AppStories

This week on AppStories, Federico shares his first impressions of the new MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display with John.

On AppStories+, we dig into more use cases for the new MacBook Pro, the 512GB Mac Studio, and our ideal Mac setups.

Also available on YouTube here.

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Links and Show Notes

MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display

• Apple Brings Touch to the Mac with New OLED MacBook Pros
• Apple Kicks Off Touch on Mac Developer Resources with Videos and Labs
• MacBook Pro with Touch: A Mac for the iPad Generation

AppStories+ Post-Show:

• More on MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display use cases and our ideal Mac setups.

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On this week's episode of AppStories, John returns from New York, Federico returns from London, and they compare notes on the iPhone Duo and the app demos they saw.

Then on AppStories+, Federico and John discuss the durability of the iPhone Duo and the sorts of apps that developers are creating for it.

Also available on YouTube here.

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Links and Show Notes

The iPhone Duo App Rush and First Impressions

• A Day with the iPhone Duo: First Impressions
• Building for iPhone Duo, in App Developers’ Own Words
• Apps Mentioned:

• Deck-Man
• Fold Accordion
• Toastie
• Craft
• Detail
• Edits
• Netflix
• Amazon Prime Video
• NYT Cooking
• Notewise
• Fantastical
• MLB
• Asphalt Legends
• UnGodly — currently a preorder, expected November 11.

• Also mentioned:

• Apple iPhone Duo Folio with Kickstand
• Logitech Keys-To-Go 2

AppStories+ Post-Show:

• Reviews and Durability Testing

• iPhone Duo Review
• iPhone Duo 32,000-Fold Test
• iPhone Duo Review: 10,000 Folds Later…

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This week on AppStories, John and Federico talk about Apple's new HomeView, the HomePod mini 2, and Apple TV 4K (4th gen).

Then for AppStories+ subscribers, Federico and John dive into the world decomped video games, with a warning for what's to come for developers on Apple's platforms.

Also available on YouTube here.

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Links and Show Notes

Apple HomeView

• Meet Apple HomeView: A New Way to Enjoy Entertainment and Manage the Home
• Apple Unveils HomeView: A Smart Home Display Powered by Siri AI

HomePod mini 2

• Apple Announces the Next Generation of HomePod Mini
• Apple Reveals HomePod mini 2 with New Colors, Richer Sound, and Siri AI

Apple TV 4K

• Apple unveils the new Apple TV 4K, supercharged by Siri AI
• The Apple TV 4K Gets Siri AI, an A19 Chip, and a $299 Price Tag

Apple Home Collection

• Introducing Apple Home Collection, a new lineup of smart home accessories

Siri AI, iOS 27, and the AI Landscape

• Apple Is Slow-Rolling iOS 27 Adoption, So Far
• Meta's New Muse AI Agent App Overtakes ChatGPT as Top iPhone App
• John Ternus on the cover of Time

Streaming and Media Alternatives

• NVIDIA Shield TV
• Moonlight
• fx-upscale

Apps Mentioned for HomeView Widgets and CarPlay

• Overcast
• Pocket Casts
• Castro
• Mercury Weather

AppStories+ Show Notes

Decompilation and Personal Software

• AI is mass decompiling games. That's both awesome and scary
• Xbox Encourages Recomp AI Craze With New Experimental Labs Division
• Hopper Disassembler
• New on Google Play: More ways to create, discover, and play

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This week on AppStories, Federico and John start realizing the benefits of their attempt to automate all administrative tasks and explain why Apple's vague developer blog post about Full Disk Access and AI agents should concern all Mac users whether or not they use AI.

On AppStories+, as John nears the finish line on his podcast production suite for the Mac, he explains how the project started and what it's done to improve his podcasting workflow.

Also available on YouTube here.

