Quick thoughts that link out to other sites
From Joe Fabisevich on macaw.social:
For the last two years I’ve been working on Plinky, sharing my work publicly while the app has been in beta.
Today it’s finally ready to go live in the App Store, and I’d like to not only share the app with you but share more about why I built it.
What is Plinky?
From Stu Maschwitz on his site Prolost:
Apple unveiled their new line of iPads yesterday in a pre-recorded video titled “Let Loose.” As with the previous “Scary Fast” MacBook Pro launch video, “Let Loose” ends with a tag proclaiming “Shot on iPhone” — this time adding “Edited on Mac and iPad,” and the fine print: “All presenters, locations, and aerial footage shot on iPhone.”
During the live stream I actively wondered if the iPhone acquisition of “Scary Fast” had been a one-time thing. “Let Loose” looks great, as all Apple videos do, but some shots featured a shallower depth-of-field than is possible with an iPhone-sized lens and sensor combo. At the end of the event, I wondered publicly on Threads about this.
Great details from Stu as usual, and an awesome look at how to soup up your iPhone with extra gear.
From Mike Stern on Mastodon, sharing updated Apple Design resources:
What’s almost as exciting as our new iPad Pros and iPad Airs? Why, of course, new iPad Pro and iPad Air product bezels for your designs available as PSDs, PNGs and in the @Sketch product bezel library in all colors!
Somewhere in the world (Italy) Viticci’s ears perked up.
From Levi Allen on Threads:
Best phone addiction change I’ve made lately is creating a shortcut to my watch later YouTube playlist (instead of having YouTube app on home screen)
YouTube long form is consistently my favorite platform to consume on. I constantly run into new ideas. I save almost 10videos a day to my watch later playlist. Feels refreshing after watching for 30-60mins. Doesn’t make me feel like a dopamine addicted wacko.
I’ve been using this method since way back in 2019 – except I keep it in my Shortcuts widget.
Get my Watch Later shortcut, check out my folder of shortcuts for the YouTube app in my Shortcuts Library, and view Levis’ post on Threads or below.
Post by @leviallenView on Threads
From Jordan Morgan on mastodon.social:
My update for Elite Hoops with an emphasis on iOS features is out now! I’d love it if you checked it out, even if you aren’t a coach or the target market.
The widgets, especially, turned out fun. And you may dig some of the animations and stuff from the “What’s New” screens.
Elite Hoops is such a cool app, I wish I could use it coach a rag-tag team of up-and-coming basketball players at my local community center to victory at the Big Game – but for real, check it out.
Get Elite Hoops on the App Store, read the blog post, and view the original post.
Miká Kruschel on mastodon.social:
Inspired by @rafa’s https://docktor.site, I created Squircle – a free Mac app that adds the correct corner radius, padding, and shadow to square app icons following Apple’s design guidelines. Just drop the square icon in and out you get a single png or an appiconset for Xcode.
Take a regular icon, drop it into this app to get the right style, and then use Get Info on an Application and drop the PNG into the icon on the top left – once you launch it again on your Mac, the icon will update.
Get Squircle for free on the Mac App Store, and view the launch post from Mikà.
On Friday, May 3, on the Automators podcast, I had the pleasure of joining host David Sparks for an excellent discussion:
Shortcuts guru Matthew Cassinelli joins to discuss the state of shortcuts and some of his favorite automations.
Check out Automators in Apple Podcasts or listen to the episode below:
On Friday, April 12, on the The MacRumors Show podcast, I had the pleasure of joining hosts Dan Barbera and Hartley Charlton to talk about Shortcuts and what could happen with App Intents at WWDC:
Matthew Cassinelli, one of the minds behind Workflow, joins us on this week’s episode of The MacRumors Show to talk Apple Shortcuts and potential improvements and AI features coming to the app in iOS 18. Workflow was a unique iOS app that allowed users to create macros for executing specific sequential tasks on their device. In 2017, Apple acquired Workflow and, the following year, it was rebranded as “Shortcuts.” Shortcuts have since become a key part of Apple’s ecosystem and can be used for a huge range of powerful, automated actions. Matthew was present at Workflow throughout its transition to Apple and now offers his own library of complex Shortcuts, which you can access over on his website.
Last year, a report from The Information claimed that iOS 18 will introduce some major AI features to Siri and the Shortcuts app. Apple apparently wants Siri to be able to help users automate complex, multi-step tasks with voice-based commands and have much deeper integration with Shortcuts, such as by potentially helping users build them. We break down Apple Shortcuts for beginners and look at some of the many use-cases for the app, as well as consider where it could go next with AI.
Check out The MacRumors Show in Apple Podcasts or listen to the episode below:
From 9to5Mac:
With the help of the Apple Support website, users can find a lot of information about the Apple devices they own. This includes things like technical specifications, guides, and support articles. However, all this information used to be spread across multiple pages – but Apple is changing that with a new “Documentation” page.
I’ve updated my folder of Apple Support shortcuts to include a new “Show Apple Support documentation” shortcut.
From Stephen Robles on YouTube:
Learn how to build 15 iPhone Shortcuts, inspired by YOU. Automatically play music when an alarm is snoozed, schedule a text to auto-send, make your screenshots look pro, and more.
Stephen continues his Shortcuts series on YouTube by building shortcuts off listener requests – a great watch as always.
Today, alongside the announcement for WWDC’24, Apple revealed their Apple Developer channel on YouTube where they’re now publicly hosting developer videos, starting with everything released from WWDC’23.
