Author: Matthew Cassinelli

Categories
Shortcuts

New in the Shortcuts Library: Perplexity shortcuts

I’ve just added a new folder to the Shortcuts Library — my set of Perplexity shortcuts for asking Perplexity to do research for you.

Use these to open the sections of the website, ask questions in new threads on iPhone and iPad, interact with the Mac app using keyboard shortcuts, go deeper on the Perplexity experience, and interact with the API:

Website

  • Open Perplexity AI: Opens the website for Perplexity AI in your default browser.
  • Open Perplexity Discover: Opens the Discover page from Perplexity, which curates top stories for you and summarizes them.
  • Open my Spaces in Perplexity: Opens the Spaces section of Perplexity, where you can create research and collaboration hubs built on top of Perplexity search.
  • Open Perplexity Library: Opens the Library section of Perplexity, where you can see Threads and Pages around searches you’ve performed.

iOS and iPadOS app

  • New Search in Perplexity: Opens Perplexity to a new, blank search using the Auto mode.
  • New Pro Search in Perplexity: Opens Perplexity to a new, blank search set to Pro mode, which acts as your conversational search guide. “Instead of quick, generic results, Pro Search engages with you, fine-tuning its answers based on your needs.”
  • Ask Perplexity: Prompts you to “Ask anything” before opening into Perplexity to search for your query.
  • Play Perplexity Discover: Immediately starts a Live Activity session for Perplexity Discover, using stories drawn from the Discover feed and spoken by ElevenLab’s voices.
  • Summarize articles with Perplexity: Creates a series of Threads in Perplexity for URLs shared as input, either from the Share Sheet or by detecting what’s on screen. Includes logic for multiple links, opening each URL in the background until the final query.

Mac app

  • Set up Perplexity for Mac: Opens the Mac app for Perplexity AI, resizing the window to 1024×770 and moving it to the center of the current display.
  • New Thread in Perplexity: Simulates the keyboard shortcut for Command + Shift + P, which activates the Perplexity search bar from anywhere.
  • Voice Mode in Perplexity: Simulates the keyboard shortcut for Command + Shift + M, which activates the Perplexity voice mode in a popover window.
  • Upload File in Perplexity: Simulates the keyboard shortcut for Command + Shift + U, which activates the Perplexity upload process and shows a Finder window where you can select the file to upload.
  • Voice Dictation in Perplexity: Simulates the keyboard shortcut for Command + Shift + D, which activates the Perplexity voice dictation in the search bar so you can enter a query hands-free.
  • Screen Capture with Perplexity: Simulates the keyboard shortcut for Command + Shift + 0, which activates the Perplexity screen capture and prompts whether to capture an Area, Window, or Fullscreen.

Deep Dive

  • Open my Perplexity account settings: Opens the Perplexity website to Settings > Account, where you can change general settings like the Appearance, as well as subscription details or system settings.
  • Edit my Perplexity profile: Opens the Perplexity settings to the Profile section, where you can tell Perplexity information about yourself and your preferences to inform results.
  • Read the Perplexity blog: Opens the Perplexity blog, where you can see stories and announcements from the team on new updates or changes to the service.
  • Open the Perplexity discord: Opens the deep link into Discord for the Perplexity channel using the unique ID and channel ID.
  • Show the Perplexity Supply store: Opens the website for Perplexity Supply, the clothing line for fans of Perplexity.

API

  • Open the Perplexity API docs: Opens the URL for the Perplexity API documentation, so you can quickly reference how to get started or learn about the API.
  • Open the Perplexity API reference: Opens the Perplexity API website to the API reference, starting with Chat Completions, you can test your commands against the API and see what’s working.
  • Get my Perplexity API key: Stores your API key for Perplexity. Store the result as base64-encoded text so it’s not readable as plain text, which is then decoded as this is run.
  • Manage my Perplexity API keys: Opens the Perplexity website to your API settings, where you can manage API keys and payment details.

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

Categories
News

New developer APIs hint at ‘Personal Context’ for Apple Intelligence coming in iOS 18.4

The first look at Personal Context for Apple Intelligence is here as APIs available in the iOS 18.4 developer betas allow apps to further their content for the system to understand. This sets the stage for the most significant update to Siri so far, where all your apps can provide Siri with the available views and content to work with – in a secure and private manner, too.

