Technology

Catch up on what we published this week, including a great workflow on using Shortcuts and app launchers to automagically track your time, an update to our review of the best time tracking app, an upcoming webinar, and more.

If you speak to anyone who more than dabbles in automation on macOS, Keyboard Maestro is almost certainly going to be a utility that gets mentioned. I’m certainly no stranger to the application and have been using it for over a decade to manage a large proportion of my Mac automations. But when you invest like that, you do tend to build up a large set of macros and having memorable ways to access them with short codes, hot keys, gestures, palettes, etc. can become a little overwhelming. I’m personally much better at remembering parts of the names and so searching an index of the available m...

This originally appeared in Issue 27 of “What’s New in Shortcuts?” Hello all – we’re currently experiencing a fairly major outage for iCloud links related to Shortcuts, and at the moment almost every shortcut that has been shared in the past cannot be installed. There are articles from places like iMore, MacStories, 9to5Mac, and MacRumors on it – […]

Like this story, this image was uploaded to Six Colors using a shortcut. This week Apple (hopefully temporarily?) broke the sharing of Shortcuts. I rely on Shortcuts when I’m working on my iP…

Bartender has long been a contender for Most Valuable Utility on my Mac. I've mentioned it a lot. It's up there with TextExpander and BetterTouchTool. And I can't believe it, but it somehow keeps

Allen writes about taking a fresh look at your workflow and using the new features in OmniFocus Pro 3.

Learn how to use the new Approvals app to run a file or request through an approval in private chat, a Team, the central Approvals hub, or by building your o...

In this step-by-step tutorial, learn the top 20 best tips and tricks in Zoom Video Conferencing. For example, create your own custom virtual background, have...

If you—or your teenager—are into gaming, you’ve likely at least heard of Discord, even if you haven’t used it yourself. It’s one more way for teenagers to connect with their friends and chat about gaming or other topics via private or public servers, individual messages, or group chats. But, as with any social network like this, there is also the potential for them to be exposed to mature themes, abusive language, cyber bullying, and other inappropriate content.

Ready to upgrade your USB microphone or headset to something better? Here’s how to make sense of pro(ish) audio gear.

Last week, I posted some notes about five different tools for live captioning a Zoom session. After I posted, I found out that OU had just turned on a new

Is your OmniFocus Inbox overflowing with tasks, random thoughts, ideas, and more? Learn how and why to capture into Drafts instead of OmniFocus. You'll also learn how to use Drafts as a convenient repository for OmniFocus project notes and templates. While it may feel good to dump your thou ...

ZoomOSC is a FREE utility to control a Zoom Video Meeting with the OSC open protocol. This enables virtual performance and countless interactive audience experience opportunities.

Here are some “rockstar resources” for #PowerPoint: Free design assets, webinars, experts to follow and a customized feed to keep your learning going 24/7

The 2020 Internet Health Report analyzes the health of the internet based on five issue areas: privacy and security, openness, decentralization, digital inclusion, web literacy.

Apple Shortcuts: Tutorials, Tip & Tricks

I am an avid creator of Shortcuts on Apple’s iPhone and iPad devices, and also of Elgato’s Stream Deck hardware that provides me with additional dynamic trigger buttons to use on both my personal Mac and my work PC. I personally make use of a lot of text-based identifiers for content on my Stream Deck, but in other areas I revert to meaningful pictograms. I posted earlier this year about a number of repositories that would give you over 3,800 icons for use with your Stream Deck. But I’ve moved on a little from that. I would like to explain how I am now generating icons using Apple’s Shortcu...

Stephen Millard from Thought Asylum joins in to share his automation journey and his extraordinary ecosystem of plugins Drafts.

CARROT Weather has been a MacStories favorite for years now. Just last month we named it the Best Watch App of 2020 in our annual MacStories Selects awards. One of the impressive features in CARROT’s Apple Watch app is the ability to customize the interface to display exactly the weather data that you’re interested in.

This month we're highlighting Pushcut, a powerful utility that uses triggers and notifications for shortcuts, home, and online automations. We spoke with Founder and CEO, Simon Leeb, and learned more about Pushcut, the benefits of semi-automations, and their new service on IFTTT

In this episode, David and Rosemary attempt to automate as much communication as possible, from email to messages and TextExpander to Shortcuts and Drafts, there’s plenty of ways to get stuck in!

Here's the latest stuff in Bunch 1.3.1!

RSS isn't dead; it's thriving. If you stopped using RSS when Google Reader shut down—or if you have no idea what RSS is—this guide is for you.

For ten years or so I've been putting down my thoughts on design, and technology, and ethics. Essays after essay. Some of those essays get turned into talks, some of them get blown out into books, but the essay has always been the native form for all these. I am, at heart, an essay writer. I love the form. It's long enough to be nuanced, and short enough to get it out immediately. All the essays here have already appeared somewhere. Some might be familiar. But I thought it'd be nice to get them all in one book. Cause man I love holding a book, and flipping through it, and writing notes in t...