Previously, videos were only available Apple’s own website or Developer apps, limiting the potential reach to folks who’d already heard of it – now YouTube users can freely discover and watch Apple developer videos to learn about building for their platforms.
As of writing, there are 40 videos uploaded – so it’s not the complete set from WWDC’23 (yet?) and as such I unfortunately can’t find any Shortcuts-related videos. Once more are uploaded, and folks tune in after WWDC’24, it’ll be super interesting to see view counts and comments on these videos – we’ll be able to see what’s more popular/interesting to folks, as well as check on common questions in the comments.
Plus, for the intrepid Shortcuts user, all of YouTube’s RSS or URL functionality is now available for Apple Developer videos – I’ll be able to scrape the title, thumbnail, and descriptions to make quick embeds on my website, for example 🤓.
From Tom Robertson at Coeffiencies:
Living in a house, or even an apartment or condo, as an adult, requires periodic maintenance tasks, like cleaning the bathroom, changing your sheets, replacing the furnace filter, etc. A lot of these tasks should ideally be done on a regular schedule, like changing your sheets every two weeks, or your furnace filter every 3 months for example.
I’m sure a lot of people just kind of mentally keep track of this kind of stuff, but I’ve never really trusted my own memory on it. And I don’t like the idea of a room being dirty serving as my reminder to clean it. I’d ideally like to clean it before it gets too dirty.
So to keep up-to-date on my household tasks, I need a way to help me with of the following:
- How many days has it been since I did that task?
- A reminder to do that task if it’s past the time it needs to be done.
Tom basically made the perfect solution I’ve been looking for using Reminders, Chronicling, and two custom shortcuts – well done.
From the Accidental Tech Podcast:
In this special members-only VIDEO episode, John finally reveals his window-management techniques.
This episode is a perfect, ahem, follow-up to my livestream with Rafael Conde talking Mac window management.
Watch the full video on ATP.fm.
Note: This episode is exclusive to ATP members, but worth joining to enjoy.
From Stephen Robles on YouTube:
Dive into the latest iOS 17.4 update with NEW Shortcuts actions for iPhone. Learn how to leverage new orientation and physical activity actions for enhanced device control and automation.
⭐️ Get the Shortcuts
From Michael Potuck at 9to5Mac:
Always-on display Shortcuts
You can also set up control of the always-on display in the Shortcuts app – which offers Siri support:
- Open the Shortcuts app
- Tap the + in the top right corner
- Choose Add Action
- Use the search bar to find “Set Always On Display”
- Tap the blue Turn or On buttons to customize what will happen when you run the Shortcut
- Tap Done in the top right corner to add your new Shortcut
The article mentions using Focus modes to change the setting as well – you can also use Automations in Shortcuts combined with the action mentioned above.
From the iA blog:
We’re upgrading iA Writer’s integration with Apple Shortcuts today. With 18 built-in actions and 22 ready-made shortcuts, iA Writer 7.1 makes it easy to automate common tasks.
Check out their Shortcuts Gallery with these categories:
Read the full post (where you can check out their promo video as well).
From 9to5Mac:
Apple TV+ has launched a limited time collection of movies to stream for free as part of your Apple TV+ subscription. The company has done this occasionally in the past to coincide with the themed release of new originals, but this is by far the biggest drop.
and:
The move is perhaps a sign that Apple continues to experiment and ponder whether it should expand beyond its ‘all originals’ strategy for its streaming service.
Here’s the full list in the new “Great Movies on Apple TV+” collection:
I’d love to this into a shortcut for my TV app folder, but the URL currently doesn’t redirect on iOS or iPadOS – I’ve filed it as Feedback to Apple as FB13668679.
From the Upgrade Podcast on YouTube:
Jason and Myke explore the rumors of AI enhancements to Siri and Spotlight in the upcoming release of iOS 18.
Watch the full episode: https://youtu.be/qROj1S0DAEY
Subscribe to the podcast and support the show at https://relay.fm/upgrade
Great perspectives on AI, Siri, and the potential of the Spotlight brand – something I’ve been pondering as well the last few weeks.
Also, I really love that Jason and Myke are clipping out topics into full videos on YouTube now – I noticed it was much easier to link to this idea than a full episode, given that it already has a custom title, thumbnail, description, and start/stopping point.
On Friday, February 23, on the Automators podcast, hosts David Sparks and Rosemary Orchard talked about:
David’s strapped on his Vision Pro and the Automators take a look to see what can (and can not) be automated on Apple’s new platform.
Great episode – good summary of what’s possible with Shortcuts in visionOS 1.0.
Check out Automators in Apple Podcasts or listen to the episode below:
From Jonathan Reed on MacStories:
There are quite a few new Shortcuts actions, so I’m going to list them all first before going into detail on several of them and how they could be used within the app:
- Create scheduled posts
- Get, reschedule, or delete scheduled posts
- Send posts with media or poll attachments
- Send replies to a specified post
- Get the character limit of certain accounts
- Split text for threading
- Get, add, modify, or delete server-side filters linked to your Mastodon accounts
- Get the post or profile currently displayed in the Mona app
- Open the in-app post composer or search view
- Adjust settings for video autoplay
- Get and set image caption (e.g., combining with a third-party caption-generating action)
- Get accessibility text of accounts or posts
- Take a screenshot of a Mastodon post
Great set of options for Shortcuts users – I’ll definitely be testing Mona for scheduling posts.