This week, in addition to the usual links, app debuts, and recap of MacStories' articles and podcasts:
MacStories Weekly: Issue 331
MacStories Unwind: Backbone One Controller and Paolo Nutini’s Last Night in the Bittersweet
This week on MacStories Unwind, John returns from vacation to pick the Backbone One iPhone game controller, and Federico recommends Paolo Nutini’s latest album, Last Night in the Bittersweet.
Links and Show Notes
John’s Pick:
- Backbone One controller
- Games mentioned:
Federico’s Pick:
- Last Night in the Bittersweet by Paolo Nutini
- Also mentioned:
- Caustic Love by Paolo Nutini
Safari Extension Noir Adds Theming and Deeper Keyboard Shortcut Support
Last year, we awarded Noir Best New App of 2021 as part of the MacStories Selects Awards. Jeffrey Kuiken’s Safari extension for the iPhone, iPad, and Mac, which can apply a custom dark mode to websites that don’t offer their own, is a fantastic example of an app that implements a new technology – the native Safari extensions introduced with iOS and iPadOS 15 and earlier on the Mac – in a way that is simple to use but also provides advanced customization for users who want that. Noir immediately became a MacStories favorite on launch, and it remains an app that I rely on every day.
The latest update to Noir takes the app’s original concept a step further with new theming options, theme sharing, and extensive keyboard shortcut support. It’s an excellent update that anyone who likes to tweak the colors used in their apps will appreciate. Let’s take a closer look.
AppStories, Episode 289 – Our ‘Recently Added’ Apps→
This week on AppStories, we dig into the Recently Added folders on our iPhones and the stories they tell about what we’ve been up to lately.
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On AppStories+, I explain what’s coming this fall in Apple Maps and CarPlay, and Federico reports on new Shortcuts actions added to the latest iOS 16 beta.
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Last Week, on Club MacStories: Pairing Stage Manager with Universal Control and a Tour of Southern Cooking
Because Club MacStories now encompasses more than just newsletters, we’ve created a guide to the past week’s happenings along with a look at what’s coming up next:
The Monthly Log, July 2022
- My story on the benefits of running Stage Manager on the Mac and iPad side-by-side and moving between them with Universal Control.
- An all-new episode of MacStories Unplugged where you’ll learn what happens when a transplanted Midwesterner tries to explain southern cooking to an Italian.
Kolide: Nail Third-Party Audits and Compliance Goals with Endpoint Security for Your Entire Fleet [Sponsor]
Do you know the old thought experiment about the AI designed to make paper clips that quickly decides that it will have to eliminate all the humans to maximize paper clips?
Many security teams have a similar idea when meeting compliance goals: it would be much simpler if it weren’t for all the pesky users.
That way of thinking has brought us to the current state of endpoint security, dominated by MDMs that hamper device performance and turn every laptop into Big Brother. This approach to security is bad for culture and morale; moreover, it doesn’t actually work. If it did, no company with an MDM and annual security training would have a data breach.
Kolide is endpoint security and fleet management that takes a different approach. They help their customers meet their compliance goals–whether for auditors, customers, or leadership–by enlisting the support of end users.
Kolide works by notifying your employees of security issues via Slack, educating them on why they’re important, and giving them step-by-step instructions to resolve them themselves.
For IT admins, Kolide helps you prove compliance via a single dashboard. From there, you can monitor the security of your entire fleet, whether they’re running on Mac, Windows, or Linux. (You read that right; Kolide can finally provide visibility into your Linux users.)
If you’ve read this far, it’s because you’re intrigued by an approach to endpoint security that gets end users involved. Click here to learn more about how it works. If you like what you see, you can sign up for a free trial; no credit card required.
Our thanks to Kolide for sponsoring MacStories this week.
Our ‘Recently Added’ Apps
Apple Should Do More to Address the Needs of New Shortcuts Users→
Matthew Cassinelli writing for iMore that Apple should be doing more to make it easier for new users to get started with Shortcuts:
In many ways, Shortcuts is “learning to code“ for the masses, and Shortcuts as a programming language should have the educational support, technical resources, and community development that Apple’s user base deserves. At least to match the quality and values the company imbues into all of its other products.
I agree. Although Apple has used Siri and will introduce App Intents this fall as simple entry points into the Shortcuts app, there’s a lot more that could be done. As Cassinelli argues, that includes better action descriptions, debugging tools, and more active curation of the Shortcuts Gallery. Shortcuts has made a lot of progress over the past few years, especially when it comes to meeting experienced users’ needs. Now would be a good time to focus on bringing new users into the fold.
Monthly Log: July 2022
In this month's edition of the Monthly Log:







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