Apple Inc. is quietly working on artificial intelligence tools that could challenge those of OpenAI Inc., Alphabet Inc.’s Google and others, but the company has yet to devise a clear strategy for releasing the technology to consumers.
The iPhone maker has built its own framework to create large language models — the AI-based systems at the heart of new offerings like ChatGPT and Google’s Bard — according to people with knowledge of the efforts. With that foundation, known as “Ajax,” Apple also has created a chatbot service that some engineers call “Apple GPT.”
I hope Apple takes advantage of Shortcuts and the App Intents framework to make Siri actually do things for you, not just tell you information. If Ajax doesn’t utilize Shortcuts, they’re missing out on the biggest competitive advantage they already have built out.
Great for accessibility and I think will be popular with everyone. Lots of thanks to Apple for listening, and thanks for highlighting @zollotech https://t.co/Ake2MHsNbm
After mentioning that Siri’s “You need to unlock your iPhone first” was a big problem for quadriplegics like himself, Colin Hughes is now celebrating Apple’s update to Siri that lets AirPods act as authentication – when you’re wearing them, Siri requests will work without requiring you to unlock your device.
There’s a new Siri authentication system on AirPods where if your device is unlocked while wearing your AirPods, it will be considered authenticated as long as they are in range (or until you change the output audio device on the system).
So basically when my carer puts my AirPods in my ears, then as long as my iPhone is unlocked when she does so, even if it locks afterwards I can still access my messages, calendar events and more.
With iOS17 you can now set up recurrent AppleCash payments like your kid’s allowance – no more forgetting to pay and being charged a penalty by the kid 😂
Once you select your contact to send or request money, there’s a “Recurring Payment” option that lets you pick a start date, repeating schedule, and memo for the payment.
One example where this is handy is scheduling your monthly portion of rent to a single account before sending to a landlord, as I do with my partner – or as Carolina mentioned, allowance for a kid. Very nice 👌
Today, Apple released the first public beta of iOS 17, iPadOS 17, watchOS 10, and macOS Sonoma – and with it comes a new set of actions for the Shortcuts app, many of which I first discovered from u/iBanks3’s roundup.
On iOS 17, Shortcuts has new actions for Books, Clock, Scan Documents, Fitness, Freeform, Mail, Photos, Phone, Settings, Tips, and the new Print Center app. Plus, there are also hints of new Camera actions teased in WWDC videos (as seen by u/Portatort).
Here’s the full breakdown of all the actions – those marked with an asterisk (*) work on macOS as well:
For today July 11 and tomorrow July 12, folks who buy apps on Apple’s platforms can enjoy discounts on over 100 apps made by independent app developers for Indie Dev Sales, an alternate event put on during Amazon’s Prime Day that’s organized by Signals for HomeKit developer Matt Corey.
I love the idea of Indie Dev Sales because it celebrates the hard-working independent app developers who put time, love, and care into their apps in ways that we often don’t see from apps built by larger corporations.
This event helps raise the profile of indie apps, provides helpful discounts for users, and serves as inspiration for other would-be app developers – a great way to consider spending your money on a day like today.
Here’s the full list of 113 apps (as of writing) – make sure to check out the Indie Dev Sales page to see the app links and categories, prices and discounts, plus links back to the indie developers that you can follow online:
This update includes enhancements to existing actions and reliability improvements to editing and running shortcuts.
Updated Actions
Send Message now supports images and attachments when “Show When Run” is off
Make Rich Text From Markdown now displays a preview instead of an HTML file on macOS
Ask For Input now correctly uses the “Default Date” when asking for dates
Calculate now correctly computes Modulus operations for decimal numbers
Choose From List now supports “Select All Initially” when a dictionary is passed in as input, and works from Siri on watchOS when “Select Multiple” is on
Open URL correctly handles URLs that contain variables, and now works from the Action Button on watchOS
Take Photo runs more reliably when “Show Camera Preview” is off
This update includes new actions, enhancements to existing actions, and reliability improvements to the Shortcuts editor. A new option in the Shortcut editor allows selecting an app icon as an alternative to selecting a color and glyph for the shortcut.
