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Podcast Rewind: Reconsidering the iPad and Reviewing Retro Videogame Stores

Enjoy the latest episodes from MacStories’ family of podcasts:

AppStories

This week, Federico and John reflect on where the iPad fits within their workflows after the announcement of iPadOS 26.

Then, on AppStories+, they explore the potential for an Apple automation renaissance built on the features announced at WWDC.

NPC: Next Portable Console

This week, we have RG Slide pricing and penguins, along with new AYANEO news and a cool aluminum TrimUI Brick.

On NPC XL, Brendon’s on a mission to find the best retro videogame store in Japan and takes the rest of us with him.

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The Curious Case of Apple and Perplexity→

Good post by Parker Ortolani, analyzing the pros and cons of a potential Perplexity acquisition by Apple:

According to Mark Gurman, Apple executives are in the early stages of mulling an acquisition of Perplexity. My initial reaction was “that wouldn’t work.” But I’ve taken some time to think through what it could look like if it were to come to fruition.

He gets to the core of the issue with this acquisition:

At the end of the day, Apple needs a technology company, not another product company. Perplexity is really good at, for lack of a better word, forking models. But their true speciality is in making great products, they’re amazing at packaging this technology. The reality is though, that Apple already knows how to do that. Of course, only if they can get out of their own way. That very issue is why I’m unsure the two companies would fit together. A company like Anthropic, a foundational AI lab that develops models from scratch is what Apple could stand to benefit from. That’s something that doesn’t just put them on more equal footing with Google, it’s something that also puts them on equal footing with OpenAI which is arguably the real threat.

While I’m not the biggest fan of Perplexity’s web scraping policies and its CEO’s remarks, it’s undeniable that the company has built a series of good consumer products, they’re fast at integrating the latest models from major AI vendors, and they’ve even dipped their toes in the custom model waters (with Sonar, an in-house model based on Llama). At first sight, I would agree with Ortolani and say that Apple would need Perplexity’s search engine and LLM integration talent more than the Perplexity app itself. So far, Apple has only integrated ChatGPT into its operating systems; Perplexity supports all the major LLMs currently in existence. If Apple wants to make the best computers for AI rather than being a bleeding-edge AI provider itself…well, that’s pretty much aligned with Perplexity’s software-focused goals.

However, I wonder if Perplexity’s work on its iOS voice assistant may have also played a role in these rumors. As I wrote a few months ago, Perplexity shipped a solid demo of what a deep LLM integration with core iOS services and frameworks could look like. What could Perplexity’s tech do when integrated with Siri, Spotlight, Safari, Music, or even third-party app entities in Shortcuts?

Or, look at it this way: if you’re Apple, would you spend $14 billion to buy an app and rebrand it as “Siri That Works” next year?

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I Have Many Questions About Apple’s Updated Foundation Models and the (Great) ‘Use Model’ Action in Shortcuts

Apple's 'Use Model' action in Shortcuts.

Apple’s ‘Use Model’ action in Shortcuts.

I mentioned this on AppStories during the week of WWDC: I think Apple’s new ‘Use Model’ action in Shortcuts for iOS/iPadOS/macOS 26, which lets you prompt either the local or cloud-based Apple Foundation models, is Apple Intelligence’s best and most exciting new feature for power users this year. This blog post is a way for me to better explain why as well as publicly investigate some aspects of the updated Foundation models that I don’t fully understand yet.

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Initial Notes on iPadOS 26’s Local Capture Mode→

Now this is what I call follow-up: six years after I linked to Jason Snell’s first experiments with podcasting on the iPad Pro (which later became part of a chapter of my Beyond the Tablet story from 2019), I get to link to Snell’s first impressions of iPadOS 26’s brand new local capture mode, which lets iPad users record their own audio and video during a call.

First, some context:

To ensure that the very best audio and video is used in the final product, we tend to use a technique called a “multi-ender.” In addition to the lower-quality call that’s going on, we all record ourselves on our local device at full quality, and upload those files when we’re done. The result is a final product that isn’t plagued by the dropouts and other quirks of the call itself. I’ve had podcasts where one of my panelists was connected to us via a plain old phone line—but they recorded themselves locally and the finished product sounded completely pristine.

