Category: Newsletter

Welcome to Issue 63 of “What’s New in Shortcuts” – and Happy New Year!

I’m back after a few weeks off and I hope everyone else had a chance to rest up as much as possible. I know I had plenty of time to actually _not _think about Shortcuts for a change… but of course spent a few days on it just for fun ?.

I’ve also officially ended the run for Smart Tech Today, the smart home podcast I was part of, and am continuing to gear up my biweekly iMore column on Shortcuts, all in an attempt to align all of my weekly work more with my own business. So now that change and this new Sunday newsletter schedule are opening up more space for pure Shortcuts goodness going forward – I’ll have more to report there soon.

Plus, I’m attempting to identify and report every issue in Shortcuts that I can (and I’d love your help). I’m determined to get long-standing problems and issues like my sync bugs fixed – I don’t want to re-sort my folders ever again (like I did yet another time over the break ?).

That being said, I’m full of fresh ideas for Shortcuts, my next release is almost fully operational, and I’m super inspired by the folks in this week’s newsletter – I have a feeling 2022 will be a great year for Shortcuts, so let’s dig in:

Welcome to Issue 62 of “What’s New in Shortcuts” – this is the last issue of 2021!

This week we’re onto iOS 15.3 beta 1, there’s new apps for the Mac (as is usual now), and I found another handful of good ideas from Twitter that are worth checking out.

I also wrote a new column for iMore, started the Siri Shortcuts community on Twitter, and made a new member shortcut for saving for Mac’s window arrangement.

To wrap things up, I also linked back to every Shortcuts Spotlight from this iOS 15 release cycle – save some of the links to your Reading List for this winter break.

Enjoy the issue – I’ll be back in two weeks on the first Sunday of January to kick off next year!

Welcome to Issue 61 of “What’s New in Shortcuts!”

This week there were tons of great ideas shared on Twitter, I got deep into Apple Watch (and JIRA?), and there’s a batch of new Shortcuts actions from indie apps – but first, some housekeeping.

In case you hadn’t noticed, this 25th issue marks the beginning of my new Sunday delivery schedule.

I wrote about this briefly on Twitter, but ahead of my work schedule changing in the new year and in an attempt to capture the full week of material from Monday-Sunday, I will now be sending this newsletter at the end of every week on Sundays.

(I’ll also be taking the week after next off for Christmas break, so there’ll be no issue on December 26).

In other news, my Shortcuts Catalog release is officially coming, so thank you everyone for your patience in the meantime – I’m ready to get things rolling and help folks take their personal productivity into their own hands in 2022.

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

Welcome to Issue 60 of “What’s New in Shortcuts” – this week we saw a new beta, which means it’s time to file new Feedback to Apple! ?

While things are steadily improving on that front, the community has been leaping forward – today’s issue has some exciting shortcuts from John Vorhees from MacStories, plus there’s two new Mac apps folks should try out.

I also covered some stories from Six Colors that talk about what’s possible with Shortcuts, some ideas from the community, and a set of five folders for Read Later for my members just below – enjoy:

Welcome to Issue 59 of “What’s New in Shortcuts” – it’s Thanksgiving week here in the U.S. and I’m thankful for having a great community of readers like you to share with ?

I really enjoy passing along the fun and joy that I get from building new shortcuts and seeing other share their stories about Shortcuts, so thank you for being here with me along the way.

I’m especially grateful for my members, whose direct support has allowed me to expand into more areas and dedicate ever more time to making the full Shortcuts Catalog – your membership has been a powerful presence in my life, particularly in the face of the last two years. And I’ve been extremely hard at work to expand the program – I can’t wait to share what’s in store ?

Until then, I’ve got a great issue for you – including my guest spot on the AppleInsider podcast, some quick ideas to jot your brain over the weekend, a slew of MacStories links all about Shortcuts, and a deep dive from yours truly on the new Pushcut widget update:

Welcome to Issue 58 of “What’s New in Shortcuts” – this week we’re inching closer to stability in the latest betas and an upcoming iOS release, which should bring the necessary fixes folks have been itching for since iOS 15.0 and 15.1 (and the Mac equivalents).

