From a Turntable to an iPad Home Dashboard: My First Experience with Vinyl

By Niléane

This month, amidst the increasingly chaotic rumblings of the world in the news, I found myself looking for a new distraction. Since Civilization VII wasn’t out just yet, my eyes quickly turned to the vinyl record player that my partner and I had been storing in its cardboard box for months without ever taking the time to set it up. It’s not even ours; we’ve been keeping it safe, along with a sizable vinyl collection, for a close friend who unfortunately doesn’t have enough space for it in their current home.

This turntable is definitely not fancy – it’s even quite affordable compared to similar models – but it looks pretty, and our friend gracefully gave us permission to set it up for ourselves in the living room. While I’m sure they only pitied my desperate need for a new distraction, I took them up on this offer and opened the turntable’s box for the first time.

At the risk of sounding like a total youngster, I must disclose that until three weeks ago, I had never interacted with vinyl before. All I had were some presumptuous preconceptions. ”Doesn’t music sound worse on vinyl? Also, why should I bother with large, fragile music discs and a whole record player when I already have Apple Music in my pocket with lossless audio and Dolby Atmos?”

Still, I was not only intrigued, but also motivated to solve the main problem that setting up this record player posed: how can I make it work when our audio gear at home consists only of a handful of HomePod minis, one pair of wired headphones, and several pairs of Bluetooth headphones? While some turntables ship with built-in Bluetooth connectivity, ours can only output audio over USB or RCA with the help of a sound amplifier, and it definitely can’t broadcast audio to AirPlay devices like our HomePod minis.

Allow me to spoil the ending of this story for you: in the end, unboxing this turntable escalated into a legitimately awesome tech upgrade to our living room. It’s now equipped with a docked 11“ iPad Pro that acts as a shared dashboard for controlling our HomeKit devices, performing everyday tasks like consulting the weather and setting up timers, and of course, broadcasting our vinyls to any HomePod mini or Bluetooth device in the apartment. This setup is amazing, and it works perfectly; however, getting there was a tedious process that drastically reinforced my long-standing frustrations with Apple’s self-imposed software limitations.

Let me tell you how it all went.

Mela 2.5 Adds Web Search Engine and Recipe Import from YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok Videos

By Niléane

Back in 2021, Silvio Rizzi, developer of the all-time great RSS client Reeder , released Mela, an app for importing, collecting, and sharing recipes. Right from the start, Mela stood out as a delightful take on the recipe app genre. Just like Reeder, it features a beautiful design and is a joy to browse and use. The app originally shipped with the ability to import recipes directly from the web, subscribe to RSS feeds, and even scan recipes found in physical cookbooks and magazines. Combining those features with its built-in tools for converting measurements and dynamically adjusting meal sizes, Mela truly cooked up the perfect recipe (pun intended) for becoming your one and only cooking app companion. You can check out John’s original review of the app on MacStories to learn more.

This month, Mela was updated to version 2.5 with several improvements, including an option to search for recipes on the web using a new native recipe search engine and the ability to import recipes from video descriptions on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok, all of which have become popular platforms for discovering and sharing cooking ideas. This new version takes the app’s web scraping capabilities even further than before, and I was curious to see how it fared.

Let’s check it out.

iOS and iPadOS 18.2: Everything New Besides Apple Intelligence

By Niléane

Today, Apple is releasing iOS and iPadOS 18.2, the second major updates to the iPhone and iPad’s latest operating system versions. Once again, this release’s main highlight is a wave of new Apple Intelligence features that are now available to the public. And just like in October, we’re covering these new AI features separately in a special story for MacStories readers. Be sure to check out Federico’s story, which goes over the new Apple Intelligence features included in iOS and iPadOS 18.2.

But besides another batch of Apple Intelligence features, this release also includes a series of changes to the system, from updates to Safari, Find My, and Photos to the arrival of new system-wide settings for Default Apps and more. Here’s a roundup of everything new besides Apple Intelligence in iOS and iPadOS 18.2.

The MacStories Selects 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award

By Niléane

Transit

Earlier this year, I took the time to step back from the tech news cycle and reflect on one of my favorite iPhone apps of all time, Transit. For the past decade and more — Transit first launched in 2012 — the app has been a powerful way to plan trips and look up waiting times when traveling around your hometown using public transportation. But the team behind Transit has never stopped enhancing and improving the app. Today, Transit remains one of the best transit apps on the iPhone, and it’s not even close; not only that, but the app has also slowly but surely cemented itself as a staple of UI design in this category.

