Category: Links

Quick thoughts that link out to other sites

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Guest appearances Offsite Podcasts Siri Shortcuts

Guest spot on the iMore show #674: Shortcuts!

The day after iOS 13 launched, I was a guest on the iMore show to talk all about the updates to Siri Shortcuts (and a bit about the new iPhone):

Shortcuts expert Matthew Cassinelli is here with a wealth of information for making life better with iOS 13! He guides Lory Gil and Georgia Dow through the basics of shortcut creation and shares some of his own creations from matthewcassinelli.com.

I had a really great time talking to Lory Gil and Georgia Dow – Lory is the editor at iMore and corrects the mistakes in my freelance articles, and Georgia does a wonderful job as Senior Editor there too.

We also recorded this as a livestream, so here’s the video if you want to follow along – I even turned on my main camera with a top-down shot for part of it:

Continue reading “Guest spot on the iMore show #674: Shortcuts!”
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Links Offsite Podcasts

Announcing Smart Tech Today, my new podcast

Today, I’m happy to announce a new podcast I’m hosting with Mikah Sargent on the TWiT network – it’s called Smart Tech Today and you should subscribe to episode 0 now!

A couple of weeks ago, Mikah reached out to me and asked if I’d like to host a podcast with him about smart technology on the “This Week in Tech” podcast network, commonly known as TWiT.

We’d be covering all aspects of the “Internet of Things”, automation as it stands in 2019 and beyond, and how to think about using & integrating smart tech into your daily life – naturally, I said yes.

Airing each Monday evening (with a livestream at 4pm if you want to tune in), we want the show to be informative, practical, and fun.

Mikah does incredible work, previously for iMore where I met him through my freelance work, but also for the Clockwise podcast on Relay FM and now also full-time for TWiT.

I am super glad to be cohosting with Mikah, because I think:

  • We’re both well-suited to finding the right news for you
  • We can contextualize it all in a way that’s practical but still critical, and skeptical but not cynical
  • We’ll provide a considered look at what it really means to integrate these products into modern life

I’m also looking forward to staying on top of smart tech outside the Apple ecosystem, because we’ll be talking about all types of brands and products on Smart Tech Today.

There will surely be plenty of Siri Shortcuts talk, but I’ll be experimenting and learning about all of it, and intend to cover everything with the same intentionality I do in all my work.

We’re airing our first episode next Monday, October 7th, but please subscribe to the trailer episode now.

Any new listeners and episode ratings are weighted heavily by Apple Podcasts, so a great launch helps propel the show forward – we appreciate the support!

Here are the links for the podcast:

Looking forward to next Monday! Hope you’ll be listening too 🙂

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Links Offsite Siri Shortcuts Video

Covering the Siri Shortcuts update for iOS 13 live on YouTube

On Thursday, a few hours after the release of my Shortcuts Library, I covered the entire iOS 13 update for Siri Shortcuts in a YouTube livestream.

After a bug in the macOS Catalina beta last week prevented Final Cut Pro from staying open at all, the work on my in-progress video was frozen1. I couldn’t re-do it in time while I was also publishing over 150 shortcuts for people to use.

So I did it live:

Continue reading “Covering the Siri Shortcuts update for iOS 13 live on YouTube”
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Links Siri Shortcuts

The Siri Shortcuts Field Guide, iOS 13 Edition (from MacSparky)

David Sparks has completely redone his Siri Shortcuts Field Guide1 for iOS 13:

The new Shortcuts Field guide was shot entirely new with the new Shortcuts for iOS 13. Apple changed a lot and it is all covered in this field guide:

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Links

watchOS 6: the BirchTree review | Matt Birchler

Matt Birchler on the Apple Watch’s latest operating system update:

watchOS continues to grow up, and each year it gets objectively better than the year previous. The team behind this product have done a fantastic job of maintaining its simplicity all while adding on genuinely useful features that don’t always feel like much at the time, but have added up to an improved platform in almost every way.

Matt does these reviews every year, and this one summarizes the changes nicely. Also, I’m totally using the list of available workouts as a reference for future Shortcuts posts.

