson, Olivier shared their technique for recording and transcribing every conversation with their business co-founder. (Link) Members discussed the advantages and dangers of verified accounts on Bluesky. (Link) Speaking of verification, Niléane discovered a simple way to verify your...