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Links and Show Notes

Apple's Full Disk Access Announcement

• Apple Announces Plan to Impose New Full Disk Access Controls on Mac Developers
• Apple Developer Blog post
• Meta’s New Muse AI Agent Read My Private Messages. I Never Asked It To
• Meta denies its Muse AI agent read a journalist's private messages

Some Mac Utilities That Rely on Full Disk Access

• Raycast
• Alfred
• Bloom
• Setapp
• CleanMyMac
• DaisyDisk
• Pixelmator Pro

AppStories+ Post-Show

• Tools and services mentioned:
• Riverside
• Transistor
• Libsyn
• Logic Pro
• Final Cut Pro
• Hush
• iZotope RX
• Whisper

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Meet Dot: OpenAI's Always On Agent

This week on AppStories, John is back from OpenAI DevDay, so he and Federico cover the history of AI agents, the current landscape, and what OpenAI is doing with Dots.

On AppStories+, Federico provides a sneak peek at what's in store for his Reminders, Notes, and upcoming CLIs.

Also available on YouTube here.

Links and Show Notes

AI Agents

• OpenAI Dots and DevDay 2026

• OpenAI launches Dots, its bubbly agentic avatar (TechCrunch)
•

OpenAI’s Dots: A First Look

• Self Hosted Agents

• OpenClaw
• OpenClaw on GitHub
• Hermes Agent
• OpenAI hires OpenClaw creator Peter Steinberger

• Hosted Agent Competitors

• Meta's Muse becomes App Store's hottest download
• Grok Bot
• Grok Bot Brings Always-On AI Agents to macOS and iOS

AppStories+ Post-Show:

• RemCTL:

• GitHub
• MacStories: Introducing RemCTL, the Power-User Reminders CLI for macOS and AI Agents

• NotesCTL:

• Club MacStories download
• MacStories: NotesCTL, a Club MacStories Preview of Federico’s Advanced Apple Notes CLI Tool

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This week on AppStories, John shares his favorite parts of macOS and watchOS 27 from his reviews of both.

On AppStories+, Federico and John begin revisiting new their long lists of automation projects.

Also available on YouTube here.

Sponsored By:

• Scribe – AI-powered workflow documentation. Get your first month free.

Links and Show Notes

John's macOS and watchOS 27 Reviews

• macOS 27: The MacStories Review
• watchOS 27: The MacStories Review

AppStories+ Show Notes

AI Agents and Cloud Development

• Claude Code Projects
• Cursor Cloud Agents
• Muse (Meta AI agent)
• Grok Bot

Local AI on Mac Studio

• Qwen3.8 Flash Next
• Xiaomi MiMo-V2.6
• MLX
• LM Studio
• Draw Things
• oMLX
• mlx-serve
• DwarfStar
• Open Minis
• Tailscale

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This week on AppStories, John interviews Federico about his review of the M5 Ultra Mac Studio and it local AI capabilities.

On AppStories+, Federico takes listeners behind the scenes on how he tested the M5 Ultra Mac Studio.

Also available on YouTube here.

Sponsored By:

• Workbench: Remote desktop for AI agents and headless Mac minis. Free to use for 20 minutes/day.
• Claude – For problems worth solving — get started with Claude today.

Links and Show Notes

Running Local AI Models on Apple's Latest Macs

• M5 Ultra Mac Studio Review: The Dream Mac for Local AI Agents

Apple Hardware

• Mac Studio
• Mac mini
• Studio Display XDR

Local Models

• Qwen3.8-Flash-Next
• Qwen3.8-27B
• DeepSeek-V4-Flash
• GLM-5.3-Flash
• Cohere Transcribe
• Qwen3-TTS
• Qwen-Image-2.1

Local Inference and Clustering

• oMLX
• exo

Agent Apps and Tools

• Hermes Agent
• Hermes Agent on GitHub
• Open Minis
• Cadu
• OpenAI Brings Computer Use to Codex App on Windows

Frontier Models and Workflow

• GPT-6 Astra
• Claude Fable 5.1
• Claude Projects
• Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index
• Elyx

NVIDIA PC Comparison

• GeForce RTX 5090
• Lian Li A3-mATX
• NVIDIA DGX Spark

AppStories+ Post-Show:

• A preview of how Federico used local AI models to support his iOS and iPadOS 27 review.

