Announced on Instagram’s blog today, the new iPad app supports iPadOS 15.1 and later and includes the features you’d expect like Reels and Stories, plus a new “Following” tab that includes sections for posts and Reels from Friends who follow you back, a “Latest” section that’s sorted chronologically, and an “All” section. Instagram’s messaging is supported and with more screen real estate allows you to view your inbox and threads simultaneously. It even supports keyboards, trackpads, and the Apple Pencil.
Category: Apps
Hitting the Wall with Vibe Coding ⇢
Stephen Robles recently attempted to write an iOS podcast client. By his own admission, he’s not a developer, so turned to a series of AI tools to write the app. It didn’t go well:
At first, it would hang on searching for shows. After I seemingly fixed that, adding a show to the Library didn’t work. I kept going back and forth with GPT-5 and it kept getting worse. Every new build there was an increasing number or errors and unintended changes to UI elements I hadn’t asked for.
Tot 2
The Iconfactory’s app Tot has been a favorite of mine since it first launched. It’s a great way to have a scratchpad — or seven — that sync across devices.
Here’s what I have in Tot right now:
- Yellow: Notes from a phone call I had today.
- Orange: Currently empty.
- Red: Some text I’m working on for a screen in the iOS 26 version of Pedometer++.
- Purple: Some text I’m working on for a screen in the iOS 26 version of Widgetsmith.
- Blue: Currently empty.
- Teal: A bunch of text that will be sent as announcements when we launch Relay’s annual St. Jude campaign.
- Green: A bunch of URLs that come in handy when helping folks out with their Relay memberships.
Version 2 of the app is here, and it makes what was great even better. Craig Hockenberry has a blog post outlining the features, and John Voorhees summed it up well on MacStories:
Sometimes, a Bug is a Blessing ⇢
Paul Kafasis shared a delightful story from Rogue Amoeba’s history:
In the realm of computers, bugs are generally a bad thing. Every year, our team ships dozens of free updates to eliminate bugs that are an inescapable byproduct of the countless variables in software development. Rarely, though, a bug can be beneficial. Back in 2002, a software bug saved Rogue Amoeba.
It started when we shipped the very first version of Audio Hijack. We wanted to give potential customers the ability to fully test the app prior to purchase, but we weren’t sure how best to limit that free trial. Our initial download provided 15 full days of completely unlimited usage.
Cassette ⇢
Devin Davies has a new app out, and it’s fantastic.
Cassette is in the App Store now. I was delighted when I saw it in TestFlight; I suspect the $7.99 to unlock all of its features will fly out of your hands.
Elon Musk Promises to Sue Apple Over Grok’s App Store Ranking ⇢
Jess Weatherbed, reporting for The Verge:
Elon Musk says that his artificial intelligence company xAI “will take immediate legal action” against Apple for allegedly manipulating its App Store rankings to the advantage of rival AI apps. In a series of X posts on Monday night, Musk suggested that Apple was “playing politics” by not placing either X or xAI’s Grok chatbot in the App Store’s list of recommended iOS apps, and that he had no choice but to file a lawsuit.
Capsule ⇢
My pals over at Snailed It Development have shipped a new iPhone app that I have really come to appreciate over the last several months I’ve had access to the beta. It’s called Capsule, and it’s a medication tracking app built with the attention to detail only a group of indie developers could deliver.
For years, I’ve used Due to remind myself to take my medication. Due’s flagship feature is its ability to remind you over and over until you mark an item done. While that’s a fantastic feature, Due is a general-purpose to-do application, not a medication tracker.
Viticci Previews Sky, a New AI-Powered Assistant Coming to macOS... From the Creators of Shortcuts ⇢
Ari Weinstein and Conrad Kramer were two of the folks behind Workflow, which Apple bought in 2017 and turned into Shortcuts. The pair left Apple a couple of years ago and launched a startup named Software Applications Incorporated. Today, thanks to an exclusive story over at MacStories, we know what they’re up to. Here’s Federico:
What sets Sky apart from anything I’ve tried or seen on macOS to date is that it uses LLMs to understand which windows are open on your Mac, what’s inside them, and what actions you can perform based on those apps’ contents. It’s a lofty goal and, at a high level, it’s predicated upon two core concepts. First, Sky comes with a collection of built-in “tools” 1 for Calendar, Messages, Notes, web browsing, Finder, email, and screenshots, which allow anyone to get started and ask questions that perform actions with those apps. If you want to turn a webpage shown in Safari into an event in your calendar, or perhaps a document in Apple Notes, you can just ask in natural language out of the box.
Pocket Shutting Down on July 8 ⇢
Pocket will no longer be available after July 8, 2025.
You can continue using the app and browser extensions until this date. After July 8, Pocket will move into export-only mode. Users can export saves anytime until October 8, 2025, after which user data will be permanently deleted.
DEVONthink 4 ⇢
I am a huge DEVONthink fan, as I use it hold and organize my ever-growing library of tech history resources. Here’s a look at my collection of databases:
Today, DEVONthink 4 enters public beta 1 with a whole bunch of new features.
DEVONthink 4 includes new tools for managing documents, which is the core use of the application for me, as a huge percentage of the resources I have saved are PDFs and text files. Now, DEVONthink supports versioning, so changes to these files can be undone later. You’ve got full control over how many version are kept, and how much space versioning can take up in your databases.
Sofa Gains Podcast Playback ⇢
The excellent media-tracking app Sofa has been updated to include a podcast player, complete with chapter support, playlists, a CarPlay app, widgets, and loads of settings. It looks great.
Terminology 5 ⇢
Greg Pierce’s excellent dictionary and research app Terminology has received a major update, as John Voorhees writes:
I’m glad to see Terminology get such a comprehensive update. It’s the sort of focused app that I love using even if I could search for definitions with Google or drop a word into ChatGPT. Those methods work, but in both cases, they’re less precise than Terminology’s approach. Plus, Terminology works with both Google and ChatGPT out of the box. The advantage of choosing Terminology is that both of those services – and many others – have been set up in the app to make retrieving exactly what you want work better than any generalized search can, whether you’re using a search engine or LLM. That’s why I use Terminology and wholeheartedly recommend it.