Categories
Apps Links

Day One Introduces Shared Journals »

From the Day One blog:

Introducing Shared Journals—a new way to bring your stories and memories together with those you cherish most, with the same privacy and security you expect for your journals.

What an excellent, deep feature from Day One – I’m glad to see this level of development continue with the company in the hands of Automattic, the developers behind WordPress.

Read the full article.

Categories
Links

MacStories Surveys Popular Apps Currently Compatible With Apple Vision Pro using Shortcuts »

From John Voorhees at MacStories:

As it turns out, it’s possible to tell if a developer has opted out by using App Store API endpoints. So, with a little help, we built a shortcut to check some of the most popular apps on the App Store.

They haven’t shared the full shortcut, but that just means I’ll have to poke around myself to see if I can find my way… 👀

Read the full article.

 

Categories
Newsletter

What’s New in Shortcuts – Issue 102

From Issue 102 of my Shortcuts newsletter:

Welcome to Issue 102 of What’s New in Shortcuts!

In this first issue of the new year, I’ve recapped everything from December and early January – from multiple sets of shortcuts I’ve released, to news about former Shortcuts team members, to the upcoming Apple Vision Pro launch.

Plus, I’ve redesigned the front page of my site – check it out: matthewcassinelli.com.

Until next time, here’s what’s new in Shortcuts:

Read the full issue on MailerLite.

 

Categories
Shortcuts

New shortcuts for the Shortcuts app

I’ve just added a new folder to the Shortcuts Library — my set of shortcuts for the Shortcuts app itself:

  • Create a new shortcut: Prompts you to enter a name, then creates a shortcut.
  • Add a new shortcut in a folder: Asks you which folder to open, then prompts for a name and creates a new shortcut with that title in that folder.
  • Search in Shortcuts: Use this shortcut to quickly find a shortcut in your library to run or open and edit. Works well if you have a large shortcuts collection.
  • Open a folder: Prompts you to type in a folder name, then opens that folder in Shortcuts. Assigned to Shift + Control + O as a keyboard shortcut on macOS, and placed in the iPad dock.
  • Run a shortcut from a folder: Asks you to pick a folder, then a shortcut, then runs it right away.
  • Run a shortcut: Asks you to enter the name of a shortcut, then finds and runs that shortcut. Also uses scripting to check if more than one exists with that name and asks which to run.
  • Open a shortcut: Asks you to type in the name of a shortcut, then opens it so you can edit the actions.
  • Open a shortcut by folder: Asks you to pick from all your Shortcuts folders, then a shortcut from that folder, then opens the shortcut.
  • Open into a Shortcuts folder: Opens a Shortcuts folder of your choosing; accepts the name of a folder as input as well.
  • Get a list of my shortcut names: Using a text field populated from “List Folder names,” lets you select multiple folders, grabs the shortcut names from all of the folders, and lets you copy out the titles.
  • Copy my Shortcuts folder names: Gets a list of all the titles for your Shortcuts folders. On macOS, uses the Shortcuts Command Line Interface (CLI) to make the request; on iOS, uses a Regular Expression to find the results. Also saves a .txt file of the output.

The second half of the folder is designed for accessing different pre-built folders in the Shortcuts app – I use these in the iPad widget, searching on macOS, and the Stream Deck:

  • Show all of my shortcuts: Use this to open the main view of Shortcuts and see everything in your collection. If you have a lot of App Shortcuts, this is the best view to see them all.
  • Open the Gallery: Use this shortcut to quickly access the Gallery and see what kinds of shortcuts Apple recommends based on your usage, as well as curated categories put together by the Shortcuts team.
  • Open my Automations: Use this shortcut to see your Personal and Home automations set up on iPhone and iPad. Works well from the Shortcuts widget or using Siri when you want to set up a new Automation.
  • Show my Menu Bar shortcuts: Use this shortcut to sort the list of shortcuts that appear in the Menu Bar on macOS.
  • Show my Apple Watch shortcuts: Use this shortcut to sort your shortcuts set to show up on the Apple Watch. Use this view to rename them, change the colors, sort the order, or drag & drop shortcuts out to remove them.
  • Show my Share Sheet shortcuts: Use this shortcut once you have a few Share Sheet shortcuts and want to organize them accordingly. You can also drag shortcuts into and out of this folder to add/remove them from the set, which works well with multi-select and drag & d
  • Show my Quick Action shortcuts: Use this shortcut to quickly access, organize, and edit your Quick Actions shortcuts set as Services on macOS. This shortcut uses the Open Folder action, which includes the auto-generated folders Shortcuts creates for features like Quick Action.
  • Open my Services folder: Opens the macOS folder System > Library > Services so you can see shortcuts you’ve added as Services.

