Author: Matthew Cassinelli

Categories
Apps Shortcuts

Ulysses Adds Action Button & Control Center Shortcuts Alongside Table of Contents & Writing Tools »

From Ulysses’ v36 release notes:

  • You can now launch Ulysses from the Action button found on the latest iPhone models.
  • “New Sheet” will launch Ulysses into a new, empty sheet in your Inbox.
  • “Last sheet” will open the last edited sheet.
  • “Search” will launch Ulysses directly into Quick Open.
  • These actions are also available via Control Center on iOS 18.1.

Very excited to see these new actions – I got a chance to talk with the Ulysses team at NSSpain and have been eagerly anticipating these.

These actions join the new Table of Contents feature and updates to support Apple Intelligence Writing Tools.

View the Release Notes on Ulysses’s site.

Categories
Apps Links

Instapaper (Finally) Adds Tags for Better Organization »

From @Instapaper on Threads:

Introducing Tags for Better Organization!

Tags are a great way to organize your articles with increased flexibility over folders, and are now live across all platforms.

Instapaper will continue to support both Folders and Tags to organize articles, and we’ve made it easy to convert folders into tags.

I’m super excited for this – my biggest problem with Instapaper long-term was that any effort I spent organizing items into folders was lost once they went into the archive. Here’s a post from 2015 where I mention it, for example.

Now, I can tag & organize stories in the best read-it-later format available – Instapaper.

Plus, they’re adding a new multi-column view, seen here:

View the full thread.

Categories
Apps Links

Just Announced – Cyberpunk 2077 Coming to Mac! »

Cyberpunk 2077 and its spy-thriller expansion Phantom Liberty will be coming to Mac. Taking full advantage of Apple silicon and advanced technologies of Metal, the world of the dark future is available to Mac gamers for the very first time. Players can enjoy advanced features like path tracing, frame generation, and built-in Spatial Audio for even more immersive gameplay and stunning visuals.

Available early next year on Macs with Apple silicon, the Ultimate Edition will launch on the Mac App Store, GOG.com, Steam and Epic Games Store.

Looking forward to this – and glad to see another AAA game come to the Mac. Hope it’s a tipping point for the platform.

View the update on the Cyberpunk website.

 

Categories
Links

Stephen Robles’ 15 NEW iPhone Shortcuts: Auto-Reply Texts, Wallpapers, and Transcribe Podcasts »

From Stephen Robles on YouTube:

Unlock the power of automation with 15 new iPhone shortcuts! Learn how to automatically reply to texts, change wallpapers, and even transcribe podcasts with iOS 18. I’ll walk you through automating spam text replies, setting custom wallpapers based on Wi-Fi, and more.

📲 Get the Shortcuts

Download and Transcribe Podcast Episode

Photo Wallpaper from Album

Switch Wallpaper and Focus

Play Music Station

Overlay Logo on PDF

Open Folder

My Recording Video Process

Record Audio and Add to Note

Chapters ➡

00:00 Introduction

00:33 Auto-Text Replies

01:51 Auto Reply STOP to Spam Texts

02:59 Vacation Text Responder

04:58 Change Wallpaper on Wi-Fi

06:24 Random Photo Wallpaper

09:08 Open Files Folder

09:43 Toggle Control Center

10:24 Record Audio and Transcribe

11:55 Apple Music Stations

13:06 Overlay Logo on PDF

16:12 Recording Video Scene

16:49 Alert by Email Sender

18:10 Select Audio Device in Car

19:13 Toggle Alarms by Location

20:18 Download and Transcribe Podcast

24:27 HUGE Announcement!

View the video YouTube.

Categories
Gear

Elgato’s Wave Desk Is A Secure Stand That Works With Your iPad »

From @elgato:

Tiny and mighty. 💪

Wave Desk Stand can carry up to 2.2lbs so you can mount your mic, iPad, camera, and more with ease.

iPad, you say? Ordered. And I’ve had this Delkin tablet bracket for the longest time that I’ll use to mount mine to this.

View the post and get the Wave Desk Stand from Elgato.

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

 

Categories
Links News

Apple Intelligence will support German, Italian, Korean, Portuguese, and Vietnamese in 2025 »

From TechCrunch

Additions to Apple Intelligence include English (India), English (Singapore), German, Italian, Korean, Portuguese, Vietnamese, and “others” yet to be announced.

The feature will launch in American English, when it arrives as part of the iOS 18.1 update. The company previously announced that localized English support for Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, and the U.K. will arrive later in 2024, with support for Chinese, French, Japanese, and Spanish coming in 2025.

For anyone counting, that’s 16 other countries besides the default U.S. English version.

View the original.

Categories
Links

Shortcuts Now Supports Spatial Photo and Video Capture »

From Tim Chaten on mastodon.world:

You can also now build Shortcuts that get you right into Spatial Photos or Videos!

Great new additions to the Open Camera action in Shortcuts.

View the post.

Categories
Links News

There Are 261 New Features Available in iOS 18

On the iOS 18 page on their website, Apple has linked to a document titled “New features available in iOS 18.” This document provides an in-depth look at all the categories of new features in iOS 18, grouped by “Apple Intelligence,” “Key Features,” and “Even More.”

When I come across detailed guides like this, I like to import all of the information into Craft, then use its grouping and backlinking features to create a more-digestible version with a complete table of contents – something I’ve done for the Shortcuts developer sessions and the latest WWDC keynote, for example.

With this iOS 18 guide, I’ve imported and grouped all the new features into a single doc in Craft for my own personal use, which I’ve also made available for members of my website to browse and peruse.

However, I wanted to share the full outline of iOS 18 features here as a public reference – plus you can still find all the details for each feature in Apple’s PDF.