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This week Federico shares thoughts from his review of iOS and iPadOS 27. Then in the AppStories+ post-show, he explains how he used agents to support the production of the review and Club MacStories extras.

Also available on YouTube here.

Sponsored By:

Granola – The AI notepad for back-to-back days. Try for 3 months, for free, with code MACSTORIES.

Links and Show Notes

iOS and iPadOS 27: The MacStories Review

• Federico's iOS and iPadOS 27 Review
• Our OS 27 Review Extras: eBooks, Shortcuts, and the Making of the iOS and iPadOS 27 Review

On AppStories Next Week:

• macOS 27: The MacStories Review
• watchOS 27: The MacStories Review

AppStories+ Post-Show:

• The Role Agents Played in Review Production

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This week on AppStories, we celebrate the 500th episode of the show with a look at the App Store's past, present, and future.

On AppStories+, Federico and John pick some of their all-time favorite apps.

Also available on YouTube here.

Sponsored By:

• Claude: For problems worth solving — get started with Claude today.
• Gentler Streak – Move consistently, not constantly. AppStories listeners get an extended two-week free trial with the link above.
• Shipaton, from RevenueCat: The world's biggest mobile hackathon for people who actually ship.

Links and Show Notes

App Store History

• The App Store at 10, MacStories' 2018 coverage of the App Store's 10th anniversary

Apps Discussed From The Early App Store Era

• Instapaper
• Twitterrific
• Spotify
• WhatsApp

AI and the Modern App Store

• Inside OpenAI's Codex with Andrew Ambrosino (MacStories)

AppStories+ Post-Show:

All-Time Favorite Apps

• Overcast
• Editorial
• Pythonista 3
• Drafts
• Unread: An RSS Reader
• Working Copy
• Open Minis
• Launch Center Pro
• Screens 5: VNC Remote Desktop
• Mercury Weather
• CARROT Weather
• Alyx Caffeine Tracker
• Sequel Media Tracker
• LookUp
• Chronicling
• Jayson

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This week on AppStories, Federico and John are joined by Andrew Ambrosino, the Codex team lead at OpenAI, to talk about the evolution of Codex, the unification of ChatGPT and Codex, Computer Use and Computer History, designing for user trust, and more.

On AppStories+, Andrew shares some of his favorite Mac apps and his Mac origin story.

Also available on YouTube here.

Subscribe here.

We deliver AppStories+ to subscribers with bonus content, ad-free, and at a high bitrate early every week.

To learn more about an AppStories+ subscription, visit our Plans page, or read the AppStories+ FAQ.

This episode is sponsored by:

• Finalist – A paper-inspired daily planner with notes for iPhone, iPad, Mac, and now Apple Watch. A day you design your way. For 50% off your first year use this link.

Links and Show Notes

Inside OpenAI’s Codex With Andrew Ambrosino

• Introducing the Codex App (OpenAI)
• Codex CLI (GitHub)
• Codex Documentation (OpenAI Developers)
• ChatGPT Desktop App
• ChatGPT Work
• ChatGPT Is Now a Partner for Your Most Ambitious Work (OpenAI)
• Introducing ChatGPT Atlas (OpenAI)
• OpenAI Codex Lead on the New Shape of Product Work (Lenny’s Newsletter)

Follow Andrew Ambrosino online

• Website
• X.com

AppStories+ Post-Show

• Apps Mentioned:

• Things
• Craft
• Linear
• Sketch
• Figma
• Numbers
• Keynote

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This week on AppStories, John and Federico check in on Apple’s betas with a close look at the new Siri app and how it compares to past-Siri and other chatbot products.

On AppStories+, John and Federico explain how they manage multiple Macs for automation and coding tasks.

Also available on YouTube here.

Subscribe here.

We deliver AppStories+ to subscribers with bonus content, ad-free, and at a high bitrate early every week.

