Today is Pokémon Day, and, as they do every year, The Pokémon Company held a Pokémon Presents keynote showcasing the latest updates coming to their slate of titles, including a gameplay reveal for the upcoming Pokémon Legends: Z-A for Nintendo Switch.
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With Pokémon Champions, Competitive Pokémon ‘VGC’ May Finally Go Mainstream
PicoChat or PictoChat: Can You Tell the Difference?
It’s been a very long time since I reviewed an iMessage app, but past issues of MacStories Weekly and this site chronicle the hundreds of iMessage apps Federico and I tried and wrote about. Today, though, I was reminded that there’s still fun to be had in what has to be Apple’s most obscure corner of the App Store because this afternoon, Brendon Bigley sent me a link to PicoChat for iMessage, a nostalgia-filled delight from developer Idrees Hassan.
PicoChat lovingly recreates the look and feel of PictoChat, a local messaging app that shipped with the Nintendo DS beginning in 2004 and later with the DS Lite and DSi. PictoChat used a short-range proprietary wireless protocol that could only extend about 65 feet, which ultimately led to its demise as smartphones with cellular connections and Wi-Fi became popular. However, for several years, it served as a short-range communications and creative outlet for a generation of kids.
For context, here’s PictoChat running on my matte black Nintendo DSi, a model that is one of Brendon’s ‘dream devices,’ as he recently shared on NPC: Next Portable Console:
Now, here’s a close-up of the original PictoChat interface and the iMessage app side-by-side.
Just like the DS, the iMessage version has a teeny tiny keyboard with space above it for doodles. If it weren’t for the lower resolution of the DS’s screen, I bet most people would have a hard time telling them apart.
Getting back to Hassan’s app, it’s accessed like other iMessage apps from the Plus button in a Messages thread. Once you’re finished composing your masterpiece, the app converts it into an image and sends it like any other image is sent in Messages.
That’s it, but it’s more than enough to have sent a whole lot of Nintendo DS fans down a nostalgia-filled rabbit hole today, which was cool. Even if the DS wasn’t your thing, check out PicoChat and send some doodles to your friends and family. It’s a lot of fun.
Podcast Rewind: What’s Next for Apps and Hands-On with the Latest Android and Retro Handhelds
Enjoy the latest episodes from MacStories’ family of podcasts:
AppStories
This week, Federico and I make five app predictions for the next five years covering everything from App Intents and automation to the fate of the App Store.
This episode is sponsored by:
- P – The water reminder and hydration app.
NPC: Next Portable Console
On the latest NPC, ASUS gaming phones, Retroid’s big surprise, and more Nintendo emulation drama, plus 8BitDo tries to solve the iPhone vertical controller problem, Federico weighs in on the Any Odin2 Portal, and the whole gang has nothing but love for the TrimUI Brick.
The Latest from Comfort Zone, MacStories Unwind, and Magic Rays of Light
Enjoy the latest episodes from MacStories’ family of podcasts:
Comfort Zone
Matt has a lot of feelings about podcast players, Niléane has gone on an adventure where the sounds are just warmer and somehow better but she can’t quite explain why, and Chris tries to make an all-out war break out.
MacStories Unwind
This week on Unwind, Federico and I offer a peek behind what it’s like to wait for an Apple press release to drop, Federico critiques an Italian’s recommendations of what to buy at Costco and shares a videogame pick, and I have a new movie for listeners.
Magic Rays of Light
Sigmund and Devon check in after the Netflix “bug” that briefly enabled integration with TV app. Then, they highlight the return of Surface, share their thoughts on the Apple TV app coming to Android, and discuss the new iPhone 16e.
Recipes Are Coming to Apple’s News+ Service
Apple continues to layer new features into its News+ service. With iOS and iPadOS 18.4, the company says the service will add recipes from well-known publishers including Allrecipes, Bon Appétit, Food & Wine, Good Food, and Serious Eats:
With the new Food feature, users will be able to find stories curated by Apple News editors, as well as browse, search, and filter tens of thousands of recipes in the Recipe Catalog — with new recipes added every day. The beautifully designed recipe format makes it easy to review ingredients and directions, and a new cook mode takes step-by-step instructions to the full screen. Users can also save their favorite recipes for later and access them offline.
Interestingly, Apple’s press release makes no mention of the Mac. I’d rather use my iPhone or iPad in the kitchen, but a Mac is a great place to browse recipes, so hopefully News+ Food will be brought to the Mac eventually.
Vision Pro to Gain Apple Intelligence, Spatial Gallery App, and Companion iPhone App
Apple announced today that visionOS 2.4 will add some big features to the Vision Pro.
For starters, Apple Intelligence is coming to the Vision Pro. When I was at WWDC, I was surprised when there was no mention that Apple Intelligence would be added to visionOS. Since then, visionOS 2.0 and three subsequent releases have debuted without any sign of Apple Intelligence. However, that will change with the release of visionOS 2.4 in April.
