A couple of weekends ago, after we put up our Christmas tree, I broke out Hue’s Festavia lights, which the company recently sent me to test. Ever since we moved in late 2022, we’ve had a generic string of big-bulb white lights hanging around the perimeter of the second-floor balcony that I controlled with the help of an outdoor smart plug. The setup provided a little extra light and atmosphere whenever we sat outside in the evening, which I enjoyed. However, I was also curious to see how I could take the setup further and add some holiday cheer with a set of the Festavia lights. So, instead of putting the lights on our tree, I replaced our existing balcony lights with the Hue lights.
Adding Colorful, Animated Flare to the Holiday Season with Hue’s Festavia Lights
The MacStories Team Is on Threads (Again)
With Threads’ launch in Europe today, we thought it would be a good time to reintroduce readers to the MacStories Threads account as well as those of the MacStories team.
It’s been quite a year for social media. Almost exactly one year ago today, we announced that MacStories had established its own dedicated Mastodon server for MacStories, AppStories, and Club MacStories. That move has been successful beyond our wildest imaginations. MacStories’ core audience is on Mastodon, which has made it the perfect place to interact with readers and listeners.
However, not everyone is on Mastodon. That’s why we created MacStories Instagram and Threads accounts earlier this year. Federico and I have been on Instagram for years and joined Threads immediately, although it wasn’t long before Meta prevented Federico and other users in the EU from accessing Threads.
Today, Meta has reopened Threads to Europe, which means Federico, Silvia, and Niléane are back on the service along with Alex, Jonathan, and me. So, today, we thought we’d reintroduce the MacStories Threads account to everyone and link the team’s Threads accounts below to make it easy to follow whomever you’d like.
You can expect to hear about the latest stories published by the team on MacStories.net, what’s going on with Club MacStories, and updates on AppStories, MacStories Unwind, and upcoming new projects if you follow MacStories. To follow individual team members, you can use the links below:
We know that Threads isn’t for everyone, and the same is true of Mastodon, which is why we’re on both. So, wherever you’re hanging out these days, feel free to say hello. We love hearing from the MacStories community and are excited to have the full team together on Threads again.
The AirPods Pro MagSafe Charging Case with USB-C Can Now Be Purchased Separately→
The MagSafe charging case for second-generation AirPods Pro that comes with a USB-C connector is now available as a separate purchase. When the updated headphones were introduced in September, many users expected the charging case would be available separately, but it wasn’t. That came as a bit of a surprise because when Qi charging was first introduced in the AirPods line, the case was offered as a separate purchase immediately. But with today’s listing on Apple’s online store, if all you want to do is swap your old Lightning case for the USB-C model, you can.
The new case is available to order on the Apple Store for $99, although deliveries in my area aren’t expected until after Christmas, and there aren’t any available for pickup in my local Charlotte, NC retail store.
Automation Academy: ThingsBox, a Versatile Shortcut for Adding Content to the Things Inbox
Update, March 28, 2024: I recently realized that the original version of ThingsBox was failing to properly save URLs shared from the YouTube app for iOS and iPadOS. (Fun fact: this happens because YouTube passes URLs to the share sheet not as URLs, but as plain text. Sigh.) I’ve shared an updated version of ThingsBox...
Read moreAutomation Academy: Introducing ThingsBox, an All-In-One Shortcuts Capture System for the Things Inbox→
One of the perks of a Club MacStories+ and Club Premier membership are special columns that Federico and I publish periodically. In today’s Automation Academy, Federico shares ThingsBox, a shortcuts capture system that can handle multiple media types on every Apple device, sending the results to the Things inbox.
As Federico explains, ThingsBox originated from a suggestion I made on AppStories recently, which he took and ran with to add functionality tailored to each type of media he saves, creating:
a versatile system for quickly capturing text, Safari webpages, URLs, App Store apps, and even images and save them as new items in the Things inbox. ThingsBox runs on every Apple platform and can be used from a widget, the share sheet, or manually inside the Shortcuts app; it is optimized for the Apple Watch, where it defaults to dictation input; on the Mac, ThingsBox integrates with AppleScript to see what the frontmost window is and capture its data accordingly.
Automation Academy is one of the many perks of a Club MacStories+ and Club Premier membership and an excellent way to learn advanced Shortcuts techniques that are explained in the context of solutions to everyday problems.
Join Club MacStories+:
Join Club Premier:
Apple’s Journal App: Journaling for All?
