In Stephen Robles’ “Inside My iPhone Setup” video on YouTube, starting at 3:15, he talks about using the Today view to store the Shortcuts widget:
Dive into my full iPhone setup tour for 2024, where I showcase customized Home and Lock Screens, Today View widgets, Shortcuts, Focus Modes, and filters for maximal productivity. If you’re curious about how to tailor your iPhone to fit your daily routine or have any setup questions, drop them below!
I agree that this is the best place to start out when using Shortcuts – it’s always available, even from the Lock Screen.
After 5 months of experimenting with the iPhone Action Button, I’ve settled on one daily use that stands out above the rest. Discover the top 3 alternate uses that almost made the cut and why simplicity won the day for my action button setup.
I mentioned this video on Clockwise this week – my usage has definitely changed. And, as a teaser, Apple is making more actions for Shortcuts in iOS 17.4 that make dynamic Action button shortcuts easier to create…
In version 1.0 of Juno, there wasn’t a way to take a YouTube URL from Play (or any other app) and instantly open it in the app. Whenever I clicked a YouTube link in a visionOS app, it would take me to Safari, with no way to redirect that video to the Juno app instead. With the new Juno URL scheme in version 1.1, this is now possible. Simply replace https:// with juno:// in a YouTube URL, and you’ll be able to watch that video in Juno rather than YouTube’s website.
But we are refined and tasteful people with our Vision Pros, and no one should edit URLs by hand to watch a YouTube video in 2024. So I’ve built two shortcuts that you can install on your Vision Pro to simplify the process of reopening those links in Juno.
The first one is a basic shortcut that you can run on YouTube.com in Safari to open the video you’re watching in Juno. To use it, just select ‘From YouTube to Juno’ in the Safari share sheet, and the video will be opened in Juno, where you can watch it with a superior interface.
The second shortcut I’ve created is one to pick from a list of videos saved in the Play app and watch the selected video in Juno. Aptly named ‘From Play to Juno’, the shortcut is a nice way to go through your Play queue on the Vision Pro and take advantage of Juno’s native YouTube UI to watch your saved videos.
A few months ago, I decided to switch to Things as my default task manager. As I shared multiple times on AppStories and MacStories Weekly, I’m really happy with my decision: not only does the design of the Things app create a more relaxed environment for me to manage my responsibilities, but Cultured Code’s embrace of Shortcuts automation has allowed me to create dozens of custom enhancements for Things.
This is the reason why I fell in love with Things: the app’s “simple” design and structure leaves room for power users to make their own functionalities by taking advantage of the app’s integration with Shortcuts. Things doesn’t have a feature you need? Just make it yourself by choosing from the large catalog of Shortcuts actions available in the app.
I previously shared an initial set of shortcuts I created for Things; I also created ThingsBox, an advanced shortcut to intelligently save tasks to the Things inbox. Since those articles, I’ve built several more shortcuts and created personal automations to script certain behaviors of Things on a daily basis. So, exclusively for Club Plus and Premier members, today I’m sharing my full collection of Things shortcuts, which have vastly improved how I manage my tasks on the iPad Pro and capture them on the iPhone.
Let’s take a look.
Great set of shortcuts that solves some of the pain in managing tasks daily in Things.
This issue is full of Apple Vision Pro links, and my return to YouTube with one unboxing video, a livestream, and a concept video – plus handy media shortcuts, a fix from Feedback, app updates you might’ve missed, and new Tim Robinson-inspired AirTag gear?
On Wednesday, February 21, I had the pleasure of joining Dan Moren as a guest along with James Thompson and Rosemary Orchard on Clockwise to talk about:
How we’d use a HomePod with a screen, Apple’s new Sports app, Vision Pro impressions after a couple weeks, and what we use our iPhone’s Action button for.
Last week, in a special livestream for members, I tested using the Apple Vision Pro developer strap to capture my perspective in real-time and share what it’s like to use spatial computing:
Last week, in a special livestream for members, I tested using the Apple Vision Pro developer strap to capture my perspective in real-time and share what it’s like to use spatial computing:
In this video, I’m testing how to capture, record, and stream using the Apple Vision Pro and Ecamm Live.
This method requires the Apple Developer strap, a USB-C cable (preferably extra long), and QuickTime for Mac, plus Ecamm Live and an Apple Vision Pro.
This Monday morning, I published a short concept video on YouTube built using Shortcuts and Apple Vision Pro:
This video demonstrates my concept for how Shortcuts can be used with Apple Vision Pro in visionOS 1.1 and beyond
In visionOS 1.0, Shortcuts can only open apps one-at-a-time. In the beta for 1.1, however, Open App can be used multiple times to open a set of apps.
Then, with Shortcuts, you can set up a folder for different contexts in your home. For this video, I’ve done just that – here are the apps I used in the video:
Open Studio apps: Widgetsmith, Fantastical, Freeform, Music, and Photos.
Open Living Room apps: Books, Home, Calendar, Podcasts, News, Streaks, and Structured.
Open TV apps: Letterboxd, TV Forecast, Fandango, IMDB, and a menu choosing between TV, Disney, Amazon Prime, MAX, Plex, or Juno.
To film the video, I first opened all the apps, placed them in position, and then use Hide All Other Apps to close them all.
What you see in the video is me running each shortcut and opening the already-running apps one-by-one.
