Using a Mac mini as an Automation Server
A warm welcome to Sheryl and Scott, our newest members!
One of my biggest frustrations as an automator is reconciling iOS — my preferred mobile platform — with web apps. I wrote about it at the beginning of the month.
Since then, I learned that Pushcuts, an iOS/iPadOS app that deftly bridges this gap, but requires you to have an always on device, has a macOS version in beta…and I got access.
Hot Dog.
So I decided to make a new purchase: a refurbished, base model Mac mini for the low, low price of $500. It will be mostly headless (that is no peripherals attached to it), and act as a task server for me.
Here’s how I plan on making it work.
There are a few important components:
- Luna Display: before Apple rolled out Universal Control, I was using Luna Display to create a second monitor for my laptop out of an iPad. Now, they’ve added support to access one Mac from another Mac.
- Homebridge: an app that adds non-HomeKit devices to Apple’s Home app. That was running on a single-purpose Raspberry Pi until Wednesday, when the Mac mini arrived.
- Pushcut for macOS Beta: This will allow me to execute shortcuts from the web, as well as send data from shortcuts to the web. Use cases below
The Luna Display is what allows me to keep the Mac mini “headless.” I don’t need to have a monitor, mouse, or keyboard always connected to it because it borrows them from the connecting device — which in most cases is my Mac Studio.
Homebridge will be doing much of what it did before. Allow me to automate the Elgato Keylights in my office. But now that I have more storage and resources available, I may look into other interesting uses.
I might, for example, be able to have it look at my calendar, see when I’m recording, and turn on my recording light automatically.
The app is a little Wild West, and I’d like to do some more research before experimenting though.
The real magic will happen with Pushcuts, though. This app enables me to trigger Shortcuts without having to interact with my device. It also allows me to send data from the web to shortcuts — meaning that I can leverage apps that don’t have Shortcuts support, but do have Zapier or Make support.
So I could theoretically have tasks sent from Notion to Omnifocus with proper tagging and in the right project, instead of just in the Omnifocus Inbox.
I could also use the share sheet to send interesting links to Make, summarize them with ChatGPT, and then insert them into a Notion database.
In short, Pushcuts combines the power of Zapier/Make, and Shortcuts, allowing me to automate just about anything.
Where this can help podcasters is with idea capture, and potentially social sharing and promotion. This is an area I’m very interested in exploring.
It might also be leveraged to make editing easier…
So where am I in the process, and what can you expect from this grand experiment?
The Mac mini is pretty much setup at this point — I just need to configure Pushcuts and make sure the apps I want to use are on the device.
From there, I’ll likely live stream and/or write about what I’m doing.
One big benefit of the membership moving forward will be monthly workshops (pre-recorded or live, depending on demand/logistics) where I show my work — and teach you how you can add it to your workflow.
But that’s not the only thing that’s changing.
I’ll have more on this next week, but the membership is moving to a single price. Right now that price is $25/mo or $250/year.
It will likely go up one more time.
However, if you have paid a different price, you’re locked into that price as long as you’re a member.
I’ve been hinting at changes for a few weeks now, and I’m almost ready to roll them out.
What you should know for now is your price isn’t going up so long as you remain a member, and you’re going to get more video content focused on podcast automation and processes.
Thanks so much for your continued support so far. I deeply appreciate you!