Here’s that full list:

What’s new in iOS 18

Apple Intelligence

  1. Writing Tools
    1. Rewrite
    2. Style
    3. Proofread
    4. Summarize
    5. Describe
    6. Compose
  2. Image Playground
    1. Image Playground app
    2. Create Images with Concepts
    3. Create Images with People You Know
    4. Create Images with Characters
    5. Create Images with Photos
    6. Create Images with Text
    7. Suggested Concepts
    8. Quick Previews
    9. Preview history
    10. Image Playground library
    11. Animation style
    12. Illustration style
    13. Sketch style
    14. Messages experience
    15. Deep integrations
  3. Siri
    1. Personal context understanding
    2. In-app actions
    3. Onscreen awareness
    4. More resilient request handling
    5. Maintains conversational context
    6. Product knowledge
    7. Glowing edge light
    8. Type to Siri
    9. Predictive text in Siri keyboard
    10. Suggestions in Siri keyboard
    11. More natural voice
    12. More visually rich responses
    13. ChatGPT integration
  4. Focus
    1. Reduce interruptions
    2. Intelligent Breakthrough & Silencing
  5. Genmoji
    1. Genmoji
  6. Mail
    1. Mail Priority messages
    2. Preview summaries
    3. Thread summaries
    4. Smart Reply
  7. Messages
    1. Smart Reply
    2. Summaries
  8. Notes
    1. Transcription summaries
    2. Image Wand
  9. Notifications
    1. Priority notifications
    2. Notification summaries
    3. Announce Notifications support
  10. Phone
    1. Call summaries
  11. Photos
    1. Natural language photo and video search
    2. Create your own Memories
    3. Clean Up tool

Key Features

  1. Customization
    1. More flexible placement
    2. Unique page layouts
    3. Dark icons
    4. Tinted icons
    5. Larger icons
  2. Control Center
    1. Redesigned Control Center
    2. Groups of controls
    3. Controls gallery
    4. Controls on your Lock Screen
    5. Controls with the Action button
  3. Photos
    1. Biggest-ever design update
    2. Collections
    3. Recent Days
    4. Groups in People & Pets
    5. Trips
    6. Wallpaper suggestions
    7. Collection view options
    8. Pinned Collections
    9. Hide screenshots from your library
    10. Months and Years highlights
    11. Expanded content types in Utilities
    12. Customize the Photos app
    13. Clean Up tool*
    14. Edit albums in folders
    15. Album attribution
    16. Edit in light or dark mode
    17. Smart copy and paste edits
    18. Video speed control
    19. Creative stories
    20. Smart suggestions
  4. Messages
    1. Text effects
    2. Text formatting
    3. Messages via satellite
    4. iMessage over satellite
    5. SMS over satellite
    6. Satellite connection in Dynamic Island
    7. Emoji and sticker Tapbacks
    8. Send Later
    9. RCS (Rich Communication Services)
    10. Low Quality Image Mode improvements
    11. High-quality Images
  5. Mail
    1. Transactions category
    2. Updates category
    3. Promotions category
    4. Time sensitive
    5. Grouped by sender
    6. Quick action
    7. Recategorization
  6. Safari
    1. Highlights
    2. Location highlights
    3. Summary highlights
    4. Music highlights
    5. Movie and TV show highlights
    6. Person highlights
    7. Redesigned Reader
    8. Distraction Control
  7. Passwords
    1. Passwords app
    2. Passwords and passkeys
    3. Sign in with Apple
    4. Wi-Fi passwords
    5. Verifications codes
    6. Sorting
    7. Syncing
    8. End-to-end encryption
    9. Windows support
  8. Maps
    1. Hiking and walking
    2. Hikes
    3. Turn-by-turn navigation
    4. Create and save walking and hiking routes
    5. Topographic maps
    6. Discover and save places
  9. Gaming
    1. Game Mode
  10. Wallet
    1. Event tickets
    2. Pay with installments
    3. Pay with Rewards
    4. Apple Pay on Chrome and Windows PC
    5. Tap to Cash
    6. Tap to provision
  11. AirPods
    1. Siri Interactions
    2. Voice Isolation
    3. Personalized Spatial Audio for gaming
    4. Reduced gaming audio latency
    5. In-game voice quality
  12. Notes
    1. Audio recording
    2. Live transcription
    3. Phone call transcription
    4. Math in Notes
    5. Access Math Notes from Calculator
    6. Collapsible sections
    7. Highlighting
    8. PDF inline search
  13. Journal
    1. State of Mind integration
    2. Log mindful minutes
    3. Insights view
    4. Streaks
    5. Calendar
    6. Stats
    7. Search and sort
    8. Export and print
    9. Widgets
    10. Quick Actions
    11. Audio transcription
    12. More formatting options
    13. Shortcuts
  14. Apple TV
    1. InSight
    2. Enhance dialogue
    3. More dynamic subtitles
  15. Home
    1. Hands-free unlock with home keys
    2. Guest access
    3. Pair Matter accessories without a hub
    4. Control robot vacuum cleaners in the Home app
    5. Electricity usage and rates
  16. Privacy & Security
    1. Improved Contacts preferences
    2. Redesigned Privacy & Security settings
    3. Accessory Setup Kit
    4. Blocking sensitive content for children

