Hello members (and future members)! I am excited to announce a new Partner addition to my Membership – Auralog!
Built from developer Adrian Eves, Auralog for iPhone lets you track migraines, log triggers, and see what conditions put you at risk for another migraine – plus, I helped Adrian with his Shortcuts integration. Here’s how it’s described on the App Store:
The effortless way to beat migraines. Zero effort logging. Maximum insight. Each migraine you track keeps the next one at bay. The smartest migraine app ever built.
Auralog helps you take control of your migraine and headache history without extra hassle – even in the middle of an attack.
Adrian is offering 50% off the annual subscription of $19.99/year, saving you $9.99 while giving you Auralog for a full year. My thanks to Adrian for participating – please test the Shortcuts support and send us feedback!
Hello members (and future members)! I am excited to announce a new Partner addition to my Membership – One Sec!
Built from developer Frederik Riedel, One Sec for iPhone & iPad(as well as Android and Web) lets you delay opening apps with a Screen Time blocker to help reduce your bad habits – using Shortcuts’ Open App automation. Here’s how it’s described on the App Store:
Willpower is not enough against social media algorithms!
That’s why I made one sec:
one sec adds friction to distracting apps to make them less appealing…long-term!
This principle works really well: we have gained scientific evidence in numerous research studies with the Max-Planck Institute, with the German and Danish government, and in dozens more scientific collaborations.
One Sec is offering three months free off with a monthly subscription, saving you $11.99 while giving you One Sec to try out for three months – here’s the summary:
Cut your screen time in half: one sec is the screen time app that truly works – scientifically. It helps you interrupt or block social media, apps, and websites using Shortcuts Automations.
My thanks to Frederik for participating – hope One Sec helps you with your Screen Time habits!
Hello members (and future members)! I am excited to announce a new Partner addition to my Membership – Cuevello !
Built from developer Matthias Hühne, Cuevello for iPhone & iPad(and its Mac server) lets you remotely use your Mac apps on iPhone, iPad, or another Mac. Here’s how it’s described on the website:
Stream a monitor, app window, or selected Mac app to iOS with high-resolution video and optional Mac or app audio, then view, zoom, type, click, scroll, and run workflows when the Mac itself is somewhere else.
Cuevello is offering 50% off its one-time Pro Unlock: $4.49 instead of $8.99. The offer is available for six months, and the purchase has no renewal or recurring subscription – here’s the summary:
Cuevello integrates with Apple Shortcuts through App Intents. Saved Cuevello workflows appear as actions in the Shortcuts app and can run compatible Mac automations in the background. Workflows can combine menu commands, app actions, keyboard input, URLs, clipboard or prepared text, screenshots, and waits. Cuevello can also remotely launch existing macOS Shortcuts, allowing users to incorporate scripts, backups, Focus setups, and other Apple automations. Interactive steps may open Cuevello when user input or screen access is required.
My thanks to Matthias for participating – let me know how you’re using Cuevello!
Hello members (and future members)! I am excited to announce a new Partner addition to my Membership – MindNode!
Built from developer Markus Müller-Simhofer, MindNode for iPhone, iPad, Mac, & Apple Watchlets you visualize your thoughts as you brainstorm in a mind mapping environment – and contains a set of Shortcuts actions that I actually helped the team with in my client work. Here’s how it’s described on the App Store:
Your brain doesn’t think in straight lines. MindNode doesn’t force it to. Capture scattered thoughts, connect them in a mind map, and turn them into a clear outline, plan, or project structure.
MindNode is offering 3 months free off the annual subscription of $24.99/year, saving you ~$6.25 while giving you MindNode Premium for a full year – here’s the summary:
MindNode’s Shortcuts integration lets you capture ideas, create documents, and automate repetitive actions across your Apple devices. Build MindNode into your everyday workflows and turn quick thoughts into structured mind maps without interrupting your flow.
My thanks to Marcus & team for participating – I’ve used MindNode for years and years, and I was super thrilled to help with their Shortcuts support as well. I hope you enjoy it!
Start with a simple list, then grow into custom Kanban workflows, powerful automation, and effortless collaboration across your Apple devices.
Tasks is a flexible task manager built for Apple devices. Start with a simple to-do list, then add structure only when you ed it-with projects, subtasks, tags, priorities, custom statuses, Kanban boards, collaboration, and powerful automations.
Your work is rarely just “to do” or “done.” A task might be in progress, waiting, under review, or following a workflow unique to your team. Tasks lets you shape every project around the way you actually work, without overwhelming you upfront.
Tasks is offering 50% off the lifetime purchase of $99.99, saving you $49.99 while giving you Tasks forever – here’s the summary:
Unlock every premium feature in Tasks forever with a single purchase. No subscriptions, no recurring fees – just one payment and you’re set for life. (Includes Family Sharing!)
