@viticci@mastodon.macstories.net

· 3mo ago

"Don’t hold back on telling people they made something you love or admire." https://daringfireball.net/2026/06/om

Daring Fireball

Om

This is going to sound cornier than a bucket of Jiffy-Pop, but it is a profound irony that a man with such a big and beautiful figurative heart could have such a lousy literal one.

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· 2mo ago

I'm not exaggerating when I say that this is the most impressive iOS app I've seen in a long time. Open Minis is an iOS agent app that combines LLMs with native Apple frameworks – dozens of them – and gives us a glimpse of Siri AI for power users, today. My story: https://www.macstories.net/reviews/open-minis-is-the-ios-agent-i-wish-siri-ai-could-be/

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

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

Every once in a while, I come across a third-party app that either resets my expectations for a particular niche of software on iOS or creates an entirely new category altogether. I’ve had quite a few of these moments in the 17 years I’ve been writing app reviews at MacStories: Editorial, Workflow, Obsidian, Sky, and,

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My story: https://www.macstories.net/stories/introducing-remctl-the-power-user-reminders-cli-for-macos-and-ai-agents/

· 4mo ago

Introducing RemCTL: the power-user CLI for Apple Reminders.

Unlike other CLIs, RemCTL supports the complete Reminders feature set. Subtasks, tags, sections, image attachments, templates – you name it. Everything is here.

Designed for people and agents. I've been using this for the past two months, and I love it so much. Hope you'll like it too!

Free and open source: https://github.com/viticci/remctl

GitHub

GitHub - viticci/remctl: An Apple Reminders CLI for power users and AI agents. RemCTL supports all the latest Reminders features such as sections, subtasks, tags, rich links, groceries lists, templates, smart lists, and image attachments. (Not affiliated

An Apple Reminders CLI for power users and AI agents. RemCTL supports all the latest Reminders features such as sections, subtasks, tags, rich links, groceries lists, templates, smart lists, and im...

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· 3mo ago

Figured out how to decrypt Apple OS .ipsw image files with a CLI, had Codex install another CLI for extracting .icon files, set it on a goal and… …I can now quickly do icon comparisons between iOS 26 and 27 for my review 🫡 iOS 26 on the left. Some examples here.

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· 5mo ago

gotta catch 'em all

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· 3mo ago

The rollout of the unified ChatGPT for Mac app really isn't going well on X/Reddit 🥶 They kinda fumbled it and I think Anthropic did a slightly better job on first try. Even OpenAI's existing iOS app makes more sense than their new Mac layout right now. The difference between "normal" chatbot chats, Work/Cowork harnesses with connectors, and Code/Codex local threads and filesystem access is the new UX hell for these companies.

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· 6mo ago

I've been away from Overcast for a few years and recently came back because of transcripts.

Genius implementation by @marcoarment@mastodon.social (based on Apple's audio APIs), and the app is a lot better than I remembered! The audio effects are superior to Pocket Casts, and I dig the Liquid Glass look.

Highly, highly recommended if, like me, you moved to something else a while back.

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https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2026/04/tim-cook-to-become-apple-executive-chairman-john-ternus-to-become-apple-ceo/

· 5mo ago

It really happened. John Ternus is Apple's new CEO.

Letter from Tim Cook: https://www.apple.com/community-letter-from-tim/

Apple Newsroom

Tim Cook to become Apple Executive Chairman John Ternus to become Apple CEO

Apple announced Tim Cook will become executive chairman of Apple’s board of directors and John Ternus will become Apple’s next CEO.

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https://www.macstories.net/news/stainless-cruz/

· 5mo ago

Happy 17th birthday, @macstories@mastodon.macstories.net 🎂

Thank you all for reading and supporting us so far. Who knew that writing about Mac browsers could get us here? 😅

Stainless & Cruz, two new Mac browsers

Let‘s talk about two interesting browsers for Mac, recently released but very promising: Stainless http://stainlessapp.com/ Cruz http://cruzapp.com/ The former, Stainless, is freely inspired by Google Chrome process management: you can open “single-session” tabs with separate cookies management. Put simply, if your dream has always been to be able to log-in with two accounts simultaneously on

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· 5mo ago

Replying to

The Apple Frames CLI is *incredibly* fast. Here's a video (not sped up) showing how it frames 50 screenshots in an instant. It's highly customizable, supports more options than the shortcut, and comes with a skill for Claude Code/Codex. You can even use it while Claude Code is testing your iOS apps in the Simulator to automate screenshots for the App Store. Avaiable here with detailed docs: https://github.com/viticci/frames-cli

GitHub

GitHub - viticci/frames-cli: Frame screenshots and screen recordings taken on Apple devices with official product bezels.

