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From the Creators of Shortcuts, Sky Extends AI Integration and Automation to Your Entire Mac

Sky for Mac.

Sky for Mac.

Over the course of my career, I’ve had three distinct moments in which I saw a brand-new app and immediately felt it was going to change how I used my computer – and they were all about empowering people to do more with their devices.

I had that feeling the first time I tried Editorial, the scriptable Markdown text editor by Ole Zorn. I knew right away when two young developers told me about their automation app, Workflow, in 2014. And I couldn’t believe it when Apple showed that not only had they acquired Workflow, but they were going to integrate the renamed Shortcuts app system-wide on iOS and iPadOS.

Notably, the same two people – Ari Weinstein and Conrad Kramer – were involved with two of those three moments, first with Workflow, then with Shortcuts. And a couple of weeks ago, I found out that they were going to define my fourth moment, along with their co-founder Kim Beverett at Software Applications Incorporated, with the new app they’ve been working on in secret since 2023 and officially announced today.

For the past two weeks, I’ve been able to use Sky, the new app from the people behind Shortcuts who left Apple two years ago. As soon as I saw a demo, I felt the same way I did about Editorial, Workflow, and Shortcuts: I knew Sky was going to fundamentally change how I think about my macOS workflow and the role of automation in my everyday tasks.

Only this time, because of AI and LLMs, Sky is more intuitive than all those apps and requires a different approach, as I will explain in this exclusive preview story ahead of a full review of the app later this year.

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EU Sets DMA Compliance Deadline in App Store Anti-Steering Dispute

Last month, the European Commission (EC) fined Apple €500 million for violating the Digital Markets Act. Today, the EC issued its full 67-page ruling on the matter, giving Apple until July 23 to pay the fine or face accruing interest on the penalty.

The ruling focuses on Apple’s anti-steering rules, which were the focus of the contempt order recently entered by a U.S. District Court Judge in California. According to the EC:

Apple has not substantiated any security concerns. Apple simply states that some limitations, such as linking out only to a website that the app developer owns or has responsibility for, are allegedly grounded in security reasons. However, Apple does not explain why the app developer’s website is more secure than a third party website which the app developer has taken the conscious decision to link out to. It also does not explain why this limitation is objectively necessary and proportionate to protect the end user’s security and therefore has not provided any adequate justifications in this regard.

(EC ruling at p. 22). In other words, “the App Store isn’t more secure than the web just because you say it is.”

Apple has until June 22 to bring the App Store into compliance with the EC’s ruling or face additional periodic penalties (EC ruling at p. 67). As we reported in April, Apple has said that it intends to appeal the EC’s ruling.

Podcast Rewind: Wishes for macOS and visionOS, Ticci Has a Surprise, and Robb’s Got Stickers

Enjoy the latest episodes from MacStories’ family of podcasts:

AppStories

This week, Federico and John share their WWDC wishes for macOS and visionOS.

On AppStories+, John explores how Apple hardware and software got so out of sync when it comes to AI use cases.

NPC: Next Portable Console

This week, Federico drops a big gaming surprise on John after the two of them cover the latest Switch 2, MSI, and Anbernic handheld news.

This week on NPC XL, a cautionary tale from Federico’s experience installing SteamOS on the Lenovo Legion Go. Plus, Federico wants to know which handhelds will John take with him to WWCC in June.

Ruminate

HMRC have a problem with poppadoms, Robb started a sticker shop, they talk about PS2 emulation, and finally Apple might like gaming again?

This episode is sponsored by:

  • Inoreader – Boost Productivity and Gain Insights with AI-Powered Intelligence Tools

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Apple Acquires Indie Videogame Studio RAC7 and Is Rumored to Be Working on a Dedicated Games App

Source: RAC7.

Source: RAC7.

Giovanni Colantonio of Digital Trends broke the story today that Apple has acquired RAC7, the two-person game studio responsible for the hit Apple Arcade game Sneaky Sasquatch.

On the one hand, this news isn’t that surprising. Sneaky Sasquatch was a launch title for Apple Arcade when it debuted in 2019, and it has been highlighted in several keynotes in the years since. As Colantonio notes in his story, Apple Arcade Senior Director Alex Rofman specifically called out Sneaky Sasquatch as an Apple Arcade success in a 2024 interview with Digital Trends.

