I joined Lee Peterson on his podcast, Home Screens, for a tour of my iPhone Lock Screen, Home Screen, and Control Center pages.
The theme that ties it all together is ‘quick entry.’ Whether it’s a task, idea, link, or something else, I’ve picked apps and widgets and arranged my iPhone to make it easy to capture those things as effortlessly as possible. Hopefully, some of the ideas in the episode can help others organize their iPhones, too.
Enjoy the latest episodes from MacStories’ family of podcasts:
Niléane is back and she’s brought the long-awaited Mastodon 4.3 update, Matt brought Omnivore, and Chris rounds out his new Apple product reviews with the Apple Watch Series 10. Then we see who took the best photo with an iPhone and introduce a fun new, accessible challenge.
Sigmund and Devon discuss Sigmund’s experience at London Film Festival, including the world premiere of Blitz. They also highlight this week’s release of Disclaimer and dive deep into Submerged, the first Apple Immersive Video scripted film.
This week, John shares a spooky story, Federico and he both have TV show picks, and they update listeners on their progress in The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom.
Yesterday, developer Alyssa Rosenzweig gave a talk at the XDC conference in Montréal, Canada about gaming on Asahi Linux installed on M1 and M2 Apple silicon-based Macs. According to GamingOnLinux:
They announced their “Asahi game playing toolkit” which brings together their Vulkan 1.3 graphics driver with, and x86 emulation with Windows game compatibility. It’s all still “Alpha” level quality, but good enough to run some AAA games now. Unlike Apple’s own macOS, Asahi Linux has the only conformant OpenGL®, OpenCL™, and Vulkan® drivers for this hardware (as Apple focus on their own API - Metal).
With Asahi Linux installed on your Mac and at least 16GB of memory to handle emulation overhead, Rosenzweig explained that demanding games like Control, Fallout 4, and Cyberpunk 2077 are all playable. That said, it’s still early days for the Ashahi game-playing toolkit, with more work to be done to support more modern AAA Windows games running at 60fps.
Still, what Rosenzweig and other contributors to the project have achieved is impressive, with more details available on Rosenzweig’s website. It’s also heartening to see developers coming up with solutions that work with commonly-used Windows graphics APIs instead of waiting for game developers to adopt Apple’s Metal framework.
We’ve begun publishing more than podcasts on YouTube. In addition to MacStories’ six podcasts, we’ve added bonus content for NPC: Next Portable Console listeners. Whether you watch the video version of the show or not, we kicked off a playlist of bonus content this week with two videos.
The first is an unboxing and closer look at the Nintendo Switch Lite Hyrule Edition. I’ve had the Switch Lite for a little over a week and love it.
We also published a short video follow-up to one of the news stories we covered on the most recent episode of NPC. It turns out that the mysterious Nintendo device that appeared in the FCC’s records wasn’t quite what we thought it might be, and Brendon got photos from the Nintendo Store in New York, which Brendon also wrote about on Wavelengths.
YouTube’s playlist feature is also a great way to put together themed sets of past episodes of shows like AppStories, which has over 400 episodes. We’re working on more of these, but this week, we added a playlist of all 43 interview episodes we’ve done so far, as well as a collection of our classic Pick 2 episodes where Federico and I spotlight recent apps we’ve been trying.
Alongside today’s debut of Submerged, the first scripted film captured in Apple Immersive Video, Apple also released a behind-the-scenes look at the film as well as details of immersive content coming to Apple Vision Pro users in the U.S. later this year. The Making of Submerged offers an inside look at the process behind shooting the immersive film. Writer/director Edward Berger and director of photography James Friend break down the unique considerations that went into telling a story in this new format.
Apple offered even more insight into the creative process behind Submerged:
Shot on location in Prague, Brussels, and Malta over three weeks, Submerged was filmed using a full-scale 23-ton submarine set made with real steel, brass, and metal that was modeled after WWII-era vessels. Significant portions of the set were built to withstand being fully submerged, and featured practical camera traps and special effects that were uniquely rigged to expose Apple Immersive Video cameras to sparks, steam, water, and fire without breaking viewers’ sense of immersion. Cast members who might appear out of frame or focus in a 2D feature were meticulously scripted, and participated in extensive stunt rehearsals, including freedive training in dive tanks and open water, to maintain continuity and realism.
It’s both fascinating and inspiring to see the ways the creative team behind Submerged adapted traditional filmmaking techniques to meet the challenges and embrace the opportunities of immersive video. The film itself is now available for Vision Pro owners to stream for free in the TV app in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, the U.K., and the U.S.
