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

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.

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Apple Highlights Its 2023 Developer Programs

Every year, Apple recaps the programs and other services it has launched for developers. Ever since I started covering Apple, there’s been a certain amount of tension between it and its developers. This year, that strain is running higher than I’ve ever seen, at least among the solo and small developer teams we typically cover.

However, it can simultaneously be true that Apple provides valuable resources for developers that are constantly changing. In a press release today, Apple highlights the following developer programs from 2023:

This year, Apple has also updated the Apple Developer Forums in advance of WWDC and rolled out Pathways, a collection of videos, documentation, and other resources focused on core topics like Design, Swift, SwiftUI, Games, visionOS, and App Store distribution.

There are a lot of great resources here. Far more than when I was learning to code around 2015. I’m particularly intrigued by Pathways, which looks as though it does an excellent job of pulling together materials that would otherwise require developers to consult multiple sources.

Announcing the Club MacStories WWDC Discount

WWDC begins next week, and it’s one of the best times of the year for Club MacStories members. To celebrate, we’re offering 20% off all annual Club MacStories plans from today though Friday, June 14, so as many people as possible can get in on the special things we do during Apple’s annual developer event.

To take advantage of the discounted plans, please use the coupon code WWDC2024 at checkout or click on one of the buttons below.

Join Club MacStories:

Join Club MacStories+:

Join Club Premier:

Visit our [Plans page](https://club.macstories.net/plans) for more details on each Club option.

Visit our Plans page for more details on each Club option.

This year, for WWDC, we are kicking things off today with a live recording of AppStories in the Club MacStories Discord community. The community is a feature of Club MacStories+ and Premier memberships and has grown into a vibrant, respectful place to hang out with app and automation fans who help each other get the most out of their technology. The live episode of AppStories will cover final predictions for Apple’s WWDC keynote and a behind-the-scenes look at our preparations and plans for the week. The episode will be released later on the usual schedule, but Discord members will have the chance to participate live and ask questions for the AppStories+ segment.

Then, during WWDC itself, we’ll record three extra episodes of AppStories live in Discord during the conference, covering the keynote, State of the Union, and other announcements. We’ll also publish a special issue of our MacStories Weekly newsletter for Club members packed with more WWDC coverage and details.

The support of Club MacStories members is the foundation of MacStories. Without it, projects like the new podcasts we introduced this week wouldn’t be possible. The Club has given us the freedom to work with a growing group of writers, focus on our in-depth stories and reviews, and build a closer relationship with readers, too. With Club members’ support, we’re not slowing down, either. We have even more projects in the pipeline for later this year.

We know that folks are inundated with subscriptions these days, which is why we work hard to offer what we think is a great value at every tier of the Club. Our eight-year track record of consistency and content, including more than 500 issues of our newsletters, speaks for itself, but we also realize that committing to an annual plan is still a lot, which is why we’re offering this discount.

Here’s a breakdown of each tier and the discounts we’re offering through June 14, 2024:

Normally Through June 14
Club MacStories $50/year $40
Club MacStories+ $100/year $80
Club Premier $120/year $96

If you’re not familiar with the Club, you can learn more and compare plans side-by-side here and read our FAQ page.

These discounts are available to anyone signing up for one annual Club membership for the first time, reactivating an expired plan, or upgrading a current plan.

To take advantage of the discounted plans, please use the coupon code WWDC2024 at checkout or click on one of the buttons below.

When you change a monthly plan to an annual one, you'll get credit for the remainder of your current month's subscription.

When you change a monthly plan to an annual one, you’ll get credit for the remainder of your current month’s subscription.

Join Club MacStories:

Join Club MacStories+:

Join Club Premier:

Thanks as always to our many loyal Club MacStories members, and welcome to everyone joining for the first time. You’ve all helped us grow, launch new projects, and build MacStories on a strong foundation while staying independent and true to our editorial values. We look forward to bringing you even more of what makes MacStories special for a long time to come.

Apple Design Award Winners Announced

Crouton (left) and Gentler Streak (right). Source: Apple.

Crouton (left) and Gentler Streak (right). Source: Apple.

Apple has announced the winners of the 2024 Apple Design Award. Just over one week ago, Apple revealed six finalists in each of seven categories.

This year’s winners include an app and game in each category for a total of 14 winners, including MacStories favorites like Crouton, Gentler Streak, and Blackbox:

Delight and Fun

Inclusivity

Innovation

Interaction

  • App: Crouton by Devin Davies (New Zealand)
  • Game: Rytmos by Floppy Club (Denmark)

Social Impact

Visuals and Graphics

  • App: Rooms by Things, Inc. (United States)
  • Game: Lies of P by NEOWIZ (South Korea)

Spatial Computing

This year’s ADAs represent a wide cross-section of apps, from solo developers to large corporations. Of course, I’m partial to the indies on the list, but overall, I think Apple’s choices this year are excellent.