On the other hand, however, this is Apple’s first known game studio acquisition and a very small indie studio acquisition at that. Out of context, that seemed like an odd acquisition. However, not long after Digital Trends broke the acquisition news, Mark Gurman reported for Bloomberg that Apple will unveil a dedicated Games app, which lines up with a previous report by 9to5Mac. Not much is known about the rumored app at this point, but it certainly puts the RAC7 acquisition in a different light. I wouldn’t be surprised if we hear news of other indie studios joining Apple in the coming months.

Shareshot 1.3: Greater Image Flexibility, New Backgrounds, and Extended Shortcuts Support

If you have a screenshot you need to frame, Shareshot is one of your best bets. That’s because it makes it so hard to create an image that looks bad. The app, which is available for the iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Vision Pro, has a lot of options for tweaking the appearance of your framed screenshot, so your final image won’t have a cookie-cutter look. However, there are also just enough constraints to prevent you from creating something truly awful.

You can check out my original review and coverage on Club MacStories for the details on version 1.0 and subsequent releases, but today’s focus is on version 1.3, which covers three areas:

  • Increased image size flexibility
  • New backgrounds
  • Updated and extended Shortcuts actions
Adjusting sizes.

Adjusting sizes.

With version 1.3, Shareshot now lets you pick any output size you’d like. The app then frames your screenshot and fits it in the image size you specify. If you’re doing design work, getting the exact-size image you want out of the app is a big win because it means you won’t need to make adjustments later that could impair its fidelity.

A related change is the ability to specify a fixed width for the image that Shareshot outputs. That means you can pick the aspect ratio you want, such as square or 16:9, then specify a fixed width, and Shareshot will take care of automatically adjusting the height of the image to preserve the aspect ratio you chose. This feature is perfect if you publish to the web and the tools you use are optimized for a certain image width. Using anything wider just means you’re hosting a file that’s bigger than necessary, potentially slowing down your website and resulting in unnecessary bandwidth costs.

Shareshot is stripey now.

Shareshot is stripey now.

Shareshot has two new categories of backgrounds too: Solidarity and Stripes. Solidarity has two options styled after the Ukrainian and Palestinian flags, and Stripes includes designs based on LGBTQ+ colors and other color combinations in a variety of styles. All of the new categories allow you to adjust several parameters including the angle, color, saturation, brightness, and blur of the stripes.

Examples of angles.

Examples of angles.

Finally, Shareshot has revamped its Shortcuts actions to take advantage of App Intents, giving users control over more parameters of images generated using Shortcuts and preparing the app for Apple’s promised Smart Siri in the future. The changes add:

  • Support for outputting custom-sized images,
  • A scale option for fixed-width and custom-sized images, and
  • New parameters for angling and blurring backgrounds.

The progress Shareshot has made since version 1.0 is impressive. The app has grown substantially to offer a much wider set of backgrounds, options, and flexibility without compromising its excellent design, which garnered it a MacStories Selects Award last year. I’m still eager to see multiple screenshot support added, a feature I know is on the roadmap, but that’s more a wish than a complaint; Shareshot is a fantastic app that just keeps getting better.

Shareshot 1.3 is free to download on the App Store. Some of its features require a $1.99/month or $14.99/year subscription.

Textastic: The Powerful Code Editor for iPad and iPhone — Now Free to Try [Sponsor]

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Textastic supports syntax highlighting for over 80 programming and markup languages—including web standards like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript; mobile and systems languages like Swift, Objective-C, and C++; and popular scripting languages and formats like Python, PHP, JSON, and Markdown. You can even add custom languages using Sublime Text or TextMate definitions.

With built-in support for SFTP, FTP, WebDAV, iCloud Drive, and Dropbox, Textastic goes far beyond the standard text editor. It even includes an SSH terminal. Work smoothly with multiple files and SSH sessions—use tabs or open files side-by-side in separate windows on iPad.

Flexible settings, powerful find-and-replace, and customizable keyboard shortcuts are just a few highlights. Textastic also supports the Files app, drag and drop, trackpad and mouse input, Split View, multiwindowing, printing, and more.

