Quick thoughts that link out to other sites
Just created this new shortcut Move from Ulysses to iA Writer:
Gets sheets from a group in Ulysses, asks which one to use, then adds it into iA Writer via their URL scheme. Only accepts text, so you’ll have to move over any images.
Federico Viticci, doing his usual excellent work on MacStories:
For the past several months, I’ve been working on a shortcut designed to be the ultimate assistant for Apple Music.
Called MusicBot, the shortcut encompasses dozens of different features and aims to be an all-in-one assistant that helps you listen to music more quickly, generate intelligent mixes based on your tastes, rediscover music from your library, control playback on AirPlay 2 speakers, and much more.
I poured hundreds of hours of work into MusicBot, which has gained a permanent spot on my Home screen. Best of all, MusicBot is available to everyone for free.
MusicBot is yet another one of Federico’s shortcuts that turns a vast number of functions into a single Siri Shortcut for you to use. Plus, look at that custom icon!
I quite literally have over 50 music-based shortcuts that this will be replacing.
Jon Fingas, writing for Endgaget about Transit for iOS releasing a new version of their Apple Watch app:
The popular public transportation tool is now a native app, of course, but it also gives you considerably more detail than just arrival times, including future arrivals and a map indicating where to go.
I’m glad to see more apps slowly returning to the Apple Watch (or adopting it for the first time). Will be trying this out over the weekend ?.
On episode 8 of Smart Tech Today, Mikah and I talked about:
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:
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 🙂
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:
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:
- Over 6 hours of downloadable video tutorials
- New materials for both beginners and advanced users
- New Downloadable Shortcuts
- So much Automation
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.
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!”:
This is a big deal in the Apple mobile ecosystem. You can buy books right in the app from credits you have (used to have to go to https://t.co/jdw7IGFIAv to buy). Thx for the scooplet @joshuatopolsky and the book rec @schlaf pic.twitter.com/R2rGzfFgvB
— Chris Fralic (@chrisfralic) September 16, 2019
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!).
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.
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.
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.
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:
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.
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:
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.
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.
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.
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.