Parker Ortolani

Developer @daeken on Twitter has gotten Nintendo Switch games to run on Apple Silicon Macs. The implementation is not quite perfect yet due to the technical limitations of the MoltenVK runtime library, which “maps Vulkan to Apple’s Metal graphics framework.” Even with these limitations, the emulation looks very promising.

Unlike the smartphone market, the streaming box market is chock full of competition. Apple joined the fray in 2007 with the first generation Apple TV but things didn’t really pick up until the second generation model in 2010. Along the way, Apple had to contend with new competitors like Roku, Amazon’s Fire streaming devices, Google’s TV efforts, and other smart TV operating systems like webOS on LG TVs. This isn’t even to mention indirect competition from game consoles like the Xbox and PlayStation. In 2020, Apple TV 4K and Apple TV HD are by far the most expensive streaming boxes. But unlike other Apple products, the Apple TV doesn’t do much to justify the premium.

Apple has been releasing smart accessories at a rapidly increasing rate. Many of them are accessories designed to not just work with your Apple devices, but require you to use an Apple device. Currently, Apple has settings and management tools for their accessories all over the place. Apple Watch has its own management app, AirPods are buried in Bluetooth settings and peripherals customization exists deep in the Settings app. There’s got to be a better solution and I think it’s turning the dedicated Watch app into an Accessories app.

Burgeoning newsletter platform Substack launched a new web app today that brings together all of your subscriptions in one convenient inbox. The new web app is in beta, but it already shows lots of promise. It offers rapid access to all of your subscriptions in a sidebar on the left, and even lets users throw their favorite RSS feeds into the mix. It’s a much cleaner experience than sifting through your email inbox.

By the time you are reading this, Apple Fitness+ will have probably launched. It’s not Apple’s first foray into social fitness but it is a giant opportunity for them to expand the Apple Watch’s user base. Apple Watch is the best selling watch in the world, but there are still tons of people who either want to wear a traditional watch or don’t want to spend the money on a new Apple Watch. The latter tend to purchase Fitbits or other popular fitness bands that still have basic smartwatch features and track their fitness.

With the public release of iOS 14.3 today, Apple has made the experience of using custom home screen icons much better. Now custom icons created through the Shortcuts app launch right into your desired app instead of opening the Shortcuts app first.

Below you can find a roundup of some beautiful and unique custom icon packs to spice up your iOS or iPadOS device. If you don’t already know how to add these icons to your Home Screen, you can check out our how-to guide.

Nearly all of Apple’s MagSafe accessories for iPhone 12 provide a decent amount of value. But one of them has so much underutilized potential coupled with an astronomical price tag. Of course, I’m talking about Apple’s new MagSafe Sleeve.

Apple has been making really high-quality leather sleeves for various products for a couple of years now but the MagSafe Leather Sleeve is unique. Not only does the MagSafe Sleeve include a card slot, it also has a window that displays the clock and occasionally pertinent information. Unfortunately, Apple hasn’t taken full advantage of what it’s created.