5typos.net

Advanced Dictation in OS 27

Tue, 23 Jun 2026 00:00:00 -0600

It’s still not 100% perfect, and it’s not as good as something like Aqua Voice or WhisperFlow on the Mac, but it’s definitely an improvement and is something that I will use more often. </blockquote>
Fudge. I really wanted Apple to Sherlock a bunch of apps. Doesn’t bode well for it though.

Amazon Is Ending Support for Older Kindles

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 -0600

Andrew Liszewski, on

Amazon has announced that starting on May 20th, 2026, Kindle e-readers and Kindle Fire devices released in 2012 and earlier will “no longer be able to purchase, borrow, or download new content via the Kindle Store,” Amazon spokesperson Jackie Burke wrote in an email to The Verge. </blockquote>

I have an Kindle Paperwhite (5th Generation), which I spent a fair amount of time this weekend trying to install KOReader</a> to … without success. From the technology POV, I understand the need to end support for older devices, it’s just unsustainable to continue to supporting legacy devices after 14 years.

However, Amazon was the one that sold us these devices, not as technology tools, but as book replacements. Books don’t stop working. Never mind all the working Kindle’s they are forcing into landfills. Amazon would get brownie points from me if they “opened” the firmware alongside the end of support.

Cotypist Alternative Cotabby

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 -0600

Jacob Fu, on
Open-source AI autocomplete for the apps you already use, powered by Apple Intelligence or local models and kept entirely on your Mac. </blockquote>
With Cotypist</a> announcing pricing — and the fact that , a few alternatives how started to show up.
very sure the app is worth it for many people, just not me.

Prospero Superpowers for Writing

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 -0600

Brian Guthrie, on brianguthrie.com</a>:

Prospero is a Claude Code plugin I built to make me a better (I hope!) writer, and (just as important!) to help me ship. It borrows the interrogative, artifact-driven approach from Superpowers by staging writing into four phases: </blockquote>
Have not tried it yet, but I’m very intrigued about AI that is used to polish ideas and writing, versus just a shortcut.

A Reminder on AI

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 -0600

Shawn Smucker, on shawnsmucker.substack.com</a>:

Be sure to use AI when making your next, I don’t know, meal plan, for example. Definitely do not call your friend who loves to cook and ask her for her favorite recipes or tips or ways to save time making meals, because you will end up talking for longer than you had hoped, hearing, perhaps, about her father’s cancer diagnosis or how lonely she’s been or even what she’s planted in her spring garden and then lost with the early frost. </blockquote>
Totally worth a read. If it stings, it’s because there’s something there.

Obsidian Plugins Relaunch

Fri, 15 May 2026 00:00:00 -0600

kepano, on obsidian.md</a>:

Today we’re excited to launch Obsidian Community</a>, the new directory and developer dashboard for Obsidian plugins and themes. </blockquote>
So happy about this. I’ve tried to cut down on my plugins over the past year, but love having the option of hundreds of utilities.

Indigo Mastodon and Bluesky Client

Wed, 13 May 2026 00:00:00 -0600

Ben McCarthy, on benricemccarthy.ghost.io</a>:

Indigo brings together Bluesky and Mastodon into a single, unified experience. While we’ve built it around the idea of unifying both services, it’s also great to use with just one. </blockquote>
Beautiful and smart app. Maybe if Bluesky ever becomes part for my rotation I’ll revisit. For now Mastodon</a> and Twitter lists via Readwise are my jam.

Remarkable Announces Job Cuts, Including the CEO.

Sun, 26 Apr 2026 00:00:00 -0600

Michael Kozlowski, on goodereader.com</a>:

Remarkable, the company that makes distraction-free e-notebooks that can be used for editing PDF files, freehand drawing, or taking notes. They have announced that they are downsizing, that over 200 staff members will lose their jobs, and that the CEO will also be replaced. </blockquote>
Sad that they seem to be facing trouble. However, I’ve worried for a while that their last two products have been a “nice, but no thanks” from me. That doesn’t say much, but I did buy a fair number of e-ink devices in the same time, so there’s that.
This could also be a regular correction, 500 in a Norwegian company seems like a lot. Their Investor Relations</a> las financial result is Q1 2025</a> which doesn’t inspire too much confidence.

