John Voorhees

2957 posts on MacStories since November 2015

John is MacStories’ Managing Editor, has been writing about Apple and apps since joining the team in 2015, and today, runs the site alongside Federico.

John also co-hosts four MacStories podcasts: AppStories, which covers the world of apps, MacStories Unwind, which explores the fun differences between American and Italian culture and recommends media to listeners, Ruminate, a show about the weird web and unusual snacks, and NPC: Next Portable Console, a show about the games we take with us.

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Control Ultimate Edition Is Coming to the Mac Early Next Year

Source: Remedy Entertainment.

Source: Remedy Entertainment.

At WWDC this year, Apple announced that Control Ultimate Edition from Remedy Entertainment would be coming to the Mac. At the time, no release date was announced, but thanks to a Remedy investor event, we now know that the game is slated to arrive on February 12, 2025.

A few days ago, Tom Polanco of Tom’s Guide got a brief demo of the game and came away optimistic about how it will run on the latest Macs:

I briefly played Control Ultimate Edition on the new Mac mini M4, which was the first time I’ve played the game since it originally launched in 2019. The high-resolution textures and buttery-smooth gameplay make it feel like a completely different game from the PS4 version I remember.

According to Polanco:

Apple says that Control Ultimate Edition has been optimized for Macs and will have smooth performance, precise gameplay, and support HDR and MetalFX Upscaling. The game will also support hardware-accelerated ray tracing on Macs with M3 and M4 processors.

Although Control is a five-year-old game, its demanding visuals are still a benchmark against which hardware is often measured, so those details are encouraging. It’s also great to hear that Remedy has gone to the trouble of adapting the game for Apple’s latest videogame APIs. Apple’s hardware has become increasingly capable of playing AAA games, but cooperation from publishers like Remedy is necessary, too.

I expect it will take a while before the entire Mac lineup can run the most demanding games. However, as Apple silicon continues to make advances that trickle throughout the Mac lineup, the market for videogame publishers like Remedy will expand. If Remedy can show that the Mac can deliver a great experience with a game like Control, I’m cautiously optimistic about the platform’s long-term prospects as a high-end gaming platform.

Update: Control Ultimate Edition is available to pre-order on the Mac App Store for $39.99.


The Latest from NPC: Next Portable Console and AppStories

Enjoy the latest episodes from MacStories’ family of podcasts:

AppStories

This week, Federico and John interview Robb Knight, John’s co-host on Ruminate, a show about the open web, snacks, and the occasional videogame about Mastodon, ActivityPub, and the apps Robb uses day-to-day.

This episode is sponsored by:

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

NPC: Next Portable Console

For the latest episode, Brendon explains the cronut, the AYANEO 3 Windows handheld has been announced, we consider Anbernic burnout, Federico shares his PS5 Pro first impressions, we speculate about Microsoft’s handheld future, and on the heels of Brendon’s trip to France, we have thoughts on traveling with handhelds and downsizing our handheld setups.

Read more


MacStories Is on Bluesky

It’s been another busy year for social networks. It seems more recent, but it was nearly a year ago that Threads became available in the EU and we introduced readers to the MacStories team there.

Now, Bluesky has taken off, with many MacStories readers moving their social media lives there or splitting their time between multiple services. So today, we wanted to let readers know where they can find all of us on Bluesky.

Our [MacStories Starter Pack](https://go.bsky.app/MSyjAAg) includes the accounts for the site, podcasts, writers, and hosts.

Our MacStories Starter Pack includes the accounts for the site, podcasts, writers, and hosts.

MacStories and each of our six podcasts have brand-new official accounts on Bluesky, and you can find each of our writers and podcasters there, too. Best of all, it’s easy to find us using the MacStories Starter Pack, which will take you to a list of every account. From there, you can follow all of the accounts at once or pick and choose among them; you can also browse a timeline of all of our posts.

The MacStories.net Starter Pack: go.bsky.app/MSyjAAg

[image or embed]

— MacStories (@macstories.net) November 16, 2024 at 8:22 PM

Now, I know some of our readers don’t like Bluesky and may be concerned that we’re dumping Mastodon to chase the latest social media trend. We’re not. If anything, in the eleven months since MacStories became active on Threads, we’ve been even more active on Mastodon. So there’s no need for concern.

We’re splitting our attention across three social media platforms, which in some respects isn’t ideal, but that’s simply what social media has become in 2024. And while each of us has our own preferences among the latest crop of social networks, our goal as a team is to reach as much of the MacStories audience – and potential MacStories audience – as possible. So we’re not leaving Mastodon, or anywhere else for that matter.

