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À l’ère de la surveillance numérique, quatre épisodes de La Série Documentaire Il y a plusieurs mois, Antoine Tricot journaliste à Radio France et plus précisément sur France Culture m’a contacté dans le cadre de la préparation d’une série de quatre émissions documentaires sur la surveillance numérique. Évidemment, étant sensible au sujet, il m’a proposé de parler de mon expérience au travers de mon travail d’étude, de recherche et d’écriture via notamment mon livre Hacker Citizen (je prépare un nouveau livre à ce sujet, si ça vous intéresse d’en savoir plus c’est sur https://hacker-citizen.fr). Alors moi qui aime énormément la radio, j’ai accepté !
Antoine, (accompagné de Martin Troadec et Rafik Zenine ...
Antoine, (accompagné de Martin Troadec et Rafik Zenine ...
Quel design pour un navigateur « low-tech » ? En octobre 2019, pendant un workshop étudiant dans lequel nous cherchions à re-designer le web, j’ai eu l’idée avec Labo.mg de concevoir un navigateur internet « low-tech » (je vous détaille ce que j’entends par-là plus loin dans l’article). Mais n’ayant pas les compétences d’un développeur de logiciels ni la force de frappe d’un Google ou d’un Mozilla, je me suis dit que j’allais vous partager mon idée : sait-on jamais, si quelqu’un est intéressé pour créer ce navigateur avec moi, j’ai toujours l’envie de lancer ce projet !
Vous le savez, dans le design, j’aime aller à l’épure, à ...
Vous le savez, dans le design, j’aime aller à l’épure, à ...
Ville, design et résilience ? Il y a plusieurs mois, les étudiants du Master en management de l’innovation de Grenoble m’ont invité à parler sur leur événement intitulé « Les lundis de l’innovation ». Ce cycle de conférences est consacré à l’innovation par l’intermédiaire des usages, tels que les sciences humaines et sociales et l’objectif est simple : appréhender certains grands enjeux contemporains à partir de travaux de recherche ou d’interventions publiques.
Je me suis donc prêté au jeu. D’ailleurs, au départ, la question préparatoire qui m’avait été posée était « Comment le design contribue à une ville plus résiliente, durable et inclusive ? ». ...
Je me suis donc prêté au jeu. D’ailleurs, au départ, la question préparatoire qui m’avait été posée était « Comment le design contribue à une ville plus résiliente, durable et inclusive ? ». ...
« Voisins Bienveillants » Peut-être que comme moi, vous n’êtes pas toujours rassurés quand vous arrivez dans un quartier ou une ville flanqué d’un panneau jaune criard où il est écrit « Voisins Vigilants ». En plus de cet avertissement, un œil grand ouvert nous précise bien que nous sommes surveillés par les uns et les autres.
Jusque là, je n’avais jamais creusé le sujet mais heureusement, le média StreetPress s’en est occupé pour nous avec cet article très détaillé dans lequel on apprend qu’il s’agit d’une entreprise privée qui implante des panneaux (100€ le panneau), et dont le modèle économique repose donc sur ...
Jusque là, je n’avais jamais creusé le sujet mais heureusement, le média StreetPress s’en est occupé pour nous avec cet article très détaillé dans lequel on apprend qu’il s’agit d’une entreprise privée qui implante des panneaux (100€ le panneau), et dont le modèle économique repose donc sur ...
Le catalogue des livres anciens sur le design Chaque semaine, il y a énormément de projets web qui attirent mon attention. Cependant, il y en a très peu qui retiennent réellement mon attention. Tout se ressemble et tout semble parfois vain, pauvre en contenu et surchargé d’effets.
Heureusement, j’ai découvert ce matin le site Archives.design de la designer Valery Marier. Ce site web modeste mais redoutablement pratique nous propose de découvrir, lire, télécharger des dizaines de livres anciens sur le design (graphique, typographique, sur Apple, Emigre, la NASA, etc.).
Le tout est très bien classé, architecturé et chaque ouvrage est hébergé sur l’indispensable Internet Archives que vous connaissez ...
Heureusement, j’ai découvert ce matin le site Archives.design de la designer Valery Marier. Ce site web modeste mais redoutablement pratique nous propose de découvrir, lire, télécharger des dizaines de livres anciens sur le design (graphique, typographique, sur Apple, Emigre, la NASA, etc.).
Le tout est très bien classé, architecturé et chaque ouvrage est hébergé sur l’indispensable Internet Archives que vous connaissez ...
Grab a FREE .design Domain to Showcase Your Designs Everyone is familiar with .com and .net, but did you know you get your own free .design domain?
As a designer, we think it’s pretty awesome that we can get a domain name that reflects what we do, .design.
And because it’s a fairly new domain, there are still plenty of short .design names available. So the good news is, you can shorten or improve your existing branding by switching to the .design domain.
ie. johnsmithdesign.com >> johnsmith.design
You can also get your own unique email address such as hola@yourname.design or you can even use it as a clever redirect ...
As a designer, we think it’s pretty awesome that we can get a domain name that reflects what we do, .design.
And because it’s a fairly new domain, there are still plenty of short .design names available. So the good news is, you can shorten or improve your existing branding by switching to the .design domain.
ie. johnsmithdesign.com >> johnsmith.design
You can also get your own unique email address such as hola@yourname.design or you can even use it as a clever redirect ...
How to Download Twitter Videos on an iPhone or an iPad I consider Twitter as the place for very serious videos such as this one, which I often want to download and share with my friends on Instagram or Messenger. I’ve been looking for a quick and easy way to download Twitter videos on iOS and my search has finally come to an end, thanks once again to Siri Shortcuts. This shortcut, called DTwitter, is exactly what I need because it allows me to download videos off Twitter in an instant. The shortcut can also download gifs and photos, if that’s something you are looking to do.
How to Download Twitter ...
How to Download Twitter ...
How to Create Long Screenshots on iPhone I was among the happiest people on Earth when Apple announced the ability to save full page screenshots with iOS 13. However, when I first used that feature, it was a bit disappointing. iOS 13’s long or Full-Page screenshot feature only works with Safari and even then, it’s a bit limited as it saves those pages as PDFs. This is not what I want from long screenshots. Like everyone else, I want to take scrolling screenshots of my iMessage and Facebook chats so that I can share or store them easily.
To take long screenshots on iOS, you could either ...
To take long screenshots on iOS, you could either ...
Camo Lets You Use Your iPhone or iPad Camera as a Webcam on Mac Although Apple has been criticized for a long time for shipping webcams with terrible video quality in their Macs, never has that been more relevant than in the last few months. More and more meetings are now been conducted online, and everyone has to sit in front these awful FaceTime cameras by default. Practically their entire Mac lineup shipping today comes with a 720p FaceTime camera, with the exception of the iMac Pro that has a 1080p webcam. Apple just doesn’t give you the option to upgrade the built-in camera, which is especially crazy because Apple ships some of the ...
How to Download App Store Screenshots on iPhone or iPad Siri Shortcuts is one of the best things to happen to iOS because it allows one to do so many things that were clunky or impossible before shortcuts came along. One of these things is the ability to save all the screenshots of any app from the App Store or Mac App Store. This simple task was quite difficult on iOS until Siri Shortcuts came along.
There’s an excellent Siri Shortcut that allows you to download all screenshots for any app in one fell swoop. The only limitation is that it can’t download Apple Watch screenshots. I’ll be writing a ...
There’s an excellent Siri Shortcut that allows you to download all screenshots for any app in one fell swoop. The only limitation is that it can’t download Apple Watch screenshots. I’ll be writing a ...
How to Download Instagram Videos and Stories on iPhone Instagram is my window into the world of cute cats and dogs. Whenever I see a particularly good video, I miss the ability to download Instagram videos. Thanks to Siri Shortcuts, you can download Instagram videos on iPhone. Before you ask, yes you can download photos and stories via the same shortcut. I’ve been using this shortcut to create a giant library of cuteness and so can you.
As a long-time user of Instagram shortcuts, I can tell you one thing for sure: This shortcut will stop working after some time. Instagram keeps making changes that break other services and ...
As a long-time user of Instagram shortcuts, I can tell you one thing for sure: This shortcut will stop working after some time. Instagram keeps making changes that break other services and ...
How to Download App Icons From the App Store or Mac App Store on iPhone or iPad Good design is at the heart of everything we cover here at Beautiful Pixels. We’ve long been admirers of app icons (so long, App Icon Gallery). We often come across amazing app icons on the App Store such as the icons for Pixtiss or even Shortcuts. Downloading these icons has never been easy on iPhone or iPad, unless you know how to use Siri Shortcuts to download app icons from the App Store.
I’m about to recommend a shortcut that has a minor limitations. This shortcut will allow you to download app icons for any app that is on the ...
I’m about to recommend a shortcut that has a minor limitations. This shortcut will allow you to download app icons for any app that is on the ...
How to Send WhatsApp Messages to Anyone Without Saving Their Number on iPhone The world’s most popular messaging app needs no introduction, but it could definitely use a few basic features to minimise some of its pain points. I find it extremely irritating to save people’s phone numbers as contacts every time I have to send them a simple WhatsApp message. I buy stuff online all the time and it’s really frustrating to save contacts such as “Michael Craigslist iPhone Seller” or “John E. Bay iPadman”. Why do I have to save contacts to message people on WhatsApp? Are you too wondering how to send a WhatsApp messages without saving phone numbers?
Fortunately, ...
Fortunately, ...
Siri Shortcuts Explained: Automate (Almost) Everything on Your iPhone or iPad For an OS that was routinely criticised for not being very flexible, iOS sure has come a long way. iOS still is not as customisable as people would like it to be, but that might change with iOS 14. iOS has a feature called Siri Shortcuts that allows you to automate several tasks. Yes, that’s right. iOS automation is a thing and a growing community of enthusiasts has been adding some essential features to both iOS and third-party apps using Siri Shortcuts.
If you’ve been a fan of apps such as Tasker on Android, Siri Shortcuts is an officially supported ...
If you’ve been a fan of apps such as Tasker on Android, Siri Shortcuts is an officially supported ...
This Concept Design of a ‘BRAUN Audio 07’ Radio Hardware is Absolutely Stunning BRAUN Audio 07 Concept
Cairo based product designer Abdelrahman Shaapan has created this concept design of Spotify radio hardware and it is one of the slickest concepts we’ve seen.
BRAUN Audio 7 is Classic speaker design inspired by old BRAUN products contains a futuristic look, you have integrated a touch screen. This device contains a built-in Spotify application for use without the need for another device to run.
It kinda reminds me of Saregama’s Carvaan sitting on my shelf here and I really hope Spotify builds something like this.
Also see his other concepts → Magic Trackpad 3 and Sony ...
Cairo based product designer Abdelrahman Shaapan has created this concept design of Spotify radio hardware and it is one of the slickest concepts we’ve seen.
BRAUN Audio 7 is Classic speaker design inspired by old BRAUN products contains a futuristic look, you have integrated a touch screen. This device contains a built-in Spotify application for use without the need for another device to run.
It kinda reminds me of Saregama’s Carvaan sitting on my shelf here and I really hope Spotify builds something like this.
Also see his other concepts → Magic Trackpad 3 and Sony ...
GitHub Announces Codespaces — A New Instant Dev Environment Within GitHub GitHub Codespaces
GitHub has just announced a massive new feature during the GitHub Satellite that is sure to catch the attention of all kinds of developers around the world. The company has announced the availability of GitHub Codespaces in public beta, a complete dev environment that works entirely on the GitHub.com website. Developers can instantly get the full Visual Studio Code experience right in their browsers, launched from any repository they want to work on. Devs can code, build, test, debug, and event deploy using GitHub Codespaces. It’ll be free during beta, and pricing will be announced at a later ...
GitHub has just announced a massive new feature during the GitHub Satellite that is sure to catch the attention of all kinds of developers around the world. The company has announced the availability of GitHub Codespaces in public beta, a complete dev environment that works entirely on the GitHub.com website. Developers can instantly get the full Visual Studio Code experience right in their browsers, launched from any repository they want to work on. Devs can code, build, test, debug, and event deploy using GitHub Codespaces. It’ll be free during beta, and pricing will be announced at a later ...
Abyss is a Neat Little “Read Later” App for iPhone, iPad and Mac Have you ever come across a link while scrubbing through you Twitter or Facebook feeds on your iPhone that you prefer viewing on your Mac instead? Similarly, you know those times when you’re sitting near your Mac and want to read some article on your iPhone or iPad that’s placed next to you, but you’d rather read it later? Typically, you’d bookmark the URLs for viewing later. Some might save the URL in the browser to sync across devices, some might use a “Read Later” service like Pocket or Instapaper and some users might even choose to add the URLs ...
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À l’ère de la surveillance numérique, quatre épisodes de La Série Documentaire
Il y a plusieurs mois, Antoine Tricot journaliste à Radio France et plus précisément sur France Culture m’a contacté dans le cadre de la préparation d’une série de quatre émissions documentaires sur la surveillance numérique. Évidemment, étant sensible au sujet, il m’a proposé de parler de mon expérience au travers de mon travail d’étude, de recherche et d’écriture via notamment mon livre Hacker Citizen (je prépare un nouveau livre à ce sujet, si ça vous intéresse d’en savoir plus c’est sur https://hacker-citizen.fr). Alors moi qui aime énormément la radio, j’ai accepté !
Antoine, (accompagné de Martin Troadec et Rafik Zenine que je salue!) m’a interviewé dans un studio d’enregistrement de Radio France pour parler de hacking, de design, de surveillance numérique, des manifestations à Hong-Kong, sans oublier du fichage en France… bref autant de sujets qui me passionnent !
À l’ère de la surveillance numérique
Si vous voulez écouter les quatre émissions, vous pouvez chercher « La Série Documentaire » dans l’application podcast de votre smartphone (je suis dans l’épisode 4 😉).
Et sinon, voici le lien vers les épisodes, j’ai écouté le premier, c’est fascinant et effrayant : https://www.franceculture.fr/emissions/series/a-lere-de-la-surveillance-numerique
Vous pourrez aussi retrouver entre autre, l’association Exodus Privacy, le président d’Algotransparency, Armand Heslot de la CNIL, Felix Tréguer de la Quadrature, le fondateur de l’ONG Nothing2Hide et bien d’autres.
Encore merci Antoine et bravo pour ce travail de fond !
Je clôture cet article avec une affiche que j’ai récemment créé pour Jaffiche.fr !
Antoine, (accompagné de Martin Troadec et Rafik Zenine que je salue!) m’a interviewé dans un studio d’enregistrement de Radio France pour parler de hacking, de design, de surveillance numérique, des manifestations à Hong-Kong, sans oublier du fichage en France… bref autant de sujets qui me passionnent !
À l’ère de la surveillance numérique
Si vous voulez écouter les quatre émissions, vous pouvez chercher « La Série Documentaire » dans l’application podcast de votre smartphone (je suis dans l’épisode 4 😉).
Et sinon, voici le lien vers les épisodes, j’ai écouté le premier, c’est fascinant et effrayant : https://www.franceculture.fr/emissions/series/a-lere-de-la-surveillance-numerique
Vous pourrez aussi retrouver entre autre, l’association Exodus Privacy, le président d’Algotransparency, Armand Heslot de la CNIL, Felix Tréguer de la Quadrature, le fondateur de l’ONG Nothing2Hide et bien d’autres.
Encore merci Antoine et bravo pour ce travail de fond !
Je clôture cet article avec une affiche que j’ai récemment créé pour Jaffiche.fr !
Quel design pour un navigateur « low-tech » ?
En octobre 2019, pendant un workshop étudiant dans lequel nous cherchions à re-designer le web, j’ai eu l’idée avec Labo.mg de concevoir un navigateur internet « low-tech » (je vous détaille ce que j’entends par-là plus loin dans l’article). Mais n’ayant pas les compétences d’un développeur de logiciels ni la force de frappe d’un Google ou d’un Mozilla, je me suis dit que j’allais vous partager mon idée : sait-on jamais, si quelqu’un est intéressé pour créer ce navigateur avec moi, j’ai toujours l’envie de lancer ce projet !
Vous le savez, dans le design, j’aime aller à l’épure, à la simplicité. Non pas pour une efficacité productiviste mais pour une élégance de la forme, une légèreté cognitive et une légèreté aussi sur mes actions de designer sur le monde. En cela, j’ai un réel plaisir à faire du design numérique lorsque je cherche à aller à la simplicité dans le graphisme, dans le code, dans le design, dans l’ergonomie, dans l’interface, etc.
Au travers de mes nombreuses lectures sur la décroissance, le low-tech, la frugalité (coucou Serge Latouche, Didier Harpagès, Ivan Illich, Philippe Bihouix, j’en oublie…), je me suis mis en tête de repenser mes usages pour qu’ils correspondent le plus à mes besoins : des besoins que j’essaye de minimiser. Pourtant les outils qui me sont proposés sont souvent surdimensionnés, trop puissants, trop performants alors que la plupart du temps, dans le numérique, je cherche à faire des choses simples. Pour moi, l’avenir sera low-tech, la création d’outils web sera low-tech, et repenser mes usages (comme je l’ai fait par exemple, lorsque j’ai compilé mes usages du web et du numérique sur un disque dur) est pour moi un incontournable de ma direction vers la simplicité, ma décroissance personnelle que je bâtis à tâtons petit à petit.
Présentation & contexte
Également appelée capitalocène, l’anthropocène est l’époque dans laquelle de nombreux chercheurs indiquent que l’humanité est une force géologique majeure. De part son activité (industrielle, numérique, des déplacements, etc.), l’humain transforme le monde vivant dans son ensemble et tend à réduire sa biodiversité. Il dirige donc la planète vers une raréfaction des espèces, dont lui-même. Depuis quelques années, des études confirment le rôle du numérique sur ces enjeux et plus précisément lerôle d’Internet et de ses usages comme un élément d’accélération dans cette disparition. Cette destruction est aussi liée à la crise de l’attention (capitalisme attentionnel), à l’aliénation des outils et plateformes (Facebook, Google, Tik-Tok, etc.), à la crise de l’information (fake news, etc.), ainsi qu’aux troubles psychologiques que cela engendre parfois. Pourtant Internet est libérateur, propage l’information, le savoir, les idéaux, crée des révolutions, rassemble, protège, permet de créer, de s’exprimer, de vivre.
Pour cette raison, on entend parler aujourd’hui d’un web low-tech, moins gourmand en ressources énergétiques, en ressources cognitives, en ressources visuelles, etc. Depuis plusieurs années maintenant, je réalise ainsi l’ensemble de mes sites et outils numériques en prenant en compte les enjeux de poids de fichiers, de ram, de débit, de consommation électrique, mais aussi les enjeux cognitifs, de temporalité, etc. et je souhaite aller plus loin avec ce navigateur « low-tech » qui permet d’aller sur Internet en diminuant ces différents impacts.
Comment faire un navigateur low-tech ?
Alors en 2019, quand j’ai imaginé la création de ce navigateur low-tech, j’ai laissé libre cours à mon imagination et je suis parti sur plusieurs grands principes :
retirer tout ce que je n’utilise pas sur ce navigateur (et c’est hyper subjectif)retirer ce qui consomme beaucoup d’énergieretirer ce qui attrape / vole mon tempsretirer ce qui accapare mon attentionajouter la possibilité de se limiterajouter la possibilité d’oublierajouter la possibilité d’avoir moins
Un Firefox Focus sur desktop ?
D’abord, on enlève :
Le menu d’un navigateur classique comme Firefox :
Ce navigateur serait basé sur Chromium, Firefox ou un autre navigateur. Dans un souci de basse technologie, il serait débarrassé de bon nombre de ses fonctionnalités mais aussi augmenté d’un outil de gestion de paramètres que l’on verra plus bas dans cet article.À retirer (basé pour l’exemple sur Firefox) :
l’historique (et si on créait un navigateur amnésique ?)création / connexion au compte du navigateurla « bibliothèque »le gestionnaire et l’enregistrement de mots de passeles pluginsla personnalisationle bouton « ouvrir un fichier »la rubrique « plus »les « nouveautés »l’aideles bookmarksla fonction « pocket »l’historique des téléchargementsla partie « dev web »et les autres outils qui ne seront pas utilisés
Le menu du navigateur après :
Un navigateur : amnésique / limité / décroissant / old school ?
2. Ensuite, on impose des fonctions constantes : (basé pour l’exemple sur firefox) :
(Ce navigateur est volontairement contraint pour des raisons environnementales mais aussi de vie privée et de radicalité dans les usages.)
navigation privée tout le temps activéejamais de cookies (pas sûr, à tester)jamais d’historiquejauge qui mesure la quantité de datas consommées (voir exemple ci-dessous)jauge qui mesure le temps de visionnage vidéos (Youtube, Vimeo, etc.)…la liste est ouverte pour d’autres fonctions constantes.
3. Une jauge pour limiter sa consommation de données
Je souhaiterais installer une petite jauge qui indique le pourcentage de données consommées. Cette barre est constamment présente sur le navigateur. Elle permet, selon un réglage, de savoir combien on a consommé de données (en mo) et combien de données il nous reste à consommer. En effet, l’utilisateur peut choisir si, au lancement du navigateur, il va se restreindre à 50mo, 500mo, 1Go (par exemple)
Qu’est-ce qu’on ajoute ?
4. Un menu latéral pour configurer son mode d’usage
Les 3 modes proposés sont tout simplement des pré-ajustements des paramètres listés dans le menu. Plus le mode est à gauche, plus il est contraint (rien à voir avec la politique 😅) . On peut imaginer que l’utilisateur affiche ce panneau en cliquant sur une icône en haut à droite du navigateur.
Menu latéral
L’utilisateur peut choisir jusqu’à combien de données il a droit. La limite étant 1Go. Il visualise ces données consommées grâce à la barre présente en haut du navigateur. Au delà de cette limite, un message apparaît pour lui indiquer que son quota est épuisé.L’utilisateur peut empêcher les fichiers sons d’être téléchargés.L’utilisateur peut empêcher tous les fichiers sauf HTML & CSS d’êtretéléchargés.L’utilisateur peut forcer le mode « lecture » des pages (exemple avecle plugin « Just Read » qui fonctionne bien)L’utilisateur peut limiter les images téléchargées en fonction de leurpoids (de 0 à 5ko, de 5ko à 100ko, de 100ko à 1mo)L’utilisateur peut limiter sa consommation vidéo à 30 minutes ou moins.L’utilisateur peut limiter son nombre d’onglets.
L’utilisateur peut bien-sûr ne pas jouer le jeu, relancer son navigateur, avoir d’autres navigateurs sur l’ordinateur, etc. Un peu comme moi qui utilise DuckDuckGo en moteur de recherche principal et qui parfois utilise Google pour d’autres recherches. Être libre, ça n’est pas être idiot pour autant.
