MacStories Team

3376 posts on MacStories since July 2011

Articles by the MacStories team. Founded by Federico Viticci in April 2009, MacStories attracts millions of readers every month thanks to in-depth, personal, and informed coverage that offers a balanced mix of Apple news, app reviews, and opinion.

Interesting Links

Sony announced the SRS-XB13 portable Bluetooth speaker this week for €60, which features a microphone for phone calls, IP67 water resistance, Google Fast Pair technology for connecting to Android phones and tablets, and six summery colors. (Link) This week Intel debuted a series of ads featuring Justin Long, who famously played a Mac in Apple’s...


Goodbye Spotlight, Hello Raycast [Sponsor]

Raycast is a native Mac productivity tool that defies definition because it’s so much more than just a replacement for Spotlight. By invoking Raycast from your keyboard, you can launch any app, but you can also:

  • Search for and access your files
  • Use third-party apps and services like G Suite, GitHub, Jira, Asana, Linear, and more
  • Check your schedule
  • Start, schedule, and join Zoom meetings
  • Access the clipboard
  • Set a reminder
  • Take a quick note
  • Control system functions on your Mac
  • And a whole lot more

Raycast is extensible with scripts too. Plus, the development team is working on an API that’s already in alpha that will make it easier than ever to get the most out of Raycast. See for yourself what you can do:

Raycast is a native app, which means it behaves as you’d expect on your Mac and is fast and responsive. The app also respects your privacy. There’s no login to use Raycast, your data doesn’t leave your Mac, and your credentials for third-party services are safely stored on your Mac in Keychain.

By letting you control your most important tools with just a few keystrokes, Raycast keeps you focused on what’s important to you. You avoid inefficient context switching and eliminate clutter, summoning what you need when you need it, so you can work smarter and more efficiently all day long.

Download Raycast for free right now to give it a try and level up your productivity.

Our thanks to Raycast for sponsoring MacStories this week.


Interesting Links

We’ve come a long way since Klout, with ‘influencers’ now able to sell fans the ability to control their day-to-day lives, as Taylor Lorenz explains in this piece from The New York Times. What could go wrong? (Link) Becca Farsace of The Verge reviews the Hasselblad 907X 50C, a small digital camera body with a...


MacStories Unplugged

[[unplugged_artwork]] In this month’s episode, John has a theory about why he breaks so many dishes, it turns out that Federico isn’t doing much better with wine glasses, and they check in on the state of Apple Arcade. Show Notes: Apple Arcade Games Mentioned: Coming Soon Fantasian Wonderbox Older Games The Last Campfire The Pathless...


In This Issue

IINA, reading Twitter in an RSS client, Federico shares threeTaio automations, John rounds up the latest pro apps to adopt native M1 Mac support, an all-new episode of MacStories Unplugged is out,plus the usual Links, App Debuts, a recap of MacStories articles, and a preview of upcoming MacStoriespodcasts....


Up Next on MacStories’ Podcasts

Next week on AppStories, Federico and John consider why surprising apps seem increasingly rare and share some of the most surprising apps they’ve discovered over the past year. This week on MacStories Unwind, Federico and John cover Adobe Fresco, new kid-friendly podcast collections, a new portable speaker coming form Sonos, Men’s Health’s look...


Previously, On MacStories

Sonos Announces the AirPlay 2-Compatible Roam Portable Speaker Adobe Fresco: A Fun and Powerful iPad Drawing and Painting App For Pros and Novices Apple Launches Kid-Friendly Podcast Collections Men’s Health Goes Behind-the-Scenes at Apple’s Fitness+ Studio Apple Has Apparently Pulled the Plug on the iMac Pro Coppice: Visual Note-Taking and Research for the Mac...


DEVONthink: Get Organized to Conquer the World [Sponsor]

DEVONthink is the one-stop, comprehensive solution for all your document and information management needs on the Mac and iOS. With DEVONthink, all of your documents, snippets, bookmarks, and more are available in one place, paired with powerful tools for organizing, managing, and searching it all. And right now, MacStories readers can purchase DEVONthink for 10% off.

The Mac app takes advantage of integrated artificial intelligence to assist you with filing new materials finding them with the app’s powerful search. Advanced Boolean operators and smart groups of saved searches make it easy to create refined searches that you can return to whenever you need them.

Managing your collection of documents and information is easy with DEVONthink smart rules and flexible reminders system too. Instead of manually managing everything, set up rules once and let DEVONthink take care of filing, renaming, imprinting PDFs, and other repetitive tasks. It’s surprising how leveraging just a few rules can automate the process, keeping your database organized.

DEVONthink also includes built-in OCR, so every PDF you save, whether it’s user manuals or a personal database of academic research papers, is fully text-searchable. Combined with DEVONthink’s powerful search capabilities, it’s the perfect solution for collections of reference materials of all kinds regardless of their size.

Synchronizing DEVONthink’s databases is flexible too. You can do so locally or with cloud-based services. Either way, everything is encrypted and fast.

What’s more, with DEVONthink’s brand-new iOS app, you have access to everything in your database right at your fingertips, no matter where you are. The iOS app has been completely overhauled with an elegant, modern UI, integrated OCR, extensive Shortcuts support, and much more.

There’s never been a better time to bring order to your documents, webpages, bookmarks, and everything else. Visit devontechnologies.com/macstories right now to learn more about how DEVONthink can help you gain the upper hand on your data and take advantage of a special 10% discount for readers.

Our thanks to DEVONthink for sponsoring MacStories this week.


Up Next on MacStories’ Podcasts

Next week on AppStories, Federico and Johndig into how they manage and read the email newsletters to which they subscribe. This week on MacStories Unwind, Federico and Johnlook back John’s review of Coppice, a new Mac app for organizing your notes and research materials, Apple’s statement about using Siri to switch music streaming...