Podcast Rewind: An AYANEO Avalanche, Minecraft Houses, and Brendon Crashes Unwind

This week, Federico and John go it alone without Brendon to cover Game Pass on ARM, an avalanche of AYANEO announcements, and why the TrimUI Brick Pro has shot up their most-anticipated handheld list for 2026.

On NPC XL, Federico shows off the Ayn Odin 3 and reports the results of his efforts to brute force his way to what he’s using like a Steam Deck mini.

Comfort Zone

Chris has a Creator Studio, Matt has a less official Creator Studio, and the whole gang shows off their Minecraft houses.

On Cozy Zone, we tier list iPads. Chris has never been more in his element than in this one!

MacStories Unwind

This week, John escapes the big freeze and the Club comes home to MacStories – plus, TV picks and Brendon Bigley drops in to say “hi” and share a pick.

NPC, Episode 65, ‘A Bigger Brick and AYANEO Overload’ Show Notes

The Latest Portable Gaming News

Xbox app is now available on ARM-based Windows 11 PCs

AYANEO Pocket S Mini is a smaller handheld Android game console with Snapdragon G3x Gen 2

AYANEO unveils KONKR FIT handheld gaming PC with Ryzen AI 9 HX 470

AYANEO Unveils Details on the Pocket Vert

TRIMUI Brick Pro Coming Soon

TRIMUI Officially Teases The “Brick Pro” Handheld

REDMAGIC 11 Air is a slim gaming phone with active cooling fan and massive 7000mAh battery

Asus hits pause on smartphone business with no new Zenfone or ROG Phone models planned for 2026

Chinese modders end console wars with a PS5, Xbox Series S, and Switch 2 combo console

NPC XL

Ayn Odin 3

Dragon Quest VII: Reimagined

Subscribe to NPC XL

NPC XL is a weekly members-only version of NPC with extra content, available exclusively through our new Patreon for $5/month. Each week on NPC XL, Federico, Brendon, and John record a special segment or deep dive about a particular topic that is released alongside the “regular” NPC episodes. You can subscribe here.

Comfort Zone, Episode 85, ‘What is This, 1995?’ Show Notes

Main Topics

Apple Creator Studio

Aqua Voice

Framous

DevCleaner

balenaEtcher

Sparkle

Ghostty

Zed

Other Things Discussed

Hand Mirror 4 is cute!

The Secrets of the Apple Creator Studio

Niléane’s Minecraft House 1

Niléane’s Minecraft House 2

Niléane’s Minecraft House 3

Niléane’s Minecraft House 4

Niléane’s Minecraft House 5

Niléane’s Minecraft House 6

Matt’s Minecraft House 1

Matt’s Minecraft House 2

Matt’s Minecraft House 3

Matt’s Minecraft House 4

Matt’s Minecraft House 5

Matt’s Minecraft House 6

Cozy Zone

For even more from the Comfort Zone crew, you can subscribe to Cozy Zone. Cozy Zone is a weekly bonus episode of Comfort Zone where Matt, Niléane, and Chris invite listeners to join them in the Cozy Zone where they’ll cover extra topics, invent wilder challenges and games, and share all their great (and not so great) takes on tech. You can subscribe to Cozy Zone for $5 per month here or $50 per year here.

MacStories Unwind, ‘Florida or Freeze, the Club Comes Home, and Idris Elba on Rails’ Show Notes

Club MacStories is Now on MacStories.net

Welcome to the New, Unified MacStories and Club MacStories

The New Club MacStories: Re-Subscribing to Your RSS Feeds and What’s Coming Next

Picks

Federico’s Pick:

High Potential

John’s Pick:

Hijack on Apple TV

Brendon Bigley’s Impromptu Pick

Culinary Class Wars on Netflix

Unwind Deal

🌊 The Lighthouse is just $4.99 in the TV app.

Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe star in this acclaimed psychological horror from the director of The Witch.

Affiliate link: https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/the-lighthouse/umc.cmc.2gh13feg8tcy7lr2fzv2q09b7?at=1001l3bhP&ct=unwind_deal

MacStories Unwind+

We deliver MacStories Unwind+ to Club MacStories subscribers ad-free with high bitrate audio every week. To learn more about the benefits of a Club MacStories subscription, visit our Plans page.