As those rough edges get smoothed out, the community is still trucking along and pushing things forward on both iOS and the Mac – this week we’ve got another Automation app, new Actions to play around with, a great tip editing for accessing iOS Automations, two utilities from Jarrod Blundy, and a Spotlight on Stream Deck shortcuts.

On my end, I’m also nearing the last stage of my Shortcuts Catalog release – I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, but still more finishing touches until this beast is ready…

Until then, here’s what happened this week:

Hello and welcome to Issue 57 of “What’s New in Shortcuts!”

This week we’ve got quality-of-life fixes in the Mac beta, quick ideas from the community, 4 videos, 3 stories, one open-sourced app, and a deep dive from me into the new parameters in Take Screenshot on the Mac.

I also recorded another episode with AppleInsider that’ll be out the week after next, so I’ll make sure to link to that once it’s out.

Beyond that, I’ve been digging into upcoming releases, writing up work-in-progress pieces for members, and have my upcoming StreamDeck profiles coming along nicely – looking forward to finally sharing everything soon!

Enjoy:

Welcome to Issue 56 of “What’s New in Shortcuts” – we’re on week two of Shortcuts for Mac and the apps adding support are still coming along steadily!

Plus, I’ve seen a bunch of great ideas on Twitter, discussions worth tuning into from iOS Shortcuts power users, and some advanced use cases using the command line as well as web APIs.

I’ve also shared some specific tips I gave to people asking for help on Twitter, plus wrote up a spotlight on the new Shortcuts User Guide.

Enjoy the issue! ?

Hello and welcome to Issue 55 of “What’s New in Shortcuts” – folks have been playing around with Shortcuts for Mac for a few days now and it’s been lovely to see renewed excitement in the community.

This week I’m covering a new detail about the Shortcuts for Mac icon, updates on the 15.2 beta, a dive into Pixelmator Pro’s update, ideas from the community, MacStories’ review shortcuts, AppleScript ideas for Keynote, power user apps for Mac, two new YouTube videos, and a Spotlight on cross-platform shortcuts.

Let’s dig in:

Welcome to Issue 54 of “What’s New in Shortcuts” – this week is the massive release of Shortcuts for Mac!

In this issue, I give details about my upcoming release, link to Apple’s celebration of Shortcuts, share pieces from MacStories on the various launches, link to a few community ideas, and end the issue with a long spotlight on Shortcuts for Mac’s features.

Stay tuned for my updated Shortcuts Catalog, as well as all the upcoming releases that follow – I can’t wait to finally share about Shortcuts consistently outside of this newsletter/my membership again now that everyone’s on the same operating system ecosystem.

Welcome to Issue 53 of “What’s New in Shortcuts” – we’re just a few days away from Apple’s Mac event and anticipation for Shortcuts for Mac soon after is high!

Typically, Apple will release a Golden Master version of macOS Monterey to give developers a final release to base their updates off of. Since we haven’t seen one yet, it stands to reason that will come Monday or Tuesday after the event and then Monterey will ship a week later (please god not the next day though).

That means Shortcuts for Mac is almost here, which also means my Shortcuts Catalog release is coming very soon!

I’m super excited to finally share my iOS 15 shortcuts and shared updated versions of all my old shortcuts to support the Mac—as well as some extra special still-hidden additions—so the anticipation is starting to drive me up the wall!

Oh it’s going to be good – I couldn’t help myself and sent an unhelpfully-contextless tweet to share the hype…

Until Monday’s keynote, here’s what’s new in Shortcuts this week:

Welcome to Issue 52 of “What’s New in Shortcuts” – hope your October is going well!

This week we had a bit of a shake-up on the Shortcuts team, more bugs to be wary of, apps to check out, a few good threads to browse, new Macro photography shortcuts, and a quick guide to Birthdays – let’s dig in:

Hello and welcome to Issue 51 of “What’s New in Shortcuts”!

