Michael Flarup Announces The iOS App Icon Book Kotaku Collects the Beautiful Artwork of Apple TV+’s Foundation Apple Releases Hooked, an Apple Original Podcast with No Ties to Other Properties...
Up Next on MacStories’ Podcasts
Next week on AppStories, Federico and John dive back into their favorite iOS and iPadOS 15 and macOS Monterey tips. This week on MacStories Unwind, recap the past two weeks of posts on MacStories covering new podcasts, the artwork of Foundation, and Michael Flarup’s upcoming book on iOS app icons, along with a...
Reader Setup: Brian King
Brian King is a video director and producer in Silicon Valley. He’s @bkbkbk on Twitter. Since beginning my professional education in 2005, I’ve become familiar with a few of the inalienable rules of post-production: Save often Name your layers Always work from an external drive That last one was absolutely drilled into our heads as...
BetterTouchTool: Customize Your Input Devices [Sponsor]
BetterTouchTool is an indispensable Mac app that has stood the test of time. The app was one of the first covered by MacStories back in November 2009. In those early days, BetterTouchTool was a simple app for adding customizable gestures to MacBook trackpads and the Magic Mouse.
Today, many things have changed in BetterTouchTool. Of course, it still allows you to configure all sorts of gestures for the Magic Trackpad and Magic Mouse. However, nowadays, the app also supports many more input devices. BTT enables full Touch Bar customization, allows users to define keyboard shortcuts, including a powerful Hyper Key, bind the buttons of mice, create custom mouse gestures, customize the Siri Remote, connect and configure MIDI devices, and more.
BetterTouchTool offers a long list of predefined actions to automate tasks on your Mac that can be assigned to any input-device trigger you choose. The app also contains some handy features like window snapping, a clipboard manager, a screenshot editor, and much more. There is even a free iOS app to remotely control your Mac and trigger actions.
Also, BetterTouchTool already supports macOS Monterey and integrates deeply with the new Shortcuts app. It now lets you run Shortcuts using any of BTT’s triggers. Additionally, BetterTouchTool makes many of its actions available to be used within the Shortcuts app. For examples see https://community.folivora.ai/c/shortcuts/18.
The breadth of what can be accomplished with BetterTouchTool is only limited by your imagination. A great place to get started and be inspired by other BTT users is the BetterTouchTool Community at community.folivora.ai. Users have shared some fantastic BTT presets there, including some very advanced custom Touch Bar setups that you should definitely check out.
BetterTouchTool comes with a 45-day trial, after which you can choose between a license that includes all updates for 2 years and a lifetime license.
For a limited time, MacStories readers can purchase BetterTouchTool for 20% off by using the coupon code MACSTORIESBTT at checkout. So, don’t delay. Go to folivora.aito learn more about this fantastic Mac app and take advantage of the special limited-time, 20% discount on BetterTouchTool.
Our thanks to BetterTouchTool for sponsoring MacStories this week.
AV Club Town Hall: Foundation on TV+
Club MacStories Town Halls are part of the monthly and other special live audio events we hold in the Club MacStories+ Discord community. The show is a recorded and lightly edited version of the Town Halls that we produce, so Club MacStories+ and Club Premier members who can’t attend the event live can listen later. To learn more about Club MacStories+ and Club Premier, visit our Club plans page.
For this month’s AV Club selection, Federico and John were joined by Club members Jonathan, Peter, and Brian to discuss the first seven episodes of Foundation, the epic sci-fi show on TV+.
Downie: Easily Download Videos From YouTube and Thousands of Different Sites [Sponsor]
Downie for Mac is a simple yet powerful app that allows you to save content from YouTube, Youku, Bilibili, QQ, Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, Vimeo, and thousands of other sites. Just click on a button in your browser’s toolbar, and Downie will start downloading the content.
Downie can also be set up to extract just the audio, which is ideal for downloading podcasts and other audio material that you listen to when traveling or just commuting.
By default, Downie will take care of most of the workflow for you, selecting the best quality available, sorting downloads by the site they originate from, sorting downloads by playlists, converting the downloaded files into commonly used formats if needed (MP4, MP3), setting the metadata, and more.
But if you are a power user, you will be delighted to know that Downie also has even more powerful features, such as Permute integration, CSV import, an automated mode for uninterrupted downloads while you are not at the computer (or if you run Downie on a server), custom post-processing scripts, custom site integrations via JavaScript, saving extracted metadata into a separate JSON file, and so much more.
Using Transloader by Matthias Gansrigler from Eternal Storms Software, you can also send links from your iOS device to Downie on your Mac.
For a limited time only, MacStories readers can buy Downie with a 25% discount by using on this link or manually entering the discount coupon “MACSTORIES2021” during checkout.
This discount can also be used for the already-discounted Downie + Permute bundle. See Downie’s webpage for more information.
Our thanks to Downie for sponsoring MacStories this week.
In This Issue
This month, John covers the shortcomings of macOS Monterey that he’d like to see addressed by Apple first and Alex updates Club members on the iterative changes made over the past two months to Calliope, the set of technologies underlying the Club website....
Daylite is Monterey Ready! [Sponsor]
Hey Apple fans, excited for the macOS Monterey? So are we! Daylite is an award-winning CRM and productivity app made exclusively for your Mac, and it’s now Monterey ready! Daylite goes beyond the essential CRM experience or project management tool for small businesses; it seamlessly integrates with Apple devices and most of the built-in Apple apps and features you already use and love, with or without an internet connection. Direct Apple Mail integration so you and your team can capture all email communication in one place. That means you can create opportunities, appointments, and tasks in Daylite right from your Apple Mail.
Daylite’s productivity-focused design helps you and your team get more done throughout the full customer lifecycle. From meeting prospects and winning business to managing the moving pieces on projects, all the way through to following up for referrals and repeat business, it’s all done in Daylite.
If you live by the Mac, you’ll love Daylite. Start your free 30-day Daylite trial today!
Our thanks to Daylite for sponsoring MacStories this week.
Taking a Week Off
Every summer, we take two weeks off to recharge before the busy fall review season at MacStories. With the launch of Club MacStories+ and Club Premier this year, we didn’t do that, so instead, we’ll be taking a one-week hiatus from publishing MacStories Weekly on November 5th, but we’ll be back November 12th with a...