Posts tagged with "artificial intelligence"

Logitech Releases the Developer-Focused MX Keypad for AI Automation

Source: Logitech.

Source: Logitech.

Today, Logitech introduced the MX Keypad. If it looks familiar, that’s because it’s one-half of Logitech’s existing MX Creative Console. However, instead of bundling a 3 x 3 keypad with a dialpad, the MX Keypad is just the keypad for $99.

I reviewed the MX Creative Console in 2024, and I still use it and write about ways to automate tasks with it. It’s an excellent pair of devices, so it’s not surprising that Logitech has adapted the keypad to a new use case.

Keypad, cable, and kickstand. Source: Logitech.

Keypad, cable, and kickstand. Source: Logitech.

The MX Keypad’s hardware is identical to the keypad from the Creative Console. In addition to the keypad itself, it comes with a kickstand you can use to prop it up at an angle and connects via USB-C to your Mac. My MX Creative Console review has more detail about the hardware, along with images and a short video.

I like the MX Creative Console a lot, and according to Logitech, so did software developers looking for ways to automate their AI workflows. While Logitech didn’t expressly say why it dropped the dialpad for the MX Keypad, it makes sense to me having used the MX Creative Console for months. Dialpads are great for timeline-based creative work, but less so for development work. Yes, developers might want to use the dialpad to control screen brightness or volume, but by limiting the MX Keypad to just the keypad, Logitech was able to hit a lower price point, making the device more appealing to a bigger audience.

I’ve been impressed by the number of ways Logitech has opened its devices up to automators who like to tinker, too. Similar to devices like the Stream Deck, Logi Options+ lets you build Smart Actions based on keyboard shortcuts and macros. But there’s more than that. If you’d prefer to let someone else do the automation, Logitech runs a Smart Actions marketplace with plugins tailored to certain apps. For developers there’s also a Logi Actions API for building plugins with access to each Logitech device’s full capabilities.

Source: Logitech.

Source: Logitech.

From a developer standpoint, the combination of automation options means the MX Keypad opens up a variety of possibilities like:

  • launching agents,
  • monitoring agent activity via the device’s dynamically updated keys,
  • triggering saved prompts,
  • activating voice input, and
  • automating many other repetitive tasks.

Logitech is also teaming up with GitHub Copilot as part of the MX Keypad launch, similar to the partnership that was announced with Adobe as part of the MX Creative Console. There’s a Copilot plugin available that adds Copilot controls to the keypad’s keys. Logitech customers can also take advantage of GitHub’s offer for three months of GitHub Copilot Pro+ for free.

Logitech’s MX Keypad is primarily a repackaging of an existing device with a GitHub Copilot deal thrown in to make it a better value. But it’s good to see the company addressing the developer market more directly. Having used the MX Creative Console primarily for automation and development-type work myself, dropping the dialpad from the package to lower the price is a good tradeoff. I use the dial and its other buttons occasionally, but for automation, the keypad is where it’s at, and between Smart Actions and a full plugin SDK you can point your agent at, the MX Keypad is a great choice for automators.

The Logitech MX Keypad is available directly from Logitech and from Amazon.

Perplexity Introduces ‘Hybrid Compute’ for Computer Agent on Apple Silicon Macs

Source: Perplexity.

Source: Perplexity.

Perplexity has announced hybrid compute for Personal Computer on Apple silicon Macs. Personal Computer already combined cloud-based Computer tasks with access to local files and apps, but its AI processing was primarily cloud-based. Recently, Perplexity also introduced Portable Computer, a local-first version of Computer that can escalate work to the cloud with a user’s permission.

Hybrid compute approaches the problem from a different direction. Tasks start in the cloud but if a new local classifier detects potentially sensitive information, the user is alerted and asked whether they want to route it to a local model, although users also have the option to let the flagged data be used by a frontier cloud-based model. Gemma E4B, Qwen3.6 35B-A3B, and a Perplexity post-trained version of Qwen3.6 35B are available at launch for that local work, with more models to come in the future.