Frame screenshots and screen recordings taken on Apple devices with official product bezels. - viticci/frames-cli

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· 2mo ago

Unexpected Codex use case: set up an Android handheld for me. @johnvoorhees@mastodon.macstories.net got me into this: enable USB debugging and just let the agent rip. Codex installed Cocoon frontend on my AYN Thor, transferred all my ROMs, and is currently configuring emulators, mods, and other apps. It's just working in the background and cross-referencing YouTube/Reddit sources to set everything up, so I can focus on cooking for the family instead. Incredible. @dimillian@mastodon.social

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· 6mo ago

Replying to

Here is LunarWall 🌒 A simple shortcut that shuffles #artemis Moon photos on your Lock Screen or Mac desktop. Fetched directly from the NASA API, free to use, runs in a second. Great to use as an automation during the day! Download: https://www.macstories.net/ios/lunarwall-shuffle-moon-photos-from-artemis-ii-on-your-lock-screen-or-mac-desktop/

LunarWall: Shuffle Moon Photos from Artemis II On Your Lock Screen or Mac Desktop

LunarWall: Shuffle Moon Photos from Artemis II On Your Lock Screen or Mac Desktop

I've been staring at my Lock Screen and macOS desktop a lot this week. Not because of John's iMessage notifications or the weird handhelds we share in the NPC group thread – because of the Moon. Specifically, because of photos taken by Orion as it swung within 4,067 miles of the lunar surface during the

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· 4mo ago

A proof of concept:

I figured how to remotely start a Codex session from an iOS shortcut.

The shortcut writes to a file; a macOS file watcher picks up the change, and uses the new thread APIs of Codex App Server to start a new thread. The thread is immediately visible in the Codex app too.

I'll combine this with dictation so I can kick off tasks from Apple Watch, etc.

(Would be great to have native webhook/external triggers @dimillian@mastodon.social)

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· 3mo ago

Replying to

Here's another example of typical Gemini behavior appearing in Siri AI: Siri starts giving a wrong response, changes its mind, continues paragraph with a different (and correct) response. (I've seen Gemini Flash models do this all the time.) (Sonnet 5 Medium on the right.)

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· 2mo ago

From last night, we published: My thoughts on Siri AI https://www.macstories.net/stories/siri-ai-and-apples-trickle-up-strategy/ First impressions for: Golden Gate https://www.macstories.net/stories/macos-27-golden-gate-the-macstories-public-beta-preview/ watchOS 27 https://www.macstories.net/stories/watchos-27-the-macstories-public-beta-preview/ visionOS 27 https://www.macstories.net/stories/visionos-27-the-macstories-beta-preview/

Siri AI and Apple’s Trickle-Up Strategy

In the month that I've been using iOS 27 (launching in public beta today) and the new Siri AI, I've come to a few conclusions: Siri AI is a much better Siri and will (probably) be a massive success; the newfound chatbot capabilities of Siri will pose a serious threat to OpenAI and the vast

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· 4mo ago

We're going to have more on this soon – Codex remote control is now in the ChatGPT app and, so far, it's exactly what I wanted.

Full remote control of a Mac server running Codex. Multiple Macs supported. Shares the same config for permissions, projects, plugins, everything.

😍

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· 4mo ago

Replying to

One more Codex tip:

Ask Codex to extract its own app icon
Save to Photos on iOS and crop it
Create shortcut to Open Codex
Add to Home Screen with official Codex icon

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· 6mo ago

Replying to

A technical note: This shortcut was entirely generated by my upcoming (for real!) Shortcuts Playground system, and manually verified by me. It's the first time I'm sharing one of these publicly. More soon!