I started relying on Transit in 2014, when I first arrived in France. At the time, I had never experienced a massive public transit network like the one in Paris, and I specifically remember how overwhelming it all felt. Finding Transit in the App Store truly felt like a godsend for 18-year-old me.

When it was first released, the app focused on one key feature: as soon as you tapped its icon on the Home Screen, it would immediately give you real-time waiting times for bus and train stops all around you, wherever you were in the city. Unlike with its competitors, you didn’t need to tap around the UI to find the stop or train line you were looking for; in all likelihood, the information you were looking for was already there, right on the app’s main screen. Instead of trying to play the retention game and keep you in the app as long as it could, Transit was designed to be launched and dismissed again just a few seconds later, as soon as you got a glance at the waiting times on its main screen.

This basic foundation immediately made Transit relevant at any time of the day. It also explains why, over the past ten years, I’ve never once removed the app’s icon from my Home Screen. In fact, it’s hard for me to imagine my Home Screen setup without Transit.

Transit lets you compare itineraries on a timeline and presents you with a detailed breakdown of each itinerary.

Today, in addition to checking waiting times, the app also lets you plan itineraries and compare trips, and it can track your vehicle to alert you when you’re about to reach your destination so you don’t miss your stop — all of this across 741 cities and regions in 23 countries. If this sounds like a lot, just know that at every step along the way, the app is always graced with a thoughtful design that never makes any part of it feel overwhelming. Every single data point has been carefully placed in the interface and is introduced with beautiful and subtle animations.

When I try to think of apps that started strong so many years ago and only evolved to become stronger, there are just a few names that come to mind. Transit is one of those names.

Transit’s Live Activities are a perfect use case for the feature. They let you keep track of your trip and alert you when you’re about to reach your destination.

One of the reasons the app has been able to achieve this is its ability to gracefully adopt Apple’s new system APIs in iOS every year. This was especially true in iOS 16 with Live Activities, which allow you to track your trip and keep an eye on your next stop right from your iPhone’s Lock Screen. And just last month, the Transit team went beyond our expectations, revealing an impressive new way to track your train when it’s underground and you don’t have a GPS signal. The app now utilizes the iPhone’s built-in accelerometer and analyzes its patterns to identify when your vehicle is in motion and every time it reaches a new station. I’ve been able to try this new feature over the past month in the tunnels of the Paris Métro, and I’m happy to report that this wizardry actually works.

In November 2024, Transit added a prediction model that allows it to track your train underground without GPS, using only the iPhone’s accelerometer.

The Transit team’s ability to innovate and expand to more regions around the world, all while keeping the app focused on the main feature set that it launched with 12 years ago, is remarkable. For that, and the app’s ever-beautiful design, Transit deserves to be recognized with this year’s MacStories Selects Lifetime Achievement Award.

Learn more about Transit:

Transit Can Now Track Underground Trains without GPS →

Linked By Niléane

Source: Transit

Earlier this month, Transit, one of my favorite apps of all time, gained an impressive new feature: the app is now able to track your train and warn you when you are about to reach your destination even when your train is underground. Previously, Transit had to rely on GPS and cellular service to precisely locate your train on its route, which meant it couldn’t reliably function as soon as you entered a subway tunnel.

The way they have been able to achieve this is fascinating. Transit now utilizes the iPhone’s built-in accelerometer and analyzes its patterns to identify when the vehicle you boarded is in motion, and every time it reaches a station. The company’s account of the whole process is nothing short of impressive. The team spent a week riding buses and trains to collect data and proceeded to create an entirely new prediction model that is able to count down the underground stations that you will need to ride through to reach your destination. Transit says the model works completely offline and on-device.

I know I’m going to give this new feature a try as soon as I get a chance to ride the Paris Métro next week.

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Horse Browser Tries Its Hooves at a New Take on Tabs

By Niléane

In 2024, web browsers mostly all look the same. Their user interfaces always feature an address bar at the top of the window and horizontal tabs that allow you to navigate through multiple websites. So whenever a new browser tries to shake things up and innovate on this basic premise, it’s inevitable that it will elicit a certain amount of interest – sometimes to the point of fashioning its own fanbase. For example, with a novel approach to organizing, pinning, and managing tabs in a customizable sidebar, Arc Browser by The Browser Company has been a great showcase of what creating a brand new user experience for browsing the web can look like.

