Categories
Apps

Customize Your Mac Workspace With CurrentKey’s Menu Bar Script Images

CurrentKey Stats, a workspace customization app for Mac from developer and journalist Spencer Dailey, has added a unique ability to update your workspace Menu Bar icon using any image – and it’s accomplished using AppleScript (and Shortcuts, if you want).

The app is designed to separate your Mac into workspaces, changing spaces depending on the app and tracking time spent within each space – a great idea in itself. Since the app functions using a mix of keyboard commands and Menu Bar actions, you’re often switching contexts quickly and using the Menu Bar icon as a reference for which space you’re in.

Using that same idea, CurrentKey has added an AppleScript command to customize that icon on the fly, regardless of other customization, using what’s called Script Images – at any moment, a script could come through and update the Menu Bar icon with the new Script Image, providing a visual but minimal status update in a place you’re already checking regularly.

Using a set of predefined Script Images, which are similar to custom emoji, which you’ve loaded into the app, you can use an AppleScript command line like this to change the icon:

tell application "CurrentKey Stats" to display_image imagename "happy" optional_duration 5

When run, it’ll display the happy image for 5 seconds – or any image and duration of your choosing.

Combined with all the possible types of Mac automation, there’s a lot of interesting possibilities – CurrentKey gives an example of a custom Mail rule that automatically triggers the icon change when an email is received. In another example, the icon change can trigger at the end of a shortcut, using the Run AppleScript command in Shortcuts.

I’m intrigued by CurrentKey’s capabilities for Mac customization – I’ve attempted to replicate my Home Screen setup on iPad using Spaces on Mac and it’s somewhat fallen apart, but only because there’s a limited set of controls and I tend to approach these with a maximalist setup. It’ll take time to test (and stress test) the setup for my needs and figure out fun ways to update the icon within my shortcuts, but I’m intrigued with the possibilities – I haven’t noticed much movement in the Mac customization space lately and CurrentKey overall feels like a fresh approach in a storied area.

CurrentKey Stats is a subscription-based app, with a 1-month free trial and a $2.49 USD monthly subscription available via in-app purchase (and is not offered in the EU).

Check out CurrentKey Stats on the Mac App Store, read about how to create custom icon alerts with Script Images, and learn more about CurrentKey Stats on their website.

Categories
Shortcuts Tips & Tricks

Pro-Tip: Shortcuts Has Its Own Suite of AppleScript Commands

Many people don’t know that the Shortcuts app can be automated on the Mac using its dedicated scripting dictionary.

This requires a bit of meta thinking, but that means both the application itself and all the shortcuts contained within it are available to control remotely via AppleScript and applications like Script Editor – as well as triggered via devices like the Stream Deck, which I use every day at my Mac mini.

In order to make these methodologies more accessible, I wanted to share instructions here on how to access the AppleScript dictionary for Shortcuts, plus share a copy of the commands so everything is freely available on the web.

Here’s how to access Shortcuts’ scripting dictionary:

  1. Open the Script Editor app
  2. In the Menu Bar, select File > Open Dictionary (or press Command + Shift + O)
  3. Browse through the dictionaries until you find Shortcuts’ (or type “Shortcuts” on the keyboard to navigate there directly), then open the Dictionary.
  4. There, you’ll see Standard Suite and Shortcuts Suite; under Shortcuts Suite, you’ll find the “Classes and Commands for working with Shortcuts.”

For reference, here’s what is documented in the command set:

Shortcuts Suite

Classes and Commands for working with Shortcuts


application n [see also Standard Suite]

ELEMENTS

contains shortcuts, folders.

—-
shortcutn : a shortcut in the Shortcuts application

ELEMENTS

contained by application, folders.


PROPERTIES

name (text, r/o) : the name of the shortcut

subtitle (text, r/o) : the shortcut’s subtitle

id (text, r/o) : the unique identifier of the shortcut

folder (folder) : the folder containing this shortcut

color (RGB color, r/o) : the shortcut’s color

icon (TIFF image, r/o) : the shortcut’s icon

accepts input (boolean, r/o) : indicates whether or not the shortcut accepts input data

action count (integer, r/o) : the number of actions in the shortcut


RESPONDS TO

run.

—-

foldern : a folder containing shortcuts

ELEMENTS

contains shortcuts; contained by application.

