Windows and Windows Phone users struggled with the app gap for years, often leading to frustration when their favorite app was unavailable. But recent advances in AI have led to a different kind of problem: an explosion of development. Microsoft recently shared the challenges caused by AI accelerating the development of extensions for the Edge browser.
"How do we keep up with the pace at which the ecosystem is growing, while maintaining a high bar for quality?" asked Microsoft's Edge team.
Microsoft approves extensions that appear in the Edge Add-ons site. Since AI can speed up the process of developing or updating apps, Microsoft has more submissions to take care of. To better handle the workload, Microsoft has automated some validation checks for extensions.
The company emphasizes that it still has the same standards for an extension to pass. The automation centers around common problems so humans can focus on more complex cases.
If an extension passes enough quality checks, it will earn a "Featured" badge in the Edge Add-ons site. Microsoft now refreshes Featured badges every 15 days.
"With this more frequent cadence, high-quality extensions can earn recognition sooner, and developers receive faster feedback on their investments in quality," said Microsoft. "At the same time, users benefit from a more up-to-date view of the extensions that meet our quality standards."
The Edge Add-on site is receiving more submissions and updates due to AI, but uBlock Origin is still going away. (Image credit: Future)
Edge extensions have come a long way. The browser first required developers to put in a lot of work that was exclusive to Edge. That changed when Edge was relaunched as a Chromium browser. That switch greatly improved compatibility and resulted in more extensions being in the Edge Add-ons site.
Being based on Chromium also comes with some downsides, however. Microsoft is following in the footsteps of Google by moving from Manifest V2 to Manifest V3. There are a variety of effects of that change, but the one many care about the most is it means uBlock Origin will no longer work on Edge (it already does not work on Chrome).
Microsoft revamped the Edge Add-ons site with a better browsing experience and new categories last year. The new site shows better suggestions as you type and lets you install extensions without having to jump to a different page.
With that refresh and the recent uptick in extension submissions, it should be easier than ever to find a quality extension.
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O Reino Unido quer obrigar as gigantes tecnológicas a impedir que crianças tirem ou partilhem imagens de nudez através dos seus telefones. O governo britânico considera que as medidas propostas por Apple e Google ficam aquém da dimensão do problema.
Users can ask the assistant to do things like "Create a cart for my Saturday tailgate for 25 people and include some brunch items," or "Build a cart for easy school lunches and after-school snacks," Shipt says.
Escolher um iPhone, comparar iPads ou perceber quanto vale um equipamento para retoma pode em breve ter ajuda extra: a Apple começou a testar um assistente de compras baseado em inteligência artificial na sua App Store.
Abrindo a semana — ontem foi feriado, então não conta! 😛 — de evento da Apple com a nossa seleção de promoções na App Store!
ELOH, criado pela Broken Rules, é um puzzle perfeito para relaxar e se divertir.
Trata-se de um quebra-cabeça no qual você deve escutar o groove e deixar que ele o guie pelas 98 fases. Controles intuitivos, belíssimas animações e uma trilha sonora desenvolvida especialmente por SCNTFC fazem parte deste jogo.
Confira um vídeo:
Aproveite o bom desconto e boa diversão!
Abaixo outros jogos/apps que, juntos, somam mais de R$60 em descontos:
A Metaanunciou hoje o Muse, um agente de inteligência artificial generativa pessoal e privado que foi projetado pela empresa para ajudar usuários a explorar novas ideias e cumprir suas metas.
Focado no público em geral, ele é bem simples de usar. Basta dizer ao Muse o que precisa ser feito para que ele execute a tarefa — sem curva de aprendizado ou necessidade de experiência.
Usuários podem pedir-lhe que faça tarefas como enviar um email ou até mesmo reservar uma viagem, graças à capacidade do Muse de abrir o navegador, preencher formulários ou clicar em elementos da tela.
Ele se conecta aos apps e serviços que você usa no dia a dia, um por vez e sempre por sua escolha, em categorias como email e calendário, pagamentos, fitness e saúde, música e eventos ao vivo, restaurantes e compras, e casa inteligente. Os conectores integrados estão disponíveis nas configurações, e outros estão por vir. Se um serviço não estiver lá, mas tiver uma API pública, seu Muse pode configurar uma conexão usando credenciais fornecidas por você; e se não tiver API nenhuma, ele pode usar o serviço por meio de um navegador, do mesmo jeito que você faria.
