Apple Maps Launches in Beta on the Web

By Niléane

Today, Apple has launched Apple Maps on the web in a surprise announcement. This beta version of Apple Maps on the web is accessible via the url beta.maps.apple.com, and is said by the company to be compatible with Google Chrome, Safari, and Microsoft Edge on Windows. Additionally, developers will now be able to link out to Apple Maps on the web using MapKit JS.

Apple Maps on the web seems to be rather limited so far. The web app supports panning and zooming on the map, searching and tapping on locations, looking up directions, and browsing curated guides. However, it isn’t currently possible to tilt the map to view 3D building models or terrain elevation, and directions are limited to Driving and Walking. Look Around (Apple’s equivalent to Google Street View) is not available on the web either, but Apple says the feature will arrive in the coming months.

The web UI itself is reminiscent of Apple Maps on macOS and iPadOS. Recent locations can be found in a sidebar, and buttons to navigate the map are located in the top-right and bottom-right-hand corners of the page.

Just like on macOS and iPadOS, location details open in a collapsible sidebar.

Curated guides and satellite imagery are also supported in Apple Maps on the web.

Directions are limited to Driving and Walking.

In my testing, performance across Apple Maps on the web isn’t stellar in Safari. I’m observing stutters in transition animations, as well as when panning the map. In Google Chrome, however, the web app feels significantly smoother. If you attempt to access Apple Maps from Firefox, the app will not load and redirect you to Apple’s (short) list of supported browsers. The same message is displayed if you access the URL from Safari on iOS.

Firefox isn’t supported yet.

Apple Maps on the web is a welcome addition. Google Maps has always been available on the web for all to use, and I’m glad to finally see Apple try and compete beyond its native apps on iOS, iPadOS, and macOS. Hopefully more languages and features are coming to the web version soon.

Overcast Celebrates Its Tenth Anniversary with a Redesigned Interface

By Niléane

Overcast has long been my favorite podcast player on iOS and iPadOS with its beautifully simple user interface that complements a great audio engine. Today, developer Marco Arment is celebrating Overcast’s tenth anniversary with the release of a new version featuring a user interface that’s been rewritten from the ground up.

From the app’s main screen to playlist and podcast pages, show notes, chapters, and search, this new version of Overcast looks completely modern, and it feels fast. But at the same time, the app remains true to itself and retains a familiar look, with no drastic visual changes that would disorient its long-time users.

The app’s revamped player is perhaps my favorite aspect of this fresh coat of paint. There, you can still find the app’s landmark audio features, Voice Boost and Smart Speed, but the player’s sections have been reorganized to create a clearer overall layout. Chapters have been moved to a separate view, with more space on each line for longer chapter titles. Episode notes, on the other hand, can be toggled on and browsed through with the player controls still accessible at the bottom of the screen.

The new player also comes with a great quality-of-life addition: when skipping chapters or seeking through an episode, a ‘Go Back’ button now appears briefly on top of the podcast artwork. Tapping this button immediately returns you to your previous position. This is essentially an ‘undo’ function for accidental taps within the player view. (If you unintentionally scrub the player on your iPhone Lock Screen, you can quickly open the app and go back as well.) I never realized that I needed this feature in a podcast player until now.

Overcast’s new player. Notice the ‘Go Back’ button (left) that appears when skipping chapters or seeking through an episode.

In addition to iOS, Overcast shines on iPadOS. The app now utilizes the iPad’s wider screen in a way that I wish more iPad apps would: by presenting a great three-pane layout. The app’s main screen resides in the leftmost pane, the middle section is reserved for subsections like podcast pages, and the player can be found on the right. This left-to-right hierarchical layout subtly reminds me of the official Twitter app that launched on the iPad about 14 years ago.

The new Overcast on iPad.

With this release, Overcast no longer has the ability to stream podcast episodes. Instead, episodes must be downloaded before you can start listening to them. In my experience using the new version of the app, this hasn’t bothered me. Most of the time, I only need to wait a couple of seconds before Overcast finishes downloading an episode, and when it does, the episode automatically starts playing.

Combined with the option to automatically remove downloaded episodes (either when completed or 24 hours after completion), I don’t think this change will be noticeable, even to users who previously chose to stream their podcasts.

Rather than streaming episodes, Overcast will always download them before you can start listening.

Aside from the ability to create priority rules for sorting podcasts within playlists, there aren’t any other notable new features in this release. And with the recent introduction of transcripts in Apple Podcasts recapturing some listeners’ attention (including my own), there’s certainly room for new features to come to the app. Still, I’m glad to see Overcast gain a brand-new foundation on top of which it will hopefully keep evolving in the near future.

This is an exciting new start for my favorite podcast player.

