Author: Matthew Cassinelli

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Developer News

OpenClaw Showed Me What the Future of Personal AI Assistants Looks Like »

From Federico Viticci for MacStories:

For the past week or so, I’ve been working with a digital assistant that knows my name, my preferences for my morning routine, how I like to use Notion and Todoist, but which also knows how to control Spotify and my Sonos speaker, my Philips Hue lights, as well as my Gmail. It runs on Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4.5 model, but I chat with it using Telegram. I called the assistant Navi (inspired by the fairy companion of Ocarina of Time, not the besieged alien race in James Cameron’s sci-fi film saga), and Navi can even receive audio messages from me and respond with other audio messages generated with the latest ElevenLabs text-to-speech model. Oh, and did I mention that Navi can improve itself with new features and that it’s running on my own M4 Mac mini server?

If this intro just gave you whiplash, imagine my reaction when I first started playing around with Clawdbot, the incredible open-source project by Peter Steinberger (a name that should be familiar to longtime MacStories readers) that’s become very popular in certain AI communities over the past few weeks.

If he Claude Code craze over winter break wasn’t enough, the project-formerly-known-as-Clawdbot has taken over timelines as the next level of AI interaction on our personal machines – Federico has a great rundown.

View the original.

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Links News

Apple Intelligence Siri is over a year late, but that might be a good thing »

From Michael Burkhardt at 9to5Mac:

All of this time passing means one thing: a lot more people have an Apple Intelligence-capable device.

Everyone who bought any iPhone 16 or iPhone 17 model at all in the past two years (plus anyone who already had an iPhone 15 Pro), will be able to use Apple Intelligence.

*Apple engineer taking this to their boss*: “You see? It’s actually a good thing we were so late.”1

View the original.

  1. Burkhardt is still correct here, and Apple also shouldn’t have been so late with it. ↩
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Links

Gemini Personal Intelligence show what we can expect from Siri »

From Ben Lovejoy at 9to5Mac:

We already knew some of the features we could expect from AI Siri thanks to the announcements at WWDC 2024 and a now-deleted iPhone 16 ad – and the launch of Gemini Personal Intelligence has now effectively provided a working preview […]

Google yesterday launched a beta version of what it calls Personal Intelligence. The headline feature here is Gemini’s ability to use a complex mix of sources to generate responses, including personalized information pulled from a number of the Google apps and services people use.

“Personal Intelligence can retrieve specific details from text, photos, or videos in your Google apps to customize Gemini responses. This includes Google Workspace (Gmail, Calendar, Drive, etc), Google Photos, your YouTube watch history, and of all of the various Google search services you’ve used (Search, Shopping, News, Maps, Google Flights, and Hotels).”

View the original.

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Links

Apple model combines vision understanding and image generation »

From Marcus Mendes on 9to5Mac:

In the study titled MANZANO: A Simple and Scalable Unified Multimodal Model with a Hybrid Vision Tokenizer, a team of nearly 30 Apple researchers details a novel unified approach that enables both image understanding and text-to-image generation in a single multimodal model.

Mendes gives a detailed explanation of the paper’s results – Apple’s image generation is “comparable” to GPT-4o in some tests, for example:

As a result of this approach, “Manzano handles counterintuitive, physics-defying prompts (e.g., ‘The bird is flying below the elephant’) comparably to GPT-4o and Nano Banana,” the researchers say.

We can basically see here that Apple’s models are a year behind where they want to be – but potentially catching up thanks to new research.

View the original.

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Links

Apple introduces Creator Studio, an inspiring collection of creative apps »

From Apple Newsroom (line breaks added):

Apple today unveiled Apple Creator Studio, a groundbreaking collection of powerful creative apps designed to put studio-grade power into the hands of everyone, building on the essential role Mac, iPad, and iPhone play in the lives of millions of creators around the world.

The apps included with Apple Creator Studio for video editing, music making, creative imaging, and visual productivity give modern creators the features and capabilities they need to experience the joy of editing and tailoring their content while realizing their artistic vision.

Exciting new intelligent features and premium content build on familiar experiences of Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, Pixelmator Pro, Keynote, Pages, Numbers, and later Freeform to make Apple Creator Studio an exciting subscription suite to empower creators of all disciplines while protecting their privacy.

View the press release.