Com a capacidade de continuar trabalhando mesmo depois de os usuários fecharem o app, o Muse é capaz de realizar pagamentos via Stripe e, futuramente, também suportará o Shop Pay.
Bastante proativo, o Muse se lembra do que é importante para o usuário e pode fazer sugestões sem a inserção de um prompt ou atuar com base em detalhes mencionados apenas uma vez.
Construído com base no Muse Spark, o modelo mais poderoso da Meta, o agente também conta com mecanismos avançados de segurança para proteger a sua interação com o usuário final.
Ele é executado em seu próprio computador dedicado na nuvem — que é onde os dados e credenciais para qualquer serviço conectado a ele são armazenados com segurança.
O Muse foi lançado nos Estados Unidos para a web, iOS e Android. Ele é grátis “para a maioria do que as pessoas precisam”, com planos de assinatura para pessoas que querem “fazer mais”.
On iPhone I'm counting steps with the app & am trying to count some of today's steps on tomorrow's record instead of today's. Is there some easy way to do this?
Meta took days to remove ads containing AI-generated child sexual abuse material (CSAM) on Facebook and Instagram. Some ads featured photos of real kids, including a press photo of a young member of a European royal family and images swiped from a popular Instagram profile of a preteen girl deemed an influencer.
In an investigation published Tuesday, the Tech Transparency Project (TTP) reported that Meta failed to detect 332 ads containing CSAM this year. The “vast majority” of ads promoted AI apps made in China, while many ads promoted so-called “nudify” apps that make it easy for bad actors to use AI and digitally alter images of children.
TTP matched “multiple CSAM ads to photos of real children that appeared online.” These ads seem to violate federal child pornography laws, since the Justice Department has clarified that AI CSAM is just as harmful as CSAM. The young royal’s image was “animated into a video of her performing a graphic sex act,” TTP found. Other ads animated a photo of a 14-year-old Instagram influencer “showing off her new sports club uniform” into “a video of her performing oral sex.” A third “preteen” victim “posing in a pink athletic outfit with pigtails” in a series of stock photos was morphed into a video where she looks frightened as she’s molested by an adult male, TTP reported.
Windows 11 will soon feature a Battery Status widget that you can pin to the Widget Board or your PC's lock screen. The feature is still in the works at the moment, but you don't have to wait for it to be finished. Third-party app "Battery Flyout" already supports a Battery Status widget and is available right now.
Just like Microsoft's widget that's in progress, Battery Flyout's widget shows the battery status of your PC and connected devices. It's a quick way to check if your keyboard, mouse, or other accessories are charged.
The Widget Board has been underutilized since it launched in 2021. There are fewer than 100 widgets available, many of which are tremendously niche. I hope the existence of the Battery Status widget indicates that Microsoft is going to invest the time needed to grow the library of Windows 11 widgets.
Microsoft has made some other improvements to the Widget Board lately, such as turning off the MSN feed by default. I hope this is a turning point for the feature. If not, at least we can rely on third-party developers to use the space.
Battery Flyout already has it 😉 https://t.co/hxFqHSJJxJSeptember 8, 2026
If you had a previous version of Battery Flyout installed, you may need to update the app before being able to use the widget.
As a built-in feature of Windows 11, the Battery Status widget will be available for free. Battery Flyout costs $3.19 (on sale from $3.99). But some lucky Windows Central readers will be able to get Battery Flyout for free. The app's developer shared a code for a giveaway and I'll run that on the r/windowscentral subreddit. Make sure to subscribe there and keep an eye out.
Battery Flyout lets you monitor the battery life of your Windows 11 PC and connected Bluetooth accessories, including mice, keyboards, and pens. It features a dedicated widget for the Widgets Board, native ARM64 support, and detailed power usage insights.
Join us on Reddit at r/WindowsCentral to share your insights and discuss our latest news, reviews, and more.