Aller plus loin ?
Évidemment, les choix que je propose sur ce navigateur sont basés sur des intuitions, des usages, des réflexions aussi. Évidemment, « on ne pourra pas tout faire » avec ce navigateur. C’est l’objectif. Évidemment, tout ceci est perfectible et je pense que je ne suis pas le seul à imaginer un navigateur plus léger dans son logiciel mais aussi dans sa consommation de ressources énergétiques (coucou le Collectif Bam on bosse ensemble ?). Évidemment, pour moi, le low-tech n’est pas uniquement une réponse technique. Cela doit être une réponse pour apaiser notre temps passé à consommer des infos, des pages, des vidéos et des images.
J’avais aussi pensé à :
Bloquer les fonctions type infinite-scroll ou reload automatique des pagesRemplacer les typos externes par des typos localesBloquer les pub, les pop-up / pop-in / demandes d’inscription sur des newsletters / les demandes de géolocalisation, etc.Préserver la vie privée en rendant le navigateur le plus amnésique possibleetc.
Bref, il faut voir cela comme un brouillon, il faut le prendre tel quel, c’est un début d’idée et je sais que même si je ne pourrai peut-être jamais concevoir ce navigateur, j’espère qu’il existera bien un jour. En attendant, n’hésitez pas à partager vos idées d’un navigateur plus léger pour la consommation de données, pour votre vie privée et pour votre cerveau.
Vous le savez, dans le design, j’aime aller à l’épure, à la simplicité. Non pas pour une efficacité productiviste mais pour une élégance de la forme, une légèreté cognitive et une légèreté aussi sur mes actions de designer sur le monde. En cela, j’ai un réel plaisir à faire du design numérique lorsque je cherche à aller à la simplicité dans le graphisme, dans le code, dans le design, dans l’ergonomie, dans l’interface, etc.
Au travers de mes nombreuses lectures sur la décroissance, le low-tech, la frugalité (coucou Serge Latouche, Didier Harpagès, Ivan Illich, Philippe Bihouix, j’en oublie…), je me suis mis en tête de repenser mes usages pour qu’ils correspondent le plus à mes besoins : des besoins que j’essaye de minimiser. Pourtant les outils qui me sont proposés sont souvent surdimensionnés, trop puissants, trop performants alors que la plupart du temps, dans le numérique, je cherche à faire des choses simples. Pour moi, l’avenir sera low-tech, la création d’outils web sera low-tech, et repenser mes usages (comme je l’ai fait par exemple, lorsque j’ai compilé mes usages du web et du numérique sur un disque dur) est pour moi un incontournable de ma direction vers la simplicité, ma décroissance personnelle que je bâtis à tâtons petit à petit.
Présentation & contexte
Également appelée capitalocène, l’anthropocène est l’époque dans laquelle de nombreux chercheurs indiquent que l’humanité est une force géologique majeure. De part son activité (industrielle, numérique, des déplacements, etc.), l’humain transforme le monde vivant dans son ensemble et tend à réduire sa biodiversité. Il dirige donc la planète vers une raréfaction des espèces, dont lui-même. Depuis quelques années, des études confirment le rôle du numérique sur ces enjeux et plus précisément lerôle d’Internet et de ses usages comme un élément d’accélération dans cette disparition. Cette destruction est aussi liée à la crise de l’attention (capitalisme attentionnel), à l’aliénation des outils et plateformes (Facebook, Google, Tik-Tok, etc.), à la crise de l’information (fake news, etc.), ainsi qu’aux troubles psychologiques que cela engendre parfois. Pourtant Internet est libérateur, propage l’information, le savoir, les idéaux, crée des révolutions, rassemble, protège, permet de créer, de s’exprimer, de vivre.
Pour cette raison, on entend parler aujourd’hui d’un web low-tech, moins gourmand en ressources énergétiques, en ressources cognitives, en ressources visuelles, etc. Depuis plusieurs années maintenant, je réalise ainsi l’ensemble de mes sites et outils numériques en prenant en compte les enjeux de poids de fichiers, de ram, de débit, de consommation électrique, mais aussi les enjeux cognitifs, de temporalité, etc. et je souhaite aller plus loin avec ce navigateur « low-tech » qui permet d’aller sur Internet en diminuant ces différents impacts.
Comment faire un navigateur low-tech ?
Alors en 2019, quand j’ai imaginé la création de ce navigateur low-tech, j’ai laissé libre cours à mon imagination et je suis parti sur plusieurs grands principes :
retirer tout ce que je n’utilise pas sur ce navigateur (et c’est hyper subjectif)retirer ce qui consomme beaucoup d’énergieretirer ce qui attrape / vole mon tempsretirer ce qui accapare mon attentionajouter la possibilité de se limiterajouter la possibilité d’oublierajouter la possibilité d’avoir moins
Un Firefox Focus sur desktop ?
D’abord, on enlève :
Le menu d’un navigateur classique comme Firefox :
Ce navigateur serait basé sur Chromium, Firefox ou un autre navigateur. Dans un souci de basse technologie, il serait débarrassé de bon nombre de ses fonctionnalités mais aussi augmenté d’un outil de gestion de paramètres que l’on verra plus bas dans cet article.À retirer (basé pour l’exemple sur Firefox) :
l’historique (et si on créait un navigateur amnésique ?)création / connexion au compte du navigateurla « bibliothèque »le gestionnaire et l’enregistrement de mots de passeles pluginsla personnalisationle bouton « ouvrir un fichier »la rubrique « plus »les « nouveautés »l’aideles bookmarksla fonction « pocket »l’historique des téléchargementsla partie « dev web »et les autres outils qui ne seront pas utilisés
Le menu du navigateur après :
Un navigateur : amnésique / limité / décroissant / old school ?
2. Ensuite, on impose des fonctions constantes : (basé pour l’exemple sur firefox) :
(Ce navigateur est volontairement contraint pour des raisons environnementales mais aussi de vie privée et de radicalité dans les usages.)
navigation privée tout le temps activéejamais de cookies (pas sûr, à tester)jamais d’historiquejauge qui mesure la quantité de datas consommées (voir exemple ci-dessous)jauge qui mesure le temps de visionnage vidéos (Youtube, Vimeo, etc.)…la liste est ouverte pour d’autres fonctions constantes.
3. Une jauge pour limiter sa consommation de données
Je souhaiterais installer une petite jauge qui indique le pourcentage de données consommées. Cette barre est constamment présente sur le navigateur. Elle permet, selon un réglage, de savoir combien on a consommé de données (en mo) et combien de données il nous reste à consommer. En effet, l’utilisateur peut choisir si, au lancement du navigateur, il va se restreindre à 50mo, 500mo, 1Go (par exemple)
Qu’est-ce qu’on ajoute ?
4. Un menu latéral pour configurer son mode d’usage
Les 3 modes proposés sont tout simplement des pré-ajustements des paramètres listés dans le menu. Plus le mode est à gauche, plus il est contraint (rien à voir avec la politique 😅) . On peut imaginer que l’utilisateur affiche ce panneau en cliquant sur une icône en haut à droite du navigateur.
Menu latéral
L’utilisateur peut choisir jusqu’à combien de données il a droit. La limite étant 1Go. Il visualise ces données consommées grâce à la barre présente en haut du navigateur. Au delà de cette limite, un message apparaît pour lui indiquer que son quota est épuisé.L’utilisateur peut empêcher les fichiers sons d’être téléchargés.L’utilisateur peut empêcher tous les fichiers sauf HTML & CSS d’êtretéléchargés.L’utilisateur peut forcer le mode « lecture » des pages (exemple avecle plugin « Just Read » qui fonctionne bien)L’utilisateur peut limiter les images téléchargées en fonction de leurpoids (de 0 à 5ko, de 5ko à 100ko, de 100ko à 1mo)L’utilisateur peut limiter sa consommation vidéo à 30 minutes ou moins.L’utilisateur peut limiter son nombre d’onglets.
L’utilisateur peut bien-sûr ne pas jouer le jeu, relancer son navigateur, avoir d’autres navigateurs sur l’ordinateur, etc. Un peu comme moi qui utilise DuckDuckGo en moteur de recherche principal et qui parfois utilise Google pour d’autres recherches. Être libre, ça n’est pas être idiot pour autant.
Aller plus loin ?
Évidemment, les choix que je propose sur ce navigateur sont basés sur des intuitions, des usages, des réflexions aussi. Évidemment, « on ne pourra pas tout faire » avec ce navigateur. C’est l’objectif. Évidemment, tout ceci est perfectible et je pense que je ne suis pas le seul à imaginer un navigateur plus léger dans son logiciel mais aussi dans sa consommation de ressources énergétiques (coucou le Collectif Bam on bosse ensemble ?). Évidemment, pour moi, le low-tech n’est pas uniquement une réponse technique. Cela doit être une réponse pour apaiser notre temps passé à consommer des infos, des pages, des vidéos et des images.
J’avais aussi pensé à :
Bloquer les fonctions type infinite-scroll ou reload automatique des pagesRemplacer les typos externes par des typos localesBloquer les pub, les pop-up / pop-in / demandes d’inscription sur des newsletters / les demandes de géolocalisation, etc.Préserver la vie privée en rendant le navigateur le plus amnésique possibleetc.
Bref, il faut voir cela comme un brouillon, il faut le prendre tel quel, c’est un début d’idée et je sais que même si je ne pourrai peut-être jamais concevoir ce navigateur, j’espère qu’il existera bien un jour. En attendant, n’hésitez pas à partager vos idées d’un navigateur plus léger pour la consommation de données, pour votre vie privée et pour votre cerveau.
Ville, design et résilience ?
Il y a plusieurs mois, les étudiants du Master en management de l’innovation de Grenoble m’ont invité à parler sur leur événement intitulé « Les lundis de l’innovation ». Ce cycle de conférences est consacré à l’innovation par l’intermédiaire des usages, tels que les sciences humaines et sociales et l’objectif est simple : appréhender certains grands enjeux contemporains à partir de travaux de recherche ou d’interventions publiques.
Je me suis donc prêté au jeu. D’ailleurs, au départ, la question préparatoire qui m’avait été posée était « Comment le design contribue à une ville plus résiliente, durable et inclusive ? ». Personnellement, je n’y crois pas. Ce serait un peu long à développer ici, mais en mobilisant les différents sujets en philosophie environnementale que je peux lire, j’en ai conclu que la ville contemporaine n’est pas compatible avec la pérennité de la biodiversité et donc une vie soutenable. Le design sera de toute façon impuissant devant cela. Bref, après quelques échanges, les étudiants ont reformulé leur question de la façon suivante : « Le design peut-il contribuer à une ville résiliente, durable et inclusive ? ». Je préférais débattre de ce sujet avec eux.
L’intervention a été captée en ligne, je vous la place donc ci-dessous. J’ai également eu droit à un papier avec ma trombine dans le Dauphiné Libéré, je vous le mets également en dessous, ainsi que les slides de mon intervention !
Ville, design et résilience ?
Au final, dans cet échange, j’ai beaucoup re-précisé les questions pour avoir un ancrage sur les mots et leur polysémie et j’ai essayé d’avoir autant une approche théorique qu’une approche pratique et concrète. Je suis resté aussi dans le territoire qu’est le mien : mon approche singulière du design. Le temps étant très limité, j’ai parfois dû aller un peu vite, mais le propos semble avoir été saisi !