Tasks that don’t require sensitive information are handled in the cloud by frontier models that also orchestrate the cloud and local tasks. Users select the cloud orchestrator and Perplexity chooses the helper frontier models used.

Another key feature is that hybrid compute works with tasks begun from an iPhone or iPad, too. Those devices could already kick off a session, but now they can also run tasks that use sensitive information locally if your Mac is turned on and running Perplexity.

Yesterday, I got a demo of the feature that walked through three scenarios:

  • an attorney researching a legal brief, with sensitive client data on their Mac, allowing them to update it locally,
  • an analyst using web-based data to update a confidential slide deck for a presentation about a company’s financials, and
  • a small business owner kicking off pricing research from her iPhone that was combined with private pricing data for her business that never left her Mac.

I haven’t tried hybrid compute myself yet, but if it works as advertised, it’s a big step forward for Perplexity, and one that a lot of its competitors are also chasing. AI agents are only as good as the tools and data to which they have access. Tool calling has been a big focus over the last year and more, but data privacy is an equally important issue that needs to be solved before more companies, especially those in regulated industries, adopt agentic tools like Personal Computer. It’s good to see Perplexity tackling this head-on.

Inside OpenAI’s Codex with Andrew Ambrosino→

On today’s episode of AppStories, Federico and I interview Andrew Ambrosino, the project lead for Codex. It’s a great conversation that covers a lot of ground, including:

  • the long history and many iterations of Codex,
  • the merging of Codex into a new version of ChatGPT based on web technologies,
  • Computer Use and Computer History, which came along with OpenAI’s acquisition of Sky last year, and
  • what goes into designing for user trust.

Then for AppStories+ subscribers, we dug into Andrew’s Mac origin story and some of his favorite Mac apps.

AppStories is available on Apple Podcasts and all your favorite podcast players, as well as YouTube. AppStories+ is a special ad-free, extended version of AppStories that’s delivered a day early in high-bitrate audio for $5/month or $50/year by itself or as part of a Club MacStories Premier membership that adds our weekly and monthly newsletters, app discounts, and other perks for $12/month or $120/year.

Permalink

Parker Ortolani’s First Impressions of the Pebble Index AI Smart Ring→

Parker Ortolani on the Pebble Index, the recently released AI smart ring:

Ambient computing is here at home on speakers and in the workplace with apps like Wispr Flow, it’s only a matter of time before we carry it with us everywhere.

The Pebble Index is the best preview of that future. The simple gesture of pressing your thumb to your index finger is unbelievably natural. Especially for quick interactions. I’ve found myself setting more reminders, recording ideas, and keeping lists up-to-date. And I know that everything is being logged on my phone in the Pebble app. Better yet, you can connect the Pebble Index to your other AI tools using MCP. There’s also no reason for skeptics to fret, it’s not always listening for hot words or logging everything it hears.

As Ortolani explains, the device ticks a lot of boxes that other AI gadgets just don’t:

The thing that I think strikes me hardest with the Index is that it’s just so socially inoffensive. It’s a form factor people already love, it’s not distracting, it’s not always listening, and it’s affordable. It could be the first truly noncontroversial AI-first hardware.

I ordered a Pebble Index months ago and it should be coming within the next week or so. I bought it for many of the features Ortolani mentions. It’s on-demand, discreet, and a form factor that doesn’t look out of place. The hardware and software matter a lot with a device like this, but if Pebble has nailed it, I can see it becoming my go-to way to jot down brief notes. I’m excited to give it a try and report back.

Permalink

Anthropic Introduces an In-App Browser for Claude Cowork

Hot on the heels of OpenAI’s addition of a cloud-based browser to ChatGPT Work, Anthropic has added an in-app browser to Claude Cowork in its desktop app. What’s interesting about the two browser implementations is that while both ChatGPT Work and Claude Cowork are meant to be used for general knowledge work, Claude Cowork’s browser is something of a hybrid that mixes aspects of OpenAI’s Codex built-in browser with its ChatGPT Work cloud-based browser.

