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AppStories, Episode 348 – Gadget Show & Tell→

This week on AppStories, we look back at the gadgets we’ve accumulated over the summer and share what’s worked and what hasn’t.

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On AppStories+, we step back from the OS beta cycle to try to figure out what is going on with Shortcuts and automation on Apple’s platforms.

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Apple Podcasts Expands Its Analytics and Marketing Tools→

Source: Apple.

Source: Apple.

Today, Apple announced new analytics and marketing tools for podcast creators.

Apple Podcast analytical tools are being expanded to provide a wealth of new anonymized information about paid podcast subscriptions. The new stats will cover information about free trials, conversion rates to paid subscriptions, financial data, and more. There are a number of ways to filter the new metrics and display trends, too.

Source: Apple.

Source: Apple.

Apple also announced additional delegated delivery partners, who allow podcasters to publish their paid subscription episodes to Apple’s platform using the delivery partner’s tools. The latest to join the program are Audiomeans, Captivate, Podbean, Podspace, and Transistor.

Source: Apple.

Source: Apple.

Finally, Apple and Linkfire are partnering to offer podcasters smart links to landing pages for their shows where listeners can access their shows and subscriptions. The links, which are commonly used in the music industry to give fans a way to connect to a musician’s material from multiple services, can be used by podcasters to feature their shows on social media, on websites, in newsletters, and anywhere else they want to link to their shows. Linkfire will offer analytics to users of their linking system, which will be anonymized. Linkfire’s new podcast links will be available this fall and include free and paid tiers of service starting at $9.99/month.

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Relay FM Announces 10th Anniversary Event→

Our pals Myke and Stephen at Relay FM announced today that they’re celebrating their podcast network’s 10th anniversary in style with a special live show in London.

The event will take place at the Hackney Empire Theater and feature a group of Relay podcast hosts competing in a game of Family Feud Fortunes. Tickets for the all-ages London show, which is scheduled for next summer on the evening of July 27, 2024, are available now.

If the 5th-anniversary show Relay did is any indicator, this event should be a lot of fun.

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AppStories, Episode 347 – A Classic Pick 2→

This week on AppStories, we each share two app recommendations in a classic Pick 2 episode.

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On AppStories+, Federico has a mini surprise, and I experiment with connecting his Sony a6500 mirrorless camera to an iPad Pro.

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AppStories, Episode 346 – Why The Way Apps Are Made Has Changed→

This week on AppStories, we look at how making apps has changed along with the evolution of Apple’s hardware lineup and what that means for the future of apps on those platforms.

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On AppStories+, all’s well that ends well. Federico reports on how he managed to connect a no-name brand Bluetooth lightstrip to HomeKit.

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Apple Music Gains New Algorithmic ‘Discovery Station’→

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.

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AppStories, Episode 345 – Where Is The App Economy Heading?→

This week on AppStories, we examine the latest app trends and where Apple’s system apps are heading to try to answer the question of where the world of apps is heading.

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On AppStories+, I stress test the AirPods Pro (2nd gen) and Federico unboxes the new Beats Studio Pros.

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AppStories, Episode 344 – macOS Sonoma and iOS and iPadOS 17 Public Betas→

This week on AppStories, we talk about Safari, videoconferencing, Messages, and gaming on macOS Sonoma, plus stickers and widgets on iOS and iPadOS 17.

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On AppStories+, Federico and I share our wishes for the next version of the iPad Pro.

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A Quietly Big Year for tvOS→

Speaking of catching up on my reading queue: here’s Chris Welch, writing at The Verge last week about tvOS 17:

tvOS 17 isn’t trying to reinvent any of this. There are now six icons in each row, so you can add yet another app to your main “dock” at the top of the screen, but that’s about as exciting as the big interface changes get. Apple no longer seems preoccupied with becoming some all-encompassing aggregation hub for streaming entertainment, and there are good reasons for this. The company’s pipe dream of streaming content from popular third-party subscription services directly from the Apple TV app quickly fell apart. Netflix refuses to play ball with any effort to create a universal watchlist outside of the confines of its own app — whether it’s from Apple, Google, or anyone else — so what’s the point? Things are now more fragmented than I’d like, but it’s the content owners and streaming services putting those walls up for their own self-interest.

So instead, Apple is making improvements and touching up areas of the Apple TV experience that it can fully control. And it’s starting with one of the iPhone’s first major ecosystem tricks.

Chris put together a great list of changes coming to tvOS this year, most of them revolving around the ecosystem advantage Apple has compared to their competitors in this field. Rather than trying to beat Google and Amazon on price, Apple is finally leaning into the unique feature they have: iPhone owners who also have an Apple TV.

My favorite change coming in tvOS 17, however, is something that will allow me to stop using my iPhone when watching TV: VPN apps.

For years I’ve been forced to watch HBO content1 with a fake US account by starting playback on the iPhone and AirPlaying the video stream to my Apple TV. Later this year, I’ll be able to install a VPN app directly on the Apple TV and stream content on it without having to worry about my iPhone and AirPlay. Good riddance.

  1. I refuse to call it “Max” now. Sometimes I wonder how some companies can even come up with some names. ↩︎
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