From @Threads:
Thriendly tip ✨ To upload images and videos here at the highest quality possible, head to Settings, then tap on “Account” > “Media quality” > “Upload highest quality.”
Use my shortcut Open Threads Settings to quickly access this page as needed, plus your Notification options and your Likes, plus Privacy controls.
For iPhone users, I’ve just added a new folder to the Shortcuts Library — my set of Phone shortcuts:
mobilephone://).mobilephone-favorites://).mobilephone-recents://).vmshow://).Check out the folder of Phone shortcuts on the Shortcuts Library.
From Justin Myers at GadgetHacks:
First, there are schemes for the new Journal app and Journal’s settings:
open | moments:// open | prefs:root=JOURNALAnd two for the new Contact Key Verification for iMessage setting:
highlight | prefs:root=APPLE_ACCOUNT#TRANSPARENCY open | prefs:root=APPLE_ACCOUNT&path=TRANSPARENCY
The article also covers new URL schemes for Accessibility and other settings added in iOS 17.2 – make sure to check out the full list and make a shortcut if you utilize these features.
View the full article on GadgetHacks.
One of the best music discoveries over the last few years is the fact that I love dance music and never really realized it before – that has led to many, many Singles being saved to my singles library from top playlists so I can keep track of all the songs and artists.
However, that’s led to an Albums view that’s hard for me to parse – often each album cover represents only one or two songs, and the sheer volume/variety compared to other genres means the list is now much busier and harder for me to parse when trying to find actual full-length albums that I’ve added.
With the update to iOS 17.2 to change Likes to Favorites, however, I discovered a new filter in the Albums view that lets you see only your Favorites.
With this, I’ve gone through and added a bunch of full-length albums as favorites—leaving out all the singles—and now I can filter the list down to my “real” library.
Further, I can still favorite the individual track within a Single to add the track itself to my Favorites list like any other song, while still being able to effectively hide the artwork when I want to filter for full albums.
Overall, I think Favorites makes sense over Likes and enables some helpful quality-of-life features to the Apple Music experience – this Favorites filter for Albums is a nice touch.
After working on my podcasting workflow this week, I’ve added a new folder to the Shortcuts Library — my set of Transistor.FM shortcuts (make sure to get the required* API shortcuts):
When posting a new episode, these are the relevant links you’re likely to visit before publishing:
Earlier today, the team at MacStories announced the winners of their annual MacStories Selects awards, among which Things 3 won “Best New Feature” for their integration with Shortcuts.
Here’s what the team had to say:
Earlier this year, Cultured Code took an app whose automation features largely revolved around URL schemes and an action to create new tasks and turned it into a task manager that supports native Shortcuts automation for every functionality and corner of the experience.
And:
In other task managers, you would have to perform these actions manually; thanks to Things’ Shortcuts integration, you’re free to create your own enhancements for the app. Cultured Code didn’t make a button to change a task’s deadline? You can make your own using the app’s Shortcuts actions.
Finally:
There are no apps as tightly integrated with Shortcuts as Things at the moment, which is why the app’s Shortcuts support is the Best New Feature of MacStories Selects 2023.
I agree. Although I do want App Shortcuts support soon too… 😇
Read about Things’ award and the other winners of the 2023 MacStories Selects.
From Apple’s support doc titled “What’s new in Shortcuts for iOS 17, iPadOS 17, macOS 14, and watchOS 10”:
New in iOS and iPadOS 17.2, macOS 14.2, and watchOS 10.2
This update adds enhanced VoiceOver support in the Shortcuts library and improved app performance.
Updated Actions
- Choose from Menu and Choose from List now prevent your device from sleeping when run from the Action button and awaiting a response
- Combine Images now correctly aligns images when output on macOS
- Split Screen Apps now correctly handles ratios on iPadOS
I’m marking these as closed 😎:
Another issue not mentioned, but fixed – changing folders on iPad: FB9365048 (Pressing Control + Tab is broken; redirects to Search field).
Also from Colin Hughes on Twitter:
I called for Apple to allow users to ask Siri for blood oxygen levels back in April 2022. Delighted to see the company has listened and this, and other health features, will be accessible via Siri commands in iOS 17.2 set to be released this week. So inclusive and accessible
View the full set of release notes from iOS 17 and see Colin’s quote tweet.
