Author: Matthew Cassinelli

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Xcode 26.3 unlocks the power of agentic coding »

From Apple Newsroom:

Expanding on the intelligence features introduced in Xcode 26, which brought a brand-new coding assistant for writing and editing in Swift, this release gives coding agents access to even more of Xcode’s capabilities. Agents like Claude Agent and Codex can now collaborate throughout the entire development life cycle, giving developers the power to streamline workflows, iterate faster, and bring ideas to life like never before. Agents can search documentation, explore file structures, update project settings, and verify their work visually by capturing Xcode Previews and iterating through builds and fixes.

Very cool update from Apple. Time to test how well it handles App Intents…

View the original.

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Guest appearances Links Podcasts

Guest spot — HomeKit Insider: Integrating Apple Home & Siri Shortcuts

I had the pleasure of joining Andrew O’Hara as a guest on HomeKit Insider to talk about Home Automations and Shortcuts:

In this episode of HomeKit Insider, Andrew teams up with shortcut expert Matthew Cassinelli to delve into the world of smart home automation. They explore the evolution of shortcuts from Workflow to Apple Shortcuts, offering insights into personal and home automations within Apple HomeKit. Listeners will learn how to enhance their home setups with advanced logic, integrate APIs for custom solutions, and troubleshoot common issues. The episode also highlights future smart home interfaces, real-world automation examples, and the potential of AI in home automation. Perfect for tech enthusiasts eager to elevate their smart home experience.

Check out HomeKit Insider in Apple Podcasts, watch the video on YouTube, or listen to the episode below:

 

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Links

Hiboy S2 Pro Electric Scooter – Worth It?

From KayakDIY on YouTube:

Hiboy S2 Pro Daily Commuting Electric Scooter costs way less than Ninebot Max even though it offers very similar features.

Amazon Link https://amzn.to/3KscIoS

At time of filming S2 Pro is only $499 on both Hiboy Website u0026 Amazon! Ninebot Max claims to have a 40 mile range, but most Ninebot testing show only 21-22 mile range. Hiboy advertises an impressive 25 mile range and costs WAY LESS than the Ninebot. Is the Hiboy S2 Pro electric scooter too good to be true? I will say we were surprised with the results and experience. Then we bumped into other Hiboy e-scooter owners and asked them for a real review.

Electric Scooter Lock Cable (run through rear wheel or seat post hole): https://amzn.to/3G9nz4n

Linking this because this simple review/comparison helped me decide to pick up a set of two from Facebook Marketplace – I am now an e-scooter guy.

Watch the video on YouTube1.

—

  1. P.S. My apologies for the wonky thumbnail – I upscaled the 480p thumbnail using Super Resolution in Pixelmator Pro (from Apple Creator Studio). ↩
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Links

A New Chapter for Mac Power Users (for Stephen Robles!)

From David Sparks/MacSparky:

After seven years of podcasting together, Stephen Hackett is stepping away from the show. Stephen has become a dear friend, and I will really miss our weekly conversations. He was also an outstanding podcasting partner, handling problems before I even realized they existed. The show wouldn’t be what it is today without him.

[…]

I’m also excited to announce that Stephen Robles will be joining me as the new co-host.

I’ve been listening to Stephen’s podcast and watching his YouTube channel for some time now. When I started thinking about who could fill this role, he was at the top of my list. Stephen views himself as a teacher, and while he’s become a very successful YouTuber, he also has years of experience as a podcaster. A good MPU host needs to be knowledgeable, willing to do the work, and fun to talk to. Stephen checks all of those boxes. Every conversation I’ve had with him throughout this process further validates my decision to bring him on board.

My congratulations to Stephen(s) – Hackett on recognizing it was time for a change, and Robles for a well-deserved hosting position.

I originally met Stephen Robles as he interviewed me for the AppleInsider podcast back in 2021, and it’s been excellent to see his creator journey flourish – I’m glad to see this show reborn yet again with him as the new cohost.

View the original.

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Apps Links

Indie App Spotlight: ‘Within Reach’ helps you track your weight loss journey »

From Michael Burkhardt at 9to5Mac:

Within Reach has a couple headlining features to help you track your weight loss journey with GLP-1s, though its also useful for those who aren’t using weight loss medications.

[…]

As hinted at prior, Within Reach lets you plan your workouts in the app for keeping you on pace. It also offers Siri Shortcuts and Widgets – so everything feels at home on the iPhone.

Developer Matt Corey also makes Signals for HomeKit, which responds to Apple Home triggers.

View the original.

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Links

Final Cut Pro 12 Deep Dive (Ripple Training on YouTube) »

From Ripple Training on YouTube:

Take a deep dive learning adventure with Mark and Steve as they show you everything you need to know about the new Final Cut Pro 12 Update from Apple.

Whether you’re a beginner, small business owner who wants to learn how to edit marketing videos like a pro, film editing enthusiast, or a professional video editor who wants to level up, we’ve got courses in Final Cut Pro and DaVinci Resolve.

Ripple’s training course taught me everything I know about Final Cut Pro, and this video does the same for the new features releases alongside Apple Creator Studio – absolutely worth watching in full to learn the depth of what’s new (and where the limitations lie).

Watch the video on YouTube and check out Ripple Training.