If you follow MacStories on Mastodon or Threads, you already have a pretty good idea of what to expect on Bluesky. We’ll be posting links to the stories we publish and what’s going on with Club MacStories, as well as highlights of other things the team is doing. The podcast accounts will be posting links to the latest episodes and whatever else the hosts of those shows want to share with their listeners. You’ll also find the entire MacStories team on Bluesky, each doing their own thing.

It’s worth noting that we’re expanding our podcast presence on Threads, too. AppStories is already up and running there, as well as on Instagram, and you can expect to see other shows pop up there in the near future.

Thanks as always for reading MacStories.net, joining the Club, and listening to our podcasts. It means a lot to all of us here, and with the addition of Bluesky, we hope that even more people who enjoy what we do now have a way to keep up with us.


The Latest from Comfort Zone, Magic Rays of Light, and MacStories Unwind

Enjoy the latest episodes from MacStories’ family of podcasts:

Comfort Zone

Niléane has a fancy new way to block ads and annoyances, Chris has our first look at a bunch of Final Cut Pro updates, and then we all judge the best apps on the App Store with Orange icons.

  • Inoreader: Build your own newsfeed with Inoreader

Magic Rays of Light

Devon and Jonathan highlight the sophomore season premiere of Bad Sisters and discuss the power of TV-tracking with Trakt.


MacStories Unwind

This week, I melt an appliance and Federico goes big with a battery, plus two videogame recommendations and a movie bargain.

Read more


The Mac mini Excels as a Videogame Emulation System

Over at Retro Game Corps, Russ Crandall put the new M4 Mac mini through its paces to see how it handled videogame emulation. As Crandall’s video demonstrates, even the base model version of Apple’s tiny Mac did very well:

Crandall walks viewers through the basics of setting up Emulation Station Desktop Edition on a Mac, which serves as a front-end that uses a variety of emulators to play classic systems. It’s not surprising that the M4 mini didn’t break a sweat emulating the oldest systems like Nintendo’s NES and Game Boy. However, it also did well with more modern systems like GameCube, running at six times the native resolution at 4K.

The mini struggled at times with the most modern systems Crandall tested, like Xbox, but the takeaway is clear: the Mac mini is a capable videogame emulation system. That will be true for other M4 Macs, too, but what’s unique about the mini is its size. The computer’s small footprint lends itself to sitting under a TV or pairing with a portable monitor to play games wherever you have the space.

Uses like Crandall’s are what make the Mac mini such a compelling update. It’s always been small, but by shrinking the mini even further and significantly improving its power, Apple has opened up new possibilities for its smallest Mac.

Permalink

Apple Releases Updates to Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro for the Mac and iPad

The Magnetic Mask. Source: Apple.

The Magnetic Mask. Source: Apple.

Today, Apple revealed the latest updates to Final Cut Pro for the Mac and iPad, with both offering a variety of new features and simplified workflows.

Final Cut Pro 11 for the Mac has added magnetic masks, extending the “magnetic” metaphor used for clips placed on your timeline. Apple says the new feature will allow you to quickly mask people and objects in a shot to color grade them or add effects separately from the rest of a scene.

Final Cut Pro for Mac creating closed captions. Source: Apple.

Final Cut Pro for Mac creating closed captions. Source: Apple.

The app can automatically generate closed captions now, too. The feature, which was briefly shown off in a video published alongside the announcement of the new Mac mini, uses artificial intelligence to convert dialogue into text.

Final Cut Pro 11 is also now capable of editing spatial video for the Apple Vision Pro. In its press release, Apple says:

Final Cut Pro 11 now supports spatial video editing, allowing editors to import their footage and add effects, make color corrections, and enhance their projects with titles. The depth position of titles and captured footage can also be adjusted during the editing process. Spatial video clips can be captured directly with Vision Pro, or on iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Pro, and Canon’s new RF-S7.8mm F4 STM DUAL lens paired with Canon R7.

Enhance Light and Color in action. Source: Apple.

Enhance Light and Color in action. Source: Apple.

Final Cut Pro for the iPad has been updated to version 2.1 with several new features. I’ve been using Final Cut Pro more regularly since we started the MacStories YouTube channel, and one of the limitations I noticed immediately is that the color correction tools in the iPad version weren’t nearly as good as on the Mac. The iPad’s color tools still aren’t as sophisticated as what’s available on the Mac, but this update does add new color grading presets as well as a new Enhance Light and Color feature that intelligently applies color, contrast, brightness, and color balance to a video and works with SDR, HDR, RAW, and Log-encoded media.