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· 3mo ago

I wrote some thoughts on the role of the iPad and iPadOS in a post-agent world, and the continuous rise of macOS. Headless Macs and Hamstrung iPads https://www.macstories.net/stories/headless-macs-and-hamstrung-ipads/

Headless Macs and Hamstrung iPads

In the current era of coding agents becoming productivity assistants, iPadOS’ limitations are no longer defined by the lack of desktop-class multitasking or access to external peripherals. A new class of iPadOS shortcomings looms large on the horizon: the iPad's app sandboxing and the absence of an open filesystem have relegated it to acting as

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· 5mo ago

Claude Opus 4.7, new Codex app, and Perplexity's Personal Computer all dropped today

It's impossible to keep up with all this 🫨

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· 5mo ago

Some thoughts on the new Codex 'computer use' plugin, why it's better than alternatives, and how it comes directly from the Sky app I tested last year:

OpenAI’s New Codex App Has the Best ‘Computer Use’ Feature I’ve Ever Tested https://www.macstories.net/notes/openais-new-codex-app-has-the-best-computer-use-feature-ive-ever-tested/

OpenAI’s New Codex App Has the Best ‘Computer Use’ Feature I’ve Ever Tested

OpenAI rolled out their updated Codex app for Mac yesterday and, among other things, they shipped a native computer use tool for macOS that lets Codex interact with multiple Mac apps in the background using parallel cursors that do not bring apps to the foreground when agents are interacting with them. The feature that OpenAI

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· 5mo ago

A day's worth of working in Codex, and I got myself a little iOS 26 app that takes HDR screenshots from Windows 11, normalizes them to HEIC sRGB, and lets me share them.

It even uses the Files APIs to persistently bookmark a location in the Files app and auto-ingests images (uploaded using iCloud for Windows).

Unrelated: Pragmata 😍

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https://www.macstories.net/news/google-releases-gemini-for-mac/

· 5mo ago

Nice to see a native, 100% Swift Gemini app from Google on the Mac:

Google Releases Gemini for Mac

Google released a native Mac app for its Gemini chatbot today. The app, which can be launched from your Applications folder, Dock, the menu bar, or a global hotkey, will be familiar to anyone who has used Gemini in a browser. The chatbot supports Gemini 3 in Fast and Thinking modes, as well as Pro

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· 4mo ago

The trend of native apps + CLIs is picking up. I've been loving the new CLI and agent skills of Spark desktop.

Our @johnvoorhees@mastodon.macstories.net with more details: https://www.macstories.net/reviews/spark-mail-adds-a-mac-cli-and-agent-skills/

(And another CLI-related story from me later today!)

Spark Mail Adds a Mac CLI and Agent Skills

About two weeks ago, Spark, the email app by Readdle, was updated with a CLI and a set of agentic skills for Claude Code, Codex, and other agents, allowing them read-only access to messages, calendar events, contacts, and meeting notes. These features were extended again a few days ago with new abilities that added email

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· 5mo ago

Replying to

@stroughtonsmith@mastodon.social "create plan to make iPhone more durable, make no mistakes, ultrathink"

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· 5mo ago

Replying to

Yep, can confirm this is based on Sky's tech and is actually superior to the basic vision-based Personal Computer released today by Perplexity today. Codex's computer use is actually even faster than the Sky I remember. Color me impressed.

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· 5mo ago

This week for @club@mastodon.macstories.net members, I wrote about how I fixed something that annoyed me for a while:

Syncing Codex skills and AGENTS.md between multiple Macs: https://www.macstories.net/club/macstories-weekly-issue-512/how-i-keep-codex-skills-and-agents-md-in-sync-between-multiple-macs/

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· 5mo ago

Two Steam Controllers successfully preordered ✅

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· 4mo ago

And also today for @club@mastodon.macstories.net members:

The Automation Academy is back with a deep dive into my Codex Automations setup, and how you can configure the Codex app to automate basically anything on your Mac.

Detailed guide + prompts and ideas here: https://www.macstories.net/club/automate-everything-on-macos-with-codex/

Automation Academy: How I Can Automate Anything I Want Using Codex for Mac

Automation Academy: How I Can Automate Anything I Want Using Codex for Mac

It’s hard to spot long-term trends in the AI world when things are changing so quickly on a weekly basis, but if we try and look back at the first five months of 2026, it’s undeniable that the rise of personal AI agents has been a central theme of the year. What started as a

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https://chatgpt.com/codex/pricing/

· 4mo ago

Codex pricing page leaked an unreleased model: GPT-5.5-Codex-Spark (research preview).

Curious to see how a small GPT-5.5 on Cerebras works. I didn't really like 5-3-Codex-Spark.

chatgpt.com

Codex Pricing

Explore Codex pricing plans for every stage—from free trials to enterprise deployments. Get flexible usage, powerful AI coding models, and seamless workflow integration to help your team build and scale faster.