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News

Apple partners with Gemini to power the new Siri »

On Monday, January 12, Google published ajoint statement from Google and Apple:

Apple and Google have entered into a multi-year collaboration under which the next generation of Apple Foundation Models will be based on Google’s Gemini models and cloud technology. These models will help power future Apple Intelligence features, including a more personalized Siri coming this year.

After careful evaluation, Apple determined that Google’s Al technology provides the most capable foundation for Apple Foundation Models and is excited about the innovative new experiences it will unlock for Apple users. Apple Intelligence will continue to run on Apple devices and Private Cloud Compute, while maintaining Apple’s industry-leading privacy standards.

View the statement and the post on X.

Categories
Custom Shortcuts

New in the Shortcuts Library: Action Shortcuts for the Action Button

I’ve just added a new shortcut to the Shortcuts Library — my Action Button shortcut:

  • Action Shortcuts: Designed for running your shortcuts from the Action Button, this shows shortcuts from the visible app or by Focus Mode if not in an app. When in Work mode, also presents option to edit the shortcut. Also, using Orientation, sets DND if face-down and if upside down in pocket, opens Maps directions home.

Check out Action Shortcuts in the Controls folder on the Shortcuts Library.

Categories
Guest appearances Podcasts

Guest spot — Clockwise: I Love Latin, OK?

On Wednesday, December 3, I had the pleasure of joining Dan Moren and Mikah Sargent as a guest along with Chris Lawley on Clockwise to talk about:

Gadgets we wish we owned, our favorite tech or software of the year, our best tips for helping aging relatives with tech, and our thoughts on John Giannandrea’s retirement from Apple.

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

Categories
Custom Shortcuts Shortcuts

Updated in the Shortcuts Library: Apple Music Replay shortcuts

I’ve just updated a folder in the Shortcuts Library — my set of Apple Music Replay shortcuts, adding the Replay 2025 playlist and the Replay All Time playlist added in June 2025:

  • Play my Replay All Time playlist: Plays the preselected Replay All Time playlist on Shuffle, which curates your top tracks across the years into a single playlist.
  • Play my Replay 2025: Plays the preselected Replay 2025 playlist on Shuffle. This time? Even more dance, plus more hip-hop.

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

Categories
Links News

John Giannandrea to retire from Apple »

From Apple Newsroom – quoted in full:

Apple today announced John Giannandrea, Apple’s senior vice president for Machine Learning and AI Strategy, is stepping down from his position and will serve as an advisor to the company before retiring in the spring of 2026. Apple also announced that renowned AI researcher Amar Subramanya has joined Apple as vice president of AI, reporting to Craig Federighi. Subramanya will be leading critical areas, including Apple Foundation Models, ML research, and AI Safety and Evaluation. The balance of Giannandrea’s organization will shift to Sabih Khan and Eddy Cue to align closer with similar organizations.

Since joining Apple in 2018, Giannandrea has played a key role in the company’s AI and machine learning strategy, building a world-class team and leading them to develop and deploy critical AI technologies. This team is currently responsible for Apple Foundation Models, Search and Knowledge, Machine Learning Research, and AI Infrastructure.

Subramanya brings a wealth of experience to Apple, having most recently served as corporate vice president of AI at Microsoft, and previously spent 16 years at Google, where he was head of engineering for Google’s Gemini Assistant prior to his departure. His deep expertise in both AI and ML research and in integrating that research into products and features will be important to Apple’s ongoing innovation and future Apple Intelligence features.

“We are thankful for the role John played in building and advancing our AI work, helping Apple continue to innovate and enrich the lives of our users,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “AI has long been central to Apple’s strategy, and we are pleased to welcome Amar to Craig’s leadership team and to bring his extraordinary AI expertise to Apple. In addition to growing his leadership team and AI responsibilities with Amar’s joining, Craig has been instrumental in driving our AI efforts, including overseeing our work to bring a more personalized Siri to users next year.”

These leadership moves will help Apple continue to push the boundaries of what’s possible. With Giannandrea’s contributions as a foundation, Federighi’s expanded oversight and Subramanya’s deep expertise guiding the next generation of AI technologies, Apple is poised to accelerate its work in delivering intelligent, trusted, and profoundly personal experiences. This moment marks an exciting new chapter as Apple strengthens its commitment to shaping the future of AI for users everywhere.

