Author: Matthew Cassinelli

Categories
Links Siri Shortcuts

Six Colors: Simple sleep tracking with Shortcuts

Dan Moren, writing for Six Colors:

What I really wanted was for iOS to be a bit more intelligent. For example, it could realize that when I turn off my bedside light (which is a HomeKit-compatible Philips Hue bulb) I’m going to bed. And then, when I pick up my phone in the morning it could log that I’m awake, and store the resulting information in the Health app.

Alas, that functionality doesn’t exist. So I made it myself using a pair of Shortcuts.

While I was away at Disneyland, this great set of shortcuts snuck by me.

This is the exact approach I have so often – I think “why can’t my pocket computer do this?” and then Shortcuts lets me roll my own solution.

Read the link on Six Colors.

Categories
Podcasts

I Have Control Issues

New episode of Supercomputer out:

Alex and Matthew discuss the disappearance of Control Center – and how it overlaps with Shortcuts.

Control Center is super useful, but many people don’t realize you can automate much of what’s available there.

Continue reading “I Have Control Issues”
Categories
Siri Shortcuts

How to create a deep link to file in iCloud Drive so you can directly access it later

If you’re looking to access one of your files by clicking on a URL instead of navigating through your Files app, you can copy a link to that file using the Share sheet on iOS.

Continue reading “How to create a deep link to file in iCloud Drive so you can directly access it later”
Categories
Podcasts

The Case of the Last Case

New episode of Supercomputer out:

Alex and Matthew reflect on the month’s Apple-related news, giving the hot takes some room and seeing how we’re feeling after some extra context. Plus, there’s a celebrity appearance.

Continuing along with new topics, Alex and I are starting an occasional “Cold Takes” show to cover news in the last few months with some added perspective that time gives everyone.

Continue reading “The Case of the Last Case”
Categories
Podcasts

There Are Many Like It, But This Home Screen Is Mine

New episode of Supercomputer out:

Alex and Matthew cover their home screens, so open the episode to check out the shots.

In episode 21, we wanted to refocus our subject matter more for each episode.

We’ll be doing an occasional cycle of shows – a good topic, some guest appearances, a look back at the news of the last few months, and more philosophical episode that takes things to a higher level.

We’re always looking for diverse and interesting guests, so please send us recommendations at [email protected].

Plus, we started a Patreon for anyone who feels like supporting the show. We’re gearing up the patronage rewards, but rest assured the show is free and it’s not required. That being said, we really appreciate everyone who’s signed up so far.

Continue reading “There Are Many Like It, But This Home Screen Is Mine”
Categories
Podcasts Siri Shortcuts Video

How to jump between the audio and video of Supercomputer

For episode 19 of Supercomputer, instead of hitting the “call” button to record, we pressed “video chat” and proceed to produce our podcast. I edited out some moments, added chapter markers for the audio file, and uploaded the video to YouTube.

This last week, for episode 20, I also added visual chapters, actually used Alex’s correct audio file, and shared our second video recording to YouTube.

But podcasts are for audio, right?

Continue reading “How to jump between the audio and video of Supercomputer”
Categories
Podcasts

Behind The Cute Curtain

New episode of Supercomputer out:

Matthew and Alex talk about going from beginner shortcuts to the next level with the “If” scripting action, plus how this all could be a bit easier.

After last week’s livestream, I explained some of what “conditionals” are – if that sounds confusing, it’s worth listening.

Part of the episode is about breaking down barriers to concepts used in programming hidden behind fancy language, so we’ll explore more topics like this in the future.

Listen to the show:

Categories
Podcasts

Consumers and Their Fragile Minds

New episode of Supercomputer out:

Matthew and Alex are here for the New Apple.

In a classic coffee rant, I got to release all the feeling I built up in our time away from the show – I am more excited than ever for the future of Apple.

Plus, I make a call for app developers to come back.

Listen to the show:

Categories
Siri Shortcuts

Lightroom adds native Import action to Shortcuts app, first of its kind

Yours truly, writing for iMore:

For users who’ve updated to the latest version of Adobe Lightroom for iOS, there is a special surprise waiting – a new dedicated Lightroom action for the Shortcuts app, Apple’s newest automation tool for building custom Siri Shortcuts.

This enables users to batch import photos to Lightroom, apply the built-in Presets, and otherwise act on your photos in the process of custom shortcuts in the Shortcuts app, opening up mobile photography to deeper automation potential.

Lightroom is the first native action from a third-party app added to Shortcuts since the days of Workflow, so hopefully this is a sign of more actions to come.

Some things to note:

  1. RAW support is RAW-only, otherwise the RAW+JPG gets imported as a JPG
  2. The action passes content through as output, so you can put Delete Photos right after and they’ll be removed from Photos too
  3. Applying the Presets only takes advantage of the defaults, but hopefully this will change one day.

I’m super excited, because this was a big sticking point in The Verge’s review, and it’s hopefully the first of many Shortcuts actions.

Head over to my friend Shawn Blanc’s site for a good example shortcut – he selects photos and uses the Shortcuts action extension to add them, but what he doesn’t mention is this works great with drag & drop on iPad too.

See the full linked post.

Categories
Podcasts

The OG GTD

New episode of Supercomputer out:

This week, Matthew and Alex explore some of their holiday experiments, as well as how to value your time as much as you value your computer.

We’re back from the winter break with a new, 30-minute episode covering what we were up to over the holidays (spoiler: tidying).

Alex and I talked about getting back into the swing of things and teased some plans for the new year – enjoy!

Listen to the show:

Categories
Siri Shortcuts

Using Shortcuts to open into Twitter Lists

One of my long-favorite shortcuts that I use all the time is the one that I’ve built to open the Twitter app and into my lists that I’ve curated over the years.

