Image rights: Alex Hay.TOOLBOX PRO FOR iOS
Lots of useful actions
Excellent documentation
Fills in gaps in Apple’s own actions
Reasonably priced
AWESOMEIf you’re a fan of Apple’s
Shortcuts app in iOS,
or even if you’ve just
dabbled with it, Toolbox
Pro has some goodies for you in the
form of new actions you can add.
There are over 50 actions, many
of them taking advantage of new
features recently added to iOS, like
Dssohġv#RFU#hqjlqh#wkdw#zdv#Ľuvw#
seen in Notes. In addition, developer
Alex Hay has created example
shortcuts so you can get started
straight away. There’s documentation
for every action describing its inputs,
how it processes them and what it
passes for output.
Among the actions Toolbox Pro
brings to the Shortcuts party, in
addition to OCR, are the ability to
read from and write to NFC tags,
recognize objects in photos,
authenticate using FaceID and
TouchID, and create interest heatmaps. And there’s more.
Toolbox Pro actions allow
|rx#wr#vruw#dqg#Ľowhu#olvwv#
— so you could, for example,
create a shortcut to remove
duplicate items from a
Reminders list and then sort
it alphabetically. Talking of
Reminders, Toolbox Pro
actions allow you to edit
existing reminders, as well
as access new features in the
latest version of Reminders
olnh#XUO#Ľhogv#dqg#lpdjh#
attachments — something
that’s missing from Apple’s
own Shortcuts actions. The
action that allows you to
grab URLs for songs from
multiple streaming services means
that you can share a song from your
iPhone or iPad, with links for all of
those streaming services.
Most Toolbox Pro actions run
entirely in Shortcuts, though some
have to open the Toolbox Pro app
in the background. For those that
do, the documentation describes
how the Action processes data. In
fact, the only reason you’ll ever have
to open Toolbox Pro is to read
documentation, view tutorials, or
browse the list of built-in shortcuts.
There’s no doubt that time spent
going through tutorials is rewarded,
and once you get into incorporating
actions into your own shortcuts
|rxġoo#Ľqg#lw#hdv|#dqg#frqyhqlhqw1Many of the Actions run in the
free version, while others require
the premium add-on. However, at
d#rqh0rļ#sd|phqw#ri#'81<</#wkdwġv#
more than reasonably priced.
THE BOTTOM LINE. Whether you
rely on Shortcuts to get you through
the day, or you just dabble from time
to time, Toolbox Pro is a brilliant
addition. KENNY HEMPHILLThere are lots of example shortcuts that serve
as demonstrations of Toolbox Pro actions.Toolbox Pro for iOS
Apple’s iOS Shortcuts gets 50 new actions
and becomes instantly much more usefulFree (IAPs) From Alexander Hay, toolboxpro.app
Made for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Needs iOS 13.2 or later
App Life
62 FEB 2020 maclife.com