Grok Speech to Text Released

Sat, 25 Apr 2026 00:00:00 -0600

From x.ai</a>:

Today, we are excited to announce two powerful standalone audio APIs: Grok Speech to Text (STT) and Grok Text to Speech (TTS). Built on the same stack that powers Grok Voice, Tesla vehicles, and Starlink customer support. </blockquote>
Always curious about these developments. Will these models make the feature a commodity that will eat Wispr Flow</a>’s lunch?

Cohere-transcribe Model Introduced

Sat, 25 Apr 2026 00:00:00 -0600

Julian Mack, Ekagra Ranjan, Walter Beller-Morales, Bharat venkitesh, Pierre Richemond, on huggingface.co</a>:

In English, cohere-transcribe outperforms both proprietary and open-source competitors to take the #1 spot on the huggingface Open ASR Leaderboard</a>. </blockquote>
Missed posting about this a few weeks back. Been using it</a> via Whisper Memo</a> and seems to work great. Haven’t seen it exposed too much on the Mac Transcriptions news</a> though.
BTW, great time to call out Whisper Memo</a>, they’ve been iterating a lot in the past few months.

Google App for Desktop Launches on Windows

Mon, 20 Apr 2026 00:00:00 -0600

Abner Li, on 9to5google.com</a>:

This app is intended to bring the “best of Google Search right to your desktop.” The Alt + Space keyboard shortcut opens a Search box for the web, Google Drive and local files, and installed apps. Those last two aspects make for a very Mac Spotlight-like experience. </blockquote>
All of this has happened before and will happen again. I recall begging IT at Procter & Gamble</a> to allow me to install Google Desktop</a> on a Dell laptop 20 years ago. It was so much better than anything on Windows, but still short of Spotlight on my iBook back then.
Nowadays I’d probably go with . I don’t trust Google to be able to help themselves with lots of analytics on any app.

Gemini App for Mac Released

Mon, 20 Apr 2026 00:00:00 -0600

Paul Jiménez Vela, on workspaceupdates.googleblog.com</a>:

Today, we’re bringing the Gemini app to macOS as a native desktop experience, designed to live right where you work. It’s always just a keyboard shortcut away, allowing you to quickly get the help you need without losing your focus. </blockquote>
Josh Woodward, on x.com</a>:

Introducing Gemini on Mac.
We heard your feedback. We recruited a small team. They built 100+ features in less than 100 days. 🤯
100% native Swift. Lightning fast.
Let us know what you think! </blockquote>
First impressions? nice!. Second impression: hard pass. It takes over the option + space keyboard shortcut even when the app is not running, adds a Google Updater to the login without asking. Back to using you in a browser Google, that’s where you always belong.
Some growth hacking manager messed this up for the whole developer team.

Apple App Store and Scaremongering

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 -0600

David Price, on
But is that an excuse? Not really. If running an app store is too much trouble, close it down. If comprehensive vetting is impractical, stop pretending the App Store is completely safe. (And definitely stop scaremongering about sideloading.) If you can’t make the App Store a truly reliable resource for good, safe, legitimate software, then give iPhone users the freedom to install from other places. Or just stop pretending the App Store monopoly is about anything other than revenue. </blockquote>
Emphasis mine. But I agree completely. Apple’s inability to have a real conversation with the developer community about sideloading, makes it hard not to roll our eyes when the super secure process™ fails.