As first mentioned by Prathamesh Kowarkar on Mastodon, there is now a suite of APIs in beta that associate an app’s unique content, called an entity, with a specific view – this allows Siri to read what’s indexed on-screen and use it with other app’s actions when triggered by a command.

APIs like this are necessary for the coming Siri update to actually do what Apple says Apple Intelligence is capable of – now that the functionality is here, however, it’s up to developers to implement everything to make sure the experience works well.

Here are the new pages:

If these APIs are in beta now, it stands to reason they’ll leave beta after iOS 18.4 releases in full – which means Personal Context might be coming as early as iOS 18.4.

Check out the post from Kowarkar on Mastodon.

 

Categories
Links

Apple unveils new Mac Studio, the most powerful Mac ever »

From the Apple Newsroom:

Apple today announced the new Mac Studio, the most powerful Mac ever made, featuring M4 Max and the new M3 Ultra chip. The ultimate pro desktop delivers groundbreaking pro performance, extensive connectivity now with Thunderbolt 5, and new capabilities in its compact and quiet design that can live right on a desk. Mac Studio can tackle the most intense workloads with its powerful CPU, Apple’s advanced graphics architecture, higher unified memory capacity, ultrafast SSD storage, and a faster and more efficient Neural Engine.

My M1 Mac mini from 2020 is also way overdue for an upgrade…

View the original.

Categories
Links

Apple introduces the new MacBook Air with the M4 chip and a sky blue color »

From the Apple Newsroom:

Apple today announced the new MacBook Air, featuring the blazing-fast performance of the M4 chip, up to 18 hours of battery life, a new 12MP Center Stage camera, and a lower starting price. It also offers support for up to two external displays in addition to the built-in display, 16GB of starting unified memory, and the incredible capabilities of macOS Sequoia with Apple Intelligence — all packed into its strikingly thin and light design that’s built to last.

I’ve been rocking the M1 MacBook Air from 2020, but it’s beyond time I upgraded…

View the original.

Categories
Shortcuts

Immediately Browse Apple News’ Food Recipe Catalog With These Shortcuts

New in iOS 18.4, Apple is making a new Food section available to Apple News+ subscribers, creating a curated browsing and recipe experience within the app. Located on iPhone under the Following tab and Food section, or in the Food section of the sidebar on iPad and macOS, this new category curates stories for you based on your chosen interests and browsing history, plus provides an entire Recipe Catalog and cooking experience for recipes with ingredients & instructions.

The entire experience for News+ Food is fantastic, albeit somewhat buried inside the News app – that’s why I’ve built a set of shortcuts to quickly access the sections from anywhere. In my folder of Apple News Food shortcuts, you can find shortcuts to access the main Food section, the Recipe Catalog, and two curated sections that are shown within the category for Healthy Eating and Kitchen Tools & Techniques.

You can use these with Siri, place them in a Medium widget, or even add them as Controls in Control Center or the Lock Screen – the Recipe Catalog would work great using Add to Home Screen as well, as Stephen Robles demonstrated in his video that highlights the Food feature.

So far, the News team at Apple has only ever created the Show Today Feed and Show Topic actions, and relied on the concept of “donations” (where an action only becomes available after the user interacts with a particular section) for sections like Magazines, Puzzles, and now the Recipe Catalog. Along this route, I’d love to see the Saved Recipes section available as a donated action, as well as being able to open directly to a saved recipe would make a lot of sense. But, going further, I wish the News team would adopt a full suite of actions like Get Recipes, Find Recipe, Save/Unsave Recipe, Cook Recipe, and Read The Story (for a recipe).

Get the folder of Apple News Food shortcuts in my Shortcuts Library (requires iOS 18.4).

Categories
Apple News Food News Recipes Shortcuts

New in the Shortcuts Library: Apple News Food shortcuts

I’ve just added a new folder to the Shortcuts Library — my set of Apple News Food shortcuts for the new Food section in Apple News+, available in iOS 18.4.

Use these shortcuts to browse stories from the Food, Healthy Eating, and Kitchen Tools & Techniques sections, as well as open directly to the Recipe Catalog.:

  • Open Food in News+: Opens to the new “Food” section in Apple News+ that curates stories and recipes for you.
  • Open Recipe Catalog in News: Opens the News app to stories from the Recipe Catalog feature, new in the new Food section in Apple News+.
  • Show Kitchen Tools and Techniques: Opens the section for Kitchen Tools & Techniques in the new Food section for Apple News+ subscribers.
  • Show Healthy Eating stories: Opens the News app to stories about Healthy Eating, located in the new Food section for Apple News+ subscribers.

