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
Quick thoughts that link out to other sites
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.
Good set of Apple Vision Pro tips from Andru Edwards on YouTube:
Here’s your key to unlocking the full potential of the Apple Vision Pro secret features. Get a look at a bunch of hidden features that Apple has seamlessly integrated into this device. From discovering quirky Easter eggs in various Environments to mastering the use of spatial audio in FaceTime calls, these Apple Vision Pro tips and tricks will change how you use your Apple Vision Pro.
You’ll also learn how to effectively utilize the unique gesture controls, optimize your device for the best viewing experience, and much more. Don’t miss out on the bonus feature at the end, showing you how to get the perfect fit with the solo knit band vs dual loop band.
CHAPTERS
00:00 – Apple Vision Pro Secret Features
00:18 – Apple Vision Pro Environment Easter Eggs
00:50 – Apple Vision Pro Environments Have Different Sound Profile
01:14 – Change Volume of Environments
01:33 – Apple Vision Pro Apps Will Stay Where You Leave Them
02:25 – Transport Apps
02:46 – Bring Apps With You
03:07 – Touch Vision Pro Apps
03:39 – Apple Vision Pro Pinch and Hold Gesture
04:09 – How to Force Quit Apple Vision Pro Apps
04:30 – Apple Vision Pro Light Seal Cushions
05:11 – Increase Apple Vision Pro FOV
05:47 – How To Enable Apple Vision Pro Guest Mode
06:32 – Mirror Apple Vision Pro Display
06:58 – Fast Charge Apple Vision Pro
07:29 – Free iTunes Library 3D Upgrades
08:19 – Apple Music Mini Player
08:58 – Make A Better Apple Vision Pro Persona
10:28 – Apple Vision Pro Personas Work In Several Apps
10:44 – How to See Your Own Apple Vision Pro EyeSight
11:17 – Separate Volume Settings in Apple Vision Pro
11:36 – Use Mac Keyboard u0026 Trackpad with Apple Vision Pro Apps
12:04 – Solo Knit Band vs Dual Loop Band
I knew you could AirPlay to Mac displays, but I’ve never had an iPad or iPhone open while trying to share my view – perhaps there’s a convoluted solution for live-streaming here where I film my iPad screen showing what I’m doing in visionOS…
Finn Voorhees, developer at Detail and creator of apps like Unsqueeze and Castaway, has announced an app for Apple Vision Pro called Shortcut Buttons. The app, available now, lets you place a floating tile for a shortcut in your spatial computing environment and run it instantly – how freaking cool is that?!
According to the site, here’s what Shortcut Button is for:
Shortcut Buttons is great for placing relevant automations nearby when working on notes, calendars, tasks, and other productivity apps. You can avoid switching over to the shortcuts app running in iPad compatibility mode and instead just tap a small nearby button, similar to how you might run a shortcut from the Shortcuts widget on iOS/iPadOS.
Shortcut Buttons is also useful for setting up home automation shortcuts in relevant places. Easily dim the lights or order food when watching a movie, or start a timer when cooking in the kitchen.
With Shortcut Buttons, you can place as many shortcuts as you want, which will anchor-in-place in your spatial computing environment, making it easy to launch your shortcut from anywhere, just by looking at it.
Plus, you can style your Shortcut Buttons according to your preferences, making sure they fit into your environment nicely.
Particularly useful will be the clipboard access, which will let you copy something in visionOS and send it to the Shortcut Input of your shortcut – while browsing for recipes in your kitchen, you could easily copy one and send it to your Recipes list with your Shortcut Button floating over the countertop.
The History view is also incredible, because most Shortcuts users run the same shortcuts over time – this will be super handy for your most-used shortcuts on Apple Vision Pro.
Shortcut Button is available for Apple Vision Pro for an up-front price of $7.99 – a small fee that’s certainly worth it for such a perfect spatial computing utility.
Check out the Shortcut Buttons site, get Shortcut Buttons on the App Store, and view the launch post on Mastodon.
Shared alongside with their videos today, YouTube creators iJustine, MKBHD, and Brian Tong appeared in a FaceTime call together to discuss Apple Vision Pro – or, should I say, their Personas did?
On Justine’s page, she posted a video of the call as the three demo their Personas, generated from scans taken with Apple Vision Pro, where Marques Brownlee says:
The faces are impressive… I think…
It’s very, very… it’s just at the edge of uncanny valley. I know what you guys look like so I know they look like you…”
The effect is almost unsettling, and yet obviously them – it’s sort of like a previous generation video game character version of each person.
Brian Tong says:
I feel like this is a 9/10 to how we actually look
And Justine agrees, continuing:
It’s pretty good. And also skin tones too, because all three of us have very different complexions and I feel like it actually (laughs) It actually did a pretty good job.
Marques continues:
Every single time I’ve gotten on a FaceTime call with this, it’s the same reaction of “Whoa!” Like, “This is weird…
And I realize I’ve gotten used to it, and I think after a while everyone using this is just going to get used to using it after getting over the initial “Holy crap, look at this thing.”
View the video clip or watch the segment in Justine’s full video.
Joanna Stern, journalist at The Wall Street Journal, made a live TV appearance today while wearing the Apple Vision Pro on CBNC’s The Squawk on the Street:
“I think this is a Apple die-hard product right now.”
@WSJ columnist @joannastern joins @SaraEisen and @CarlQuintanilla to break down her review of Apple’s new headset: the Vision Pro. $AAPL
Iconic.
Check out Joanna’s review (web, YouTube), which stands out among the list of early reviewers, and view the video on CNBC.com or X.
From Emmanuel Crouvisier , developer of CardPointers:
PSA: Test your App Shortcuts via Siri on Apple Vision Pro if you’re shipping on Friday.
A bunch of things don’t work, including NavigationLink, GroupBox, and more, resulting in the “McDonald’s box of death”.
Once you’ve tweaked them though, they feel so great.
As for the “McDonald’s box of death,” Emmanuel describes it in another reply:
Haha yellow box with the red slash across it. What you surely saw with your widgets when iOS 17 came out and didn’t have the widget background stuff set.
View the full thread, plus learn about Cardpointers on the web or get it on the App Store.