iOS Today 710 Transcript
Please be advised this transcript is AI-generated and may not be word for word. Time codes refer to the approximate times in the ad-supported version of the show.
00:00 - Mikah Sargent (Host)
Coming up on iOS today. I promised you it was happening that we would be covering the rest of the Apple Design Award winners, and that is exactly what Rosemary Orchard and I, micah Sargent, will be doing this week. Stay tuned. Podcasts you love From people. You trust this is Twit. You trust this is Tweet. This is iOS Today with Rosemary Orchard and me, micah Sargent, episode 710, recorded Tuesday, june 25th 2024. Fourth Thursday, july 11th 2024. Apple Design Award winners part two. Hello and welcome to iOS Today, the show where we talk all things iOS, ipados, tvos, watchos, homepodos, visionos and all the OSs that Apple has on offer. This is a show where we talk about Apple's various platforms so that you can make the most of those devices you own the apps, the features, the settings, everything you need to know. That's what we talk about here on iOS Today. I am one of your hosts, micah Sargent.
01:09 - Rosemary Orchard (Host)
And I am Rosemary Orchard and looking forward to talking about all those apps that we didn't get around to talking about last episode, Micah.
01:16 - Mikah Sargent (Host)
Yes, it is time for the second half of the Apple Design Award winners. Now I want to quickly mention what the Apple Design Awards are, in case you're tuning into this episode and, for some reason, you didn't check out the first one. This is a time where Apple says they recognize innovation, ingenuity and technical achievement in app and game design. This is an opportunity for Apple to look at what its developers are creating out in the world and say, look, we love what you're doing and you deserve recognition for it. So we covered the first four categories in the last episode. Those were delight and fun, inclusivity, innovation and interaction. We'll be covering the final three categories this time, including social impact, visuals and graphics and spatial computing. Yes, a new category for the ADAs this year, developers are awarded these prizes at WWDC and are included with the finalists as well, so all of the finalists are invited to be there. The two winners one app and one game are presented the award in the end. So, without further ado, let's kick things off with the social impact category. Apple describes this category as such.
02:38
Winners in this category improve lives in a meaningful way and shine a light on crucial issues. The first winner in this category is an app. It's an app called Gentler Streak. What's great about Gentler Streak and the reason why it's called Gentler Streak is because think about all of the apps that are fitness-based apps or habit tracking apps, that are fitness-based apps or habit-tracking apps, and what they do is they encourage you to keep going maintaining your streak, maintaining your habit every day or every three, whatever your habit happens to be. And the second, the second that something goes wrong and you're unable to maintain that streak, the app basically falls apart before you. You see your progress just collapse. You see the things that you've made just disappear, and it's kind of a really bad experience. It's sad You're going wow, I worked so hard and I worked so hard, consistently and in one time, and now my streak is broken.
03:48
This aims to be a gentler version of that. It is encouraging you to maintain consistency, but it is not doing it in such a way that you are kind of sacrificing mental well-being for the sake of the physical fitness. So it relies on subtle and consistently pleasing design. Language, according to Apple, health data is smartly organized and its monthly summary view, which shows you how you're doing in relation to your history, is less about hard comparisons and more about progress. So that I quite appreciate about gentler streak. I have used this in the past. I don't currently use it, but I did find that it was. It was. It was gentler, it was just like hey, over time you've become more productive, so good for you. And you know, if you miss a day of whatever it is you're trying to do, it doesn't say you need to start over from square one. No, it's kind of about a gradual improvement as opposed to day by day by day improvement.
04:57 - Rosemary Orchard (Host)
Yeah, exactly, and it's interesting that Apple are bringing some of the features from this into iOS this year, but they're certainly not going to be getting rid of the reason for gentler streak existing. It's still going to be all there to help promote gentle handling of your own fitness rather than just being you suck. You didn't do it last night, you didn't get enough sleep. Now your days are ruined. It will suggest that you have a gentler day.