Maman j’suis dans le journal !
En marge de cette intervention, j’ai pu échanger avec Anne-Elisabeth Bozon-Verduraz qui m’a interviewé pour le Dauphiné Libéré. 45 minutes de discussions résumés en quelques signes, un vrai challenge !
→ Les slides créées par les étudiants sont en PDF disponibles en cliquant sur ce lien.
→ si vous vous voulez en savoir plus sur les lundis de l’innovation, c’est par ici !
Je me suis donc prêté au jeu. D’ailleurs, au départ, la question préparatoire qui m’avait été posée était « Comment le design contribue à une ville plus résiliente, durable et inclusive ? ». Personnellement, je n’y crois pas. Ce serait un peu long à développer ici, mais en mobilisant les différents sujets en philosophie environnementale que je peux lire, j’en ai conclu que la ville contemporaine n’est pas compatible avec la pérennité de la biodiversité et donc une vie soutenable. Le design sera de toute façon impuissant devant cela. Bref, après quelques échanges, les étudiants ont reformulé leur question de la façon suivante : « Le design peut-il contribuer à une ville résiliente, durable et inclusive ? ». Je préférais débattre de ce sujet avec eux.
L’intervention a été captée en ligne, je vous la place donc ci-dessous. J’ai également eu droit à un papier avec ma trombine dans le Dauphiné Libéré, je vous le mets également en dessous, ainsi que les slides de mon intervention !
Ville, design et résilience ?
Au final, dans cet échange, j’ai beaucoup re-précisé les questions pour avoir un ancrage sur les mots et leur polysémie et j’ai essayé d’avoir autant une approche théorique qu’une approche pratique et concrète. Je suis resté aussi dans le territoire qu’est le mien : mon approche singulière du design. Le temps étant très limité, j’ai parfois dû aller un peu vite, mais le propos semble avoir été saisi !
Maman j’suis dans le journal !
En marge de cette intervention, j’ai pu échanger avec Anne-Elisabeth Bozon-Verduraz qui m’a interviewé pour le Dauphiné Libéré. 45 minutes de discussions résumés en quelques signes, un vrai challenge !
→ Les slides créées par les étudiants sont en PDF disponibles en cliquant sur ce lien.
→ si vous vous voulez en savoir plus sur les lundis de l’innovation, c’est par ici !
« Voisins Bienveillants »
Peut-être que comme moi, vous n’êtes pas toujours rassurés quand vous arrivez dans un quartier ou une ville flanqué d’un panneau jaune criard où il est écrit « Voisins Vigilants ». En plus de cet avertissement, un œil grand ouvert nous précise bien que nous sommes surveillés par les uns et les autres.
Jusque là, je n’avais jamais creusé le sujet mais heureusement, le média StreetPress s’en est occupé pour nous avec cet article très détaillé dans lequel on apprend qu’il s’agit d’une entreprise privée qui implante des panneaux (100€ le panneau), et dont le modèle économique repose donc sur la vente de panneaux jaunes mais surtout sur deux applications mobiles. Chaque habitant peut donc installer l’appli et envoyer une alerte sur le réseau… Par contre vous devrez payer pour envoyer votre message. Sauf si votre ville est cliente de l’entreprise, (de 800€ à 7000€ par an sans compter les dépassements de forfait si les citoyens dénoncent beaucoup plus que prévu…).
En réaction à cet éclairant article et à ce message de surveillance des citoyens sur lequel je sens un certain malaise, j’ai créé à mon tour des panneaux pour mettre un peu plus de bienveillance, d’accueil, d’humour dans nos villes et nos voisinages :
Les visuels
Si vous voulez télécharger les visuels en PDF : https://geoffreydorne.com/voisins/voisins.pdf
Jusque là, je n’avais jamais creusé le sujet mais heureusement, le média StreetPress s’en est occupé pour nous avec cet article très détaillé dans lequel on apprend qu’il s’agit d’une entreprise privée qui implante des panneaux (100€ le panneau), et dont le modèle économique repose donc sur la vente de panneaux jaunes mais surtout sur deux applications mobiles. Chaque habitant peut donc installer l’appli et envoyer une alerte sur le réseau… Par contre vous devrez payer pour envoyer votre message. Sauf si votre ville est cliente de l’entreprise, (de 800€ à 7000€ par an sans compter les dépassements de forfait si les citoyens dénoncent beaucoup plus que prévu…).
En réaction à cet éclairant article et à ce message de surveillance des citoyens sur lequel je sens un certain malaise, j’ai créé à mon tour des panneaux pour mettre un peu plus de bienveillance, d’accueil, d’humour dans nos villes et nos voisinages :
Les visuels
Si vous voulez télécharger les visuels en PDF : https://geoffreydorne.com/voisins/voisins.pdf
Le catalogue des livres anciens sur le design
Chaque semaine, il y a énormément de projets web qui attirent mon attention. Cependant, il y en a très peu qui retiennent réellement mon attention. Tout se ressemble et tout semble parfois vain, pauvre en contenu et surchargé d’effets.
Heureusement, j’ai découvert ce matin le site Archives.design de la designer Valery Marier. Ce site web modeste mais redoutablement pratique nous propose de découvrir, lire, télécharger des dizaines de livres anciens sur le design (graphique, typographique, sur Apple, Emigre, la NASA, etc.).
Le tout est très bien classé, architecturé et chaque ouvrage est hébergé sur l’indispensable Internet Archives que vous connaissez sûrement. Parfait donc pour parfaire votre culture du design !
Bref, voici quelques belles images issues de ces livres que j’ai pu collecter pour vous et je vous laisse découvrir le site par vous-même 🙂
Archives.design
Le site → https://archives.design/
Heureusement, j’ai découvert ce matin le site Archives.design de la designer Valery Marier. Ce site web modeste mais redoutablement pratique nous propose de découvrir, lire, télécharger des dizaines de livres anciens sur le design (graphique, typographique, sur Apple, Emigre, la NASA, etc.).
Le tout est très bien classé, architecturé et chaque ouvrage est hébergé sur l’indispensable Internet Archives que vous connaissez sûrement. Parfait donc pour parfaire votre culture du design !
Bref, voici quelques belles images issues de ces livres que j’ai pu collecter pour vous et je vous laisse découvrir le site par vous-même 🙂
Archives.design
Le site → https://archives.design/
Grab a FREE .design Domain to Showcase Your Designs
Everyone is familiar with .com and .net, but did you know you get your own free .design domain?
As a designer, we think it’s pretty awesome that we can get a domain name that reflects what we do, .design.
And because it’s a fairly new domain, there are still plenty of short .design names available. So the good news is, you can shorten or improve your existing branding by switching to the .design domain.
ie. johnsmithdesign.com >> johnsmith.design
You can also get your own unique email address such as hola@yourname.design or you can even use it as a clever redirect to another site, like a Behance profile.
Get your FREE .Design Domain
We have teamed up with Porkbun to offer all Beautiful Pixels subscribers a FREE .design domain name. The first year is free, and yearly renewals will be just $35 instead of the $70 offered at some registrars.
You also get:
Free email hosting – you can add an email address (or multiple!) that matches your domain name. For example, anne@goldsmith.design or info@goldsmith.design, or any other name you want.
SSL Security – An SSL certificate will encrypt your visitors’ sensitive data, and also display your site with “HTTPS” in your address bar, which will let visitors know that you’ve made their security your top priority. You’ll also avoid the “NOT SECURE” label from Google.
Free WHOIS Privacy – Your contact information will be private, and protected forever. Other registrars charge you for this. Porkbun won’t.
Free website builder – If you want to build your .design website with no code, you can build it for free using their site builder, powered by Weebly. And with this option, you don’t have to pay for website hosting.
Free domain connection – Whether you built your website (or plan to build it) with other services like WIX, SquareSpace, or Weebly, you can easily connect your .design domain to your website platform. Your website content will stay exactly the same, but you’ll have a modern .design domain name for your website to show off!
Here’s your chance to get a free website domain name that reflects what you do and helps you showcase your work.
Take me to my free .design domain name! →
The post Grab a FREE .design Domain to Showcase Your Designs appeared first on Beautiful Pixels.
As a designer, we think it’s pretty awesome that we can get a domain name that reflects what we do, .design.
And because it’s a fairly new domain, there are still plenty of short .design names available. So the good news is, you can shorten or improve your existing branding by switching to the .design domain.
ie. johnsmithdesign.com >> johnsmith.design
You can also get your own unique email address such as hola@yourname.design or you can even use it as a clever redirect to another site, like a Behance profile.
Get your FREE .Design Domain
We have teamed up with Porkbun to offer all Beautiful Pixels subscribers a FREE .design domain name. The first year is free, and yearly renewals will be just $35 instead of the $70 offered at some registrars.
You also get:
Free email hosting – you can add an email address (or multiple!) that matches your domain name. For example, anne@goldsmith.design or info@goldsmith.design, or any other name you want.
SSL Security – An SSL certificate will encrypt your visitors’ sensitive data, and also display your site with “HTTPS” in your address bar, which will let visitors know that you’ve made their security your top priority. You’ll also avoid the “NOT SECURE” label from Google.
Free WHOIS Privacy – Your contact information will be private, and protected forever. Other registrars charge you for this. Porkbun won’t.
Free website builder – If you want to build your .design website with no code, you can build it for free using their site builder, powered by Weebly. And with this option, you don’t have to pay for website hosting.
Free domain connection – Whether you built your website (or plan to build it) with other services like WIX, SquareSpace, or Weebly, you can easily connect your .design domain to your website platform. Your website content will stay exactly the same, but you’ll have a modern .design domain name for your website to show off!
Here’s your chance to get a free website domain name that reflects what you do and helps you showcase your work.
Take me to my free .design domain name! →
The post Grab a FREE .design Domain to Showcase Your Designs appeared first on Beautiful Pixels.
How to Download Twitter Videos on an iPhone or an iPad
I consider Twitter as the place for very serious videos such as this one, which I often want to download and share with my friends on Instagram or Messenger. I’ve been looking for a quick and easy way to download Twitter videos on iOS and my search has finally come to an end, thanks once again to Siri Shortcuts. This shortcut, called DTwitter, is exactly what I need because it allows me to download videos off Twitter in an instant. The shortcut can also download gifs and photos, if that’s something you are looking to do.
How to Download Twitter Videos on iPhone
Before you get started, be sure to read my article on Siri Shortcuts. I’ve covered how to install and use Siri Shortcuts on iPhone and iPad. If you’re a seasoned shortcuts user, read on.
Download DTwitter from RoutineHub. I’m sharing a RoutineHub link here because you’ll be able to check the latest updates to the shortcut before downloading it.
Now open Twitter on your iOS device and find the Twitter video you want to download. You can either use the Twitter app or any browser.
Tap the share icon below the tweet and then tap Share tweet via. Now scroll down and select DTwitter.
You will now see a loading icon, followed by the video on screen. Tap the video, hit the share icon and tap Save Video.
This shortcut will ask for access to RoutineHub (for updates), twimg.com (where Twitter media is hosted) and your photo library (to save Twitter media). There are several other (more complicated) ways to download Twitter videos on your iPhone or iPad, but the effort involved with this shortcut is so little that it’s easily one of my favorite Siri Shortcuts that I’ve discovered lately.
Keep watching this space and subscribe if you haven’t already for more useful Siri Shortcuts coming your way.
The post How to Download Twitter Videos on an iPhone or an iPad appeared first on Beautiful Pixels.
