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Roadtripping with ChatGPT Voice Mode

On Saturday, my wife Jennifer and I drove to Blowing Rock, a quaint little town in the Blue Ridge Mountains. We’d been there once before, but didn’t know the town well, so as we headed west I poked at the ChatGPT icon on my dashboard to give the app’s new CarPlay integration a try. I asked:

What activities would you recommend for a day trip to Blowing Rock, North Carolina?

What I got back was a short but good list of highlights including a hike, a visit to the Blowing Rock cliffside overlook, a few restaurants, a coffee shop, and some local shops. It was similar to a list of activities I’d looked up before we left using Claude. So far, so good.

I switched back to Apple Maps and was thinking I probably wouldn’t use ChatGPT in my car very often, but that it could come in handy for similar requests, when things got a little creepy. I explained to Jennifer that ChatGPT’s CarPlay feature was new, and I had been meaning to check it out all week. Then, just as I’d said I thought it had done a pretty good job, a voice interrupted. It was ChatGPT’s voice mode saying it was glad I liked it.

You see, just like a phone call doesn’t drop when you switch apps in CarPlay, neither does ChatGPT. I supposed I should have anticipated that the mic would remain live, but I didn’t. Nor did I notice the End button in the corner of the screen; I was driving, not studying the app’s UI.

I take it as a positive sign that I didn’t expect ChatGPT to follow me back to Apple Maps. I treat chatbots like I do any app. Give it some input, and you get an output. Close the app, and you’re done. It’s not my little robot buddy. It’s a tool like any other app.

Of course, that’s not how the voice modes of these chatbots are designed to work. Chats are meant to be an engaging back and forth. But having ChatGPT jump in on our one-on-one conversation while driving down the highway was too much. Suddenly, it felt like something else was in the car eavesdropping on us.

The experience was a good lesson in the balancing of utility and social norms around AI tools. Useful as they can be in some situations, their developers need to be more mindful of user expectations and provide better cues about how they work to avoid uncomfortable surprises. The recommendations we got from ChatGPT were good, but I also don’t expect it will get a second chance on our family road trips anytime soon.

Podcast Rewind: Apple’s AI Future, the Legion Go’s Return, Niléane’s App, and an Interview with MacSparky

Enjoy the latest episodes from MacStories’ family of podcasts:

AppStories

This week, Federico and John draw from their experiences using AI agents to imagine the sort of agent Apple could build with tight hardware and software integration if it had a LLM to orchestrate the pieces already in place.

On AppStories+, John asks where artificial intelligence falls on the spectrum of historical technology milestones.

NPC: Next Portable Console

This week, a PlayStation Portable update, Honda and Sony call off car-based gaming, Epilogue shows of the SN Operator and makes an app, the fate of Windows handhelds, Federico’s Legion Go makes a comeback, and more.

On NPC XL, Federico finally received his OhSnap MCON controller, John has the Genki Convert Dock 3, and a conversation about how to make handheld gaming accessible to a broader audience.

First, Last, Everything

Jonathan is joined by David Sparks, productivity writer, podcaster, and creator behind MacSparky, best known for the Mac Power Users podcast and his Field Guides, on getting the most from Apple devices and apps.

Comfort Zone

Niléane built an awesome Mac app, Chris bought a new monitor (but it’s not what you thiiiiink), and Matt grills the group on what they’d install if they could only install three new apps on their Macs.

On Cozy Zone, the gang has to guess what Matt subscribes to on YouTube by just the thumbnails.

MacStories Unwind

This week, space exploration, workflow shakeups, a buddy movie, and more.

Read more

Coming Soon: What’s Next on Apple TV and Apple Arcade in April 2026

It’s a new month and you know what that means: time for a roundup of everything coming to Apple TV and Apple Arcade for April 2026.

Apple Arcade (April 2)

Apple Arcade is debuting a trio of games this month:

Dredge+

First off is Dredge+ a Lovecraftian fishing adventure game. Federico and I had the pleasure of interviewing two members of the Dredge team at WWDC last year and were impressed with the thought and care that went into the Apple Design Award-winning game. The Arcade version includes all of Dredge DLC content that has been released, too. If you’re an Arcade subscriber and haven’t played Dredge yet, check out Dredge+ on Arcade, because it’s a treat.