PROPERTIES

name (text) : the name of the folder

id (text, r/o) : the unique identifier of the folder

—-

runv : Run a shortcut. To run a shortcut in the background, without opening the Shortcuts app, tell ‘Shortcuts Events’ instead of ‘Shortcuts’.

run shortcut : the shortcut to run

[with input any] : the input to provide to the shortcut

→ any : the result of the shortcut

—-

To keep this post as reference material, I’ll share methods for utilizing these AppleScript commands here on my blog using my AppleScript tag.

To learn more about scripting, check out Apple’s documentation for Navigating a Script Dictionary – that’s part of the now-archived Mac Automation Scripting Guide which provides more insight into how Script Editor and AppleScript can be used across macOS.

Categories
Announcements Developer

Announcement: I’ll Be Speaking About Apple Intelligence at Deep Dish Swift This April

It’s my pleasure to announce that I’ll be a conference speaker at Deep Dish Swift in Chicago, which runs this April 27 to April 29, 2025!

My talk will be covering Apple Intelligence and the portion powered by App Intents APIs, in many ways acting as a follow-up to my just-posted talk “Preparing your App for Apple Intelligence” talk about App Intents from this past September at NSSpain.

I’ll be joining a wonderful group of speakers from the Apple developer community for three days of talks, a live recording of the Launched podcast, and a lot of deep dish pizza.

Check out all the details on the Deep Dish Swift website. If you’re an Apple developer, buy your ticket to attend – and, if you’re going, let me know and I’ll see you there!

Categories
Developer News

Preparing Your App for Apple Intelligence: My Conference Talk from NSSpain 2024

For anyone who is interested in Apple Intelligence and learning about the App Intents APIs that power it, but don’t know where to start, my conference talk from last year covers everything you’ll need to know to get up to speed.

Preparing Your App for Apple Intelligence,” delivered at at NSSpain 2024, covers everything to know prior to the launch of Apple Intelligence, including a brief history of Workflow, how we got from Shortcuts to App Intents, and a look forward at Apple Intelligence. Here’s the video on Vimeo, among all the 2024 talks:

My thanks to the folks at NSSpain for letting me open the conference with my first talk ever. I admittedly went slightly long, but only because I packed the presentation with loads of information – and a bit of nerves 😅. Check out this set of photos from my talk:

The rest of the conference was a delight, including a wide array of great speakers and a fancy winery dinner, all set in Logroño, Spain during the town’s annual wine festival week – surely an event to remember.

If you’re a developer who’s interested in working with me to add Apple Intelligence support and App Intents to your app, contact me directly.

Watch the whole video on Vimeo, browse the set of NSSpain 2024 talks, and check out the NSSpain website.

Categories
Shortcuts

New in the Shortcuts Library: MacStories shortcuts

Apropos of something admirable, I’ve just added a new folder to the Shortcuts Library — my set of MacStories shortcuts for interacting with MacStories.net, the premiere independent website for Apple news, app reviews, and Shortcuts coverage.

Use these shortcuts to access different parts of the site, find and listen to MacStories podcasts, show the website’s social media profiles, and dive into Club MacStories content.

MacStories is the website that introduced me to Shortcuts originally, and I learned so much from the Workflow tag back in the day – check it out:

  • Open MacStories.net: Opens the main homepage of MacStories.net, showing the latest stories from Federico Viticci and friends.
  • Show stories from MacStories RSS: Pulls 25 items from the MacStories main RSS feeds and asks you to choose which to open in Safari.
  • Show MacStories podcasts: Opens the Apple Podcasts link for the MacStories channel, where you can discover and follow podcasts from the network.
  • Play a MacStories podcast: Presents a menu of MacStories shows, then plays the next episode from the selected show based on the preselected custom sort order (or default order from the Podcasts app).
  • Open MacStories on Flipboard: Opens the MacStories account on Flipboard so you can read stories from Federico Viticci and friends.
  • Show the Setups on MacStories: Opens the Setups page on the MacStories website where the team shares about their devices and desk setups in-depth.
  • Show Reviews on MacStories: Opens the Reviews category on the MacStories website where the team posts app coverage and reviews.
  • Show the Shortcuts Archive on MacStories: Opens the Shortcuts Archive page on the MacStories website where the team hosts over 300 shortcuts freely available to download.
  • Open Club MacStories+ on Discord: Opens the deep link into the General channel in the private Discord for members of Club MacStories. Join Club MacStories for access: https://club.macstories.net
  • Show the Shortcuts tag on MacStories: Opens the tag page on the MacStories website for stories marked with “Shortcuts.”
  • Show the Workflow tag on MacStories: Opens the tag page on the MacStories website for stories marked with “Workflow,” the original version of the Shortcuts app – these stories introduced me to the app before I joined the team. So, uh, thanks Federico!
  • Open MacStories on Mastodon: Opens the MacStories profile in the Mastodon app or on the web.
  • Open MacStories on Bluesky: Opens the MacStories profile in the Bluesky app or on the web.
  • Open from Club MacStories RSS feed: Given your custom Club MacStories RSS feed, this will retrieve the 25 latest items published for members-only and asks you which links you want to open.
  • Open Club MacStories: Shows the main homepage for Club Macstories, the members-only portion of the MacStories website with weekly newsletters, community events, and private stories with more advanced techniques.
  • Open Club MacStories on Discord: Opens the deep link into the General channel in the private Discord for members of Club MacStories. Join Club MacStories for access: https://club.macstories.net
  • Advertise on MacStories: Opens the “Advertise” page on the MacStories website where brands can learn more about how to sponsor the website and advertise to the passionate group of MacStories readers.