How to Download Twitter Videos on iPhone
Before you get started, be sure to read my article on Siri Shortcuts. I’ve covered how to install and use Siri Shortcuts on iPhone and iPad. If you’re a seasoned shortcuts user, read on.
Download DTwitter from RoutineHub. I’m sharing a RoutineHub link here because you’ll be able to check the latest updates to the shortcut before downloading it.
Now open Twitter on your iOS device and find the Twitter video you want to download. You can either use the Twitter app or any browser.
Tap the share icon below the tweet and then tap Share tweet via. Now scroll down and select DTwitter.
You will now see a loading icon, followed by the video on screen. Tap the video, hit the share icon and tap Save Video.
This shortcut will ask for access to RoutineHub (for updates), twimg.com (where Twitter media is hosted) and your photo library (to save Twitter media). There are several other (more complicated) ways to download Twitter videos on your iPhone or iPad, but the effort involved with this shortcut is so little that it’s easily one of my favorite Siri Shortcuts that I’ve discovered lately.
Keep watching this space and subscribe if you haven’t already for more useful Siri Shortcuts coming your way.
The post How to Download Twitter Videos on an iPhone or an iPad appeared first on Beautiful Pixels.
How to Create Long Screenshots on iPhone
I was among the happiest people on Earth when Apple announced the ability to save full page screenshots with iOS 13. However, when I first used that feature, it was a bit disappointing. iOS 13’s long or Full-Page screenshot feature only works with Safari and even then, it’s a bit limited as it saves those pages as PDFs. This is not what I want from long screenshots. Like everyone else, I want to take scrolling screenshots of my iMessage and Facebook chats so that I can share or store them easily.
To take long screenshots on iOS, you could either use apps such as Tailor or Picsew, or you could use Siri Shortcuts and get the job done for free. The shortcut I’m writing about is slightly rough around the edges but it does work fairly well if you know how to work around its limitations.
The one major limitation of this shortcut is that you will have to make sure your screenshots don’t have overlapping content because you can’t adjust and crop screenshots to eliminate duplication. I work around this either by manually cropping screenshots in Photos or being extra careful when taking screenshots. Other than this, this shortcut works really well so let’s get right to it.
How to Take Long Screenshots on iPhone
I’ve written about the basics of Siri Shortcuts and how to install shortcuts on your iOS device. Be sure to read that piece in case you’re not sure what this is all about.
Download the Long Screenshots shortcut by tapping Get Shortcut on the Routine Hub page. I’m linking to Routine Hub because it’ll always display the latest version of this shortcut as opposed to the iCloud page which may stop working or have a couple of unpatched bugs.
Take the screenshots you need to stitch into a single image.
Open the Shortcuts app, tap the My Shortcuts tab, and tap Long Screenshots. The shortcut will ask for permission to access Routine Hub and iCloud Drive. The former keeps the shortcut updated and the latter allows you to save screenshots to iCloud Drive.
Now tap Start Long Screenshot.
This will open your screenshots via the photo picker and you can select all the screenshots you want to stitch. Tap Done after selecting the screenshots.
Tap No, start a new crop. Now tap OK.
Now begins the part where you crop the screenshots. You’ll see a preview of one screenshot and you should tap Done to open cropping options.
First you’ll be cropping the top of all screenshots. This allows you to remove the status bar, address bar, or other menu elements and keep only the important parts of any screenshot. You can choose to crop between 10 and 100 pixels at a time and each time you’ll be shown a preview of what the screenshots will look like after cropping. Repeat the cropping until you’re satisfied and then tap All done with this part.
Now it’s time to crop the bottom of the screenshots. Repeat the previous step.
Next, you can choose if you want the header and the footer on the first and last screenshot. This will keep the status bar, tab bar, and other menu elements in the first and last screenshots only. I always tap Yes here because it makes my long screenshots look nicer.
Now you’ll see a preview of your long screenshot. Tap Done.
Select if you want to save the image, delete it, or share it without saving.
The final option allows you to save these crop settings for future screenshots. If you save this, steps 8 and 9 will take a lot less time in the future.
This shortcut is a great example of how Siri Shortcuts can add really useful features to iOS. I’ll be writing about several more shortcuts in the coming days, so watch this space to learn about some more interesting things you can do with these amazing automation tools in iOS.
The post How to Create Long Screenshots on iPhone appeared first on Beautiful Pixels.
To take long screenshots on iOS, you could either use apps such as Tailor or Picsew, or you could use Siri Shortcuts and get the job done for free. The shortcut I’m writing about is slightly rough around the edges but it does work fairly well if you know how to work around its limitations.
The one major limitation of this shortcut is that you will have to make sure your screenshots don’t have overlapping content because you can’t adjust and crop screenshots to eliminate duplication. I work around this either by manually cropping screenshots in Photos or being extra careful when taking screenshots. Other than this, this shortcut works really well so let’s get right to it.
How to Take Long Screenshots on iPhone
I’ve written about the basics of Siri Shortcuts and how to install shortcuts on your iOS device. Be sure to read that piece in case you’re not sure what this is all about.
Download the Long Screenshots shortcut by tapping Get Shortcut on the Routine Hub page. I’m linking to Routine Hub because it’ll always display the latest version of this shortcut as opposed to the iCloud page which may stop working or have a couple of unpatched bugs.
Take the screenshots you need to stitch into a single image.
Open the Shortcuts app, tap the My Shortcuts tab, and tap Long Screenshots. The shortcut will ask for permission to access Routine Hub and iCloud Drive. The former keeps the shortcut updated and the latter allows you to save screenshots to iCloud Drive.
Now tap Start Long Screenshot.
This will open your screenshots via the photo picker and you can select all the screenshots you want to stitch. Tap Done after selecting the screenshots.
Tap No, start a new crop. Now tap OK.
Now begins the part where you crop the screenshots. You’ll see a preview of one screenshot and you should tap Done to open cropping options.
First you’ll be cropping the top of all screenshots. This allows you to remove the status bar, address bar, or other menu elements and keep only the important parts of any screenshot. You can choose to crop between 10 and 100 pixels at a time and each time you’ll be shown a preview of what the screenshots will look like after cropping. Repeat the cropping until you’re satisfied and then tap All done with this part.
Now it’s time to crop the bottom of the screenshots. Repeat the previous step.
Next, you can choose if you want the header and the footer on the first and last screenshot. This will keep the status bar, tab bar, and other menu elements in the first and last screenshots only. I always tap Yes here because it makes my long screenshots look nicer.
Now you’ll see a preview of your long screenshot. Tap Done.
Select if you want to save the image, delete it, or share it without saving.
The final option allows you to save these crop settings for future screenshots. If you save this, steps 8 and 9 will take a lot less time in the future.
This shortcut is a great example of how Siri Shortcuts can add really useful features to iOS. I’ll be writing about several more shortcuts in the coming days, so watch this space to learn about some more interesting things you can do with these amazing automation tools in iOS.
The post How to Create Long Screenshots on iPhone appeared first on Beautiful Pixels.
Camo Lets You Use Your iPhone or iPad Camera as a Webcam on Mac
Although Apple has been criticized for a long time for shipping webcams with terrible video quality in their Macs, never has that been more relevant than in the last few months. More and more meetings are now been conducted online, and everyone has to sit in front these awful FaceTime cameras by default. Practically their entire Mac lineup shipping today comes with a 720p FaceTime camera, with the exception of the iMac Pro that has a 1080p webcam. Apple just doesn’t give you the option to upgrade the built-in camera, which is especially crazy because Apple ships some of the best cameras in the world in their iPhones, so it’s not like they don’t have the know-how.
I have long hoped for a native way to use the iPhone camera as a webcam for the Mac. In my quest to find a decent Mac webcam alternative, I came across Reincubate Camo — a phenomenal piece of software that lets you use the camera on your iPhone or iPad as a webcam for your Mac over a standard USB cable. It works natively with most of the popular meeting and conferencing apps like Zoom, Google Meet, OBS Studio, BlueJeans, Twitch (+ Studio), Microsoft Teams, Skype, Slack, Google Chrome, WebEx Teams, etc. without the need to run any hacky commands. It even works with the talk-of-the-town mmhmm.app. I have been using the beta over the last four weeks and I have to tell you — it’s absolutely fantastic. With Camo, you get stunning picture quality for your meetings and the grainy mess from the default FaceTime cameras on the Macs will be a thing of the past.
How to Use your iPhone Camera as a Webcam for Mac
To get started, download the Camo app for iOS directly from the App Store. This app just opens up a camera feed and sends it to your Mac. There are no controls or buttons in the app, except for a status indicator which tells you whether you’re connected or not.
Camo app for iPhone
To actually use the iPhone and iPad as a camera for your Mac, you’ll need to install Camo Studio, the companion app that does the magic. It installs the relevant drivers and works as the control center for your camera. With Camo Studio, you’ll be able to switch between the cameras on your iOS device. It supports all available lenses, i.e. front/selfie cameras, wide-angle, and telephoto.
Camo supports multiple iOS devices as camera sources, and you’ll be able to switch between them on the fly using the dropdown. You can mirror the video, change the rotation, even zoom in digitally and adjust to get the framing just right. For advanced users, there are options to tinker with Capture settings like Exposure, ISO, Brightness, Temperature, Tint, Hue, Saturation, Contrast, Gamma & Sharpness.
I’ve spent a lot of time speaking about the functionality, but that’s not all Camo is good at. It’s also really well crafted and is a delight to use. For example, I love how when you launch the iOS app for the first time, there’s a handy link to AirDrop the link to download Camo Studio on your Mac. I also like how depending on which lens you choose in Camo Studio, it tells you the aperture of that lens just under the setting. Camo Studio also has a beautiful Dark Mode that looks stunning on the Mac.
Camo Studio’s Dark Mode on Mac (via @preshit)
I’ve compared the video quality from Camo with a couple of third-party webcams that I could gather and found Camo’s quality to be far better. I think that’s largely due to the fact that the iPhone already has such a good quality camera hardware, but the ease in which I can adjust settings in Camo Studio definitely helps.
Camo is available in a Free edition with limited functionality by default. In this version, you can use the basic webcam functionality for Free as long as you want, but you’ll see a small Camo watermark on the camera feed and some lenses and resolutions are restricted. By upgrading to the Pro version, you unlock all the restrictions and also get access to all the Capture settings listed above. Camo is currently available only for the Mac, but Reincubate says that a Windows version is coming soon.
Unfortunately, Camo’s pricing will put off a lot of users owing to the fact that it requires a yearly subscription to use all the Pro features. Camo Pro is priced at $40 per year per Mac, which does sound a bit on the higher end, but when you consider the practical ease in which you can get setup with a high-quality webcam with your existing hardware, I think that’s a fair ask. Using your iPhone as the camera also makes it easy to mount it on a tripod or stand in a position of your liking.
The company has also stated that some features like 4K support, Wi-Fi pairing, Portrait mode, etc. are already on their roadmap.
App Details:View Website or Download it for Free
The post Camo Lets You Use Your iPhone or iPad Camera as a Webcam on Mac appeared first on Beautiful Pixels.