Even More

  1. Accessibility
    1. Eye Tracking
    2. Music Haptics
    3. Vocal Shortcuts
    4. Vehicle motion cues
  2. AirPlay
    1. Spatial Audio
  3. Apple Account
    1. Share Sign in with Apple credentials
  4. Calculator
    1. Math Notes
    2. Typed math
    3. Variables
    4. Graphing
    5. Adjust numbers
    6. Works with Notes
    7. Math Results
    8. History
    9. Editable expressions
    10. Portrait scientific calculator
    11. Unit conversions
  5. Calendar
    1. View reminders in Calendar
    2. Edit reminders in Calendar
    3. Create reminders in Calendar
    4. Updated Month view
    5. Refreshed look
  6. Camera
    1. 5-second timer
    2. Continue playing music when taking a photo
    3. Adjust flash settings via touch and hold
    4. Next-gen Portraits enhancements
  7. CarPlay
    1. Spatial Audio
    2. Accessibility
  8. Continuity
    1. Continuity Camera with Apple TV 4K
  9. Family Sharing
    1. Family Sharing invitations
    2. Recommended for your family
  10. Files
    1. Desktop and documents in the Cloud setup
    2. Keep downloaded
    3. Expanded external drive file formats
    4. Erasing an external drive
  11. Fitness+
    1. For You in Summary
    2. For You
    3. Explore
    4. Library
    5. Search
    6. Awards
  12. Freeform
    1. Scenes
    2. Send a copy
    3. Snap to Grid
    4. Handwriting recognition
    5. Improved diagramming
    6. Math Results
  13. iCloud
    1. Settings redesign
  14. iCloud Mail
    1. iCloud Mail cleanup
    2. Manage old email
    3. Unsubscribe and delete
  15. Keyboard
    1. Keyboard Unified picker
    2. Inline stickers and Memoji
    3. Searchable stickers
    4. Multilingual keyboard
    5. Language detection
  16. Locked and Hidden Apps
    1. Locked apps
    2. Hidden apps
    3. Hidden apps folder
    4. Seamless authentication
  17. Move to iOS
    1. Faster migration
    2. Cabled migration
    3. Improved Wi-Fi migration
    4. Tips during migration
    5. Dual SIM labels
    6. Voice memo migration
  18. Music
    1. SharePlay on more devices
  19. Phone
    1. Call recordings
    2. Call transcripts
    3. Call history search
    4. Keypad search
    5. Live caller ID lookup
    6. Live Voicemail
    7. Dual SIM in Control Center
    8. Automatic Mic Mode
  20. Podcasts
    1. Chapter scrubbing
    2. Better playback control
    3. Share from transcripts
    4. Search suggestions as you type
  21. Reminders
    1. Calendar integration
    2. Recently deleted list
    3. Subtasks in Smart Lists
    4. Multi-language grocery lists
  22. SharePlay
    1. Ask to share
    2. Draw to highlight
    3. Remote control
    4. iPhone to iPhone, iPad to iPad
    5. Privacy friendly
    6. SharePlay on more devices
  23. Tips
    1. Tips sharing
  24. Weather
    1. Easier-to-find Feels Like temperature
    2. Home and work locations
    3. Prominent wind gusts and direction

261 Features Coming to iOS 18

Plus, for fun, I removed all the categories and groups to create a single-file list of all the features – assuming I didn’t miss anything, there’s 261 features coming to iOS 18 (according to the list Apple provided):

