Apple Music Classical to Launch on March 28th

Source: App Store.

Source: App Store.

On March 28th, Apple will launch Apple Music Classical, a free app that’s already available for pre-order that will offer a catalog of over 5 million classical recordings to Apple Music subscribers at no additional cost.

The app, which will be iPhone-only at launch, has been anticipated for months. Apple acquired Primephonic, a classical music streaming service in August 2021, and said at the time that it would release an Apple-branded classical music streaming service the following year. 2022 came and went without a new app, but references to the new service began appearing in iOS beta releases, leading observers to believe that a release was imminent.

Apple says that Classical’s 5 million tracks, which include thousands of exclusives, is the largest in the world and has “complete and accurate” metadata. The company also says in the app’s release notes:

Apple Music Classical also makes it easy for beginners to get acquainted with the genre thanks to hundreds of Essentials playlists, insightful composer biographies, deep-dive guides for many key works, and intuitive browsing features.

Classical’s search will also be optimized for the genre, include editorial content, and be streamed at up to 192 kHz/24-bit Hi-Res Lossless, with thousands of tracks supporting spatial audio with Dolby Atmos.

Users can pre-order the free app today from the App Store, which will be downloaded to their iPhones on March 28th when the app goes live.

AppStories, Episode 319 – The Future of Web Browsers→

This week on AppStories, we cover the increasing competition among web browsers and the emerging features we find most useful.

Sponsored by:

  • Kolide – Kolide ensures only secure devices can access your cloud apps. It’s Zero Trust tailor-made for Okta. Book a demo today.
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[Subscribe here.](https://appstories.net/plans)

Subscribe here.

On AppStories+, I struggle with security cameras, Federico’s desk setup continues to evolve, and we share our theories on the popularity of web-first apps.

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.

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David Smith’s Widgetsmith reaches 100 Million App Store Downloads→

Source: [david-smith.org](https://www.david-smith.org).

Source: david-smith.org.

100 million of anything is a lot, and 100 million downloads on the App Store are rare. Rarer still, and perhaps unprecedented, is 100 million downloads of an app made by one person.

When it comes to apps, I can’t think of a single app made by an indie developer that has reached the milestone that David Smith did today with Widgetsmith. The app, which was released in September 2020 alongside iOS 13, lets users create personalized Home Screen widgets using photos, text, weather data, and more. Since its release, the array of customization options has continued to expand, and last fall, Lock Screen widgets were added to the mix. Most recently, Widgetsmith was updated with gradient backgrounds.

The latest update of Widgetsmith adds gradient backgrounds.

The latest update of Widgetsmith adds gradient backgrounds.

It’s been remarkable to watch Widgetsmith take the app world by storm. Thinking back to the summer of 2020 when Federico and I were testing Widgetsmith, I remember liking it, but I know neither of us had the slightest inkling that it would go viral the way it did not long after its release. Congratulations, Dave. Widgetsmith’s success is well-deserved.

Don’t miss Dave’s post on his website about Widgetsmith’s milestone. Also, the latest gradient background update to the app is available now as a free update on the App Store.

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Apple Announces Yellow iPhone 14 and 14 Plus Along with New Case Colors

Source: Apple.

Source: Apple.

A new spring iPhone color has become an annual tradition for Apple. Today, the company announced that a pale yellow model is joining the midnight, starlight, (PRODUCT)RED, blue, and purple versions of the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus.

Apple also said that its Emergency SOS service is coming to six new countries later this month:

  • Austria
  • Belgium
  • Italy
  • Luxembourg
  • Netherlands
  • Portugal

The new yellow iPhone will be available for pre-order beginning at 5 am Pacific time in the US on Friday, March 10th, with availability beginning Tuesday, March 14th.

Apple also released four new Apple Silicone Cases for the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus. Source: Apple.

Apple also released four new Apple Silicone Cases for the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus. Source: Apple.

In a footnote to today’s iPhone announcement, Apple said that new canary yellow, olive, sky, and iris Silicone cases will be available for the iPhone and iPhone 14 Plus too.

Microsoft Outlook for Mac Is Now Free to Use→

Yesterday, Microsoft announced that Outlook, its email and calendar app, is now free on the Mac App Store and doesn’t require a Microsoft 365 subscription, which has been the case for a long time on iOS and iPadOS.

That’s great news for Mac users. Outlook has been optimized for Apple silicon Macs and supports iCloud, Gmail, Outlook, IMAP, and other email systems. And, because it’s native, Outlook supports features like widgets, Handoff between devices logged into the same Apple ID, and rich notifications, plus it includes a menu bar app for quickly checking your calendar. In its announcement, Microsoft also said it is working on support for Focus modes through an Outlook feature called Profiles.

Source: Microsoft.

Source: Microsoft.

Microsoft’s move came as something of a surprise and in the midst of rebuilding the Windows version of Outlook. The company is also experimenting with a progressive web app version of the app but told The Verge that it is committed to native apps on Apple’s platforms.

Microsoft Outlook is available to download free on the Mac App Store.