Check out the folder of Shortcuts shortcuts on the Shortcuts Library.

Categories
News

21 Movies to Watch in 3D on Apple Vision Pro

Apple has announced the Vision Pro will be coming with over 150 movies in 3D to start, out of over 400 available on the Apple TV Store. Apple of course demonstrated Avatar: The Way of Water as coming to the device, but 3D has been around for a long time – there’s a lot of movies worth revisiting on this new headset experience.

To get you started, I collected a list of 21 movies listed in the Apple TV app that were released in 3D – just search for “3D” in the app to get these:

  1. Jurassic World Dominion
  2. Shrek
  3. The Super Mario Bros. Movie
  4. Hugo
  5. Mission: Impossible – Fallout
  6. Skyscraper
  7. Wonder Woman 1984
  8. The Secret Life of Pets 2
  9. Ralph Breaks the Internet
  10. 47 Ronin
  11. The Little Prince
  12. Warcraft
  13. Pacific Rim: Uprising
  14. No Time to Die
  15. Mortal Engines
  16. Godzilla vs. Kong
  17. Minions: The Rise of Gru
  18. The Boss Baby: Family Business
  19. Trolls
  20. The Amazing Spider-Man 2
  21. Sing 2

(Note: While all of these were released in 3D, as well as listed in the TV app as results for the term “3D”, there’s still a chance some might not be available on Vision Pro – if you’re unsure, you can bookmark this page and come back when the device launches February 2).

There’s also listings for Sanctum, Everest, Noah, Cirque Du Soleil: Worlds Away, Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters, Tad: The Lost Explorer And the Secret of King Midas, and The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature, all of which were released in 3D originally – the first four listed might be worth bringing to the platform, but I can’t say as much about Jeremy Renner’s sequel to the gingerbread house incident…

News about 3D movies coming to Apple TV was first broken by FlatPanelsHD.com – however, official 3D labels have been removed from the TV app since then.

Check out of my folder of TV app shortcuts – I’ve already got shortcuts for Godzilla and Mission Impossible in there, with more on the way.

Categories
News

Apple Vision Pro Available Soon, Ready For Voice

Today, January 8th, Apple announced that the Vision Pro will be available in the U.S. on February 2nd, with pre-orders beginning next Friday, January 19 at 5 a.m. PST.

In their press release, Tim Cook says “The era of spatial computing has arrived,” marking the beginning of new ways to interact with our devices seamlessly in a way only Apple could.

Their headline features mention “an infinite canvas for productivity,” “the ultimate entertainment experience,” and “new gaming experiences” – the three key areas I plan to use the device myself, particularly when paired with macOS as a monitor. Apple also mentioned the Band on the device for the first time, which will likely be necessary to comfortably use the device for all three of these tasks for more than a short period.

Viewing Memories and interacting with other Vision Pro users’ Personas also sound like fascinating experiences, but I have a feeling those will be more valuable over time and a bit less so immediately at launch.

Not shown in their photos is the connected battery pack, which has up to 2.5 hours of 2D playback (and likely less for a fully-immersive 3D movie) – this will be great for detachability, but I have a feeling I’ll be using this first version near a charger most of the time anyway and will be plugged in for full battery.

Overall, I’m most fascinated by the interface and what it means for my personal productivity – the combination of spatial computing, interacting with my existing devices, and my heavy use of Apple’s Shortcuts app are going to provide a truly unique experience.

In many ways, I’ve spent the last 10 years working on Workflow and now Shortcuts to build out robust voice interactions for almost every part of my computing experience – now, there’s a truly hands-free device on the way that’s deeply integrated with Shortcuts by default.

I can’t wait to lay my eyes on my headset.

View the press release from Apple.

Categories
Shortcuts

New in the Shortcuts Library: Apple TV Apps shortcuts

While updating my Apple TV shortcuts for multiple devices, I cleaned up my Apple TV apps and built out a new set of shortcuts to open them all.