To learn more about an AppStories+ subscription, visit our Plans page, or read the AppStories+ FAQ.

This episode is sponsored by:

• Finalist – A paper-inspired daily planner with notes for iPhone, iPad, Mac, and now Apple Watch. A day you design your way. For 50% off your first year use this link.
• Inoreader – Build your own newsfeed and cut through the noise.

Links and Show Notes

Beta Season

• macOS 27 Golden Gate
• iOS 27 Preview
• iPadOS 27 Preview
• macOS 27 Golden Gate: The MacStories Public Beta Preview
• Siri AI and Apple’s Trickle-Up Strategy

Siri and Apple Intelligence

• Siri
• Apple Intelligence
• App Intents

Chatbots and Models

• ChatGPT
• Improving GPT-5.6 Sol in ChatGPT and expanding access to GPT-5.6 Luna for free users
• Claude
• Claude Fable 5 and Claude Mythos 5
• Gemini
• Grok
• Kimi K3
• Open Minis

Agents and Automation

• Claude Code
• Claude Cowork
• OpenAI Codex
• Shortcuts Playground
• RemCTL

Local AI on the Mac

• MLX
• oMLX
• DeepSeek V4 Flash for MLX

AppStories+ Post-Show:

Multi-Mac Setup and Remote Access

• Tailscale
• Syncthing
• 1Password
• cmux
• Jump Desktop

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• AppStories
• Federico Viticci
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This week, on AppStories, John is joined by Christoper Lawley to discuss uses for a folding iPhone and Parchment, Lawley’s daily agenda app.

On AppStories+, John and Chris dig into audio and video workflows for podcasting and YouTube.

Also available on YouTube here.

Subscribe here.

We deliver AppStories+ to subscribers with bonus content, ad-free, and at a high bitrate early every week.

To learn more about an AppStories+ subscription, visit our Plans page, or read the AppStories+ FAQ.

This episode is sponsored by:

• Inoreader – Build Your Own Newsfeed and Cut Through the Noise
• Shipaton, from RevenueCat – The world’s biggest mobile hackathon for people who actually ship.

Links and Show Notes

The Foldable iPhone

• iPhone Fold: Everything We Know
• Logitech Keys-To-Go 2

Apple and the Creator Economy

• Apple Creator Studio
• Final Cut Pro for iPad
• Final Cut Camera
• Blackmagic Camera
• Pixelmator Pro

Parchment and Other Agenda Apps

• Parchment: Agenda and Daily Note
• Parchment
• Christopher Lawley on YouTube
• Fantastical
• BusyCal
• EventKit
• TestFlight

Automating Email and Support

• Spark
• Introducing Spark CLI: Your Inbox, Now Agent-Ready
• Codex
• Notion

Follow Chris Lawley online

• YouTube
• Website
• Comfort Zone
• Parchment

AppStories+ Post-Show

Audio and Video Production Workflows

• Logic Pro
• Final Cut Pro
• Hush
• iZotope RX
• Clear
• Unsqueeze
• Detail
• FFmpeg
• Riverside
• Video on Apple Podcasts

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This week on AppStories, Federico and John cover the app and agent experiments they’re both running.

On AppStories+, John explores the sort of rapid workflow iteration enabled by agents.

Also available on YouTube here.

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We deliver AppStories+ to subscribers with bonus content, ad-free, and at a high bitrate early every week.

To learn more about an AppStories+ subscription, visit our Plans page, or read the AppStories+ FAQ.

This episode is sponsored by:

• Inoreader – Build Your Own Newsfeed and Cut Through the Noise
• Shipaton, from RevenueCat: The world’s biggest mobile hackathon for people who actually ship.