First of all, I do not yet have access to Claude’s in-app browser, so the following is based solely on Anthropic’s announcement and other documentation. Still, the differences are worth understanding since the tools are aimed at different workflows.

Like Codex’s in-app browser, Claude Cowork’s in-app browser is built into the desktop app itself. That ties Claude’s browser to the instance of its app running on your Mac. Turn your Mac off or close the Claude app, and the browser becomes unavailable. Leave the Claude app running, and you’ll be able to control the browser session remotely through the Claude mobile app or the web.

From there, however, the browsers diverge. As you’d expect, the Codex implementation is developer-oriented, with tools to build, inspect, and annotate web pages along with access to a terminal, repos, and diffs. In contrast, Claude Cowork’s in-app browser opens automatically as needed for general-purpose web tasks instead of development tasks.

Also, while both ChatGPT Work’s and Claude Cowork’s browser implementations benefit from being isolated from your other day-to-day browser use outside those apps, their handling of login credentials is a little different. As I wrote in greater detail yesterday, ChatGPT separates the login process from the model’s activity and evaluates the login page for things like phishing schemes. Claude Cowork’s in-app browser offers two ways to log in: manually, or by importing cookies from logged-in sessions in another browser. Currently, Claude supports cookie imports on the Mac from Chrome, Edge, and Firefox, but not Safari. In addition to the security benefits that come with a browser that runs isolated from your everyday browser, Claude also requests permission before acting on a site for the first time, blocks high-risk sites, checks actions against the your requests, and uses the same prompt injection protections as its Chrome extension.

My first-run experience with ChatGPT Work’s cloud browser was a mixed bag but showed promise. Although I haven’t tried Claude Cowork’s browser yet, I’m glad to see Anthropic moving in the same direction as OpenAI here. Isolating agent browsing by bringing the browser into Claude and ChatGPT doesn’t solve every security issue, but it’s a good starting point. I expect we’ll see both Anthropic and OpenAI iterate quickly on this theme in the coming months.

Hands-On with ChatGPT Work’s New Cloud Browser Feature

Yesterday, OpenAI introduced a new ChatGPT Work feature designed to let it navigate websites that require a login without revealing your credentials to the model.

Like a lot of people, I spend far too much time clicking around websites that require a login, looking at analytics and other data, checking whether new sponsors have been booked for our podcasts, and more. It’s a tedious but necessary part of my week that slows me down and takes me away from writing and other creative work. ChatGPT’s new Work feature is designed to handle that sort of work for you.

The feature works by signing into websites using a virtual, cloud-based computer. That separates the browsing session from any browsing session on your local computer, walling the agent’s computer use off from your open tabs, cookies, browsing history, passwords, and other data. Because the login and browsing happen in the cloud, that also means work can continue whether you close the ChatGPT app or power down your computer.

According to OpenAI, an additional review model checks the sign-in request and credential destination for signs of phishing or deception. ChatGPT Work then pauses while the user signs in. Credentials entered through its secure sign-in form go directly to the cloud browser and are not visible to the model. After the user authenticates, ChatGPT resumes its work.

OpenAI also explains that its cloud-based browser doesn’t store your username and password. Instead, it saves cookies that allow you to return to a previously authenticated session. If you don’t want to remain logged in, ChatGPT’s cloud browser settings allow you to clear browser data for individual websites or all sites.

Similar to other features in ChatGPT and Codex, users have choices when it comes to which sites ChatGPT Work can access. “Always ask” is the default, requiring the agent to check with the user before using a website, but the permission level can also be set to “Auto approve” after ChatGPT checks a site for relevancy and risk or “Always allow,” which OpenAI discourages. Individual websites can also be allowed or blocked. These settings control website access, but consequential actions require separate confirmation.