I’ve just added the folder to the Shortcuts Library — my set of Apple TV Apps shortcuts:

  • Open Fireplace TV: Opens the Winter Fireplace app for Apple TV on a selected TV.
  • Open Twitch TV: Opens Twitch on the TV of your choice, showing the Remote after so you can select a channel.
  • Open YouTube TV: Opens the YouTube app on a selected Apple TV, then shows the Remote so you can select a video.
  • Open Play TV: Opens the app Play for YouTube on an Apple TV of your choice so you can select videos you’ve saved for later to open in the YouTube app.
  • Open Plex TV: Opens the Plex app for Apple TV on a device of your choosing.
  • Open Letterboxd TV: Opens the Letterboxd app on the selected Apple TV, then shows the Remote so you can navigate
  • Open MasterClass TV: Opens the MasterClass app for Apple TV so you can browse or continue watching a lesson.
  • Open Developer TV: Opens the Apple Developer app for Apple TV so you can view bookmarks, browse presentations, and search for topics.
  • Open Lumy TV: Opens the app Lumy for Apple TV, which lets you see relevant times for sunrise and sunset so you can know when to take the best photos.
  • Open Unsplash TV: Opens the Unsplash app for Apple TV, then shows the Remote so you can select a set of photos to display.
  • Open Lightroom TV: Opens the Adobe Lightroom app for Apple TV, then shows the remote so you can select an album to view.
  • Open VSCO TV: Opens the VSCO app for Apple TV where you can select photosets to display in an abstract gallery.
  • Open the TV Clock: Opens the tvClock app for Apple TV that shows the time in a large flip-style format.
  • Open Wordy Clock: Opens the app Wordy for Apple TV that displays the time in an abstract text style, like “Quarter to twelve” rather than actual numbers.
  • Open Fin TV: Opens the app Fin for Apple TV, which lets you select timers and display them in a huge format.
  • Open RadarScope TV: Opens the RadarScope app for Apple TV that lets you see large weather maps and see conditions in your area.
  • Open SpeedTest TV: Opens the SpeedTest app for Apple TV which lets you check your internet’s upload and download speeds.
  • Open PCalc TV: Opens the PCalc app for Apple TV and shows the remote so you can perform calculations on the big screen.
  • Open Criterion TV: Opens the Criterion Collection app for Apple TV that lets you view films from the catalog.
  • Open App Store TV: Opens the App Store app on the Apple TV so you can browse new apps.

I’ve also updated the folder of Apple TV Remote shortcuts for multiple devices:

  • Turn the TV on: Turns on the specified Apple TV, including any connected TV sets.
  • Turn the TV off: Sleeps a specified Apple TV, also turning off any HDMI-CEC connected devices like a TV set.
  • Pause the TV: Pauses the specified Apple TV playback.
  • Resume on the TV: For the specified Apple TV, resumes playing the currently-active program.
  • Show the remote: Shows the Apple TV remote and lets you control the device from your iPhone or iPad.
  • Switch to my profile: Turns on the TV and sets the Apple TV to your personal profile, appearance preference, and Reduce Loud Sounds setting, then shows the remote.
  • Turn on the screensaver: Wakes up the specified Apple TV, then activates the built-in Screen Saver feature to display ambient scenes instead of the Home Screen.
  • Open Apple TV settings: Opens the Settings app on Apple TV where you can tweak your preferences.
  • Open Music TV: Opens the Apple Music app for Apple TV on the selected device, then shows the Remote so you can play something.
  • Open Podcasts TV: Opens the Podcasts app for Apple TV on the selected device, then shows the remote so you can pick something to listen to.
  • Open Fitness TV: Opens the Apple Fitness app on the selected device, then shows the Remote so you can pair your Apple Watch and begin a workout.
  • Open Photos TV: Opens the Apple Photos app for Apple TV, then shows the Remote so you can select an album or a memory to play.
  • Open the TV app: Opens the Apple TV app on the selected TV, then shows the Remote so you can pick something from your Up Next or a connected service.
  • Open Netflix TV: Opens Netflix on the selected Apple TV, or opens the website from Mac.
  • Open HBO TV: Opens the MAX app on Apple TV and on the web if run from Mac.
  • Open Hulu TV: Opens the Hulu app on Apple TV and on the web if run from Mac.
  • Open Disney TV: Opens the Disney app on Apple TV or website if run from Mac.
  • Open Prime TV: Opens Amazon Prime Video on Apple TV or on the web if run from Mac.