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Last Week, on Club MacStories: Apple Frames 3.1.1, Ascend, Focus Modes, Personal Automations, and a Cross-Platform Scratchpad

Because Club MacStories now encompasses more than just newsletters, we’ve created a guide to the past week’s happenings:

MacStories Weekly: Issue 358

Ascend

Ascend

The Monthly Log: February 2023

Kolide: Can Zero Trust Be Saved? [Sponsor]

Right now, “Zero Trust” is in serious danger of becoming an empty buzzword. The problem isn’t just that marketers have slapped the Zero Trust label on everything short of breakfast cereal–it’s that for all the hype, we don’t seem to be getting any safer.

At the heart of Zero Trust is a good idea, but the way most companies execute that idea is incomplete. Specifically, most security practitioners forget that device compliance is a crucial element of Zero Trust.

Think about it: your identity provider can ensure that only known devices access your company’s apps, but just because you recognize a device, doesn’t mean it’s in a secure state. A malware-infected laptop running an outdated OS can’t exactly be “trusted.” And you can’t count on MDMs to achieve total compliance. Things like unencrypted access credentials are out of their reach, not to mention Linux devices writ large.

Kolide solves the device compliance element of Zero Trust for companies that use Okta.

Our premise is simple: if an employee’s device is out of compliance, it can’t access your apps.

Kolide’s unique approach works with Okta to make device compliance part of the authentication process. If a device isn’t compliant, users can’t log in to their cloud apps until they’ve fixed the problem. And instead of creating more work for IT, Kolide provides instructions so users can get unblocked on their own.

Kolide works across your Mac, Windows, and even Linux devices, with mobile support coming soon. Our lightweight agent complements your existing tools, brings a lot of compliance issues into scope and under control, and can complete your Zero Trust picture.

To learn more and see our product in action, visit kolide.com.

Our thanks to Kolide for sponsoring MacStories this week.

MacStories Unwind: A Ted Lasso Rewatch and The Reluctant Traveler

0:00
21:45

Sponsored by: Kolide – Ensures only secure devices can access your cloud apps. It’s Zero Trust tailor-made for Okta. Book a demo today.

This week on MacStories Unwind, rewatches Ted Lasso in preparation for season 3 and John binges his way through Eugene Levy’s new travel series, The Reluctant Traveler.

Federico’s Pick:

John’s Pick:

Apple Frames 3.1.1 with Support for Passthrough Mode→

The 'Shortcut Result' variable, used as an image variable in a shortcut that calls Apple Frames.

The ‘Shortcut Result’ variable, used as an image variable in a shortcut that calls Apple Frames.

I just released a small update to Apple Frames 3.1, which came out earlier this week, with a new output command: &passthrough. With this output command for the Apple Frames API, you’ll be able to generate a framed image (from whatever source you like) and simply pass its result to the next action in a shortcut as a native image variable.

I wrote about this as part of my Extension column in MacStories Weekly today, where I also covered the ability to run Apple Frames from the command line on macOS. Here’s the excerpt about version 3.1.1 of Apple Frames and the new passthrough mode:

As I was researching this column for Weekly, I realized there was an obvious candidate for an output command I did not include in Apple Frames 3.1: a passthrough command to, well, pass framed images along as input for the next action of a shortcut.

Here’s what I mean: when you run Apple Frames from a helper shortcut using the ‘Run Shortcut’ action, that action produces an output variable called ‘Shortcut Result’. If you’re running Apple Frames as a function, thus turning it into a feature of another workflow, it can be useful to take the framed images it produces and use them as a native variable in other actions of the shortcut. The problem is that the output commands I launched with Apple Frames 3.1 all involved “storing” the framed images somewhere, whether it was Files or the system clipboard.

This is no longer the case with the &passthrough output command I added to Apple Frames 3.1.1, which you can redownload from the MacStories Shortcuts Archive or directly from this link. If you run the Apple Frames API with this command, framed images will be passed along as native output of the shortcut, which you can reuse as a variable elsewhere in a shortcut that’s invoking Apple Frames.

And:

Any shortcut or longer workflow that involves running Apple Frames in the background and retrieving the screenshots it frames can take advantage of this method, allowing you to bypass the need to store images in the clipboard, even if temporarily. Essentially, passthrough mode turns Apple Frames into a native action of the Shortcuts app that returns a standard image variable as its output.

This is the only change in version 3.1.1 of Apple Frames, and I’m excited to see how people will take advantage of it to chain Apple Frames with other shortcuts on their devices. You can download the updated version of Apple Frames below.

Apple Frames

Add device frames to screenshots for iPhones (11, 8/SE, and 12-13-14 generations in mini/standard/Plus/Pro Max sizes), iPad Pro (11” and 12.9”, 2018-2022 models), iPad Air (10.9”, 2020-2022 models), iPad mini (2021 model), Apple Watch S4/5/6/7/8/Ultra, iMac (24” model, 2021), MacBook Air (2020-2022 models), and MacBook Pro (2021 models). The shortcut supports portrait and landscape orientations, but does not support Display Zoom; on iPadOS and macOS, the shortcut supports Default and More Space resolutions. If multiple screenshots are passed as input, they will be combined in a single image. The shortcut can be run in the Shortcuts app, as a Home Screen widget, as a Finder Quick Action, or via the share sheet. The shortcut also supports an API for automating input images and framed results.

Get the shortcut here.

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