Search results for "Make King"

Josh King Built the iPhone Game Controller No One Wants to Make→

I love this story that I first saw mentioned on Brendon’s blog a few weeks ago about a Redditor who designed the iPhone game controller of my (our?) dreams.

Picture this: it’s a PSP Go/Xperia Play-styled, slide-out controller that attaches via MagSafe to any iPhone, has Bluetooth, a USB-C port for charging, and therefore works with any modern iOS game or emulator regardless of whether the iPhone is mounted on it or not. The controller has a built-in kickstand that supports landscape and portrait gaming (the latter is essential for DS emulation in Delta) and is much more portable than other snap-on solutions available for iOS devices.

The best part: the creator of this controller, called the M-Con, has announced plans to make this a real product that you can buy in the future. You can watch the announcement video below:

As Jonathan’s story in last Saturday’s issue of MacStories Weekly showed, the dream for many of us right now is a compact, MagSafe-enabled game controller for iPhone that doesn’t use USB-C and allows the iPhone to be rotated. No official product that is not a 3D-printed adapter or DIY hack that does all that exists right now.

I wish Josh all the best in this adventure, and I hope to be able to purchase an M-Con game controller in the near future.

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Timery Comes to the Mac and Makes Time Tracking With Toggl Easier Than Ever

I don’t track my time because I enjoy starting and stopping timers; I do it because, over the long haul, it provides valuable insight into how I’m spending my time. As useful as it is to have data on how much a project or task takes or how much time a task consumes relative to other things I do, the act of tracking itself can be tedious, which is why it can be so easy to fall out of the habit of doing it.

The reason I’ve used Timery, the time tracking app for Toggl, on my iPhone and iPad since it was released, is because of developer Joe Hribar’s attention to making it as easy as possible to track your time without a lot of fuss. Features like saved timers, widgets, keyboard shortcuts, and Shortcuts actions for automating timers have made the app a delight to use since version 1.0.

In fact, the Timery experience has been so good that I used it even though it had no Mac app, which is something I rarely do with apps I use every day. However, with the release of version 1.2 of Timery today, I no longer need to use a different time tracking app on my Mac because Timery has been released as a Mac Catalyst app, complete with all the features Timery users already know and love from iPhone and iPad versions. Today’s update to Timery isn’t just a treat for Mac users, though. Version 1.2 also packs in a long list of new keyboard shortcuts and settings for all users, making this one of the biggest updates since the app was launched.

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FoodNoms’ Widgets Thoughtfully Combine Goal Summaries with Actions to Make Food Tracking Easier Than Ever

I first reviewed FoodNoms late last year when it launched and was impressed. The app is a privacy-focused food tracker to help you keep up with your nutritional goals. FoodNoms sets itself apart from its competitors by proving that logging and tracking can come in a user-focused, elegantly designed package. The result is an app that makes forming good eating habits a simpler, better experience than most food tracking apps I’ve tried.

In the months since its launch, FoodNoms has received a long list of useful updates. For instance, there are more ways to save and access the foods you track than ever. Items can be marked as favorites and saved along with other foods as reusable recipes or meals. Also, the app’s search functionality lets you search foods, meals, recipes, and favorites.

One of the shortcomings of FoodNoms that I pointed out in my initial review was that it only included short-term graphs, which made it hard to track trends. That’s been remedied with the inclusion of weekly and monthly charts. The database of foods has also been improved, and a community-driven food database was introduced to allow users to contribute foods. FoodNoms’ Shortcuts actions have been expanded, and alternative icons added too.

FoodNoms' four widget types in action.

FoodNoms’ four widget types in action.

Most recently, FoodNoms added widget support, so users can get an overview of progress towards their goals throughout the day and quickly access the app’s functionality. FoodNoms includes four types of widgets: Goal, Goals Summary, Log Food, and Quick Actions.

The Goal widget, which comes in the small size only, is a simple widget that can track a single goal you’ve set for yourself. Perhaps my favorite option that it and the Goals Summary widget share is the ability to pick what happens when the widget is tapped. For the Goal widget, the options are opening the app, going to the Today view, searching, scanning bar codes and food labels, logging a drink, and viewing goal details. The Goals Summary widget includes the same options, with the exception of viewing goal details. Goals Summary also allows two separate nutrient goals to be tracked instead of just one.

Log Food, as you’d expect, lets you pick foods to log. The widget can be set up to offer smart suggestions based on recently-logged foods or show foods of your choice instead. The medium version can fit two foods, while the large version supports four. Tapping on one of the foods takes you directly to it in FoodNom’s database, where you can adjust amounts and other settings before logging it. Of course, if you want more food items on your Home Screen, you can use multiple instances of the Log Food widget and stack them.

The final widget is a medium-sized one that includes six Quick Actions that remind me a little of Anybuffer or Drafts’ quick action widgets. FoodNoms includes actions to start a search, view your library or favorites, access the app’s Quick Entry feature, scan a barcode or nutrition label, and log a drink. The widget is a great way to jump to exactly where you want within FoodNoms with minimal effort.

Between multiple options for tracking your goals and the thoughtful use of actions tied to widgets, FoodNoms offers users a ton of flexibility on their Home Screens. FoodNoms is also a fantastic example of a subscription model that supports ongoing development. The subscription allows developer Ryan Ashcraft to update and refine the app throughout the year with new functionality. In return, users get an excellent food tracker they’ll use multiple times every day that is ad-free and won’t sell their data, which is well worth the app’s $4.99/month or $29.99/year subscription.

Timing 2 Makes Time Tracking on Your Mac a Pleasure

Timing 2 for Mac is out today. I’ve been a long-time user of Timing, and have had the pleasure of beta testing the new version for a while now. It’s an excellent update to a great tool.