A new Windows app that aims to replicate the Dynamic Island of macOS just got a major update. Notchify now performs better and has new features like a built-in Clipboard history. It's a promising continuation of the app's development.
It's always interesting to pit Windows 11 against macOS. The two operating systems overlap but approach so many challenges in different ways.
While many are passionate defenders of a specific operating system, I think if we're all honest there are features and elements across the aisle worth envying. But it was a bit surprising to see that some Windows 11 users want a macOS-esque notch on the top of their screen.
The notch along the top of certain Macs came out of hardware limitations, not Apple deciding a black cutout of a screen was a brilliant design. But as Apple often does, the company found a way to turn a limitation into a feature that could be marketed. The Dynamic Island is a genuinely useful feature that provides quick access to information, notifications, and quick actions.
Notchify brings that part of the Dynamic Island to Windows 11. You don't need to permanently carve out part of your screen to use it though, which is nice.
Here is the change log for the latest update to Notchify, as shared by the app's developer on Reddit:
Performance and rendering
Optional GPU (hardware) rendering for much smoother animations
Large drop in idle CPU and memory use
Fixed a system-wide keyboard lag some people were hitting
Better fullscreen detection so it stays out of the way in games
Selectable frame rate from 60 to 240 Hz, so it can match a high refresh rate monitor
Clipboard and Tray
Clipboard history built into the island: pin, delete, clear
Drag items straight out into Discord, WhatsApp, Paint, or Explorer, or click one to copy it
The file tray now supports drag and drop: drop files in to stash them, drag them out into any app
Notifications
An in-app notifications panel with swipe to dismiss
Click a notification to jump straight to the app
Stacking, like the real thing
New widgets
To-do and Notes, now with a proper calendar date picker
Quick System Actions: lock, sleep, mute, dark/light toggle, screenshot, settings
App Shortcuts: pin apps, folders, or links
Calendar with your next event
Bluetooth and media
Connected device card with a battery ring, now including BLE devices
Media player with scrubbing, shuffle, repeat, and an album-colored visualizer
Quality of life
Optional hover to reveal: the island appears when your cursor reaches the top edge, even in fullscreen
Redesigned settings
10 languages
Multi-monitor and high-DPI fixes
Our Editor-in-Chief Daniel Rubino took a closer look at Notchify recently. He used a massive 52-inch Dell Ultrasharp monitor, so he can afford to give up a bit of space for convenience.
"I still don’t love the idea of a notch (it’s not my aesthetic), but I can’t deny how practical it is," said Rubino. "Having a small, centralized hub for quick info saves me from scanning the corners of my display. It’s one of those things that quietly improves workflow without demanding attention."
One of the biggest limitations of Notchify is that it's a third-party app, meaning Windows 11 does not cater to it the way macOS does to the Dynamic Island. Apps do not wrap around Notchify, which can result in content being covered.
Notchify costs $1.99. There is a free trial available, so there's no harm in giving it a try.
Join us on Reddit at r/WindowsCentral to share your insights and discuss our latest news, reviews, and more.
CarPlay chatbots now span five major services, giving the growing collection of dashboard apps a much more conversational side. Claude is the latest addition, joining ChatGPT, Perplexity, Grok, and Meta AI. Drivers can increasingly bring their preferred AI service into the car through an iPhone app update, although access is not equally open across all five.
The appeal is easy to understand. A question comes to mind during a trip, and instead of saving it for later, you can ask it aloud. A follow-up can become part of the same conversation. There is no need to turn every request into a rigid command or reach for a keyboard.
But the headline needs one qualification: Meta AI has appeared in CarPlay while remaining unavailable to some accounts. Five apps have added support; that does not mean every driver can open all five and immediately start talking.
Claude Brings CarPlay Chatbots to Five
Anthropic’s latest iPhone update adds a straightforward CarPlay experience: begin a new voice conversation or return to a recent chat. The reported Claude integration places those choices inside the simplified dashboard interface rather than reproducing the full mobile app.
That continuity could be particularly useful for someone who already uses Claude regularly. A conversation does not have to begin again simply because the setting has changed from a desk to a parked car or a journey.