Comfort Zone Debuts on MacStories’ YouTube Channel→

Comfort Zone is a weekly podcast about trying new things. Every Thursday, co-hosts Matt Birchler, Niléane Dorffer, and Christopher Lawley challenge themselves and each other to try something new in their tech lives whether it’s hardware, an app, a workflow, an automation, or something else. It’s a fun way to explore the tech world with the show’s hosts.

But Comfort Zone isn’t just a new podcast at MacStories. It’s also our first podcast on our new YouTube channel. The first episode, which has its own playlist on the channel and is embedded below, is out today.

Of course, you can also subscribe to the audio-only version of the show too. Links to subscribe to the audio version in Apple Podcasts, popular podcast players, and the show’s RSS feed are all available on MacStories.

It’s great to have Comfort Zone on the MacStories YouTube channel. This is a new experiment for us, but with the early enthusiasm for the video version of the show, I expect Comfort Zone is just the start of more to come from MacStories. So, be sure to check out episode 1 of the Comfort Zone on YouTube, subscribe to our channel, and let us know what you think.

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Josh King Built the iPhone Game Controller No One Wants to Make→

I love this story that I first saw mentioned on Brendon’s blog a few weeks ago about a Redditor who designed the iPhone game controller of my (our?) dreams.

Picture this: it’s a PSP Go/Xperia Play-styled, slide-out controller that attaches via MagSafe to any iPhone, has Bluetooth, a USB-C port for charging, and therefore works with any modern iOS game or emulator regardless of whether the iPhone is mounted on it or not. The controller has a built-in kickstand that supports landscape and portrait gaming (the latter is essential for DS emulation in Delta) and is much more portable than other snap-on solutions available for iOS devices.

The best part: the creator of this controller, called the M-Con, has announced plans to make this a real product that you can buy in the future. You can watch the announcement video below:

As Jonathan’s story in last Saturday’s issue of MacStories Weekly showed, the dream for many of us right now is a compact, MagSafe-enabled game controller for iPhone that doesn’t use USB-C and allows the iPhone to be rotated. No official product that is not a 3D-printed adapter or DIY hack that does all that exists right now.

I wish Josh all the best in this adventure, and I hope to be able to purchase an M-Con game controller in the near future.

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Sequel 2.3’s Magic Lookup Is a Perfect Example of How Apps Should Integrate AI

If you haven’t tried Sequel to track your media queues, you’re missing out and have some catching up to do. There’s a reason we gave Sequel 2.0 the MacStories Selects Best App Update award last year. The app, which is available on the iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Vision Pro, is one of the very best media trackers in a very crowded field.

One way to get up to speed with Sequel’s core features is my review of version 2.0, which I won’t repeat here. Since that review, developer Romain Lefebvre has released updates that continue to improve the app in meaningful ways. However, today’s version 2.3 release is special because it’s one of the first apps I’ve tried that uses AI in a truly useful, non-gimmicky way. Plus, the update adds Shortcuts integration, allowing users to automate the app in new ways, as well as a Markdown-compatible note-taking feature and new layout and search options.

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The Latest from NPC: Next Portable Console and AppStories

Enjoy the latest episodes from MacStories’ family of podcasts:

This week on NPC: Next Portable Console, Federico, Brendon and I introduce NPC, compare handheld gaming origin stories, and share our current setups before Federico springs a surprise on us.

This week on AppStories, Federico and I introduce Comfort Zone and NPC: Next Portable Console, two new MacStories podcasts, and share our wishes for watchOS and tvOS updates.

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Introducing the Latest MacStories Podcasts: Next Portable Console and Comfort Zone

NPC and Comfort Zone join the MacStories family of podcasts.

NPC and Comfort Zone join the MacStories family of podcasts.

I’m incredibly excited to introduce two brand new shows joining the MacStories family of podcasts today: Next Portable Console (or NPC), hosted by me, Brendon Bigley, and John Voorhees, and Comfort Zone, hosted by Niléane Dorffer, Chris Lawley, and Matt Birchler. You can find both shows, along with links to subscribe, on MacStories’ Podcasts hub.

Before I hand it over to Brendon and Niléane to provide more context around NPC and Comfort Zone, allow me to say a few words since this launch marks an important milestone in MacStories’ growth for the next 15 years of the website.

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