John
AppStories Episode 146 - Music Discovery Apps, Websites, and MusicBot
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48:03
48:03
This week, Federico and John tackle music discovery apps, third-party music players, websites, and MusicBot.
Connected, Episode 277: Good Luck Not Waking Up the Entire Building→
On this week’s episode of Connected:
After working out what the award should be for the two Chairman spots, the boys ponder the future of the iPad Pro’s accessories and the holes on the back of the rack-mounted Mac Pro. Then, Myke provides a tour of CES.
You can listen below (and find the show notes here).
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Shortcuts Utility Apps
AppStories Episode 145 - Shortcuts Utility Apps
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41:40
41:40
This week, Federico and John cover Shortcuts utilities including Toolbox Pro, Pushcut, and LaunchCuts. They also preview an upcoming Shortcuts utility from Simon Stovring called Data Jar and explain the difference between Shortcuts, shortcuts, Siri Shortcuts, and other terminology.
The New Year’s Shortcuts Pack
For this special issue of MacStories Weekly, I thought it’d be fun – and appropriate – to ring in the new year with a handful of shortcuts that can help you form new habits or gain a better understanding of your time. While I often write about using Shortcuts for productivity purposes (and sometimes...
Member Requests
Question: I am trying to make a Shortcut to add a Trello card to Reminders with the link to the card in the URL field of the reminder. I managed to create it in iOS 12, but since iOS 13 with the new parameters framework I cannot manage to get the card’s name and the...
Adapt, Episode 16: Having Fun with the iPad→
On this week’s episode of Adapt:
Federico and Ryan ease into the new year by taking a break from iPad productivity and explaining how they use the device for fun. Plus a challenge recap, #AskAdapt, and more.
You can listen below (and find the show notes here), and don’t forget to send us questions using #AskAdapt and by tagging our Twitter account.
Sponsored by:
- TextExpander, from Smile: Unlock your productivity with TextExpander. Get 20% off with your first year.
Connected, Episode 276: Symbiosis, Osmosis, Whatever→
On this week’s episode of Connected:
The boys kick of 2020 with a lot of follow-up including clarifying what being a Chairman means, a challenge for the Upgradies and a debate about the iPad Air, then conversations about LaunchCuts and Twitter’s iPad app.
You can listen below (and find the show notes here).
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LaunchCuts Review: A Better Way to Organize Your Shortcuts with Folders, Advanced Search, and Custom Views
Developed by Adam Tow, LaunchCuts is the latest entry in a series of meta-utilities designed to extend Apple’s Shortcuts app with new functionalities. Unlike Toolbox Pro and Pushcut, however, LaunchCuts is the most peculiar and niche I’ve tested insofar as it doesn’t provide Shortcuts with exclusive actions nor does it come with its own web service to deliver rich push notifications; instead, LaunchCuts’ sole purpose is to offer an alternative view for your shortcut library with folders and powerful search filters. If you have less than 20 shortcuts installed on your iPhone or iPad, you’re likely not going to get much benefit out of LaunchCuts’ advanced organizational tools; but if you’re like me and use hundreds of different shortcuts on a regular basis, and especially if your library has grown out of control over the past few years, you’re going to need the assistance of LaunchCuts to make sense of it all.
Like the aforementioned Shortcuts utilities, LaunchCuts was born of its developer’s frustration with the lack of folders in Shortcuts – a basic feature that is still bafflingly absent from the app in 2020. As I keep pointing out in my iOS reviews, I find Apple’s continuing reliance on a crude, one-level-deep grid for shortcuts perplexing at best – particularly when the app is so very clearly employed by professional users who want to accomplish more on their iPhones and iPads.
LaunchCuts was originally created by Tow as an advanced shortcut that let you tag and organize your shortcuts from within the Shortcuts app itself. I remember playing around with the original version of LaunchCuts and, although technically remarkable, I didn’t find much utility in it since it was limited by the UI constraints of Shortcuts; LaunchCuts was begging to become a fully-fledged app with a custom interface to take advantage of Tow’s original concept. Now that it’s a native app, LaunchCuts can fulfill Tow’s vision for taming cluttered and disorganized Shortcuts libraries in a way that wouldn’t have been possible as a shortcut – all while taking advantage of new features in iOS and iPadOS 13.
Getting More Out of Safari for iPadOS
AppStories Episode 144 - Getting More Out of Safari for iPadOS
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53:17
53:17
This week, Federico and John discuss the sort of sophisticated web apps that can be used with Safari on iPadOS 13 and share a bunch of tips and tricks based on Apple’s latest updates to Safari.