My special thanks to Mustafa for participating and being so generous with his offer – now go get your Tasks done!
Hello members (and future members)! I am excited to announce a new Partner addition to my Membership – Progress!
Built from developer Stephen Hayes, Progresslets you track any goal with a great visualization. Here’s how it’s described on his website:
Progress is an app for iOS & macOS designed to help keep track of progress towards goals. Perfect for tracking almost anything – distance, money, time, weight, and more! Stay on target with history charts showing your recent trends!
Progress is offering 50% off the annual subscription of $7.99/year, saving you $3.99 while giving you Progress for a full year – here’s the summary:
Track any goal effortlessly across iPhone, iPad, and Mac with Progress. Powerful Siri Shortcuts support lets you log updates instantly or automate your routine, with seamless syncing that keeps your progress up to date everywhere.
My thanks to Stephen for participating – let us know what kinds of goals you are tracking with Progress!
Hello members (and future members)! I am excited to announce a new Partner addition to my Membership – Paku!
Built from developer Kyle Bashour, Paku for iPhone is a fantastic air quality monitor and AQI map with a wonderfully elegant design. Here’s how it’s described on the App Store:
Wildfire smoke season is here. See what’s actually in your air, block by block, and get an alert the moment the sensor down the street crosses your threshold.
See the air you’re actually breathing.
Most apps give you one AQI number for your whole city. Paku shows you live readings from thousands of PurpleAir sensors, including the one down the street, so you know when it’s safe to open the windows, go for a run, or send the kids outside.
Paku is offering 50% off the annual subscription of $13.99/year, saving you $6.99 while giving you Paku Pro for a full year – here’s the summary:
Keep a closer eye on air quality this wildfire season with Paku Pro. Set up alerts as AQI changes, monitor with Live Activities, and unlock all of Paku’s widgets.
My thanks to Kyle for participating – make sure to put the Paku widget on your Home Screen!
Hello members (and future members)! I am excited to announce a new Partner addition to my Membership Benefits – Plinky!
Built from developer Joe Fabisevich, Plinky for iPhone, iPad, and Mac lets you track links on all platforms, with a robust set of Shortcuts actions available to use. Here’s how it’s described on the App Store:
Save from any app or browser, then organize with tags, folders, reminders, widgets, and Shortcuts across your iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Plinky is the easiest way to save links from any device, so you can enjoy them later.
Plinky is offering 50% off the annual subscription of $39.99, saving you $19.99 while letting you add Plinky to your workflow for a full year.
My thanks to Joe for participating – I’m looking forward to seeing what you build with Plinky in Shortcuts!
Built from developer Cory Bohon, Together Board for iPhone lets you set up a shared widget with a partner or friend and collaborate on what appears on each others’ Home Screens – plus it works great with Siri & Shortcuts. Here’s how it’s described on their website:
A warm little pin board you share with the people you love. Photos, sticky notes, polls, and countdowns — pinned to one cozy cork board that syncs to everyone’s devices. No accounts, no feeds, no noise.
Together Board is offering 50% off the annual subscription of $9.99, saving you $4.99 while giving you—and your partner, if you have Family Sharing enabled—a full year of Together Board to use.
My thanks to Cory & Together Board for participating – I’d love to see how you’re using it!
I am excited to announce a new addition to my Membership benefits – discounts from select partner apps & services!
My first partners are Together Board, Plinky, and Paku – indie apps built by developers Cory Bohon, Joe Fabisevich, and Kyle Bashour (respectively). These lovely developers are offering 50% off their annual subscriptions, which you can access from any tier of my membership program.
Together Board
Built from developer Cory Bohon, Together Board for iPhone and iPad lets you set up a shared space with a partner or friend and collaborate on what appears on each others’ boards – plus it works great with Siri & Shortcuts. Here’s how it’s described on their website:
A warm little pin board you share with the people you love. Photos, sticky notes, polls, and countdowns — pinned to one cozy cork board that syncs to everyone’s devices. No accounts, no feeds, no noise.
Together Board is offering 50% off the annual subscription of $9.99, saving you $4.99 while giving you a full year of Together Board to use.
Plinky
Built from developer Joe Fabisevich, Plinky for iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch lets you track links on all platforms, with a robust set of Shortcuts actions available to use. Here’s how it’s described on the App Store:
Save from any app or browser, then organize with tags, folders, reminders, widgets, and Shortcuts across your iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Plinky is the easiest way to save links from any device, so you can enjoy them later.
Plinky is offering 50% off the annual subscription of $39.99, saving you $19.99 while letting you add Plinky to your workflow for a full year.