Overcast is available to download for free on the App Store. Subscribing to Overcast Premium for $9.99/year removes banner ads from the app’s playback screens and allows users to upload their own audio files for listening.

LGBT and Marginalized Voices Are Not Welcome on Threads

By Niléane

As Twitter was crumbling under Elon Musk’s new leadership in 2023, various online circles found themselves flocking to alternative platforms. While some may have kept using Twitter (now known as… X), a non-negligible number of communities migrated over to Mastodon and other smaller platforms. Meanwhile, Meta shipped its own textual social media platform, Threads. The service initially launched in most parts of the world except for the European Union, but it’s been available in Europe for over six months now and has seen its usage soar.

For many, Threads understandably felt like a breath of fresh air following the chaos that engulfed Twitter. Unlike the latter, Threads is not run by someone that I and many others find to be an exceptionally despicable human. Its algorithmic timeline contrasts with Mastodon’s exclusively chronological feeds, and its integration with Instagram has attracted a number of big names and stars.

I’m an activist. In my daily life, I work and advocate for the advancement of trans people’s rights in France. As a result, my expanded online social circle mostly consists of LGBT people, and most of them are activists, too. However, in the span of a few months, almost everyone in that circle who was excited about Threads launching in Europe has now stopped using it and migrated back to Twitter, Mastodon, or elsewhere. When I ask around about why those people left Threads behind, their responses vary, but a trend persists: most felt like they were being shadow-banned by the platform.

Without hard data, it is difficult to investigate this feeling, to understand if it is truly widespread or specific to some online bubbles. But one thing is certain: Threads hasn’t felt like a breath of fresh air for all who tried to use it. In my experience as a trans woman, at its best, it has felt like Jack Dorsey’s old Twitter: a social platform overrun by an opaque moderation system, free-roaming hate speech, and a frustrating algorithm that too often promotes harmful content.

As months go by, incidents where Threads consistently failed to uphold its understood promise of a better-moderated Twitter-like platform have added up. Today, for many non-white, non-straight, non-male users, it is a repulsive social media experience, where their voices are silenced and where hate speech offenders who target them go unpunished.

Let’s talk about this.

Tapbots Releases Ivory 2.0 with Hashtag Lists and a Redesigned Share Sheet Extension

By Niléane

Today, Tapbots released version 2.0 of Ivory, the company’s Mastodon client for iOS, iPadOS, and macOS. The update brings a notable list of improvements, one exciting new feature that should make it easier to follow and curate specific topics on the fediverse, and a fully redesigned share sheet extension.

On Mastodon, it is possible to follow hashtags in addition to accounts. This feature is particularly useful for tracking discussions about a specific topic across the wider fediverse. However, following hashtags is currently limited. Followed hashtags appear in your main chronological timeline among your followed accounts, and it isn’t possible to curate together multiple hashtags into a separate, easily accessible view. Ivory 2.0 aims to solve this with Hashtag Lists. Now, in the app’s redesigned Hashtags tab, you can create a list that contains up to four hashtags, and you can even exclude specific hashtags if you’re looking to fine-tune the resulting timeline.

Creating a hashtag list for cat pics in Ivory 2.0.

Hashtag lists can be accessed from Ivory’s dedicated Hashtags tab, or directly from the Home tab by tapping on the title bar.

The other big improvement in Ivory 2.0 is its redesigned share sheet extension for creating posts. It is now fully-featured, with the ability to set the post’s visibility and language, as well as an option to add alternative text descriptions to shared images and videos. When sharing a URL, the share sheet will now show a preview of the link card that will appear as part of your post. To get started, tap the Share button from the Photos app, Safari, or any app that supports the native iOS and iPadOS share sheet, then choose the Ivory icon.

Sharing a link, a cat pic, and multiple images via Ivory’s redesigned share sheet extension.

Ivory’s new share sheet extension is also available on the Mac.

In addition, Ivory 2.0 comes with small visual refinements to the way images and videos are displayed in a post’s detail view and the ability to set a fixed order for context menu items throughout the app.

Tapbots continues to update and refine Ivory at a steady pace. As a result, it is still my favorite way to use Mastodon on a daily basis. With a new major version of Mastodon on the horizon, I’m excited to see Tapbots add support for new features in Ivory without necessarily waiting for improvements to the default Mastodon experience.

If you want to create your own cat hashtag list today, Ivory 2.0 is now available on the App Store for iOS, iPadOS, and macOS. The app comes with a seven-day free trial for new users, after which a monthly or annual subscription is required to use most of its features.

Managing Your Mac Menu Bar: A Roundup of My Favorite Bartender Alternatives

By Niléane

For years, Bartender has remained one of the best ways to manage the Mac’s menu bar, especially on newer MacBook models with a notch where menu bar real estate is even more valuable. I reviewed the great Bartender 5 last year and came away impressed. Unfortunately, though, my relationship with Bartender is not in a great place today.