Check out the folder of Apple News Food shortcuts on the Shortcuts Library.

Categories
Links

Stephen Robles’ Top 5 iOS 18.4 Beta Features – Ambient Music, Recipes, and Shortcuts Actions! »

From Stephen Robles on YouTube:

First beta of iOS 18.4 is here and it brings some exciting new features including ambient music controls, Apple News recipes, and a lot more. Plus, we dive into a feature that might hint at Apple’s upcoming smart home device.

I’ve linked directly to the chapter on the new Shortcuts actions 🤓

View the video YouTube.

Categories
Apps

Make Your Screenshots Framous (And Automate Them) With This Mac App

Framous is a new design tool for Mac from developer and podcaster Charlie Chapman aimed at making it easy to wrap iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Mac screenshots in device frames, turning a boring rectangular screenshot into a rich preview of what that screen would actually look like on a real device.

Framous is built to auto-detect the device, let you automatically combine several images with custom spacing, or bulk-export multiple images at once – the latter clearly being helpful for app developers who are trying to design images for the App Store. But using device frames isn’t just for developers – anyone sharing their screenshots can clean them up and make a much nicer presentation by processing their screenshots through Framous.

Thankfully, Framous makes the process of framing your screenshots even easier thanks to Shortcuts support, with an action that lets you pass screenshots in, choose spacing, and pass out device-wrapped images as a result. Over on Bluesky, Charlie shared an example shortcut that takes advantage of Shortcuts for Mac’s Quick Action functionality, which lets you select files directly from Finder, run the shortcut, and replace the files with updated assets inline, placing the new files alongside the original:

Whoa 😯 Now with this basic Shortcut setup I can select a couple screenshots in Finder, hit ctrl+opt+cmd+F, and it’ll prompt for a save location and create framed screenshots for each and combine into a single image (with custom padding)

[image or embed]

— Charlie Chapman (@charliemchapman.com) February 17, 2025 at 7:45 PM

Merging screenshots with devices has long been a part of Shortcuts’ history, with Federico Vittici of MacStories releasing a regularly-updated Apple Frames shortcut (for free) that performs a similar operation using Shortcuts’ Scripting actions. I’ve almost always taken Federico’s shortcut and modified it for my own needs, adding a Combine Images step and separating out the spacing according to my style – exactly what Framous adds on top of the strongly-proven use case.

While Framous is Mac-only, it provides complete UI with features like drag-and-drop makes the task much more approachable to an everyday Mac user. Plus, having a native action built into Shortcuts gives Framous the ability to change things like spacing or how to handle multiple devices as a simple parameter on the action itself, rather than building menus or prompts into a custom shortcut. That being said, I’d also love to see Framous continue to strengthen the Shortcuts support and features like controls for the generic frames.

Other features of Framous include customizing the generic device frames to show or hide side buttons, move their placement, or control the camera cutout. You can also toggle whether the screenshot fills edge-to-edge, change the frame color, and adjust the corner radius, plus scale up the image for lower-resolution screenshots.

Get Framous on the Mac App Store for free, with in-app purchases. The free download comes with generic frames – to unlock more, a one-time fee of $19.99 gets you all frames released in (and up to) 2025. If you want all frames as they come out in the future, you can subscribe for $9.99 per year.

 

Categories
Gear

My Top-Down Video Setup Now Runs On Elgato’s CamLink 4K

I’ve added two more products to my desk setup today thanks to my Elgato partnership – a pair of the CamLink 4K, the HDMI-to-USB converter for dedicated cameras.

A few years ago, I bought a second Panasonic GH-5 to go with my first camera, allowing me to have both a dedicated A-Roll and top-down camera set up at all times. For the longest time since then, I’ve relied on the USB-C port and the LUMIX Tether app to bring in the feeds for both cameras – however, it required launching the tether app, doing a special combination of previewing and minimizing the app to get the full-quality feed, and then using that footage for my streams.

In the end, the setup process was too finicky, the frame rate wasn’t ideal once I started loading more devices onto the USB chain, and, at some point, macOS decided to stop recognizing the cameras as two separate devices and thought they were the same camera, leading to more errors and making it impossible to actually pull both feeds in at high quality.

