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.
For the longest time, the iPhone’s shadow loomed large over the iPad. The iPad Pro began to change that, iPadOS solidified that shift, and now the device is forging its own path as a modular computer.
There’s never been a more exciting time to use the iPad. Yet as far as the device has come, we remain optimistic that its best days are still ahead.
Before wrapping up this anniversary week, we have to consider the future of the iPad.
For this special edition of MacStories Weekly, we asked the makers of some of our favorite iPad apps to contribute promo codes for a special iPad at 10 giveaway. Beneath each of the apps listed below is a button for entering to win. We will collect entries for each app until 10 pm Eastern US...
PiPifier,John’s favorite iPad games of the past decade, giveaways from five great developers, a shortcut from Federico for backing up files from an iPadto favorite folders or an external USB drive using Scriptable,an announcement about MacStories Unplugged, John’s iPad mini Home screen, plus Links, App Debuts, arecap of MacStories articles, and a preview of next...
Apple Releases Free COVID-19 App and Website Pixelmator Pro 1.6 Released with New Color Picker and Improved Way to Select Multiple Items The iPad at 10: Emerging from the Shadow of the iPhone For iPad, Accessibility Gives ‘It’s Just a Big iPhone’ New Meaning Full of Potential: Developers on the iPad’s Past, Present, and Future...
Ulysses turns eight today, and Max Seelemann has an excellent post about the 10th anniversary of the iPad and what it has meant for one of the premier text editors on the platform. (Link) The Verge has a great collection of video conferencing backgrounds that can be used in apps like Zoom. (Link) Grammarly, the...
I wanted to give everyone a heads up that Federico and I will have an all-new episode of MacStories Unplugged for you in the next few days. Please note that we have changed the URL for the podcast, so you need to resubscribe to hear new episodes. There’s a short episode in the...
John: It’s hard to understate the importance of the iPad’s large screen. Early critics dismissed the device as a big iPhone, but that criticism revealed a fundamental misunderstanding of the product.
By jumping from the iPhone’s small 3.5-inch display to one that approached 10 inches, the iPad delivered a canvas that allowed Apple and third-party developers to rethink not just the concept of mobile apps, but of apps altogether. The additional screen real estate allowed developers to flatten and spread UIs in a way that made new uses possible. That, in turn, led to richer, deeper experiences for everything from reading a comic book to managing complex projects and automating repetitive tasks, allowing users to interact directly with the software beneath their fingers.
After years of using the very best apps developers have to offer on the iPad, it was remarkably easy for Federico, Ryan, and I to come up with a list of the iPad apps that have been the most impactful for us during the past decade. There’s a lot of factors at play in arriving at these apps. Some forged a path by adopting the latest Apple technologies in a unique way that set an example for apps that followed. Others are apps that define a category that takes unique advantage of the iPad’s hardware. These are also apps that work on the iPhone or Mac too, but are most at home on the iPad’s unique platform.
Although there is no single formula for which iPad apps have been the most impactful, one thing each app in this collection shares is a rich, personal experience. These are apps inspired by and reflected in the image of Steve Jobs sitting onstage in a comfortable black leather chair swiping through photos. The iPad and the apps that run on it have come a long way since then, but the intimacy of directly manipulating apps that transform a slab of glass into anything a developer can imagine hasn’t changed, and remains what makes the iPad so special.
This month, Stephen highlights apps he recommends for working from home, Ryan discovers the shortcomings of video conferencing apps while stuck at home in New York, and John reviews two portable stands for iPads of all sizes from Twelve South....
John