As MacStories has continued to grow, so have the opportunities to offer sponsorships to the makers of apps, other products, and services on MacStories.net, our podcasts, and YouTube.
To help us find and make the most of those opportunities, which allow us to fund an expanding and diverse collection of properties, we’re looking for someone to join the MacStories team.
We’re looking for someone who:
Has ad sales experience;
Understands the MacStories audience and the types of sponsors we work with;
Will work with our editors to explore and develop new advertising initiatives;
Wants a flexible, remote position; and
Is willing to work on a commission basis.
If you’re interested in applying for the position, please get in touch with [email protected] with your qualifications and availability.
The Native Union Voyage with USB-C cable and canvas pouch.
Last week, I abandoned the Belkin BoostCharge Pro Wireless Charger because of a recent recall. Fortuitously at about the same time, Native Union sent me its Voyage 2-in-1 Magnetic Wireless Charger to test. Although I preferred having the Apple Watch charging puck integrated with the power source for charging, as the Belkin battery did, the Native Union’s Voyage has proven to be an excellent replacement and far more flexible in how it can be used.
The Voyage consists of two charging disks joined by a soft rubberized strip that allows the two halves to fold into a compact, magnetically connected unit. The device comes in sandstone or black and is made of plastic, with the soft-touch rubbery hinge extending around the exterior edge of the disks. When folded, the Voyage is about the thickness of two iPhone 16 Pros, which may be too thick for some pockets but works well in a bag with your other gear. Overall, the device feels sturdy, and the build quality is excellent.
Charging an iPhone and AirPods Pro 2.
There are a few ways to use the Voyage. If you want to charge your iPhone and Apple Watch at the same time, you can fold the Voyage flat, push up on the Apple Watch charging puck so it’s perpendicular to the rest of the device, and start charging both. The Voyage is a Qi2 charger, meaning it can deliver 15W of power to an iPhone. The Apple Watch puck delivers 5W of power. Qi2’s power delivery is a step up from the original Qi standard, but it’s worth noting that you can get faster charging from Apple’s official iPhone MagSafe charger and Apple Watch charger.
Charging an iPhone and Apple Watch at 15 and 5W, respectively.
That said, there’s a benefit to the Voyage’s integrated design that Apple’s faster chargers don’t offer. Not only can you charge your iPhone and Apple Watch (or AirPods Pro) simultaneously, but you have other options, too. First, if you fold the Voyage back on itself, you can charge just your iPhone. In this configuration, the Voyage is thick enough to double as a landscape-oriented stand, allowing you to use it to watch videos whether you’re charging your iPhone or not. If you’re charging in this configuration, you’ll also have access to the iPhone’s StandBy mode.
Using the Voyage in StandBy mode.
Another option is to flip the same configuration over and drop your Apple Watch or AirPods Pro on the Voyage’s flat surface to charge. Alternatively, you can flip the charging puck up and use your Apple Watch in nightstand mode as it charges. That’s a total of four ways to charge your devices with a charger that has a footprint not much bigger than an official Apple MagSafe charger.
Using the Voyage as a stand.
The Voyage comes with a fabric-covered USB-C cable that matches the color of the device. There’s also a canvas bag in the box for storing the Voyage and its cable, although I’ll probably use it for storing small dongles and other odds and ends instead.
So far, the Voyage has been a good substitute for the charger I was using before. I’d prefer it if the Voyage supported faster MagSafe charging, but its compact size makes up for the slower charging in most contexts. The device has been equally handy having around the house whenever I need to top off my iPhone, Apple Watch, or AirPods Pro as it’s been easy to keep in my backpack for working away from home. So while the Voyage won’t replace faster charging solutions I have connected to my desk, it’s filled the role of having a charger handy at all times very well.
Apple has updated the iPad mini, with a revision that is sure to leave some fans of the device disappointed. That’s because there have been virtually no changes to the device’s screen, cameras, or authentication systems.
The new iPad mini features an A17 Pro chip that was added to allow the device to work better with the upcoming Apple Intelligence features. According to Apple’s press release:
A17 Pro delivers a huge performance boost for even the most demanding tasks, with a faster CPU and GPU, a 2x faster Neural Engine than the previous-generation iPad mini,1 and support for Apple Intelligence.