Read the full review on BirchTree.

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Apps Links Tips & Tricks

Audible update lets you use credits to buy books in iOS app

In the latest app update on iOS, Audible now lets users actually buy audiobooks inside the app using existing credits.

According to a tweet from Chris Fralic of First Round (originally sourced by Joshua Topolosky of The Outline), the “Add to Library” button in Audible will show the message “You can now use credits without leaving the app!”:

Continue reading “Audible update lets you use credits to buy books in iOS app”
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Links Siri Shortcuts

13 Features of iOS 13: Shortcuts (Six Colors)

Jason Snell, giving an overview of Shortcuts in iOS 13 for Six Colors:

Shortcuts just got a lot more useful if you use Siri, too. You can now create interactive Shortcuts that can ask questions and accept text input, especially useful if you’re not able to look at a screen because you’re using AirPods or CarPlay. And the redesigned Share Sheet in iOS 13 means that you can prominently place specific individual Shortcuts in the Share sheet, making it easy to access them with a single tap.

Jason and Dan are covering iOS 13 feature-by-feature – this piece is a nice summary of what you can expect from Siri Shortcuts in iOS 13.

Check out the full article on Six Colors (they’re celebrating their 5-year anniversary today!).

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Links Offsite Podcasts

See You Later, Nerds

New episode of Supercomputer out:

Alex and Matthew talk about the close of the beta season – and the close of the show.

Today unfortunately marks the end of Supercomputer.

It’s been a privilege to start my first podcast with someone as wonderful as Alex Cox, and I will cherish the opportunity to share with others and learn about myself in the process.

I’m happy to have made 40 episodes of this podcast and it’s been a significant experience in my life.

Thank you for listening.

Continue reading “See You Later, Nerds”
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Links Offsite Podcasts

Android Just Smells Like Home (feat. Julia Skott)

New episode of Supercomputer out:

Matthew hosts special guest Julia Skott – quite literally in his home. Julia’s all about Android, but uses an iPad and Mac, so the two have a lot to talk about. Plus Julia is just amazing.

Continue reading “Android Just Smells Like Home (feat. Julia Skott)”
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Links Offsite Siri Shortcuts Tips & Tricks

iPad keyboard shortcuts for the Shortcuts app

Screenshot of the Shortcuts app showing the two keyboard shortcuts from the My Shortcuts view – Command F for Find and Command N for new.

From my piece iPad keyboard shortcuts for the Shortcuts app on iMore:

While the Shortcuts app is primarily a touch-based system—where are you drag and drop actions around to create your scripts—there are a few keyboard shortcuts for iPad users that can speed up the experience of creating and managing their Siri Shortcuts.

Whether you’re opening the Gallery to view suggested shortcuts, searching for a shortcut in your list, or quickly controlling parts of the shortcuts editor, these simple keyboard shortcuts are worth learning.

Continue reading “iPad keyboard shortcuts for the Shortcuts app”
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Links Offsite Siri Shortcuts Video

Shortcuts in 3 minutes: How to make GIFs

Last fall, I made a simple video for YouTube but never posted it here on my website – it’s a quick tutorial on making GIFs using Shortcuts, where I start from scratch and finish with a usable shortcut:

Continue reading “Shortcuts in 3 minutes: How to make GIFs”
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Guest appearances Links Podcasts

iPad Pros #58: Shortcuts 3 (with Matthew Cassinelli)

Tim Chaten was kind enough to have me back on his podcast iPad Pros:

Matthew Cassinelli and I deep dive into the next version of Shortcuts that is built into iOS 13. Listen back to episodes 41 and 42 for the deep dive into Shortcuts 2. This episode will focus on the changes and additions made to Shortcuts 3.

I always appreciate talking to Tim – he gives a fantastic outline ahead of time, which maps very well to what people are interested in learning about Siri Shortcuts.

As such, this is a straightforward explanation of everything that’s coming in iOS 13. Listen to the episode.

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Links Offsite Podcasts

Interview with Greg Pierce, creator of x-callback-url and Drafts

New episode of Supercomputer out:

While Alex was away, Matthew interviewed developer Greg Pierce, creator of Drafts and the x-callback-url spec that kicked off deeper interest in iOS automation.

