Category: Newsletter

Welcome to Issue 89 of “What’s New in Shortcuts” — this week we saw the final beta release of iOS 16.2, which means the imminent public release (likely this Tuesday).

After the release is out, I’ve got plans to stream while playing around with the updates to the battery and wallpaper actions, plus any other changes we can find.

Speaking of streams, I had a fun time last week previewing the amazing Things actions coming soon and built a whole set for folks testing the beta — all the details below.

Plus, the ChatGPT shortcuts are getting even better, there’s a few good shortcuts ideas I’ve saved for future streams, and I’ve linked to five apps you should check out — enjoy:

Welcome to Issue 88 of “What’s New in Shortcuts” — this is a special double issue after I took a short break the week of Thanksgiving in the U.S!

This Black Friday and Cyber Monday were full of discounts as usual, and I did the typical scoff at all the things I surely didn’t need… before promptly spending a bunch of money. I upgraded my WiFi setup for better stability while streaming, got a second 4K monitor, and managed to talk myself into buying an entire second camera setup — I’m excited to put this all to good use.

Since the break, I’ve been hard at work on my livestream process, building out the next release of the Shortcuts Library, and put time into the behind-the-scenes setup work that’s necessary to make my upcoming YouTube videos.

I’ve also built out hundreds of new shortcuts for the Mac, livestreaming, Apple TV, recipes, meal planning, groceries, online shopping, deliveries, and affiliate linking — those are all still in-progress, so stay tuned there.

On the stream coming soon, I’ve got plans for working on Things, Pixelmator, and StreamDeck — plus anything else that might come up.

Until then, this issue is full of goodies — there’s nine new Shortcuts stories, a slew of ChatGPT automations, great ideas and shortcuts to download, plus app updates you don’t want to miss:

Welcome to Issue 87 of “What’s New in Shortcuts” — it’s Thanksgiving week here in the U.S. and that means downtime, Black Friday sales, and and the beginning of the extended holiday season.

In the current beta cycle, we’re at iOS 16.2 beta 3, which means a new “Get Battery Status” action is available for testers.

On the Shortcuts Catalog, I spent over 15 hours streaming around my shortcuts upload process, scraping information from .shortcut files, and working on the YouTube streaming process.

I’m basically solving my own problems live on-camera and stacking my progress to gain better momentum while developing in Shortcuts. Plus, I’m honing my streaming skills for future sessions — which will be a lot more approachable than these very complex discussions.

Otherwise, this week we have another great set of app updates, clever Shortcuts ideas, and more feedback from the community:

Welcome to Issue 86 of “What’s New in Shortcuts” — I can’t believe I’m already back up to this many issues after switching to Revue (and soon to another service), so thank you for reading along. ?

This week, we got Apple Frames 3.0 from team MacStories, there’s an intriguing set of apps who’ve upgraded their Shortcuts support, I found some helpful shortcuts for ADHD & autistic folks, and we’re seeing more & more good ideas around Color Filters.

Plus, I’ve started to release my Apple Watch updates — enjoy:

Welcome to Issue 85 of “What’s New in Shortcuts” — it’s been quite a week in the wake of new leadership at Twitter, but thankfully the Shortcuts community kept up their efforts in sharing good ideas.

Before we get to that all though, I saw in the news that Twitter will be shutting down Revue (the service I use to send these newsletters) by the end of the year.

Right now, I’m not sure what tool I’ll use to replace it — but I will import my subscriber list over so there shouldn’t be a change there, and I will let you all know of any news before I switch over.

However, I will have to rethink how I deliver the material, as Revue uniquely allows me to embed links and tweets easily/natively into the email — something other services don’t provide, especially for free. As such, this change means I may have to reconsider what I can feasibly offer.

I don’t have anything to share now, but I wanted to be transparent ahead of the change — plus, if you have any thoughts on what I should do, feel free to respond to this email and let me know:

Welcome to Issue 84 of “What’s New in Shortcuts” — I’m back after some time off for my 33rd birthday!

In the last two weeks, we saw the launch of this year’s iPadOS and macOS Ventura releases, Live Activities coming to iPhone 14 Pro in iOS 16.1, the M2 iPad Pro and 10th generation iPads shipping, and the next iOS beta dropping — lots has gone down.

I also have some exciting news: I have an Apple Watch Ultra review unit from Apple!

I’ll be working on my initial impressions after unboxing it, plus focusing on Apple Watch shortcuts/apps/tips (amongst others) in the coming weeks — fun times!

Until then, here’s what’s new in Shortcuts:

Welcome to Issue 83 of “What’s New in Shortcuts” — this week has Apple announcement energy in the air, but no news as of yet.

iOS 16.1 is just over the horizon and with it iPadOS & macOS — I’ve written that line too many times, but it’s creeping up now.

Aside from some continued sync issues that I ended up ranting about, the community puttered along quietly in anticipation of what’s hopefully a more-stable period for Shortcuts ahead.

Until then, here’s what’s new in Shortcuts since the last issue:

Welcome to Issue 82 of “What’s New in Shortcuts” — this week we saw some critical bug fixes in the iOS 16.1 betas, a lot of ideas from the Twitter community, and great resources popping up elsewhere online.

Especially with Shortcuts reaching a more stable footing than in the past few months, I got the sense that I was finally actually experiencing the full iOS 16 release in a regular week.

I’ve still only really used Stage Manager on iPad a handful of times, I finally gave in and set up “Open Folder” shortcuts for all of my folders—a strategy that 100% only makes sense for me alone—and truly tapping into App Shortcuts is taking time after bugs in the betas preventing all of them from showing up.

I’m excited for the iPad and Mac releases to drop in a few weeks and be able to really settle into this full release — it’s definitely making my daily work more productive.

Until then, here’s what’s new since last time:

Welcome to Issue 81 of “What’s New in Shortcuts” — fall is here, iOS 16 has been out for a few weeks now, and all of Apple’s new products have been in folks’ hands for a bit.

Now that we’re into October, we’re expecting iPadOS 16, macOS Ventura, and possibly another hardware announcement — potentially via press release only — and all Apple platforms will thankfully be back in sync.

Hopefully by then, Shortcuts will reach a bit more stable ground than in the latest betas, which has had ongoing bugs from the last few rounds — make sure to keep filing Feedback if you run into anything!

This week, I’m digging into the iPhone and the AirPods more, waiting on an Apple Watch Ultra, and settling into my new schedule now that this newsletter goes out Mondays.

Plus, in light of reduced columns at iMore, I’ve been massively reworking my member releases so I can publish much more often — thanks as always for your support.

Until next time, here’s what’s new this week:

Welcome to Issue 80 of “What’s New in Shortcuts” — this last week, we saw the Apple Watch Ultra & AirPods Pro 2 ship, and with those the extension of the hype cycle around the Apple event.

I’ve got my hands on the new AirPods—and used the excellent new volume controls while writing this newsletter multiple times—but I’ve not gotten the Apple Watch Ultra just yet…

However, I did get a chance to take the ferry over the Bay into San Francisco with a small group and test out the new iPhone camera for a photowalk on Sunday. As a follow-up, I’m also streaming this evening to edit up some of the shots we took. I will definitely be hosting another in-person event sometime in the future — we had a lot of fun!

Also, a bit of housekeeping: this newsletter will be going out Mondays now — that way, I can cover the entire Monday-Sunday week prior, plus do more fun experiments (and take proper breaks) over the weekend.

Here’s what’s new in the last week: