Enjoy the latest episodes from MacStories’ family of podcasts:
AppStories
This week, Federico and John are back from their holiday break, which included so many hardware and automation projects that this is part one of a two-part episode regarding Federico’s networked music automation setup and John’s new research tool.
On AppStories+, Federico shares his foldable phone experiments.
NPC: Next Portable Console
This week, a whirlwind tour of the handheld news from CES 2026, Switch 2 grips, AR glasses, new chips from AMD, the OneXSugar Wallet, and more.
On NPC XL, John got his MCON controller, Federico’s still waiting for his, and Brendon checks in after more than a month with his.
Comfort Zone
Niléane battles the modern era of smart mice, Chris has a new way of keeping up with everything everywhere all at once, and the whole gang battles it out with the best dang MagSafe accessories you’ve ever seen.
On this week’s Cozy Zone, we roast listeners’ home screens again! This one has, bar none, the weirdest home screen we’ve ever seen, and we might be cursed now.
MacStories Unwind
This week, Federico unpacks Clawdbot, a Claude-based personal assistant, and recommends an Apple TV movie, while John revisits an old favorite on the Nintendo Switch.
AppStories, Episode 467, ‘A Very Nerdy Holiday Break’ Show Notes
This episode is sponsored by:
Copilot Money – Your money, beautifully organized.
Presenting Our Nerdy Holiday Projects
John’s Research PWA
Parallel.ai
Firecrawl
Example Club MacStories article by John where he used his research tool
How iTunes Shaped the Apple of Today
Tools John used:
FastAPI
Tailscale
LLM by Simon Willison
Feedbin
Federico’s Networked Music Library
Roon
ROCK (Roon server)
Qobuz
M4 Mac mini (Refurbished)
Terramaster F8SSD+ NAS
FiiO R9
FiiO M17 DAP
FiiO FT1 headphones
John got a FiiO Snowsky Echo Mini DAP
AppStories+ Post-Show
Federico got a Pixel Fold
Will the iPhone Fold be a phone you open, or an iPad you close?
Apple’s Rumored Foldable May Be Smaller Than We Think
Is this the folding iPhone’s creaseless display?
Subscribe to AppStories+
Visit AppStories.net to learn more about the extended, high bitrate audio version of AppStories that is delivered early each week and subscribe.
NPC, Episode 63, ‘CES 2026: Foldables, Rollables, and Robot Punches’ Show Notes
The Portable Gaming News from CES
NOW LIVE: Nintendo just officially revealed the new purple/light green Switch 2 Joy
Genki Grips: Made to be Held by Human Things
Pocket8 Makes PICO-8 Playable On Your iPhone
touchHLE homepage
The Xreal 1S glasses get a spec bump and 3D conversion
The OneXSugar Wallet is the first gaming handheld with a folding screen
You can charge Belkin’s new Switch 2 power case without opening it
Qualcomm’s next-gen Snapdragon X2 laptops are here — and they brought a new friend
AMD heard you like powerful gaming portables — so here are new Strix Halo chips
Lenovo Legion Go 2 with SteamOS launches in June, priced at $1199
Lenovo’s new concept gaming laptop goes wide. Really wide.
GameSir X Hyperkin Reveal A Controller With GC, N64 & SEGA Attachments
NPC XL
MCON News
MCON
OhSnap is already building two new MCON sliding gamepads that aren’t so dang thick.
The iPad Finally Becomes a Gaming Console with CloudGear
Other Vertical Controllers
8BitDo Announces Controller Built for Vertical Mobile Gaming
GameSir Pocket Taco
Subscribe to NPC XL
NPC XL is a weekly members-only version of NPC with extra content, available exclusively through our new Patreon for $5/month. Each week on NPC XL, Federico, Brendon, and John record a special segment or deep dive about a particular topic that is released alongside the “regular” NPC episodes. You can subscribe here.
Comfort Zone, Episode 83, ‘Are You Predicting Doom?’ Show Notes
Main Topics
Other Things We Talked About
Atkinson Hyperlegible
Geist
Ben Vallack
Swapmod
Intricuit
Aerospace
ROG Xbox Ally X
Logitech made an oopsie
Mode Anthracite keycaps
DOCKCASE Magnetic Visual
Clicks Power Keyboard
MagicMount Flask
Nomatic Wallet
VÄSTMÄRKE
Cozy Zone
For even more from the Comfort Zone crew, you can subscribe to Cozy Zone. Cozy Zone is a weekly bonus episode of Comfort Zone where Matt, Niléane, and Chris invite listeners to join them in the Cozy Zone where they’ll cover extra topics, invent wilder challenges and games, and share all their great (and not so great) takes on tech. You can subscribe to Cozy Zone for $5 per month here or $50 per year here.
MacStories Unwind, ‘Clawdbot, Animal Crossing, and Mark Wahlberg’ Show Notes
Clawdbot
Clawdbot
ClawdHub
Peter Steinberger on Bluesky
Picks
Federico’s Pick: Family Plan 2 on Apple TV
John’s Pick: Animal Crossing New Horizons
Unwind Deal
Licorice Pizza: Paul Thomas Anderson’s critically acclaimed coming-of-age tale follows Alana Kane and Gary Valentine as they navigate love and life in 1973 San Fernando Valley. This Academy Award-nominated film features breakout performances and Anderson’s signature nostalgic storytelling style.
MacStories Unwind+
We deliver MacStories Unwind+ to Club MacStories subscribers ad-free with high bitrate audio every week. To learn more about the benefits of a Club MacStories subscription, visit our Plans page.
MacStories launched its first podcast in 2017 with AppStories. Since then, the lineup has expanded to include a family of weekly shows that also includes MacStories Unwind, Magic Rays of Light, Comfort Zone, NPC: Next Portable Console, and First, Last, Everything that collectively, cover a broad range of the modern media world from Apple’s streaming service and videogame hardware to apps for a growing audience that appreciates our thoughtful, in-depth approach to media.
If you’re interested in advertising on our shows, you can learn more here or by contacting our Managing Editor, John Voorhees.