  1. Rewrite
  2. Style
  3. Proofread
  4. Summarize
  5. Describe
  6. Compose
  7. Image Playground app
  8. Create Images with Concepts
  9. Create Images with People You Know
  10. Create Images with Characters
  11. Create Images with Photos
  12. Create Images with Text
  13. Suggested Concepts
  14. Quick Previews
  15. Preview history
  16. Image Playground library
  17. Animation style
  18. Illustration style
  19. Sketch style
  20. Messages experience
  21. Deep integrations
  22. Personal context understanding
  23. In-app actions
  24. Onscreen awareness
  25. More resilient request handling
  26. Maintains conversational context
  27. Product knowledge
  28. Glowing edge light
  29. Type to Siri
  30. Predictive text in Siri keyboard
  31. Suggestions in Siri keyboard
  32. More natural voice
  33. More visually rich responses
  34. ChatGPT integration
  35. Reduce interruptions
  36. Intelligent Breakthrough & Silencing
  37. Genmoji
  38. Mail Priority messages
  39. Preview summaries
  40. Thread summaries
  41. Smart Reply
  42. Smart Reply
  43. Summaries
  44. Transcription summaries
  45. Image Wand
  46. Priority notifications
  47. Notification summaries
  48. Announce Notifications support
  49. Call summaries
  50. Natural language photo and video search
  51. Create your own Memories
  52. Clean Up tool
  53. More flexible placement
  54. Unique page layouts
  55. Dark icons
  56. Tinted icons
  57. Larger icons
  58. Redesigned Control Center
  59. Groups of controls
  60. Controls gallery
  61. Controls on your Lock Screen
  62. Controls with the Action button
  63. Biggest-ever design update
  64. Collections
  65. Recent Days
  66. Groups in People & Pets
  67. Trips
  68. Wallpaper suggestions
  69. Collection view options
  70. Pinned Collections
  71. Hide screenshots from your library
  72. Months and Years highlights
  73. Expanded content types in Utilities
  74. Customize the Photos app
  75. Clean Up tool
  76. Edit albums in folders
  77. Album attribution
  78. Edit in light or dark mode
  79. Smart copy and paste edits
  80. Video speed control
  81. Creative stories
  82. Smart suggestions
  83. Text effects
  84. Text formatting
  85. Messages via satellite
  86. iMessage over satellite
  87. SMS over satellite
  88. Satellite connection in Dynamic Island
  89. Emoji and sticker Tapbacks
  90. Send Later
  91. RCS (Rich Communication Services)
  92. Low Quality Image Mode improvements
  93. High-quality Images
  94. Transactions category
  95. Updates category
  96. Promotions category
  97. Time sensitive
  98. Grouped by sender
  99. Quick action
  100. Recategorization
  101. Highlights
  102. Location highlights
  103. Summary highlights
  104. Music highlights
  105. Movie and TV show highlights
  106. Person highlights
  107. Redesigned Reader
  108. Distraction Control
  109. Passwords app
  110. Passwords and passkeys
  111. Sign in with Apple
  112. Wi-Fi passwords
  113. Verifications codes
  114. Sorting
  115. Syncing
  116. End-to-end encryption
  117. Windows support
  118. Hiking and walking
  119. Hikes
  120. Turn-by-turn navigation
  121. Create and save walking and hiking routes
  122. Topographic maps
  123. Discover and save places
  124. Game Mode
  125. Event tickets
  126. Pay with installments
  127. Pay with Rewards
  128. Apple Pay on Chrome and Windows PC
  129. Tap to Cash
  130. Tap to provision
  131. Siri Interactions
  132. Voice Isolation
  133. Personalized Spatial Audio for gaming
  134. Reduced gaming audio latency
  135. In-game voice quality
  136. Audio recording
  137. Live transcription
  138. Phone call transcription
  139. Math in Notes
  140. Access Math Notes from Calculator
  141. Collapsible sections
  142. Highlighting
  143. PDF inline search
  144. State of Mind integration
  145. Log mindful minutes
  146. Insights view
  147. Streaks
  148. Calendar
  149. Stats
  150. Search and sort
  151. Export and print
  152. Widgets
  153. Quick Actions
  154. Audio transcription
  155. More formatting options
  156. Shortcuts
  157. InSight
  158. Enhance dialogue
  159. More dynamic subtitles
  160. Hands-free unlock with home keys
  161. Guest access
  162. Pair Matter accessories without a hub
  163. Control robot vacuum cleaners in the Home app
  164. Electricity usage and rates
  165. Improved Contacts preferences
  166. Redesigned Privacy & Security settings
  167. Accessory Setup Kit
  168. Blocking sensitive content for children
  169. Eye Tracking
  170. Music Haptics
  171. Vocal Shortcuts
  172. Vehicle motion cues
  173. Spatial Audio
  174. Share Sign in with Apple credentials
  175. Math Notes
  176. Typed math
  177. Variables
  178. Graphing
  179. Adjust numbers
  180. Works with Notes
  181. Math Results
  182. History
  183. Editable expressions
  184. Portrait scientific calculator
  185. Unit conversions
  186. View reminders in Calendar
  187. Edit reminders in Calendar
  188. Create reminders in Calendar
  189. Updated Month view
  190. Refreshed look
  191. 5-second timer
  192. Continue playing music when taking a photo
  193. Adjust flash settings via touch and hold
  194. Next-gen Portraits enhancements
  195. Spatial Audio
  196. Accessibility
  197. Continuity Camera with Apple TV 4K
  198. Family Sharing invitations
  199. Recommended for your family
  200. Desktop and documents in the Cloud setup
  201. Keep downloaded
  202. Expanded external drive file formats
  203. Erasing an external drive
  204. For You in Summary
  205. For You
  206. Explore
  207. Library
  208. Search
  209. Awards
  210. Scenes
  211. Send a copy
  212. Snap to Grid
  213. Handwriting recognition
  214. Improved diagramming
  215. Math Results
  216. Settings redesign
  217. iCloud Mail cleanup
  218. Manage old email
  219. Unsubscribe and delete
  220. Keyboard Unified picker
  221. Inline stickers and Memoji
  222. Searchable stickers
  223. Multilingual keyboard
  224. Language detection
  225. Locked apps
  226. Hidden apps
  227. Hidden apps folder
  228. Seamless authentication
  229. Faster migration
  230. Cabled migration
  231. Improved Wi-Fi migration
  232. Tips during migration
  233. Dual SIM labels
  234. Voice memo migration
  235. SharePlay on more devices
  236. Call recordings
  237. Call transcripts
  238. Call history search
  239. Keypad search
  240. Live caller ID lookup
  241. Live Voicemail
  242. Dual SIM in Control Center
  243. Automatic Mic Mode
  244. Chapter scrubbing
  245. Better playback control
  246. Share from transcripts
  247. Search suggestions as you type
  248. Calendar integration
  249. Recently deleted list
  250. Subtasks in Smart Lists
  251. Multi-language grocery lists
  252. Ask to share
  253. Draw to highlight
  254. Remote control
  255. iPhone to iPhone, iPad to iPad
  256. Privacy friendly
  257. SharePlay on more devices
  258. Tips sharing
  259. Easier-to-find Feels Like temperature
  260. Home and work locations
  261. Prominent wind gusts and direction

 

Categories
Offsite Podcasts Siri Shortcuts

Mac Power Users – Mr. Automation: Matt Cassinelli

On Sunday, September 8, on the Mac Power Users podcast, I had the pleasure of joining hosts David Sparks and Stephen Hackett – here’s the show notes:

Matt Cassinelli joins the show to discuss his background with Workflow and Apple and how it led to him becoming the “Shortcuts Guy.” The group then discusses Apple’s automation tools across its platforms, and how those tools have extended to the web.

Check out the Mac Power Users in Apple Podcasts or listen to the episode below:

Continue reading “Mac Power Users – Mr. Automation: Matt Cassinelli”

Categories
Links News

What’s new in Shortcuts for iOS 18, iPadOS 18, macOS 15, watchOS 11 and visionOS 2 »

Screenshot

From Apple Support:

New in iOS and iPadOS 18.0, macOS 15.0, watchOS 11.0, and visionOS 2.0

This update includes enhancements to the Shortcuts app across all platforms, including dozens of updated or new actions as well as hundreds of new glyphs for personalizing your shortcuts.