Unpacking+

Unpacking, which won an Apple App Store Cultural Impact Award in 2023, is another game worth checking out this month. It’s a low-key puzzle game that revolves around removing possessions from boxes and arranging them in your home, which is surprisingly relaxing.

My Very Hungry Caterpillar+

Parents will will know Eric Carle’s Very Hungry Caterpillar from the classic 1969 children’s book. In the game, My Very Hungry Caterpillar+, that same beloved caterpillar becomes a pet you care for and play with, unlocking new activities along the caterpillar’s jounney to becoming a butterfly. Having had a bookshelf of Eric Carle books when my kids were little, I’m sure this game will be a hit with Arcade subscribers too.

Also, on April 9th, Puyo Puyo Puzzle Pop is slated to get a new Puyo Puyo Garden mode to celebrate the franchise’s 35th anniversary.

Your Friends & Neighbors, Season 2 (Friday, April 3)

Jon Hamm is back as Coop Cooper, a hedge fund manager turned burglar who steals from his neighbors to cope with his messy life. The new season picks up where the last left off with 10 new episodes that reveal even deeper, darker secrets of the super-rich.

Add to Your Calendar:

Outcome (Friday, April 10)

Outcome is a new dark comedy from Jonah Hill who write, directed, and produced the show staring Keanu Reeves, who plays Reef Hawk, a Hollywood actor whose life is upended by someone who tries to blackmail him with a mysterious video. The show also stars Cameron Diaz, Matt Bomer, and Hill, himself, as they try to uncover the identity of Reef’s extortionist.

Add to Your Calendar:

Margo’s Got Money Troubles (Tuesday, April 15)

Elle Fanning stars in a comedy-drama about a college dropout with money problems and a newborn baby. Fanning, who plays Margo, is joined by Nick Offerman, who plays Margo’s former pro-wrestler father, and Michelle Pfeiffer, as Margo’s mother, a former Hooters waitress. Also staring Nicole Kidman and Greg Kinnear, the show promises to be an offbeat drama full of unconventional characters that I can’t wait to see.

Add to Your Calendar:

Criminal Record, Season 2 (April 22)

I’m really looking forward to the return of Criminal Record, a thriller set in London. Season 1 was fantastic, so I’m looking forward to seeing Peter Capaldi and Cush Jumbo reprise their roles as detectives navigating another high-stakes mystery.

Add to Your Calendar:

My Brother the Minotaur (Friday, April 24)

Apple has been quietly building a large catalog of high-quality family-friendly show. This month it’s My Brother the Minotaur, a story about a half-bull, half-boy raised among humans. The show follows the young minotaur and his friends as they seek to uncover his past.

Add to Your Calendar:

Widow’s Bay (Wednesday, April 29)

Apple will close out April with Widow’s Bay a new horror-comedy starting Matthew Rhys as Tom Loftis, the mayor of an island town off the cost of New England. Loftis comes up with a plan to make his island home a tourist destination, despite legends of a curse that haunts the community.

Add to Your Calendar:

That’s it for April. It’s not as busy as some, but there are what look to be some excellent debuts alongside the returning favorites. I’m personally looking forward to Outcome, Margo’s Got Money Troubles, and Criminal Record the most. If you’re a Club MacStories Plus or Premier member, drop by the TV and Movies channel in Discord to chat about what you’re looking forward to from Apple TV this month, and be sure to listen to MacStories Unwind, where I’m sure Federico and I will cover some of these shows along with our other media recommendations every week.

NVIDIA GeForce NOW Adds 4K 90 FPS Game Streaming on Apple Vision Pro

Source: NVIDIA.

Source: NVIDIA.

NVIDIA has released version 2.0.83 of its GeForce NOW game streaming service with a couple of upgrades for Vision Pro users. First, games can now be streamed at up to 4K resolution at 90 FPS. Gaming at this quality requires a subscription to the service’s Ultimate tier and a Wi-Fi connection with a speed of at least 55 Mbps, and users have to enable 4K resolution manually in their settings. Still, it’s great that game streaming of this quality is available to those who want to play cloud-streamed games on a huge virtual screen, and the 4K option is a Vision Pro exclusive not available on other headsets. It’ll really put the device’s powerful screens to good use.

This version of GeForce NOW also coincides with the gradual rollout of H.265 video encoding in supported browsers. Because the service is still accessed via Safari on Vision Pro rather than a native app, H.265 browser encoding will be beneficial for the efficiency and quality of game streaming on the device.