Whether you’re tweaking a website, reviewing code on the go, or writing Markdown notes, Textastic adapts to your workflow.

Ready to code? Download Textastic and start your free 7-day trial.

Our thanks to Textastic for sponsoring MacStories this week.

Podcast Rewind: A Dock-Free Experiment, WWDC Reunion Plans, and an International Treasure Hunt

Enjoy the latest episodes from MacStories’ family of podcasts:

Comfort Zone

Chris brings some new apps, Matt defends himself for another hardware purchase, and Niléane’s no-dock challenge has brutal results. Then, Matt and Niléane really let Chris down with his end-of-show question. Like really, really let down.

This episode is sponsored by:

  • Inoreader – Boost Productivity and Gain Insights with AI-Powered Intelligence Tools

MacStories Unwind

This week, Federico and John share the news that they’ll be at WWDC together for the first time since 2023. Then, Federico recommends Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, an RPG that has taken a lot of gamers by surprise, and John is into Duster, a new JJ Abrams TV show set in the ‘70s. All that, plus a Raiders of the Lost Ark deal.

This episode is sponsored by:

  • Inoreader – Boost Productivity and Gain Insights with AI-Powered Intelligence Tools

Magic Rays of Light

Sigmund and Devon highlight Apple Original film Fountain of Youth from Guy Ritchie, break down the new features of CarPlay Ultra, and revisit feature documentary Deaf President Now! upon its streaming release.

This episode is sponsored by:

  • Inoreader – Boost Productivity and Gain Insights with AI-Powered Intelligence Tools

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Mozilla Is Shutting Down Pocket

Today, Mozilla announced in a support document that it will soon end development of Pocket, its read-later app that’s been around since the early days of the App Store:

We’ve made the difficult decision to shut down Pocket on July 8, 2025. Thank you for being part of our journey over the years—we’re proud of the impact Pocket has had for our users and communities.

I never like to see an app that people rely on go, but I’m not surprised that Mozilla has pulled its support for Pocket either. The app evolved rapidly in the early days when it was called Read It Later and competing fiercely with Instapaper. But that rivalry burned itself out years ago, and after Mozilla purchased Pocket, it seemed adrift.

My Pocket queue is a read-later time capsule.

My Pocket queue is a read-later time capsule.

Recently, Mozilla laid off 30% of its workforce and Pocket faced new competition from the likes of Matter and Readwise Reader, which entered the fray with new ideas about what a read-later app could be. As I wrote in my first review of Matter:

Apps like Instapaper and Read It Later, which became Pocket, pioneered saving web articles for later. The original iPhone ran on AT&T’s EDGE mobile network in the U.S. and coverage was spotty. Read-later apps saved stripped-down versions of articles from the web that could be downloaded quickly and read offline when EDGE was unavailable. The need to save content offline because of slow and unreliable mobile networks is far less pressing today, but collecting links and time-shifting reading remains popular.

Today, read-later apps like Readwise are more focused on research, integrating with note-taking systems, and leveraging AI. There’s still a place for simpler solutions such as GoodLinks, which is one of my personal favorites, but given the existential threat Mozilla currently faces, ending Pocket was probably the right choice.

Early Impressions of Claude Opus 4 and Using Tools with Extended Thinking

Claude Opus 4 and extended thinking with tools.

Claude Opus 4 and extended thinking with tools.

For the past two days, I’ve been testing an early access version of Claude Opus 4, the latest model by Anthropic that was just announced today. You can read more about the model in the official blog post and find additional documentation here. What follows is a series of initial thoughts and notes based on the 48 hours I spent with Claude Opus 4, which I tested in both the Claude app and Claude Code.

For starters, Anthropic describes Opus 4 as its most capable hybrid model with improvements in coding, writing, and reasoning. I don’t use AI for creative writing, but I have dabbled with “vibe coding” for a collection of personal Obsidian plugins (created and managed with Claude Code, following these tips by Harper Reed), and I’m especially interested in Claude’s integrations with Google Workspace and MCP servers. (My favorite solution for MCP at the moment is Zapier, which I’ve been using for a long time for web automations.) So I decided to focus my tests on reasoning with integrations and some light experiments with the upgraded Claude Code in the macOS Terminal.

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