New actions

Accessibility

  • “Set Switch Control Switch State” can manipulate switches on iOS and visionOS
  • “Set Hover Text Enabled” can now enable or disable displaying larger versions of text on macOS

Freeform

  • “Create Board” and “Open Board” are available on iOS, iPadOS, and macOS

Journal

  • “Create Entry,” “Create Audio Entry,” and “Search Entries” are available on iOS and iPadOS

Magnifier

  • “Describe This,” “Detect Items,” “Start Point & Speak,” “Open Reader,” and “Start Activity” are available on iOS and iPadOS

Music

  • “Set Music Focus Filter” is available on iOS and iPadOS

Wallet

  • “Open Card” is is available on iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS

Shortcuts

  • “Create Folder” and “Create iCloud Link for Shortcut” are available on all platforms
  • “Add Shortcut to Home Screen” is available on iOS and iPadOS

Updated Actions

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

  • “If” now supports evaluating multiple conditions at once, combining them with Any or All
  • “If” now supports selecting date and time values inline
  • “Open Smart List” can now open any Reminders list
  • “Match Text” now indicates invalid regular expressions above the keyboard
  • “Recognize Music” support has been expanded to watchOS
  • “Listen to Page” support has been expanded to visionOS

Shortcuts editor

For those building custom shortcuts, some changes have been made to the shortcut editor:

  • Faster search, improved categorization, and other enhancements to finding actions
  • Actions can be pinned for quick access
  • Keyboard navigation support has been expanded on macOS, including ⌘F for search, navigation with the tab and arrow keys, and more
  • Over 200 new icon glyphs allow greater expressivity in your shortcut icons, including animals, sports, home devices, and more
  • Improved performance and reliability

Control Center

  • Control Center now includes a Shortcuts Control that can be configured to run any available shortcut or open apps

Learn about the features in Shortcuts for iOS and iPadOS 17, macOS 14, watchOS 10 and visionOS 1.

View the original.

Categories
Gear

Elgato Prompter Gains Voice Sync, Camera Preview, and Global Hotkeys »

From @elgato:

Camera Hub 1.11 is here!

🆕 Your Prompter can now automatically scroll as you speak with Voice Sync

Voice Sync adapts to your reading pace so you can speed up, slow down, or pause as you read through your script.

[Video]

Voice Sync is out of beta for Elgato’s Camera Hub app, plus tere’s a new Camera Preview Quick Look so you can check your shot that’s behind Display Mode, as well as new hotkeys for controlling the Prompter.

View the post and get the Prompter from Elgato.

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

 

Categories
Links

Stephen Robles: Discover 10 New iOS 18 Shortcuts Actions! »

From Stephen Robles on YouTube:

Explore the latest shortcuts actions in iOS 18, including powerful new tools for Apple Journal, HomeKit, and Safari. Learn how to streamline your workflow with multi-conditional if statements, smart home toggles, and better organization for your Shortcuts.

View the video YouTube.

Categories
News

Apple Has (Finally) Made Shortcuts’ Action Editor Easier To Browse

In iOS 18.1 developer beta 2, Apple has updated how it organizes actions in the Shortcuts app to create a better experience for users, including a new ordering inside action and categories, as well as two new categories.

This a long overdue change to the Action Editor, which should make it easier for new users to learn how to use Shortcuts – categories are more distinct, important actions are easier to find, and there’s a logical sort order inside groups to help you progressively understand how to use them.

New Order

Throughout all categories and subcategories in the Shortcuts app, Apple has updated the order of actions from alphabetical to a custom order. Instead of actions being ordered by what letter happened to appear at the beginning of what verb happened to be chosen for that action, now the actions inside Shortcuts have a logical order that emphasizes important functions first and group similar functions near each other.

A great example of this new group ordering is in the Media category, which consists of Music, Podcasts, and Photos actions – previously there was were multiple small categories at the beginning (shown above), then photos, then music, then back to photos, then more music in the form of Playlists, and finally podcasts.

Now, all the entire category has been streamlined, music and podcast actions are near each other, and the photos actions are grouped logically as well.

Another great example of the new logical ordering of actions inside categories is the Scripting category, where the most commonly-used actions like Show Result and Ask for Input have been entirely moved up to the top, rather than buried in their respective “No-Ops” and “Notification” categories that deemphasized their critical use while Scripting.

Now, when looking through the Scripting group, it should be easier to find the actions you’re most likely to use near the top, and the more esoteric tools are lower down where advanced users can find them – or just Search for them.

New Groups

Going further, the Scripting category is also now dedicated more directly towards true scripting functions, and in the process Apple has moved a subset of actions out and into new groups for Controls and Device functions.

Over time, as Apple added more and more functionality to the Scripting category, it became bloated with lots of system functions that don’t necessarily relate to the act of scripting, per se.

Now, with the introduction of Controls as function in Control Center, Apple has broken out all Controls-related actions into a new Controls group. Similarly, all the actions that related to the specific Device details have been moved into the new Device category.

These new groups are a great addition, emphasizing the functionality found in Controls and Device categories that might’ve otherwise been lost on users who don’t do much Scripting, while also making the Scripting category more clear on its own.

I hope Apple continues to expand these groups and adds more categories. Apple could open these categories to third-party developers, letting developers add actions to these categories as well as creating more top-level groupings – this would further help users find what actions are available to utilize without going through app-by-app to check.

Welcome Improvements

These updated action grouping, ordering, and new categories are a very welcome addition to the Action Editor experience in Shortcuts – this automation platform has so much potential and little user experience tweaks like this can go a long way towards introducing newer users to such a complicated experience.

And even as a seasoned expert, I’ve wanted these for a long time – hence why I directly asked for these changes via Apple’s Feedback tool, which I’m extremely happy to see implemented.

Check out the developer betas to get early access to these changes, or you can look forward to these updates when iOS 18.1 releases this fall.