Passwords Menubar in macOS 26.4 Shares Unlock Status With the Main App

Mon, 13 Apr 2026 00:00:00 -0600

Ricky Mondello, on hachyderm.io</a>:

New to macOS 26.4, the menu extra for the Passwords app shares its unlock state with the full app. So if you use Touch ID or your Mac password to unlock the menu extra and then go to add a new password or open an item in the full app, you won’t have to authenticate again to unlock the app. </blockquote>
That fact that this is exciting says a lot of how many rough edges Apple Password’s has versus 1Password, but still, so happy for this. Here’s to Password’s continued iteration with OS dot releases.

Day One Introduces Silver and Gold with Price Increases

Wed, 08 Apr 2026 00:00:00 -0600

The Day One Team, on dayoneapp.com</a>:

Today, we’re renaming Day One Premium to Day One Silver</a> and introducing a new tier: Day One Gold</a>. </blockquote>
My now legacy Premium plan remains at $24.99, as worth it as ever. But it’s Silver replacement at $49.99 a year becomes a bit of a tough recommendation for those starting out.
Specially conflicted with the Gold plan at $74.99 a year. It has multiple AI features I originally said I’d wanted, but after trying them a few times in the Labs, I really haven’t gone back to them.
For now, I still think Day One is the best choice for journaling for me, but my reco for others will likely no be Apple’s own Journal.

Jason Snell on the Ultralight Mac

Sun, 05 Apr 2026 00:00:00 -0600

Jason Snell, on sixcolors.com</a>:

And here’s the biggest reason I think a smaller laptop may never happen: Over the last decade, everything in macOS has gotten a bit bigger—not just OS elements, but even fundamentals of app design. When I was still using an 11-inch Air, I would often discover apps that couldn’t be resized to fit on my screen. The same happened with the retina MacBook. I’m afraid that the 13-inch display in the MacBook is probably as small as modern macOS and today’s Apple will reasonably go. </blockquote>
I believe that Jason Snell and John Gruber are the top experts on Cupertinology out there. And while what Jason says doesn’t make me happy, it rings true.
So how about a MacBook Air+ to the iPhone Air? Something super thin and light in between the current MacBook Air, and the 14in MacBook Pro?

MacSparky on the Case for an Ultralight Mac

Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 -0600

David Sparks, on
But there’s a gap at the top. A premium ultralight for people who travel constantly, who want the absolute minimum weight and footprint, and who are willing to pay for it. A MacBook that weighs two pounds or less, with a stunning display and all-day battery life. Not a compromise machine. A showcase. </blockquote>
This. A showcase is the key point. For those of us that own a , it’s a frustrating exercise when we have to explain what we want. It’s as simple as pointing to the 10 year old MacBoom, and then waving in the general direction of any M-Series machines.
We know the convenience of the form factor. Now we only need a force factor of the goes along with it.

Vivaldi 7.9 Intros Chrome Auto-hide

Thu, 19 Mar 2026 00:00:00 -0600

Jon von Tetzchner, on vivaldi.com</a>:

To toggle UI Auto-hide, use the keyboard shortcut ⌘ F10/Ctrl F11 or click the arrow icon in the Status Bar.
When enabled, your interface (Tab Bar, Address Bar, Panel and Status Bar) steps aside while you’re reading, watching, or working. The content gets the full stage. Then the moment your cursor moves to any edge of the screen, everything is right there waiting: your tabs, your tools, your panel. Use them, move away, and the page takes over again. It happens fluidly, naturally, like it was always supposed to work this way </blockquote>
Vivaldi should be the browser for me. On paper, it has all the features I believe I need, as well as mobile applications
But there’s something brutalistic in the best design sense about it. On screenshots, it always looks amazing, but when in use, its functionality lacks a certain elegance. My current setup is Arc for personal browsing and Dia for work. I am not using any of the AI features, but the UX is clearly the best of all the browsers — including Safari.
That said, I’ll give it another go next week.

OpenAI Plans to Combine all Desktop Apps

Thu, 19 Mar 2026 00:00:00 -0600

Berber Jinon
OpenAI is planning to unify its ChatGPT app, coding platform Codex and browser into a desktop “superapp,” a step to simplify the user experience and to focus on engineering and business customers. </blockquote>
Sounds to me like the browser did not gain as much traction as they thought.