Check out the folder of MacStories shortcuts on the Shortcuts Library.

Categories
News

What’s New in Shortcuts in iOS and iPadOS 18.2, macOS 15.2, watchOS 11.2, and visionOS 2.2 »

From Apple Support:

New actions

  • Fitness
    “Open Award,” “Open Session History,” “Open Fitness Settings,” “Open Trophy Case,” “Search in Fitness+,” “Open Trends,” and “Open View” are now available on iOS and iPadOS
  • Freeform
    “Rename Board” and “Update Board” are now available on iOS, iPadOS, and macOS
  • Stocks
    “New Watchlist,” “Open Watchlist,” and “Delete Watchlists” are now available on all platforms
  • More
    “Get Current App” is now available on all platforms

Updated actions

For those building custom shortcuts, some actions have been updated:

  • Home
    “Toggle Accessory or Scene” support has been expanded to macOS
  • Notes
    “Show Notes Folder” support has been expanded to macOS
  • News
    “Show Topic” support has been expanded to macOS
  • Weather
    “Show Weather” support has been expanded to macOS

Good to see so many actions come to Mac – I’m also looking forward to using the Fitness actions. Plus, Get Current App is great for the Action button.

View the original.

Categories
Gear

Check Out This LEGO Stream Deck from Elgato

If you watched my livestream yesterday evening, you caught me putting together a lovely gift from the folks at Elgato: a LEGO set designed like a Stream Deck, complete with unique icons and an angled surface.

Shot with Obscura so I could get the white balance and 2:1 aspect ratio.

The set is 215 pieces and 48 steps – I put it together in a little under an hour. What a lovely little accessory for my favorite accessory – it’s definitely going on my display shelf.

Check out the stream and get the Stream Deck from Elgato.

Categories
Livestreams

Live: Opening a Christmas Gift from Elgato!

Earlier this evening, I hosted a quick 1-hour livestream on YouTube as I unboxed a Christmas present from Elgato — tune into the replay:

Elgato sent a Christmas gift to all Elgato Partners this year, marked “Do Not Open Until December 9th.”

Well, it’s December 9th and I’m opening mine!

Shoutout to SENTINELITE, Hiltachk, and Doc Rock for hanging out in the chat!

View the stream live or catch the replay on YouTube.

Read more: Live: Opening a Christmas Gift from Elgato!

Categories
Podcasts

iPad Pros: Shortcuts 8 with Matthew Cassinelli »

On the iPad Pros podcast episode released Thursday, December 5, I joined host Tim Chaten for our annual Shortcuts episode:

Matthew Cassinelli is back for our annual update on Shortcuts! This year we also dive into app intents that will power Apple Intelligence in 2025. 

Early episodes with chapter markers are available by supporting the podcast at www.patreon.com/ipadpros. 

Early episodes are also now available in Apple Podcasts!

Show notes are available at www.iPadPros.net. Feedback is welcomed at [email protected].

Chapter Markers:

00:00:00: Opening

00:00:44: Support The Show

00:01:09: Matthew Cassinelli

00:03:10: Shortcuts UI improvements

00:06:44: Control Center

00:13:24: New Actions

00:38:42: Apple Typo?