Here’s the full breakdown of the new categorization (note that some actions are not contained in a subcategory):

Actions

Scripting

  • Comment
  • Show Result
  • Show Alert
  • Ask for Input
  • Count

Control Flow

  • Choose from Menu
  • If
  • Repeat
  • Repeat with Each
  • Wait

Variables

  • Set Variable
  • Get Variable
  • Add to Variable

Lists

  • List
  • Choose from List
  • Get Item from List

Dictionaries

  • Dictionary
  • Get Dictionary Value
  • Set Dictionary Value
  • Get Dictionary from Input

Numbers

  • Number
  • Random Number
  • Round Number
  • Format Number
  • Get Numbers from Input

Math

  • Calculate
  • Calculate Expression
  • Calculate Statistics

Measurement

  • Measurement
  • Convert Measurement

Dates

  • Date
  • Format Date
  • Adjust Date
  • Get Time Between Dates
  • Get Dates from Input
  • Convert Time Zone

Text

  • Text
  • Get Text from Input
  • Show Definition
  • Get Name of Emoji

Text Editing

  • Change
  • Combine Text
  • Split Text
  • Replace Text
  • Match Text
  • Get Group from Matched Text
  • Correct Spelling

Audio

  • Dictate Text
  • Transcribe Audio
  • Speak Text
  • Make Spoken Audio from Text

Translation

  • Detect Language
  • Translate Text

Items

  • Get Name
  • Get Type
  • Set Name
  • Quick Look
  • View Content Graph

Shortcuts

  • Get My Shortcuts
  • Run Shortcut

Other

  • Get What’s On Screen
  • Base64 Encode
  • Generate Hash
  • URL Encode
  • Format File Size
  • Stop and Output
  • Stop This Shortcut
  • Wait to Return
  • Run Script over SSH
  • Open X-Callback URL
  • Nothing

Controls

  • Set Silent Mode
  • Set Focus
  • Set Volume
  • Set Flashlight
  • Set Low Power Mode
  • Shut Down

Connectivity

  • Set Airplane Mode
  • Set Wi-Fi
  • Set Bluetooth
  • Set Cellular Data
  • Set Personal Hotspot
  • Set VPN
  • Set AirDrop Receiving

Display

  • Set Appearance
  • Set Orientation Lock
  • Set Brightness
  • Set True Tone
  • Set Night Shift
  • Lock Screen
  • Set Stage Manager

Navigation

  • Open App
  • Go to Home Screen

Capture

  • Take Photo
  • Take Video
  • Record Audio
  • Take Screenshot

Device

  • Get Device Details
  • Get Battery Status
  • Get Orientation
  • Get Current Focus
  • Get Physical Activity

Clipboard

  • Copy to Clipboard
  • Get Clipboard

Notification

  • Show Notification
  • Play Sound

Network

  • Get Current IP Address
  • Get Network Details
  • Get Hotspot Password
  • Reset Cellular Data Statistics

Wallpaper

  • Set Wallpaper Photo
  • Get All Wallpapers
  • Switch Between Wallpapers

Location

  • Get Current Location
  • Find Places
  • Filter Locations
  • Open Directions
  • Open in Maps
  • Request Ride

Location

  • Get Details of Location
  • Location
  • Get Maps URL

Addresses

  • Street Address
  • Get Addresses from Input

Travel

  • Get Distance
  • Get Halfway Point
  • Get Travel Time

Media

Image

  • Convert Image
  • Filter Images
  • Get Details of Images
  • Get Images from Input
  • Make Image from PDF Page
  • Make Image Rich Text
  • Extract Text from Image

Image Editing

  • Markup
  • Combine Images
  • Crop Image
  • Flip Image
  • Mask Image
  • Overlay Image
  • Overlay Text
  • Resize Image
  • Rotate Image/Video
  • Remove Image Background

GIFs

  • Make GIF
  • Make Video from GIF
  • Add Frame to GIF
  • Get Frames from Image

Photos

  • Select Photos
  • Find Photos
  • Get Latest Photos
  • Get Latest Videos
  • Get Latest Screenshots
  • Get Latest Bursts
  • Get Latest Live Photos
  • Get Last Import
  • Remove from Photo Album
  • Delete Photos
  • Save to Photo Album

Video

  • Encode Media
  • Trim Media

Playback

  • Set Volume
  • Play/Pause
  • Seek
  • Skip Back
  • Skip Forward
  • Set Noise Control Mode
  • Hand Off Playback
  • Change Playback Destination

Music

  • Select Music
  • Find Music
  • Play Music
  • Add to Playing Next
  • Clear Playing Next
  • Get Current Song
  • Get Details of Music

Playing Next

  • Add to Playing Next
  • Clear Playing Next

Playlists

  • Add to Playlist
  • Create Playlist
  • Get Playlist

Podcasts

  • Find Podcasts
  • Follow Podcast
  • Play Podcast
  • Get Episodes of Podcast
  • Get Podcasts from Library
  • Get Details of Podcast
  • Get Details of Podcast Episode

Sharing

  • Share
  • Share with Apps
  • Send Message
  • Send Email

AirDrop

  • AirDrop

Clipboard

  • Copy to Clipboard
  • Get Clipboard

Photos

  • Post to Shared Album

QR Code

  • Generate QR Code
  • Scan QR or Barcode

Documents

  • Print
  • Markup

PDFs

  • Make PDF
  • Optimize File size of PDF
  • Split PDF into Pages
  • Add PDF to Books
  • Get Text from PDF

File Storage

  • File
  • Select File
  • Move File
  • Rename File
  • Save File
  • Delete Files
  • Get Link to File
  • Create Folder
  • Get Contents of Folder
  • Get File from Folder
  • Append to Text File

Archives

  • Make Archive
  • Extract Archive

Files

  • Open File
  • Get Details of Files
  • Filter Filters

Rich Text

  • Make HTML from Rich Text
  • Make Markdown from Rich Text
  • Make Rich Text from HTML
  • Make Rich Text from Markdown

Web

  • Search Web
  • Open URLs
  • Find Giphy GIFs

Safari

  • Show Web View
  • Add to Reading List

RSS

  • Get Items from RSS Feed
  • Get RSS Feeds from Page

Articles

  • Filter Articles
  • Get Details of Article
  • Get Article using Safari Reader

URLs

  • URL
  • Get URLs from Input
  • Expand URL
  • Get Component of URL

Web Requests

  • Get Contents of URL
  • Get Headers of URL

Web Pages

  • Get Contents of Web Page
  • Get Details of Safari Web Page
  • Run JavaScript on Web Page

* Save to Photo Album should be higher in this list, as it’s required for any images to be saved to Photos at all – this is often a case of confusion where people create GIFs or edit images, but don’t know to save them to Photos.

