iPad Pros 200 →

Tim Chaten kindly had me back on iPad Pros for the show’s 200th episode special, where we turned the tables and I got to interview him! He’s created his own version of the MacPad using a damaged M1 MacBook Air, and I had a lot of questions about it. It was such a fun discussion covering the benefits of a Mac/iPad hybrid, combining the MacPad with Apple Vision Pro, and even using a headless MacBook Air as an affordable Mac Mini replacement. You can listen here.

My Favorite WWDC Announcements (2024 Edition)

With WWDC week winding down, I’ve had some time to take in all of Apple’s announcements and check out small details people are discovering in the OS betas. These are the new features that speak most to me:

  • iOS: Customizing Control Center is going to be so much fun. I’ve spent a lot of time tweaking my setup in its current iteration because I get so much use out of it. Being able to make it work exactly the way I want and add third-party apps to it is like a dream come true. The resizing options for different controls look intriguing, too.
  • iPadOS: The absence of the Calculator app is such a long-running joke that it’s almost sad the era’s coming to an end, but I do a lot of budget-balancing on my iPad, so I’m excited to have Calculator available there.
  • macOS: The Passwords app is coming to iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS, too, but since Apple highlighted it as a Mac feature, I thought I’d mention it here. I’ve been all-in on iCloud for passwords for as long as it’s been around, and finally being able to manage and share those credentials from a full-fledged app is going to be sweet.
  • visionOS: There is so much about visionOS 2 that excites me as someone who spends a lot of time in my Apple Vision Pro. The quality-of-life improvements like easier access to Control Center and the option to rearrange apps on the Home View are so welcome. I can’t wait to spatialize some of my family photos, too.
  • tvOS: InSight is exactly what I need when I’m watching TV. It bugs me to no end when I can’t figure out where I recognize an actor from, and now that information will be readily available, at least for Apple Originals. I can’t wait to try it.
  • watchOS: Live Activities are great on my iPhone, but they make so much more sense on the Watch, which I’m much more likely to glance at when I need to check on something. They’ll be a great addition to the Smart Stack, especially once I get a watch with double tap.
  • Home: I’m finally going to be able to set my preferred home hub! This will save me so much troubleshooting and hopefully make my smart home setup even more reliable.
  • Apple Intelligence: The part that most impressed me about the Apple Intelligence announcement was the system’s ability to use information it knows about me to respond contextually to requests. That has a ton of potential, and I look forward to seeing what I can do with it in practice.
  • Services: I love to see Apple’s services continue to evolve. Wallet additions like Tap to Provision and richer event tickets look useful, and I like the direction the company went in redesigning Fitness+.
  • Development: FinanceKit is easier for developers to access now, which is a win for budgeting nerds like me. I hope we see a slew of personal finance apps integrate with it this fall.

There was so much more announced for this year, and I look forward to experiencing it all for myself. But these are the features I’m most interested in, so I’ll be trying them first when I get my hands on this year’s updates.

Which of the new features announced this week are you most looking forward to? I’d love to hear your thoughts on the OS updates, Apple Intelligence, and everything else about WWDC 2024.

WWDC Coverage

I had the privilege of helping cover Apple’s WWDC announcements this week alongside the rest of the MacStories team. We’ve got overviews of all the major platform updates plus Apple Intelligence, so I encourage you to check those out.

These are the pieces I wrote:

I also got to edit a few of my colleagues’ great articles, and I wrapped up my portion of WWDC coverage today with the latest episode of Magic Rays of Light, where Sigmund and I recap tvOS 18, visionOS 2, Immersive Video updates, and more.

It’s been a fun week taking in all of the exciting news and working with my friends to share it. Being on team MacStories is something special, and never more so than when we’re covering an event as monumental as this. Now it's time to catch up on any tidbits I missed this week and maybe even get some hands-on time with an update or two.

Structured Cloud

Planning my days with Structured is one of the most impactful habits I practice. With its unique combination of Calendar events, Reminders to-dos, and custom tasks on a daily timeline, the app helps me stay on top of what I need to do and, more importantly, go into each day confident that I can accomplish what's necessary in a manageable way. The value of that feeling can't be quantified.

One of the very few sticking points I've run into with Structured has been syncing. From the beginning, the app relied on Apple's iCloud backend for keeping tasks in sync across devices. iCloud does a great job of making sure all of the data goes where it's supposed to go, but it is limited in certain ways, too. The big one for me is backgroud syncing. For whatever reason, syncing in the background isn't a built-in feature of CloudKit the way it is in Apple's first-party apps. Because of that, editing my day plan on one device wouldn't automatically update it on another device until the app was actually opened, rendering features like widgets and watch complications much less useful.

All of that is in the past now, though, thanks to Structured Cloud. The Structured team has rolled out their own custom syncing solution in beta as an optional alternative to iCloud syncing. I turned it on as soon as I possibly could, and I've been quite pleased by the change. Signing up was as simple as providing my email address. After entering a one-time code sent to my email, I was signed in and ready to go. Tasks now sync just as seamlessly as they did before, with the added benefit that it all happens in the background without any extra effort on my part.

Where I've noticed this change the most is on my Apple Watch. My main watch face complication is the Structured timeline because I want to be able to quickly glance at my wrist and see what I should be up to and how long I have to until my next task. Because of the quirks of iCloud, I used to manually open the Watch app every day to force a sync and keep my day plan up-to-date. Now, that information is always accurate whether I manually open the app or not. Amazing!

Structured Cloud also sets the stage for future additions like a web version and integration with Structured's Android app. The mixture of Reminders and Calendar data with custom, cross-platform sync is intriguing, and I can't wait to see where the team goes with it.

To be completely honest, this experience has changed the way I think about iCloud. I've often looked at apps that use their own syncing solution and thought, "Why don't they just use iCloud? It's so much simpler and doesn't require me to set up another account." Having seen what Structured Cloud is capable of, I now understand the benefits of looking outside of CloudKit for syncing, though I'm still glad that it's an option for developers.

I'm so impressed by what the Structured team has done here. If you're a user on the fence about trying their new cloud solution, I can say with confidence that it's an improvement and worth switching to. Go for it! And if you're reading this and haven't given Structured a spin yet, you know I'm going to recommend it. I've only written about the app three times now. So here's your opportunity to try it for yourself, new cloud syncing and all. An app's syncing experience is so important, and Structured Cloud gets it right.