I have long hoped for a native way to use the iPhone camera as a webcam for the Mac. In my quest to find a decent Mac webcam alternative, I came across Reincubate Camo — a phenomenal piece of software that lets you use the camera on your iPhone or iPad as a webcam for your Mac over a standard USB cable. It works natively with most of the popular meeting and conferencing apps like Zoom, Google Meet, OBS Studio, BlueJeans, Twitch (+ Studio), Microsoft Teams, Skype, Slack, Google Chrome, WebEx Teams, etc. without the need to run any hacky commands. It even works with the talk-of-the-town mmhmm.app. I have been using the beta over the last four weeks and I have to tell you — it’s absolutely fantastic. With Camo, you get stunning picture quality for your meetings and the grainy mess from the default FaceTime cameras on the Macs will be a thing of the past.
How to Use your iPhone Camera as a Webcam for Mac
To get started, download the Camo app for iOS directly from the App Store. This app just opens up a camera feed and sends it to your Mac. There are no controls or buttons in the app, except for a status indicator which tells you whether you’re connected or not.
Camo app for iPhone
To actually use the iPhone and iPad as a camera for your Mac, you’ll need to install Camo Studio, the companion app that does the magic. It installs the relevant drivers and works as the control center for your camera. With Camo Studio, you’ll be able to switch between the cameras on your iOS device. It supports all available lenses, i.e. front/selfie cameras, wide-angle, and telephoto.
Camo supports multiple iOS devices as camera sources, and you’ll be able to switch between them on the fly using the dropdown. You can mirror the video, change the rotation, even zoom in digitally and adjust to get the framing just right. For advanced users, there are options to tinker with Capture settings like Exposure, ISO, Brightness, Temperature, Tint, Hue, Saturation, Contrast, Gamma & Sharpness.
I’ve spent a lot of time speaking about the functionality, but that’s not all Camo is good at. It’s also really well crafted and is a delight to use. For example, I love how when you launch the iOS app for the first time, there’s a handy link to AirDrop the link to download Camo Studio on your Mac. I also like how depending on which lens you choose in Camo Studio, it tells you the aperture of that lens just under the setting. Camo Studio also has a beautiful Dark Mode that looks stunning on the Mac.
Camo Studio’s Dark Mode on Mac (via @preshit)
I’ve compared the video quality from Camo with a couple of third-party webcams that I could gather and found Camo’s quality to be far better. I think that’s largely due to the fact that the iPhone already has such a good quality camera hardware, but the ease in which I can adjust settings in Camo Studio definitely helps.
Camo is available in a Free edition with limited functionality by default. In this version, you can use the basic webcam functionality for Free as long as you want, but you’ll see a small Camo watermark on the camera feed and some lenses and resolutions are restricted. By upgrading to the Pro version, you unlock all the restrictions and also get access to all the Capture settings listed above. Camo is currently available only for the Mac, but Reincubate says that a Windows version is coming soon.
Unfortunately, Camo’s pricing will put off a lot of users owing to the fact that it requires a yearly subscription to use all the Pro features. Camo Pro is priced at $40 per year per Mac, which does sound a bit on the higher end, but when you consider the practical ease in which you can get setup with a high-quality webcam with your existing hardware, I think that’s a fair ask. Using your iPhone as the camera also makes it easy to mount it on a tripod or stand in a position of your liking.
The company has also stated that some features like 4K support, Wi-Fi pairing, Portrait mode, etc. are already on their roadmap.
App Details:View Website or Download it for Free
The post Camo Lets You Use Your iPhone or iPad Camera as a Webcam on Mac appeared first on Beautiful Pixels.
How to Download App Store Screenshots on iPhone or iPad
Siri Shortcuts is one of the best things to happen to iOS because it allows one to do so many things that were clunky or impossible before shortcuts came along. One of these things is the ability to save all the screenshots of any app from the App Store or Mac App Store. This simple task was quite difficult on iOS until Siri Shortcuts came along.
There’s an excellent Siri Shortcut that allows you to download all screenshots for any app in one fell swoop. The only limitation is that it can’t download Apple Watch screenshots. I’ll be writing a separate article on a shortcut that lets you download watchOS screenshots a little later. Let’s see how you can download & save app screenshots onto your iPhone.
How to Download App Screenshots from App Store on iOS
I first saw this shortcut on Federico Viticci’s excellent website: MacStories. You can download and enjoy it too. If you need a refresher, remember that I’ve already covered the basics of installing and running shortcuts.
Download the Save App Store Screenshots shortcut.
Open the Shortcuts app and tap the shortcut you just downloaded.
Type the name of the app in the pop-up and tap Done.
Select the platform — iPhone, iPad, or Mac.
Select the correct app from the search results.
Now open the Photos app and you’ll see all the screenshots in your photo library.
It’s as easy as that to save App Store screenshots on iOS. Keep watching this space for more articles around Siri Shortcuts.
The post How to Download App Store Screenshots on iPhone or iPad appeared first on Beautiful Pixels.
There’s an excellent Siri Shortcut that allows you to download all screenshots for any app in one fell swoop. The only limitation is that it can’t download Apple Watch screenshots. I’ll be writing a separate article on a shortcut that lets you download watchOS screenshots a little later. Let’s see how you can download & save app screenshots onto your iPhone.
How to Download App Screenshots from App Store on iOS
I first saw this shortcut on Federico Viticci’s excellent website: MacStories. You can download and enjoy it too. If you need a refresher, remember that I’ve already covered the basics of installing and running shortcuts.
Download the Save App Store Screenshots shortcut.
Open the Shortcuts app and tap the shortcut you just downloaded.
Type the name of the app in the pop-up and tap Done.
Select the platform — iPhone, iPad, or Mac.
Select the correct app from the search results.
Now open the Photos app and you’ll see all the screenshots in your photo library.
It’s as easy as that to save App Store screenshots on iOS. Keep watching this space for more articles around Siri Shortcuts.
The post How to Download App Store Screenshots on iPhone or iPad appeared first on Beautiful Pixels.
How to Download Instagram Videos and Stories on iPhone
Instagram is my window into the world of cute cats and dogs. Whenever I see a particularly good video, I miss the ability to download Instagram videos. Thanks to Siri Shortcuts, you can download Instagram videos on iPhone. Before you ask, yes you can download photos and stories via the same shortcut. I’ve been using this shortcut to create a giant library of cuteness and so can you.
As a long-time user of Instagram shortcuts, I can tell you one thing for sure: This shortcut will stop working after some time. Instagram keeps making changes that break other services and automation workflows. This is why I’m going to link to Routine Hub instead of the iCloud link to this shortcut this time. Routine Hub is an excellent site that catalogues shortcuts and adds some nice features such as giving creators the ability to update their shortcuts. This link will allow you to download the latest version of the shortcut whenever you read this article.
How to Download Instagram Photos and Videos
I’ve written about downloading and installing Siri Shortcuts before, so you should check that out in case you want to figure out how to install shortcuts on iOS. The steps to download photos and videos from Instagram are the same.
Open the Instagram Media Saver shortcut page on Routine Hub. Tap Get Shortcut to go to the iCloud page for the shortcut and download it from there.
Open any photo or video on Instagram and tap the … button above the post. Tap Share to…, scroll down, and tap Instagram Media Saver.
When you run it for the first time, this shortcut may ask for permission to access the Instagram website and your photo library. Once you grant these permissions, it’ll save the photo or video to your iPhone.
How to Download Instagram Stories
The same Instagram Media Saver shortcut can save photos and videos from Instagram Stories as long as you login to the social media site from Safari. It does not work if you use the Instagram app to run the shortcut.
Open Instagram.com on Safari, log in to your account, and open any Instagram Story.
Tap the … icon at the bottom.
Now tap the Share button in Safari’s bottom bar and tap Instagram Media Saver.
The shortcut will now download Instagram Stories to your photo library.
I’ll be writing about many more such Siri Shortcuts on Beautiful Pixels. Watch this space for more useful tutorials around Siri Shortcuts.
The post How to Download Instagram Videos and Stories on iPhone appeared first on Beautiful Pixels.
As a long-time user of Instagram shortcuts, I can tell you one thing for sure: This shortcut will stop working after some time. Instagram keeps making changes that break other services and automation workflows. This is why I’m going to link to Routine Hub instead of the iCloud link to this shortcut this time. Routine Hub is an excellent site that catalogues shortcuts and adds some nice features such as giving creators the ability to update their shortcuts. This link will allow you to download the latest version of the shortcut whenever you read this article.
How to Download Instagram Photos and Videos
I’ve written about downloading and installing Siri Shortcuts before, so you should check that out in case you want to figure out how to install shortcuts on iOS. The steps to download photos and videos from Instagram are the same.
Open the Instagram Media Saver shortcut page on Routine Hub. Tap Get Shortcut to go to the iCloud page for the shortcut and download it from there.
Open any photo or video on Instagram and tap the … button above the post. Tap Share to…, scroll down, and tap Instagram Media Saver.
When you run it for the first time, this shortcut may ask for permission to access the Instagram website and your photo library. Once you grant these permissions, it’ll save the photo or video to your iPhone.
How to Download Instagram Stories
The same Instagram Media Saver shortcut can save photos and videos from Instagram Stories as long as you login to the social media site from Safari. It does not work if you use the Instagram app to run the shortcut.
Open Instagram.com on Safari, log in to your account, and open any Instagram Story.
Tap the … icon at the bottom.
Now tap the Share button in Safari’s bottom bar and tap Instagram Media Saver.
The shortcut will now download Instagram Stories to your photo library.
I’ll be writing about many more such Siri Shortcuts on Beautiful Pixels. Watch this space for more useful tutorials around Siri Shortcuts.
The post How to Download Instagram Videos and Stories on iPhone appeared first on Beautiful Pixels.
How to Download App Icons From the App Store or Mac App Store on iPhone or iPad
Good design is at the heart of everything we cover here at Beautiful Pixels. We’ve long been admirers of app icons (so long, App Icon Gallery). We often come across amazing app icons on the App Store such as the icons for Pixtiss or even Shortcuts. Downloading these icons has never been easy on iPhone or iPad, unless you know how to use Siri Shortcuts to download app icons from the App Store.
I’m about to recommend a shortcut that has a minor limitations. This shortcut will allow you to download app icons for any app that is on the App Store or on the Mac App Store. If you want to download the icons for first-party apps such as App Store itself, this shortcut won’t help because it needs the app to be listed on one of these app stores. (I know, I was hoping for an icon-ception too).
How to Download App Icons From App Store
The App Icon Downloader shortcut is your best friend if you want to download app icons. If you’re not sure how to set up and use shortcuts, please check out this post first.
Download App Icon Downloader shortcut.
Open the Shortcuts app, go to the My Shortcuts tab, and tap App Icon Downloader to run the shortcut.
Now enter the name of the app (Hint: Try ReadKit, which has a lovely icon on the Mac App Store).
Select the device — iPhone, iPad, or Mac — from the list. For ReadKit, select Mac.
Tap the name of the app from the search results in the pop-up.
Now you’ll see the full app icon. Tap Done on the top-left.
A new pop-up will ask if you want to save the image, send it, or mask it. Tap Mask Image to convert this to an iOS-style icon with rounded corners or a circular icon. Alternatively you may save or send it.
Sounds easy, right? It absolutely is. Keep watching this space for more such useful shortcuts. We’ll be publishing more of these a few times every week.
The post How to Download App Icons From the App Store or Mac App Store on iPhone or iPad appeared first on Beautiful Pixels.
I’m about to recommend a shortcut that has a minor limitations. This shortcut will allow you to download app icons for any app that is on the App Store or on the Mac App Store. If you want to download the icons for first-party apps such as App Store itself, this shortcut won’t help because it needs the app to be listed on one of these app stores. (I know, I was hoping for an icon-ception too).
