MacStories Unwind: It’s All About the Picks

It’s hard to believe that we’re already closing in on the 100th episode of MacStories Unwind, part of an experiment that we launched in the spring of 2020, just as lockdowns were taking hold around the globe. Unwind grew organically from the music, movie, TV show, videogame, and other media recommendations Federico and I share with each other all the time. However, like many things we do, Unwind was also an experiment – two experiments, really.

First, Unwind was designed to test ways to better integrate MacStories, Club MacStories, and our podcasts by providing listeners with a recap of the week across everything we do. Second, the show served as a proof of concept for the Club MacStories+ A.V. Club, a sort of book club for all sorts of media that has become a pillar of our Club MacStories+ Discord community.

Unwind is nearly two years old now, and what we’ve learned is that our Unwind picks – the weekly segment where we recommend a wide range of media – has become the highlight of the show for many listeners. Unwind picks are our favorite part of the show too, allowing us to share our many interests outside of the tech world. So late last year, we began experimenting with a series on our favorite TV shows and movies, videogames, and music of 2021. We’ve taken the approach further this year, giving our Unwind picks room to breathe and eliminating the weekly recap from the show.

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Obscura 3 Takes the App’s Design in a New Direction

I’ve been following Ben McCarthy’s journey with Obscura since the app first launched in 2015, watching the app as it has evolved alongside changes to Apple’s camera hardware. Camera apps pose unique design challenges, especially for camera apps like Obscura, which has consistently aimed to deliver pro features that can be used one-handed on an iPhone. Those challenges have only continued to multiply since I wrote about Obscura 2 and its innovative Control Wheel.

With Obscura 3, which is a brand new app, McCarthy and the Obscura team have taken a new direction with the app’s design that’s better suited for the capabilities of Apple’s modern camera hardware. It’s a direction that remains true to the app’s historical design aesthetic and user experience while making changes that I expect will provide greater flexibility to quickly adapt to future camera innovations.

I’m going to focus on Obscura 3’s design because I haven’t tested every possible combination of features the app offers. It’s winter in the Chicago area and not the best time for photo walks. Still, I’ve spent enough time with the app to know that the new design works well, allowing users to step through its myriad of features with ease, so let’s take a closer look.

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Steve Troughton-Smith on Mac Catalyst’s Shortcomings→

Steve Troughton-Smith has spent a lot of time with Mac Catalyst, developing Mac versions of Broadcasts and Pastel, as well as an extensive library of sample code for other developers. As Troughton-Smith explains in a post on his website, Mac Catalyst has come a long way since it first appeared as part of macOS Mojave. However, there remains plenty of room for improvement to allow a wider range of apps to feel at home on the Mac.

Troughton-Smith’s detailed list of problem areas include:

  • Extensive problems with the document-based apps are supported
  • Limitations in the way Preference windows are supported
  • The lack of support for menu bar extras and apps
  • The difficulty of working with Mac-style Table and Collection Views
  • Issues with the extent and way toolbars, window controls, inspector panels, window dragging, scaling primitives, upgrade cycles, and backward compatibility are handled

As I read through Troughton-Smith’s detailed explanation of the issues, I immediately thought of many of the Mac apps I’ve tried in the past couple of years that would benefit if Apple implemented his suggestions.

Based on Troughton-Smith’s extensive list, you might expect that he’s pessimistic about Mac Catalyst’s future, which isn’t the case:

Mac Catalyst is in a great place; it has improved substantially every year since its introduction, and for most developers it is by far the best way to build great Mac-like Universal apps that run across iPhone, iPad and Mac. Its hybrid nature allows a developer to pick and choose which elements of UIKit, SwiftUI, and AppKit they need to achieve the experience they’re looking for, or combine them all for the best of both worlds. It clearly has a lot of traction inside Apple’s product teams, as it’s become the enabling technology for Messages, Maps, Podcasts, Find My, Playgrounds, Books, Voice Memos, Stocks, Home, and News. Paired with SwiftUI, it’s rapidly becoming the defacto standard for new Mac apps on the App Store, for better or for worse — all the more reason that the remaining rough edges be given priority.

I wholeheartedly agree with this assessment. Mac Catalyst has come a long way in a short time and has already become the default starting point for many developers, judging from the large number of Mac Catalyst apps developers have shared with me in the last year or so. However, as Troughton-Smith makes clear, there are still trouble spots that are preventing or slowing down Mac Catalyst’s adoption in important app categories, which is why a focus on Mac Catalyst is on my macOS wish list for WWDC again this year.

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AppStories, Episode 260 – Shortcuts Wish List, 2022 Edition→

This week on AppStories, Federico and John revisit their 2021 Shortcuts wishes to see what came true and share a long list of additional ways they’d like to see the app evolve in 2022.

[Subscribe here.](https://www.macstories.net/podcasts/appstories/plans)

Subscribe here.

On AppStories+, John makes the case for a shelf for Universal Control and Federico explains how to update the firmware of an Xbox controller to take advantage of the latest macOS controller features.

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Last Week, on Club MacStories: Parsing Shortcuts as XML and JSON, Apps That Extend Apple Apps, Safari Tips, and Developer Interviews

Because Club MacStories now encompasses more than just newsletters, we’ve created a guide to the past week’s happenings along with a look ahead to what’s next:

MacStories Weekly: Issue 307

Parsing shortcuts as JSON.

Parsing shortcuts as JSON.

about App Store In-App Events to see how they’re being used and what developers’ experience with them has been.

Up Next

On Wednesday, February 16th, at 11:00 am Eastern US time, Federico, Alex, and I will be joined by Club members to discuss the Matrix movie series during a live audio Town Hall in our Discord community for Club MacStories+ and Club Premier members as part of the community’s A.V. Club channel.

TextSniper: Capture Any Uncopyable Text [Sponsor]

If you’ve ever been frustrated by text you come across that you can’t copy, you need TextSniper, the premier Mac utility for copying the uncopyable.

Whether you’re working with photos, screenshots, apps, videos, or materials from webinars or online meetings that include uncopyable text, TextSniper has you covered. The app is the fastest and easiest way to extract that text no matter where you come across it.

TextSniper runs in the background and can be summoned with a single keystroke, so you can select the area of your display from which you want to extract text. A friendly thumbs-up lets you know that the text has been copied and placed on your Mac’s clipboard, ready for pasting elsewhere. You can use an iPhone or iPad to capture text directly to your Mac too.

The app is fast, accurate, includes customizable keyboard shortcuts, and works with multiple languages, including English, French, Spanish, Italian, German, Portuguese, and Chinese. TexSniper also works with QR codes and barcodes, simplifying the process of accessing URLs, text, and numbers embedded in them. It can even read onscreen text aloud, a big plus for people who are visually impaired, have dyslexia, or prefer listening to reading.

Of course, TextSniper is privacy-focused too. The app doesn’t collect, store, or share any user data. Text recognition happens locally on your Mac and doesn’t require an Internet connection.

If you work with text – and who doesn’t really? – you owe it to yourself to download TextSniper today. The app requires macOS Catalina or later and is fully compatible with Apple silicon Macs.

Also, for a limited time, MacStories readers can purchase TextSniper for 25% off by using the code MACSTORIES at checkout. So, take advantage of this great deal today and start copying the uncopyable with TextSniper.

Our thanks to TextSniper for sponsoring MacStories this week.