New Actions
Find Books searches your library for books or PDFs matching a given title, author, genre, purchase date, or content type on iOS and macOS
Intercom broadcasts announcements to your home on iOS and watchOS
Set VPN connects, disconnects, or sets the On Demand setting for any VPN on iOS and macOS
Set AirDrop Receiving sets the AirDrop Receiving preference to Everyone, Contacts Only, or Nobody on iOS and macOS
Set Stage Manager enables or disables and changes the settings for Stage Manager on iPadOS and macOS
Set Announce Notifications toggles the Announce Notifications setting on iOS and watchOS
Set Silence Unknown Callers toggles the Silence Unknown Callers setting on iOS
Set Night Shift and Set True Tone toggle the display settings on iOS and macOS
Set Always-On Display toggles the Always-On Display on supported iOS devices
Find Apps finds and filters apps installed on macOS
Find Displays finds and filters displays on macOS
Shut Down, Restart, and Lock Display are now available on iOS and macOS
Log Out, Sleep and Put Display to Sleep are now available on macOS
Updated Actions
For those building custom shortcuts, some actions have been updated:
Move Window now allows moving a window to a display on macOS
Ask for Input has a new “Allow Multiple Lines” option, which can be disabled for single-line text input
Find Photos can now find screen recordings
Find Contacts now filters by birthday more accurately
Get Device Details can now get the OS build number
Get Device Details now rounds numbers, including the current battery level, volume, and brightness, to remove unnecessary decimal digits
Set Playback Destination now works when run from Siri
Play Music once again resumes currently playing music if no music is passed as input
Run AppleScript can now produce dictionaries as output from AppleScript records
Nothing now produces a variable with zero items, instead of producing no variable at all
Along with the first beta release of iOS 16.4, Apple has published a new beta protocol for the App Intents APIs that let developers foreground their process if user interaction is required.
Here’s the description of the protocol from Apple’s website:
The ForegroundContinuableIntent protocol represents intents which begin their work with the app in the background but may request to continue in the foreground.
This protocol will be in beta for the iOS 16.4 developer cycle, so app developers can begin building with this now – everyday users won’t see the effects of this in their apps until iOS 16.4 releases in full after Apple’s testing cycle.
Today, Apple posted the first developer beta for iOS 16.4, iPadOS 16.4, macOS 13.4, and watchOS 9.4 — as is tradition, the Shortcuts community rushed to download the new betas and checked for new actions available in the app.
This update includes the ability to disable a shortcut from being run while the device is locked, enhancements to existing actions, and reliability improvements to editing and running shortcuts.
Updated Actions
For those building custom shortcuts, some actions have been updated:
Find Reminders can now filter reminders due in the next or previous week
Log Workout now supports Ask Each Time for workout duration
Log Health Sample now supports Ask Each Time for values on watchOS
Find Health Samples now supports searching for health types in the editor
Get Contents of URL can now use variables for the file parameter for POST or PUT requests
Configure Focus Filter actions now correctly set the Focus Filter on iPhone when run from watchOS
Show Notes Folder action now correctly appears in the editor
Following the release of iOS 16.2 on Tuesday, Apple published an update in their Support knowledge base detailing new features and issues fixed in Shortcuts in the last few releases since iOS 16, iPadOS 16, watchOS 9, and macOS Ventura launched.
The main headline features for iOS 16.2 are new actions for Books and changes to the Wallpaper actions:
This 9to5Mac article explains “What you can assign to the Action button, secondary actions, third-party apps” with a list of “Native options for the Action button can start/launch”:
Workout
Stopwatch
Waypoint
Backtrack
Dive
Flashlight
Shortcut (from Shortcuts app)
None
However, being able to use “Shortcut (from the Shortcuts app)” really means a lot more than that one line.
Back at WWDC ’22 during the keynote presentation, Apple’s Senior Director of Siri and Language Technologies, Robby Walker, said this line about the Shortcuts app (at ~0:16:30 in):
“There are over 15,000 apps that work with Siri using SiriKit and Siri Shortcuts.”
That means the Action button can be set to any shortcut using any of the:
• 15,000+ apps with Shortcuts support,
• 300+ native actions available for custom shortcuts,
• automatically-generated App Shortcuts from your apps
As I’ll explain in an upcoming post, the Scripting actions in Shortcuts can also be used to make your chosen Action button shortcut fully dynamic. With a bit of setup in Shortcuts, you can program one shortcut to serve multiple purposes depending on the time of day, day of week, Focus mode, or any other condition that can be detected — sign up here for my newsletter to get updated once that post goes live.
I’m super excited to test this out and get my hands on an Apple Watch Ultra — I missed the preorder, however, so I suppose I’ll be outside my local Apple Store this Friday…
Today in Apple’s “Far Out” keynote presentation, the company released their new Apple Watch Ultra with a new dedicated Action button that can be used for physical access to key goals in apps at the appropriate time.
According to Apple engineering manager Michael Gorbach’s post on Twitter, the Action Button is powered by the new App Intents APIs that were released at WWDC and power the upcoming App Shortcuts feature as part of iOS 16 — and Shortcuts users can assigned a dedicated shortcut to the button as well:
The Apple Watch Ultra’s Action Button is powered by some awesome new App Intents APIs. You will be able to build your own apps to integrate with it, like a hockey app that uses the button to record goals! And for users, the button can kick off any Shortcut you want!
At Apple’s worldwide developer conference during their State of the Union address1, Apple launched App Shortcuts and the AppIntents API, features designed for “zero setup” of shortcuts from third-party apps for use with Siri.
If you’re a developer looking to implement Shortcuts support in your app, Apple has now released all four sessions at WWDC ’22 covering what’s new in these Shortcuts APIs — here are the links:
I am incredibly excited to announce the relaunch of my Shortcuts Library in its expanded form, including over 600 custom shortcuts!
What’s new
The Shortcuts Library is updated from last year’s release, in which I consolidated my original larger library into 50+ shortcuts that each covered large areas of what’s possible with Shortcuts.
With the new release, I’m distributing 600 single shortcuts in the main library across 100 folder groups, plus I’ve developed a method to compile each folder into 150 bundle shortcuts made out of all the single shortcuts in that folder.
Today, Apple released updates to their iWork suite of apps that adds actions in Shortcuts for Pages, Numbers, and Keynote on macOS, bringing powerful first-party actions that Mac users can take advantage to automate their work:
The iWork apps for Mac just got support for Shortcuts. Most notably the Numbers app got an action to append a row to a table ??
Across all three iWork apps, there are now actions for “Open” and “Create” – plus Numbers has added “Add Row to Top or Bottom of Table” and Keynote has added “Open in Rehearsal Mode” and “Open in Show Mode.”
The Create actions all also include the templates/themes available in the iWork apps, which makes it quick to generate 40+ samples from Pages, Numbers, and Keynote each for a total of over 120+ templates.
On Wednesday, Apple published an update in the Apple Support knowledge base detailing new features and issues fixed in Shortcuts in the latest iOS and macOS releases.
In the post, Apple lists all of the new features added to the Shortcuts app, from Automation changes, new actions, and lots of smaller details.
The second half also lists the fixes that were made for existing issues – general improvements to the editor, tweaks for broken actions or performance problems, and fixes for scripting both in the app & using Shortcuts’ command-line utility.
Apple is listening
The post itself has significance as well, as it marks Apple providing direct communication for the Shortcuts app about new features and problems.
This free newsletter is designed for anyone interested in learning more about Siri Shortcuts, covering:
* feature updates as they’re discovered,
* interesting ways to use Shortcuts related to topical stories, and
* creative new shortcuts or apps with Shortcuts actions.
In addition, What’s New in Shortcuts acts as a way to subscribe to learn about future updates to my Shortcuts Library, Action Directory, and upcoming additions to the Shortcuts Catalog.
Every year for the past few years, John Gruber of Daring Fireball has interviewed an Apple executive or two on his podcast The Talk Show, just after WWDC and often in a venue right nearby the conference.
This year, as with everything else WWDC, it was done online, with special guests Craig Federighi, Senior Vice President of Engineering at Apple, and Greg Jozwiak, Apple’s Vice President of Product Marketing.
Federighi and “Joz” filmed from Apple Park (in seemingly separate rooms, as one does nowadays) over the web with Gruber for over an hour and a half, which you can watch on YouTube:
