MacStories Weekly: Issue 78
In this issue: Hello Weather, Audio Recording and Editing Apps, a Newton and Amazon Echo giveaway, Joe Rosensteel’s Home screen, plus the conclusion of Federico’s Trello workflow series, Weekly Q&A, Tip, Links, stickers, App Debuts, and recap of MacStories articles.
After some requests from a few Club members this year, starting this week it’s possible to purchase team subscriptions for Club MacStories.
It’s always been okay to share the occasional newsletter with friends and colleagues, but if you have a team/organization and would like every member to receive issues on their own email account every week, you can now buy a team subscription and invite every member to join Club MacStories. No more email forwarding, no more shared links – everyone in your organization will be able to set up a Club MacStories account and use the email address they prefer.
We’re rolling out this ability for teams of 5 people and above. If you have any questions or are interested in purchasing a team subscription, you can email me directly at viticci@macstories.net.
– Federico
MACSTORIES RECOMMENDS
Great apps, accessories, gear, and media recommended by the MacStories team.
Hello Weather
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Like most people who like trying different apps for the same task on their iOS devices, I’ve had my fair share of experiences with weather apps on the iPhone and iPad. For the past couple of years, I’ve been using Weather Underground, a well-known weather service with a native iOS app that packs a lot of information and customization options to get exactly the kind of weather report and forecasts you want.
What sets Weather Underground apart – at least in my area – is the quality of its weather data, which is often more precise and timely than other services. Weather Underground’s accuracy is, I believe, partly due to its reliance on crowdsourced data: the company integrates with a variety of weather stations that provide hyper-local reports that inform the service’s database via real-time stats. For instance, there’s a public Netatmo weather station at the end of the street where I live, which I can browse and mark as a favorite in the Weather Underground app.
There’s no denying, however, that Weather Underground isn’t the most intuitive weather app on iOS. There are a lot of settings to tweak and different screens to consult, which can be somewhat daunting to someone who just wants to quickly check the weather. On the other hand, while there’s no shortage of pretty weather apps on the App Store, their appeal is only skin-deep as their data is often lackluster or too generic.
Hello Weather strikes a great balance between data accuracy and beautiful design with a polished, easy-to-use interface that combines Weather Underground data with forecasts that don’t need instructions. Using plain English and colorful icons and bars, Hello Weather tells you what the weather is like right now, plus what it’s going to be over the next few hours and days. The app’s main screen is a refreshingly simple summary of weather data you’re likely interested in. I’m a fan of the friendly typeface and iconography used in Hello Weather.
You can swipe on each of the app’s main sections to view more detailed data. These sub-screens pack more information, but they’re equally well-designed and legible. By swiping over the first section, for instance, you’ll get details on humidity, sunrise and sunset, wind, and pressure.
By default, Hello Weather uses Dark Sky as its weather data provider, which also supports precipitation alerts for the US, UK, and Ireland. In my experience, Dark Sky data in Italy isn’t extremely trustworthy. That’s why I was immediately interested in Hello Weather’s subscription-based Fan Club: with a $4.99/year subscription, you can directly support the app and unlock additional features such as Weather Underground data, alternate app icons, and a night mode. After becoming a Fan Club member, I was able to switch to WU data instead of Dark Sky; now, Hello Weather shows the same conditions and forecasts reported in Weather Underground, albeit in a much leaner, intuitive app that I can open to quickly check the weather for any saved location.
I’m going to keep Weather Underground installed on my devices because of all the options and settings that I can’t view elsewhere, such as local weather stations, webcams, and in-depth forecasts. From now on, though, Hello Weather is going to be the primary weather app I’ll check on a daily basis. Hello Weather’s mix of Weather Underground data and elegant interface is perfect for my needs. If you also prefer Weather Underground data but would like a simpler experience on iOS, I recommend taking Hello Weather for a spin.
MACSTORIES COLLECTIONS
iOS Audio Recording and Editing Apps
Audio recording has been a mainstay of iOS since at least iOS 3 when Apple introduced its Voice Memos app. The iOS audio APIs have some notable constraints like the inability to maintain a Skype call and record an external audio source simultaneously, but that hasn’t stopped a comprehensive set of audio recording tools from emerging that work within those limits.
Ferrite Recording Studio
The depth of Ferrite is remarkable. Designed for spoken word recording, Ferrite is used by podcasters, journalists, audiobook producers, and others. The app is free to download and try with more advanced features available as In-App Purchases.
Ferrite includes tools for recording and mixing audio. The app defaults to the recording controls when opened. A quick tap of the microphone button starts and stops a new recording. Audio clips appear below the recording button. Each clip can be edited, have metadata added and edited, can be shared using the system share sheet, or deleted. From inside any clip, you can start a new editing project and import additional tracks from the library of clips within Ferrite or external sources using the iOS document picker.
With In-App Purchases, Ferrite lets you record and store over two weeks of audio, edit up to 32 separate tracks, and create projects that are up to 24 hours long. A second In-App Purchase adds audio editing effects like a noise gate, compression, individual track filtering, and more. I still prefer the precision of editing audio with a mouse or trackpad, but Ferrite is an incredibly powerful tool for creating professional-level audio.
AudioShare
AudioShare is an app that I used when I recorded a series of interviews with developers at WWDC last year. I primarily used it as a way to upload recordings to SoundCloud, which few apps supported at the time, but it’s a suite of audio tools that does a whole lot more.
Audio can be imported into AudioShare in multiple ways, including direct recording, pasting from the pasteboard or AudioCopy 2, transfer over WiFi, from Dropbox, your music library, or the document picker, or using iTunes file sharing. Once your audio is imported, AudioShare can normalize audio, applying gain to a track to adjust its amplitude in line with a target level. The app can also be used to trim tracks and fade sections. When you’re finished editing, AudioShare can convert audio files to MP3, WAV, AIFF, CAF, and ACC file types, between stereo and mono, and adjust the bit depth and sample rate of tracks.
ShurePlus MOTIV
ShurePlus MOTIV is made by microphone manufacturer Shure to complement its line of portable microphones, but can also be used with the iPhone’s built-in mic. The only part of the app that won’t work without a Shure mic plugged in is the microphone settings. I’ve used ShurePlus MOTIV with Shure’s MV88 Lightning microphone to create short audio clips for MacStories’ Telegram channel in the past, and it works well. When I’m finished recording, I can trim or split the clip, apply fades, or convert the track to an AAC file at different bit rates or to Apple Lossless. You can also edit metadata and add artwork, which makes it a great all around tool to making quick recordings.<\p>
Just Press Record
Just Press Record is a little different than the other apps in this collection. Instead of focusing on editing audio, Just Press Record emphasizes quick capture and speech-to-text conversion. The app presents you with a big record button so you can start recording immediately. Recordings are named with a timestamp and stored in iCloud Drive.
My favorite part of Just Press Record is its audio transcription, which feels like magic. When turned on, the app will transcribe your audio when you stop recording. Your words will then scroll along in the playback section of the app as you replay the audio. If you speak clearly and the environment isn’t too noisy, the transcription is very accurate. When you’re finished, you can share the audio or transcript using the share sheet, which makes the app a great way to record thoughts as they occur to you and worry about where to send the audio or text later.
CLUB PERKS
As Club MacStories members, you'll occasionally have access to to giveaways, discounts, and free downloads.
Newton
Last week, Ryan profiled Newton, the email client for power users, in the Favorite section. Today, we have an exclusive Club MacStories perk for 10 lucky members - 10 1-year subscriptions to the Newton email service worth $49.99 each that will be given away randomly.
Simply enter your Club MacStories email address using the link below and we will randomly select 10 winners. Entries close at 9 PM New York time on Thursday, May 11th. Winners will be contacted within 3 days and will be sent an In-App Purchase promo code to redeem the subscription for the Newton iOS app.
Enter to win a free 1-year Newton subscription
Newton and an Amazon Echo
In addition, Newton, which introduced an Alexa skill yesterday, is giving away an Echo and a Newton 1-year subscription to one lucky Club MacStories member.
The Amazon Echo giveaway is US-only and must be entered separately from the giveaway above. Enter your Club MacStories email below and we will randomly select a winner. Entries close at 9 PM New York time on Thursday, May 11th. The winner will be contacted by Newton for their US mailing address.
Enter to win a free Amazon Echo and a 1-year Newton subscription
TIPS
Tips and tricks to master your apps and be more productive.
Force Quitting an Apple Watch App
If one of your Apple Watch apps ever gets stuck and you need to force quit it, the process to do that is simple, but unintuitive.
Once the app is open, press and hold the Watch’s side button until the screen with shutdown options appears, then release the button and immediately press and hold the Digital Crown until the app closes.
SHORTCUTS CORNER
Get help and suggestions for your iOS shortcuts and productivity apps.
Shortcuts Essentials
Workflow and the Trello API, Part 3: Exporting Multiple Trello Cards to Ulysses
In the first two parts of the Trello API series, I covered the basics of authentication with the service through Workflow and detailed how we can export a single Trello card as a Markdown sheet to Ulysses. In today’s final installment, I’m going to describe the workflow I’ve built to pick multiple Trello cards and save them individually to Ulysses as rich sheets containing text, comments, and attachments.
In last week’s workflow, we used filters to find a Trello card among others in a list. Specifically, the workflow filtered cards by name, member, and label to find one (or multiple ones) that could be sent to Ulysses as plain Markdown text.
This week’s workflow takes a different direction: rather than filtering cards, the workflow loads all cards from a Trello list and allows you to choose which ones you want to export. The workflow relies on the authentication and list-saving methods previously detailed in issue 76 of MacStories Weekly, which will fetch the necessary information from text files in iCloud Drive. However, while my version of this workflow doesn’t have filters, you can modify it to add the conditions you want simply by following last week’s examples.
Before going into the structure of the workflow itself, let’s outline the goals:
- The workflow needs to load all cards contained in a Trello list;
- Cards will be presented in a native list, where the user can pick multiple ones;
- Each card is checked for comments or an image cover attached to it;
- Each card is converted to a Markdown sheet in Ulysses;
- If comments or an image cover are attached to a card, they’ll be attached to the newly created sheet as notes and image attachments, respectively.
This was relatively easy to build in the Trello API, with some caveats and notable adjustments to consider.
The workflow starts by creating two empty variables for Comments and Attachments. These variables will be used later on to count items attached to a Trello card, and it’s important that you keep them at the beginning of the workflow. Like last week’s workflow, you’ll only have to fill in two Import Questions during setup: the name of the Trello list to extract cards from (as saved to a text file in iCloud Drive) and the ID of the Ulysses group where you want to export cards as sheets.
After authenticating with the Trello API and loading all cards from a list, the workflow uses a repeat loop and Magic Variables to create a dictionary of card names and IDs. This dictionary is used to present a list of cards to the user, where the ‘Select Multiple’ toggle is enabled to allow for selecting multiple cards at once. This is where the most important section of the workflow starts.
The workflow begins iterating over each card selected by the user, and it checks if an attachment cover or comments are also attached to the card. While Trello supports attaching any file to a card, Ulysses only supports attaching *images* to a sheet; therefore, if we want to integrate Trello with Ulysses, the best way to export an image from a card is to look for the attachment cover – the image that is displayed at the top of a card.
If you plan on integrating Trello with other apps that support receiving attachments via URL schemes (such as DEVONthink or OmniFocus), you could extend this workflow to consider any type of attachment (PDFs, text files, etc.) attached to a card.
Both the image attachment cover and comments are parsed by the workflow by looking at the badges parameter returned by the API. As the name suggests, if a card has a comment, there will be a numeric value for the comment under the badges object; if badges equals zero for both items, it means there are no comments or image covers in a card.
If an image is available, the version from the Trello CDN is fetched as URL and converted to an image variable. In my tests, Trello appears to be compressing image covers and doesn’t expose a full-resolution version to the API. The image received by Workflow is a downsampled one which, however, is good enough to attach to Ulysses.
As for comments: because multiple ones can be attached to a card, I had to find a way to combine multiple comments in a single string of text. My solution involves separating each comment with a new line and three dashes (—), so that when attached to Ulysses they retain some sense of separation between them. Additionally, each comment is presented with the name of the author, so the context of the original conversation isn’t lost once the card is transformed in a Ulysses sheet.
With all the details for each card extracted from Trello, the workflow can finally create new sheets in Ulysses. Like last week’s workflow, each card’s title becomes the sheet’s title, while the card’s description is used as body text in Ulysses, with support for Markdown formatting.
This time, however, we also want to attach additional content to the card, which means we have to return to Workflow and use a separate Ulysses action. The default ‘New Ulysses Sheet’ action, in fact, doesn’t support attaching notes and comments while creating a new sheet.
To do this, we have to enable the ‘Return to Workflow’ toggle in the ‘New Ulysses Sheet’ action, which will reopen Workflow after Ulysses has created a new sheet. When Workflow is launched again, it’s passed the ID of the new sheet by Ulysses, which we can use as the Sheet Identifier value in the separate ‘Attach to Ulysses Sheet’ action.
There are two ‘Attach…’ actions for Ulysses in this workflow – one for comments, the other for the image cover – which will launch Ulysses twice. This is why, as always, I recommend running this workflow in full-screen mode, as Workflow and Ulysses will launch each other back and forth several times – something that Split View doesn’t like on iOS.
At the end of the workflow, you’ll be kicked back to the Workflow app one last time, and you’ll be presented with an alert that counts all the sheets that have been created in Ulysses. If you open Ulysses, you’ll find your Trello cards recreated as sheets in the group you selected, with their descriptions, comments, and image covers extracted from Trello.
This workflow concludes my series on working with the Trello API to transform cards into editable text content in Ulysses. With today’s workflow, we’ve ticked all the boxes requested by member Silvio in Issue 76 of MacStories Weekly, and perhaps even more. We’ve created a suite of workflows to authenticate with Trello, extract details for boards, lists, cards, members, and labels, and we’ve also explored how to filter cards, export them individually or in groups of multiple cards, and we’ve detailed integration with Ulysses and laid the foundation for other apps to receive content from Trello.
The Markdown text fetched from Trello and prepared by Workflow can be sent to any app that has a native Workflow action or a URL scheme that supports x-callback-url. You can remix and extend these workflows any way you want and integrate Trello with apps that wouldn’t normally work well with the service.
You can download the workflow here to export multiple Trello cards to Ulysses.
SHORTCUTS CORNER
Get help and suggestions for your iOS shortcuts and productivity apps.
Member Requests
Question: Thank you for giving us the workflow a while back for the iPad and iPhone frames. Can you share an Apple Watch workflow or PNG template with the same process? (Tyler Abate)
The first step to accomplishing this task is having the Apple Watch frame saved to the right place. You can download the frame here, and once you have that, grab the workflow. In the workflow’s ‘Get File’ action, set the file path based on where you saved the frame. After that is set up, you can run the workflow from the share sheet with one or more Apple Watch screenshots as input, and the frames and screenshots will be combined.
You can get the workflow here.
WEEKLY Q&A
Your weekly correspondence with the MacStories team.