** The Playing Next category appears to be a duplicate, as the actions contained are also listed in the Music category.

Categories
Gear

Voice Sync Beta Scrolls Scripts on Elgato Prompter Automatically »

From @elgato:

Voice Sync is currently in beta for Prompter users!

With Voice Sync, your scripts on Prompter automatically scroll as you speak. 📜

Try the beta on Reddit.

[Video]

Okay, not only can you dictate your scripts ahead of time, but now when you record it’ll match your voice and scroll as you speak automatically. I love the Prompter.

View the post and get the Prompter from Elgato.

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

 

Categories
Shortcuts

New in the Shortcuts Library: Journal shortcuts

I’ve just added a new folder to the Shortcuts Library — my set of Journal shortcuts.

These shortcuts come alongside new actions for Create Entry, Create Audio Entry, and Search Entries for the Journal app on iPhone, which are available in the iOS 18.1 developer beta (and possibly iOS 18, but I didn’t happen to come across them until my phone was updated).

Check out the new shortcuts:

  • Open my Journal: Opens the deep link into the Journal app for iPhone.
  • Open from saved searches for entries: Presents a list of pre-programmed Search options, then searches for the chosen text in the Journal app.
  • Search my Journal entries: Prompts you to enter a query, then opens to search results for your input text in the Journal app.
  • Create Journal entry: Prompts you to add enter text, then uses that text to create a simple entry in the Journal app.
  • Create audio entry: Opens the Journal app to the recording screen so you can create an Audio entry.
  • Create photo entry: Asks you to select an image from Photos or Files, then some associated text, then attaches it to a new entry in the Journal app.
  • Create bookmarked entry: Prompts you to enter text and a title for an entry, then adds it to the Journal app marked as “Bookmarked.”
  • Open Journal settings: Opens the deep link into Settings > Journal where you can adjust features like Journaling Suggestions, whether to lock your journal, and your journaling schedule.

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

Categories
Developer

App Intents (Results) Tutorial: A Field Guide for iOS Developers »

From Jordan Morgan, developer advocate at Superwall:

Let’s add a new file, and call it GetCaffeineIntent.swift:

struct GetCaffeineIntent: AppIntent {
	static var title = LocalizedStringResource("Get Caffeine Intake")
	static var description = IntentDescription("Shows how much caffeine you've had today.")

	func perform() async throws -> some IntentResult {
    let store = CaffeineStore.shared
    let amount = store.amountIngested
    return amount
	}
}

This has all of the three things we mentioned above:

  1. It has a title (“Get Caffeine Intake”).
  2. A description of what happens when we use it (“Shows much much caffeine you’ve had today.”)
  3. And, an implementation of that action, vended via the perform function.

However, if we build and run — we’ll get a compiler error:

`Return type of instance method 'perform ()' requires that 'Double' conform to 'IntentResult'`

Looking at the return type, it’s some IntentResult. This is critical to understand to avoid a lot of undue frustration with App Intents. You always return some form of an IntentResult. For example, if your intent just does an action, and has nothing of value to say about that action — you can simply return .result(). You don’t ever return some primitive or domain specific type like we’ve done above.

Ours, though? It would be useful to tell the user how much caffeine they’ve had and return the actual amount, so change the return type to mark the intent to return two things:

An actual Double value of how much caffeine has been consumed.

And, some dialog to speak out their caffeine for the day.

So, instead of some IntentResult, here’s what we need:

func perform() async throws -> some IntentResult & ReturnsValue<Double> & ProvidesDialog {
	
	let store = CaffeineStore.shared
	let amount = store.amountIngested
return .result(value: amount,
               dialog: .init("You've had \(store.formattedAmount(for: .dailyIntake))."))
}

Each intent’s return type needs to start with some Intent opaque return type, but from there we can also include more specific types. Here, we’ve noted that we return a double value and speak out dialog.

Developers should read the entire post, but I highlighted this portion because it’s fairly poorly documented and incredibly important.

Jordan also covers basic Intent setup, more on the Entity front, and using Siri Tips and Shortcuts Links to bring more visibility to your actions.

Read the full post on Superwall’s blog.

 

Categories
Apps

EpocCam Turns Your iPhone into a Webcam For Your Mac »

From @elgato:

No webcam?

You can use EpocCam to turn your iPhone into a webcam for your PC/Mac. 📱

Learn more: https://elgato.sjv.io/epoccam-mjc

For all my fellow Mac Mini users, or anyone stuck with a MacBook webcam… EpocCam provides an alternative to something like Continuity Camera.

Looks like it’s held up on the Mini Mount as well.

View the post and get EpocCam and the Mini Mount from Elgato.

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

Categories
Shortcuts

New in the Shortcuts Library: Apple Developer shortcuts

New in the Shortcuts Library, I’ve just updated my folder of Apple Developer shortcuts (yet again) to a new set I’ve been using since WWDC:

Web links

For quick access to the main developer video website, sessions by topic or year, and to search, these shortcuts will suit you well:

  • Show all Apple Developer videos: Opens to the “All Videos” page on the Apple Developer website so you browse the entire scope of what’s offered.
  • Browse WWDC videos by year: Presents a list of categories from Apple’s developer pages, then reformats the option of your choosing into the URL for that category and opens it.
  • Browse Apple Developer topics: Presents a list of categories from Apple’s developer pages, then reformats the option of your choosing into the URL for that category and opens it.
  • Search Apple Developer sessions: Asks you to enter a search query, then URL encodes the result, and opens the results on the web.