The team at iA, the development company behind iA Writer and iA Presenter, have launched a new feature called Authorship, a way to annotate text that’s been written by ChatGPT to let writers visually understand the difference between their own words and those generated by artificial intelligence.
It works like this – writers start by copying text from ChatGPT, including both the prompt and the answer.
After pasting into iA Writer, the text is analyzed and, if detected as a conversation, you’re prompted to save the authorship markup stored at the end of the document.
Then, as you’re writing, each word that is changed back to your own words gets the annotation removed, letting you clearly see what you wrote vs what was written for you.
In their blog post, iA goes into detail about this thoughtful approach to Ai and how, rather than rejecting the trend, they learned to embrace it and utilize it as a thinking aid. Rather than encouraging you to have ChatGPT write entirely for you, Ai can help improve your writing before you use your own words as the final product – here’s how they describe it:
“As a dialog partner AI makes you think more and write better. As ghost writer it takes over and you lose your voice.
Yet, sometimes it helps to paste its replies and notes. And if you want to use that information, you rewrite it to make it our own. So far, in traditional apps we are not able to easily see what we wrote and what we pasted from AI.”
iA has also released the format on GitHub as Markdown Annotations, hoping that other developers build off their work and potentially turn the concept into an official spec. Plus, the annotations for human writers as well – you can co-write with someone else and mark out who wrote what, which has a lot of potential beyond ChatGPT conversations.
From my initial observations, I’m excited about the idea of Authorship – they didn’t just shove Ai into iA Writer and call it a day, but rather thought about how modern writing apps can integrate natively with an Ai world. And, they took it a step further and built out a format that benefits all writers.
Plus, from a strategic standpoint, the Authorship alone makes iA Writer valuable to any professional writer – iA Writer might’ve just become an even easier recommendation. I’ll have to test more myself how essential this feature is in the long run, but for now it absolutely has me downloading and trying out the app again.
Read the full blog post (includes a two-week trial for the Mac app) and get iA Writer for $50 on Mac App Store and/or $50 on iPhone/iPad.
P.S. I asked ChatGPT whether my headline should say “helps you be a better writer” or “helps you become a better writer” and it responded with this:
Both options are acceptable, but the second option, “iA Writer helps you become a better AI writer with Authorship,” is slightly more polished and flows better. It conveys the message in a more active and engaging manner.
Now the question for iA Writer – who really wrote the headline?
Yesterday, former Workflow co-founders Ari Weinstein and Conrad Kramer launched their new desktop AI startup under the name Software Applications Incorporated along with fellow ex-Apple employee Kim Beverett, giving The Verge an exclusive interview as well as launching their incredible website software.inc.
Weinstein, Kramer, and Beverett have a new office in downtown San Francisco just minutes away from the former Workflow offices, where the team of co-founders will be developing generative AI for the desktop in an attempt to “push operating systems forward.”
This comes over 12 years after the founding of Workflow and almost 6 years since its acquisition by Apple, where Ari and Conrad’s app has become Shortcuts, a deeply-integrated automation app that powers everything from Automation on the Mac to the Action button on the latest iPhone. The App Intents protocol built by the Shortcuts team, for example, is key to Apple’s current operating systems, powering features beyond Shortcuts itself like interactive widgets.
Among the quotes in The Verge’s article, Ari mentions capturing “the magic that you felt when you used computers in the ’80s and ’90s,” as evidenced by their delightful website design and classic-style company name.
The team is also as thinking about how “language models and AI give us the ingredients to make a new kind of software that can unlock this fundamental power of computing and make everyday people able to use computers to actually solve their problems” – a subject area where they are undoubtedly experts already.
Perhaps the most exciting part to me, as a former member of the Workflow team, is this paragraph, mentioning how large the target for the team is:
While a handful of startups such as Rewind are building personalized AI systems for the desktop, none I’ve come across appear to have as wide a vision as that of Software Applications, which suggests they have an open lane for the time being. And with most consumer software companies building primarily for mobile these days, it’s refreshing to see a team focusing on the Mac instead.