Timing is an app that runs on your Mac and tracks everything you do. Sounds creepy at first, but the data is completely safe, and the tracking is only for your own productivity purposes (never uploaded anywhere). By helping you see how you’re spending your time, you can start to change behaviors. Plus – because it can intelligently associate activities with actual projects – it serves as a detailed work timer for your paid projects.

Timing 2 comes in three versions: Productivity ($29), Professional ($49), and Expert ($79). No recurring payments needed, you own the app and you own your data. Some of the features I’ll be talking about are from the Expert version, so be sure to check the feature list before you purchase one of the other versions.

Timing tracks more than just what app you’re using. It will record what websites you visit, what documents you open, what folders you work in, and every way you spend time on your Mac. You can even add in notes about what you did while you were away from your Mac.

Timing 2 does a brilliant job of grouping tasks together and automatically assigning “keywords” to add new tasks to groups. You can also assign tracked tasks to projects, and do fine-grained editing on the criteria Timing uses to determine the purpose of the time it tracked.

Keywords and manual assignment of activities can be grouped into categories such as “Research” or “Podcasting.” As a result, you can easily see what activities you spent the most time on – and possibly realize that you’re not focusing on what you thought you were.

Timing also provides automatic suggestions for blocks of time that might belong together. It makes it easy to group activities and reap the benefits of manual time tracking with the ease of automation.

Timing 2 reports

Timing 2 reports

Then you get the reports. Timing 2 has truly upped its game in the data visualization section. Beautiful and useful graphs showing your most active times, most productive times, the type of work you spent your time on, and a pie chart of your most-used apps. Keep in mind that all of this is gathered automatically – you don’t have to configure anything to start getting detailed overviews.

When you edit a task, you can even assign a productivity rating to it. For me, an app like VLC gets a 25% productivity rating. A quarter of the time it’s active I’m watching something educational, but 75% of the time is probably less than productive. Now when I get reports, time tracked in VLC can automatically contribute to my overall productivity rating without unduly distorting it, and without me having to go in and manually mark each video as “productive” or “not.”

Timing 2 is the result of a solid year of development by Daniel Alm, who left his job at Google to work full time on it. In the process he’s turned a useful tool into an indispensable one for freelancers and productivity nerds. If that sounds interesting, go check it out!

Shocking Study Reveals: iPad Doesn’t Make You Attractive

Dear iPad owners, according to a recent study by Retrevo Gadgetology gadgets don’t make you attractive to the opposite sex. Most specifically, the iPad doesn’t make you any sexier. “How is that even possible?”, you may ask. Well it turns out, men and women surveyed by Retrevo Gadgetology think reading books, carrying a cool phone or laptop will make you more interesting and worth consideration. We can hear you: iBooks and the Kindle app are the future and there’s no way you’re going back to paper. Still, iPad owners and geeks alike: the tablet won’t get you another date. Perhaps a new MacBook Air will. It’s so thin, after all.

But hey, we’re pretty sure it’s still better to just use the iPad than carry it around like this. Because that would make you less masculine. [via TUAW]

Could Apple Make Multitasking On The iPad Better?

I’ve been thinking about this for some months now: what could be the right way to “multitask” on the iPad? Some say we humans can’t really multitask. For the sake of the argument, let’s just say that we want to argue on whether Apple’s way to switch between paused apps on the iPad could be better or not. I think that, with a few tweaks, iOS 4.2 could bring a deeply different experience from the iPhone on the iPad. Read more

Interview: Craig Federighi Opens Up About iPadOS, Its Multitasking Journey, and the iPad’s Essence

iPadOS 26. Source: Apple.

iPadOS 26. Source: Apple.

It’s a cool, sunny morning at Apple Park as I’m walking my way along the iconic glass ring to meet with Apple’s SVP of Software Engineering, Craig Federighi, for a conversation about the iPad.

It’s the Wednesday after WWDC, and although there are still some developers and members of the press around Apple’s campus, it seems like employees have returned to their regular routines. Peek through the glass, and you’ll see engineers working at their stations, half-erased whiteboards, and an infinite supply of Studio Displays on wooden desks with rounded corners. Some guests are still taking pictures by the WWDC sign. There are fewer security dogs, but they’re obviously all good.

Despite the list of elaborate questions on my mind about iPadOS 26 and its new multitasking, the long history of iPad criticisms (including mine) over the years, and what makes an iPad different from a Mac, I can’t stop thinking about the simplest, most obvious question I could ask – one that harkens back to an old commercial about the company’s modular tablet:

In 2025, what even is an iPad according to Federighi?

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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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Copilot Money: The Apple Editor’s Choice Award App for Tracking Your Money — Start Your Free Trial Today [Sponsor]

If you haven’t heard of Copilot Money yet, you’re overdue to check out Apple’s Editors Choice award-winning money tracker app. Copilot makes it simple to monitor your finances while providing personalized insights.

Their native iPhone, iPad and Mac apps are award winning for a reason: you can track your spending, budgets, investments, and net worth all in one place, allowing you to drill into the details without losing sight of the big picture.

Beyond beautiful design and functionality, Copilot’s mission is to build a future where everyone has a clear picture of their finances, without all the anxiety. Where anyone can reclaim their data from the banks to build their own plan for achieving their goals — with confidence and trust in their tools for doing so.

Launching later this month, Copilot Money is adding their #1 most user requested feature to the line-up. Savings Goals will empower you to track the money you’re saving for whatever you choose. Goals will feature smart tips informed by your data, like smart suggestions based on your cash flow, and goal ideas for you based on your categories and spending.

For a limited time, MacStories readers can get a special two-month free trial by using the code MACSTORIES when signing up. Visit their website to learn more and download Copilot from the App Store to get started today.

Our thanks to Copilot for sponsoring MacStories this week.