05:24 - Mikah Sargent (Host)
And then the second one is an app called the Wreck. This is a game, and it is I will say it's a pretty heavy game, a game about sisterhood, motherhood, grief and survival. Basically, the main character in the book is a writer who is called into the hospital to make a life changing decision. I don't want to go into much more detail than that because you'll want to check it out yourself, but it talks about kind of it shows the impact that different situations have on a person and tells a beautiful story and you kind of help this person figure out what needs to be done throughout the entire story. So you look back on the memories of this individual, you look at the present memories of this individual, you look at the present, you know conditions of this individual and then you also have some opportunity to kind of lead this character to what comes next for them. So really, really well written, I think, beautiful visuals and lots of dialogue options that you may not expect from a game that's kind of in the App Store. So well worth checking out. It is available to download for free. The full version of the game is $7.99.
07:02
And then for the finalists in this category, I've talked about this app, before it's called how we Feel. And how we Feel is kind of a word cloud journal. So I like it because it doesn't make you, it doesn't require you, to write out a bunch of stuff. It presents some kind of main feelings and says, hey, choose some of these. And then you can look through your calendar over time and see themes about what has you know what like. Oh, every single Saturday and Sunday you're feeling particularly grateful, but in the middle of and Sunday you're feeling particularly grateful, but in the middle of the week you're feeling kind of overwhelmed and you can start to get an idea of your patterns. And then also it helps you to tie your sleep, your exercise and other things to those feelings that you're having. So you can kind of put them all together and understand what's going on, feelings that you're having. So you can kind of put them all together and understand what's going on. This is also backed by research from Yale University Center for Emotional Intelligence. And again, I just really like the idea of me not having to write out a bunch of stuff to try to figure out what's going on, but just to say, hey, this is how I'm feeling right now and this is also how I'm feeling and this is also how I'm feeling, and then I just move on. The app is available completely for free, you can download it at any time and is available on the iPhone.
08:38
Another finalist in this category is an app called Ahead Emotions Coach, and this one is kind of the next step after the last one. So in the last one you were kind of categorizing emotions. In this one it helps you kind of figure out what you need to do when you are feeling a certain emotion. So, for example, when you're feeling angry, how do you get out of that? If you're feeling worried, how do you figure out how to navigate the worry? Come to the understanding of what's causing the worry, move past the worry. It's all about behavioral change. But it's done in this very delightful, very pretty way and it's they're just kind of like five minute lessons every day and over time you can start to see how your emotion improves. They call it the Duolingo for emotional intelligence and I think that it's a pretty neat little app and toolkit for folks who are dealing with all sorts of emotions. If they've got anger that gets them really riled up when something goes wrong, this app can help you figure out how to manage your anger. If you want more confidence, it can help you figure out how to be more confident. If procrastination gets in the way, it can help you figure out how to be more confident. If procrastination gets in the way, it can help you figure out how to overcome procrastination.
10:09
And then there are a couple of games that are also available. Oh, by the way, that is available to download for free. In-app purchases include a 12-month subscription of $60, three-month subscription of $30, or one-month subscription of $10. So all of those are available, giving you some opportunities to try it out and see if it's right for you. Then in games, there's Cityscapes Sim Builder. I have played this a lot. I really like Cityscapes Sim Builder. I have played this a lot. I really like Cityscape SimBuilder.
10:49
You basically are just creating little cities and you are trying to make your cities function properly make sure that they have enough healthcare available, making sure that they have security available, that the roads run as they should. As you continue to build out your cities, then you gain new options so you can get the more recreation. Pollution is considered in this. You're trying to create a sustainable city. Um, that has all of that stuff in mind and you've got recycling options. You start out, you know, only having a trash dump. Then as you grow, you get the ability to actually have recycling. You have to have trash services that run. I mean, it is full featured as you're building out a city of your dreams, and I very much enjoyed this game. Enjoy this game, I should say, as you kind of work through these different challenges, because you can say, oh yeah, I'm going to work in this desert environment and it's a little bit harder to get water there, for example. So, yeah, well, worth checking out. That one is available in Apple Arcade, so with an Apple Arcade subscription it is free.