00:40:41: Journal

00:41:21: Magnifier

00:46:01: Wallet Actions

00:49:23: Add To Home Screen

00:57:02: Shortcuts Command Line

01:01:03: Get Current App

01:04:59: Spatial Capture Actions

01:10:44: App Intents

01:28:22: Amazon

01:32:02: What Else?

01:48:25: Where Can People Follow You Online

01:49:46: Closing

Check out iPad Pros in Apple Podcasts or listen to the episode below:

Categories
Developer

How to integrate Siri and Apple Intelligence into your app to query onscreen content »

From Jordan Morgan, Developer Advocate at Superwall:

Since the announcement of Apple Intelligence, developers have been in a bit of holding pattern with iOS 18. Many of the marquee APIs to hook into Siri and Apple Intelligence weren’t available with its initial release. For example, hooking into onscreen content (here’s an example).

The ability to have Siri perform tasks from your app, or shuttle data from it to another one, based on your personal context is a game-changer. We’ve always been able to ask Siri to perform tasks in our apps, but Siri couldn’t understand the specifics of what you were currently looking at.

Take the example I linked to above, from Apple’s W.W.D.C. session, “Bring your app to Siri.” In it, the presenter asks Siri to favorite a photo. Apple Intelligence makes this flow better starting with iOS 18.2, since we can expose our app’s onscreen content. Basically, this opens up two things for developers:

  1. Primarily, you can create entities that Siri can understand, simply from them being visible on screen. The entity from the example above was a photo, and it was recognized when the presenter said “Hey Siri, move this photo to the California album.”
  2. And, you can create intents that Siri can use with that content, or from content coming to your app from somewhere else. Moving the photo to another album from the example would be the intent at play.

What’s key to understand here is that the photo is an entity Siri can use and moving it to an album was an intent. And, as a bonus – you can shuttle the data around easier with Transferable. This isn’t new but is important. Again, from the example, this is how Siri took the photo and sent it in an email.

Today, I’ll show you how it works and break down the key parts you’ll need. However, there’s an important catch: Siri can’t actually perform these tasks yet. While the APIs are available to developers, the personal context features aren’t live. Once they are, everything will ‘just work.’ For now, Apple seems to be giving us the tools today so we can be ready for tomorrow.

Friend of the site Jordan Morgan is back with yet another excellent guide around App Intents – this time preparing us for the real Apple Intelligence experience.

View the original.

Categories
Actions Shortcuts

Apple Music Replay: Save Your Listening History From Kids Music With These Shortcuts

Apple has just released their Apple Music Replay feature for 2024, curating stats and visualizations around your listening habits from the last year on the web and in the app for the first time.

It’s always interesting to see your top tracks and artists, but some folks like Halide designer Sebastiaan de With have already run into a common problem – their children’s music is mixed in with their own:

The children’s music is gaining ground on my Apple Music replay. The burden of being a parent

[image or embed]

— Sebastiaan de With (@sdw.bsky.social) December 3, 2024 at 10:00 AM

 

Thankfully, Apple recently built a feature for the Music that lets you choose whether to Use Listening History, available in the form of a Focus Filter applied to a specific Focus mode.

In Settings, in the Focus section, you can apply a Focus Filter to a specific Focus by choosing which mode from the list and scrolling down to Focus Filters, which Apple says lets you “Customize how your apps and device behave when this Focus is on.”

When you select “Add Filter,” you’ll see a popover of App Filters and System Filters that let you pick which filters to use to customize during this Focus. Apple’s description explains “Selected apps will be notified when this Focus turns on or off,” immediately activating the filter outside the app and updating things like the widget experience or background tasks.

For the Music app, there’s a Focus Filter for “Use Listening History” where you can “Choose if music played will influence recommendations and mixes, appear in Recently Played, or be shown to others on Apple Music.”

Adding the Focus Filter will apply it to the current Focus, whether it’s set off to ignore your habits or enabled to track your listening history whenever the Focus is enabled. For someone like a parent, they could create a “Home” mode separate from their own “Personal” mode and disable listening history while at home but enable it while listening on their own.

In iOS 18, Apple also added a Set Music Focus Filter action to the Shortcuts app that enables automated control over one’s listening history. With a Shortcuts action, users can add or clear the Focus Filter from any focus mode as needed, plus enable it or disable it on the fly without fully designating a Focus mode just for this feature.