This is how I’ve been recording podcasts since 2013. We used to be on a call on Skype and record audio with QuickTime; now we use Zoom, Audio Hijack, and OBS for video, but the concept is the same. Here’s Snell on how the new iPadOS feature, which lives in Control Center, works:

The file it saves is marked as an mp4 file, but it’s really a container featuring two separate content streams: full-quality video saved in HEVC (H.265) format, and lossless audio in the FLAC compression format. Regardless, I haven’t run into a single format conversion issue. My audio-sync automations on my Mac accept the file just fine, and Ferrite had no problem importing it, either. (The only quirk was that it captured audio at a 48KHz sample rate and I generally work at 24-bit, 44.1KHz. I have no idea if that’s because of my microphone or because of the iPad, but it doesn’t really matter since converting sample rates and dithering bit depths is easy.)

I tested this today with a FaceTime call. Everything worked as advertised, and the call’s MP4 file was successfully saved in my Downloads folder in iCloud Drive (I wish there was a way to change this). I was initially confused by the fact that recording automatically begins as soon as a call starts: if you press the Local Capture button in Control Center before getting on a call, as soon as it connects, you’ll be recording. It’s kind of an odd choice to make this feature just a…Control Center toggle, but I’ll take it! My MixPre-3 II audio interface and microphone worked right away, and I think there’s a very good chance I’ll be able to record AppStories and my other shows from my iPad Pro – with no more workarounds – this summer.

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Podcast Rewind: A Challenging Challenge, a Couple of Crime Dramas, and a Haptic Trailer

Enjoy the latest episodes from MacStories’ family of podcasts:

Comfort Zone

Chris is back in his element in the iPadOS 26 world, Matt just wants to play some games, and Niléane oversees the hardest challenge in ages.

This episode is sponsored by:

  • Ecamm Live – Broadcast Better with Ecamm Live. Coupon code MACSTORIES gives 1 month free of Ecamm Live to new customers.

MacStories Unwind

This week, John installs macOS Tahoe, he and Federico each recommend a recent crime drama, and we have a Daredevil Unwind deal.

Magic Rays of Light

Sigmund and Devon highlight the return of The Buccaneers, explore how haptics and other metadata could enhance media experiences on Apple’s platforms, and recap the first season of Your Friends & Neighbors.

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Swift Assist, Part Deux

At WWDC 2024, I attended a developer tools briefing with Jason Snell, Dan Moren, and John Gruber. Later, I wrote about Swift Assist, an AI-based code generation tool that Apple was working on for Xcode.

That first iteration of Swift Assist caught my eye as promising, but I remember asking at the time whether it could modify multiple files in a project at once and being told it couldn’t. What I saw was rudimentary by 2025’s standards with things like Cursor, but I was glad to see that Apple was working on a generative tool for Xcode users.

In the months that followed, I all but forgot that briefing and story, until a wave of posts asking, “Whatever happened to Swift Assist?” started appearing on social media and blogs. John Gruber and Nick Heer picked up on the thread and came across my story, citing it as evidence that the MIA feature was real but curiously absent from any of 2024’s Xcode betas.

This year, Jason Snell and I had a mini reunion of sorts during another developer tools briefing. This time, it was just the two of us. Among the Xcode features we saw was a much more robust version of Swift Assist that, unlike in 2024, is already part of the Xcode 26 betas. Having been the only one who wrote about the feature last year, I couldn’t let the chance to document what I saw this year slip by.

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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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Logitech’s Flip Folio: A Modular iPad Keyboard for Occasional Typing

Shortly before WWDC, Logitech sent me their brand new Flip Folio case/keyboard combo to test. It’s a cleverly designed iPad case that’s a bit heavy but has a lot of other things going for it, like a very stable kickstand and an excellent travel keyboard. The Flip Folio is also more affordable than the Apple Magic Keyboard, which I expect will make it an attractive option for many iPad users.

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Podcast Rewind: The WWDC Whirlwind and a Delivery from UPS Japan

Enjoy the latest episodes from MacStories’ family of podcasts:

AppStories

This week, Federico and John catch listeners up on their whirlwind WWDC week, which was chaotic in the best possible way.

On AppStories+, Federico and John get excited about what the WWDC announcements say about the direction of automation on Apple’s platforms.

This episode is sponsored by:

  • Notion – Try the powerful, easy-to-use Notion AI today.

NPC: Next Portable Console

This week on NPC, Brendon shares his first impressions of the Nintendo Switch 2 after UPS Japan comes knocking, and all three hosts cover a chaotic week of handheld news – from the RG Slide to a surprise ASUS/Xbox handheld.

This week on NPC XL, Federico and John share their experiences traveling with the Nintendo Switch 2, and John explains how Apple’s upcoming Games app is more than just Game Center.

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