A journalist testing Meta's Muse AI assistant on its new Mac app found it referencing contents of his Messages conversations, despite believing he hadn't granted access. When questioned, Muse gave a confused and inaccurate explanation, claiming it only saw notification previews synced through the paired Mac app. Meta executive David Singleton later clarified that Muse only accesses Messages data after a user explicitly opts in, and that the assistant's own explanation of its capabilities was simply wrong.
theverge.com
· 2026-09-19
Programmer Yevhen Kharkivskyi has released Tasks.txt, a free Mac application built around Gina Trapani's todo.txt system. Instead of complex features, it organizes tasks into three simple sections—Next, Backlog, and Done—stored in a single text file and fully operable via keyboard shortcuts.
wired.com
· 2026-09-19
Meta has launched a Mac version of its AI assistant Muse, allowing it to interact directly with a user's files, messages, calendar, notes and mail within their native apps. The desktop release follows Muse's earlier debut on mobile and web this month, where it quickly climbed to the top of U.S. App Store rankings.
techcrunch.com
· 2026-09-18
Meta AI has released Muse, a personified AI agent app for iPhone, with a companion Mac app added nine days later and web access at muse.ai. Users can customize the agent's name and avatar, and while the app is free with weekly usage limits, paying subscribers get expanded access. The Mac version can work across apps, files, calendar, notes, and messages, with user-controlled permissions.
9to5mac.com
· 2026-09-17
A solo developer released Hush, a lightweight macOS menu bar application that generates brown noise and a speech-blocking sound in real time, replacing the need for browser tabs or streaming apps. Users can start or stop playback with a right-click, adjust volume and tweak the low-pass cutoff via a simple controls panel, all while working fully offline. The app is Apple notarized, free to download on a pay-what-you-want basis, and its source code is available on GitHub under an MIT license.
oldmanrahul.com
· 2026-09-16
AppZapper, the veteran Mac utility for thoroughly removing apps and their leftover files, has relaunched as AppZapper 3000 after a long absence. The new version keeps its signature zap sound effects but adds a playful blaster-style cursor animation for deleting app remnants. It's free to try with three zaps included, after which a license costs $18.
9to5mac.com
· 2026-09-15
Apple's July TestFlight update added a search feature but also introduced a bug that caused previously tested and expired betas to flood the app list, sometimes numbering in the hundreds, mixed alphabetically with active betas instead of the prior reverse-chronological order. Apple has now released a fix addressing this regression alongside the search functionality.
9to5mac.com
· 2026-09-04
The developer behind Whistle Synth, a tool that turns whistling into synthesizer sound, has rebuilt it with AI assistance and released it as a free, ad-free, open-source Mac application. The overhaul cut audio round-trip latency from 80ms to 5ms and fixed stuttering by separating pitch detection from sound synthesis.
jefftk.com
· 2026-09-04
Apple emailed Mac App Store developers saying universal apps requiring macOS 13 or later can now remove Intel-based Mac support entirely and build for arm64 only. This follows Apple's completed six-year transition to its own silicon and its earlier statement that macOS 26 Tahoe would be the last major release supporting Intel Macs. Rosetta, the tool letting Apple-silicon Macs run older Intel apps, will lose general-purpose support after macOS 27.
techspot.com
· 2026-09-03
Apple emailed developers announcing that universal macOS apps requiring macOS 13 or later can now be built as arm64-only, removing Intel compatibility. Developers must update build settings to arm64 and resubmit; Intel Mac users can still use the last compatible version of an app they already have.
9to5mac.com
· 2026-09-02
GoKawiil