2025-06-17 04:21:11
I’m back for another year with a grab bag of my favorite announcements from this year’s Worldwide Developer’s Conference. It was a great week with lots to be excited about from Apple. Here’s what I’m looking forward to most.
Liquid Glass: The design of Apple’s operating systems developed iteratively from iOS 7 to the point that it felt like it had reached its logical end point – that is, until visionOS showed up and brought something totally new. I’m excited to see the other platforms adopting the nicest visual cues from visionOS, and I’ll be interested to see how the new design language develops over the beta period. It’s very pretty and has the potential to be an amazing next step for Apple design.
Widgets on Vision Pro: One of the low-hanging wishlist items I had when reviewing visionOS 2 last year was for the platform to add widgets. I love having glanceable information on my phone’s Home Screen and in the Smart Stack on my watch, but extending that capability to the real world with visionOS makes so much sense. I’m going to be spending a lot of time with these widgets over the summer to see what they can do and how developers implement them in a spatial setting.
iPad Multitasking: iPad fans have had our hearts broken one too many times to believe that this could actually be the year iPadOS gets a fully baked multitasking solution, but the folks at Apple really did it. The new multitasking framework is intuitive and powerful, and it even works on my fifth-generation iPad mini. We’re in the best timeline, people.
Spatial Scenes: It’s no secret that I adored spatialized photos when they debuted on visionOS last year. Spatial scenes take that technology up a notch and expand it to all of Apple’s platforms. I can already tell I’m going to be tearing up at new perspectives on old photos in no time.
Apple TV Profile Picker: Getting someone else’s watch queue mixed up with mine is one of my pet peeves, so I’ll definitely be enabling the profile picker by default when waking up my Apple TV from now on.
Live Activities and Widgets in CarPlay: I’ve long wished for these glanceable bits of information to carry over from the phone to the car, and now they’re here – no CarPlay Ultra required. Having my day plan from Structured on my dashboard is going to be awesome.
Order Tracking in Wallet: If Apple Intelligence can automatically track all of my packages for me, the AI boom will have been worth it.
Third-Party Controls on Apple Watch and Mac: The expansion of Control Center to include third-party apps on the iPhone last year led to a lot of fun tinkering and, ultimately, utility for me. Now, the Apple Watch and Mac are set to get the same third-party app support, and I think I’ll find them just as useful.
Those are my favorite announcements from WWDC. As you can tell, I’m really happy about them. My colleagues and I are going to have a busy summer testing and reviewing these updates before they release to everyone this fall.
What were your favorite new feature announcements from WWDC? I’d love to hear what you’re looking forward to!
2025-06-14 12:18:10
I feel like I’m just now coming up for air after a busy week of WWDC news, events at the church, and trying to squeeze in some family time. It’s been exhausting but a lot of fun, and I’ve really enjoyed keeping up with all the discussion around Apple’s announcements.
I had the privilege of helping cover the conference over at MacStories. These are the stories I was able to write:
Apple Intelligence Expands: Onscreen Visual Intelligence, Shortcuts, Third-Party Apps, and More
Camera Remote and Higher-Quality Audio Recording Coming to AirPods This Fall
I also got to edit a bunch of great stories from my colleagues, including Jonathan’s overview of iOS and iPadOS 26, Niléane’s overview of macOS 26, and Sigmund’s overview of tvOS 26. You can find our full written coverage over on the site.
Sigmund and I released the latest episode of Magic Rays of Light yesterday discussing the tvOS and visionOS announcements especially, in addition to a fantastic film that debuted on Apple TV+ this weekend. And the week of coverage will wrap up with tomorrow’s issue of MacStories Weekly, which I’ll have the pleasure of editing.
It’s been a great week. I feel like I’m still absorbing all of the information as I’m trying out several of the betas myself, so I’m sure I’ll have more to say about all of them before too long. But right now, I’m just happy to be a part of such a fun community of nerds who care enough about this stuff to read and talk about it. And of course, I’m forever grateful to be a part of MacStories, where covering all of this stuff as a team is just a dream come true.
2025-06-02 11:56:09
I’ve been a fan of the new Reeder for a long time, but one thing I’ve always resisted is using the app to read my social media timelines. That changed recently, and I wrote about how it’s working out in the most recent Club MacStories Monthly Log.
It’s true: I’m down to checking just one feed for news articles, videos, and social media. And it’s awesome.
2025-05-21 11:32:28
I was slightly terrified when Federico asked me to cover Apple Music’s new Sound Therapy feature because music isn’t a topic I write about often. Trying to explain and test scientifically enhanced songs that are supposed to help you focus was certainly a new challenge. But I enjoyed diving into the feature and actually found it to be beneficial; I might even stick with it now that my testing is over.
You can read my full impressions of Sound Therapy over at MacStories.
2025-05-13 11:52:47
There are days that are hard, to be sure.
And nothing’s ever totally perfect.
But when my child pulls me in for one last bedtime hug, I’m reminded that I am the luckiest man alive.
2025-05-12 12:00:08
This afternoon, as I was taking out the trash, I thought to myself, “I should check the mail.” So I rounded the corner of my house, strolled down the driveway, and reached out to open the mailbox.
As I did, another thought occurred: “If any of my neighbors see me right now, they’re going to think I’m ridiculous.” You see, today is Sunday, and the mail doesn’t run on Sundays. Why would anyone be checking the mail today?
It’s a long story.
My son Noah, who will turn two in August, loves mail. I mean, he really loves mail. When I receive a piece of junk mail, I hand it to him, and he thinks I’ve just given him an awesome gift. “Mail!” he exclaims as he proudly carries his envelope around the house. He keeps it with him for hours before it inevitably gets forgotten and subsequently thrown out after he goes to bed.
Checking the mail when Noah’s around is a bit of a gamble because he gets very emotionally invested. If he sees me open the mailbox, he expects not only that there will be something in it, but that there will be something it for him. If the day’s mail only contains important items that I have to keep, or – more likely – if there isn’t any mail in the box at all, my son becomes quite disappointed. And he’s not shy about letting me know when he’s displeased.
And so, I’ve learned to only check the mail under certain circumstances – namely, when my son is otherwise occupied. This way, I minimize the risk of him getting upset while still maintaining the potential upside of gifting him my junk mail whenever possible. It’s a win-win. (That is, unless you look at it from an environmental perspective; why do we even have paper mail anymore?)
Which is how I found myself checking the mail on a Sunday afternoon. Noah was taking a nap, and it had been a few days since I’d had a chance to get out there, so I took advantage of the opportunity when it arose. Alas, the mailbox was empty. No junk mail treasures to share this particular Sunday.
A good deal of successfully relating to other people is learning how they tick and trying to be respectful of it. Parenting a toddler pushes this notion to the extreme – other triggers I avoid include dusting and uttering the word “outside” unless my shoes are already on – but there’s something special about caring for someone deeply enough to anticipate and accommodate their needs. It’s something I’m working to get better at each day. May we all know others so well and be known so well ourselves by someone else.