John
AppStories Episode 217 - Our 2021 macOS WWDC Wishes
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This week, Federico and John begin their annual pre-WWDC wish list episodes with their 2021 wishes for macOS.
Shortcuts Needs a Notification Toggle→
Chaim Gartenberg, writing for The Verge, on one of Shortcuts’ most annoying limitations in iOS 14 – its obsession for showing notifications for anything it does:
Apple, I assume, mandates notifications because Shortcuts are extremely powerful tools for automating things on your iPhone, and it’s easy to imagine unscrupulous use of them.
But the thing is, the power of Shortcuts is to automate things in the background that I don’t want to have to deal with, whether that’s automatically disabling rotation lock when I open or close an app, open an app with a custom icon, or change the wallpaper when the battery life is low. A big glaring notification every time I do something detracts from that idea. I want my phone to be quietly helpful, not shouting in my face every time it does what I asked it to.
Years ago in my review of iOS and iPadOS 13, I argued in favor of adding an “expert mode” to Shortcuts so power users could turn off confirmation prompts for automations (which Apple removed the following year) and other notifications. Two years later, I think this goes well beyond expert users.
Since the release of iOS 14, millions of people have turned to Shortcuts as a way to customize app icons on their Home Screens. And every time they tap one of those custom icons, they have to see an alert that tells them the action they just performed was, in fact, performed. Imagine if your Mac showed you an alert every time you opened an app saying ‘You opened an app’. That’s pretty much what Shortcuts does whenever you run an automation or a shortcut added to the Home Screen.
Given the popularity of custom icons powered by Shortcuts in iOS 14 and the universal disdain for its notifications, I would be very surprised if there’s no way to turn these off in iOS 15.
Importing Toggl Data into Timemator with CSV Exports
We highlighted Timemator, a time tracking app for Apple platforms, a few weeks ago here on MacStories Weekly. I personally came across the app when someone in my timeline tweeted about the release of an iPad version of Timemator a while back; I was immediately intrigued by the screenshots that showed a timeline-based approach...
Substack, Email, and Data Portability
AppStories Episode 216 - Substack, Email, and Data Portability
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This week, Federico and John explore the popularity of Substack among writers leaving big media companies, rethink their email workflows after leaving Hey, and consider data portability and the tradeoffs of proprietary app systems.
Importing Old Emails into Apple Mail via .mbox Files and Smart Mailboxes
Earlier this week, following the announcement of Basecamp’s terrible policy of silencing political and societal discussions internally within the company, we decided we could no longer align MacStories’ values with Hey, the email service developed by Basecamp we’d been using since the fall of 2020. We really liked Hey the service, but as a...
Unifying My Desktop Keyboard Setup with the Satechi Slim X1
Ever since I reviewed the Kensington StudioDock for iPad Pro last month, I’ve been trying to simplify my desk setup by getting rid of additional hardware. My girlfriend and I live in a small apartment, and until we find a bigger place, I have to accept the reality that my “office” consists of a...
Spotify Rolling Out Redesigned ‘Your Library’ Page for Mobile Apps→
As announced by Spotify earlier today, the company is rolling out a redesigned ‘Your Library’ page in its iOS and Android apps that should make it easier to browse your music collection and podcast episodes with a new grid view, better filters and sorting options, and more. From the Spotify Newsroom:
Your collection of music and podcasts is a representation of you—and it’s something deeply personal. But with 5,000+ hours of content released globally every day on Spotify and hundreds of those saved in Your Library, we know it’s crucial to be able to quickly find what you’re looking for, jump back into your latest discovery, or rediscover a beloved track you saved years ago.
Starting today, we are rolling out a new version of Your Library to all Spotify mobile users. Now, you’ll have a more streamlined way to easily explore your collection and find your saved music and podcasts faster. Your Library’s updated design and added features will enable you to spend less time looking for content and organizing your collection, and more time rediscovering the music and podcasts you’ve loved over the years. And as always, keep adding even more content for a library that grows alongside you into the future.
I’m particularly intrigued by grid view and the new filters to switch between music and podcasts. I’m also curious to see if this new design applies to the iPad app (which continues to pale in comparison to Apple Music’s solid iPad client) or not.
“Your Information Is for Sale. You Have Become the Product.”→
Beautifully animated video by Apple on App Tracking Transparency, which launched today alongside iOS 14.5.
See also: Joanna Stern’s interview for The Wall Street Journal with Apple’s Craig Federighi.
iOS and iPadOS 14.5: The MacStories Overview
Apple today released version 14.5 of iOS and iPadOS, a substantial update to the operating system for iPhone and iPad that debuted in September and introduced features such as Home Screen widgets, multi-column app layouts on iPad, compact UI, a redesigned Music app, and more.
Version 14.5 is the biggest – or, at the very least, most interesting – update to iOS and iPadOS we’ve seen in the 14.0 release cycle to date. That’s not to say previous iterations of iOS and iPadOS 14 were low on new features and refinements – it’s quite the opposite, in fact. Perhaps the pandemic and Apple’s work-from-home setup played a role in the company spreading new iOS functionalities across multiple releases throughout 2020 and the first half of 2021, but, regardless of the underlying reason, iOS and iPadOS 14 have evolved considerably since their public launch six months ago.
With iOS 14.2, Apple shipped the traditional “emoji update”, but was also able to include a redesigned AirPlay interface, face detection in AR, and a brand new Shazam integration in Control Center; with iOS 14.3, the company rolled out its new ProRAW photography API alongside support for the Fitness+ service, App Clip codes, and the ability to launch apps directly from Home Screen shortcuts; version 14.4, released earlier this year, saw the arrival of proximity-based music handoff for iPhone and HomePod mini alongside new options for Bluetooth settings and other performance improvements.
It’s difficult to tell whether some of these features were originally planned for a September release and got delayed because of the pandemic1, or how many of these are Apple’s response to user feedback following the release of iOS and iPadOS 14, but one thing’s for sure: Apple hasn’t stood still over the past few months, and today’s iOS and iPadOS 14.5 are continuing the trend of major iOS and iPadOS updates released ahead of WWDC.
Let’s dive in.