12:02
And then, last but not least in this category is an app called the Bear, and this is what they call a bedtime experience. So what you do is you kind of lead the bear and the bear's little one that is along with it through an adventure. They're going kind of through this universe, through an adventure. They're going kind of through this universe and you look at these characters and they kind of tell these different stories and you're just trying to, you and your little friend, find a place to be. That is, you know, that is meant for you and the little one, as it's called. It is meant to be played between, like you, and a loved one, likely, you know, a smaller child. Kind of play this together. So it's a bedtime story that helps you to kind of calm down at the end of the night. So I can see playing, you know, a little bit through a period of time and then you kind of next night you play more and make your way through the chapters and that is the Bear. You can play the first chapter for free. The in-app purchase of $3, $2.99, gets you the full game.
13:21
That was the social impact category. Next up are the visuals and graphics category. Apple says this. Winners in this category feature stunning imagery, skillfully drawn interfaces and high quality animations that lend to a distinctive and cohesive theme. Now, the app that is the winner in this category was a finalist in the delight and fun category, but ended up winning for visuals and graphics. Can you tell us a little bit about Rooms, rosemary Sure?
13:54 - Rosemary Orchard (Host)
Yeah. So Rooms is a sort of 8-bit style and it isn't a game, but it kind of comes across as a game because of the design. But the idea is that it is a sort of a blank canvas where you can create rooms in 3D. And there is. It's just a very unless you've actually tried it, it's a very difficult thing to explain. But essentially you're doing sort of room modeling and design. But it's almost like playing a game because you know you add various things, you can see various inspiration, there's dioramas that you can make all sorts of stuff.
14:36
And I have to say I do love the fact that they edited their app description with we won an Apple Design Award at the top, because I think that is most developers reaction when they win one.
14:46
So yeah, it's a free app and you can remix rooms that other people have made as well, which is quite nice. So if you see something and you're like, oh, that's really cool, then you can take it and then be like, oh, but I don't like this bit over here, I'm going to tweak that and remix it and do your own thing and you'll get credit for the edits, but you don't get credit for the creation, because you didn't create it, you just edited it. So, yeah, it is quite fun for designing a space if you would like to use it for that, but you can also just use it for designing bake spaces, which you don't ever have to create. So, yeah, there's 8-bit style art in it as well. It's yeah, it's really lovely. I would recommend that folks, if they're interested, download it and give it a play. It is free and that is free. It's free to download, free to use and no in-app purchases or subscriptions on iPhone and iPad.
15:41 - Mikah Sargent (Host)
Yeah, I like it. It's a bit of a social network because of the ability to check out other rooms in the community, so you can kind of check out their rooms, see what other people have made and, as you said, get inspired by that. I think that's what really sets it apart and makes it a pretty nifty app. I will be honest in saying that I had not heard about this app until the ADAs, and so I immediately downloaded it and can't wait to build an 8-bit world or an 8-bit room of my own and see what other people have created in this space. The other winner in this category is a math game called Lies of P, that is, the letter P. This is a game that is about Pinocchio a little bit. You play a puppet created by Geppetto and you are kind of working through this city, walking through the city to try and find your creator, to try and find your father. It is a twist on the story of Pinocchio, for sure, but the reason why it has been included in the visuals and graphics category is because it does take advantage of what's possible on Mac OS. It has been included in the visuals and graphics category is because it does take advantage of what's possible on mac os. Uh, apple says one look at the visuals reveals a world of beautiful textures, delight or, excuse me, detailed lighting and stunning effects and visual customization options like metal effects, upscaling and volumetric fog effects that let you style the ruined city to your liking. Add a coldly beautiful soundtrack and nostalgic shadow of the original story and you get a complete, considered and unique experience. It's expensive, but that's because it's a full-on game in the App Store. You can purchase it in the App Store for $41.99. So $41.99 gets you the whole game, but this is like a 40 gigabyte game, and so you are. You're going to have a full story, beautiful graphics and, you know, considered gameplay as you work through being Pinocchio and discover the lies within. The other finalists in this category include an app called Sunlit, which basically just lets you figure out where the sun is. You're tracking the sun along its path, you can see how shadows will change over time, you can learn about different solar events that will take place and it's yeah. If anybody's like obsessed with moon phases, this is the sun version of that. It just gives you the ability to track the sun and know what the sun is up to and, of course, how it affects shadows. I think that's kind of cool. And, of course, how it affects shadows. I think that's kind of cool. There's also Meditate, which is available in the app store from Rhythmworks, and this is a meditation app that helps you not only track your meditations but also kind of provides visuals to help you with your meditation, so you can use this to, you know, encourage meditation, figure out what you need to do to meditate and work with the mandala, which is, I think, a common art theme for meditation across the board.