Claude’s arrival also makes the category feel less experimental. ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Grok established an earlier presence, while Meta AI recently joined the lineup. There is now a broader choice of familiar services rather than one chatbot acting as a demonstration of what CarPlay might eventually support.
This is not a reason to install all five. An assistant that already understands the conversation you want to continue may be more convenient than another app with a different account, unfamiliar controls, and an empty chat history.
Image Credit: Grok / X
Meta AI Still Has an Access Catch
Meta AI is the entry readers should approach with the most caution about availability. Reports describe its icon appearing on the CarPlay screen, only for the app to display a notice that the experience is not supported for that account.
Coverage of the limited Meta AI rollout also notes that moving to a paid account did not necessarily remove the restriction. Paying solely to unlock CarPlay would therefore be a poor assumption.
An icon and a working service are different things. The first shows that the app includes a CarPlay interface; the second depends on whether the provider has enabled access.
If Meta AI opens normally on the iPhone but refuses to work on the dashboard, that account-specific message is important. Repeatedly reconnecting the cable or resetting the vehicle’s infotainment system is unlikely to resolve a restriction controlled by the service.
What CarPlay Chatbots Actually Do
The useful distinction is between discussing something and making the car do something.
A conversational assistant can help explain an unfamiliar subject, work through an idea, or answer follow-up questions. You might ask for a plain-English explanation of a concept mentioned in a podcast, practice a short introduction, or explore ideas for a weekend project.
Those are different requests from changing a destination, calling a contact, or adjusting a vehicle setting. A chatbot’s ability to describe an action should not be mistaken for permission to perform it.
Apple recognizes voice-based conversational apps as a supported CarPlay category, alongside separate categories for navigation, audio, messaging, and driving tasks. Developers must build an appropriate CarPlay experience; an ordinary iPhone chatbot does not automatically qualify simply because it has a microphone button.
The distinction also helps set expectations about the screen. A dashboard conversation should not become an invitation to read paragraphs, inspect generated images, or manage a complicated workspace while driving.
For everyday use, short questions make more sense than elaborate assignments. Asking for three talking points is manageable. Dictating a detailed business proposal while negotiating traffic is a task better saved for somewhere stationary.
ChatGPT Has Clear Requirements and Limits
OpenAI’s CarPlay support documentation confirms availability across all ChatGPT plans, globally, on supported iPhones running iOS 26.4 or later. The latest ChatGPT app and a CarPlay-compatible vehicle are required.
Its interface supports starting a voice conversation, returning to recent or pinned chats, and accessing projects. However, OpenAI explicitly says the CarPlay version cannot access maps, vehicle information, or live location, and cannot control the car or other apps.
That rules out assuming it knows which intersection you are approaching or can change a route because you discussed a destination.
These requirements also mean ChatGPT’s CarPlay support is not something that requires waiting for iOS 27. Readers already using compatible software can check the existing app without installing an upcoming operating-system beta.
Choosing an Assistant Without Adding Dashboard Clutter
There is little value in treating the car as a place to conduct a five-way AI comparison. Try the services while parked, then keep the one that suits the conversations you actually want to have.
Listen for how clearly an assistant answers, whether it understands follow-up questions, and how easily a conversation can be stopped. A response that feels impressive on a laptop may be exhausting when spoken through car speakers for several minutes.
Ask for shorter answers when needed. “Explain that in two sentences” is often a more useful instruction in this setting than requesting a comprehensive overview.
For work-related conversations, consider who else is in the vehicle before resuming a saved chat. A colleague’s name, a client discussion, or a personal detail can become audible to passengers even when the phone remains untouched.
The presence of an app inside CarPlay should not be treated as approval to share confidential information with its provider. Keep employer rules and the service’s own account settings in mind before discussing business material.
Voice Quality Can Depend on the Car
A disappointing voice experience is not always a sign that the AI service misunderstood the question. OpenAI notes that CarPlay audio depends on the vehicle’s microphones, speakers, and echo cancellation. The same app can therefore sound or behave differently across cars.
Before abandoning an assistant because it repeatedly misses words, test it while parked with the cabin quiet. That makes it easier to distinguish a microphone or audio-routing problem from an account restriction or an unhelpful response.