Paku
Built from developer Kyle Bashour, Paku for iPhone is an elegant air quality tracker and AQI map app. Here’s how it’s described on the App Store:
Wildfire smoke season is here. See what’s actually in your air, block by block, and get an alert the moment the sensor down the street crosses your threshold.
See the air you’re actually breathing.
Most apps give you one AQI number for your whole city. Paku shows you live readings from thousands of PurpleAir sensors, including the one down the street, so you know when it’s safe to open the windows, go for a run, or send the kids outside.
Paku is offering 50% off the annual subscription of $13.99/year, saving you $6.99 while giving you Paku Pro for a full year – here’s the summary:
Keep a closer eye on air quality this wildfire season with Paku Pro. Set up alerts as AQI changes, monitor with Live Activities, and unlock all of Paku’s widgets.
Become a member today
Once you’re a member, check out the Discounts page for special App Store links to redeem your subscriptions.
Membership tiers are now $15 for 3 months and $50 for a full year – already the perks are worth two full quarters and almost as much as the entire annual subscription.
We’ll be adding new apps regularly, so bookmark the Discounts page and check back in occasionally to see what’s new.
I am preparing new membership benefits from partner apps & services – from discounts to free passes – and looking for a set of beginning partners for the initial 3-month trial.
Here’s a new addition to the Shortcuts Library to try out if you’re playing around with Claude Code – Activate Claude Code, a simple launcher that automatically fills in the directory and launches Claude in the Terminal.
In my latest addition to the Shortcuts Library, I updated my shortcuts for the TV app with expanded functionality, including many new functions, redesigned menus, and, critically, support for macOS.
I accomplished Mac support using Shell Scripting, a technique which I’m sharing for members:
Opening deep links into Mac apps
In order to open a URL into an existing application, the best method within Shortcuts is using the Run Shell Script action, which allows you to execute command-line utilities using shell scripts, similar to the Terminal.
In order to open any app using a shell script, the following command can be used – here’s an example for the TV app:
open -a TV
In order to open a URL within that app, one only needs to add the URL afterwards, like so:
open -a TV https://tv.apple.com/watch-now
In my shortcuts, I’ve used the Deep Link variable to pass in the appropriate URL for the TV app into the shell script on-demand – only if run from Mac.
This works great with my TV app shortcuts, which utilizes preset versions of the URLs from the tv.apple.com website (as well as web scraping from the Apple TV Marketing Toolbox).
On desktop, these links will activate and open the TV app for Mac – on mobile, they’ll go straight into the TV app for iPhone and iPad.
Add to Dock and Open URLs
I’ve also used this method to open links from web services like Reddit into desktop versions of the app, which I’ve created for a handful of social media apps with the “Add to Dock” feature added to macOS in recent years.
I can also see this technique being useful for native versions of web apps like Notion or Airtable – I’ll have to explore more there soon.
Hey members, here’s my mind map of notes that I took during the keynote for WWDC’24 while attending the WWDC.Community watch party.
Please note that this is not a complete breakdown of what was in the keynote – I wanted to share exactly what I captured, as an example of how I use mind-mapping software like MindNode to ingest and organize information in real-time.
Hey members, here’s my mind map of notes that I took during the keynote for WWDC’24 while attending the WWDC.Community Watch Party.
Please note that this is not a complete breakdown of what was in the keynote – I wanted to share exactly what I captured, as an example of how I use mind-mapping software like MindNode to ingest and organize information in real-time.
Often times I’ll start with these main bullets, bring them into my notes, and eventually write individual stories or build shortcuts for each feature.
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.
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!
Create new podcast episode: Opens Transistor.fm to the new episode page for your pre-selected podcast so you can upload a new file, give it a title and description, and publish.
Edit latest episode: Opens the URL to the edit page for the latest episode of your Transistor podcast.
Covering July 17 through August 31, this second member episode recaps everything I’ve shared this summer – and includes teasers for my in-progress workflows coming to the Catalog soon.
Covering July 17 through August 31, this second member episode recaps everything I’ve shared this summer – and includes teasers for my in-progress workflows coming to the Catalog soon.
To follow the show, sign up to become a member and get your custom URL to add to your podcast player of choice.
Or, listen to the full episode below:
This content is marked as members-only – you’ll need a membership to access it.
The session is focused on how developers can build out a set of actions for their app, but it actually provides a lot of insight into how “Shortcuts authors” (as we are called in the session) can build their shortcuts thoughtfully – here’s the last slide:
I noticed at least 10 individual topics I’d like to cover for members in future posts, but I wanted to share my full mind map ahead of time in case you wanted to watch the session and read along yourself:
