In the beginning, there was DeskConnect. It was an amazing set of apps that gave the pre-iOS 8/Yosemite world the ability to do AirDrop-style transfers between Macs (and PCs) and iOS devices. It's still around for those who haven't yet upgraded to the new operating systems. But it appears that the developers at DeskConnect saw the Sherlock writing on the wall, so they decided to create an app that is -- in one word -- amazing.Workflow (launch price of US$2.99, regularly $3.99) is an app for creating automated workflows on your iOS devices that can do just about anything you can think of.
Upon launching for the first time, Workflow takes you through a short tutorial to demonstrate the process of creating a very simple workflow -- having the iPhone or iPad camera take three pictures, turn them into a GIF movie, and then share the GIF. Doing this is easy; you create a blank workflow, then begin dragging actions from a huge list (153 built into the app at launch) over to that blank sheet. All of this is done with simple, colorful drag and drop interface.
Actions are categorized by type: calendar, contacts, documents, maps, music, photos & video, scripting, sharing, text and web. For example, under calendar you'll find actions like "Get end date" and "Current date"; under maps, a way to get a Google Street View image of a location or request an Uber.
Web actions include adding something to your Safari reading list, or getting contents of web pages. Music can control music play, or return the title of the currently playing song to Workflow.
Probably the most powerful actions, however, are those for scripting. Have you ever wanted Apple's Automator on your iOS device? The scripting actions in Workflow are the next best thing, and the ability to control the flow through choose from menu/if/repeat/wait/exit commands actions brings conditionals to your workflows.
There's device control in those scripting actions as well; a workflow can return the name of the current network, launch an app, set the screen brightness, turn on or off the "flashlight", or set the volume of the device. Notifications can be scripted -- showing alerts, notifications, playing sounds or vibrating your device. And it's not just limited to your iOS device, either -- you can run a shell script on a desktop machine over SSH.
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