Last week, though, I stumbled upon a newcomer called Horse Browser by Pascal Pixel that immediately caught my attention. Horse is unlike anything I’ve ever seen in this space. The browser is based on a new approach that completely does away with the traditional address bar and horizontal tab layout. Instead of tabs, navigation in Horse Browser is structured in hierarchical trees called ‘Trails.’ The resulting UI is unique, appealing, and clever. But how does it hold up in everyday use?

Let’s find out.

Michael MJD Revisits the Short-Lived HP TouchPad and Its Precursor Multitasking UI →

Linked By Niléane

On YouTube, the fantastic Michael MJD—known for exploring the history of tech devices and software—recently revisited the 2011 HP TouchPad.

This short-lived tablet is quite fascinating. It originally shipped with webOS, an operating system which was ahead of its time, featuring a gesture- and card-based multitasking interface. In many ways, it resembled the iOS and iPadOS interfaces we’re all familiar with today.

Much like today’s iOS and iPadOS, webOS on the HP TouchPad allowed users to navigate the interface and switch between apps through swipes on the Home Screen, which hosted an overview of all your open apps.

I remember reading about the excitement surrounding the HP TouchPad when it launched—only to be discontinued a mere 49 days later. Watching Michael MJD explore its OS and unique UI truly felt like time travel to a time when the iPad was just beginning to take off as a computer for power users. I highly recommend checking out his walkthrough.

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CoverSutra Adds a Standalone Apple Music Client to Your Mac’s Menu Bar

By Niléane

CoverSutra by Sophiestication is a name that may sound familiar if you’re as ancient as Federico, who last reviewed the app on MacStories in January 2010. At the time, the app was a fully-featured iTunes controller. It could display your music in the menu bar as well on the Desktop. It also used to act as a Last.fm client and ship with a bunch of customization features.

This month, CoverSutra is back with version 4.0. This new version was rewritten from the ground up with a different approach: instead of being a controller for Apple’s native Music app, CoverSutra is now a standalone client for Apple Music on the Mac. In practice, this means that you can search your Apple Music library, pick any album or playlist, and start listening without ever having to launch the Music app.

Search is CoverSutra’s highlight feature. Using CoverSutra for the past week on my Mac has made me realize how much more time I usually spend in the Music app just searching through my library. Searching with CoverSutra, on the other hand, is fast and persistent. You can start typing part of an artist’s name, album, or song title, and search results will instantly appear in the menu bar popover window. And as long as you don’t start a new search, your search results will not disappear, even if you click away from the menu bar.

CoverSutra’s layout for search results puts the emphasis on album and playlist covers.

I’ve also found that CoverSutra suits my listening habits pretty well. As the kind of person who likes to play albums from front to back and rarely relies on curated playlists, I’ve enjoyed how CoverSutra allows me to quickly bring up an album and play it from the beginning. The layout emphasizes album and playlist covers and makes it easy to instantly spot the album you are looking for.

In its current shape, CoverSutra 4.0 is pretty basic. Apart from search, playback controls, and the ability to set your own global keyboard shortcuts, there are no additional features or settings. However, I’m hopeful that the app can start fresh from this new foundation. Unlike similar alternatives on the Mac like Neptunes or Sleeve, CoverSutra’s potential as a standalone player in the menu bar may enable a range of more advanced features.

CoverSutra supports custom global keyboard shortcuts.

CoverSutra 4.0 is available on the Mac App Store. For a limited time, the app is available at an introductory price of $4.99. If you’ve purchased CoverSutra on the Mac App Store in the past, the upgrade to version 4.0 is free.

iOS and iPadOS 18.1: Everything New Besides Apple Intelligence

By Niléane

Today, Apple released iOS and iPadOS 18.1, the first major release since the operating system versions that launched in September and were reviewed by Federico.

As you may know, the main highlight of this new release is the first wave of Apple Intelligence features available to the public. AI has arrived, and for better or for worse for Apple’s platforms, this is only the beginning. Be sure to check out John’s review of all the new Apple Intelligence features included in iOS and iPadOS 18.1 (as well as macOS Sequoia 15.1) for the details.

Fortunately, Apple Intelligence isn’t the only highlight of this release. It also includes a series of changes to the system, from Control Center and the Camera app to Shortcuts and the arrival of new health features for AirPods Pro 2 users.

Here’s a roundup of everything new besides Apple Intelligence in iOS and iPadOS 18.1.