I think this may be my first podcast interview?

Greg Pierce was kind enough to come on our show and talk with me about the history of x-callback-url, his plans for integrating Siri Shortcuts into his app Drafts, and what he’s looking to do in the future.

I gushed a bit about how I love Drafts – be sure to check out the show notes for some links related to the app.

Listen to the show:

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Guest appearances Links Podcasts

No Name Photo Show: #57 – Taking Shortcuts with Photography

My friend Brian Matiash was kind enough to have me on his photography podcast to talk Siri Shortcuts:

When the topic of mobile photography is discussed, it’s almost always with reference to the cameras and sensors built into our phones. However, there is another side of this topic that is as interesting and can be quite impactful for photographers.

Brian is a great guy and I love talking Shortcuts with him because he gets just as excited, if not more so, than me. Especially when it comes to on-the-go photography and the capabilities of iPad, it’s never been a better time to build up a mobile photo workflow.

Listen to the episode and add his show for some good photography talk. Plus, check out his own photography too.

 

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Links Siri Shortcuts

File a radar

New shortcut File a radar for iOS 13 beta users:

Guides you through the process of filing Feedback to Apple (previously called Radar).

This explains the process in a pop-up, has you type up the problem through a series of prompts before even starting a new ticket, then guides you again on how to easily fill out the form, before finally opening into Feedback.

Continue reading “File a radar”
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Links Siri Shortcuts

Copy Checklist From Taskpaper

New shortcut Copy Checklist from Taskpaper for iOS 13 beta users:

Takes any TaskPaper-formatted text coming from the share sheet or clipboard and strips out the extra details, getting just the names of the checklist items in a rich text unordered list.

Continue reading “Copy Checklist From Taskpaper”
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Apps Links Tips & Tricks

“Make your Mac dance” with MacSparky’s Keyboard Maestro Field Guide

Yesterday, David Sparks released the Keyboard Maestro Field Guide, the seventh paid course offered through his Learn MacSparky site1. This 4-hour block of videos covers 76 different screencasts about Keyboard Maestro, the Mac automation application that provides significantly deep capabilities and makes them available to use across your Apple desktop or laptop.

As usual, David’s course is well-paced, insightful, and makes it easy to learn complex topics like Keyboard Maestro’s slightly esoteric design language.

Continue reading ““Make your Mac dance” with MacSparky’s Keyboard Maestro Field Guide”
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Links Siri Shortcuts

Matt Galligan’s Shared Shortcuts on Notion

Last week, I came across a useful shortcut for calling into meetings, tweeted out by Matt Galligan, former founder of Circa and now CEO of Interchange1:

The shortcut grabs your next calendar event, extracts the phone number, and dials it for you – with a trigger phrase set up, you can just say “Dial In” to Siri and it’ll just work.

Matt also has a neat way for sharing this and his other shortcuts: using Notion.

Continue reading “Matt Galligan’s Shared Shortcuts on Notion”
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Links Siri Shortcuts

A Pair of Shortcuts to Log Podcast Episodes in Airtable and Play One at Random in Overcast

Julia M. on her blog Rampant Procrastination:

1. Open the information tab in Overcast of a podcast you wish to log to Airtable.

2.Select the text of the information tab from the podcast title down, grabbing as much of the episode description as you would like to be included in the notes field in Airtable. Press copy to put this text on the clipboard.

3. This shortcut is used as a sharesheet extension, so press the share button and select Shortcuts, then run the shortcut to log the podcast.”

This post is a great write-up from Julia explaining a way she’s saving podcast episodes to Airtable, plus pulling from that database to play one again at random.

She has little technique for grabbing information from Overcast on the clipboard before sharing the episode, and wrote up how she’s extracting the information from once it’s in the shortcut before sending it through Airtable’s API.

Definitely subscribe to her new blog and give her a follow.

If you have a blog post about Shortcuts, always feel free to tweet me the link. I post some of them here and in my newsletter too.

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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.