Links and Show Notes

Summertime Projects

John’s Logic to Final Cut Automation

• Logic Pro
• Final Cut Pro
• Riverside

Federico Switches Email Clients

• Superhuman
• Spark
• ChatGPT Work
• Codex

Federico Retests Dictation Apps

• Wispr Flow
• Monologue
• Aqua Voice
• Typeless
• Superwhisper

T3 Code

• T3 Code
• T3 Code on GitHub
• Nerd Snipe with Theo and Ben

John’s Research System

• Parallel
• Firecrawl
• Defuddle

AppStories+ Post-Show:

• Advancing Voice Intelligence With New Models in the API (OpenAI)
• Desert Ant Labs
• Pokémon Red & Blue mod turns the classic RPG into a sick 3D voxel game

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This week on AppStories, John and Federico discuss the changing face of the AI-fueled App Store and questionable changes made to TestFlight before going into the nerdiest details of Open Minis, an iOS app that brings desktop-class agents onto the iPhone and iPad.

Then on AppStories+, Federico and John explore Cmux, a Mac terminal app with an iPhone and iPad beta that makes it easier than ever to sync coding projects across devices.

Also available on YouTube here.

Subscribe here.

We deliver AppStories+ to subscribers with bonus content, ad-free, and at a high bitrate early every week.

To learn more about an AppStories+ subscription, visit our Plans page, or read the AppStories+ FAQ.

This episode is sponsored by:

• Inoreader – Build Your Own Newsfeed and Cut Through the Noise
• Claude – For problems worth solving — get started with Claude today.
• Scribe – AI-powered workflow documentation. Get your first month free.

Links and Show Notes

App Store Chaos

• App Store Chaos
• See also: A.I. ‘Vibecoded’ Apps Are Flooding Apple’s App Store

TestFlight Woes

• TestFlight: One Step Forward, Two Steps Back
• See also: Apple just improved TestFlight for users with a lot of beta apps

Open Minis

• Open Minis Is the iOS Agent I Wish Siri AI Could Be

AppStories+ Post-Show:

• Cmux

• Founder’s Edition ($30) includes iOS beta

• CLIProxyAPI

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This week, on AppStories, Federico and John look at what Siri AI is good at, where it needs improvement, and where it might be heading.

On AppStories+, the conversation expands to Federico and John’s experiences with the betas of macOS Golden Gate, iOS 27, and iPadOS 27.

Also available on YouTube here.

Subscribe here.

We deliver AppStories+ to subscribers with bonus content, ad-free, and at a high bitrate early every week.

To learn more about an AppStories+ subscription, visit our Plans page, or read the AppStories+ FAQ.

This episode is sponsored by:

• Daylite: The only made-for-mac CRM solution. Start your free trial today.
• Decagon: The AI concierge for every customer. Get a personalized demo.

Links and Show Notes

All About Siri AI

• Siri AI and Apple’s Trickle-Up Strategy
• Also: Apple introduces Siri AI, a profoundly more capable and personal assistant

AppStories+ Post-Show:

• macOS 27 Golden Gate: The MacStories Public Beta Preview

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This week on AppStories, Federico and John look at our experiences with Claude Fable 5 and how they differ from other models and break down the controversial changes made by OpenAI to its Mac’s ChatGPT app.

Then on AppStories+, John and Federico contrast their experiences with Fable 5 and OpenAI’s new family of GPT 5.6 models.

Also available on YouTube here or download the transcript here.

Subscribe here.

We deliver AppStories+ to subscribers with bonus content, ad-free, and at a high bitrate early every week.

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This episode is sponsored by:

• Daylite: The only made-for-Mac CRM solution. Start your free trial today.

Links and Show Notes

App State

• Appalachian State University

Anthropic’s Claude Fable 5

• Claude Fable

What did OpenAI Do to ChatGPT?

• The New ChatGPT

• The ChatGPT “Super App” Sort of Super Sucks

• AppStories, Episode 483: Codex as a Productivity Super App

AppStories+ Post-Show

• GPT 5.6 Announcement

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This week on AppStories, Federico and John talk about the 10+ email apps they’ve used over the years and how their strategies for dealing with recent spikes in email volume has caused them to change their approaches.

On AppStories+, Federico and John update listeners on their summertime agentic coding projects.

Also available on YouTube here.

Subscribe here.

We deliver AppStories+ to subscribers with bonus content, ad-free, and at a high bitrate early every week.

To learn more about an AppStories+ subscription, visit our Plans page, or read the AppStories+ FAQ.

This episode is sponsored by:

• Decagon: The AI concierge for every customer. Get a personalized demo.

Email Survival Guide

Apps and Services Mentioned

• Spark
• Mimestream
• Superhuman
• Shortwave
• Missive
• Airmail
• Hey
• SaneBox
• Clean Email
• Dispatch
• Mailbox
• Inbox by Gmail
• Mailplane

AI and Automation Tools

• Claude Code
• OpenAI Codex
• Raycast
• Notion

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This week on AppStories, Federico and John talk about the state of AI aggregator apps and their future prospects before checking in on their current AI app setups for the AppStories+ post-show.

Also available on YouTube here.

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We deliver AppStories+ to subscribers with bonus content, ad-free, and at a high bitrate early every week.

To learn more about an AppStories+ subscription, visit our Plans page, or read the AppStories+ FAQ.

This episode is sponsored by:

• Mercury Weather: Forecasts, beautifully done. Download now for free.
• Claude: For problems worth solving — get started with Claude today.

Links and Show Notes

AI Aggregator Apps

• The Pros and Cons of AI Aggregator Apps
• Apps Mentioned

• Raycast
• Bolt AI
• Perplexity
• Notion
• Alter

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This week on AppStories, John and Federico are back home and reflect on all the WWDC announcements, including Siri AI, Apple Intelligence, design changes, developer tools, and more.

On AppStories+, we check in on our research setups and how they fared at WWDC.

Also available on YouTube here.

Subscribe here.

We deliver AppStories+ to subscribers with bonus content, ad-free, and at a high bitrate early every week.

To learn more about an AppStories+ subscription, visit our Plans page, or read the AppStories+ FAQ.

This episode is sponsored by:

• Decagon: The AI concierge for every customer. Get a personalized demo.
• Mercury Weather: Forecasts, beautifully done. Download now for free.

Links and Show Notes

Apple Intelligence and Siri AI

• Apple Intelligence
• App Intents
• Private Cloud Compute

iOS 27 Design

• This Is How Apple Rolls

Xcode and Developer Tools

• Xcode
• Foundation Models
• Sqim

Apple Photos and Image Playground

• Image Playground

AppStories+ Post-Show:

iOS Review Research Systems

• Notion
• Notion AI
• Notion Web Clipper
• Obsidian
• defuddle
• Firecrawl

Hardware

• reMarkable Paper Pure

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In a second special WWDC edition of AppStories, Federico and John interview Apple Design Award finalists and winners, including the developers of The Outsiders and Tide Guide and the publishers of Pine Hearts and BALL x PIT.

Also available on YouTube here.

Subscribe here.

We deliver AppStories+ to subscribers with bonus content, ad-free, and at a high bitrate early every week.

To learn more about an AppStories+ subscription, visit our [Plans page](https://www.macstories.net/appstories-plans/, or read the AppStories+ FAQ.

This episode is sponsored by:

• Sofa – Organize everything you watch, read, play, and do. AppStories listeners can get 25% off the first year of Super Sofa with the link above.
• Agenda – Date-focused notes deeply integrated with the Apple ecosystem.
• Dropzone 5 – The essential drag & drop productivity enhancer for Mac. AppStories listeners can get 50% off the usual $35 price of Dropzone 5 using the link above.

Links and Show Notes

Apple Design Award Winners

• Tide Guide (Visuals and Graphics) by Condor Digital
• Pine Heart (Inclusivity) by Hyper Luminal Games Limited

Apple Design Award Finalists

• The Outsiders (Interaction) by Gentler Stories
• BALL x PIT (Delight and Fun) by Kenny Sun Studios

MacStories Coverage of the ADAs

• 2026 Apple Design Awards Winners Announced
• Apple Announces Its 2026 Apple Design Award Finalists

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