Quick thoughts that link out to other sites
From 9to5Mac:
With the help of the Apple Support website, users can find a lot of information about the Apple devices they own. This includes things like technical specifications, guides, and support articles. However, all this information used to be spread across multiple pages – but Apple is changing that with a new “Documentation” page.
I’ve updated my folder of Apple Support shortcuts to include a new “Show Apple Support documentation” shortcut.
From Stephen Robles on YouTube:
Learn how to build 15 iPhone Shortcuts, inspired by YOU. Automatically play music when an alarm is snoozed, schedule a text to auto-send, make your screenshots look pro, and more.
Stephen continues his Shortcuts series on YouTube by building shortcuts off listener requests – a great watch as always.
Today, alongside the announcement for WWDC’24, Apple revealed their Apple Developer channel on YouTube where they’re now publicly hosting developer videos, starting with everything released from WWDC’23.
Previously, videos were only available Apple’s own website or Developer apps, limiting the potential reach to folks who’d already heard of it – now YouTube users can freely discover and watch Apple developer videos to learn about building for their platforms.
As of writing, there are 40 videos uploaded – so it’s not the complete set from WWDC’23 (yet?) and as such I unfortunately can’t find any Shortcuts-related videos. Once more are uploaded, and folks tune in after WWDC’24, it’ll be super interesting to see view counts and comments on these videos – we’ll be able to see what’s more popular/interesting to folks, as well as check on common questions in the comments.
Plus, for the intrepid Shortcuts user, all of YouTube’s RSS or URL functionality is now available for Apple Developer videos – I’ll be able to scrape the title, thumbnail, and descriptions to make quick embeds on my website, for example 🤓.
From Tom Robertson at Coeffiencies:
Living in a house, or even an apartment or condo, as an adult, requires periodic maintenance tasks, like cleaning the bathroom, changing your sheets, replacing the furnace filter, etc. A lot of these tasks should ideally be done on a regular schedule, like changing your sheets every two weeks, or your furnace filter every 3 months for example.
I’m sure a lot of people just kind of mentally keep track of this kind of stuff, but I’ve never really trusted my own memory on it. And I don’t like the idea of a room being dirty serving as my reminder to clean it. I’d ideally like to clean it before it gets too dirty.
So to keep up-to-date on my household tasks, I need a way to help me with of the following:
- How many days has it been since I did that task?
- A reminder to do that task if it’s past the time it needs to be done.
Tom basically made the perfect solution I’ve been looking for using Reminders, Chronicling, and two custom shortcuts – well done.
From the Accidental Tech Podcast:
In this special members-only VIDEO episode, John finally reveals his window-management techniques.
This episode is a perfect, ahem, follow-up to my livestream with Rafael Conde talking Mac window management.
Watch the full video on ATP.fm.
Note: This episode is exclusive to ATP members, but worth joining to enjoy.
From Stephen Robles on YouTube:
Dive into the latest iOS 17.4 update with NEW Shortcuts actions for iPhone. Learn how to leverage new orientation and physical activity actions for enhanced device control and automation.
⭐️ Get the Shortcuts
From Michael Potuck at 9to5Mac:
Always-on display Shortcuts
You can also set up control of the always-on display in the Shortcuts app – which offers Siri support:
- Open the Shortcuts app
- Tap the + in the top right corner
- Choose Add Action
- Use the search bar to find “Set Always On Display”
- Tap the blue Turn or On buttons to customize what will happen when you run the Shortcut
- Tap Done in the top right corner to add your new Shortcut
The article mentions using Focus modes to change the setting as well – you can also use Automations in Shortcuts combined with the action mentioned above.
From the iA blog:
We’re upgrading iA Writer’s integration with Apple Shortcuts today. With 18 built-in actions and 22 ready-made shortcuts, iA Writer 7.1 makes it easy to automate common tasks.
Check out their Shortcuts Gallery with these categories:
Read the full post (where you can check out their promo video as well).
From 9to5Mac:
Apple TV+ has launched a limited time collection of movies to stream for free as part of your Apple TV+ subscription. The company has done this occasionally in the past to coincide with the themed release of new originals, but this is by far the biggest drop.
and:
The move is perhaps a sign that Apple continues to experiment and ponder whether it should expand beyond its ‘all originals’ strategy for its streaming service.
Here’s the full list in the new “Great Movies on Apple TV+” collection:
I’d love to this into a shortcut for my TV app folder, but the URL currently doesn’t redirect on iOS or iPadOS – I’ve filed it as Feedback to Apple as FB13668679.
From the Upgrade Podcast on YouTube:
Jason and Myke explore the rumors of AI enhancements to Siri and Spotlight in the upcoming release of iOS 18.
Watch the full episode: https://youtu.be/qROj1S0DAEY
Subscribe to the podcast and support the show at https://relay.fm/upgrade
Great perspectives on AI, Siri, and the potential of the Spotlight brand – something I’ve been pondering as well the last few weeks.
Also, I really love that Jason and Myke are clipping out topics into full videos on YouTube now – I noticed it was much easier to link to this idea than a full episode, given that it already has a custom title, thumbnail, description, and start/stopping point.
On Friday, February 23, on the Automators podcast, hosts David Sparks and Rosemary Orchard talked about:
David’s strapped on his Vision Pro and the Automators take a look to see what can (and can not) be automated on Apple’s new platform.
Great episode – good summary of what’s possible with Shortcuts in visionOS 1.0.