Apple has more immersive content on the way for Vision Pro users in the U.S. later this year, too, with global availability to follow. Here’s what fans of immersive video can expect:
The first episode of aerial travel series Elevated, featuring a trip around the islands of Hawai’i, is being made available outside the U.S. today. And early next year, Apple will release another episode of Elevated taking viewers on a crisp autumn journey through Maine’s winding coastlines and beautiful rivers, as well as a new episode of Adventure that follows sport climber Kai Lightner as he free-solo climbs over the rocky coves of Majorca, Spain.
All of these immersive video releases sound exciting, and I look forward to experiencing them. With lack of content being a primary concern among Vision Pro owners, it’s good to see new releases scheduled at a regular pace to keep users engaged. Based on today’s announcements, we have lots of immersive content to look forward to in the coming months.
If you have ever heard or seen me talk about my macOS setup, you’ll know that I’m a huge fan of Raycast. A few years ago, Raycast took off on the Mac as an incredible alternative to Spotlight and the long-time Mac power user favorite, Alfred. Today, it has cemented itself as an essential piece of software in my daily workflows.
Raycast’s main strength is that it’s fast. It lets you launch apps, run shortcuts, and manage your windows with straightforward commands, and it is extremely flexible in the way that it allows you to assign keyboard shortcuts and aliases to any command.
That being said, I believe the one aspect of Raycast that drives the tool to its maximum potential is its ecosystem of third-party extensions. Developers can build their own commands and offer them in the Raycast extensions store for free. The store, which users can access by typing “Store” directly in the Raycast search bar, has hundreds of extensions available that vary in functionality and quality. And while some of those optional extensions can be pretty simple or offer a single feature each, the way that they come together to turn Raycast into a Swiss Army knife for your workflows on the Mac makes each of them valuable in their own respect.
So today, rather than highlight Raycast’s well-known built-in features, I thought I would round up some of my favorite optional extensions instead. Here’s a word of warning: some extensions in this list are very specific. But at the same time, though, they’ve each become an integral part of my Mac’s Swiss Army knife.
Alright, let’s get into it.
Enjoy the latest episodes from MacStories’ family of podcasts:
This week, Federico, Brendon, and John cover the latest in Nintendo emulation, a mysterious Nintendo device appears at the FCC, John has a Switch surprise, Microsoft reveals its best-looking controller yet, and Federico mods his Legion Go.
This week, Federico and John share the iPhone Lock Screen and Control Center controls that they’re currently using them.
It’s been a few months, which is why it’s once again time for a setup update. This time, Federico has added several items to his desk setup. Below, you’ll find a selection of top picks from the changes he’s made, but be sure to visit the Setups page to see everything he’s currently using.
For those who have already spent time on the Setups page, welcome back. There’s a handy changelog at the top of the page just for you, with a list of everything added and removed, so you don’t have to go searching for each item.
Also, because today and tomorrow are Amazon Big Deals Days, I’ve highlighted the items on Federico’s setup list that are currently available at steep discounts on Amazon.
Part of the story of Federico’s latest setup changes is that he’s re-added a few key components that were previously removed:
But there are plenty of new items in Federico’s setup, too. The 11” M4 iPad Pro with a nano texture display and AirPods 4 are the two big Apple additions. For NPC: Next Portable Console, Federico got a white low-profile microphone arm, which looks great on the video version of the show and is currently 20% off. If you’ve listened to the latest episode of NPC, you know why he also added a Samsung 990 Pro SSD with a heat sink, which is currently 42% off on Amazon. That SSD was used to mod his Lenovo Legion Go (22% off on Amazon), for which he’s also added a Mechanism gaming pillow and universal grips.
Other additions include:
That’s it for the time being for our setups. I’ll also be back soon with updates on what I’ve been using for work and play.
Amazon Prime’s Big Deal Days runs today and tomorrow, so just as I did for Prime Day before it, I’ve scoured the thousands of available deals for the best gear that I’ve used, tested, and love. For more of the gear that Federico and I use, check out our Setups page, too.
Here are my top Prime Big Deal Days picks:
Apple’s Studio Display has been out for quite a while now, so it’s a regular among Amazon deals. I’ve been using mine for over two years, and it’s the perfect Mac or iPad compliment if you want a big, bright, and crisp display at your desk.
Apple recently updated its MagSafe charging puck that I use with my AirPod Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max. The updated charger, which is Qi2 compatible, allows my iPhone to charge more quickly than was possible with earlier iPhone and charger pairings.
The Apple Pencil Pro isn’t an accessory that I use every day, but between Smart Script and the radial menu that appears when you squeeze the Pencil’s barrel, I’ve found myself using it more and more for taking notes, editing video in Final Cut Pro, and navigating the web.
