Jeff Johnson: There are countless small, practical, mostly uncontroversial ways in which Apple could improve the App Store for developers, yet the App Store has changed relatively little in the 18 years since it was hastily cloned from the iTunes Music Store.…

A sundial doesn’t tell you what time it is. It shows you where the sun is. That’s the idea behind Sundial, a widget app for iPhone, iPad, and Mac from Tangwan, a solo developer who ships apps under the name Softminilabs. Sundial takes a stretch of time…

The new streaming stick takes its power directly from your TV—finally. The best way to think about the new $60 Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K is as a quality of life improvement. I imagine many Lex On Tech readers are Apple TV devotees. I have and use Apple TVs. But…

Best-o-Masto is my website for finding the best stuff from your Mastodon and Bluesky feeds quickly. It’s not an algorithmic feed like you’d see on something like X or Threads. It’s a very simple thing that finds the post getting the most engagement in your…

Apps for music and video lovers.

I thought this viral TikTok thing about the dangers of bringing iced coffee to your job interview sounded stupid. I enjoyed it when Josh Gondelman mocked the whole thing on the most recent episode of Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me. But Liz Gumbinner blew this whole…

Throwback vibes, the latest Bose signature sound, and renowned noise cancellation to elevate your everyday listening. Just plug, play, and get instant, effortless access to your top songs. My first thought: *WIRED earbuds? *SERIOUSLY? My second thought: Oh…

As is, it’s bad for developers and users alike.

I’m writing it simply to show that coincidences happen, correlation does not equal causation, and science is not anecdotal. If you’re going to convince people that your phone is really listening to you and sharing every word you say with advertisers across…

The fourth part of the form, where the jury determines the damages it believes Taction is owed from Apple, advises that Apple owes $5,721,961,750. Apple says it will appeal. I think I probably would, too.

It’s going okay, I think.

The next MacBook Neo, AI agents on your Mac, and the lights going out.

100% cotton paper. 100% crazy.

John Gruber: I seldom suggest you spend 47 minutes watching a video, but this one is worth your time. (And, given that it clearly fell off the back of a truck, you might want to put a copy on your own truck sooner rather than later.) A lot of times with a…

App Store Connect has all the numbers, but App Store Connect is also painful to navigate. Who’s Got All The Money? pulls your sales and finance reports and puts the answers on one screen: what you made yesterday, this week, this month, this year, and all time…

I couldn’t pick just one part of Jeff Atwood’s post Every User Lies to quote, because it’s all so good. And it won’t take you long to read. I think about some of the points he raises here all the time. Users don’t read — not the manual, not the help text, not…

Turn your Plex, Jellyfin, or Emby library into a classic cable experience

Turn your Plex, Jellyfin, or Emby library into a classic cable experience

Today’s update of our personal timeline app, Tapestry, is the one you’ve been waiting for and pushes the app to a whole new level. Bring together your social media, RSS feeds, podcasts, YouTube and more in one chronological timeline—with no algorithm deciding…

Still, what a computer! Even the performance of the base M6 model is more than enough for most computing tasks that regular people will ever need. If you invested in an external display a few years ago, most likely that display is still going strong—and…

A LEGO collection manager and a git worktree command center, from the same one-person shop

Harry McCracken joins various other tech friends of mine in falling in love with tiny e-readers. I’m not there yet, but I’m intrigued. It turns out that yes, I do want to carry an e-reader in the same pocket as my phone. Like Amazon’s Kindles and other…

New iPhone Day should be exciting. I kind of dread it.

Lex on Tech members can submit questions that I answer right here on the site. Reader George asks: I was hoping the new CEO of Apple (being a product guy) might revive the AirPort product line. The Airport Utility is now on the chopping block. I recall (?)…

Like many of you, I suspect, I got into podcasting through nerdery. I was a nerd. I am a nerd. I created a podcast, and I listened to nerdy podcasts. Many of us in the Apple/tech community still listen almost exclusively to nerdy podcasts. That’s okay. But…

Developers, developers, developers… are annoyed, annoyed, annoyed. And their users will be, too.

Download Strategery by Lex Friedman on the App Store. See screenshots, ratings and reviews, user tips, and more apps like Strategery.

Matt Haughey shared some cool videos he’d seen recently. This one, from a YouTuber who figures out where photos were taken, instead becomes a 10-minute journey into finding when a photo was taken. I was mesmerized. This was the last photo he ever took with…

Jason Snell links to David Pogue with all kinds of things the new Siri can do now that iOS and macOS 27 have arrived. You can say things like, “What did my wife say I was supposed to do with the plants?” Or, “What was the show that Casey said I should watch?”…

Make Some Noise is one of many fantastic improv comedy shows on Dropout. I noticed one of the ongoing themes is “tech gone bad,” so I compiled a short list below. I just find these really funny. Marcin is right. The show is great, and these are really funny…

Today, I’m proud to announce Homebrew 7.0.0. The most significant changes since 6.0.0 are faster installations and upgrades, stronger sandboxing, [and] a native macOS app. If you need Homebrew, you probably already use Homebrew. But the new “official” Mac app…

Track electric, gas, and water use one reading at a time, and find out whether the new fridge is paying off

Man, I love when Jason Kottke writes. In the end, I had to throw all the spices out — no takers for half-used, decade-old containers of parsley flakes or jars of cumin — but I’ll always remember cleaning out that drawer and all of the memories it stirred up.…

I wear earbuds to sleep. I never thought I would be that person, but here we are. I specifically wear the Soundcore Sleep A20 earbuds. They’re designed to be worn while sleeping and do a great job of staying in my ears while my head is on the pillow—a feat…

12 years ago today, Apple published a web page with one job: to make a U2 album go away. I didn’t want that album. I had zero love for it. I didn’t want to live with it, only without it. The memory of this music misfire leaves me numb. And that’s all the…

Stephen Hackett: For a decade, Apple’s changes to its stores have made them more confusing and chaotic. This is a step in the right direction. I used to love heading to the Apple Store. For many many years, though, I’ve dreaded going to those zoos. Any…

Strategery, the 2009 Macworld App Gem for Best Strategy Game, is back on the App Store with a brand new version. Lex Friedman, who reviewed it seventeen years ago, is the developer now.

World domination isn't a very fashionable ambition these days, but that doesn't mean you can't pretend. Strategery pits your pegs against the green, orange, blue, and red blobs that dare to stand in y...

The classic iOS game of world domination is all-new — and also extremely familiar

Apps for the neurodivergent — and everyone else

Greg de J makes apps that leave things out with intention. I wrestled with that sentence, but I think it’s right. Apps tend to get more complicated over time, because adding features is easy and removing is scary, and tends to alienate at least some users…