Question: I made several custom ringtones and stored them on my Mac as well as Amazon Drive (any other cloud storage would be fine as well). So, one day I was trying to load a ringtone from cloud storage, transfer it to my wife’s iPhone and…install it. But how? I couldn’t figure out any way to use this ringtone file (named correctly .m4r and containing valid sound data inside!). Do you know any way? (Markus Stöbe)
This can be accomplished using GarageBand for iOS. There are a lot of steps, but once you walk through the process once, it’s not too hard to repeat as needed.
The first thing you’ll want to do is save your custom ringtones to iCloud Drive. Next, open GarageBand for iOS and swipe left or right until you find the Audio Recorder instrument and tap it. To the right of the record button is a metronome icon. If it’s blue, tap it to disable the metronome feature. Next, tap the ‘Tracks’ button with the icon of three sliders on it to create a new track.
There is a small ‘+’ button on the right-hand edge of the timeline. Tap it and from the popup, select ‘Section A.’ Set its length under ‘Manual’ to 30, which will limit the track length to 30 seconds, the maximum length of a ringtone. If the ringtone you are importing is shorter, use that number instead.
Tap the ‘Loops’ button in the toolbar. From the popup, pick ‘Audio Files’ at the top. Now you can select ‘Import from iCloud Drive’ to import one of your custom ringtones from iCloud Drive. Select your file from iCloud Drive and drag it to the track you previously created making sure that the beginning of the track is at the far left-hand side of the timeline.
Tap the downward-facing arrow button in the top left corner of the screen to go to ‘My Songs.’ You’ll see your imported ringtone in the list of songs. Tap ‘Select,’ pick your ringtone, and tap the share button. Select the action extension called ‘Ringtone.’ From the popup tap ‘Export.’ GarageBand will export the file and give you the option to ‘Use sound as…,’ which you can use to assign the ringtone as your standard ringtone, a text tone, or to a particular contact. You can also access your new ringtone from Settings -> Sounds -> Ringtone.
Question: I have 500+ followings in my Twitter account, and I want to add them to the lists I’ve created so I can read tweets like I read RSS feeds. I tried this in Twitter’s web app, the official Twitter iOS app, and Tweetbot, but the process is tedious and laborious. Is there any way or any app can help me add followings to the created lists as fast as possible? (Samuel)
I don’t use lists extensively, but one tool that I’ve seen mentioned in several places, but have not tried myself, is Twilistmanager, a web app that helps you manage your Twitter lists. What makes management with Twilistmanager faster than any Twitter client is the layout. You log in with your Twitter credentials and the app creates something that looks a lot like a giant spreadsheet with the accounts you follow on the y-axis and your lists along the x-axis. Adding and removing accounts from various lists is simply a matter of clicking the checkboxes in the grid created by the accounts you follow and your lists.
INTERESTING LINKS
Great reads and links from around the web.
Hulu introduced a live TV service similar to YouTube’s that is a little more expensive but includes more channels and the Hulu catalog of on-demand shows. (Link)
Fast Company profiles Prefer, a new service (NYC-only for now) accessed through an iOS or Android app that leverages your personal connections to recommend trusted service providers to friends and family. (Link)
The newest smart lock with HomeKit support, Friday Lock, is now available for pre-order with shipping estimates of 3-4 weeks. The lock is available in seven different finishes, supports WiFi, and looks sleek. (Link)
The BatteryPro is Elevation Lab’s latest iOS accessory: an integrated (MFi-certified) Apple Watch charger that also has a high-speed USB port, which you can use to charge iPhones and other devices. The BatteryPro has a 8000mAh battery and a strap to secure the Watch while charging. (Link)
YouTube has launched a public preview of a new design for its desktop site, which, among other subtle improvements, adds a dark mode. (Link)
A crowdfunding campaign for PowerUp, a MacBook charger that, unlike Apple’s model, comes with a built-in USB-C cable and three additional USB-A ports to charge other devices. The PowerUp can also be used without a MacBook as a charger and USB hub. (Link)
Slack is rolling out a more powerful search feature that uses AI to find relevant users and channels about the topic at hand. Currently, the feature is limited to desktop users for teams on paid plans with over 50 members. (Link)
OwlDeck is an upcoming macOS presentation app focused on programmers and writers. OwlDeck will natively support Markdown and code snippets in presentations, with syntax highlighting and dynamic font sizing features. (Link)
THE ALBUM
We love stickers in iMessage, and here we'll share some of our favorites.