This week I’ve got a ton to cover – we’ve got: an update on my Catalog, coverage of the public’s reaction to Shortcuts bugs, two new actions, new iOS 15 shortcuts, Automators’ new episode, a great YouTube video, Shortcuts for Mac teasers, some good shortcuts ideas, and a spotlight on Background Sounds.

Let’s dig in:

Welcome to Issue 50 of “What’s New in Shortcuts” – it’s iOS 15 week!

Plus, the new iPhones and iPad Mini are out as well, so I’m looking forward to reviewing those soon ?

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

Welcome to Issue 49 of “What’s New in Shortcuts” – it’s almost time for iOS 15!

I’ll be busy all weekend preparing for the next launch of my Shortcuts Catalog, prepping my YouTube video covering everything new, and getting excited about the iPhone and iPad Mini preorders I’ve placed.

Beyond that, it’s been an interesting week in Shortcuts land – the final Release Candidate of iOS 15 leaves us with a fairly buggy Shortcuts app, we learned exactly who deleted all the iCloud links for your shortcuts last spring, and there’s still a steady stream of great ideas from the community.

Plus, I shared a handful of shortcuts ahead of my big release – enjoy:

Welcome to Issue 48 of “What’s New in Shortcuts”!

Next week is official the iPhone event, with Apple sending out press invites for a September 14th keynote at 10 am. Folks on Twitter are speculating that iOS will release one day and one week later, on September 22nd, a day before reviews will drop and one day before iPhones begin arriving.

Hopefully that’s the case, although last year Apple dropped it the day after, so it could be September 15th – I certainly wouldn’t mind an extra week to polish my work up before everything drops though!

Welcome to Issue 11 of “What’s New in Shortcuts” – this week, we’re nearing the end of the beta cycles, and the iOS 15 updates are almost upon us.

There’s still bugs to be ironed out in Shortcuts, and more clarity on what’ll happen with Shortcuts for Mac is needed with the amount of actions missing or troubles in the editor – but the community is raising their concerns, so hopefully Apple can jump on it.

This issue covers those concerns, plus some guides from the community, a handful of great shortcuts, some new member shortcuts for Shortcuts for Mac, and a spotlight on Wind Down shortcuts – here’s what’s new this week:

Welcome to Issue 46 of “What’s New in Shortcuts” – this one is packed with ideas!

I was blown away by what I found on Reddit this week and there’s at least 3 shortcuts that I’ll be integrating into my core workflow, alongside a whole set of great tips & tricks.

Plus, the folks from The Sweet Setup have a time-tracking guide, MacObserver has thoughts on what Shortcuts needs to add, and I interviewed Rosemary Orchard on her own show as a guest host.

And of course, MacStories had their big launch – I think anybody reading this newsletter should also be signed up for Club MacStories too.

All that and more – enjoy:

Welcome to Issue 45 of “What’s New in Shortcuts” – this week we’ve got good examples from the subreddit, new app shortcuts to dig into, and some Feedback for Apple to review.

Thankfully, we also got iOS 15 beta 6, which resolved some of the nagging issues in Shortcuts – it’s much more feasible to use it for daily work right now.

But of course, some actions started randomly failing—such as Post to WordPress, which is core to my workflow—so this week I continued with my meta work, and streamed with Jason Snell to post directly to WordPress using XML-RPC.

We’ve got all that and more – enjoy:

Welcome to Issue 44 of “What’s New in Shortcuts” – I’ve returned after a week off and am back at it again!

This week we got a new beta, but it’s a bit rocky still – I’m seeing slowdowns, missing Apple Watch actions, and tweaks to permissions mean beta users have to reauthorize every step yet again.

But there’s still more to learn thanks to a handful of podcasts that’ve come out the last few weeks – and there’s some big changes to the Shortcuts Catalog I want to tease: