Among the highlights on the Club MacStories+ Discord: Members were sizing up the battery life and lack of cameras on their new purchases, including this post with an interesting link about filtering photos by focal length in the Photos app. (Link) Hero in a half shell… (Link) Some members had very strong feelings about watchOS...
Some Tiny iOS 26 Features I’ve Been Enjoying
Now that iOS 26 is out and gradually making its way to everyone’s iPhones, I thought I’d share some smaller, lesser-known features that I’ve been enjoying the last few months over the beta period. Pinned Music Albums This is probably the most well-known of these tips, but I wanted to point out how I’m using...
David X Cohen, Co-Creator of Futurama
This time, it’s the Emmy-award-winning writer David X Cohen. David started writing on Beavis and Butthead in the early 90s before joining The Simpsons, where he was responsible for many well-known episodes like Lisa the Vegetarian, The Itchy and Scratchy and Poochie Show, and Homer3. Then, in 1999, with Simpsons creator Matt Groening, David co-developed Futurama, which recently dropped its 13th season on Hulu and Disney+.
But David’s history is not just in television. He worked in the robotics lab while attending Harvard, studied theoretical computer science, and has a deep history with technology all the way back to the early days of home computers. As you can expect there was a lot for us to talk about.
New iPhone Day is Exciting Again
New Devices Day, Crazy iPhone Cases, and More
Among the highlights on the Club MacStories+ Discord: Members were enjoying – and comparing – their new Apple purchases. (Link) Members reported mixed results after upgrading macOS Tahoe, including dropped frames. (Link) Shankar linked to some truly unhinged iPhone cases. (Link) tommertron suggested a promising plugin for using your OpenAI API key in Obsidian to...
CarPlay in iOS 26: The MacStories Review
When CarPlay Ultra was announced… checks notes… three years ago, it was a bold vision for the future of in-car displays. There was as much drooling over the new designs as there was skepticism over whether any car manufacturer would agree to such an extensive display overhaul.
Underneath all that, there were also some concerns about where this left regular, vanilla CarPlay. The kind that many people had fallen in love with, and which was often a prerequisite when buying a new car. Was this going away, or would it just be left to wither on the vine?
Thankfully, with iOS 26, the answer seems to be a firm “no” as Apple brings much more customization to our in-car displays, mainly by letting the much heralded features of CarPlay Ultra trickle down to regular CarPlay. There’s more than you’d think, so let’s take a look.
Michael Flarup, Designer and Founder of Northplay
This time we’re talking with Michael Flarup. Michael is many things: the head of a game studio, a speaker at Adobe Max, an author, and more. But most of all, Michael is a designer. He’s most well-known for his decades of work as an icon designer on some of the most beloved apps on iOS and macOS under his Pixel Resort banner. He’s released two books on the history of the art form: first around iOS, then focusing on macOS. Now he runs a game studio, Northplay, where they’re hard at work on their next game, Dinolords!
watchOS 26: The MacStories Review
Last year was my first covering the watchOS beat with version 11. It turned out to be a trial by fire, with the annual software update for the world’s most popular smartwatch proving to be both sizable and significant.
While controversy reigned over iOS, iPadOS, and macOS regarding new Apple Intelligence features, watchOS took an exit off of that highway to a more peaceful, focused road that contained real, tangible updates. There were long-requested customizations to Activity Rings, as well as added power and functionality in the Smart Stack. Brand new features like Training Load and the Vitals app started to hint that Apple was maybe, finally, getting serious about, well, serious athletes.
If I’m being honest, I expected more of the same this year. The watchOS team seemed to be on a roll. Unfortunately, that hasn’t come to pass with watchOS 26, which – unlike watchOS 11 with Apple Intelligence – has been brought along for the ride with this year’s big controversy: Liquid Glass.
Can watchOS 26 handle this big UI overhaul and still deliver some tangible additions in this, the year of the Apple Watch’s tenth anniversary? Let’s take a look.
Liquid Golf, iPhone Purchases, and More
Among the highlights on the Club MacStories+ Discord: David demonstrated the Golf Austria app’s unsuccessful update to Liquid Glass, providing insight into what might happen if developers don’t manage to grasp the design updates. (Link) Members shared their choices for new iPhone purchases. Lots of Cosmic Orange fans! (Link) Jezza kicked off a good discussion...