--- title: "Kapell v1.6.0 released — Kapell" description: "Remote: drive the Mac on your hi-fi from your lap. Plus Siri, Shortcuts, and a sleep timer." canonical: "https://kapell.fm/blog/2026-10-27-release-160/" published: "2026-10-27" --- Release October 27, 2026 # Kapell v1.6.0 released Your laptop picks the music, and the Mac wired to your DAC plays it. Version 1.6.0 of Kapell has just been released [on the App Store](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/kapell/id6779394524). The big, hairy feature is **[Remote](https://kapell.fm/remote/)**. There’s also a pile of “Kapell should behave like a proper Mac app” work riding along with it. ## Remote I’ve got a nice little hi-fi setup in my office. It’s capable of Bluetooth and Airplay, but both are limiting due to formatting. I want that Hi-res Lossless! To fix that, I added a Mac mini to my stack, but to interace with it I had to screenshare or attach a monitor or TV. That’s no way to live when I’ve got computers and laptops more easily available. Remote lets one Mac running Kapell (the **controller**) drive another Mac running Kapell (the **receiver**). You browse, search, and press play on the controll, and the receiver plays the music, streamed from Apple Music® itself straight into your DAC. The audio never touches the network, so nothing gets re-encoded or resampled on the way. Pretty much everything works from the controller: - Albums, playlists, songs, stations, and Crates all play on the receiver, and so does Play Next. - The chin follows the receiver: what’s playing, the scrubber, next, previous and pause. - **Playing on…** names the receiver’s output device and the format it’s playing at, so you can confirm the DAC is getting what you think it is. - The **Receiving** page shows the receiver’s whole queue: what’s played, what’s playing, and what’s up next. - Listens go in the Listen Log on the Mac that played them. Private Mode belongs to the receiver while you’re connected, and you can switch it from the controller. Pairing works like Bluetooth: both Macs show a code, you check that they match, and you confirm on both. All traffic stays on your local network and is encrypted with a key that never crosses it. No Kapell server is involved. A Mac that hasn’t turned on receiving doesn’t show up on the network at all. Remote is included with Kapell. There’s nothing extra to buy. The [Remote page](https://kapell.fm/remote/) has the pitch, and the [Remote docs](https://kapell.fm/docs/remote/) cover setup and troubleshooting. Remote is marked **beta** in this release. It’s networking between two Macs, two Apple Music sessions, and every kind of home network, and I can’t test that last part myself. If something gets weird, **Help ▸ Send Feedback…** opens an email with your build and macOS version already filled in. ## Siri and Shortcuts Kapell now shows up in Siri and the Shortcuts app. You can say: - “Play or pause Kapell”, “Skip in Kapell”, “Go back in Kapell” - “What’s playing in Kapell” - “Play my *Sunday Morning* crate in Kapell” - “Set a sleep timer in Kapell” - **“Tell me about this song in Kapell”** That last one is the most fun. Siri reads back what enrichment knows about the song: the album and year, the producers (or writers), its chart peak, a sample, and a couple of sentences from Wikipedia. It’s nice when you’re across the room. On macOS 27, Kapell also speaks the newer Apple Intelligence Siri’s audio vocabulary, so it understands requests like “play Steely Dan’s *Aja* album in Kapell”, plus shuffle, repeat, liking a song, and starting a station from what’s playing. ## Sleep Timer **Playback ▸ Sleep Timer** stops the music after 15, 30, 45, or 60 minutes, or at the end of the current track or album. While it’s set, a little SLEEP chip under the scrubber counts down. Siri can set it too. ## Wikipedia in Your Language Kapell used to ask Wikipedia in English with no input from you. Now it asks for your whole list of preferred languages, in order, or you can pick one edition in **Settings ▸ General**. When a note comes from a different edition than the one your Mac’s interface uses, Kapell says which one (“Japanese Wikipedia”), links that article, and sets the text in its language. ## And More! - Closing the main window no longer quits Kapell. The music keeps going, and the Dock icon brings the window back. The system Now Playing controls in the menu bar work the whole time. - Studios now say where they are: “Manhattan, New York” instead of just “Manhattan”. I mean, that was maybe a bad example but there are [at least six other places in the US named Manhattan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhattan_(disambiguation)). - Fixed a macOS 27 problem where Apple refused to start some albums and playlists from a particular track, so pressing play did nothing. - Sheets no longer get stretched to the main window’s minimum size. - Every bit of text in Kapell has been reworked so the app can be translated. It’s still English-only for now, but a translation can go in without code changes. Kapell — for macOS Press play. Meet the band. A deeper way to play the Apple Music® library you already have — the credits, samples, and history, surfaced as the music plays. Buy it once, own the whole thing. No subscription. [Download](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/kapell/id6779394524) [See other journal entries](https://kapell.fm/blog/)