Firefly Animated Series Is in Development

Tue, 17 Mar 2026 00:00:00 -0600

Rotem Rusak, on nerdist.com</a>:

A Firefly animated series featuring the original cast, and taking place between the original Firefly series and the Firefly movie, Serenity, is on the way (at least we hope). </blockquote>
I’m happy and excited about this. I hope they can weave some great stories like the original series.

Single-App Purchases and Subscriptions on Setapp

Mon, 16 Mar 2026 00:00:00 -0600

Setappian, on
The idea of 260+ curated apps for one price can feel overwhelming for those who rely on just one or a few essential tools.
Starting today, March 3rd, we are introducing single-app purchase and subscription options. You can now access a variety of popular tools on Setapp such as Bartender, Downie, AlDente Pro and more as standalone subscriptions. </blockquote>
This makes sense. I didn’t renew my setup subscription last November because I already own most of the apps I wanted. The challenge is going to be being able to offer competitive subscriptions or purchases in comparison to directly with the developer. In my case, neither Hookmark nor NotePlan are part of the initial launch batch.
Still great to have options when purchasing Mac apps.

Gruber on the Macbook Neo

Thu, 12 Mar 2026 00:00:00 -0600

John Gruber, on daringfireball.net</a>:

If I had my druthers, Apple would make a new svelte ultralight MacBook. Not instead of the Neo, but in addition to the Neo. Apple’s inconsistent use of the name “Air” makes this complicated, but the MacBook Neo is obviously akin to the iPhone 17e; the MacBook Air is akin to the iPhone 17 (the default model for most people); the MacBook Pros are akin to the iPhone 17 Pros. I wish Apple would make a MacBook that’s akin to the iPhone Air—crazy thin and surprisingly performant. </blockquote>
This crystallizes why I’m “unsatisfied” with the best MacBook lineup in the history of Apple. But I also agree it’s a sensational product. My Mac journey started on an iBook G3. So I appreciate the ability of offering a full macOS device at this price. I really hope the geeky narrative is right and they’re gonna sell a whole lot of these
Also, his “iPad is now dead to me” stance seems to be pulling on a common thread across multiple Mac faithful. Funny that my forever-love iPad mini is likely the only justifiable tablet then… until the iPhone Fold that is.

WhatsApp Launches Parent-Managed Accounts

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 00:00:00 -0600

Laurent Giret, on
WhatsApp announced today that it will soon roll out parent-managed accounts</a>, which will let parents or guardians configure accounts for pre-teens with strict calling and messaging controls. The new privacy controls will allow parents to decide who can get in touch with their child on WhatsApp, which groups they can join, and review message requests. </blockquote>
Childs still need a phone-number, so it’s a no-go for my kids and their iPads. It feels icky wanting to give them a WhatsApp account, but it having them talk to their grandparents and family through iMessage doesn’t always work.

Matthew Cassinelli on Monologue for Mac and iOS

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 00:00:00 -0600

Matthew Cassinelli, on matthewcassinelli.com</a>:

I’ve written a short novel’s worth of words using Monologue, a smart dictation app for Mac</a> and iOS</a> that I’ve been using almost every day since I got it in February. </blockquote>
He really likes it. I’m still a Wispr flow</a> user. It’s just consistently works better for me, without actually sending me down a prompt rabbit hole. To which he mentions:

Other modes include Messaging, Email, and Notes, plus you can create a mode — I’ve been testing a Planning mode for Things and Linear, although haven’t gotten much success with my own instructions so far. </blockquote>
I’m hoping to find an alternative among the daily for new apps that are coming out daily - but none work as well yet for me. Will keep an ear out.

Pod Seek, a New App From Castro

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 00:00:00 -0600

Dustin Bluck, on castro.fm</a>:

Today we’re introducing Pod Seek</a>, a podcast app for iOS heavily focused on discovery and recommendations. It learns what you like and has become my favorite way to find new podcasts. The recommendations are already very good and getting better. Pod Seek also uses Apple’s foundation models to let you ask questions about podcasts before you commit to subscribing. </blockquote>
Intriguing, but not for me. Castro subscriptions already provide enough possible content in my case. And for all other recommendations, I usually end up listening in Spotify or YouTube.

YouTube Premium Lite Gets Downloads & Background Play

Wed, 25 Feb 2026 00:00:00 -0600

Sarah Perez, on techcrunch.com</a>:

YouTube is expanding its more affordable, $7.99 per month Premium Lite subscription service with new features, including the ability to download videos for offline access and watch videos in the background, even if the screen is off or you’re using other apps. </blockquote>
Well, this is welcomed news. Doesn’t align with my No YouTube habit checklist — which needed some fine tuning clearly. But specially for trips, this is something that I really felt hurt the Premium Lite plan.
Will be trying it out, specially since I see an escenario in which in conjunction with offline mode, it helps me avoid Shorts rabbit holes.

Raindrop.io AI Assistant Beta

Tue, 24 Feb 2026 00:00:00 -0600

From help.raindrop.io</a>:

Stella is an AI assistant built into Raindrop.io. It answers from your saved content, linking back to the source. It can also manage your library — move, tag, sort, clean up — always confirming before making changes. And if you have questions about Raindrop.io itself, it can help with that too. </blockquote>
Very intriguing. I’ve had mostly positive results from it both on the web and on the app. There are still some rough edges where the links do not seem to open or it doesn’t find something I consider obvious.
I’ll be honest: Raindrop.io search has never been one of its strong points for me. I usually struggle finding links that I didn’t curate carefully enough with tags or folders. Bit this is a net effect of this AI feature is useful and positive for me.

1Password Raises Prices by $12 Annually

Tue, 24 Feb 2026 00:00:00 -0600

Emma Roth, on
1Password is increasing its prices on March 27th, 2026. In an email sent to users, the password manager says it will raise the price of its yearly individual plan from $35.88 to $47.88, and that its family plan is going from $59.88 to $71.88. </blockquote>
As a long time 1Password user</a>, I totally see the value of application and can attest that they have kept their prices stable for many years. However, I took the plunge and and switched to the default Apple Password about a month ago for my personal use, and my work is moving from 1Password to Keeper — both unrelated to the price change, but anecdata is not great.
Sadly their app is no longer a tool I love to use, and support — and it’s now a fine app. Which makes it easier to replace with another fine app.

Voxtral Releases Two New Transcribe Models

Wed, 04 Feb 2026 00:00:00 -0600

From mistral.ai</a>:

Today, we’re releasing Voxtral Transcribe 2, two next-generation speech-to-text models with state-of-the-art transcription quality, diarization, and ultra-low latency. The family includes Voxtral Mini Transcribe V2 for batch transcription and Voxtral Realtime for live applications. Voxtral Realtime is open-weights under the Apache 2.0 license. </blockquote>
As always, curious about how this compares with the other models. Currently I am paying for Wispr Flow</a>, mostly because their fine-tuned prompts, not necessarily the recognition. I do have high hopes for the Apple intelligence update and its ability to bring bilingual dictation/recognition at the same time.

Spotify Testing a Feature That Syncs Audiobooks With Books

Wed, 21 Jan 2026 00:00:00 -0600

Jess Weatherbed, on
Using Page Match will require users to unlock or purchase the audiobook on Spotify and own either the paper or ebook version of the same book. The feature works by scanning the page you’re currently reading with your device camera, using optical character recognition (OCR) to identify passages that are then matched to specific timestamps in the audiobook. </blockquote>
I would love this feature. Even more, I’d love Spotify to make Audiobooks Access</a> available in Costa Rica. It would also be great if Audible also released something similar — but since they will also push for you to buy the Kindle version, not see it likely.