In addition, the new mini features:
New storage options: 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB, eliminating the 64GB option altogether
Support for the Apple Pencil Pro
Wi-Fi 6E, up from from Wi-Fi 6
Bluetooth 5.3, an upgrade from 5.0
New blue and purple options
Those are all worthwhile upgrades, but I expect what will really define the new iPad mini for a lot of users is what hasn’t changed:
The underlying screen technology remains the same Liquid Retina display that does not support ProMotion
Both cameras remain the same, but they now support Smart HDR 4 instead of Smart HDR 3
The front-facing camera remains on the short side of the device
The Touch ID sensor found on the top button has not been replaced with Face ID
I’m a fan of the iPad mini. I had a 5th generation model and I still use my 6th generation mini, but it’s seen better days. The mini needs a better display, camera, and Face ID. I don’t expect Apple to build a ‘pro’ version of the mini, but if history is any indication, what was released today won’t be updated until around 2027, and that makes me a little sad.
The new iPad mini starts at $499 with 128GB of storage. Pre-orders begin today and deliveries start October 23rd.
Today, Photomator 3.4 was released, adding flagging, rating, and filtering, which should substantially enhance how photos are organized with the app.
I haven’t spent much time with Photomator 3.4 yet, but the features it adds today will be familiar to anyone who has used other photo editors. The update adds the ability to flag and reject photos and apply a one- to five-star rating. Then, with filters based on flags, rejects, and star ratings, it’s easy to navigate among images to determine which to keep. The process is aided by extensive single-key shortcuts, too.
Source: Photomator.
Photomator’s filtering options extend beyond flags, rejects, and stars. Other filtering options include whether an image is a RAW file or a favorite. You can filter based on a photo’s file name, date, and location, too. Flagged, rejected, and rated images are also gathered in special Utilities Collections, along with a new collection for imported photos. Photographs added from apps like Adobe Lightroom that store flags and ratings in metadata or XMP files are preserved when imported, too.
Flagging photos on the iPad.
I haven’t tried the iOS or iPadOS versions of Photomator yet, but they share similar features, including the ability to flag and star images in the app’s browser UI. The iPhone and iPad versions support context menus for flagging and rating and batch application of flags and stars. The iOS and iPadOS versions of Photomator also include collections that assemble flagged and starred items in one place but don’t support the Mac version’s other filtering tools.
On the hardware side, the changes include the addition of Elgato mounts, namely the Elgato Flex Arm and Solid Arm, along with a second Master Mount and Mini Key Light. I also purchased a Moment Multi Threaded Mount that lets me connect my iPhone 16 Pro Max to the Elgato Flex Arm using a strong MagSafe magnet for filming top-down shots. And I switched my podcast recording headphones to the Moondrop ARIA 2 In-Ear Headphones because the Shure model I used before didn’t stay in my ears.
Making the most of a small space..
The rest of my computing setup hasn’t changed much. I removed my M2 MacBook Air because the 11” M4 iPad Pro has replaced it for most of my lightweight portable needs. I’ve also added the Logitech MX Creative Console and Logitech POP Icon Keys keyboard. I’ve grown to like the Creative Console more than the Loupedeck Live for push-button automation, but for now, I still use both. I’m not entirely sure if I’ll stick with the POP Icon Keys keyboard because, as much as I like the automation that’s been baked into it, I prefer the feel of the Magic Keyboard, but I haven’t shelved it yet. I’ve also abandoned the Belkin BoostCharge Pro Wireless Charger because of a recent recall. Instead, I’ve switched to a Native Union Voyage Magnetic Wireless Charger that I’ve been testing and will review soon.
On the videogame side of things, I’ve gravitated to Anbernic devices, adding the Anbernic RG40XXV and Anbernic RG28XX to my setup. Along with the Anbernic RG35XXSP that was already on my list, I now have a nice range of retro handheld sizes and form factors. I have others as well, but these are my current go-to devices. I also added the Nintendo Switch Lite (Hyrule Edition) because I’m a sucker for anything Zelda and I wanted a smaller Switch for traveling.
The Mobapad M6 HD Joycons with my OLED Switch and the Switch Lite Hyrule Edition.
I’ve tried to be good and stop buying controllers, but there have been some great ones released lately, so my list now includes the Mobapad M6 HD Joycons for my OLED Switch and the GameSir G8+. The G8+ is a lot like the GameSir G8 Galileo that it replaced except that it has Bluetooth and works with the iPhone, iPad mini, and Nintendo Switch; I love it.
Finally, I’ve made several changes to my app lineup. There are more Apple system apps on the list, which is usually the case after a long summer of testing macOS betas. Plus, there are several video recording and editing apps on the list now, including Final Cut Pro for the iPad and Mac, Final Cut Camera, a Stupid Raisins plugin for doing split-screen video, and Camo Studio.
That’s it for now. However, I’m already thinking about some fall and winter projects that will mean more changes to my setup, especially with respect to video production tools.
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:
Comfort Zone
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.
Magic Rays of Light
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.
MacStories Unwind
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.
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.
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.