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· 5mo ago

I'm glad we recently decided to go back to Spark for email – their new CLI and skills bundle is very good and perfect to use with agents. This is the way to go: https://github.com/readdle/spark-cli-skills (See also: https://mastodon.macstories.net/@viticci/116381066450572129)

GitHub

GitHub - readdle/spark-cli-skills: Spark CLI Skills

Spark CLI Skills. Contribute to readdle/spark-cli-skills development by creating an account on GitHub.

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· 5mo ago

For the (very few) people who probably care:

It appears that Apple's signing server for Shortcuts (accessed from macOS with `shortcuts sign` CLI) has been down for a while, and I can't programmatically sign any .shortcut files right now.

🤔

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· 5mo ago

@gruber@mastodon.social Re: iPhone "Duo" name – I bet on it for our annual @connected@relayfm.social game in January, and we know that Apple loves to reuse names.

https://overcast.fm/+AAFXx6hag-g/1:12:54 (remember MagSafe Duo?)

overcast.fm

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@agiletortoise@mastodon.social 🥺 https://www.macstories.net/reviews/drafts-review/

· 6mo ago

Replying to

Drafts Review

In the past months, there’s been a surge of “launcher apps” – lightweight utilities that allow iOS users to perform common tasks such as calling someone or starting a FaceTime call without having to use Apple’s apps, and thus their entire interfaces. However, while the concept of launchers and shortcuts has been around for years

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· 4mo ago

Today on @macstories@mastodon.macstories.net, I wrote about why I like Monologue for dictation so much: its new Monologue Notes feature + CLI is great for agents and automation: https://www.macstories.net/notes/monologue-notes-cli/

A Dictation App with a CLI Is Exactly What I Needed

A Dictation App with a CLI Is Exactly What I Needed

As I mentioned in a recent issue of MacStories Weekly for Club members, I believe that reliable dictation and text-to-speech are largely solved problems in the AI industry right now for most languages. There are certainly subtle differences between the latest models and not-so-subtle discrepancies when you consider local (and free) transcription models versus cloud-hosted

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🎧 https://www.macstories.net/podcasts/appstories-plus/487/

· 4mo ago

🤖 This week on @appstories@mastodon.macstories.net: we share our WWDC automation wishes.

🔎 On the members-only post-show: Summer research setups.

Episode out tomorrow, or available today (and ad-free) for AppStories+ subscribers.

Our WWDC Automation Wish List

This week on AppStories, Federico and John share their WWDC automation wishes. Then on AppStories+, they share more details on their research setups for the summer. Also available on YouTube here. [[audio_player]] This episode is sponsored by: Things: The award-winning to-do app. Links and Show Notes Our WWDC Automation Wish List Apple Intelligence and the

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RE: https://mastodon.macstories.net/@macstories/116535077084726529

· 5mo ago

This is pretty genius; would love to see it elsewhere.

MacStories on Mastodon

MacStories (@macstories@macstories.net)

Spotify CLI Turns Personalized Audio into a Podcast Feed https://www.macstories.net/linked/spotify-cli-turns-personalized-audio-into-a-podcast-feed/

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https://www.macstories.net/club/macstories-weekly-issue-515/region-free-computer-use-in-codex-for-mac-with-cua-driver/

· 4mo ago

This week for @club@mastodon.macstories.net members, I wrote about a great Computer Use plugin for Codex that is region-free and can be used by anyone:

Region-Free Computer Use in Codex for Mac with Cua Driver

Native computer use in Codex is one of my favorite features of the Mac app – let alone the best implementation of computer use I’ve tested – and since I last wrote about it, it’s gotten even better with the addition of Appshots, which are directly inspired by the concept of Skyshots that I covered

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· 5mo ago

Replying to

@nicoreese@mastodon.social Yes!! One can dream (I have built my own CLI for Reminders that I will share soon)

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https://www.macstories.net/club/macstories-weekly-issue-509/the-new-frontier-of-app-automation-comes-from-the-mid-1960s/

· 5mo ago

Also for @club@mastodon.macstories.net members: I wrote about withered technology and the weird resurgence of CLIs in the AI era.

The New Frontier of App Automation Comes From the Mid-1960s

Over the past few months, I’ve noticed an interesting change in my workflow and app download habits. I increasingly tend to prioritize native apps that, in addition to common Apple system features such as widgets and Shortcuts actions, also offer programmatic access to their databases either via a web API or desktop command-line interfaces (CLIs).

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· 6mo ago

Replying to

@stuartcrabtree Yes, I'll update it if needed!

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