This week, I was faced with an unenviable task: creating 162 region-specific logos. My team and I had made the design for one – London – but as part of the set of assets we were making for the client, we needed versions where the word “London” was replaced with names of other locales like...
Grammarly + Superhuman, Workout Buddy Quirks, and More
Among the highlights on the Club MacStories+ Discord: Members discussed Grammarly’s acquisition of Superhuman and how they’re using AI models to spell check their work. (Link) Member fastballspecial had an interesting theory about the possible A18 MacBook. (Link) Tony has been getting some pretty wild motivation from Workout Buddy, which raises questions about how the...
The Potential Success of F1 Further Confuses Apple’s Film Ambitions
Have you heard about this small indie film called F1: The Movie, based on the popular sport of Formula 1 motor racing? I wouldn’t blame you if you hadn’t. It’s not like it was mentioned during WWDC. Or shown prominently in the TV app. Or promoted in… the Wallet app? Except that it was, even...
The Summer Beta Season Continues
Among the highlights on the Club MacStories+ Discord: Just like the weather, the #summer-beta channel is heating up, with members discussing all the highs and lows of Apple’s new OS betas… (Link) …including Tony, who’s been playing around with the ‘Use Model’ Shortcuts action to get feedback on his writing. (Link) Niléane shared a side-by-side...
Sending Files Between iOS and Windows, a New Summer Betas Channel, and More
Among the highlights on the Club MacStories+ Discord: Our new #summer-betas channel is now open for all your OS 26 chatter. Niléane kicked things off by trolling her Comfort Zone hosts with a new feature. (Link) Need an app to send files between iOS and Windows? Capoats has you covered. (Link) Olivier linked to...
(Not Boring) Camera
I’ve been a fan of Not Boring Software’s apps for a while, as I’ve detailed in MacStories Weekly before. So when I heard they were releasing a camera app, I was intrigued, to say the least. Not Boring Software have pitched themselves as developers of useful, intuitive software that is visually wild and expressive....
The Ups and Downs of WWDC
Well, WWDC is over for another year. Going into it, my expectations weren’t terribly high, and, like many, I was just very tired of all the goings-on at Apple over the last year. I was excited for pretty new things, but I wasn’t confident the company would be able to land the plane. Thankfully, this...
Stephen Hackett on Opening Up a ‘Macintosh’ Screensaver Treasure Trove→
As detailed on 512 Pixels, Stephen Hackett managed to break into the beautiful ‘Macintosh’ screensaver and uncover the details of how it was constructed.
When looking for macOS Tahoe’s wallpapers, I was reminded of this project. I went digging through the SSD on my MacBook Pro, and my journey through Finder has yielded great fruit.
The screen saver is actually an Extension, residing at /System / Library / ExtensionKit / Extensions / WallpaperMacintoshExtension.appex (spaces added for legibility).
Right-clicking to “Show Package Contents” unveils a treasure trove:
The screensaver itself is not a video one, as evident by the way it randomly displays its designs when activated. Until now, it was somewhat of a mystery how this was dynamically created, so it’s great to peek behind the curtain.
I won’t spoil the details as they are pretty fun, and not really what you would have expected. Stephen has also collected all the image files in HiRes, should you wish to download them.
As someone who absolutely adores these designs to this day (so much so that I have not one but two of them as tattoos - the pixelated cursor and the smiling Mac), this was a delightful little discovery.
“Opinionated Design”: Early Reactions to Apple’s Liquid Glass Design Language
If there was one thing you could guarantee to come out of a major OS redesign, it’s that people would have opinions, and lots of them. Combine that with the fact that the new Liquid Glass design stretches across every Apple platform, and you’ve got a recipe for many, many hot takes.
Amidst the big reactions, both positive and negative, there has been some excellent commentary on not just the content of this new design, but also the whys and wherefores of one of the largest redesigns Apple has ever carried out.
One thing I think we should all be reminded of is the fact that this is the very start of the beta period. This is a time when much is broken, and a lot will change before the update is released to the general public. What is clear about Liquid Glass is that it is an opinionated design that, certainly at this point of development, will not please everyone.