ChatGPT Work's browser control works best on a mobile device and with simple login systems.

ChatGPT Work’s browser control works best on a mobile device and with simple login systems.

I gave ChatGPT’s browser use a try and the results were mixed. I wasn’t able to get the feature to work at all using ChatGPT Work in Safari on my Mac. Some websites had security measures in place that prevented me from logging in. Other times, the cloud browser asked me to take over manually, but I was unable to do so because the UI was frozen or login panels didn’t appear.

Logging into a site with a CAPTCHA required manual intervention.

Logging into a site with a CAPTCHA required manual intervention.

I had better luck using my iPhone. On one site with a simple username and password system, a login sheet appeared. I entered my credentials, was logged in, and the agent navigated the site to answer my queries. On Apple’s affiliate link dashboard website, I had to take over the browser interaction manually to satisfy a CAPTCHA, which worked after several challenges. Once logged in, the agent pulled and analyzed the data I requested. Also, after I’d signed in to both of those sites on my iPhone, I remained logged in to ChatGPT’s cloud browser, which meant I could also use them from my Mac.

In its current form, the idea of having ChatGPT Work browse signed-in websites on your behalf is better than its implementation. If you can get logged in, having an agent collect and analyze things like analytics data is fantastic. However, getting past the initial login screen is still too frustrating. That said, I’ll be keeping a close eye on the feature, which is available on eligible plans depending on rollout and workspace settings, for future use collecting and analyzing data that would otherwise require a lot of clicking around.

Hands-On with Computer History: OpenAI’s Take on Agent Memory

Late yesterday, OpenAI revealed the sort of automation catnip I love: Computer History. It’s a new feature for Pro, Business, and Enterprise subscribers that creates continuity for ChatGPT and Codex by converting the actions you take on your Mac into Markdown memory files that serve as context for subsequent interactions. The idea is that with the additional context, ChatGPT and Codex will better understand your requests, requiring you to provide less detail up front while getting better results. Anyone familiar with OpenClaw, Hermes Agent, and similar projects will know where this is going.

Here’s how it works.

Read more

The Utility App Flood Won’t Last

The App Store is evolving at a breakneck pace not seen since its earliest days. We saw the first glimmers of what was to come early in 2025, but it wasn’t until late last year that the tsunami of apps developed with the help of AI agents really took hold.

Since then, veteran developers are releasing new apps and updating existing ones faster than ever, and new developers are releasing their first apps in droves. Today, supply is dramatically up, demand is flat, and quality is seemingly simultaneously up and down, depending on where you look.

How these forces play out long-term is anyone’s guess, but it’s worth examining because, just as Federico’s link to Bryan Irace’s post about agentic coding tools foreshadowed the rise of tools like Codex and Claude Code, today’s trends are sparks that have the potential to become tomorrow’s App Store wildfires or simply fizzle out.

Utility apps are on the front lines of this change. The TechCrunch story I linked in April picked up on this trend:

Another interesting tidbit from Appfigures is that the Utilities app category moved up the top five chart.

If anything, the trend has accelerated in the months since.

It’s not surprising at all that utility apps have taken off. They’ve been a staple of new developers since long before agents came along. That’s because many are UI wrappers around command line tools. That isn’t a knock against the developers of those apps; most users don’t want to open Terminal to convert a video or audio file to another format using ffmpeg, for example. By building a great UI around command line tools, developers have made them far easier to use.

However, the relative simplicity and narrow scope of many utility apps have made them a natural fit for AI agents, too. That’s why the App Store (and my inbox) is deluged with Mac menu bar and single-screen iPhone and iPad utility apps.

On the one hand, the abundance of utilities has been great for users. More choice means you’re more likely to find the app that perfectly fits your needs.