So I started back where I began, with a CamLink 4K – the first Elgato product I bought back in the day, for this exact purpose (at some point I accidentally bent the port…).

Now, with one for each camera, I can speak to the camera while showing what I’m doing on my iPad, iPhone, or other devices at the same time. When I had just one camera, I recorded YouTube videos by speaking the camera, then recording the top-down footage timed to what I’d said; when I had two, I could record it all, but not preview it in real time while still using my Mac – now I can do everything at once.

My thanks to Elgato for sending me the CamLink 4K set – you can check out more on the Elgato website or my Elgato tag.

 

Categories
News

Messages Gets “Open Conversation” Action for Shortcuts in iOS 18.4 Beta

In the first developer beta of iOS 18.4, Apple has added a new “Open Conversation” action for the Messages app (as first spotted in r/iOSbeta). This allows Shortcuts users to design custom shortcuts and Siri commands to open specific conversations in the Messages app, including group chats.

Found in the App list under Messages, “Open Conversation” contains a single option to choose which Conversation to open. When selected, you’ll be presented with a chronological list of all conversations from the Messages app, from your most recent text alert to your first conversation. Once selected, the Conversation title fills out the field, and, when run, the shortcut will open to that conversation in Messages – quite straightforward.

Currently, there are no additional actions like “Find Conversations,” “Mute Conversation,” “Trash Conversation,” “Rename Conversation,” or “Start Conversation,” which could be useful for filtering the list based on different parameters, managing or removing yourself from busy conversations, and updating group chats with new titles – all actions I hope Apple considers adding in the future.

I’d also like to see the Conversation action accept Contacts as input, so actions like Select Contact or Find Contacts could be used to find the correct people for a conversation, then their contacts data could populate the fields and have Messages open to the correct conversation (or disambiguate if there’s more than one).

Another addition I’d like to see is a toggle for “Open to Detail View” (or something similar) that brings up the extra contact information that you can see within a Messages conversation – having quick access to the locations, photos, and links from a conversation would be excellent and not require fundamental changes to the action.

Further, I hope Apple adopts App Shortcuts support for the Messages conversations, like they’ve done for FaceTime – it’d be great to see your three most-recent conversations in Spotlight when searching for Messages, as well as quick links to conversations like Group Chats across search. Populating the Open Conversation action with app shortcuts to each conversation would also make the Shortcuts experience quicker to set up, as users would see their most-recent conversations already available to select as well.

I’ve set up a handful of demo shortcuts for folks to download, including one that simply prompts you to choose which conversation to open, a menu to open to your pinned conversations, a quick-access tool for your partner and your main group chat, and then containers for any siblings, parents, or family conversations – these work great from the Shortcuts widget, or as Siri commands.

Get the folder of Conversations shortcuts in my Shortcuts Library, and check out the new Open Conversation in Shortcuts once iOS 18.4 releases to the public.

Categories
Shortcuts

New in the Shortcuts Library: Messages Conversations shortcuts

I’ve just added a new folder to the Shortcuts Library — my set of Conversations shortcuts that take advantage of the Open Conversation action available in iOS 18.4.

Use these to open from any conversation, choose from your pinned chats, or open into any group chat or solo conversation:

  • Open a conversation: Prompts you to choose from all your conversations in Messages, listed in chronological order from recent to oldest, then opens your choice.
  • Open from my pinned conversations: Presents a menu of nine conversations to open in Messages, matching your list of nine pinned conversations from within the app.
  • Show the group chat: Opens the conversation in Messages for your primary group chat, so you can text them all the details.
  • Open chat with Mom: Opens the Conversation in Messages with your mother, so you can ask when’s a good time to call her.
  • Open chat with Dad: Opens the conversation with your father, allowing you to see your past messages.
  • Open chat with Sibling: Opens the Messages conversation with your sibling, so you can stay better-connected.
  • Open the Family thread: Opens the conversation for your Family group chat so you can keep up with everyone.

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

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.

—-
shortcut n : 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.

—-

folder n : 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

—-

run v : 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

{ "obscura-wb-mode:" : "Locked", "obscura-temp:" : 2999.89990234375, "app:" : "com.benricemccarthy.obscura-3", "obscura-tint:" : -5.0100002288818359, "obscura-filter:" : "NONE", "obscura-quality:" : "balanced" }

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.

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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: