iMessage Notification Overwhelm

Jason Snell, writing at MacWorld regarding iMessage Tapbacks:

They’re fun! But they also generate, by default, an additional notification and a haptic tap every time a new one is made. And that means that the average post in a group text thread will now generate three, four, five, or more notifications–because it includes not just the post, but notifications for every single reaction.

Jason makes some great points about iMessage notifications and ways Apple could empower users to fine tune them, but this part about Tapbacks really resonated with me. In a world where the 👍 emoji is shorthand for, “I saw this message,” there’s no need to clog up my notification center with a bunch of them. We need the option to turn Tapback notifications off.

Talking visionOS 2 on Vision Pros

Tim Chaten was kind enough to have me back on Vision Pros this week to talk about my visionOS 2 review and our overall thoughts on the update. I enjoy nerding out with Tim about visionOS regularly, and this time, we recorded it for all to hear!

My visionOS 2 Review at MacStories

Joining the MacStories team – first as a podcast host and then as an editor – has been one of the highlights of my year. I love the amazing team I get to work with, and I’m really proud of the work we do for the site and the Club every day. Today is extra special, though, because I have the honor of doing something I never dreamed of: writing an official MacStories Review.

Federico’s annual iOS and iPadOS reviews are legendary in the Apple community, and John’s macOS reviews have become a staple as well. Being asked to write a review with the MacStories name on it is something I don’t take lightly. And so it’s with great humility that I took on the challenge of reviewing this year’s update to visionOS.

visionOS 2 is out this week, just seven months after the platform made its world debut. The progress the team has made in that time is downright impressive, bringing new features and quality-of-life improvements that users will benefit from everyday.

What might seem on the surface like a quiet update actually reveals foundational changes underneath. Spatial computing is a young paradigm, and no rules are set in stone. It’s an exciting time.

I’ve spent the last few months living with visionOS 2, using it for work, entertainment, and to relive my favorite memories in a new way. I have thoughts on changes to the system, the experience of using it every day, and what I hope is on the horizon.

It’s my privilege to present visionOS: The MacStories Review.

The New Reeder

Ever since I started using RSS to read articles from my favorites sites, Reeder has been my go-to app for catching up on my feeds. A brand new version is out today, and it takes the app in a whole new direction. From my review on MacStories:

The best word to describe the new Reeder is "ambitious." Its purpose is not just to be your RSS reader, but your inbox for keeping up with feeds of many different kinds from various sources across the Internet – text from websites, sure, but also videos on YouTube, audio from podcasts, posts on social media, and more. It's a one-stop shop for the feeds you follow online, collecting them together into a single timeline that you can seamlessly browse across all of your devices.

For more details on the update and my thoughts after using it daily for some time, check out the full review. It was a privilege to get to cover the app for the site, and I had a lot of fun putting the story together.

Headphones (Again)

I’ve been known to have some pretty big feelings about headphones. But after years of failed attempts, I finally found the right set for me: Beats Solo 4. I even got a chance to review them in the latest Club MacStories Monthly Log. It’s a happy ending to a long story, so I invite you to check it out if that sounds like your kind of thing.