2026 Apple Design Awards Winners Announced

With WWDC right around the corner, Apple has revealed the winners of the annual Apple Design Awards. The Awards are given to an app and game from a pool of 36 finalists in the following categories:

  • Delight and Fun
  • Inclusivity
  • Innovation
  • Interaction
  • Social Impact
  • Visuals and Graphics

The pool of finalists was especially strong this year, but just one app and game is chosen for each category, and here’s what Apple picked:

Delight and Fun

Is This Seat Taken?

Is This Seat Taken?

App: grug
Developer: Ocho (Netherlands)

grug is a playful way to discover and embrace daily wisdom. The affirmation app provides a delightful way to read daily neolithic grunts. With just a simple idea, each prompt is thoughtfully delivered to offer users a small but meaningful moment of reflection.

Game: Is This Seat Taken?
Developer: Poti Poti Studio (Spain)

Is This Seat Taken? is a fun way to experience and solve tricky logic puzzles. The cartoon-style game provides entertaining scenarios, helping players navigate the quirkiness of public transit. Playful interactive elements within the game create a sense of charm to support users in enjoying an unhurried ride, one seat at a time.

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Designed in California: An Apple History Podcast from Myke Hurley and Jason Snell→

Apple has one of the richest and most interesting histories in Silicon Valley. It’s the story of a startup, a company that nearly failed, and a remarkable comeback all rolled into one that’s punctuated by some of the most beloved products in tech history, along with some duds.

Today, Myke Hurley and Jason Snell launched a Kickstarter campaign aimed at funding a podcast called Designed in California that will tell the history of Apple, drawing on their own knowledge of the company and research. Myke and Jason have promised backers at least 30 episodes in the show’s first year on topics ranging from Apple’s founding, its near-death experience in the 90s, as well as more recent events during the Tim Cook era.

As I publish this, Designed in California has already met its $40,000 campaign goal, so it looks like the show is a go. Myke and Jason have promised a taste of what’s to come during June segments of Upgrade, which will be followed by the new show’s full episodes when the Kickstarter campaign ends. If you want to support the Designed in California campaign, there are a wide variety of backer options from $20 to $1,000 with perks that include ad-free episodes, wallpapers, an enamel pin, a signed print of the show’s artwork, and more depending on how much you pledge.

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Podcast Rewind: macOS 27 Wishes, Pictonico!, Lessons in Pranking, and Packing for WWDC

Enjoy the latest episodes from MacStories’ family of podcasts:

AppStories

This week, Federico explains how he’s using the recently-released Notion developer platform before he and John share their wishes for macOS 27.

On AppStories+, John asks Federico about the technical underpinnings and evolution of the Shortcuts Playground project that he published last week.

NPC: Next Portable Console

This week, RG Rotate anticipation, a newish Powkiddy handheld, Pictonico!, and an MCON beta app, plus surprising Lenovo news.

On NPC XL, John went back and tried Claude Code with emulator settings with mixed success, and Brendon reports on his time with GameSir’s Pocket Taco.

Comfort Zone

Chris has a new computer employee, Matt has an existential crisis, and Niléane teaches everyone that pranks don’t have to be mean.

On Cozy Zone, we make our very reasonable predictions for WWDC.

MacStories Unwind

This week, Federico and John share their WWDC gear guides, John recommends a quirky indie movie, and Federico continues to tear his way through a trio of great TV comedies

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BenQ’s More Affordable 5K Display Offers Mac Users Greater Flexibility with Some Trade-Offs

Source: BenQ

Source: BenQ

Until last fall, I was the happy owner of a first-generation Studio Display. In most respects, it was great. The screen was crisp, the colors vibrant, and it included many quality-of-life features other displays lack. Features like the Studio Display’s built-in USB-C hub, iSight camera, and array of six speakers and three microphones make it more like a Mac accessory than simply a display.

Those were all tangible upsides, but they came with their own set of tradeoffs, which Apple carried over from my original Studio Display to the updated model released earlier this year. That new model adopts Thunderbolt 5 for two of its ports – one upstream and another downstream – and improves the camera and speakers. However, both Studio Display models lack HDMI, DisplayPort, KVM capabilities for easy switching between multiple connected devices, and screen size choices.