This news comes on the heels of foveated streaming support coming to Vision Pro with last week’s release of visionOS 26.4. Apple and NVIDIA worked together to include support for NVIDIA’s CloudXR technology in the framework, giving developers a way to take advantage of foveated streaming in their own VR games and apps. Flight simulator X-Plane, motorsport simulator iRacing, and 3D visualization tool Autodesk VRED have already committed to adopting the feature on visionOS, and I imagine we’ll hear more similar announcements soon.

The full gaming story on Vision Pro is yet to be told, but these developments – along with the integration of spatial controllers into visionOS last fall – point towards a bright future for gamers on Apple’s newest platform, and I’m happy to see Apple working with partners like NVIDIA to make the experience as enjoyable and immersive as possible.

Deals Worth Checking Out Before Amazon’s Big Spring Sale Ends

Sonos Ace Headphones, The Aqara Hub G5 Pro, and MOFT's Magnetic Wallet Stand.

Sonos Ace Headphones, The Aqara Hub G5 Pro, and MOFT’s Magnetic Wallet Stand.

Amazon’s Big Spring Sale is wrapping up tomorrow, but there is still time to take advantage of some great deals. There are deals across every category, but the smart home and headphones dominate this year’s sale, including some favorites from the MacStories Setups page such as the Aqara Hub G5 Pro outdoor camera that I reviewed last year.

Other great smart home gear on sale includes:

AirPods Pro 3 and Beats Studio Buds+.

AirPods Pro 3 and Beats Studio Buds+.

Headphones, especially Beats, are well-represented, too:

Insta360 Link 2C and WITHINGS Body Smart Scale.

Insta360 Link 2C and WITHINGS Body Smart Scale.

Finally, I wanted to highlight a few other gadgets and accessories I love that are on sale:

That’s it for another Amazon sale season. For hand-picked deals throughout the year, be sure to follow MacStories Deals on Bluesky or Mastodon.

Podcast Rewind: Folding Phones, a Big Switch 2 Update, Discovering New Mac Apps, and Setups Changes

Enjoy the latest episodes from MacStories’ family of podcasts:

AppStories

This week, Federico shares his experiences with foldable Android phones and what Apple might do for its first foldable hardware and its software.

On AppStories+, Federico shares his experience using Samsung DeX.

NPC: Next Portable Console

This week, Nintendo dropped a big Switch 2 software surprise, Anbernic got back to being weird, Federico went large with his PC streaming setup, and more.

Comfort Zone

Matt poisons the show with Android, Niléane brings us back with Forkflift, and everyone finds a really great Mac app they’ve never used before.

On Cozy Zone, we discover who has a good backup system, who has a robust backup system, and who basically doesn’t care about their data.

MacStories Unwind

This week, Federico and John share the highlights of their recent MacStories Setups update. Plus, John has an offbeat movie pick, and Federico is revisiting a game that’s an old favorite.

Read more

Apple Overhauls App Store Connect

Source: Apple.

Source: Apple.

Overnight, Apple rolled out a big update to App Store Connect with new sales and analytics tools for developers. App Store Connect is the online portal that developers use to manage everything related to selling apps from TestFlight betas, to managing their App Store listings and tracking sales data and analytics.

It’s that last piece that was overhauled with this release. In fact, Apple’s post on its developer site says there are over 100 new metrics developers can use to measure the performance of their apps, all of which have been designed in a privacy-first way to protect users.

Source: Apple.

Source: Apple.

The granularity is impressive. For example, developers can track where their sales are coming from, including search, App Store browsing, web sources, and more. Conversion rates are a big part of the analytics, allowing developers to see how many people have seen their apps on the Store and downloaded them, breaking down first-time downloads and re-downloads. Analytics also tie into App Store features like In-App Events, custom product pages, and developer marketing efforts across a multitude of channels using campaign links. There’s a lot more, including metrics that track app pre-orders, user engagement and retention, and good old-fashioned sales data sliced and diced to allow developers to better understand the sources of their income.

And that’s really just the tip of the iceberg of what has changed in App Store Connect. So if you’re a developer, it’s worth spending some time with your app data and reading the new guide Apple published that covers it all.

Some data reported in App Store Connect is being deprecated later this year and next.

Some data reported in App Store Connect is being deprecated later this year and next.

