Welcome back for another issue of “Everything Apple Newsletter.”
This week has been busy for both Apple News and myself personally. If you noticed, I hadn’t been as active on Twitter. I have been dealing with some personal family stuff, and that has taken my focus.
Anyways, let’s get into the newsletter. Enjoy!
HomeKit and Automation
Matt Corey, the developer of Signals for HomeKit, is working on adding some more triggers for Shortcuts.
Working on adding Temperature and Humidity as a trigger for Shortcuts, for the next build of Signals for HomeKit. Send yourself, or even a neighbor a text when it gets too hot or cold, especially if you’re on vacation. What else would you use it for?
I ran across this tweet from Adam Bradley that shows how you can use NFC tags with the Time Conditional actions in Shortcuts. He walks you through all the steps to set it up.
What sort of Shortcuts could you create with this integration? Let me know!
Are you looking to get a video doorbell? Why not find one to integrate with Apple HomeKit. iMore created a list of the best video doorbells that work with the Home app.
The best HomeKit video doorbells are a security essential with the ability to keep an eye on your precious packages through the Home app. In addition to remote viewing, some HomeKit doorbells include HomeKit Secure Video, which enables iCloud storage, Activity Zones, and Face Recognition.
This past week brought some more interesting Shortcuts and integrations from the community. Here is what I came across.
Shortcut actions are the guts of any Shortcut. The app comes with quite a few available actions that allow you to do numerous things with Shortcuts. Having more just makes any Shortcut more powerful!
I came across an app (available for macOS and iOS) that provides additional actions to use within the Shortcuts app.
In iOS, we can create automations that will run a chosen Shortcut based on different triggers. When Apple released Shortcuts for Mac, automations weren’t included until now.
Reddit user u/Lrrrs developed an app for the Mac that allows you to create custom automations. I am looking forward to using this!
Selecting text from websites and apps just got easier. I came across this Shortcut that allows you to capture or portion of your device screen and then extract the text. The text is then copied to your clipboard.
You can create a Shortcut that will allow you to capture a portion of your screen, and then the text from that image will be extracted and placed in the clipboard. This is useful where you can't normally select and copy text from websites and apps.
Shortcuts for Mac got some usability refinements in macOS 15.2 beta 2. Originally when you had a Shortcut that prompted you to select a choice from a choice window, the design of it was really not implemented well for macOS.
As Jason Snell brought out, the design has been refined and looks a lot sleeker.
Shortcuts on Mac OS Monterey isn't perfect, but it's better than not having it! Just wrote a shortcut to create a markdown image link because I can never remember the syntax. (You can grab it here: https://t.co/NsrMHLFYQa) https://t.co/qEdVNtiMP6
Here is something that will frustrate Shortcut users on macOS. When using the time variable action, when you select a particular date and time, you are presented with an analog clock and have to drag the clock hands around to choose the time. This needs to be corrected fast by Apple!
Apple seemed to have fixed the local storage paths in the files action. Paths are automatically switched based on which platform you run your Shortcut.
I don't know when Apple fixed it, but as of the latest iOS/iPadOS/macOS betas, local storage paths in Shortcuts automatically translate across platforms.
On My iPhone becomes On My iPad or the Documents folder on Mac, and vice versa.
Here’s another helpful Shortcut that grabs the current URL from Safari and copies it to your clipboard. You can even assign a keyboard shortcut to run it. Thanks, Sridhar, for this impressive Shortcut.
Rick also created a rather sleek and useful Shortcut. Dubbed “Planning Mode,” this Shortcut changes focus, closes certain apps, and then opens needed apps while highlighting two and splitting the screen between them.
Shortcut mode in MacOS is pretty powerful. I’ve created a new shortcut called “planning mode” which opens my todo list, calendar and notes, quits all other apps, and deactivates all notifications for 30 min. This was just the first thing that came to mind, lots of potential... https://t.co/uxroM7M5QH
If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement. A new update for Apple’s iCloud Windows app has added a password generator, as well as support for Apple’s ProRaw and ProRes photo and video formats to the cloud storage utility.
When iOS 15 came out, Apple included the ability to hide your email (available to iCloud+ subscribers) when setting up accounts online or signing up for newsletters, etc.
In the beta of 15.2, you can now use this feature directly inside the Mail app.
With iOS 15 and the Hide My Email feature exclusive to iCloud+ subscribers, you can create unique, random email addresses that forward to your personal inbox whenever you want to keep your personal email address private. In iOS 15.
The iMac saw a big redesign in 2021, with Apple unveiling the colorful new 24-inch iMac back in April. Looking ahead to 2022, however, there is still a lot of focus on the iMac, particularly as the 27-inch iMac awaits its turn to transition away from Intel chips to Apple Silicon.
When macOS Monterey was released, Apple added new features. One of those features was Quick Notes. Quick Notes allows you to quickly create notes by dragging your mouse to the bottom right of your screen. Here’s a tip on how to use this new feature.
In a rather surprising turn of events, Apple announced a new Self-Repair service available for individuals. This will allow those comfortable with repairing their own devices access to genuine Apple parts and tools.
I have always been a huge fan of Apple devices. The quality of the devices is something to be amazed at. If only someone would frame them so people can hang them up for decor. Oh wait, this has been done.
Until next time, have a great week and weekend ahead. Please reply with suggestions regarding Shortcuts or help you may need - I enjoy seeing what the community is creating and are always willing to help!
Discover a new Shortcut or create one yourself? Please share it with me!