In my set of Apple Music Replay shortcuts, I built two shortcuts that take advantage of it: Enable Listening History and Disable Listening History, which you can run to pick a Focus mode and toggle the setting as needed.

Adding this functionality in Shortcuts essentially makes the “Use Listening History” feature available separately from a Focus Filter, letting you toggle it on for any period of time and turn it off manually again when you’re done.

Plus, if you want to go even further, Automations in Shortcuts can give you control over whether to Use Listening History in almost any context, from triggers like location-based automations to whether you pressed the Action button while holding your iPhone horizontally while driving.

I also built shortcuts to Toggle Listening History for any Focus mode that works really well as a Control in Control Center, as well as a shortcut to Clear the Focus Filter from any Focus mode should you be done with the feature entirely.

Plus, since I enjoy listening to my Apple Music Replay playlists, I built a set of shortcuts for each year to shuffle the songs and let me quickly jump back into all my favorite songs ever since I first got an Apple Music subscription – as well as a new shortcut to show Apple Music Replay on the web.

Check out the folder of Apple Music Replay shortcuts in my Shortcuts Library and check out Sebastiaan’s post on Bluesky.

Categories
Shortcuts

New in the Shortcuts Library: Apple Music Replay shortcuts

I’ve just added a new folder to the Shortcuts Library — my set of Apple Music Replay shortcuts for the Apple Music Replay experience, from accessing playlists to manage your listening history.

Use these shortcuts to add Music Focus Filters to control whether to Use Listening History, jump into the Replay experience on the web, or play from your past Apple Music Replay playlists:

  • Enable listening history: Asks you to pick a focus mode, then sets the Music Focus Filter for “Use Listening History”” to ON so anything you listen to will be tracked and added to Apple Music Replay.
  • Disable listening history: Asks you to pick a focus mode, then sets the Music Focus Filter for “Use Listening History”” to off so you can listen to anything without it being added to your Apple Music Replay.
  • Show Apple Music Replay: Opens the website for Apple Music Replay where you can visualize your past year of music listening habits.
  • Play my Replay 2024: Plays the preselected Replay 2024 playlist on Shuffle. The biggest change for me in 2024? My top 5 songs are Dance tracks.
  • Play my Replay 2023: Plays the preselected Replay 2023 playlist on Shuffle. This year, my top tracks are full of electronic and Fred Again – plus, Mall Rat from The Sims (which I listening to on repeat jokingly and then not jokingly while doing chores).
  • Play my Replay 2022: Plays the preselected Replay 2022 playlist on Shuffle. My top tracks of the year were full of Kraughnbin and Foals.
  • Play my Replay 2021: Plays the preselected Replay 2021 playlist on Shuffle. My top track of the year was “Treat People With Kindness” from Harry Styles, something I needed to remember after 2020 and the start of 2021.
  • Play my Replay 2020: Plays the preselected Replay 2020 playlist on Shuffle. Apparently during lockdown, I listened to Lockdown and Make It Better by Anderson .Paak a lot – for some reason.
  • Play my Replay 2019: Plays the preselected Replay 2019 playlist on Shuffle. My top artists included Vulfpeck, Big Wild, and Tycho.
  • Play my Replay 2018: Plays the preselect Replay 2018 playlist on Shuffle. Top tracks include ‘Til Its Over by Anderson .Paak, which reminded me this was the year I first got a HomePod.
  • Play my Replay 2017: Plays the preselected Replay 2017 playlists on Shuffle. Top tracks include Cash Machine, which I found infinitely funny/enjoyable during the same year when the company I worked at got sold to Apple.
  • Play my Replay 2016: Plays the preselected Replay 2016 playlist on Shuffle. My top tracks of the year—not even joking—were Burn The Witch, Can’t Keep Checking My Phone, Daydreaming, Better Strange, and Bored to Death. Uncanny.
  • Play my Replay 2015: Plays the preselect Replay 2015 playlist on Shuffle. Top tracks include Dreams, Let It Happen, and Eventually…
  • Toggle listening history: Asks you to pick a focus mode, then toggles the current Music Focus Filter setting for “Use Listening History” so you can switch whether or not to Use Listening History for a chosen focus with an existing filter. Works well as a Control in Control Center.
  • Clear listening history filter: Asks you to pick a focus mode, then clears the Music Focus Filter and removes all settings for “Use Listening History” for that Focus.