Check out the folder of Apple TV Apps shortcuts and Apple TV Remote shortcuts in the Shortcuts Library.

Categories
Shortcuts

New shortcuts for managing your Kindle in the Shortcuts Library

I’ve just added a new folder to the Shortcuts Library — my set of Kindle shortcuts:

  • Open the Kindle app: Opens the Kindle app on iOS and Mac to the default library view, letting you browse your collection and select a book or PDF to read.
  • Read my Kindle book: Opens the Kindle app to the most recent book you were reading.
  • Send to Kindle: Takes the file from input and emails it to your Send To Kindle email address.
  • Set Kindle charging reminder: Sets a reminder 4 hours from the current time that your Kindle is done charging.
  • Buy books on Amazon: Opens the Amazon page for Kindle so you can buy books directly.
  • Manage Kindle books: Opens Amazon to the Digital Content page of “Manage Your Content and Devices” to show your Kindle books.
  • Manage Kindle Docs: Views the Docs category in the Content section of Amazon’s “Manage Your Content and Devices” for Kindle.
  • Manage Kindle Unlimited: Opens Kindle Unlimited to let you manage your digital content, to deliver, remove, or return your book.

Check out the folder of Kindle shortcuts on the Shortcuts Library.

Categories
Shortcuts

New shortcuts to Post Threads in the Shortcuts Library

I’ve just added new shortcuts to my folder of Threads shortcuts in the Shortcuts Library — a set that works with Threads’ create URL scheme:

  • Create new Thread: Opens the deep link to Threads’ Create menu so you can post a new thread. On Mac, opens the Threads website.
  • Post to Threads: Asks you to enter the text of your post, then URL encodes the result and passes it to Threads’ URL scheme for creating posts. On Mac, copies the result and opens Threads.net.
  • Post link to Threads: Presents the link excerpt, then asks you to share your commentary along with the URL in a new post on Threads.
  • Post media to Threads: Asks you to select media to store on your clipboard, then asks you to enter a post to pass to Threads where you can paste your media. On Mac, gets file from Finder/Services and opens Threads.net.
  • Cross-post to Twitter and Threads: Prompts you to enter in a message, then copies the text, opens to Twitter for you to post, waits for you to return, then opens Threads with the message filled out. On Mac, opens the Threads website.
  • Cross-post to Ivory and Threads: Prompts you to enter in a message, then copies the text, posts it to Mastodon via Ivory, then opens Threads with the message filled out. On Mac, opens the Threads website.
  • Cross-post everywhere: Prompts you to enter in a message, then copies the text, posts it to Mastodon via Ivory, then opens Threads with the message filled out. On Mac, opens the Threads website.

Also, I’ve moved the Threads scraping shortcuts into their own folder, plus updated the rest of the Threads folder to work cross-platform with macOS:

  • Open Threads app: Opens the Threads app from Instagram/Meta. On iPhone, works well with custom icons. On iPad, uses Stage Manager to make proper window. On Mac, opens web app created using Add to Dock.
  • Open Threads search: Opens the link to Search in Threads so you can find posts about specific topics.
  • Open username in Threads: Prompts for a username (or accepts one as input) and opens the redirect into the Threads app.
  • Show my Profile in Threads: Switches the Threads app to your own profile. Userful for checking your follower count.
  • Share my Threads profile: Takes your pre-inputted Threads URL and asks whether to copy it, share, or display it as a QR code.
  • Open Threads settings: Opens the link to the Settings page for Threads.

Check out my Threads shortcuts and Threads scraping shortcuts in the Shortcuts Library.

Categories
Links Tips & Tricks

Tip: Upload High Quality Media on Threads With This Setting »

From @Threads:

Thriendly tip ✨ To upload images and videos here at the highest quality possible, head to Settings, then tap on “Account” > “Media quality” > “Upload highest quality.”

Use my shortcut Open Threads Settings to quickly access this page as needed, plus your Notification options and your Likes, plus Privacy controls.

View the post on Threads.