Glasses Cats with Attitude
The animation of these cats is excellent. Cats with wild glasses and messages for your friends and family add a little attitude to your conversations.
Vikings Head
Vikings could be an up-and-coming sticker category; at least I hope so. This cartoon-style pack is a good alternative when you’re tired of standard emoji.
Love & Hate - Crazy Stupid Love
This collection is one of my favorite bizarre sticker packs so far this year. The style of the illustrations has an old-time feel that evokes cartoons from the 30s and 40s but with an off-kilter feel.
Coffee Time!
It’s early - too early - but with a pot of coffee and these stickers I’m ready to share my blurry-eyed, caffeine-fueled morning with anyone else who’s up already.
TacoMoji
The emojification of every known food is an unstoppable sticker machine that marches on unabated with these charming taco faces.
Punny Animals
From “zero fox given” to “owl by myself”, these stickers are a fantastic new entry in the animal puns category of the iMessage App Store. The wolf is absolutely adorable.
APP DEBUTS
Noteworthy new app releases and updates, handpicked by the MacStories team.
Aurora Browser
Aurora is a simple Mac browser that’s handy if you need reference material nearby. The browser has minimal chrome filling all available space with content and sits on top of all your other windows, so it doesn’t get lost. If Aurora gets in the way though, you can collapse it into its title bar with a quick click or global hotkey combination. You can also set the opacity of Aurora’s window in 10% increments so you can see what’s behind it.
Vanilla
Vanilla is a simpler version of Bartender in many ways. The app can hide menu bar items behind a tiny button in the menu bar that expands and contracts your lineup of menu bar apps when clicked. The app is free, but paying $3.99 unlocks the ability to remove menu bar items permanently, automatically hide icons after five seconds, and start Vanilla at login. I like the simplicity of Vanilla, but I still prefer the way Bartender displays hidden menu bar items below the main menu bar, which works better on small screens. Vanilla’s method of expanding within the main menu bar means items on the far left can get cut off if they extend to the menu of an app you are using. Vanilla also doesn’t work if you auto-hide your menu bar.
Marvel: Color Your Own
Developed by the makers of Pigment, this app lets you add colors to licensed Marvel illustrations from Guardians of the Galaxy, Civil War, Doctor Strange, and more. You can tap to fill empty spots or use an Apple Pencil, choosing from a selection of 12 brushes and 37 color palettes. With a subscription, you’ll get access to all pages, new illustrations weekly, and other premium effects with the ability to share images without watermarks.
xFonts
A free and open-source iOS app to install custom fonts on the iPhone and iPad, which can later be used in apps that rely on the native font picker of iOS, such as Apple’s iWork suite. Fonts must be in the .ttf and .otf formats, and they can be sent to xFonts with iTunes File Sharing or by copying them through the share sheet.
Treeo
Fun new app to vote on various topics with emoji. Think of it as polls reimagined for the age of emoji and GIFs. Treeo has a social layer in that you can see how friends and other people have voted, and you can also follow other users to see their “treeos” and vote on them. There are several interesting design touches in the app, too.
tung.fm
Tung is described as a “social podcast player” that lets you share clips and comments on podcast episodes with other listeners. You can subscribe to podcasts as in other apps, but Tung also enables you to share clips of specific moments from episodes and create discussions around topics within the app. An interesting idea that I could see other companies explore as well.
Panora
Nice utility to easily turn panoramas into square photos to post on Instagram as a sequence of images. Panora creates slices from pano shots that you can then re-import in Instagram in a single post. Elegant design and nice use of 3D Touch to edit tiles.
HOME SCREENS
Friends of MacStories share their iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch Home screens.
Joe Rosensteel
Twitter: @joesteel. VFX artist and podcast host of Defocused and Unhelpful Suggestions.
Home screens are so personal that I’m not really sure if there’s any merit to sharing them for any other reason than validation. Public flogging doesn’t really seem like a positive thing.
Dock
- Phone - I don’t make a lot of calls, I mostly have it there because if I miss someone’s call, and it was important, I like to have the red badge visible so I can call the person back as quickly as possible. I know that doesn’t seem like a worthwhile use of Dock space to most people, but call me old-fashioned.
- Mail - The stock email app works well enough for the level of personal email that I have to deal with.
- Safari - The Interwebs.
- Overcast - My preferred podcast player. I listen to a lot of podcasts and iOS likes to helpfully jettison what I was listening to from Control Center on a periodic basis, so it’s nice to have it somewhere I can get at it quickly.
Row One
- Messages
- Calendar - This is absolutely good enough for my needs and it lets me coordinate podcast recording times efficiently through iCloud.
- Clock - I frequently adjust my alarm.
- Camera - I know it’s in Control Center, and swiping from the Lock sreen, but I prefer to have it here too.
- Photos - Quick access to screenshots!
- Store - I lumped all of Apple’s various iTunes-y things in here. I don’t frequently need to access them and it may soon be demoted to the Oubliette folder on another screen.
- Google Maps - I need lane guidance if I’m going somewhere I haven’t been before and Apple has neglected to add it to Apple Maps. Also sometimes Apple Maps provides some real wonky directions and I feel like double-checking with Google.
- Apple Maps - This is one of the most improved apps in the last iteration of iOS, but it still has a long way to go.
- Settings - Updates, things, stuff.
- 1Password - It acts as a kind of launcher for the web sites I need to go to for payments, or accounts, etc.
- Tweetbot - My preferred method to manage reading my Twitter timeline.
- Twitter - The official client isn’t very good but it does have certain features that are easier than Tweetbot (like quickly reviewing non-mention activity, or adding a GIF to a tweet).
- Dropbox - Stuff.
- IRCCloud - Sometimes podcasts stream live, over the Internet, and they have IRC rooms set up for people to interact during that live event. The embedded web client for those things sucks on iOS and this is the best of the iOS apps I have tried.
- Drafts - I jot down all kinds of stuff here. I don’t use the more complex features, but I prefer it to the stock Notes app.
- Starbucks - Online order and pickup help me out if I’m in a rush and can’t have good coffee.
- Outlook - My real job uses Outlook, and rather than mix it in with my personal email accounts in the Mail app, I like to have it walled off in its own app. If I’m going on vacation, I can quickly get it off of my Home screen.
- Defocused Bootleg - One of my podcasts records live, and then publishes the raw recording for members to listen to early, with the final episode coming out about a week after. That’s referred to as the “Bootleg” feed. This Workflow shortcut quickly lets me type the name of the movie we discussed on the podcast to go into a formatted tweet from the podcast’s Twitter account.
- Slack - Slacks on Slacks on Slacks.
- Amazon - The folder is filled with all the various Amazon apps I use, with the store, Music, and Prime Now being the main ones.
- TV - I have this here to remember to test TV the app. I don’t watch much video through it. I can really only think of two occasions since December.
- Home - I have my 4th generation Apple TV set up as a home hub to manage my iHome switch which turns on a floor lamp. I don’t know why it’s on my Home screen either.
PREVIOUSLY, ON MACSTORIES
Our top stories from the past week.
Apple Q2 2017 Results: $52.9 Billion Revenue, 50.8 Million iPhones, 8.9 Million iPads Sold
Dispelling the Apple Services Myth
Apple Watch Support Removed from Major Apps
Fast Time Zone Conversions with Zones
iTunes Connect’s App Analytics Adds Source and Referrer Data