That ultimately drove me to purchase an ASUS gaming monitor that I love. It’s OLED and bigger than the Studio Display, with a higher refresh rate, more input options, and built-in KVM. However, it lacks a webcam, microphones, and speakers, which I miss at times. It’s also 4K, whereas the Studio Display is 5K.

On balance, I’m glad I went the route I did, but it’s led me to think a lot about displays and the trade-offs among them. The good news is that there are many more choices for Mac users than ever before, even if you don’t want to sacrifice the Studio Display’s 5K resolution for more flexibility. That’s why when BenQ offered to send me their 27” 5K MA270S display to try, I jumped at the opportunity: unlike my 32” gamer-oriented ASUS display, BenQ’s display is specifically targeted at Mac users.

Let’s take a look at how it stacks up to the Studio Display and other options.

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Introducing RemCTL: The Power-User Reminders CLI for macOS and AI Agents

RemCTL in the macOS Terminal app.

RemCTL in the macOS Terminal app.

Today, I’m pleased to release my latest free and open source project: RemCTL, a power-user Reminders CLI that, unlike others, exposes all the latest Reminders features as of iOS and macOS 26. RemCTL supports reading and writing subtasks, tags, sections, rich links, image attachments, grocery lists, and even templates.

It’s available on GitHub here, and it comes bundled with a skill for desktop agents.

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Mindspace: A Private All-in-One Journal App Made for iPad [Sponsor]

Mindspace is a journal for the iPhone, iPad, and Mac that pulls everything you’d normally find scattered across multiple apps into a single scrollable timeline. The app pulls your writing, photos and videos, voice notes, mood and habit trackers, locations, and tasks together to tell your story. You can even add drawings if you have an iPad and Apple Pencil.

Privacy sits at the core of Mindspace. Entries are stored locally on your device, and iCloud sync uses Apple’s encryption — end-to-end if you have Advanced Data Protection turned on. Nothing is routed through Mindspace’s servers, or anyone else’s for that matter, and a full JSON export is always a tap away in Settings.

The app makes thoughtful use of Apple platform features. A freeform Apple Pencil canvas supports the full palette of available tools, making it a natural place to sketch a diagram, draft a letter, or map out a thought. The Apple Intelligence features run entirely on-device, too. There’s a writing suggestion when you open a blank entry, automatic theme tagging, and a custom journaling prompt for every intention you set. Plus, voice notes recorded inside an entry are transcribed locally using iOS 26’s SpeechAnalyzer, and Apple Health auto-fills steps, heart rate, weight, water, distance, and calories burned into your trackers the moment you open your Today page. There are also Quick Entry, Tasks, and Tracker widgets that make adding and viewing what you track simple.

Visit Mindspace to learn more and download the app. MacStories readers get 50% off their first year automatically at checkout. There’s no code required.

Our thanks to Mindspace for sponsoring MacStories this week.

Podcast Rewind: iOS and iPadOS 27 Wishes, CrankBoy, a Comfort Zone Q&A, and WWDC Preparation

Enjoy the latest episodes from MacStories’ family of podcasts:

AppStories

This week, Federico and John share their wishes for iOS and iPadOS 27.

On AppStories+, we tackle Visual Intelligence and whether there are any use cases that aren’t creepy.

NPC: Next Portable Console

This week, Federico has hands-on first impressions of the Steam Controller, follow-up on our RG Rotate purchases, Dusklight, CrankBoy, and more.

On NPC XL, John explains how he uses Android USB debugging mode and Claude Code to set up Android handhelds.

Comfort Zone

Your podcast player might say otherwise, but this is the true episode 100! Everyone is back together to do some Q&A, celebrate a birthday and a move to a new house, and offer some help as Chris abandons Safari (finally!).

On Cozy Zone, the gang gets very opinionated on Formula 1 liveries.

MacStories Unwind

This week, Federico and John take listeners on a behind-the-scenes tour of how they plan to tackle WWDC and the summertime research and writing season as they look forward to their fall OS reviews.

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