Categories
Shortcuts

New shortcuts for the Phone app in the Shortcuts Library

For iPhone users, I’ve just added a new folder to the Shortcuts Library — my set of Phone shortcuts:

  • Open the Phone app: Opens the deep link to the Phone app (mobilephone://).
  • Activate noise control: Opens the deep link to the phone app, then sets playback to AirPods and turns on Noise Cancellation.
  • Open Favorites: Opens the deep link to the Favorites tab in the Phone app (mobilephone-favorites://).
  • Open recent calls: Opens the deep link into the Recents section of the Phone app to see your incoming and outgoing calls, plus any missed calls (mobilephone-recents://).
  • Open my voicemail: Opens the deep link into the Voicemail section of the Phone app (vmshow://).
  • Get my number: Gets the first phone number from your preselected contact card, copies it to the clipboard, and shows it to you in a dialog. Use to quickly show to or share with someone else.
  • Dial a number: Prompts you to enter a phone number, then asks you to confirm before calling.
  • Call a contact: Presents your list of contacts, then calls the person you select. If they have multiple numbers, asks you which one to dial.
  • Phone a friend: Looks for contacts added to a “Friends” group and asks you to pick one before calling them.
  • Call a coworker: Looks for contacts from a given company name (added on input), then asks you to choose which contact and calls them.

Check out the folder of Phone shortcuts on the Shortcuts Library.

Categories
Links

iOS 17.2 Includes 50 New URL Schemes You Can Use in Shortcuts on Your iPhone »

From Justin Myers at GadgetHacks:

First, there are schemes for the new Journal app and Journal’s settings:

open | moments://
open | prefs:root=JOURNAL

And two for the new Contact Key Verification for iMessage setting:

highlight | prefs:root=APPLE_ACCOUNT#TRANSPARENCY
open      | prefs:root=APPLE_ACCOUNT&path=TRANSPARENCY

The article also covers new URL schemes for Accessibility and other settings added in iOS 17.2 – make sure to check out the full list and make a shortcut if you utilize these features.

View the full article on GadgetHacks.

 

Categories
Apps Tips & Tricks

Tip: Filter Apple Music Albums By Favorites To Hide Singles

One of the best music discoveries over the last few years is the fact that I love dance music and never really realized it before – that has led to many, many Singles being saved to my singles library from top playlists so I can keep track of all the songs and artists.

However, that’s led to an Albums view that’s hard for me to parse – often each album cover represents only one or two songs, and the sheer volume/variety compared to other genres means the list is now much busier and harder for me to parse when trying to find actual full-length albums that I’ve added.

With the update to iOS 17.2 to change Likes to Favorites, however, I discovered a new filter in the Albums view that lets you see only your Favorites.

With this, I’ve gone through and added a bunch of full-length albums as favorites—leaving out all the singles—and now I can filter the list down to my “real” library.

Further, I can still favorite the individual track within a Single to add the track itself to my Favorites list like any other song, while still being able to effectively hide the artwork when I want to filter for full albums.

Overall, I think Favorites makes sense over Likes and enables some helpful quality-of-life features to the Apple Music experience – this Favorites filter for Albums is a nice touch.

Categories
Membership Shortcuts

New podcasting shortcuts for Transistor.FM

After working on my podcasting workflow this week, I’ve added a new folder to the Shortcuts Library — my set of Transistor.FM shortcuts (make sure to get the required* API shortcuts):

New episodes

When posting a new episode, these are the relevant links you’re likely to visit before publishing:

Categories
Apps

Things’ Shortcuts support wins “Best New Feature” in MacStories Selects

Earlier today, the team at MacStories announced the winners of their annual MacStories Selects awards, among which Things 3 won “Best New Feature” for their integration with Shortcuts.

Here’s what the team had to say:

Earlier this year, Cultured Code took an app whose automation features largely revolved around URL schemes and an action to create new tasks and turned it into a task manager that supports native Shortcuts automation for every functionality and corner of the experience.

And:

In other task managers, you would have to perform these actions manually; thanks to Things’ Shortcuts integration, you’re free to create your own enhancements for the app. Cultured Code didn’t make a button to change a task’s deadline? You can make your own using the app’s Shortcuts actions.