Truly, if anyone can (and should) have the freedom to fully explore this realm, it should be Ari, Conrad, and Kim – plus whoever’s lucky enough to join their team. After all, they are perhaps one of the only teams out there who’ve actually already changed the landscape themselves, and quite successfully I might add – mobile is basically done and in Apple’s hands, now onto to desktop.
Plus, if you haven’t yet, you absolutely HAVE to check out their website. The team ”spent a totally unnecessary amount of time building this website” turning it into a literal recreation of MacOS 8, including fully-functional applications for things like games, drawing, and, yes, even AppleScript – you can’t deny the passion this team has for the Mac.
From Zach Kahn, Services PR for Podcasts and Books (and Vision Pro) at Apple:
Pro tip: if you’ve read a book elsewhere, like a print copy, just tap the … button and mark the title as read in Apple Books. It will become eligible for your Year in Review
Look up the books, mark them as “Finished”, and see your stats change – very nice.
From the press release for Year in Review, the new feature in the Apple Books app:
Year in Review is available on iPhone and iPad within the Read Now tab under Top Picks to users with at least three titles marked as finished.
View the post on Mastodon and the Year in Review press release from Apple.
From Issue 101 of my Shortcuts newsletter:
Welcome to Issue 101 of What’s New in Shortcuts!
Since the last issue in September, I’ve entirely moved from California to Oregon—hence the lack of regular issues as of late—while Shortcuts has gone pro in a big way as one of the main features of the new iPhone 15 Pro – the Action button.
I’ve collected a swath of Action button ideas from the community, shared a big set of apps that are updated for iOS 17, and released a whole new collection in the Shortcuts Library – including a massive new section for members.
Plus, for today only, there’s a special Cyber Monday discount on annual memberships – get your subscription locked in before the price goes up next year.
And, just to leave you with a teaser, I have my first set of Apple review units to cover soon – iPhone 15 Pro, M2 iPad Pro, and the OG Apple Watch Ultra… 🙂
Until next time, here’s what’s new in Shortcuts:
Hello everyone and happy Cyber Monday!
For today only, I’m offering a 20% off discount for annual memberships, lowering the total cost to $40 (as opposed to $60 if you pay in the $15 quarterly increments) – use code “cybermonday2023” at checkout to apply the discount.
This discount is available now for new & expired memberships, plus anyone who wants to upgrade from their quarterly plan (or the archived monthly plan) – the coupon will expire Cyber Monday at midnight (based on your timezone).
Plus, while I haven’t publicly announced the latest update, there are now over 1,400 shortcuts available for members – with more added every week.
Further, you’ll have access to the bi-monthly members-only podcast (new episode coming soon), the members-only section of my Discord community, the occasional members-only post, and the archive of livestreams I’ve hosted on YouTube – read about the membership program here.
Also, I’ll be increasing the price of the membership at some point next year, so now’s a great time to lock into the regular annual membership price (the discount is good for one year).
As always, thank you so much for your continued support – this membership program is the core of my business and lets me explore the world of Shortcuts without traditional barriers, and each member’s contribution makes this possible.
Wishing you the best this holiday season,
Matthew.
Aday on mas.to on the new “Fast” option for Haptic Touch:
By far my favorite #iOS17 feature.
Apple describes changing the Haptic Touch duration as letting you “[a]djust the time it takes to reveal content previews, actions, and contextual menus.”
Find the option in Settings > Accessibility > Touch > Haptic Touch – or use my Open Touch Preferences shortcut in the Accessibility folder.
On Saturday, November 18, I had the pleasure of joining KTLA’s Rich DeMuro as a guest on Rich On Tech to talk about Shortcuts – my segment starts around 53:00:
Rich discusses iPhone 15 Pro impressions, using shortcuts on iPhones, Wi-Fi tips, and answers listener questions about laptop batteries, cleaning PCs, and using eSIM cards.
Check out Rich On Tech in Apple Podcasts or listen to the episode below:
This Friday, Apple is releasing the first two episodes of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, the ambitious TV series building off the Godzilla and Kong movie series starting back in 2014. The show appears to be Apple TV+’s next blockbuster series, premiering with fairly positive reviews – and acts as a huge teaser for the Apple Vision Pro among rumors that the show has been filmed in 3D specifically for the headset.
Especially since the series appears to put more effort into the human relationships—while still including epic monster battles—than the movies did, I’m definitely looking forward to the show.
