3/24/2024 0 Comments Best games from mac app storeWonder, or any indie games from my Steam Deck on the iPad’s larger, brighter display in upscaled 4K is glorious. Playing Tears of the Kingdom, Super Mario Bros. Not only does Orion immediately recognize my HDMI 2.1-enabled capture card, but the app supports an upscaling mode powered by on-device artificial intelligence that can turn any incoming video signal into a 4K image in real time, with no latency or image artifacts. As I wrote in a story I published a while back, I’ve been using Orion to turn my iPad Pro’s mini-LED display into a beautiful, portable monitor for my Nintendo Switch. What sets Orion apart, however, is how well it works with connected game consoles compared to other solutions we tested this year. From the app’s icon to the retro-inspired ‘No Signal’ screen, there’s plenty to love about Orion’s design – especially if you’ve been playing videogames for a long time. From a visual standpoint, the folks at Lux – previously known for their outstanding work on the camera app Halide – have outdone themselves: they designed the onboarding experience of Orion and its related manual to resemble the experience of opening up the box of a videogame console from the late 80s this aesthetic works for the app and turns something relatively boring – we’re talking about HDMI sources, after all – into a fun technological toy. Of course, the reason we’ve selected Orion as the Best New App for MacStories Selects 2023 is that, compared to its competition, this app goes the extra mile in terms of design, user experience, and raw performance. There is no configuration necessary: pick your favorite accessory, plug in a Nintendo Switch, DSLR, or, dare I say, a Game Boy Camera, and Orion will turn your iPad into a monitor. As long as you own a compatible video capture card (there are hundreds in existence, ranging from $20 dongles to more expensive ones that support HDMI 2.1, HDR, 120Hz, and more), Orion will let you view the connected device’s display on your iPad’s screen. Orion is an iPad- and iPadOS 17-only app that lets you turn your tablet into a portable HDMI monitor for, well, anything. We’ve seen dozens of apps that allow you to connect portable consoles or cameras to an iPad running iPadOS 17, but the one we liked most is Orion, developed by Lux. This year, while Apple’s focus was on widgets and wrapping up work on visionOS, a new functionality of iPadOS 17 quietly created a whole new market on the App Store: USB video class (or UVC) and the ability to turn an iPad into a portable monitor for connected webcams, videogame consoles, or other devices. This year’s winner, which joins past winners PCalc and Drafts, is the subject of a special story I wrote for the occasion.įederico: It doesn’t happen as often these days as it used to years ago, but my favorite kind of new app is the one that represents a new category of software that’s made possible by a brand new technology added to iOS or iPadOS. Plus, as we’ve done the past couple of years, we’ve named a Lifetime Achievement Award winner that has stood the test of time and had an outsized impact on the world of apps. Club MacStories members picked the winner of the MacStories Selects Readers’ Choice Award. Like last year, we’ve picked the best apps in seven categories:īut there’s more. For now, though, it’s time to pause and reflect on the many apps we tried in the year gone by and recognize the best among them. Next year promises to be an even bigger year for apps with an all-new Vision Pro App Store on the way. Read-later apps continued to be hot, but nothing was quite as big as interactive widgets, which brought new experiences to our Home and Lock Screens and shook up how many of us set up our devices. This year marked Federico’s return to WWDC for the first time since the pandemic, and seeing so many developers together made this year’s WWDC the best in years.Ģ023 was an exciting year for apps. Reconnecting with developers and meeting new people energizes and carries us through a busy summer and fall. June begins with excitement about what developers will be able to do with Apple’s latest frameworks. Plenty happens the rest of the year, but it’s these seven months that are the main event for us. For most people, the year begins on January 1st, but for us, WWDC marks the beginning of our year, and the MacStories Selects Awards feel like its conclusion. John: Every year, it seems like the MacStories Selects awards roll around faster than the last, and this year was no exception.
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