Check out Automators in Apple Podcasts or listen to the episode below:
From Jonathan Reed on MacStories:
There are quite a few new Shortcuts actions, so I’m going to list them all first before going into detail on several of them and how they could be used within the app:
- Create scheduled posts
- Get, reschedule, or delete scheduled posts
- Send posts with media or poll attachments
- Send replies to a specified post
- Get the character limit of certain accounts
- Split text for threading
- Get, add, modify, or delete server-side filters linked to your Mastodon accounts
- Get the post or profile currently displayed in the Mona app
- Open the in-app post composer or search view
- Adjust settings for video autoplay
- Get and set image caption (e.g., combining with a third-party caption-generating action)
- Get accessibility text of accounts or posts
- Take a screenshot of a Mastodon post
Great set of options for Shortcuts users – I’ll definitely be testing Mona for scheduling posts.
From Stephen Robles on YouTube:
Eek out every percentage of iPhone battery with these 10 Shortcuts and automations! From low power mode to adjusting brightness and disabling always-on display at critical battery levels, this video is your ultimate guide to extending your iPhone’s battery life.
📲 Get the Shortcuts
Lower Brightness + Toggle Auto
Auto-Brightness URL Scheme: prefs:root=ACCESSIBILITYu0026path=DISPLAY_AND_TEXT
In Stephen Robles’ “Inside My iPhone Setup” video on YouTube, starting at 3:15, he talks about using the Today view to store the Shortcuts widget:
Dive into my full iPhone setup tour for 2024, where I showcase customized Home and Lock Screens, Today View widgets, Shortcuts, Focus Modes, and filters for maximal productivity. If you’re curious about how to tailor your iPhone to fit your daily routine or have any setup questions, drop them below!
I agree that this is the best place to start out when using Shortcuts – it’s always available, even from the Lock Screen.
From Stephen Robles on YouTube:
After 5 months of experimenting with the iPhone Action Button, I’ve settled on one daily use that stands out above the rest. Discover the top 3 alternate uses that almost made the cut and why simplicity won the day for my action button setup.
I mentioned this video on Clockwise this week – my usage has definitely changed. And, as a teaser, Apple is making more actions for Shortcuts in iOS 17.4 that make dynamic Action button shortcuts easier to create…
From Christopher Lawley on YouTube:
Let’s talk about my Shortcuts automations and what’s on my iPad.
Shortcuts:
From Federico Viticci on MacStories:
In version 1.0 of Juno, there wasn’t a way to take a YouTube URL from Play (or any other app) and instantly open it in the app. Whenever I clicked a YouTube link in a visionOS app, it would take me to Safari, with no way to redirect that video to the Juno app instead. With the new Juno URL scheme in version 1.1, this is now possible. Simply replace https:// with juno:// in a YouTube URL, and you’ll be able to watch that video in Juno rather than YouTube’s website.
But we are refined and tasteful people with our Vision Pros, and no one should edit URLs by hand to watch a YouTube video in 2024. So I’ve built two shortcuts that you can install on your Vision Pro to simplify the process of reopening those links in Juno.
The first one is a basic shortcut that you can run on YouTube.com in Safari to open the video you’re watching in Juno. To use it, just select ‘From YouTube to Juno’ in the Safari share sheet, and the video will be opened in Juno, where you can watch it with a superior interface.
The second shortcut I’ve created is one to pick from a list of videos saved in the Play app and watch the selected video in Juno. Aptly named ‘From Play to Juno’, the shortcut is a nice way to go through your Play queue on the Vision Pro and take advantage of Juno’s native YouTube UI to watch your saved videos.
From Federico Viticci on Club MacStories:
A few months ago, I decided to switch to Things as my default task manager. As I shared multiple times on AppStories and MacStories Weekly, I’m really happy with my decision: not only does the design of the Things app create a more relaxed environment for me to manage my responsibilities, but Cultured Code’s embrace of Shortcuts automation has allowed me to create dozens of custom enhancements for Things.
This is the reason why I fell in love with Things: the app’s “simple” design and structure leaves room for power users to make their own functionalities by taking advantage of the app’s integration with Shortcuts. Things doesn’t have a feature you need? Just make it yourself by choosing from the large catalog of Shortcuts actions available in the app.
I previously shared an initial set of shortcuts I created for Things; I also created ThingsBox, an advanced shortcut to intelligently save tasks to the Things inbox. Since those articles, I’ve built several more shortcuts and created personal automations to script certain behaviors of Things on a daily basis. So, exclusively for Club Plus and Premier members, today I’m sharing my full collection of Things shortcuts, which have vastly improved how I manage my tasks on the iPad Pro and capture them on the iPhone.
Let’s take a look.
Great set of shortcuts that solves some of the pain in managing tasks daily in Things.
On Wednesday, February 21, I had the pleasure of joining Dan Moren as a guest along with James Thompson and Rosemary Orchard on Clockwise to talk about:
How we’d use a HomePod with a screen, Apple’s new Sports app, Vision Pro impressions after a couple weeks, and what we use our iPhone’s Action button for.
Check out Clockwise in Apple Podcasts or listen to the episode below:
From Stephen Robles on YouTube:
Supercharge your iPhone with these 7 essential shortcuts, from instant screenshot sharing to smart hotel hacks for travelers. Plus, add convenient features to Apple Podcasts like skip ahead more than 1 minute and skip intros for podcasts.