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Gear Links

Apple introduces new AirTag with expanded range and improved findability »

From Apple Newsroom:

Apple’s second-generation Ultra Wideband chip — the same chip found in the iPhone 17 lineup, iPhone Air, Apple Watch Ultra 3, and Apple Watch Series 11 — powers the new AirTag, making it easier to locate than ever before. Using haptic, visual, and audio feedback, Precision Finding guides users to their lost items from up to 50 percent farther away than the previous generation.

Solid update – nothing especially new, just better.

View the original.

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News

New ‘HomePad’ launch in spring corroborated by The Information »

From Wayne Ma and Qianer Liu’s report at The Information, quoted by Ryan Christoffel of 9to5Mac:

Apple is also working on a home product featuring a small display, speakers and a robotic swiveling base, designed with a heavy emphasis on AI features. That device could be released as soon as this spring, according to two of the people.

At this point, I am convinced this device will run on App Intents using Interactive Snippets.

View the linked story on 9to5Mac and view the original report on The Information (paywalled).

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Links News

Inside Enchanté, Apple’s AI chatbot for employee productivity »

From Filipe Esposito for Macworld:

Macworld has learned that the company has begun rolling out two new AI-powered apps more broadly to employees in its offices. Both tools are designed for employees to not only test AI capabilities in real-world scenarios, a source said, but also integrate them into their workflow and even help improve Apple Intelligence.

[…]

The first app, called Enchanté, functions as an internal ChatGPT-like assistant for employees. The app can be used to assist employees with ideas, development, proofreading, and even general knowledge answers. The interface looks quite similar to what you see in the ChatGPT app for macOS.

And:

The second internal app, known as Enterprise Assistant, is far more specialized. Built entirely around Apple’s internal large language models (LLMs), Enterprise Assistant acts as a centralized knowledge hub for corporate employees.

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Links News

Apple reportedly replacing Siri interface with actual chatbot experience for iOS 27 »

Mark Gurman, quoted by Zac Hall on 9to5Mac:

Apple Inc. plans to revamp Siri later this year by turning the digital assistant into the company’s first artificial intelligence chatbot, thrusting the iPhone maker into a generative AI race dominated by OpenAI and Google.

The chatbot — code-named Campos — will be embedded deeply into the iPhone, iPad and Mac operating systems and replace the current Siri interface, according to people familiar with the plan. Users will be able to summon the new service the same way they open Siri now, by speaking the “Siri” command or holding down the side button on their iPhone or iPad.

More details on the upcoming chatbot version of Siri.

View the quoted story on 9to5Mac and view the original on Bloomberg (paywalled).

 

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Links News

Apple’s Two-Phase AI Rollout – New Siri Soon, Chatbot Later »

From Mark Gurman, quoted by Jason Snell on Six Colors:

The previously promised, non-chatbot update to Siri — retaining the current interface — is planned for iOS 26.4, due in the coming months. The idea behind that upgrade is to add features unveiled in 2024, including the ability to analyze on-screen content and tap into personal data. It also will be better at searching the web.

And:

The chatbot capabilities will come later in the year, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the plans are private. The company aims to unveil that technology in June at its Worldwide Developers Conference and release it in September.


Jason speculates on the policy shift from Apple that would need to occur for these to run on Google’s servers too.

View the quote on Six Colors and view the original on Bloomberg (paywalled).

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Gear Links

Master Trainer Stars in New Powerbeats Fit Campaign »

From Marcus Mendes at 9to5Mac:

The YouTube description reads:

“Put in the work. Staying strong this year with Kirsty Godso, whose training philosophy is all about showing up, staying consistent, and moving with purpose.”

Kirsty Godso is a health and workout influencer, who’s known for being a Nike Master Trainer, as well as for training celebrities.

I’ve been using my PowerBeats Pro as my daily drivers and love them (ever since my AirPods Pro 2 randomly stopped charging a few months ago 😕).

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Announcements Developer

Drafts 50 released! Shortcuts Revisited, AppleScript Improved (Client Work)

From Greg Pierce, developer behind Agile Tortoise who makes Drafts and Tally:

Enhanced Shortcuts Support

Drafts has always had good Shortcuts support, but we wanted it to be great! This build delivers on that with dozens of new actions (over 50 now!). We also did a complete review of existing actions and improved them with more flexible parameters, better descriptions, and more. A few highlights of the changes:

  • More extensive options in “Find Drafts” allow you to query by date ranges, location information and more.
  • Many more convenience actions to work with Drafts, making it less finicky to configure common actions, like “Append to Draft”, “Archive Draft”, etc.
  • Access draft version histories and action logs from Shortcuts.
  • Control of the Drafts interface – like hiding and showing side panels, toggling pinning and link more.
  • Easier to configure, granular commands for actions like appending, prepending to drafts, archiving, and editing individual draft properties.

This work was done with the help of Matthew Cassinelli, recognized Shortcuts expert, and we really appreciate his expertise and attention to detail bringing together these updates. We tried not to break any existing shortcuts in the process of making these updates, but it’s possible some minor behavior changes were made. Please get it touch if you have any issues and we can help direct you to solutions.

Open up Shortcuts to get started! Orstart with example Shortcuts

It was a very full-circle moment helping Greg with his App Intents/Shortcuts over 15 years after he invented the x-callback-url spec that enabled Workflow in the first place. Only makes sense that Drafts has the best implementation possible.

If you want to add Shortcuts and App Intents support to your app, contact me for a free 1-hour consultationand we can discuss your project.

View the original on the Drafts forum.

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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.

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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 shows 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).”

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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.

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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.

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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.