When I run the shortcut, I can choose from the titles of my lists, and then Shortcuts builds the deep link into Twitter, then opens into that List for me.

Continue reading “Using Shortcuts to open into Twitter Lists”
Categories
Podcasts Siri Shortcuts

Automating blog posts for my podcast Supercomputer

If you were a visitor to my site in November, you might’ve noticed a lack of posts on the blog. While I’ve been producing videos and podcasts the whole time, I had a mental block on creating the short posts here on my website for each and just didn’t bother to write them up.

As we’re approaching the end of the year, I decided to get my act together and automate more of blog posts for my work, starting with podcast episodes.

That way I’d have no excuse not to do them, I could spread the news for my podcast more easily, and along the way put together a handy shortcut that I repurpose for my YouTube videos, articles on other sites, and eventually embedded shortcuts here on my blog.

To accomplish this, I built a Post Podcast shortcut that I can run each Friday when we release a new episode of Supercomputer.

Continue reading “Automating blog posts for my podcast Supercomputer”
Categories
Podcasts

I Can’t Be Trusted With A Computer

New episode of Supercomputer out:

This week, Matthew talks about getting his work done entirely on iOS, and Alex talks about her love of tomatoes.

I’m enjoying making this podcast so much.

We keep getting better and better each week – excited for next year.

Listen to the show:

Categories
Podcasts

Least Sexy, But Amazing

New episode of Supercomputer out:

This week, Matthew ponders why you can’t get real work done on iOS, and Alex works herself into a tizzy about Pokemon and old men.

After another round of iOS maligning over the weekend, I started to get a little riled up on this episode.

No, I didn’t write the show notes ?

Listen to the show:

Categories
Podcasts

No One Is Taking Away Your Computer

New episode of Supercomputer out:

In a caffeine-fueled rage, Alex & Matthew pleasantly discuss the viability of iPad Pros as computers.

I got a little hyped up on espresso and started ranting this week.

But, it turns out, I had something important to say.

Listen to the show:

Categories
Podcasts

Rainbow Gesture

New episode of Supercomputer out:

Your hosts’ iPads have arrived! Matthew wants to change the way we think about the philosophy of Apple, and Alex is very concerned about folios big and small.

This week, Alex and I talked using tablets & their covers.

Plus, I tried to reflect on how the Apple community talks about the leaders of the company.

Listen to the show:

Categories
Podcasts

We’re in The Medium Place

Episode 11 of Supercomputer is now out – listen in if you’re curious about the new iPad Pros.

Alex talks about her concerns over USB-C, I tried to talk her down from the ledge, and we both ended up convincing ourselves to be excited about the new iPads.

Plus, we talked about the changes to Shortcuts 2.1 that I covered in my video earlier this week.

With this episode, we’re also making the switch to releasing on Fridays – we’re trying to guarantee the show is as good as possible, plus give us flexibility on recording days to account for any events as well as our schedule. New episodes every Friday – Supercomputer for the weekends!

Start prepping your daily routine plans for an upcoming episode, because we’ll be walking through those shortly – in the meantime, drop us any shortcuts requests in our submission form, we’ll be answering a few soon!

Get the episode:

P.S. Would anyone listen in Spotify or on YouTube? Let me know!

Categories
Siri Shortcuts Video

Look ahead at your day with “Agenda”

Today I released my fifth YouTube video, focusing on building an agenda for the day and walking people through the process of building it.

This is a full-Siri shortcut, meaning it’ll work on iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, AirPods, HomePod, and CarPlay, with Siri speaking out the results to you:

Play

Continue reading “Look ahead at your day with “Agenda””
Categories
Links Siri Shortcuts

Apple Shortcuts: The Bicycle for the Mind is Back, but it’s Electric

Stu Maschowitz of Prolost has put a fantastic piece out on the Shortcuts app:

“To me, whether Jobs intended it this way or not, the “bicycle for the mind” is the tool that empowers you to repurpose it for your specific needs, not just to consume things with it, or use it in the same way as everyone else.”

Continue reading “Apple Shortcuts: The Bicycle for the Mind is Back, but it’s Electric”
Categories
Siri Shortcuts Video

How to make a GIF on iOS: Shortcuts in under 3 minutes [Video]

On Friday, I published a shorter video demonstrating how to build a custom shortcut in the Shortcuts app in just under 3 minutes:

For the topic, I picked “how to make a GIF” because it’s not that easy on iOS, and everyone has a library full of bursts and Live Photos that are stuck in the camera roll.

With just a few actions, you can put together an animated loop of your bursts, Live Photos, or sets of photos, and easily share it with people.

Get the shortcut here if you want to make your own.

I could have made some improvements to the shortcut. Since I filmed this without a script, I didn’t add in Save to Photo Album at the end so that every GIF you made would be saved automatically – this is important because most people run shortcuts from the main library view, but you can only see the GIF in my version if you open the shortcut editor.1

I’m working on some new shorter videos, along with a longer main video each week – working out the process now, but I should be able to ramp up to get more videos out for all of you.

In the meantime, let me know if there’s anything particular you’d like to see from my channel2.

And, as always, linking to the video or retweeting it goes a long way – thank you to everyone who’s been supporting me so far.

  1. It also could have all been built using Find Photos to give you more control; getting into that level of detail, however, definitely takes more than 3 minutes, so I’ll have to work sharing the best examples with the least compromises. ↩
  2. People left more comments that I’m still a robot who doesn’t blink – even though I totally did once! It’s apparently difficult for me to blink naturally with a bright light in my face while trying to communicate the intricacies of this app on the fly. ↩