Apple’s 2023 Watch and iPhone Event 
This week, Federico and John are joined by Alex live in the Club MacStories+ Discord community for a special episode covering their initial impressions of Apple’s Wonderlust media event, which introduced new iPhones, Apple Watches, and more.
A major change introduced by iPadOS 17 that is going to make video creators and gamers happy is support for UVC (USB Video Class) devices, which means an iPad can now recognize external webcams, cameras, video acquisition cards, and other devices connected over USB-C. I started testing iPadOS 17 thinking this would be a boring addition I’d never use; as it turns out, it’s where I had the most fun tinkering with different pieces of hardware this summer.
Most of all, however, I did not anticipate I’d end up doing FaceTime calls with a Game Boy Camera as my iPad Pro’s webcam.
I’m in the process of writing my annual iOS and iPadOS review, and in the story I’ll have plenty more details about the changes to iPadOS 17’s Stage Manager and how I’m taking advantage of UVC support to play Nintendo Switch and Steam Deck games on my iPad’s display. But in the meantime, I wanted to share this Game Boy Camera story because it’s wild, ridiculous, and I love it.
Bookmarking Apps Revisited
This week, Federico and John look at the history of bookmarking apps, their relationship to read-later apps, how their use of bookmarking apps has changed, and their favorite modern bookmarking apps.
Two Stage Manager Tips for iPadOS 17 iPadOS 17 is likely launching in a few weeks, and I’m sure that, if you’re reading this issue of Weekly, you know that one of the additions to Stage Manager this year is the ability to Shift-click apps in the dock or the strip to add windows to the current workspace. I wanted this feature...
Four Smaller Features from iOS 17 Editor’s note: this is an excerpt of my upcoming iOS and iPadOS 17 review. As is always the case for new versions of iOS and iPadOS, changes in the operating systems run the gamut of tentpole features, quality-of-life improvements, and smaller features that you may not even notice at first. Let’s take a look at...
Gadget Show & Tell
Two Remaining Issues of iOS and iPadOS 17 It’s no secret that I’m liking iOS and iPadOS 17 a lot. I’m having the best time this summer playing around with interactive widgets on the Home Screen, and I’m so satisfied with the improvements to Stage Manager on the iPad, I’ve returned to the device as my main computer (like it was meant to...
A Classic Pick 2 Juli Clover, writing for MacRumors on a new addition to Apple Music:
Apple Music today gained a new “Discovery Station,” which is located under the “Listen Now” section under Top Picks in the Apple Music app. The customized radio station is paired with the personalized radio station featuring your name, and it has the “Made for You” label. It can also be accessed through this link for those who do not yet see it.
As noted by AppleInsider, the radio station appears to play songs of a similar style to songs that are in your personal library and that you have listened to and liked in the past, but it chooses songs you don’t have in playlists or your library.
I’ve been writing about the topic of algorithmic discovery in music streaming services for years now, so as soon as I read about this new station, I immediately went to check it out.
It’s only been a few hours, but my impression is that Apple sees the “discovery” part of this ‘Discovery Station’ as something fundamentally different from Spotify’s Discover Weekly. Spotify’s popular algorithmic playlist (which refreshes once a week) is generally skewed toward lesser-known acts and recent releases; in the hours I’ve been testing Apple’s new radio station, it seems it’s not afraid to recommend older music from bands I am familiar with and that I wouldn’t consider “niche”, but which I don’t have in my music library either. For instance, I’ve been listening again for the last 30 minutes, and my recommendations were largely mid-2000s emo/pop-punk songs. Not that I’m complaining.
Apple hasn’t officially announced the Discovery Station yet, and I assume they’re still adjusting the balance of the algorithm powering it. I did get a few recommendations from new and unknown (at least to me) artists, which is a good sign that the ultimate goal of the radio station might be a healthy mix of songs you’ve never heard of and songs you sort of knew but never saved in your library.
I’m going to keep an eye on the Discovery Station; I have a feeling I’ll end up listening to this radio station a lot over the coming weeks.
John