Apple says visionOS 2.4 will include:
- Writing Tools;
- ChatGPT integration;
- Genmoji;
- Image Playground; and
- Other unspecified features
In addition, visionOS will debut Spatial Gallery, a new Vision Pro app that Apple says will feature “a curated collection of spatial photos, spatial videos, and panoramas from artists, filmmakers, photographers, and more,” including new Immersive video titles.
Apple is also releasing a Vision Pro app for the iPhone that adds:
a new way to download apps and games from the App Store; discover experiences from Apple TV, Spatial Gallery, and more; easily find helpful tips; and quickly access information for their Vision Pro. Enhancements to Guest User make it easier than ever for users to share apps and experiences with family, friends, and colleagues using a nearby iPhone or iPad.
Apple says you’ll be able to queue a download from your iPhone for your Apple Vision Pro. I gave up trying to share my Vision Pro with my family almost immediately because it was such a cumbersome process, so better sharing will be welcome. If it works as promised, this sounds like a much better approach:
With new enhancements to Guest User in visionOS 2.4, users can start a Guest User session with their nearby iPhone or iPad. When their device is unlocked, they can choose which apps are accessible to their guest and start View Mirroring with AirPlay, making it easy to guide a guest through their Vision Pro experience.
It’s great to see Apple continue to push the Vision Pro forward with better user experiences, new content, and additional ways to enjoy its unique features.
Apple Intelligence to Expand to New Languages, the EU, and Vision Pro in April
Apple has announced that its personal intelligence system dubbed Apple Intelligence will debut in additional languages in April when iOS 18.4, iPadOS 18.4, and macOS 15.4 are released.
In addition to the currently supported languages, Apple will add French, German, Italian, Portuguese (Brazil), Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Chinese (simplified), and localized English for Singapore and India. Developers running the latest betas can start testing their apps in these languages today.
The updates in April will also bring Apple Intelligence features to the iPhone and iPad for EU users and Apple Vision Pro users.
It’s great to see that Apple Intelligence will expand in so many ways soon. For the feature to be widely adopted, localization is important, as is availability in the EU and on as many devices as possible, including the Vision Pro.
Chrome for iOS Adds ‘Circle to Search’ Feature
Jess Weatherbed, writing for The Verge:
Google is rolling out new search gestures that allow iPhone users to highlight anything on their screen to quickly search for it. The Lens screen-searching feature is available on iOS in both the Google app and Chrome browser and provides a similar experience to Android’s Circle to Search, which isn’t supported on iPhones.
[…]
To use the new Lens gestures, iPhone users need to open the three-dot menu within the Google or Chrome apps and select “Search Screen with Google Lens.” You can then use “any gesture that feels natural” to highlight what you want to search. Google says a new Lens icon for quickly accessing the feature will also be added to the address bar “in the coming months.”
This is a nifty addition to Chrome for iOS, albeit a far cry from how the same integration works on modern Pixel phones, where you can long-press the navigation handle to activate Circle to Search system-wide. In my tests, it worked pretty well on iPhone, and I especially appreciate the haptic feedback you get when circling something. Given the platform constraints, it’s pretty well done.1
I’ve been using Chrome a bit more lately, and while it has a handful of advantages over Safari2, it lacks a series of foundational features that I consider table stakes in a modern browser for iOS and iPadOS. On iPad, for whatever reason, Chrome does not support pinned tabs and can’t display the favorites bar at all times, both of which are downright nonsensical decisions. Also, despite the existence of Gemini, Chrome for iOS and iPadOS cannot summarize webpages, nor does it offer any integration with Gemini in the first place. I shouldn’t be surprised that Chrome for iOS doesn’t offer any Shortcuts actions, either, but that’s worth pointing out.
Chrome makes sense as an option for people who want to use the same browser across multiple platforms, but there’s something to be said for the productivity gains of Safari on iOS and iPadOS. While Google is still shipping a baby version of Chrome, UI- and interaction-wise, Safari is – despite its flaws – a mature browser that takes the iPhone and iPad seriously.
- Speaking of which, I think holding the navigation handle to summon a system-wide feature is a great gesture on Android. Currently, Apple uses a double-tap gesture on the Home indicator to summon Type to Siri; I wouldn’t be surprised if iOS 19 brings an Android-like holding gesture to do something with Apple Intelligence. ↩︎
- For starters, it’s available everywhere, whereas Safari is nowhere to be found on Windows (sigh) or Android. Plus, Chrome for iOS has an excellent widget to quickly search from the Home Screen, and I prefer its tab group UI with colorful folders displayed in the tab switcher. ↩︎
The Latest from AppStories and Ruminate
Enjoy the latest episodes from MacStories’ family of podcasts:
AppStories
This week, Federico and I each pick two apps you may or may not have heard of or considered using and explain why you should give them a try.
On AppStories+, we extend our picks with several more apps we’ve been testing recently.
This episode is sponsored by:
- Memberful – Easy-to-Use Reliable Membership Software
- Incogni – Take your personal data back with Incogni! Use code APPSTORIES with this link and get 60% off an annual plan.
Ruminate
A live snack test, some new task managers, and I bought a 15 year old handheld.