Geeking Out: Home Screen and Shortcuts set up with iPadOS 15 Public Beta

Yesterday I downloaded the Public Betas for both iOS 15 and iPadOS 15. Today I decided I would spend the day playing around with both of them. I decided to start with iPadOS 15.

The first thing I wanted to do was re-vision my home screen. Now that widgets can be on the home screen I wanted to put some there and see what I like about them. I’m pleased with my initial set up as it includes some very nice photos that mean a lot to me along with some “at a glance” information I want to stay knowledgeable of whenever I’m using my 11-inch iPad Pro.

Because of the size of widgets I am using, I have 2 rows, top and bottom. I’ve decided on a “big” Fantastical widget that gives me the calendar and upcoming events located in the top left corner of the screen. In the middle, I’ve placed a “big” Widgetsmith widget that has selected photos stream from our Desert Trip experience. I’m experimenting with Apple’s new Weather app with a “big” widget in the top right corner.

Along the bottom I have a “big” Widgetsmith widget with a picture of my wife and I in Florence, Italy. In the middle, I have a very cool writerly set up. I have 2 Shortcut widgets; one that initiates a Writing Focus Mode I set up which in turn prompts me to choose from a selection of 3 menu choices I’ve created, each which starts another Shortcut for that particular writing task. Next to that shortcut I have another one that I can use to stop the Writing Focus Mode when I “come out of it.” Below these shortcuts I have a “medium” Squarespace widget that shows me statistics about my blog. Finally, in the bottom right corner, I have another “big” Widgetsmith widget with a picture of my wife chilling out in Malta.