I’ve been keeping a journal in Day One since at least 2015, and I’ve got to say, the practice has become very engrained in my otherwise chaotic daily routine. Whenever I get asked about journaling, I always say that it’s a habit that can take any form you like. It can take place in a paper journal, in an app as written entries, as voice notes, or even as captioned photos in a photo diary. The reason I stuck with Day One over the years is because the app is incredibly flexible. It kept up with me during periods of my life when it was harder to write down my daily thoughts, and easier to type a couple of bullet points every day instead. I believe the best journaling tools are those that can adapt to you, not the other way around. But still, when Apple announced they were building their own Journal app, built right into iOS 17, I was excited by the prospect of switching things up in this little habit of mine.
This week, Apple released the Journal app as part of iOS 17.2. As expected, the app is unfortunately only available on the iPhone. Nevertheless, Apple’s first entry in this category is very interesting, to say the least, as it revolves almost entirely around a system of smart journaling suggestions and prompts. I’ve been using it alongside Day One for a couple of weeks now, to both get an idea of what Apple’s approach to journaling is like, and to see how it intends to bring journaling to a wider audience.
Let’s jump in.
Houdah Software’s Apps Join the Club MacStories+ and Club Premier Discount Program
Ever since we expanded Club MacStories in 2021, we’ve added a growing number of top-tier apps to the Club MacStories+ and Club Premier Discount Program. Today, we’re pleased to welcome Houdah Software to the program with HoudahSpot, HoudahGeo, Photos Workbench, and Tembo, which are all 25% off for Club MacStories+ and Premier members who log in and visit the Club Discounts page.
HoudahSpot is a powerful file search utility that makes finding files a snap and keeps those that you use the most close at hand, saving you time over and over every day. HoudahGeo lets you geotag photos by pinning them to the map locations where you took them. Photos Workbench is indispensable for organizing, geotagging, rating, and managing your photos. Finally, Tembo is a search assistant for documents, mail messages, images, videos, and more that groups files by type and includes multiple sorting and filtering options.
To put the Club deals into context, taking advantage of them all would save you more than the cost of two years of Club Premier, the highest Club tier. That’s before you even consider the many other perks Club MacStories and Club Premier members enjoy, including:
- Weekly and monthly newsletters
- A sophisticated web app with search and filtering tools to navigate eight years of content
- Customizable RSS feeds
- Bonus columns
- An early and ad-free version of our Internet culture and media podcast, MacStories Unwind
- A vibrant Discord community of smart app and automation fans who trade a wealth of tips and discoveries every day
- Live Discord audio events after Apple events and at other times of the year
On top of that, Club Premier members get AppStories+, an extended, ad-free version of our flagship podcast that we deliver early every week in high-bitrate audio.
Use the buttons below to learn more and sign up for Club MacStories+ or Club Premier.
Join Club MacStories+:
Join Club Premier:
AppStories, Episode 363 – The 2023 MacStories Selects Awards→
This week on AppStories, we introduce the annual MacStories Selects award winners.
Sponsored by:
- Vitally – A new era for customer success productivity. Get a free pair of AirPods Pro when you book a qualified meeting.
](https://cdn.macstories.net/banneras-1629219199428.png)
On AppStories+, Federico and I go behind-the-scenes to discuss the logistics of picking the annual MacStories Selects Award winners and shipping awards worldwide.
We deliver AppStories+ to subscribers with bonus content, ad-free, and at a high bitrate early every week.
To learn more about the benefits included with an AppStories+ subscription, visit our Plans page, or read the AppStories+ FAQ.
Apple Releases iOS and iPadOS 17.2 with Journal App, Messages and Music Improvements, and More
Today, Apple released iOS and iPadOS 17.2, the second major updates to the operating systems that launched in September and I reviewed on MacStories.
iOS and iPadOS 17.2 revolve around two kinds of enhancements: there are a series of updates to built-in apps (mostly Messages, Music, and Camera) and various tweaks to widgets; then, there’s the brand new Journal app for iPhone, which aims to reinvent the practice of journaling for iOS users with a built-in solution that’s deeply integrated with the OS and apps.
We’re going to cover Journal with a standalone article on MacStories from the perspective of someone who’s been keeping a journal in Day One for several years. In this story, I’m going to focus on what else is new in iOS and iPadOS 17.2 and the different improvements you’ll find throughout the system.
Let’s dive in.