Huge transition for Apple, which has been bleeding AI researchers for months.

View the original.

Categories
Gear

Block Annoying LEDs with these LightDims Black Out Stickers

Everyone knows electronics manufacturers love their LEDs – why not slap a blue or red LED on the front so you know it’s turned on? The worst part is that they are often incredibly bright, casting light across the room, especially at night – and some can’t be turned off at all. Thankfully, my former cohost Mikah Sargent mentioned a solution1 I’ve been using for years – these LightsOut light blocking LED covers—stickers, basically—that come in a large sheet in different sizes:

The sheet is under $5, which both feels dumb to order online and also absolutely worth the peace of mind you get from the stickers – a single hour of lost sleep in a hotel room is worth the tradeoff. Plus, I ordered mine five years ago and have yet to use half, so $1/year so far is good enough for me.

I’ve primarily used mine on the Belkin MagSafe Stand that I use on my bedside table, plus on hotel TVs – I keep half the sheet in my travel bag, then just peel them off and put them back on when I leave.

Get the LightsOut LED covers on Amazon and check out the Belkin stand.

  1. Good god, that’s the kind of thumbnail you make as a joke one month into COVID and they actually use. ↩
Categories
Gear

Elgato’s Early Black Friday Deals Are Live; I Recommend the Stream Deck+

Elgato’s early Black Friday deals are live now, a week ahead of additional sales on Black Friday itself on November 28. Deals vary by region, so check out the dropdown on their site to see for your location (shown below):

As of writing, both the Stream Deck Mk. 2 and Stream Deck + are on sale for me for 20% off – I personally love both models, but I do think the Stream Deck + is more versatile because of its dials, display, and accessories like the XLR Dock, USB Dock, or Network Dock.

Most importantly – you can run shortcuts from a Stream Deck.

Check out Elgato for deals and check out Elgato posts on my site.

Plus, learn more about my partnership with Elgato.

Categories
Announcements

Follow @CassinelliMedia on X for a Full Feed of My Posts

If you’re using X for social media and want to see all the posts from my blog, I have a secondary account you can follow at @CassinelliMedia.

With the increase in links, custom shortcuts for my Shortcuts Library, and my offsite content among my normal blog posts—something that is reflected in the sections of my updated homepage design—I wanted a place where I could link to each post after they’re published, without flooding my own timeline and messing with the algorithm.

Check out @CassinelliMedia on X – or, alternatively, subscribe to the RSS feed for my site.

Categories
Links

Apple is Hiring a Home Screen UI Engineer

From Careers at Apple (line breaks added for clarity):

“The Home Screen team is responsible for many of the iconic system experiences on Apple devices.

The Team is responsible for the Home Screen, Control Center, Status Bar, Volume HUD and various other components on iOS and iPadOS.

As an engineer on the Home Screen team, your responsibilities will range from prototyping new user interface paradigms and implementing new features to defining API, fixing bugs, and improving performance.

You should have an excellent understanding of software design, good debugging skills and an eagerness to work hard and learn a lot.

You should have an eye for detail and a feel for making user interactions feel fluid and fun.

As our team works cross-functionally with many other groups across Software Engineering, Hardware Engineering and Design, you should have a good understanding of systems and excellent communication and collaboration skills!”

Very intriguing – I’d love to see things evolve for the future.

If this sounds like you and you’re qualified, please join Apple and set us up for the next generation of the Home Screen experience 🙏.

Check out the full job listing from Apple.

Categories
Custom Shortcuts

New in the Shortcuts Library: WordPress shortcuts

I’ve just added a new folder to the Shortcuts Library — my set of WordPress shortcuts. Use these to log in to your dashboard, manage your pages, update plugins, and quickly access your homepage:

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

Categories
How To Links

How to Fix Images From Your Blog Not Showing Up in Posts on X (Twitter) »

When sharing from my blog, I’ve been having the tiniest problem for ages – for about one out of every ten posts, the images from my blog will simply not show up on Twitter, like the image below:

Thankfully blogger Deepak shared this solution on his site:

I discovered that adding a random query parameter at the end of the URL, that you’re going to share on X, works perfectly. X treats this as a new URL and re-fetches the card image. For example, you can add something like ?test=1 like below example, or whatever random query parameter you like. And then share this URL on X.

But don’t worry, adding the query parameter isn’t going to break the URL or affect the content shown on the page. It’s perfectly safe to use this.