Since the changes rolled out, a couple of concerns I’ve seen expressed online are that there will no longer be a single place to view the aggregate performance of multiple apps and that the new default reporting period is three months. Those concerns are well founded. The changes are organized on an app-by-app basis, and as Apple says in a banner on App Store Connect, the Dashboards in the Trends section of Connect and related reports where that data was available are being deprecated later this year and next. So, while the data Apple offers is deep for each app, the aggregate data falls short by not providing a birds-eye view of a developer’s entire app catalog.

For what it’s worth, Apple is aware of the feedback regarding cross-app reporting. Also, the shorter sales reporting periods, such as the past 24 hours and seven days, are still available, but they’re less visible because three months is the new default.

This is a big update to App Store Connect that will take developers time to get used to, but it’s also a welcome change that provides meaningful new insights into App Store performance. I expect that there will be more areas where the changes fall short of developers’ expectations. However, it’s also clear to me that Apple has heard the early feedback, so I wouldn’t be surprised if adjustments are made in the future. On balance, though, I think the changes give developers valuable new ways to think about and manage their businesses across the increasingly competitive app landscape, which is welcome.

Apple Announces Apple Business, a New Platform for Device Management and Ads on Maps

Source: Apple.

Source: Apple.

Today, Apple announced Apple Business, a combination of mobile device management services, Apple Maps-based advertising, and other features that will be available beginning April 14.

On the device management side, Apple Business lets companies manage employee onboarding and devices, centralizing control over email, calendar, iCloud backups and sync, support, and other company information, while separating company and employee data. The platform also allows companies to distribute apps to employees.

Source: Apple.

Source: Apple.

As for ads on Maps, they will:

appear when users search in Maps, and can appear at the top of a user’s search results based on relevance, as well as at the top of a new Suggested Places experience in Maps, which will display recommendations based on what’s trending nearby, the user’s recent searches, and more. Ads will be clearly marked to ensure transparency for Maps users.

Apple also notes that the ads on Maps protects user privacy, preventing advertisers from seeing their location or tracking the ads they see.

It will be interesting to see how this works in practice. Apple’s track record with ads isn’t great. Based on the screenshots in Apple’s press release, it’s clear that ads will be shown when a user is searching a broad category like “Restaurants,” which I think is fine and could even be helpful. However, I hope ads aren’t shown when I enter a specific address or name of a business, where they’d feel more intrusive. There’s an appropriate balance to be struck here, and as a user, I hope Apple nails it.

Source: Apple.

Source: Apple.

Finally, Apple has consolidated other branding services it already offers as part of Apple Business, making it easier for businesses to present a uniform experience across Apple’s apps and services. Wallet, email communications, and Tap to Pay are all part of the new centralized management UI, along with place cards in Maps, Safari, and Spotlight.

Apple Schedules WWDC 2026 for June 8–12 Along with a Special Event at Apple Park

WWDC26 will be held from June 8–12 this year and include both an online and in-person event that will provide a limited number of developers the opportunity to watch the keynote at Apple Park, meet with Apple engineers, and take part in other activities. Details on eligibility and how to apply to attend WWDC can be found on the Apple Developer site and app.

In a press release issued by Apple today, Susan Prescott, the company’s Vice President of Worldwide Developer Relations and Enterprise and Education Marketing, said:

“WWDC is one of the most exciting times for us at Apple because it’s a chance for our incredible global developer community to come together for an electrifying week that celebrates technology, innovation, and collaboration,” said Susan Prescott, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide Developer Relations. “We can’t wait to see many of you online and in person for what is sure to be one of our best WWDC events yet.”

Although Apple hasn’t said so specifically, those not attending in person will undoubtedly be able to stream the WWDC keynote and Platforms State of the Union, watch dozens of videos explaining the new technologies being introduced later in the year, and meet with Apple engineers for online Q&A sessions.

As always, I’m excited for WWDC. I haven’t missed one since I first started attending in 2013, and I’m not going to start this year. It’s a time to catch up with family in the area, get together with developers and media people I rarely see in person, and meet new people, too. Despite the event being smaller than when it was held in San Francisco and San Jose, it’s still energizing to get together with others who are as excited as I am for what Apple has in store for its OSes in the fall.

Of course, MacStories readers can expect the same kind of comprehensive WWDC coverage we deliver every year. We’ll have extensive coverage on MacStories, AppStories, and MacStories Unwind that will extend to Club MacStories too.