How to Download App Icons From App Store
The App Icon Downloader shortcut is your best friend if you want to download app icons. If you’re not sure how to set up and use shortcuts, please check out this post first.
Download App Icon Downloader shortcut.
Open the Shortcuts app, go to the My Shortcuts tab, and tap App Icon Downloader to run the shortcut.
Now enter the name of the app (Hint: Try ReadKit, which has a lovely icon on the Mac App Store).
Select the device — iPhone, iPad, or Mac — from the list. For ReadKit, select Mac.
Tap the name of the app from the search results in the pop-up.
Now you’ll see the full app icon. Tap Done on the top-left.
A new pop-up will ask if you want to save the image, send it, or mask it. Tap Mask Image to convert this to an iOS-style icon with rounded corners or a circular icon. Alternatively you may save or send it.
Sounds easy, right? It absolutely is. Keep watching this space for more such useful shortcuts. We’ll be publishing more of these a few times every week.
The post How to Download App Icons From the App Store or Mac App Store on iPhone or iPad appeared first on Beautiful Pixels.
How to Send WhatsApp Messages to Anyone Without Saving Their Number on iPhone
The world’s most popular messaging app needs no introduction, but it could definitely use a few basic features to minimise some of its pain points. I find it extremely irritating to save people’s phone numbers as contacts every time I have to send them a simple WhatsApp message. I buy stuff online all the time and it’s really frustrating to save contacts such as “Michael Craigslist iPhone Seller” or “John E. Bay iPadman”. Why do I have to save contacts to message people on WhatsApp? Are you too wondering how to send a WhatsApp messages without saving phone numbers?
Fortunately, there are a couple of easy solutions to this problem and one of these solutions uses Siri Shortcuts, which is fast becoming my preferred solution to various app and iOS limitations.
How to Send WhatsApp Messages Without Adding Contact
The best way to send WhatsApp messages to anyone without adding contact is to deny WhatsApp access to contacts.
Open Settings, scroll down and tap Privacy.
Tap Contacts and disable Contacts access for WhatsApp.
Open WhatsApp and go to the Chats tab. Tap the New Message icon on the top-right.
Now you will see an option to select the country and enter a phone number. Just copy this from your address book and paste it in WhatsApp.
Tap Done and then tap OK in the pop-up.
This will begin your WhatsApp conversation with any number without adding it to your contacts. Remember that denying WhatsApp access to contacts means that you will have to follow these steps for every new WhatsApp conversation.
How to Send WhatsApp Messages Without Saving Number
If you want to give WhatsApp access to your contacts and yet want to message some people without saving their number, Siri Shortcuts is here to help. First, you should read this post to get basic information such as how to set up and use the Shortcuts app on iOS. Following that, it’s time to install a kickass shortcut.
Download this WhatsApp Unsaved Number shortcut.
Open the Shortcuts app, go to the My Shortcuts tab, and tap WhatsApp Unsaved Number.
Type the phone number with country code in the pop-up. If your number is +1 221 552 1566, you should type 12215521566 in the box. Then tap OK.
You’ll now start a new chat in WhatsApp with the number you just typed.
That’s the power of Siri Shortcuts for you. We’ll be writing about many more Siri Shortcuts in the future, so keep watching this space for lots more useful Siri Shortcuts.
The post How to Send WhatsApp Messages to Anyone Without Saving Their Number on iPhone appeared first on Beautiful Pixels.
Fortunately, there are a couple of easy solutions to this problem and one of these solutions uses Siri Shortcuts, which is fast becoming my preferred solution to various app and iOS limitations.
How to Send WhatsApp Messages Without Adding Contact
The best way to send WhatsApp messages to anyone without adding contact is to deny WhatsApp access to contacts.
Open Settings, scroll down and tap Privacy.
Tap Contacts and disable Contacts access for WhatsApp.
Open WhatsApp and go to the Chats tab. Tap the New Message icon on the top-right.
Now you will see an option to select the country and enter a phone number. Just copy this from your address book and paste it in WhatsApp.
Tap Done and then tap OK in the pop-up.
This will begin your WhatsApp conversation with any number without adding it to your contacts. Remember that denying WhatsApp access to contacts means that you will have to follow these steps for every new WhatsApp conversation.
How to Send WhatsApp Messages Without Saving Number
If you want to give WhatsApp access to your contacts and yet want to message some people without saving their number, Siri Shortcuts is here to help. First, you should read this post to get basic information such as how to set up and use the Shortcuts app on iOS. Following that, it’s time to install a kickass shortcut.
Download this WhatsApp Unsaved Number shortcut.
Open the Shortcuts app, go to the My Shortcuts tab, and tap WhatsApp Unsaved Number.
Type the phone number with country code in the pop-up. If your number is +1 221 552 1566, you should type 12215521566 in the box. Then tap OK.
You’ll now start a new chat in WhatsApp with the number you just typed.
That’s the power of Siri Shortcuts for you. We’ll be writing about many more Siri Shortcuts in the future, so keep watching this space for lots more useful Siri Shortcuts.
The post How to Send WhatsApp Messages to Anyone Without Saving Their Number on iPhone appeared first on Beautiful Pixels.
Siri Shortcuts Explained: Automate (Almost) Everything on Your iPhone or iPad
For an OS that was routinely criticised for not being very flexible, iOS sure has come a long way. iOS still is not as customisable as people would like it to be, but that might change with iOS 14. iOS has a feature called Siri Shortcuts that allows you to automate several tasks. Yes, that’s right. iOS automation is a thing and a growing community of enthusiasts has been adding some essential features to both iOS and third-party apps using Siri Shortcuts.
If you’ve been a fan of apps such as Tasker on Android, Siri Shortcuts is an officially supported app of the same nature for iOS. I can already feel the stern gaze of those who use Automator on Mac. You guys are right too, Siri Shortcuts is for iOS what Automator is for macOS.
Having said that, I think we’re still in the early stages of iOS automation. This niche is only going to grow over time, and with each new version of iOS or as more apps add support for Siri Shortcuts, we’re going to see an increasing array of excellent automations for iOS. This is why we’ve decided to start writing about Siri Shortcuts here at Beautiful Pixels. We’re going to make this a regular feature of this website. Kicking this off on the eve of WWDC 2020 could be seen as auspicious or risky, depending on what’s in store for iOS 14. Let’s hope we hear some good news for Shortcuts tomorrow, but here’s a primer on Siri Shortcuts to get you started..
I’m going to talk about this in some detail a little later in this article, but for now there are three things you need to know about Siri Shortcuts.
Siri Shortcuts can be used without Siri the voice assistant.
You can create your own shortcuts or you can just download shortcuts others have created.
You can create shortcuts without knowing how to code.
Siri may have started off as the voice assistant that almost everyone loves to hate, but now it is much more than that. Siri is an intelligent assistant for iOS that uses machine learning to suggest apps you should open or tasks you should execute. If you’ve seen a notification on the lock screen of your iPhone or iPad suggesting that you call or send a message to anyone you frequently contact, then you’ve seen Siri in action.
Siri Shortcuts takes this one step further by allowing you to create your own workflow actions. Siri Shortcuts lets you download YouTube videos to your photo library, or send WhatsApp messages to anyone without saving their number on iPhone. And this barely scratches the surface of what you can do with Siri Shortcuts.
The best part in all of this is that you don’t have to do anything except install an app, download the shortcut you need, and run it. If you want to make your own shortcuts, you can totally nerd it out. But if you don’t feel comfortable creating your own automations, you can just download them for free. That’s all there is to it.
Trust me when I say that using Siri Shortcuts is quite easy even if you don’t know how to code. Let’s go through the basics you need to start using Siri Shortcuts.
How to use Siri Shortcuts
Siri Shortcuts can be accessed via the Shortcuts app, which is developed by Apple. Shortcuts originated via an app called Workflow, which was acquired by Apple in 2017. Here’s how you can start using it.
Download Shortcuts from the App Store.
Tap the Gallery tab at the bottom in the Shortcuts app.
Tap any shortcut from the gallery, scroll to the bottom, and tap Add Shortcut.
To run this shortcut, tap the My Shortcuts tab and tap the shortcut you just added.
You can even add shortcuts to the home screen to run them faster. You’ll see a three-dots icon in the top-right corner for every shortcut in the My Shortcuts tab. Tap this icon, and then tap the three-dots icon once more. Now you can tap Add to Home Screen.
How to create Siri Shortcuts
The next step is to create a shortcut of your own, and I’m going to show you how simple this is. For this tutorial, I’m going to show you how to resize any image from your photo library.
Open the Shortcuts app and go to the My Shortcuts tab.
Tap the + icon on the top-right.
Tap Add Action.
In the search bar at the top, type Photos.
Now select Select Photos from the list of actions. Once the action is added, tap Show More and enable Select Multiple in case you want to resize multiple images in one go.
Tap the + icon again and tap the x icon on the top-right. You’ll see the search bar mentioned in step 4. Type Resize Image in this search bar and select it from the list of actions.
Now you can set the height or width, or both for resized images. I went with 600 pixels as the height and Auto Width. Tap Done.
Tap Next (this button is on the top-right).
This is where you name your shortcut and select an icon for it. Tap Done when you are ready.
Now you’ll be back to the My Shortcuts page. Tap the shortcut you just created to run it. It’ll ask you to select photos and then automatically resize the images.
Once you try this, it’s really simple to use. The last thing I’d like to show you is how to use shortcuts created by others. First, you need to run any shortcut that’s created by you or available via the Gallery tab in the Shortcuts app. Once you’ve done this, go to Settings and select Shortcuts. Here you need to enable the setting labelled Allow Untrusted Shortcuts.
Now you can download shortcuts freely shared by others, such as this one (via Macstories) off the Internet and run them on your iOS device. We’ll be sharing more of these in the coming days.
Limitations of Siri Shortcuts
While I’d like to pretend that we live in a world where Siri Shortcuts can add all missing features to iOS and third-party apps, that is far from true. Siri Shortcuts gives you a large set of actions for automations, but it doesn’t give you everything you need. For example, you can’t automatically change your wallpaper on iOS because that action was removed for security reasons.
Actions are at the heart of every shortcut. If I asked you to boil potatoes without using any source of heat, you’re going to find it pretty difficult. Similarly, without the right actions, you’re going to struggle to create useful shortcuts. This is where we’re going to encounter the second limitation of Siri Shortcuts. If app developers don’t add actions for their apps in Siri Shortcuts, then creating useful shortcuts is going to be tough.
Every app has a set of actions that you can use to pull data from it. For instance, [Castro](https://castro.fm] allows you to pull the list of queued podcast episodes, but Overcast does not. This means you can’t use the list of queued episodes from Overcast in your shortcut. However, lots of developers have added support for Siri Shortcuts, so these limitations are not the end of shortcuts. We’ve also got lots of smart people finding workarounds to accomplish tasks that I never even thought were possible and the best thing about Siri Shortcuts is that you can just download those shortcuts and get your job done.
Conclusion
That covers the basics of Siri Shortcuts on iOS. This is the first of many articles on Siri Shortcuts and I’ll be showing you how to perform some complex tasks using shortcuts on iOS. Watch this space for more.
The post Siri Shortcuts Explained: Automate (Almost) Everything on Your iPhone or iPad appeared first on Beautiful Pixels.
If you’ve been a fan of apps such as Tasker on Android, Siri Shortcuts is an officially supported app of the same nature for iOS. I can already feel the stern gaze of those who use Automator on Mac. You guys are right too, Siri Shortcuts is for iOS what Automator is for macOS.