Check out the folder of Apple Music Replay shortcuts on the Shortcuts Library.

 

Categories
Gear

Get High-Quality Mac Accessories with Elgato’s Black Friday Sale

If you’ve ever been interested in customizable keys for your Mac, boom arms for your streaming or podcasting mics, a teleprompter for video calls and recording, or high-quality lights you can control from an app (plus much more), Elgato’s Black Friday sale is your chance to invest in new gear at a more-affordable price.

With sales of 15% up to 30% on select products, you can get the Stream Deck, Wave Mic Arm, and Prompter, plus everything below on sale for this weekend only. Here’s what’s newly on sale, not including all the discounts from their early Black Friday pre-sale1 – I use all of these except the Pro mic arm (because I already gave the LP version):

My personal favorite though? The Prompter + Key Light Mini + Cold Shoe combo, a $379.99 bundle for only $199.99.

I’m also happy to answer any questions on social media if you’re unsure of anything – nobody wants to buy something they won’t use, so I can always help assess what’s right for your setup.

I’ve also been sharing posts on my site throughout this year as an Elgato Partner, so check out these stories from today’s products on sale:

Check out all the sales on Elgato’s site for Black Friday and the week before, and check out my blog tag for all my Elgato posts.

P.S. If you’re reading this after Black Friday, you can use my Elgato Partner code ZZ-CASSINELLI for 5% off at checkout.

  1. My partner discount code can’t be combined with existing deals, but these discounts are already larger than what I’d have saved you at full price.

 

Categories
Shortcuts

New in the Shortcuts Library: Comixology from Amazon shortcuts

I’ve just added a new folder to the Shortcuts Library — my set of Comixology shortcuts for reading comics using Comixology from Amazon and the Kindle website.

Use these to manage your library, find new comics to buy, and check out Comixology Unlimited:

  • Show my Comics library: Opens the Kindle library on the web to the Comics tab where you can see your full list of comics available to read.
  • Show my Comics notes and highlights: Opens the Amazon highlight notebook for all Kindle highlights, including from Comics.
  • Search for Comics on Amazon: Asks you for a search query, then forms it for the Amazon search results URL with a filter for Comics applied.
  • Open Comixology store: Opens the Amazon storefront for Comixology, their comics store and subscription service.
  • Show my Comixology cart: Opens the main Comixology home page and shows the Basket so you can see the total items in your cart and check out.
  • Show Best Sellers for you: Opens the “See More” link on your personalized Comixology storefront curating Best Sellers for you based on your collection.
  • Show this week’s new releases: Opens the New Releases tab in the Comixology section of the Amazon website.
  • Show New Release top sellers: Opens the “See More” link in the New Releases section of your Comixology home on the Amazon website where you can see comics curated for you that are top sellers.
  • Discover a comic series: Opens the “See More” link from your curated Comixology homepage to the “Discover a new comic series” page on Amazon.
  • Show comics inspired by browsing history: Opens to the curated page on the Comixology storefront where you can see recommendations based on pages you’ve visited on Amazon.
  • Manage Comixology Unlimited collection: Opens your Amazon profile to the Digital Content management page for Comixology Unlimited where you can do things like delete comics or add them to collections.
  • Show Comixology Unlimited preview: Opens the Amazon preview page for Comixology Unlimited so you can read about the experience, see what’s available in the collection, and manage your account.
  • Sign up for Comixology Unlimited: Opens to the Subscribe page for Comixology Unlimited so you can start your free trial and agree to sign up after 30 days.
  • Manage my Comixology account: Opens the Amazon website to the Comixology account management page, where find links to your library or the Kindle app and connect your Amazon/Comixology accounts as needed.

Check out the folder of Comixology from Amazon shortcuts on the Shortcuts Library.

 

Categories
Apps

Apple reveals 45 app and game finalists for the 2024 App Store Awards »

From the Apple Newsroom:

Every year, Apple honors the very best apps and games of the year through the App Store Awards — a recognition of exceptional user experience, design, and innovation from developers across the world. With 45 App Store Award finalists across 12 different categories, these apps and games have helped users accomplish more, be more creative, and better connect with friends and family. This year, the App Store Awards include a new Apple Vision Pro category, highlighting stunning achievements in the world of spatial computing. App Store Award winners chosen from this distinguished group of app and game developers will be announced in the coming weeks.

Excellent set of apps.