19:11
Death Stranding is, as Apple has mentioned, available in the App Store. I'm not going to go into Death Stranding. It is a very popular, or rather I should say it's a very well-known game. I don't know about its popularity, but a very well-known game that has been released on the iPhone, the iPad and Mac. And then, last but not least, is Honkai Star Rail not Star Trail which is an RPG where you are playing an Aeon and you are working to travel across the galaxy to kind of explore these different civilizations and make some new friends and stuff, and of course, you battle along the way and it's a full on RPG. That is a lot like Final Fantasy. So if you've played Final Fantasy before, you will be familiar with the kind of means of playing this role playing game. It is available for free to download with an in-app purchase that gets you access to different. It's a free to play game, so you buy shards and things like that to gain access to more features. That'll do it for the visuals and graphics category.
20:34
It's time to move on to the final category, which is new, and that is spatial computing. Winners in this category brought extraordinary craftsmanship to their exceptional spatial experiences, and one of these was very close to, if not on, launch day. The other one came afterward, and so I'm really excited to see it included. But DJ is one that people will probably be familiar with because it came so soon after again, if not on launch day the Apple Vision Pro app. Here's what Apple has to say about it.
21:15
Dj Pro isn't just a groundbreaking app. It's an entirely new way to interact with music Incredible technical ingenuity, best in class immersion. It feels fresh. It spins up high quality turntables that you can scratch to your heart's content. Cool interactive side or, excuse me, a cool interactive effects panel and an array of magnificently considered environments, including a space lounge populated by dancing robots. Dj Pro set out to create the flow state sought by live DJs on the spatial canvas. They've come away with a smash hit. So in the Apple Vision Pro experience, it puts a DJ turntable right in front of you so you can spin just like you would in real life, right there in Apple Vision Pro.
22:00
I can't speak to the use of the app myself, but it is certainly a novel concept to have a there we go For folks who are watching the video. Thank you for being members of ClipTwit. But it is showing a person looking at their different albums and literally being able to pull out vinyls and drop them onto their turntable and then pinch to drag sliders so that the music is coming more from one side and then they can drag it back to the left to have it come to the other. There's a disco ball that's virtually added to the space and you're able to mix the tracks right there. Very, very cool. That is again available on Apple Vision Pro. But DJ itself is available on iPhone, ipad, mac, apple Watch even, and is a popular app for actual DJs to do mixing. Now, rosemary, have you ever played Black Box? I don't know if you've. Maybe you've played it on the Apple Vision Pro, but-.
23:05 - Rosemary Orchard (Host)
Unfortunately I haven't. I don't have an Apple Vision Pro, which kind of limits my ability to play these things, and so I have not played Black Box yet.
23:14 - Mikah Sargent (Host)
So Black Box is a game that has existed for a long time on iOS and I have talked about it before on the show. What's great about Black Box is that it aims to use what's available on the platform to try and get you to use the features to solve puzzles. So there are times where you have to turn on the light of the camera flash and then turn it off quickly. There are times where it's location-based. There are times where you have to open the app at specific times of the day to unlock parts of the puzzle. There are times where you need to move your phone up down, left and right until it's locked into the right position. And Blackbox already was very clever in the ways that it worked. There was even one where you had to, like, say the right word yeah, you had to charge and then unplug to unlock one. I mean, it's just it's using every sensor, every feature of the iPhone to make you figure out what you needed to do. There's oh my goodness, there's the elevation one. So it's using the elevation sensor in the iPhone. You have to literally go outside, climb to somewhere that's high enough in order to solve that puzzle. I love it. They brought it to Apple Vision Pro. So, on Vision OS, you have to make use of your entire view on the Apple Vision Pro and know what you're supposed to do to solve these puzzles. It's just so stinking clever and it is one app that I wish was there on day one so that I could have tried it while we still had the Apple Vision Pro, because the creator of Black Box has done some amazing things in the past and I would love, love, love to see how it comes to Apple Vision Pro. So I'm not at all surprised that it has received the Spatial Computing Award for the ADAs. All right, and quickly, we will mention the finalists.
25:44
Sky Guide is an app that we've talked about probably dozens of times since I started hosting iOS today, and that is because it's a great app for figuring out the different constellations in the sky. You can figure out where they are, you can track, you know movement of different astral bodies, you can figure out, you know if the forecast is good for looking at constellations, etc. Etc, etc. It has an Apple Vision Pro app which I have to imagine is probably miraculous being able to not just hold up your little phone and try to line it up properly with the sky and say, oh yeah, right there, that's um, that's uh, that's draco, and oh, there's ursa major, um, this will actually just be your view. Very cool, uh.
26:39
Synth writers a game that many people will be familiar with, where you are moving through a space while you're listening to music. I showed Synthwriters during our review of the Apple Vision Pro, and so you've got these kind of. It uses your hands as tracking and you move your hands around and try to hit these little orbs and it makes music as you're going along. So the whole point is to move your body and make that music, and that's what Synthwriters does. Nba the reason that this app is so popular is because it was one of the first to offer a bajillion different views of a game, so you could have multiple games up at once. You could keep track of stats and be able to see scores on the side while you were watching a game. It is kind of a full featured, full immersive experience that provides you, the sports person, with just as much as they could possibly want.
27:45
And then, last but not least, is Luna, which I believe Rosemary has recommended in the past. These are just little puzzle games and it is now available on Apple Vision Pro and is a little reminiscent of I would say a little reminiscent of unpacking, in the sense that you are creating little dioramas so you have to figure out where the little pieces go in this 3D puzzle. You might have to spin the puzzle around and figure out right where the tubes go and then properly pinch and drag them right to and drop right where they need to be. That is Luna, also available in the App Store for the Apple Vision Pro. Interestingly, some of these are apps that are universal apps, so you get the one app and it works on iPhone, it works on Mac, it works here, works there. Some of these are specifically designed for the Apple Vision Pro. That is one of those apps that is just for the Apple Vision Pro, so you can find Luna outside of the Apple Vision Pro. That is one of those apps that is just for the Apple Vision Pro, so you can find Luna outside of the Apple Vision Pro app store and then Luna within the Apple Vision Pro app store if you're looking for it. Those are all of the Apple Design Award winners for 2024. Of course, we offer our hearty congratulations to all of you for the wonderful work that you do and for making apps that we get to talk about here on the show. That's what makes I think these platforms so stinking awesome. I'm looking forward to seeing what developers do with the upcoming versions of iOS, ipados, etc. As we continue to cover that through the rest of the year. All right, it is time to move on to our feedback section. Allison has written in and Allison says this hey guys, love your show With Siri getting an upgrade based on AI.
29:38
I'm still waiting for use cases to get excited about. Recently, I saw an ad for ohaiai that's O-H-A-IAI, an AI service that uses SMS interaction to help people integrate the many aspects of their work and home lives. I love the idea, but I don't want to send these people my calendars, photos and the other personal data they require. I'm thinking AI Siri should automatically be able to do this using my data history. Yes, so far I've heard weak AI tricks like hey, you know who crop this photo and email it to my mom, but I'd really prefer S-I-R-I. I have an extra $100. What's a fun thing I can do with it this weekend and have Siri. I'll just say it have Siri, look at my notes, journal, et cetera, and use that knowledge to respond. You can try the seafood boil. You've been looking into. A dinner for two at local restaurant with the star rating in this address has seafood boils for $2, for two for less than $100. Your anniversary or your friend's birthday this week would be the perfect event for this. Do you think the revamped Siri could become this useful? Ever hopeful Allison, ios Today fan Allison. I love this question. I love this question because this is what I want from SIRI. So here's what I'll say, and then I want to hear Rosemary's thoughts about this as well.
30:55
Apple has, whenever it announced the new Apple intelligence, that AI feature, the main thing that they talk about throughout it, and I want to make sure I get the right word for what they call it, because it is your data that it is working with and it is the oh goodness. It's like I guess they are calling it personal context awareness. I thought there was a different word, but anyway, basically, s-i-r-i has this network. They always show it as kind of this. It almost looks like a mind chart. What are those called? Now, I'm forgetting the name of that too Mind map, mind map, thank you, all the words are falling out of my head. It looks like a mind map and it has kind of who you are, who your friends are, those friends and the information about those friends you know anniversary, the birthday, the this, the that and I do think that, while we won't see that right away, I do believe that that is going to get more aware over time, that it's going to know, um, a little bit of information that it needs based on because it's, I mean, apple literally talks about.
32:20
I know it'll know where your foot, what your files are. It will know certain dates that you put into your calendar. It will look in your photos and see photos you've taken. It will look into the interview questions that you put in the notes so it says can't remember if a friend shared that recipe with you in a note, a text or an email. Need your passport number while booking a flight. It can use the knowledge of the information on your device to help you find what you're looking for without compromising your privacy. Yeah, I think that it will get that way. I don't know if it'll be that way right away, but, rosemary, I'm curious to hear your thoughts on it.
32:51 - Rosemary Orchard (Host)
Yeah.
32:51
So the specific example that Alison asked about of like you know, hey, you know I have $100. What should I do with it? I don't think we're necessarily going to get there, because that would be basically Apple intelligence giving you financial advice and I feel like if one of your friends has recommended that you buy Apple stock, this is a bad example because Apple stock is not $100 or you couldn't buy Apple. You know enough stock of Apple for $100. But you know, if one of your friends had recommended that and it came back with that and then you lost your money, that would probably open Apple up to a variety of legal issues. But you know, there I think that we are going to get to that point.
33:34
You know, one of the examples that Apple used was hey, show me the TV show recommendations for my friends, and so then you know it will look for recommendations from your friends about TV shows, so you know it might come up with. You know Micah recommended this show on this day and show you that so that you can, you know, tap into the messages and see what you know Micah was saying about it, or you know what Kevin was saying, or you know, tap into the messages and see what you know Micah was saying about it, or you know what Kevin was saying, or you know any of the other folks that you were talking to, and I feel like this is going to be, you know, really helpful and I feel like, especially once we get into figuring out you know what does your question really mean? Because at the end of the day, I have an extra $100. Have you mentally pre-allocated that $100 towards the upcoming anniversary or birthday or thing that you need to pay for? Ai can't know that. It can only know that if it is reading things out of your budget app and so on.
34:34
And I feel like budget apps are probably going to be like the lost place where Apple is going to like add the ability to read that information in, just because, if things go wrong, okay, and now we're hoping that Apple's going to get this right and things will not go wrong but if something goes wrong, having all of your financial information out there as well as everything else, that would be a real nail in the coffin. That that's more of like a backhoe driving over the coffin type thing. Um, so you know, I feel like we're not necessarily going to get to specific like what, what can I do for a hundred? What should I do with an extra 100?
35:11
But I feel like we are going to get there of like, hey, is there anything to celebrate in the next couple of weeks? Um, and it'll come up with like, oh hey, it's your parents' wedding anniversary or it's your friend's birthday and things like that. Because, yeah, I mean things like crop this photo and email it to my mom. It might sound weak, but actually technically that's quite difficult and for somebody like my grandmother that would be very useful. She wouldn't be emailing it to her mom, that would be, you know, we'd have zombies and so on running around for that. But it might be, crop this photo and email it to my daughter, and you know that could be, you know, very, very helpful for those people. So I feel like it will, you know, pull that information in together. We may not see it immediately straight off the bat, but it is coming later this summer, so we will hopefully see that in the not too distant Apple betas.
36:01 - Mikah Sargent (Host)
Fingers crossed. Thank you for your question, allison. All righty, I can hear the music. It's time for shortcuts corner, the part of the show where you write in with your shortcuts requests and rosemary orchard, our shortcuts expert, provides a response. This shortcuts corner request comes in from rick. Rick writes micah and rosemary. You recently talked about the shortcut, my super action button, which I think is a great idea we did. One great thing is it allows customization, and while I was able to add my own item, one password, I couldn't figure out how to add the mini icon of one password in front of the text of the menu item name. Can you tell me how to add the icon, rick? Rosemary, this is context you must have. That I am just completely blanking on because I do not remember. Was I out that episode or what's going on?
37:05 - Rosemary Orchard (Host)
No, no, you were here. I feel like it's a little. It's a hack that I recommended folks do at some point. And so essentially, what you can do in the settings, if you have an iPhone 15 Pro with the action button on it, then you can actually select a shortcut to run from your action button. And what I recommend folks do is that they just create a shortcut called iPhone action button and then put the run shortcut action in there with whatever shortcut it is they want to run, because then they can change the shortcut very easily. Because if I go here and I tap on this to try and change this, it's throwing up a whole bunch of suggestions and so on and then I search for a particular shortcut, like if I search for iOS today, like this is working a lot better on the iOS 18 beta, but it was very crashy for me on the iOS 17 beta. So clearly they've taken my feedback about how it didn't work very well for folks with over 1000 shortcuts, because that was a problem for me. I appreciate not a problem everybody has, but it was a problem for me.
38:09
But what is actually being asked about here by Rick is how, in shortcuts, if you create a shortcut and I am just going to use this one password action to do this. At the top of my shortcut here you can see it's automatically generated a name for me, which is the name of the single action that I've got in there. It's also used the icon from one password because that is the icon of the only action in this shortcut and then if I added a comment action, it'll still stay here, if I add an if action and so on. But then what happens is essentially, when I tap on this icon at the top, I get to choose. I can choose between the one password action, the one password icon, or I can choose a custom shortcuts icon. Now, this does work the same way in iOS 17,. But it is a little bit tricky because even though, for example, in this shortcut that I created in last week's episode okay, so it was a medication reminder for Alex even though I've got a whole bunch of clock actions in here, I'm not seeing the clock icon as an option. So what you can do for something like this is add a clock action right at the top.
39:25
Sometimes that would do the trick, but if that doesn't happen, then I'm afraid there is nothing that you can do to make that shortcut use the app action icon. That is just a limitation of shortcuts and that is a shame. To make that shortcut use the app action icon? That is just a limitation of shortcuts and that is a shame. I understand why you might want that. What you could potentially do is create a brand new shortcut with the correct icon and then edit the icon and then save it, because once you've edited it then it gets stuck that way For want of a better way of putting it. It remembers that that's what it is and then you can edit your shortcut and go ahead and add the other actions. But it's entirely possible at some point that that one password icon will magically go away.
40:14
But I have good news for you, rick. I have very good news for you In that in iOS 18, there is a great feature coming to the control center where you can tap and hold on your control center and you can add a control yeah, add a control and then down. If you scroll down to the shortcuts actions, then there is a specific open app action and you can then choose an app to open, and these same features are also available on the action button. So you aren't actually going to have to use shortcuts for this. Now you might be thinking but Rose, you love shortcuts, why wouldn't you want to use shortcuts for this? I'm in favor of whatever makes people happy to use their devices. So if you want to use shortcuts for this, go ahead. But from iOS 18, you're just going to be able to straight up open an app from your action button, and I think that that is an even better option for you. Rick.
41:06 - Mikah Sargent (Host)
Indeed, I agree. So, yeah, that's, I mean it's, it's, but I understand. Look, you want to. Well, you want this. But does it actually make any difference what the little icon looks like?
41:21 - Rosemary Orchard (Host)
Yeah, yeah, I mean, I get it. If you're adding something to, say, your home screen, then I'm going to use this example again from last week that I created for Alex, where I'm just going to add this to my home screen. So I'll just scroll down and tap on add to home screen. What I can then do is I can use a picture and I can use a picture of an icon. I can save an app icon as an image and then I can actually use that to add this to my home screen. So if I really want an image, a particular app icon, on my home screen, but I want it to do something else, that can be quite a good workaround. By the way, if you're trying to get your parents to switch from, say, Office 365 to Apple's iWork suite, then you can add Word and Excel and PowerPoint and so on to their home screens, but you can have it open pages and numbers and keynote instead. But unless you're adding it to your home screen, then being able to set the image through the add to home screen option is not going to work for you.
42:20
But yeah, I don't think it will make a huge difference. It's just when you are looking through shortcuts here, maybe not so much, but if I go into all shortcuts then you'll see. You know, I've got one up here with the app store icon, I've got one here with the data jar icon, another with the data jar icon, one with Safari, one with actions, one with things, one with Actions, one with Things, one with Home Assistant, one with Photos. You know, it can be a nice way of easily recognizing which app this is associated with. But don't forget, you've also got folders. So I would personally go with the folder approach to organize my shortcuts and set my own custom icons. But whatever works for you, Rick, hopefully you'll find a way.
42:57 - Mikah Sargent (Host)
I hope you do as well. And with that we have reached the end of this episode of iOS Today. If you have questions, if you have feedback, if you have shortcuts, corner requests, you can send those to iostoday at twittv. If you are listening to the audio and would like to check out the video of iOS Today, well, join us in the club $7 a month at twittv slash club twit. When you join the club, you get access to the video versions of all of our club shows. You also got to add free versions of our shows available to the public.
43:28
Access to the twit plus bonus fee that has extra content you won't find anywhere else behind the scenes before the show, after the show special club twit events. Access to the members only discord server, which is a fun place to go to chat with your fellow ClubTuit members and those of us here at Twit. And, as I've mentioned before, the warm fuzzy feeling knowing that you are supporting what we do here at Twit and making sure we can keep doing what we do. Thanks so much for tuning in Twittv slash ClubTuit. Seven bucks a month, rosemary Orchard, if folks want to follow you online where should they go to do so?
44:09 - Rosemary Orchard (Host)
Well, the best place to go is rosemaryorchardcom, which has links to apps, books, podcasts and all the other things around the Internet where you can find me, including social media. And, of course, you can also find me in the Club Twit Discord channel, where there is a live chat during the show, which Micah and I both try and keep an eye on and there was a great discussion a little while ago with Apple's stolen device protection and, of course, there's also places where you can post requests for future topics for shows and comment on these shows that we've previously published. What about you, micah? Where can folks find you?
44:29 - Mikah Sargent (Host)
If you are looking for me online, you can find me at Micah Sargent on many a social media network, or you can head to chihuahuacoffee that's C-H-I-H-U-A-H-U-Acoffee, where I've got links to the places I'm most active online. Thank you all for being here with us this week. We will see you again next week for another episode of iOS Today.
44:49 - Rosemary Orchard (Host)
Bye-bye, Bye folks.
