Apps

CarPlay is about to get even better with iOS 27 in September. New features including a dedicated Siri app and Siri AI will upgrade Apple’s car infotainment system for iPhone users.

Even before the big iPhone software update officially launches, CarPlay in August has improved for everyone with three big app releases.

While CarPlay supports hundreds of apps, Apple Weather isn’t one of them. The good news is that starting today, The Weather Channel’s Storm Radar app for iPhone now works with CarPlay.

Welcome to Indie App Spotlight. This is a weekly 9to5Mac series where we showcase the latest apps in the indie app world. If you’re a developer and would like your app featured, get in contact.

If you lose track of things you’d like to reference later, Laytr might be a nice solution for you. All of us save things all over the place, whether that be browser bookmarks, built-in bookmarking features within apps, taking a screenshot to hopefully find later, or just leaving a tab open and hoping we find it again later. Laytr aims to be a nice all-in-one solution for keeping track of your digital bookmarks.

Meta has reached a settlement with US states in an $18B lawsuit accusing the social media giant of deliberately making Instagram addictive to teenagers. The money will be used to fund youth safety initiatives and more, though there is a catch.

More importantly, the company has agreed to introduce unprecedented protections against overuse of its social media apps by teens …

Another week, another price increase for a streaming service. This week, ESPN announced that ESPN Select and ESPN Unlimited are both getting more expensive, as are some associated Disney+ and Hulu bundles.

Last month, a report suggested Apple was working on a new AI-powered shopping assistant for the Apple Store app on iPhone and iPad.

The company now appears to be rolling that out to select users as part of an “Early Preview.”

Welcome to Indie App Spotlight. This is a weekly 9to5Mac series where we showcase the latest apps in the indie app world. If you’re a developer and would like your app featured, get in contact.

On the Apple TV, gaming is a little bit of an afterthought for developers. Compared to iPhone, iPad, and even Mac – there aren’t a ton of options. Luckily, CloudGear exists as an all-in-one solution for bringing every major cloud gaming platform into one interface. It’s also available for iPhone and iPad.

SpaceXAI and Cursor are in the process of becoming a single company, but first, the two firms are releasing an all-new iPhone and Mac app called Grok Bot.

Well, this seems interesting. ChatGPT’s latest update adds a new Mac integration: the ability to work with conversations from Apple’s Messages app. The feature works with iMessage, SMS, and RCS.

Roblox claimed to have made changes to its hugely popular children’s app to protect them from predators, but a regulatory authority says these protections are inadequate.

It found four major failings, including adults being able to send connection requests to children without parental approval …

Astropad has released Workbench 1.3, its largest update to the remote desktop app since the launch earlier this year. The release adds several tools for accessing unattended Macs, along with changes to performance and reliability.

Meta continues to get serious about its AI technology. The latest sign? A dedicated Mac app for Meta AI.

Things is making repeating to-dos significantly more flexible in version 3.23, addressing two common situations: finishing a task ahead of schedule and changing its date when plans shift.

Another streaming service is getting more expensive. Peacock has raised the prices of all three subscription tiers, with increases of up to $3 per month or $30 per year.

Peacock’s latest increase makes Premium Plus a $20 monthly subscription. However, Apple’s discounted bundles appear to remain unchanged for now.

Welcome to Indie App Spotlight. This is a weekly 9to5Mac series where we showcase the latest apps in the indie app world. If you’re a developer and would like your app featured, get in contact.

Writing a little bit of code shouldn’t be a hassle. Typically you have to set up a project and go through layers of menus before you can even start to write. Notepad.exe flips that script, and believes you should start with a blank file first, and figure out the project later – making it much easier to get your idea on paper.

Claude Code auto mode has become the default permission setting for users starting today.

Sessions for Pro, Max, and Team users now use it unless a user or administrator has pinned another setting.

Earlier this year, I replaced my battery-powered push mower with an iPhone-controlled robot lawn mower. That machine creates a virtual map by letting you manually steer it around the perimeter of your yard. Once everything is configured, it takes over mowing duties on a schedule.

More recently, I’ve been testing another system called the TerraMow V1000. It takes a substantially different approach to navigation, and after several weeks of testing, I think it may be the more user-friendly option for a lot people.