Three months ago, the app was silently acquired by a company called Applause. Obviously, acquisitions happen, and often without any hiccups. In this case, however, users were caught off guard as the new owners had to renew all of Bartender’s certificates. This caused a permission reset for everyone who had the app installed on their Mac, prompting some understandable concern on Reddit, where the new owners finally started explaining what was happening. Up to that point, no one was even aware that the app had been acquired.

Apps like Bartender tend to require numerous sensitive system permissions to work. It makes sense: there are no native APIs provided by Apple to manage the menu bar, which is why Bartender has no choice but to rely on accessibility APIs and screen recording access to power its features. But this is exactly why a silent acquisition can be worrying. Even if both the original developer and the new owners have since clarified the situation, it’s hard to trust an unfamiliar company with all of these system permissions when they’ve already failed a necessary trust exercise on day one.

If your trust in Bartender has wavered as a result of this series of events, you may be looking for alternatives. I have been, too. So, I’ve rounded up some of my favorite menu bar management utilities available right now and even a couple of macOS tips to help manage the menu bar without having to install any third-party apps at all.

Let’s check them out.

macOS Sequoia: The MacStories Overview

By Niléane

At its WWDC 2024 keynote held earlier today, Apple officially announced the next version of macOS, macOS Sequoia. As per its naming tradition over the past decade, this new release is once again named after a location in California; the version number for macOS Sequoia will be macOS 15.

Apart from the substantial Apple Intelligence features that were announced today for all of its main platforms, Apple introduced some welcome improvements to its desktop operating system. The new features include enhancements across multiple native apps, an impressive new iPhone mirroring integration, and even some overdue window management features for the Mac.

Here’s a recap of everything that Apple showed off today for macOS Sequoia.

Controller for HomeKit’s Interactive Floor Plan Is the Best Way to Control Your Home Yet

By Niléane

Controller for HomeKit is an alternative way of controlling and setting up your HomeKit accessories, scenes, and automations from your iPhone. While the app has been around for some time, this month it received a major upgrade with a new feature that turns the app into a fun and powerful control center for your home.

Now, in Controller for HomeKit, you can leverage the iPhone’s LiDAR sensor to scan your entire home and create a 3D floor plan, on top of which you can overlay your lights, scenes, and other HomeKit accessories. The result is a fun, customizable, and interactive UI that works so well and is so intuitive that it almost feels like it belongs in Apple’s own Home app for the iPhone.

Let’s check it out.

Apple Rolls out Support for Paris Transit Passes in Wallet Just in Time for the Olympics

By Niléane

Today, Apple rolled out support for Paris’ Navigo transit passes in the Wallet app, just in time for the Paris 2024 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games. Travelers are now able to acquire a Navigo pass directly from Apple’s Wallet app and load it with transit tickets. Not only that, but this now also makes it possible to use your iPhone to get through any gates on the Paris transit network, simply by holding the iPhone near the stations’ contactless readers.

Navigo in Wallet also supports Apple’s Express Mode feature, which means the pass is automatically activated when holding the iPhone near a gate, without having to authenticate with Face ID. Additionally, this features lets you use the pass for up to five hours after your iPhone runs out of battery.

As French publication Numerama notes, this full integration with Apple’s transit pass system is a first of its kind in continental Europe. In my testing, you can add a Navigo pass in Wallet and pay for a new batch of tickets without even having to install Paris’ official transit app at any step of the process. However, this only applies to occasional travelers since the official app is still required to purchase weekly and monthly tickets before you can load them onto the pass in Apple Wallet.

Loading tickets onto the Navigo Pass in Apple Wallet, and enabling Express Mode.

This integration with Apple Wallet has been a long time in the making. Android smartphone owners have already been able to replace their physical Navigo pass with their device since 2022. At the time, Île-de-France Mobilités (Paris’ transit authority) announced they were actively working with Apple to bring the feature to the iPhone in 2023. Today, one year later than originally expected, it has finally arrived.

AltStore’s Clip Is the Best Clipboard Manager on iOS Yet

By Niléane

Last month, AltStore was finally made available on iOS for everyone living in the European Union. Not only does the first alternative app marketplace on iOS ship with the great Delta videogame emulator, but it also lets you install Clip, a clipboard manager unlike any other on the iPhone.

The app’s uniqueness resides in the sole fact that it’s the first ever clipboard manager on the iPhone that can actually run in the background and continuously monitor your clipboard, regardless of the app you’re in. And despite the fact that the app is pretty bare-bones right now, this core ability alone makes a huge difference in usage, enough to crown Clip the best clipboard manager to ever ship on iOS.

Let’s check it out.