One of Final Cut Pro for iPad's new brushes. Source: Apple.

One of Final Cut Pro for iPad’s new brushes. Source: Apple.

Live Drawing on a video has been expanded with new brushes, too. There are new watercolor, crayon, fountain pen, and monoline pen brushes, letting users create a greater variety of looks for their videos. Other new effects include a picture-in-picture effect, callouts, and a set of built-in soundtracks. I’m eager to try picture-in-picture, which should be a good way to create tutorials and other types of videos and callouts; it’s an effect available from multiple third-party effects vendors on the Mac, but new to the iPad.

The iPad version of Final Cut Pro is also adding a host of other new features, including:

  • the ability to expand clips in the timeline vertically with a pinch gesture,
  • dynamic adjustments to the size of the picture-in-picture window,
  • support for editing high-frame-rate video, and
  • Apple Pencil Pro haptic feedback for timeline scrubbing and dropping effects onto the timeline.

Read more


Kino 1.2 Adds Camera Control Support and Higher Resolution and Frame Rate Recording

Source: Lux Camera.

Source: Lux Camera.

Lux Camera’s video camera app Kino has been updated to version 1.2, bringing a variety of new features and a redesigned icon. I covered the debut of Kino back in May and have been using it a lot lately because its design makes taking great-looking video so easy.

At the heart of Kino’s 1.2 update is support for the latest iPhones. Kino now works with the iPhone 16 and 16 Pro’s Camera Control for making adjustments that previously were only possible by touching your iPhone’s screen.

Kino Instant Grades. Source: Lux Camera.

Kino Instant Grades. Source: Lux Camera.

On the 16 Pro, the app also supports 4K video at 120fps with its Instant Grade feature enabled. That’s the feature that lets you pick a color grading preset created by video experts, including Stu MaschwitzSandwich VideoEvan SchneiderTyler Stalman, and Kevin Ong. Version 1.2 of Kino lets you reorder those grades in its settings to make your favorites easier to access. Finally, Kino has added support for the following languages: Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish.

If you haven’t tried Kino before, it’s available on the App Store for $9.99.


Apple Announces New Games Coming to Apple Arcade

Source: Apple.

Source: Apple.

Apple has announced fifteen games coming to Apple Arcade between December 5 and January 9, ranging from all-new titles to App Store games making the jump to Arcade.

Snowman is making another Skate City game dedicated to New York. The original Arcade title takes place in cities around the world, but on January 9, Skate City: New York will take Arcade subscribers on a tour of the Big Apple.

Source: Apple.

Source: Apple.

Arcade is getting three Final Fantasy titles too. Apple describes Square Enix’s Final Fantasy IV (3D Remake)+ as:

beautifully revived with updated graphics, and improved gameplay and voice acting for event scenes. The hit fourth game in the iconic FINAL FANTASY series is also the first title to introduce the Active Time Battle system that players have come to love in the franchise.

The game, which will be out on December 9, looks similar to what is available for Windows on Steam. FF IV: The After Years+ will also debut on Arcade December 9.

Then on January 9, Apple Arcade will get Final Fantasy+, which is the first of the Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster games that are currently available as paid upfront games on the App Store and other platforms.

Apple also announced Gears & Goo, a Vision Pro exclusive game by Resolution Games. It’s a colorful tower defense game that plays out in front of you and will release on January 9.

Apple announced the following games, too:

That’s a lot of games for the holiday season with a nice variety that should appeal to a wide audience. I’m looking forward to dipping into a few of these games soon.


App Store Connect Adds New Tools for Developers to Promote Their Apps

Source: Apple.

Source: Apple.

App Store Connect, the web app that developers use to submit their apps to Apple’s App Store and manage them, was updated yesterday with new tools developers can use to promote their apps.

Source: Apple.

Source: Apple.

Developers have been able to submit promotional requests to Apple for quite some time, but the new Featuring Nomination process is now baked right into App Store Connect. Developers can submit nominations from App Store Connect where they will be asked for information about their app. Nominations can be made for events such as a new app launch or adding in-app content and features. When an app is chosen by the App Store editorial team for a feature, developers will be notified in App Store Connect, too.

App Store Connect has also added the ability to generate promotional materials. The assets created can be used on social media and other platforms to promote app launches and other significant events.

These new App Store Connect tools promise to make promoting apps more convenient by including the Featuring Nomination process alongside other aspects of app submission. However, I expect it’s the ready-made promotional assets that are the more significant addition for smaller developers who may not have the budget or skills to create the materials themselves.