🔗 Apple’s Presto system is even more sophisticated than it appeared // 9to5mac.com

When a customer buys a particular SKU (one example of a particular iPhone model, storage tier, and color), then the system prompts staff to update another one. This ensures that no matter what a customer wants to buy, there is always at least one up-to-date model in stock at any given time.

I was very curious about how stores would handle keeping the whole stock updated. One at at time for each SKU certainly seems more managable.

🆕📝 7 Things This Week [#139]

Back to your regularly scheduled programming.

I just heard the idea of being an “internal processor” versus and “external processor”, which I hadn’t thought about in those terms before. I’m for sure an internal processor. How about you?

📷 #mbApr Day 06

Windy? Couldn’t tell.

Taxes: filed ✅

Left it a bit late this year, but looks like we’re actually getting a refund, which is nice.

🆕📝 PenPal with Ratika: What does the sky look like where you are?

I'm going to have to work a little harder to keep up with Ratika's poetic prose this month.

📷 #mbApr Day 05

A SERENE anchor, 700 feet above the canyon floor, connects me to the mountain.

🆕📝 RE: ‘Goodbye Micro.blog’

I didn’t plan on getting hung up on a particular blockquote and end up writing 1100 words on my phone in bed this morning, but here we are. 😅

🆕📝 Digital Toolmaker

In which I wax poetic about what's probably my favorite app of all time.

I just updated my ‘🔗 Get URL to Run Shortcuts’ shortcut to version 1.3.

Suppose you’re building a shortcut and just want to quickly get its run-shortcut URL without having to filter through your library for it. Now you can:

• Added a new option to share a shortcut’s title to this shortcut to generate its run-shortcut URL on the spot
• As part of that new functionality, it presents a menu of formats from which you can select to copy to the clipboard

Get it from the HeyDingus Shortcuts Library.

I just released my ‘% URL Encode Text’ shortcut version 1.0:

This shortcut simply transforms text shared to it into its URL-encoded version.

For the 30th(!) entry to my Shortcuts Library, I kind of expected to release something rather more grand. But sometimes simple and utilitarian does the trick. I’ve been using it all evening to add run-shortcut URLs to all my shortcuts. I even added a little surprise for PopClip users to this one. 😉

Get it from the HeyDingus Shortcuts Library.

📷 #mbApr Day 04

This foliage is more prickly than pretty. Which speaks to its excessive prickliness because it is still quite pretty.

A Very Good Tweet™:

Trying to celebrate 404 day but I keep getting redirected.

🔗 Apple notifies winners who will attend WWDC 2024 in-person event — 9to5mac.com // Filipe Espósito

As we previously reported, Apple announced WWDC 2024 on June 10-14. Although the event will be streamed online with pre-recorded sessions, developers had the chance to sign up to attend an in-person event at Apple Park. Now Apple is notifying the winners of the WWDC 2024 lottery who will have the chance to watch the opening event right from Apple Park.

I didn’t get an invite. 😔 Of course, I didn’t apply, but that’s a minor detail. 😝

I just updated my ‘📢 Publish Quote’ shortcut to version 2.0:

Now you copy the quote before sharing its URL, meaning the shortcut is far more flexible and can be run from anywhere (like RSS reader apps!), not just Safari

This is a massive update with a bunch of new niceties, like options to include author attribution, saving copies of each post to Drafts, and much more.

Get it from the HeyDingus Shortcuts Library.

I’m kinda bummed that @macstories@macstories.net isn’t doing the Shortcuts competition for Automation April this year. 🙁 I missed the deadline last year, and vowed to get them in on time this round. I had some pretty cool stuff saved up for it too!

So far, my attempt to use my ‘Publish Quote’ shortcut on the Mac has resulted in:

• Two updated shortcuts
• A brand-new shortcut
• A started-then-scraped shortcut
• A purchased domain name
• One published quote

And now I’m inching toward releasing a huge update to ‘Publish Quote’. Stay tuned.

I’m getting sassier in my Shortcuts' comments. 😅

I just released my ‘ℹ️ Get YouTube Video Info (HeyDingus' Version)’ shortcut version 1.0:

This shortcut gets the Channel, Video Title, and URL from a YouTube video and packages them up in a Dictionary action to be used in other shortcuts.

I simplified it from the version shared in MacStories Weekly Issue 304.

Get it from the HeyDingus Shortcuts Library.

🔗 Roku explores taking over HDMI feeds with ads — lowpass.cc // Janko Roettgers

Your Roku TV may one day show ads when you pause video on your Apple TV

Roku is exploring ways to show consumers ads on its TVs even when they are not using its streaming platform: The company has been looking into injecting ads into the video feeds of third-party devices connected to its TVs, according to a recent patent filing. 

Ugh, so gross. 🤮

🔗 No Joke, Yahoo Buys Artifact — spyglass.org

Ultimately, what killed Artifact was the fact that the founders just thought there were probably better problems on which to spend their time. […] But Artifact also filled a void left by Twitter. Unfortunately, they probably filled it a bit too much, as the app went from early but compelling to sort of a bloated mismatch of features. A lot of them were compelling on their own, but as a part of one app and vision, they were just too much, too soon. Yahoo, as a large company, is necessarily going to slow that roll. So again, maybe this makes sense.

🔗 5 ways I’d like iOS 18 to improve the iPhone home screen — birchtree.me // Matt Birchler

It’s been 3 whole years since I made this video where I proposed even smaller widgets than the current small size class. The thumbnail above really says it all, but currently the smallest widget uses a 2x2 grid on your home screen, and I would like to see 2x1 widgets be possible.

This is my favorite idea from Matt’s list. I wanted it three years ago when I first saw his concept, and I still want it now!

🔗 Welcome to the AI gadget era

The promise of AI — and I want to emphasize the word _promise _because nothing we’ve seen so far comes remotely close to accomplishing this — is to abstract all those steps and all that friction out of existence. All you need to do is declare your intentions — play music, navigate home, text Anna, tell me what poison ivy looks like — and let the system figure out how to get it done. Your phone contains multitudes, but it’s not really optimized for anything. An AI-optimized gadget can be easier to reach, quicker to launch, and alert to your input at all times.

I was honored to assist Mike and Jane in finishing up their Saranac Lake 6ers today with summits on Haystack & McKenzie! We were the only folks on the trail…can’t imagine why! 💨 🥾 📷

🔗 Every Failure is an Opportunity — caseyliss.com // Casey Liss

I know this isn’t a new thought, but it struck me so strongly after getting off the phone with Sonos: when a product fails, the company that sold it has an incredible opportunity: they can sour the opinion of a super-fan, or they can absolutely cement it in place.