Automation April: Shortcuts Workshop Part 2
Automation April: Never Forget to Stop a Timery Time Tracking Timer Again
I’ve been using Timery to track my time using the Toggl time tracking service for several years now, and although I’ve gotten better at remembering to stop timers, I still forget sometimes. That’s why I built Stop Long Timer, a shortcut that periodically checks if you’ve had a timer running for a long time and volunteers to stop it. If you decline, Stop Long Timer offers to leave you alone for a while so you can wrap up whatever you’re doing.
Stopping a timer that’s been running for a certain period is the easy part. Timery has an action to check the duration of the current timer and another to stop a timer. What I wanted, though, is something more flexible because sometimes a timer has been running a long time because I’m deep in the middle of a project. In that case, I don’t want to stop the timer. In fact, I don’t want to be bugged again either. That part of Stop Long Timer is a little more complex and is a good example of how you can save data outside a shortcut to use as a reference point.
AppStories, Episode 270 – Our Latest Automation April Shortcuts→
This week on AppStories, we dig into the collection of shortcuts that we’ve released during Automation April so far, including Federico’s Split View Presets and Cleanup Twitter Link and John’s Timestamped Notes and myTunes shortcuts.
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On AppStories+, Federico and John give listeners a behind-the-scenes look at judging the Automation April Shortcuts Contest, reflect on how much has changed as MacStories turns 13 and AppStories turns 5, and explain how they deal with app overload anxiety.
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Last Week, on Club MacStories: A Space Wallpaper Shortcut, Developer Interview, Utilities to Extend Shortcuts, and Giveaways
Because Club MacStories now encompasses more than just newsletters, we’ve created a guide to the past week’s happenings along with a look at what’s coming up next:
MacStories Weekly: Issue 316
- Federico shared SpaceWall, a shortcut that accesses NASA’s space photo library and sets the images as your wallpaper
- I rounded up a collection of third-party utilities that extend the functionality of Shortcuts
- We interviewed Rodrigo Araújo all about his app Charty
- We introduced four new giveaways to celebrate Automation April
- Plus:
- App Debuts
- Highlights from the Club MacStories+ Discord
- Interesting links from around the web
- A sneak peek at what’s next on MacStories’ podcasts
- and more
Up Next
On Tuesday at 12:30 PM Eastern US time, we’ll hold our second Automation April live Shortcuts workshop in the Club MacStories+ Discord community.
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Our thanks to Kolide for sponsoring MacStories this week.
MacStories Weekly: Issue 316
MacStories Unwind: WeCrashed and Wet Leg
This week on MacStories Unwind, Federico recommends WeCrashed on Apple TV+, and John has had the new Wet Leg album on repeat since its release a week ago.
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Show Notes and Links
Federico’s Pick:
- WeCrashed on TV+
John’s Pick:
Automation April: 10 Shortcuts for Mac Multitasking, Markdown, Reminders, Music Lyrics, Twitter, and More
Automation April is well underway: we’ve entered the second week of our month-long special event about automation on Apple platforms, and – in case you haven’t noticed – things are happening everywhere. We’ve published Shortcuts-focused articles on MacStories; interviewed developers of Shortcuts-compatible apps on AppStories; we’ve hosted a Town Hall Workshop on our Discord along with giveaways. And, of course, our panel of judges is now busy testing and evaluating shortcuts submitted by people for the Automation April Shortcuts Contest. If you haven’t yet, now would be a great time to start following @AutomationApril on Twitter to keep up with everything we’re doing.
Last week, I shared an initial batch of 10 shortcuts I prepared for Automation April here on MacStories. I’m back this week with another set of 10 shortcuts that encompass a variety of platforms, app integrations, and functionalities. In this week’s collection, you’ll find even more shortcuts to speed up macOS multitasking; a shortcut that makes it easy to create a calendar event starting from a date; there will be a couple of shortcuts for Markdown and Obsidian users too.
I’m having a lot of fun sharing these sets of shortcuts for Automation April. So once again, let’s dive in.
Apple Announces Winners of Its Shot on iPhone Macro Challenge
In January, Apple announced what has become its annual ‘Shot on iPhone’ photography contest. This year, the challenge presented to photographers was to take macro shots using the iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max. Here’s what Apple has to say about the winners:
Today, Apple is announcing the 10 winners who highlight the global and diverse community of iPhone photographers, with finalists from China, Hungary, India, Italy, Spain, Thailand, and the US. Their stunning images will be featured on apple.com, on Apple’s Instagram (@apple), and on billboards in select cities.
The winning images were picked by a panel of expert photographers that included Anand Varma, Apeksha Maker, Peter McKinnon, Paddy Chao, Yik Keat Lee, Arem Duplessis, Billy Sorrentino, Della Huff, Kaiann Drance, and Pamela Chen.
The image above, ‘Strawberry in Soda’ by Ashley Lee, was taken in San Francisco and is my personal favorite. The photo’s bright colors and the crisp bubbles offset against a dark background convey an energy that really sets it apart. Every photo picked by the judges is unique and stunning in its own way, though, so be sure to check out the winners in Apple’s press release and be on the lookout for them on Apple’s Instagram account and on billboards.