Having said that, I think we’re still in the early stages of iOS automation. This niche is only going to grow over time, and with each new version of iOS or as more apps add support for Siri Shortcuts, we’re going to see an increasing array of excellent automations for iOS. This is why we’ve decided to start writing about Siri Shortcuts here at Beautiful Pixels. We’re going to make this a regular feature of this website. Kicking this off on the eve of WWDC 2020 could be seen as auspicious or risky, depending on what’s in store for iOS 14. Let’s hope we hear some good news for Shortcuts tomorrow, but here’s a primer on Siri Shortcuts to get you started..
I’m going to talk about this in some detail a little later in this article, but for now there are three things you need to know about Siri Shortcuts.
Siri Shortcuts can be used without Siri the voice assistant.
You can create your own shortcuts or you can just download shortcuts others have created.
You can create shortcuts without knowing how to code.
Siri may have started off as the voice assistant that almost everyone loves to hate, but now it is much more than that. Siri is an intelligent assistant for iOS that uses machine learning to suggest apps you should open or tasks you should execute. If you’ve seen a notification on the lock screen of your iPhone or iPad suggesting that you call or send a message to anyone you frequently contact, then you’ve seen Siri in action.
Siri Shortcuts takes this one step further by allowing you to create your own workflow actions. Siri Shortcuts lets you download YouTube videos to your photo library, or send WhatsApp messages to anyone without saving their number on iPhone. And this barely scratches the surface of what you can do with Siri Shortcuts.
The best part in all of this is that you don’t have to do anything except install an app, download the shortcut you need, and run it. If you want to make your own shortcuts, you can totally nerd it out. But if you don’t feel comfortable creating your own automations, you can just download them for free. That’s all there is to it.
Trust me when I say that using Siri Shortcuts is quite easy even if you don’t know how to code. Let’s go through the basics you need to start using Siri Shortcuts.
How to use Siri Shortcuts
Siri Shortcuts can be accessed via the Shortcuts app, which is developed by Apple. Shortcuts originated via an app called Workflow, which was acquired by Apple in 2017. Here’s how you can start using it.
Download Shortcuts from the App Store.
Tap the Gallery tab at the bottom in the Shortcuts app.
Tap any shortcut from the gallery, scroll to the bottom, and tap Add Shortcut.
To run this shortcut, tap the My Shortcuts tab and tap the shortcut you just added.
You can even add shortcuts to the home screen to run them faster. You’ll see a three-dots icon in the top-right corner for every shortcut in the My Shortcuts tab. Tap this icon, and then tap the three-dots icon once more. Now you can tap Add to Home Screen.
How to create Siri Shortcuts
The next step is to create a shortcut of your own, and I’m going to show you how simple this is. For this tutorial, I’m going to show you how to resize any image from your photo library.
Open the Shortcuts app and go to the My Shortcuts tab.
Tap the + icon on the top-right.
Tap Add Action.
In the search bar at the top, type Photos.
Now select Select Photos from the list of actions. Once the action is added, tap Show More and enable Select Multiple in case you want to resize multiple images in one go.
Tap the + icon again and tap the x icon on the top-right. You’ll see the search bar mentioned in step 4. Type Resize Image in this search bar and select it from the list of actions.
Now you can set the height or width, or both for resized images. I went with 600 pixels as the height and Auto Width. Tap Done.
Tap Next (this button is on the top-right).
This is where you name your shortcut and select an icon for it. Tap Done when you are ready.
Now you’ll be back to the My Shortcuts page. Tap the shortcut you just created to run it. It’ll ask you to select photos and then automatically resize the images.
Once you try this, it’s really simple to use. The last thing I’d like to show you is how to use shortcuts created by others. First, you need to run any shortcut that’s created by you or available via the Gallery tab in the Shortcuts app. Once you’ve done this, go to Settings and select Shortcuts. Here you need to enable the setting labelled Allow Untrusted Shortcuts.
Now you can download shortcuts freely shared by others, such as this one (via Macstories) off the Internet and run them on your iOS device. We’ll be sharing more of these in the coming days.
Limitations of Siri Shortcuts
While I’d like to pretend that we live in a world where Siri Shortcuts can add all missing features to iOS and third-party apps, that is far from true. Siri Shortcuts gives you a large set of actions for automations, but it doesn’t give you everything you need. For example, you can’t automatically change your wallpaper on iOS because that action was removed for security reasons.
Actions are at the heart of every shortcut. If I asked you to boil potatoes without using any source of heat, you’re going to find it pretty difficult. Similarly, without the right actions, you’re going to struggle to create useful shortcuts. This is where we’re going to encounter the second limitation of Siri Shortcuts. If app developers don’t add actions for their apps in Siri Shortcuts, then creating useful shortcuts is going to be tough.
Every app has a set of actions that you can use to pull data from it. For instance, [Castro](https://castro.fm] allows you to pull the list of queued podcast episodes, but Overcast does not. This means you can’t use the list of queued episodes from Overcast in your shortcut. However, lots of developers have added support for Siri Shortcuts, so these limitations are not the end of shortcuts. We’ve also got lots of smart people finding workarounds to accomplish tasks that I never even thought were possible and the best thing about Siri Shortcuts is that you can just download those shortcuts and get your job done.
Conclusion
That covers the basics of Siri Shortcuts on iOS. This is the first of many articles on Siri Shortcuts and I’ll be showing you how to perform some complex tasks using shortcuts on iOS. Watch this space for more.
The post Siri Shortcuts Explained: Automate (Almost) Everything on Your iPhone or iPad appeared first on Beautiful Pixels.
This Concept Design of a ‘BRAUN Audio 07’ Radio Hardware is Absolutely Stunning
BRAUN Audio 07 Concept
Cairo based product designer Abdelrahman Shaapan has created this concept design of Spotify radio hardware and it is one of the slickest concepts we’ve seen.
BRAUN Audio 7 is Classic speaker design inspired by old BRAUN products contains a futuristic look, you have integrated a touch screen. This device contains a built-in Spotify application for use without the need for another device to run.
It kinda reminds me of Saregama’s Carvaan sitting on my shelf here and I really hope Spotify builds something like this.
Also see his other concepts → Magic Trackpad 3 and Sony PS5
The post This Concept Design of a ‘BRAUN Audio 07’ Radio Hardware is Absolutely Stunning appeared first on Beautiful Pixels.
Cairo based product designer Abdelrahman Shaapan has created this concept design of Spotify radio hardware and it is one of the slickest concepts we’ve seen.
BRAUN Audio 7 is Classic speaker design inspired by old BRAUN products contains a futuristic look, you have integrated a touch screen. This device contains a built-in Spotify application for use without the need for another device to run.
It kinda reminds me of Saregama’s Carvaan sitting on my shelf here and I really hope Spotify builds something like this.
Also see his other concepts → Magic Trackpad 3 and Sony PS5
The post This Concept Design of a ‘BRAUN Audio 07’ Radio Hardware is Absolutely Stunning appeared first on Beautiful Pixels.
GitHub Announces Codespaces — A New Instant Dev Environment Within GitHub
GitHub Codespaces
GitHub has just announced a massive new feature during the GitHub Satellite that is sure to catch the attention of all kinds of developers around the world. The company has announced the availability of GitHub Codespaces in public beta, a complete dev environment that works entirely on the GitHub.com website. Developers can instantly get the full Visual Studio Code experience right in their browsers, launched from any repository they want to work on. Devs can code, build, test, debug, and event deploy using GitHub Codespaces. It’ll be free during beta, and pricing will be announced at a later date.
You can request early access now →
The post GitHub Announces Codespaces — A New Instant Dev Environment Within GitHub appeared first on Beautiful Pixels.
GitHub has just announced a massive new feature during the GitHub Satellite that is sure to catch the attention of all kinds of developers around the world. The company has announced the availability of GitHub Codespaces in public beta, a complete dev environment that works entirely on the GitHub.com website. Developers can instantly get the full Visual Studio Code experience right in their browsers, launched from any repository they want to work on. Devs can code, build, test, debug, and event deploy using GitHub Codespaces. It’ll be free during beta, and pricing will be announced at a later date.
You can request early access now →
The post GitHub Announces Codespaces — A New Instant Dev Environment Within GitHub appeared first on Beautiful Pixels.
Abyss is a Neat Little “Read Later” App for iPhone, iPad and Mac
Have you ever come across a link while scrubbing through you Twitter or Facebook feeds on your iPhone that you prefer viewing on your Mac instead? Similarly, you know those times when you’re sitting near your Mac and want to read some article on your iPhone or iPad that’s placed next to you, but you’d rather read it later? Typically, you’d bookmark the URLs for viewing later. Some might save the URL in the browser to sync across devices, some might use a “Read Later” service like Pocket or Instapaper and some users might even choose to add the URLs to their favorite To-Do apps. I recently came across Abyss: ReadLater on the App Store — a neat little universal utility for macOS and iOS that offers a very simple way to save links for viewing later.
Abyss is a universal app, available for iPhone, iPad, and the Mac. It’s a super simple app that lets you save links into the app from anywhere using the native share sheets on iOS, iPadOS and macOS. These URLs that you save in the app sync between all your devices using your iCloud account, so everything stays private since there are no 3rd party servers or services involved.
The app has a a really simple structure and minimal design. All links you save show up in the “Unread’ tab by default. You can click on them to view them, copy them, mark them as ‘Favorite’ or ‘Archive’ them when you’re done. On iOS and iPadOS, you can make use of swipe gestures to Favorite, Archive, or Delete the links. There’s instant search available at the top of the app that helps you quickly find a link. The app offers both Light and Dark themes, although it only follows the System theme by default. There’s also a handy option to remove duplicate links from the app.
Abyss is available for Free on the App Store, with an optional IAP to unlock additional features. For a one-time purchase of $1.99, you get unlimited favorites, option to import links from Pocket, choice of your favorite browser and freedom to override the system theme. Being a universal app, the same $1.99 unlock works across your iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
Get Abyss from the App Store →
App Details:View Website or Download it for Free with IAP
The post Abyss is a Neat Little “Read Later” App for iPhone, iPad and Mac appeared first on Beautiful Pixels.
Abyss is a universal app, available for iPhone, iPad, and the Mac. It’s a super simple app that lets you save links into the app from anywhere using the native share sheets on iOS, iPadOS and macOS. These URLs that you save in the app sync between all your devices using your iCloud account, so everything stays private since there are no 3rd party servers or services involved.
The app has a a really simple structure and minimal design. All links you save show up in the “Unread’ tab by default. You can click on them to view them, copy them, mark them as ‘Favorite’ or ‘Archive’ them when you’re done. On iOS and iPadOS, you can make use of swipe gestures to Favorite, Archive, or Delete the links. There’s instant search available at the top of the app that helps you quickly find a link. The app offers both Light and Dark themes, although it only follows the System theme by default. There’s also a handy option to remove duplicate links from the app.
Abyss is available for Free on the App Store, with an optional IAP to unlock additional features. For a one-time purchase of $1.99, you get unlimited favorites, option to import links from Pocket, choice of your favorite browser and freedom to override the system theme. Being a universal app, the same $1.99 unlock works across your iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
Get Abyss from the App Store →
App Details:View Website or Download it for Free with IAP
The post Abyss is a Neat Little “Read Later” App for iPhone, iPad and Mac appeared first on Beautiful Pixels.