Apple in iOS 12 introduced a new Siri Shortcuts feature that's designed to let users create multi-step automations using first and third-party apps.
Since iOS 12's release, app developers have been adding Siri Shortcuts support to their apps, and today, Apple highlighted several apps that have launched useful Siri Shortcut options.
Tile, for example, has added a Shortcut designed to let you find an item attached to a Tile device, like your keys, by asking Siri. Apps like CARROT and Dark Sky offer up weather details with Siri commands like "rain report" or "UV index," while Citymapper lets you get commute information in seconds.
Evernote lets you get quick access to Shortcuts for sharing notes, creating audio notes, creating camera notes, and printing, while Day One has Shortcuts for creating journal entries and recording audio. Calendar app Fantastical lets you schedule events and preview what's coming next, and Trello, Things, and Omnifocus all have Shortcut options for streamlining projects.
Apple also highlights Waterminder for tracking your water intake, Lose It! for keeping track of what you're eating, MyTherapy for monitoring daily medications, and meditation in Headspace, all features that can be accessed via simple Siri commands without the need to open up the respective apps.
Saturday October 18, 2025 11:00 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
iOS 26 was released last month, but the software train never stops, and iOS 26.1 beta testing is already underway. So far, iOS 26.1 makes both Apple Intelligence and Live Translation on compatible AirPods available in additional languages, and it includes some other minor changes across the Apple Music, Calendar, Photos, Clock, and Safari apps.
More features and changes will follow in future ...
Monday October 20, 2025 10:57 am PDT by Juli Clover
With the fourth betas of iOS 26.1, iPadOS 26.1, and macOS 26.1, Apple has introduced a new setting that's designed to allow users to customize the look of Liquid Glass.
The toggle lets users select from a clear look for Liquid Glass, or a tinted look. Clear is the current Liquid Glass design, which is more transparent and shows the background underneath buttons, bars, and menus, while tinted ...
Apple plans to cut production of the iPhone Air amid underwhelming sales performance, Japan's Mizuho Securities believes (via The Elec).
The Japanese investment banking and securities firm claims that the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are seeing higher sales than their predecessors during the same period last year, while the standard iPhone 17 is a major success, performing...
Friday October 17, 2025 7:35 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
Apple's software engineers continue to internally test iOS 26.0.2, according to MacRumors logs, which have been a reliable indicator of upcoming iOS versions.
iOS 26.0.2 will be a minor update that addresses bugs and/or security vulnerabilities, but we do not know any specific details yet.
The update will likely be released by the end of next week.
Last month, Apple released iOS 26.0.1,...
Saturday October 18, 2025 10:57 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
While the new iPad Pro's headline feature is the M5 chip, the device has some other changes, including N1 and C1X chips, faster storage speeds, and more.
With the M5 chip, the new iPad Pro has up to a 20% faster CPU and up to a 40% faster GPU compared to the previous model with the M4 chip, according to Geekbench 6 results. Keep in mind that 256GB and 512GB configurations have a 9-core CPU,...
Sunday October 19, 2025 7:39 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
iOS 26.4 is expected to introduce a revamped version of Siri powered by Apple Intelligence, but not everyone is satisfied with how well it works.
In his Power On newsletter today, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said some of Apple's software engineers have "concerns" about the overhauled Siri's performance. However, he did not provide any specific details about the shortcomings.
iOS 26.4 will...
Thursday October 16, 2025 9:13 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
Apple on Wednesday updated the 14-inch MacBook Pro, iPad Pro, and Vision Pro with its next-generation M5 chip, but previous rumors have indicated that the company still plans to announce at least a few additional products before the end of the year.
The following Apple products have at one point been rumored to be updated in 2025, although it is unclear if the timeframe for any of them has...
Monday October 20, 2025 1:55 pm PDT by Juli Clover
With the fourth beta of iOS 26.1, Apple added a toggle that makes Liquid Glass more opaque and reduces transparency. We tested the beta to see where the toggle works and what it looks like.
Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos.
If you have the latest iOS 26.1 beta, you can go to Settings > Display and Brightness to get to the new option. Tap on Liquid Glass, then...
Thursday October 16, 2025 3:57 pm PDT by Juli Clover
Apple plans to launch MacBook Air models equipped with the new M5 chip in spring 2026, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Apple is also working on M5 Pro and M5 Max MacBook Pro models that will come early in the year.
Neither the MacBook Pro models nor the MacBook Air models are expected to get design changes, with Apple focusing on simple chip upgrades. In the case of the MacBook Pro, a m...
Kinda wish it didn't say "App says: ..." and just say the text. Same with "Running your Shortcut." I think it's a waste of time to say running your shortcut. And for me it kind of breaks the experience of Siri doing stuff when it's saying "App says...".
Without those, I think the experience would be much more seamless.
Hopefully one day, Siri won't require a highly specific phrase. Or maybe you can add multiple trigger phrases at least. Don't want to always have to speak the exact same words.
Honestly, I’m still not entirely sure how I should use this. For whatever reason it doesn’t invite me to find out either.
This is how I've felt about 'shortcuts'. I know they are there only because I read sites like this. For what was one of the most anticipated features of the release according to the tech writers, if you didn't know about it you'd never find it and if you did know, you need to download the app, work out what it does and then figure out which bits work with your phone/watch etc.
Set up a shortcut in Overcast called "Techmeme" which plays their "Ride Home" podcast which I listen to on my way home. BTW I highly recommend it.
Me: "Hey Siri, Techmeme"
Siri interpretations:
"Hey Siri Text meme" *tries to send a message* "Hey Siri Tech Meme" *blob of text from Wolfram Alpha* "Hey Siri Techmeme" Tries to play in Overcast, fails every time on the first try, works every time on the second try if I don't end up with her thinking I said something else listed above.
When it's having problems, I've tried "Hey Siri, Play Techmeme" which opens the Podcasts app, which I don't want because it doesn't have the features I use such as speeding up voice pauses.
I tried setting it to "Ride Home" which a lot of times means that maps tries to pull up driving directions to my home.
It really seems half baked at this point. I think I'm just going to have to come up with a completely different phrase like "Hey Siri I like bananas" for her to understand what I want, but even then it will always fail to start playing on the first time and play successfully when I ask a second time. Not sure if that's a glitch with Siri or Overcast.