Since the first episodes are coming out soon, I’m going to make it a mini event and watch one movie each night ahead of the show – here’s the list (prices at time of publishing):
However, if you’re going to watch too, you shouldn’t actually buy these individually and instead go for the bundles – the 4-movie bundle is $29.99, and if you already own Godzilla vs Kong (like me) the other 3-movie bundle is $19.99.
If you’re interested in following along, look for my entries on Letterboxd.
Plus, I’ve added these movies and TV show to a new “Watch Godzilla” shortcut, as part of my folder of TV app shortcuts.
Today, Humane announced their new Ai Pin, a $699 cellular-enabled wearable powered by artificial intelligence. The Ai Pin cleverly attaches to your clothing using a hot-swappable battery, plus utilizes a combination of microphones, camera, and a laser to enable users to interact with computing and artificial intelligence capabilities without the use of a smartphone or traditional computer.
On their website, a 10-minute video features Humane CEO Bethany Bongiorno and chairman/president Imran Chaudhri demonstrating the product, which comes with an array of accessories and colorways (a specific nod to Humane’s fashion-forward branding and vibe – this is a product you will be wearing, after all).
The demo, product page, and tech details cover all the unique ways you’ll interact from tap-to-speak, scanning with the camera, and projecting with a laser onto your hand (and controlled with gestures). All of this is tied together with an artificial intelligence-based OS, meaning there’s no apps per-se – but definitely services you’ll be tapping into (and a list that will surely grow over time with new partners).
Available to order on November 16, this product is admittedly intriguing to me – it seems executed with a level of polish that you might expect from a company that heavily emphasizes being run by ex-Apple employees, and the hardware/software combination appears robust enough at version 1 that no part should be a dealbreaker.
Whether or not an AI-enabled voice wearable fits into my life, however, remains to be seen – something I can only ever understand by testing this product myself. Right now, it appears to be a complement to my already robust Shortcuts-powered computing experience, but an addition that’ll surely be uniquely personal to me and how I operate.
I am definitely excited to find and explore those new opportunities with this unique technology – something I’m grateful there are companies like Humane out there striving to make possible in new ways.
From Stephen Robles on YouTube:
Stephen’s set of YouTube shortcuts are great, taking advantage of YouTube’s web URL to redirect across the app. Plus, the RSS feed ones go even further for creators.
Apple has posted a behind-the-scenes video to YouTube for yesterday’s Mac keynote, which was entirely filmed on an iPhone 15 Pro Max:
The video demonstrates the breadth of potential for iPhone as a primary camera, especially when supplemented with all the normal filmmaking gear that’s used to accompany every other “real” camera when shooting.
I think this line from the video sums up the point: “One of the most exciting and interesting things to see is how not different it’s been on set” – definitely me want to integrate the iPhone more thoroughly in my own video setup.
On Thursday, September 28, I had the pleasure of joining Tim Chaten as a guest on iPad Pros to talk about:
Matthew Cassinelli is back for our 6th annual catchup on what’s new with Shortcuts! Shortcuts 7 is now available for iPadOS 17, iOS 17, watchOS 10, and macOS Sonoma! If you want to listen to our past episodes; check out episodes 41, 42, 58, 90, 91, 122, 149, and 151.
Check out iPad Pros in Apple Podcasts or listen to the episode below:
From the Mac App Store:
By letting you automate frequent or cumbersome tasks, Shortcuts has become a productivity favorite on Mac.
Send a stock response in Mail, open every note with a specific tag in Notes, or switch on your smart light bulbs. You can also automate across multiple apps to, say, batch-edit photos, move text from your writing app into a page-layout app, or open every app and document you need to start your workday. You can even choose how each window is rearranged. […]
And with desktop widgets in macOS Sonoma, you can add any shortcut—or folder of shortcuts-to your desktop for instant access. Just click a shortcut in a widget to run it!
Later, in a section titled “Access your shortcuts everywhere”:
For quick access to any shortcut in macOS Sonoma, add a Shortcuts widget to your desktop: Control-click anywhere on the desktop and choose Edit Widgets; then drag a Shortcuts widget to the desired location.
I’m seriously loving widgets on the desktop so far.