Finally:

There are no apps as tightly integrated with Shortcuts as Things at the moment, which is why the app’s Shortcuts support is the Best New Feature of MacStories Selects 2023.

I agree. Although I do want App Shortcuts support soon too… 😇

Read about Things’ award and the other winners of the 2023 MacStories Selects.

Categories
News Shortcuts

What’s new in Shortcuts in iOS and iPadOS 17.2, macOS 14.2, and watchOS 10.2 »

From Apple’s support doc titled “What’s new in Shortcuts for iOS 17, iPadOS 17, macOS 14, and watchOS 10”:

New in iOS and iPadOS 17.2, macOS 14.2, and watchOS 10.2

This update adds enhanced VoiceOver support in the Shortcuts library and improved app performance.

Updated Actions

  • Choose from Menu and Choose from List now prevent your device from sleeping when run from the Action button and awaiting a response
  • Combine Images now correctly aligns images when output on macOS
  • Split Screen Apps now correctly handles ratios on iPadOS

I’m marking these as closed 😎:

  • FB13202947 (Action button falls asleep while running; Shortcuts menus/lists don’t register as Lock Screen taps)
  • FB12510235 (Combine Image places photos in wrong place)
  • FB13204850 (Split Screen Apps has incorrect sizes; places windows opposite where described)

Another issue not mentioned, but fixed – changing folders on iPad: FB9365048 (Pressing Control + Tab is broken; redirects to Search field).

Also from Colin Hughes on Twitter:

I called for Apple to allow users to ask Siri for blood oxygen levels back in April 2022. Delighted to see the company has listened and this, and other health features, will be accessible via Siri commands in iOS 17.2 set to be released this week. So inclusive and accessible


View the full set of release notes from iOS 17 and see Colin’s quote tweet.

Categories
Apps

iA Writer helps you become a better Ai writer with Authorship

The team at iA, the development company behind iA Writer and iA Presenter, have launched a new feature called Authorship, a way to annotate text that’s been written by ChatGPT to let writers visually understand the difference between their own words and those generated by artificial intelligence.

It works like this – writers start by copying text from ChatGPT, including both the prompt and the answer.

After pasting into iA Writer, the text is analyzed and, if detected as a conversation, you’re prompted to save the authorship markup stored at the end of the document.

Then, as you’re writing, each word that is changed back to your own words gets the annotation removed, letting you clearly see what you wrote vs what was written for you.

In their blog post, iA goes into detail about this thoughtful approach to Ai and how, rather than rejecting the trend, they learned to embrace it and utilize it as a thinking aid. Rather than encouraging you to have ChatGPT write entirely for you, Ai can help improve your writing before you use your own words as the final product – here’s how they describe it:

“As a dialog partner AI makes you think more and write better. As ghost writer it takes over and you lose your voice.

Yet, sometimes it helps to paste its replies and notes. And if you want to use that information, you rewrite it to make it our own. So far, in traditional apps we are not able to easily see what we wrote and what we pasted from AI.”

iA has also released the format on GitHub as Markdown Annotations, hoping that other developers build off their work and potentially turn the concept into an official spec. Plus, the annotations for human writers as well – you can co-write with someone else and mark out who wrote what, which has a lot of potential beyond ChatGPT conversations.

From my initial observations, I’m excited about the idea of Authorship – they didn’t just shove Ai into iA Writer and call it a day, but rather thought about how modern writing apps can integrate natively with an Ai world. And, they took it a step further and built out a format that benefits all writers.

Plus, from a strategic standpoint, the Authorship alone makes iA Writer valuable to any professional writer – iA Writer might’ve just become an even easier recommendation. I’ll have to test more myself how essential this feature is in the long run, but for now it absolutely has me downloading and trying out the app again.

Read the full blog post (includes a two-week trial for the Mac app) and get iA Writer for $50 on Mac App Store and/or $50 on iPhone/iPad.

P.S. I asked ChatGPT whether my headline should say “helps you be a better writer” or “helps you become a better writer” and it responded with this:

Both options are acceptable, but the second option, “iA Writer helps you become a better AI writer with Authorship,” is slightly more polished and flows better. It conveys the message in a more active and engaging manner.

Now the question for iA Writer – who really wrote the headline?

