As the new season of WWDC has closed, the time for sharing the beta screenshots is upon us. And while I love to see framed images, my preferred way of sharing is frameless. And there's no better tool for that than FrameShot for iPhones, developed by my friend Keir.^[1]

I've used a version of the shortcut before, but Keir has taken it upon himself to add not only my favorite frameless but also framed as well, all in 3 different background choices: light, dark, or transparent. You can download the shortcuts from the link above to try them out.

I'm super pleased with these, and I will likely start using the transparent option almost exclusively for beautiful images of my homescreen.^[2]

For a while now, I've had my iPad Pro next to a 27 monitor for my home setup. This is on a dual-monitor VESA Mount using a magnetic mount for the iPad Pro. It's been working out very well for a long while, given that I had the M1 12.9" iPad Pro.

So when the new iPad Pros were announced and I knew that I was going back down to the 11-inch size, I figured it might be a while until I had a magnetic mount again. But I remembered that there were multiple people out there that created their own in the past from a folio case and some wood. I know I'm a bit handy/creative, so I thought I could manage this pretty easily.

First, I needed to see if there were any magnetic smart folio cases. As was with my previous Pro, I quickly found the ESR iPad Pro Folio: not only is it just like Apple's – except for the new magnetic rails, which I expect them to create at some point – but it's also around a quarter of the price, with the added benefit of a protective magnetic flap for the Pencil. So I ended up ordering 2 of them, using one normally and one for this mount. I also knew that I needed to fasten the VESA mount plate. I added some M4 threaded inserts and socket head cap screws to my order to make sure I had everything on hand for easy assembly.

Next, and very delicately with a fresh utility knife blade, I used a ruler to align the cut of the folio case, splitting it in two. ProTip™: if you have a metal ruler, it sticks extremely well to the folio case and doesn't move while cutting. This gives the perfect outline and maximum attachment. I did think about cutting down the folio case back, but ultimately decided it would be more work to do everything cleanly and scrapped that idea.

Then, I found a scrap piece of 1" x 8" pine. You don't have to use pine: you could use plywood or other hardwoods that you might have. I cut it to the length and width of the folio, cutting the width just under the camera opening of the folio case. Once this was cut, I located the VESA mount holes and drilled a pilot hole for the threaded inserts. I sanded the corners and the piece, then routed the back side to give it a more friendly edge, though routing is not a necessity. A quick sanding and black spar paint finished off the wood part of the project.

With the board painted black, the threaded inserts installed, the back of the folio case super glued, and everything fully dried, all I needed to do was attach the mount plate and put it on the arm. I ended up adding some cable management for the USB-C cable to make it super clean.

I think this is just about the most simplistic build that could be done for this, and what most people would be best served by. I could have done a few things differently to allow for a super-slick hidden cable management system, but in practice it's perfectly fine. I'm sure that there are other material options here instead of using wood based on your own aesthetic - like 3D printing – so use what you think might be best. Fun little project, and it saved me a bunch of time and money waiting on someone to make it for me.

Back in April 2021, the new M1 iPad Pros were announced. At that time, I wanted the largest screen iPad Pro I could get, so I ended up getting the 12.9" model. There was so discussion surrounding the hardware story: the latest processor – just like the Mac – and a Magic Keyboard to make it just like a laptop. Most of the stories at the time focused on one key thing: the potential.

Depending on who you ask, what you read, what you listen to, you'll hear a bunch of opinions across the spectrum on how that device did: it was a disappointment or it was a phenomenal modular computer and everything in between. Some of the initial thoughts on where this device was going got great updates: proper external monitor support, additional multitasking in Stage Manager, and the start of desktop-class apps. It started to feel like things were improving for the better.

But then it stagnated and felt incomplete.

And here we are again three years later. The iPads Pro with M4 chips are the latest in chipset. We have an all-new Magic Keyboard that gains a function row and some additional premium feel thanks to the aluminum on the inside. We have an amazing screen, now for the first time with OLED and nano texture – like I have on my 11" model that I'm now in love with. With external monitor support, I ended up going back down to the 11" size because it suits my needs best: I can always plug into a larger display if I need it, but most of the time I need the more compact form factor. The Pencil Pro improvements are awesome, and I'm not even a pro-user of the pencil in any sort of capacity. It's a solid upgrade year for sure.

But with all of the improvements it feels like the story is once again incomplete. The hardware of the iPad Pros have been great ever since the introduction of the 2018 iPad Pros. But the software is the part that really needs to coalesce around the idea of what the iPad Pro really wants to be. It's ok if the idea is to be an in-between device between the base iPad and a Mac. It doesn't have to do both. But like most that have used the iPad Pro as their main computer for years, I do want the iPad to do more. There are improvements to the current implementations that can be done. There are new features that should make their way to this platform. But it really is up to Apple on what they want to do.

I didn't buy this new device based on a promise of a new future with it. I bought it to suit my needs. I'm working on not getting my hopes up, and I can't stop thinking that there's still more to this iPad Pro story, but I feel like I did back in 2021 all over again. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice…

Let's wait to finish that and see what's coming next week at WWDC.

This morning when I couldn't sleep in the middle of the night for whatever stupid reason, I thought about how I've been using some of my shortcuts and trying to figure out how to improve them. As one does at 3:30am. And in my sleepless productivity, I created a couple of simple shortcuts that are going to improve capture for me. Both of these have the same basic blocks, so I'll show them side by side below.

Sometimes I want to enter tasks as part of a brain dump. I'll grab my phone, use my one of my versatile shortcuts – like LockCut or CaptureCut – and enter the single task. But what about multiple tasks? What if I want to continue to add items until I can't anymore?

The solution is fairly simple: start with the action(s) I want to run, then use a repeat block in conjunction with a yes/no menu to either run the action(s) again or stop the shortcut. I also created one of these for entering grocery items to a specific list, something that I work to manage on a weekly basis for meal planning.

Here's a concept action that you can use to start both of these, or create your very own shortcut to do what you want. There are comments on where to put items as well as what to modify if you need more repeats. These aren't complicated by any means, but I'm really looking forward to the utility they bring to capturing my tasks.