There is also a small behavior worth knowing about ChatGPT: CarPlay may reopen the last-used app when the iPhone reconnects. If a chatbot unexpectedly returns to the display on your next trip, that alone does not mean it has started a fresh conversation or begun listening.
I love tiny utilities. If I find a useful flyout, widget, or Taskbar tweak, I'm likely to install it right away. A recent update to Battery Flyout brings power management and tracking to the Taskbar, and it even supports a new widget!
Battery Flyout is a third-party app made by Michał Łeptuch. It lets you switch power modes easily and provides charts about your PC's battery usage.
Some of the features in Battery Flyout are already in Windows 11, but they are spread out across the Settings app and other areas. Battery Flyout brings those options together and makes information and shortcuts easily accessible.
Michał ŁeptuchMichał ŁeptuchMichał ŁeptuchMichał ŁeptuchMichał ŁeptuchMichał Łeptuch
Łeptuch develops several apps that improve the overall Windows 11 experience, including Calendar Flyout. I spoke with him about the major update to Battery Flyout ahead of its release. Here's the full change log:
Migrated the app from UWP to Windows App SDK (WinUI 3) on .NET 10 with Native AOT
Added a full native ARM64 build
Switched the app to run in Efficiency mode by default
Removed third-party dependencies in favor of a custom-built system for handling power and battery events
Added support for multiple batteries
Added a more detailed chart style for battery levels
Added the ability to switch chart colors between the default theme and your system accent color
Added detailed technical information for each installed battery to the flyout
Added a view of the apps consuming the most power to the flyout
Replaced the old battery report with the new Power report, covering battery and system summary, per-battery details, app trends, recommendations, and resource usage
Added the option to choose the units used in reports, including energy and temperature
Added a new Actions module to automate tasks triggered by specific battery or power events
Added a widget for the Windows Widgets board showing battery level and charging status
Expanded support for Apple and Samsung devices, with more of them now reporting battery status
Added the option to hide the device list when it's empty
Updated the Bluetooth device icons shown in the flyout's device list
Added the option to completely disable Bluetooth device scanning
Added a keyboard shortcut to open the flyout
Added the ability to change where the flyout appears on your desktop
Added automatic flyout and context menu positioning for the taskbar layout options introduced in the Windows 11 August 2026 update
Added the ability to set notifications for any battery level, for both the device and connected Bluetooth devices
Added the option to set how long notifications stay on screen
Added support for the Polish language
Made various minor visual refinements
Updated the tray icon font and improved its rendering
Made general stability and performance improvements
A significant change that will affect all Battery Flyout users is that the app has been migrated from UWP to WinUI 3. That change brings better performance and taps into improvements Microsoft is making to WinUI 3 on Windows 11.
Battery Flyout should also use less battery than before since it now runs in Efficiency mode by default.
Similar to iOS and Android, Battery Flyout now has a dedicated page for viewing which apps are consuming the most power.
Some of the improvements will only affect a subset of users but are welcome additions. Battery Flyout now supports multiple batteries, which is useful for the small group of devices with multiple batteries.
The update also brings some under-the-hood improvements, such as switching away from third-party dependencies.
Perhaps the change aimed at the smallest niche is the addition of a Battery Flyout widget for the Windows 11 Widgets panel. That panel, which is built into every single Windows 11 PC, infamously features far fewer than 100 widgets. Battery Flyout will fit nicely between the barely functional Spotify widget and the Tic-Tac-Toe widget.
A recent update to this app improves performance, adds native ARM64 support, and shows more information about the power usage of your PC and apps.
Join us on Reddit at r/WindowsCentral to share your insights and discuss our latest news, reviews, and more.
These changes resolve Apple’s disagreements with the Commission over business terms and alternative distribution. They also reduce complexity by moving every developer that distributes apps in the EU to a single set of business terms.
[…]
The Core Technology Fee, a per-install fee for developers that achieve extraordinary scale, will be replaced by the Core Technology Commission, a simple 5 percent commission on digital transactions in apps distributed outside the App Store. The new terms also eliminate the initial acquisition fee and store services fee.