Categories
News

Former Shortcuts team launch new AI startup Software Applications Incorporated

Yesterday, former Workflow co-founders Ari Weinstein and Conrad Kramer launched their new desktop AI startup under the name Software Applications Incorporated along with fellow ex-Apple employee Kim Beverett, giving The Verge an exclusive interview as well as launching their incredible website software.inc.

Co-founders Conrad Kramer and Ari Weinstein in the new office. Photo taken by co-founder Kim Beverett.
Co-founders Conrad Kramer and Ari Weinstein in the new office. Photo taken by co-founder Kim Beverett.

Weinstein, Kramer, and Beverett have a new office in downtown San Francisco just minutes away from the former Workflow offices, where the team of co-founders will be developing generative AI for the desktop in an attempt to “push operating systems forward.”

This comes over 12 years after the founding of Workflow and almost 6 years since its acquisition by Apple, where Ari and Conrad’s app has become Shortcuts, a deeply-integrated automation app that powers everything from Automation on the Mac to the Action button on the latest iPhone. The App Intents protocol built by the Shortcuts team, for example, is key to Apple’s current operating systems, powering features beyond Shortcuts itself like interactive widgets.

Screenshot of the software.inc website.
Screenshot of the software.inc website.

Among the quotes in The Verge’s article, Ari mentions capturing “the magic that you felt when you used computers in the ’80s and ’90s,” as evidenced by their delightful website design and classic-style company name.

The team is also as thinking about how “language models and AI give us the ingredients to make a new kind of software that can unlock this fundamental power of computing and make everyday people able to use computers to actually solve their problems” – a subject area where they are undoubtedly experts already.

Perhaps the most exciting part to me, as a former member of the Workflow team, is this paragraph, mentioning how large the target for the team is:

While a handful of startups such as Rewind are building personalized AI systems for the desktop, none I’ve come across appear to have as wide a vision as that of Software Applications, which suggests they have an open lane for the time being. And with most consumer software companies building primarily for mobile these days, it’s refreshing to see a team focusing on the Mac instead.

Truly, if anyone can (and should) have the freedom to fully explore this realm, it should be Ari, Conrad, and Kim – plus whoever’s lucky enough to join their team. After all, they are perhaps one of the only teams out there who’ve actually already changed the landscape themselves, and quite successfully I might add – mobile is basically done and in Apple’s hands, now onto to desktop.

Screenshot of the AppleScript settings on the software.inc website.
Screenshot of the AppleScript settings on the software.inc website.

Plus, if you haven’t yet, you absolutely HAVE to check out their website. The team ”spent a totally unnecessary amount of time building this website” turning it into a literal recreation of MacOS 8, including fully-functional applications for things like games, drawing, and, yes, even AppleScript – you can’t deny the passion this team has for the Mac.

Categories
Apps Tips & Tricks

Tip: Mark Physical Copies As Finished For Your Apple Books Year In Review

From Zach Kahn, Services PR for Podcasts and Books (and Vision Pro) at Apple:

Pro tip: if you’ve read a book elsewhere, like a print copy, just tap the … button and mark the title as read in Apple Books. It will become eligible for your Year in Review

Look up the books, mark them as “Finished”, and see your stats change – very nice.

From the press release for Year in Review, the new feature in the Apple Books app:

Year in Review is available on iPhone and iPad within the Read Now tab under Top Picks to users with at least three titles marked as finished.

View the post on Mastodon and the Year in Review press release from Apple.

Categories
Newsletter

What’s New in Shortcuts – Issue 101

From Issue 101 of my Shortcuts newsletter:

Welcome to Issue 101 of What’s New in Shortcuts!

Since the last issue in September, I’ve entirely moved from California to Oregon—hence the lack of regular issues as of late—while Shortcuts has gone pro in a big way as one of the main features of the new iPhone 15 Pro – the Action button.

I’ve collected a swath of Action button ideas from the community, shared a big set of apps that are updated for iOS 17, and released a whole new collection in the Shortcuts Library – including a massive new section for members.

Plus, for today only, there’s a special Cyber Monday discount on annual memberships – get your subscription locked in before the price goes up next year.

And, just to leave you with a teaser, I have my first set of Apple review units to cover soon – iPhone 15 Pro, M2 iPad Pro, and the OG Apple Watch Ultra… 🙂

Until next time, here’s what’s new in Shortcuts:

Read the full issue on MailerLite.