Stop me if you’ve heard this tale before: I recently went down a rabbit hole about a specific tech accessory that ended up with me trusting an idea shared by a random dude on Reddit, which resulted in an expensive purchase for a piece of equipment sold by a private eBay seller from the UK....
Federico’s Home Screen
The Home Screen on my iPhone 15 Pro Max is largely a product of refinement over the past few months as well as acceptance of certain habits of mine that dictate how I like to use my iPhone. I tried different approaches over the years, and as much as I want to keep an open...
Apple’s Scary Fast Event with Stephen Hackett
John
AppStories Episode 357 - Apple’s Scary Fast Event with Stephen Hackett
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This week, John is joined by Relay FM’s Stephen Hackett for a recap and thoughts on Apple’s Scary Fast event, which was recorded live in the Club MacStories+ Discord.
Apple Announces Pricing and Availability Dates for New MacBook Pros and iMac with M3 Chips
At this evening’s ‘Scary Fast’ Apple event, the company announced the new generation of M3 chips – M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max – that will power three new models of MacBook Pro and the updated iMac, which is getting a refresh for the first time since its redesign featuring the M1 chip was introduced in 2021.
We’ll have more detailed overviews of the new computers up on MacStories soon, but in the meantime, here’s a breakdown of when you can expect to be able to get your hands on these new machines:
App Debuts
Dashy Dashy is a new iPhone app that lets you turn an iPhone mounted somewhere in your car into a dash cam. Using the rear camera, Dashy can record a video of your trips so that, in case of an accident, you can simplify the insurance claim process with a recorded video of what...
iOS 17.2 Beta’s Sticker Reactions Need a Different Approach→
The first developer beta of iOS 17.2 was released earlier today, and among a variety of new features (I’ve been sharing some of the highlights on my Mastodon), there’s the highly anticipated expansion of Tapbacks with custom sticker reactions.
The problem is that, put simply, this feature just isn’t good enough in this first version of iOS 17.2. And since I’m always told to “file feedback early in the process to make sure things get seen”, and since blogging about iOS feature requests on my website makes me feel better than begrudgingly filing actual feedbacks about them, here we are.
Jason Snell, writing for Six Colors:
This new feature has no connection at all with the fun double-tap gesture that’s synonymous with Tapbacks. I didn’t expect stickers to be a peer to Apple’s classic collection of six Tapback icons, but I did sort of assume that at the very least, performing the Tapback gesture would also give you the option of choosing a sticker. (And the right thing for Apple to do would be to display recently used stickers alongside the Tapback icons.)
Instead, to send a sticker response you have to tap and hold on a message and then choose Add Sticker from the resulting contextual menu, then choose a sticker or emoji. It’s an extra step that really shouldn’t be necessary and makes stickers feel like an afterthought, which they apparently are.
I get why Apple doesn’t want to let users customize the default roster of “official” Tapbacks. iMessage is used by hundreds of millions of people every day, and they don’t want to overcomplicate an established feature with too many options. However, I think a much better compromise would be the following:
- Align custom sticker reactions with regular Tapbacks in the message bubble so they don’t cover text;
- Make the ‘Add Sticker’ button appear when you double-tap a message instead of requiring a long-press.
That’s it. I really like this feature, but the design isn’t quite there yet. Hopefully, there’s enough time (and willingness on Apple’s part) to change it.
With Version 1.2, Matter Now Supports over 20 Device Types→
Jennifer Pattison Tuohy, writing for The Verge on the latest update to Matter, the interoperable home automation standard:
Matter — the IOT connectivity standard with ambitions to fix the smart home and make all of our gadgets talk to each other — has hit version 1.2, adding support for nine new types of connected devices. Robot vacuums, refrigerators, washing machines, and dishwashers are coming to Matter, as are smoke and CO alarms, air quality sensors, air purifiers, room air conditioners, and fans. It’s a crucial moment for the success of the industry-backed coalition that counts 675 companies among its members. This is where it moves from the relatively small categories of door locks and light bulbs to the real moneymakers: large appliances.
And:
While it’s possible today to get your lights to flash when your laundry is done, turn a light red when your fridge’s temperature rises, or shut off the HVAC system if the smoke alarm goes off, it can be complicated to set up and often wholly unreliable. You need to download multiple apps, maybe buy a sensor or two, deal with laggy cloud integrations, and worry about whether your washer is even compatible with your smart home app in the first place. With Matter support, this type of simple command and control should be much easier to implement in any ecosystem.
I spent the past year making as many parts of my new home as connected as possible (our apartment is powered by KNX; I had this bridge installed to bring lights, temperature sensors, and shutters into HomeKit) so, as you can imagine, I’m very much on board with the idea of having my accessories be compatible with multiple ecosystems at once. We live in a “mixed assistant” household (we use Siri in English and Alexa in Italian), so the idea behind Matter is the kind of technology we’re looking for.
The problem, at least from my perspective, is that I have very little hope regarding Apple’s ability to support the new device types added to Matter in their Home app anytime soon.
Apple’s Home app is, by far, the UI I use most for manually controlling my smart home, whether it’s from the Home app itself or Control Center. It’s also leagues beyond the terrible design of the Alexa app; its integration with automations and the Shortcuts app is also incredible. But let’s be honest: the Home app already struggles to fully support device types that were added years ago, such as sprinklers; realistically, how long is it going to take Apple to integrate with robot vacuums and air purifiers?
The way I see it, any connected home standard is only as useful as the UI that lets you control its accessories. So while I’m excited about Matter and strongly believe in the initiative, the weak link for me remains Apple’s Home app.
Apple Releases iOS and iPadOS 17.1 with New Apple Music Features, Small iPad Enhancements, and More
Today, Apple released iOS and iPadOS 17.1 – the first major updates to the operating systems that launched (and I reviewed) in September. I’ll cut to the chase: these are not big updates and don’t come with new emoji. Instead, iOS and iPadOS 17.1 bring a variety of previously-announced (and then delayed) features such as AirDrop over the Internet and new cover art templates in Music, but they don’t address the complete list of functionalities for this OS cycle that Apple originally announced last June.
Let’s take a look.