[…]
Under the updated terms, developers can now offer Apple In-App Purchase alongside alternative payment options, which had not previously been permitted in the EU.
[…]
Apple is also expanding who is eligible to operate an alternative app marketplace or distribute apps via the web in the EU.
[…]
Apple will continue to require every alternatively distributed app to go through Notarization[…]
Apple will charge a 26% fee for apps distributed through the App Store that use in-app purchase.
[…]
Apps in the App Store that use in-app alternative payment processing will pay 20%.
[…]
Apps that link to a website purchase option will pay 15%.
Apps using Web Distribution or App Marketplaces would pay the 5% CTC (and report transactions). I like that the new terms are simpler and that the fees are slightly lower, but it seems like the EU got tricked or surrendered here.
This is bonkers, I can’t believe the EU Commission agreed to it. The main issue that the DMA was about still remains: Apple retains ultimate control over app developers’ dealings with users.
The status quo that the EU should have pushed for, and which Article 6(7) of the DMA requires, is one where a developer can distribute iOS apps to users without ever entering into any contractual relationship with Apple.
All in all, still extremely anti-consumer. If I can download and run arbitrary code on my Mac--even if I have to jump through scary warnings--why should I not be able to do so on my phone? Why would one computing platform be different from the other?
However, while Apple hopes it will be allowed to charge these lower commissions, it has admitted in a new regulatory filing that it may not be allowed to charge any commission at all on purchases made through third-party app stores and other external platforms.
The commission Apple earns from the App Store is shrinking in markets where it has been forced to relax its grip on in-app purchases, based on new analytics data.
Notably, this isn’t a proposal, it’s the announcement of actual changes that Apple will implement (starting October 1) after “close collaboration” with the EC. And lest we think Apple is overplaying that last aspect, that group gave a statement to Bloomberg backing up the assertion[…]
[…]
This feels like mainly a way to keep the all-important big gaming fees – which make up most of in-app payments, and as such, most App Store fees – mostly intact.
[…]
It sure looks like Apple knew this EU deal was coming down the pike and that the bloc agreeing to their terms would bolster the case that these are “fair”. The US judge still gets to decide that, and Epic has already pushed back as Apple seeks to negotiate directly. One big reason for pushing? Epic wants to ensure any changes Apple tries to negotiate be put in place for all developers.
The European Commission has since confirmed that it approves of Apple’s changes to its App Store policies, giving a statement to the Irish Independent[…]
Epic Games, a longstanding critic of Apple’s App Store practices, called the scheme “junk fees,” adding that the plan did “nothing to open up the mobile app ecosystem to competition, as required by Digital Markets Act.”
“The law makes it clear that Apple must allow developers to offer link outs to the web for purchases ‘free of charge’ and has to allow ‘effective use’ of competing stores,” the company wrote.
I hope this isn’t the end of DMA. Apple taking a cut of out-of-store apps revenue makes as much sense as app developers taking a cut of iPhone revenue.
[…]
And also I still want to live in a world where anyone can write a program and run it on the devices they own and send it to friends, without having to pay $100/year of developer account and do the whole notarization thing (which considering the amount of scam in the app store we know is pretty useless in terms of security). Not everybody is a professional programmer, some people are just doing programming as a hobby, some are also young people that don’t even own a credit card yet.
I have refused to sign any of Apple’s EU DMA agreements thus far, because I think they are illegal, and they have been optional.
I still think their new terms are illegal — they don’t meet the minimum requirements of the DMA, and will not be approved by stakeholders — but they are no longer optional, so the choice now becomes accept the updated developer agreement or stop being a developer.
Thanks to the DMA’s sprawling scope, complexity, and overreach, Apple came out of this conceding only 4 percent of the App Store’s 30 percent commission, and no reduction at all to the 15 percent for subscriptions after the first year.
The CTC is preferable to the CTF in much the same way that a fire burning down your kitchen is preferable to a fire burning down your entire house.
[…]
The Digital Markets Act was introduced to ensure that sideloading would be an available alternative, to essentially force open platforms that have been closed. Debates about the wisdom of this notwithstanding, in the biggest case, and up until recent developments in Android app marketplace governance also only case, it has failed to deliver the promises that were the entire point of the law.