THANK GOD. After a bit of testing, I’m going with ?refresh=true1 at the end of blog post URLs that are being troublesome – makes sense to me, and works well.

View the post from DeepakNess and follow my full feed account @CassinelliMedia.

  1. I’ve integrated the URL pattern into the shortcut from the header image – coming soon for members (or, you can just build it yourself from the photo). ↩
Categories
Apps Links

Ulysses adds Find Sheet, Find Group actions for Shortcuts; Substack support »

Ulysses, my blogging app of choice, has updated to version 39 with the following changes:

  • Liquid Glass support
  • Menus reworked
  • Revision Mode is just another tab
  • Editor Focus is now “Hide Interface”
  • Swipe Gestures
  • Swipe Actions
  • Improved keyboard navigation
  • Share/import projects
  • Copy for Substack and Basecamp
  • Theming
  • App Intents
  • Other improvements
  • Buxgfixes

Naturally, I want to highlight the section on their new Shortcuts actions and Spotlight for Mac support in particular:

App Intents

We revamped our integration with Spotlight and the Shortcuts app. On macOS 26, actions can now be triggered directly from Spotlight. New actions include:

“Find Sheet” and “Find Group”, with configurable filters.

“Import File”, to convert any given text file into a sheet.

“Search in Ulysses”, to open the in-app search with a pre-defined search term.

Also:

Copy for Substack and Basecamp

You can now copy your texts for use on Substack and Basecamp.

Most formatting is supported; some limitations apply (images won’t work).

On Substack, we even support buttons (via raw source) and Spotify previews (via text links).

This will be good for my newsletter, which I don’t want to write within the Substack browser – I prefer a dedicated editor experience like Ulysses.

Check out the full page of Release Notes for Ulysses and get Ulysses from the App Store.

Categories
Gear Links

FYI: Reset Your Standing Desk By Lowering It All The Way Down »

Today, my standing desk started to make a clicking sound and only showed zeroes on the display. It wouldn’t raise, but it would move down – there was clearly nothing wrong with the motor, but I didn’t want to continue lowering it in case it wouldn’t raise back up. While looking for replacements, I thankfully found this video that explains what to do – reset the motors:

If your desk loses power, it also loses its memory – which means it no longer remembers which position it is in. Therefore, your desk needs to find a reference point – that being the lowest position.

Pretty simple, but something I hadn’t run into before – I was not happy with the idea that I’d have to replace the entire controller for ~$400.

The video also highlights the importance of moving anything out of the way too – standing desk motors are powerful and won’t stop if something is in the way. I’ve had my desk lift itself off the ground because it caught on the drawers nearby, which could have been more serious if my desk was fully automated1.

Watch the full video on YouTube.

  1. My standing desk is older so I have to hold down buttons to move them to the presets. ↩︎
Categories
Custom Shortcuts

New in the Shortcuts Library: X shortcuts

I’ve just added a new folder to the Shortcuts Library — my set of shortcuts for X, “the everything app” – formerly Twitter.

Use these shortcuts to access all the sections of the app, make the most of Lists, perform advanced searches, and access elements of your profile:

  • Show my Timeline on X: Quickly access to your preferred Twitter timeline with one command.
  • Search on X: Asks you to enter a query, then opens the Search in X (formerly Twitter).
  • Explore on X: Opens the URL to the Explore tab of X where you can search for posts, plus see curated stories, hashtags, profiles, & topics in For You, Trending, News, Sports, & Entertainment sections.
  • Check my Mentions on X: Opens the URL to the Notifications tab of X where you can see your replies, likes, reposts, quotes, and follows. On the Mac, opens to mentions-only so you can reply back directly to people.
  • Chat on X: Opens into the Chat experience for X where you can send a new message, see recent messages, perform a search, or filter conversations by All, Unread, Groups, or Requests.
  • Open into a List from X: Presents a menu of your Lists on X, then opens the URL into into the corresponding list. Requires entering list IDs manually.
  • Open my Lists on X: Opens the URL to the Lists page for your given username. On import, asks you to enter your handle.
  • Create a List on X: Opens the URL to the Create button for Lists on X where you can add an Image, Name, Description, and whether the list should be Private before adding the list.
  • Open my Bookmarks on X: Opens the URL to the Bookmarks page on X where you can see posts you’ve saved and organize them into folders.
  • Create a Bookmark Folder on X: Opens the URL to the Create Folder endpoint for Bookmarks on X, where you can enter a title and description before adding the new folder.
  • Open my Likes on X: Opens the URL to the Likes section of your profile on X where you can see posts you’ve interacted with. On input, asks you to enter your handle.
  • Open my Profile on X: Opens the URL to your username on X – also copies the link in case you want to share it with someone else. On import, asks you to enter your handle.
  • Search posts from people I follow on X: Asks for a search query, then filters by People You Follow, then opens the URL to X to show you results.
  • Search my own posts on X: Using a X username inputted on import and a keyword entered when the shortcut is run, this shortcut takes the info, URL-encodes it into a X link, and opens into the app to show the results.
  • Find Quotes and Replies for this post on X: Gets a post link from input and reforms the URL with advanced search filters before opening it with X.
  • Open Settings on X: Opens the URL to the Account settings section on X where you can change your account information or password, download an archive of your data, or deactivate your account. Other sections in Settings include Monetization, Premium, Creator Subscriptions, Security and account access, Privacy and safety, Notifications, Accessibility, display, and languages, Additional resources, & Help Center.
  • Manage X premium: Opens the URL to the Premium section of X where you can manage your subscription, quick access features like Grok, Monetization, Analytics, X Pro, Media Studio, Hiring, Bookmarks Folders, and Top Articles, customize your profile with an expanded bio or theme, and verify your ID.

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

Categories
Custom Shortcuts

New in the Shortcuts Library: Meta AI shortcuts

I’ve just added a new folder to the Shortcuts Library — my set of Meta AI shortcuts for interacting with Meta AI, the assistant from the makers of Facebook and Instagram.

Use these for Meta AI on the web – quickly start a new chat, browse Vibes creations, generate an AI image or video, and access features of AI Studio where you can create your own AI chatbot.

  • Open Meta AI: Opens the URL for Meta AI so you can ask anything, choose from one of their suggestions, or scroll down to browse Vibes.
  • Talk with Meta AI: Opens the URL for the Talk feature in Meta AI, activating voice mode on your device right away so you can begin speaking your prompt.
  • New chat with Meta AI: Opens the URL to a new chat with Meta AI, focusing on the keyboard so you can start typing your prompt right away.
  • Open Vibes from Meta AI: Opens the URL to the Vibes page of Meta AI where you can browse and watch creations from others.
  • Create media with Meta AI: Opens the URL to the Create tab of Meta AI, where you can view your own creations and create something new by describing your image. “You can create images and videos to inspire others.”
  • Open the AI Image Generator from Meta AI: Opens the URL for the AI Image Generator from Meta AI where you change options like aspect ratio or aesthetics along with your prompt. Capabilities listed include “Create images,” “Create an image of yourself,” “Edit images,” “Restyle images,” “Animate images,” and “Analyze images.”
  • Open the AI Video Generator from Meta AI: Opens the URL for the AI Video Generator in Meta AI, where you can create, remix, and share AI videos. Capabilities listed include “Create custom animations,” “Edit images,” “Extend videos,” “Get more done,” “View your creations,” and “Restyle and edit.”
  • Show my notifications from Meta AI: Opens the URL for the Notifications page for Meta AI where you can see interactions on your creations.
  • Show my profile on Meta AI: Opens the URL for your profile on Meta AI. On import, asks you to enter your username.
  • Show demos from Meta AI: Opens the URL for AI Demos from Meta, where you can “[e]xplore the latest AI experiments from Meta, where bold ideas meet the edge of research, creativity, and technology.”
  • Show Meta AI Studio: Opens the URL to the AI Studio from Meta (hosted on Instagram.com) where you can create your own AI or “find and interact with AIs created by others.”
  • Create an AI with Meta AI Studio: Opens the URL to the Create an AI page in Meta AI Studio, where you can “make an AI for deep conversations, help with specific topics or just for fun,” “craft a specific voice for your AI and give it capabilities like search and image generation,” and “chat privately or make an AI public for others to discover.”
  • Show my AIs in Meta AI Studio: Opens the URL for “Your AIs” in Meta AI Studio, where you can manage AIs that you’ve created.

Check out the folder of Meta AI shortcuts on the Shortcuts Library.