Beyond visionOS 1.1, Apple needs to add a way to pin apps to specific locations – I propose the Find Windows, Move Windows, and Resize Windows from macOS get added to visionOS. Perhaps there’s also a tie-in with the Rooms from the Home app?
Open Studio apps: Opens a set of apps designed for everyday use in the studio – includes Widgetsmith, Fantastical, Freeform, Music, and Photos.
Open Music Room apps: Opens a set of apps designed for everyday use in the music area of my family room – includes the MusicHarbor, MusicBox, and Ultimate Guitar Tabs apps.
Open Video Game apps: Opens a set of apps designed for everyday use in the family room with a game console – includes Twitch, GameTrack, Xbox, Discord, and Telegram.
Open Living Room apps: Opens a set of apps designed for everyday use in the living room – includes Books, Home, Calendar, Podcasts, News, Streaks, and Structured.
Open TV apps: Opens a set of apps designed for everyday use near your living room couch – includes Letterboxd, TV Forecast, Fandango, IMDB, and a menu choosing between TV, Disney, Amazon Prime, MAX, Plex, or Juno.
Note: these shortcuts require visionOS 1.1, which is, as of publishing, in beta – that means it requires a developer or public beta installed on your Apple Vision Pro to work as intended.
Second note: Be sure to read the description of my concept video to understand how these work – these shortcuts won’t place your apps for you, but will reopen them in the same place once closed (assuming you haven’t reset your position).
The fact that the Key Light Mini works wirelessly with the Control Center app while on battery power — and it actually lasts a long time — is amazing to me. Plus the quality of light is excellent too.
Hello brands, businesses, and developers – I’m excited to announce that my work is now open for sponsorship opportunities, starting with YouTube!
If you’re a brand or business looking to connect with a passionate audience through high-quality media, let’s talk! Whether it’s through product reviews, sponsored content, or more unique collaborations, let’s explore how we can work together.
To register your company’s interest, fill out this form – and if you’re particularly interested in being first in this process, feel free to reach out directly.
Thank you for your support, and I look forward to sharing about the fun new projects this will enable.
Last week, I shared a great set of apps for Apple Vision Pro from developers who shared their links on Threads.
However, since I am apparently somewhat blending reality and spatial computing, I apparently forgot to collect the other half the people I asked – here’s more apps you can try on the headset:
Supercharge your iPhone with these 7 essential shortcuts, from instant screenshot sharing to smart hotel hacks for travelers. Plus, add convenient features to Apple Podcasts like skip ahead more than 1 minute and skip intros for podcasts.
If you find yourself creating custom buttons on the Stream Deck from Elgato, you will likely run into an issue – how do I create icons that fit my style?
Elgato helpfully provides a dedicated section for Stream Deck icons in their Marketplace, where you can install icon packs from a variety of creators across various categories – this is a great one-and-done solution to get icons at-scale.
If you’re looking for further customization, however, you might end up in that awkward gap between trying to design your own in tools like Canva or Figma, or feeling like you’d need to request an entire custom set from someone with more creative skills than yourself (this is about me).
With Button Creator, you can customize the foreground or background colors, pick a glyph using the SF Symbols library, emoji, or your own images, and even customize a text label so you don’t have to duplicate the title in the Stream Deck app.
Plus, you can save your creations as templates, making it easy to start again with the same style and have a consistent look across your icons.
So far, I’m quite happy with the customization features of Button Creator – there’s lots of control and, in most places, more than enough for what I need. I’d like to see more text styling controls, and I’d potentially also like more Gradient controls, including the option to change the rotation by a specific degree, change from linear to radial or angular, and handles to control the placement. Admittedly, that might be a lot for what’s otherwise a simple app, but it’d add a cool layer of customization – I’ve been trying to make better gradient maps in Pixelmator Pro and want to get really nice-looking icons over time.
Otherwise, Shortcuts support could take this app very far – letting me pass in parameters and output icons would be incredibly powerful, and I could programmatically create icons for my entire library in seconds. Right now I’m able to use Get My Shortcuts to export exact icons, but without any customization – combining that with Button Creator actions could let me automatically apply short titles and avoid manually adding them in the Stream Deck app, for example.
As you can guess from the name, Button Creator for Stream Deck is, well, designed pretty specifically for Stream Deck users – however, these icons can also be repurposed as Home Screen icons using the “Add to Home Screen“feature in Shortcuts on iPhone and iPad – or for any other purpose, for that matter.
Hey members! I have a special new video for you – my unboxing experience with the Apple Vision Pro, available now privately through YouTube.
Coming in at a little under an hour, I tried to capture a simple walkthrough and first-run experience with the device – complete with small observations, initial confusions, and the inevitable screen recording issues.
I’ve included chapter markers so you can jump through and watch the most interesting bits, and will clip out my favorite moments as well – for example, the first good screen recording starts at 35:22 in.
Admittedly, this may not be a thriller to watch from start to finish; but, I am experimenting with deeper access videos like this, as well as testing different filming techniques or editing processes – this is shot in a 4:3 aspect ratio, for example. Plus, since I don’t have to optimize for a massive audience or “the algorithm,” I can be a little more relaxed and natural, like the way I settle into things during livestreams.
I loved this initial test of a members-only video, and I hope you enjoy it too – let me know if you’d like to see other videos like this in the future!