Next year, I want to see one of my clients’ apps in this list after building an Apple Intelligence integration for them… 🙇🏻‍♂️

View the original.

Categories
Gear

Elgato’s Pre-Black Friday Sales Are Live

For anyone in the US, the folks at Elgato have their pre-Black Friday sale live starting today – you can get discounts from 13% up to 30% on products like the Wave Mic and Arm, Key Light, or Stream Deck Mk. 2.

Here’s a full list of discounts – I have tried and utilize everything here in my setup in one color or another, except the Video Capture cable (only because I simply haven’t needed it):

If you’re curious about Elgato gear, check out my Elgato tag here on my website to see past posts where I share tips and tricks.

P.S. If you’re reading this after Black Friday, you can use my Elgato Partner code ZZ-CASSINELLI for 5% off at checkout.

Categories
Guest appearances Podcasts

Clockwise 581: Visit That Like a Time Period with Dinosaurs

On Wednesday, November 20, on the Clockwise podcast, I joined hosts Dan Moren and Mikah Sargent with guest Kathy Campbell to talk about:

How we deal with physical media, the most tech heavy restaurants we’ve patronized, tech that ended up disappointing us, and the social media networks of yesteryear that we’d bring back.

Check out Clockwise in Apple Podcasts or listen to the episode below:

Categories
Shortcuts

New in the Shortcuts Library: Bluesky shortcuts

I’ve just added a new folder to the Shortcuts Library — my set of Bluesky shortcuts for accessing the different parts of the Bluesky social network.

Use these to switch to different tabs in the app or on the web, access your Lists, and open any profile:

  • Open Bluesky Search: Opens the Search page on Bluesky where you can enter your query, find suggested accounts, and discover new feeds.
  • Open Bluesky Home: Opens the Home feed on Bluesky so you can see your Discover & Following feeds, plus any pinned Lists.
  • Open Bluesky Chat: Opens the Chat tab of Bluesky so you can see your messages, start a new chat, and change your chat settings.
  • Open Bluesky Notifications: Opens the Notifications tab of Bluesky so you can see mentions, follower requests, and engagement such as likes and reposts.
  • Open Bluesky Feeds: Opens to the Feeds tab of Bluesky, showing My Feeds and the Discover New Feeds section.
  • Open Bluesky Lists: Opens the Lists tab of Bluesky, showing your user-created lists and letting you create a new one.
  • Open from my Bluesky lists: Given a dictionary of Bluesky List names and unique IDs (from the URL), this prompts you to choose from your lists and opens it to the feed view.
  • Open my Bluesky profile: Using your username, opens the link to your profile on Bluesky.
  • Open my Bluesky followers: Using your Bluesky username, opens the link to your Followers list.
  • Open my Bluesky following: Using your Bluesky username, opens the link to the list of people you are Following.
  • Open a profile on Bluesky: Using a given username, opens the link to any profile on Bluesky.
  • Open Bluesky settings: Opens Bluesky to the Settings tab, letting you manage multiple accounts, change basic settings, and adjust advanced account settings.

Check out the folder of Bluesky shortcuts on the Shortcuts Library and follow me on Bluesky.

Categories
Links

PSA: An iOS 18 bug is why our favorite ‘Apple Frames’ shortcut broke »

From 9to5Mac:

Do you ever frame screenshots inside Apple device frames? Then you’ve probably used Federico Viticci’s ‘Apple Frames’ shortcut. Unfortunately, the shortcut has been broken in recent months, and now we know that an iOS 18 bug is the cause.

Federico shared this with me a few betas ago and it’s still not fixed… 🫠

View the original.

Categories
Gear

Back Up Your Stream Deck Profiles (And Access Them With This Shortcut) »

From @elgato:

This is your friendly reminder to back up your Stream Deck profiles. 😌

Here’s how: [Video]

Even if you’re not using the new Action Sharing, backing up your Stream Deck profiles is just good practice – I will back up my entire setup regularly, plus individual profiles as I finish or update them.

I’ve also long used my shortcut “Open Stream Deck Backups” to quickly access the folder on macOS as well, since I found myself not remembering the location of the default destination where these are saved.

View the post, get my Stream Deck shortcut, check out the folder of Stream Deck shortcuts in my Shortcuts Catalog, and get the Stream Deck from Elgato.

P.S. You can use my Elgato Partner code ZZ-CASSINELLI for 5% off at checkout.