I’m sure some of you think I’m all wet in my argument that the point of the DMA was merely to impose ongoing bureaucratic complexity. But my view jibes with the reality of how it’s worked out.
In other words, maybe we who had high hopes were the ones who got tricked, not the EU Commission.
I don’t recall seeing POSIWID before, but I love the concept. A friend sent this to me, with the quip that I forgot to include a link to it in my “What Is the Point of the DMA?” piece this week. Indeed, it encapsulates my arguments about the DMA specifically and the European Commission generally. The purpose of the DMA is what it does, not what you imagine it is intended to do.
I admit to being primed by seeing Jeff Johnson’s post, but I’m certain that my mind would anyway have immediately gone to our favorite scam promoting toll booth, the place that “gives people around the world a safe and trusted place to discover apps that meet [Apple’s] high standards for privacy, security, and content.”
Also consider which apps have to pay the toll and which ones show their own ads for free.
Today, Jungle released their fifth studio album, Sunshine. Alongside the release, Apple published a look at how the band used Apple Creator Studio to film 11 music videos in just four days, an impressive feat no matter the technology used.
The band’s toolbox included Logic Pro, Final Cut Pro, and Pixelmator Pro to capture the series of signature one-shot take videos. According to the App Store feature on the band’s process, Logic Pro was where the entire album was produced. The app’s Varispeed feature was also used to shift the tempo of songs while maintaining pitch as they shot the videos.
Final Cut Pro is like a magic sword. There’s one shot for the track ‘Romeo II,’ where the camera accidentally caught some of the lighting rig. With five clicks, the editor was able to paint it out. It just automatically knows.
Pixelmator Pro on the iPad with an Apple Pencil and Mac enabled the band’s team to add artwork and posters to the final product, too.
But of all the quotes from the band, J Lloyd’s comment really struck a chord with me:
We didn’t have to worry about the tech. We could just focus on getting the design right. I could pick up the iPad between takes and keep sketching on Pixelmator Pro, and it all just worked.
I love apps, or I wouldn’t write about them every day, but what I love even more is the creativity they enable. Getting a glimpse of how one of my favorite bands uses some of the same tools I do was a treat.
Jeff Johnson has a knack for finding spam on the App Store. Yesterday it was review spam, and today it’s app submission spam. In a post where he called out an individual for releasing 41 apps, and presumably contributing to slow app review times, Johnson proposed a solution:
…bring back Apple Developer Program tiers and review app updates post-release for proven developers. Why should Marco Arment go into the same App Store review queue as AI slop? Does that make any sense for developers, for Apple users, or for Apple? Is there no way for developers to earn Apple’s trust, no matter how long they’ve been in the App Store, no matter how famous or beloved? Should professional software developers whose livelihood depends on the App Store go into the same review queue as hobbyists? Speaking for myself, I would be willing to pay a much higher developer program fee for improved service, including a separate review queue. I suspect that a much higher developer program fee might also deter scams and AI slop, typically looking for a fast, easy buck.
I’ve heard versions of this argument since before the App Store first opened its doors, and it’s never sat well with me. Maybe that’s because when I first heard someone argue that established developers or the ones who could afford it should get preferential treatment, I was an unknown hobbyist learning Objective-C and trying to build an app myself. It struck me as gatekeeping then, and it still does today.
There’s no doubt that there is spam on the App Store, but the way to remove it is to target the spammers, not new developers, students, and hobbyists looking to build their ideas. I know that being an indie developer isn’t an easy way to make a living, but erecting barriers to submitting apps is the surest way to starve Apple platforms of fresh, innovative ideas. That hurts everyone from users who would have fewer choices to the established developers who would find themselves writing apps for a stagnant platform.
If you’re heading to Macstock Conference later this week, make sure you have everything you need to get the most out of this unique annual event. From the things you should do before you leave to the things that you need to have with you, the MacVoices’ Macstock Checklist will make sure you are ready for the year’s best Mac event. (Haven’t decided yet? On-site registration will be available!)
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