On the other hand, though, I don’t think what’s happening in the category is sustainable and expect to see it dramatically shift again in the coming months. As we’ve seen from reporting by The New York Times, app supply is outstripping demand by orders of magnitude, which will drive down prices. That alone is likely to cause the utility app market to shrink. But there’s more to it than that.

Remember, the demand shifts that The New York Times reported, based on Sensor Tower numbers, are for the entire App Store, where download numbers have grown 2-3% this year and last. I expect utility downloads to actually shrink in the coming months – again, because of agents. Utilities, especially simple ones, are exactly the sorts of apps that are becoming trivially easy for power users – the very users these utilities are made for – to create themselves. From frontier labs‘ model improvements to a growing number of app-building tools from those same labs and third parties, it’s never been easier to build a web or native app yourself.

And although I agree with people, like Nilay Patel, who say the notion that everyone will build their own software is overblown, the utility market is different. Your average person is not downloading apps to adjust the frame rate and file format of a video or downloading YouTube videos to watch later. But those are exactly the sort of things that people who are using agents are doing with them, whether they’re having an agent do those things directly via a command line tool in an app like Codex or Claude Code or building an app to do the same thing. That’s going to put even more pressure on the category.

That said, I think there will always be a cohort of users who would rather pay for an app than build it themselves, so I’m not predicting the demise of utilities in general – just the end of today’s frothy market. I also think there remains a place for simple utilities that solve hard problems with clever solutions. Not every utility is a UI wrapper for a terminal command. Plenty of apps feature original solutions or thoughtful and unconventional remixes of disparate tools.

Utilities aren’t going away, but just like other App Store deluges, the trend will recede. It’s just that this time, it’s likely to flip faster than usual.

App Store Chaos→

Kalley Huang, writing for The New York Times about apps written with the help of AI agents that are flooding the App Store:

But as with many things A.I., just because something is easy to build doesn’t mean people will use it. It is not clear if vibecoding is breathing new life into the App Store or just cluttering it.

Last year, the number of new apps released in the App Store grew 30 percent to about 600,000, according to estimates by Sensor Tower, an app analytics firm. In the first half of this year, new apps doubled to about 560,000.

Now, Sensor Tower metrics should always be taken with a grain of salt. They don’t have direct access to Apple’s sales data, so they’re extrapolating from incomplete data that they collect themselves. That said, I think it’s fair to take their numbers as broadly representative of sales trends over time, and the story they tell, as reported by Huang, is interesting.

Based on Sensor Tower’s numbers, the total number of App Store releases peaked in 2016 at 890,000, hit a low of 420,000 in 2022, and this year, is on pace to pass 2016’s peak by a healthy margin. But app releases don’t equate to downloads, let alone sales. According to Huang’s reporting, downloads increased 3% in 2025 and 2% in the first half of 2026, far lower than the growth of new releases.

All of this tracks closely with what we’ve seen at MacStories. One subtle trend I’d add is that whereas for years most developers contacted us before they released an app, a lot of new developers are doing so after their apps are on the App Store. I suspect what I’m seeing is a new generation of developers learning the hard discoverability lessons of the App Store for the first time because when I check out these apps, they rarely have any App Store reviews.

The upshot of all these statistics and trends is App Store chaos of a magnitude that we haven’t seen in a long time. It’s a little like the App Store gold rush of the early days, but without the gold. Discoverability has gone from bad to worse, and the supply of apps is off the charts compared to the demand. With download numbers barely creeping up, the flood of new apps is making selling on the App Store harder for everyone.

Yet, it’s exactly this sort of chaotic disruption that leads to exciting new apps. And, it’s tools like Codex and Claude Code that empower and democratize app development, allowing people who would never have built an app to see their ideas become a reality. Those are things I love to see.

There’s no doubt that the App Store is out of whack thanks to agent-assisted coding, but like any market it will find its equilibrium again. In the meantime, it’s never been a better time to be a fan of apps because while a lot of those record numbers are comprised of mediocre apps, there are hidden gems, and we’re on the hunt for them.

Permalink