AppleScript commands

For folks wanting direct access to features in the Apple Developer app for the Mac, these shortcuts use AppleScript to open the app and trigger keyboard shortcuts for all the main functions – these are great for Stream Deck users:

  • Discover in the Developer app: Utilizes AppleScript to open the Developer and press Command + 1 to open to the Discover page, where you can see curated categories and recent articles.
  • Show Bookmarks in the Developer app: Utilizes AppleScript to open the Developer and press Command + 2 to open to the Bookmarks page, where you can see sessions you’ve saved for later.
  • Open Downloads in the Developer app: Utilizes AppleScript to open the Developer and press Command + 3 to open to the Downloads page, where you can find videos you’ve saved offline.
  • Continue Watching in the Developer app: Utilizes AppleScript to open the Developer and press Command + 4 to open to the Continue Watching page, where you can resume sessions you’ve already started.
  • Copy link from Apple Developer: Utilizes AppleScript to open the Developer and press Command + Option + C to copy the URL of the current session to your clipboard.
  • Copy link at timestamp: Utilizes AppleScript to open the Developer and press Command + Shift + Option + C to copy the URL of the current session at your specific timestamp to your clipboard, so you can jump back to that moment at any time.
  • Toggle Bookmark status: Utilizes AppleScript to open the Developer and press the Command + / keyboard command that adds a session to your bookmarks (or removes it).
  • Toggle Watched status: Utilizes AppleScript to open the Developer and press Command + Shift + U to mark the current video as watched (or unwatched).

Session setup

Once you’re ready to watch sessions, these shortcuts make it easy to get set up on your Apple TV or Mac for a first-run, then a second pass to screenshot relevant information, and finally a way to scrape the titles from all the sessions you’ve saved, for referencing later:

  • Open Developer TV: Opens the Apple Developer app for Apple TV so you can view bookmarks, browse presentations, and search for topics. When run from Mac, maximizes the window to Full Screen.
  • Prep for session screenshots: Resizes the Apple Developer window to the second screen at my preferred size for taking screenshots, then opens Craft and centers it on the main display.
  • Scrape session titles: For a given list of Apple Developer session URLs, this will iterate through each, grabbing the name of the webpage, cleaning it up, and reformatting it into a Markdown list before copying that to your clipboard.

Check out the folder of Apple Developer shortcuts on the Shortcuts Library.

Categories
Developer

Check out Apple “Shortcuts for Developers” Page

Today I just happened to stumble across the Apple Developer page for “Shortcuts for developers”, which was first launched in July 2023, that Apple designed as a landing page for all things, well, Shortcuts and development for it.

Here’s how Apple pitches Shortcuts here:

Increase your app’s surface area and help users quickly access the most important views and actions in your app. With no user setup required, App Shortcuts are available as soon as your app is installed in iOS, iPadOS, visionOS, or watchOS and can be run from Spotlight, the Home Screen, the Shortcuts app, or even by using your voice with Siri.

The page emphasizes these features:

Underneath that, Apple calls attention to App Intents, which they describe this way:

Enable shortcuts with App Intents, a Swift-only framework designed to make it faster and easier to build great actions that people can access throughout the system.

The page also links to the documentation to help you begin implementing App Intents with these starting points:

I’m glad Apple has made this resource for developers unfamiliar with Shortcuts and App Intents, as it’s a clear jumping-off point while emphasizing the value of Shortcuts and what apps can enable for their users.

I hope to see this page updated for App Intents in iOS 18 and Apple Intelligence, clarifying the connection between what you can do with Siri and how it’s all going to be available in the Shortcuts app as well.

View the page on Apple’s Developer site.

Categories
Developer

App Intents: Grouping Parent Parameters Using a Unified Entity Approach

From Quentin Zervaas, developer of Streaks, on their blog Crunchy Bagel in a post titled “Migrating Widget Configurations with Parent Parameters to use AppIntent”:

In order to model this in an App Entity using parameterSummary, we would then need a different summary for every task type (“automatic”, “specific”, “next on page”, “next in category”), as well as accounting for each chart type. This is 8 combinations.

Now consider another of our widgets: the “Tasks” widget. This lets you choose up to 4 different tasks, and has the same options:

The structure of the Tasks widget, which shows different task selection options based on the task1type, task2type, task3type, task4type values.
The structure of the Tasks widget, which shows different task selection options based on the task1type, task2type, task3type, task4type values.

In this case, there would be 16 combinations, which really doesn’t scale well. It’s extremely hard to maintain and is inflexible if future changes are needed.

To solve this, I introduced a new type called TaskTypeAppEntity, which encapsulates the four different types (automatic, specific, next on page, next in category) in a single entity:

struct TaskTypeAppEntity: AppEntity, Identifiable {
    static let typeDisplayRepresentation: TypeDisplayRepresentation = "Task Type"

    let id: TaskTypeAppEntityIdentifier

    var title: String

    var displayRepresentation: DisplayRepresentation {
        .init(title: .init(stringLiteral: title))
    }

    static let defaultQuery = TaskTypeAppEntityQuery()
}

enum TaskTypeAppEntityIdentifier {
    case automatic
    case task(TaskID)
    case category(CategoryID)
    case page(PageID)
}

When building the defaultQuery, it’s just a case of including all of the options in that query. You can even group it into separate sections:

The new task type selection screen once the different options are flattened into a single App Entity.
The new task type selection screen once the different options are flattened into a single App Entity.

This is more code than I’ve probably ever shared on my site, but this method is incredible for apps with more complex data models to build a clean App Intents experience for their users – all App Intents developers should take a look and see if they can use this.

I’ll definitely be recommending this to my clients – I had to save this here on my blog, as well as rewrite my own headline to clarify that this is useful beyond widget configurations as well as beyond moving from “INIntents” to App Intents.

View the original, see Quentin’s post, and get Streaks on the App Store.