This week, Brett Burney and I celebrate the fourth anniversary of the In the News podcast. It started as what I originally thought was a crazy idea when Brett reached out to me, and it has turned into one of the best parts of my week. Thanks to all of you who have listened, and a special thank you to those of you who have reached out to us over the years to talk about the podcast. In this weekās episodeāwhich was a great oneāwe start by discussing two Apple firsts that continue to have an impact today: the first iMac, and the first iPad mini. Next, we look to the future to discuss iOS 18.5 and why it might be released on Monday or Tuesday. We also talk about the changes to in-app purchases, using your iPad as a monitor, using a MagSafe wallet with an iPhone, AI, and more.
In our In the Vision segment, we discuss Appleās latest tear-jerker. In our Where Yāat segment, we discuss yet another life that was saved thanks to the Apple Watch. And in our In the Show segment, we discuss promising programming coming to Apple TV+.
In our In the Know segment, Brett shares a tip for using Siri to make decisions for you, and I discuss different steps you can take when apps behave badly.
As I write this 777th edition of the Friday In the News post, I am thinking about how lucky I am to have some great videos of my kids when they were very young. Almost two decades ago, my wife and I upgraded from a VHS-C camcorder that we received as a wedding gift in the mid-1990s to one of the early consumer HD video cameras, a Sony model that recorded to MiniDV videocassette tape. It was expensive at the time, but I’m so happy that we have those videos in HD because they still look really good today. The quality of the home movies that I recorded in SD on a VHS-C tape just a few months before I purchased that HD video camera is pretty dismal in comparison. As we prepare for Mother’s Day weekend, I’m reminded of my earliest videos of my kids because Apple has just released a great video called A Gift for Mom that really tugs at the heartstrings. As reported by Brittaney Kiefer of AdWeek, director Goh Iromoto worked with Khulan and Sam Baasanjav over the past year as Sam filmed his wife with their newborn baby boy using the spatial video feature of the iPhone. Iromoto helped Sam edit over 55 hours of video into a 3D home movie for his wife to watch for Mother’s Day on an Apple Vision Pro. Even if you don’t currently own an Apple Vision Pro, if you have an iPhone that can take spatial video, I encourage you to use that feature when you record special videos as you are in close proximity to your subjectāsuch as videos of a baby. At some point in the future when you do have a device that can handle 3D, you will be so happy that you captured those memories with an eye towards the future. And for all of the mothers who are reading this, have a Happy Mother’s Day this weekend. And now, the news of note from the past week:
As a result of the ruling I discussed last week in the lawsuit between Epic and Apple, there are changes to in-app payments in certain third-party apps in the United States. For example, in the past, you could not purchase an ebook in the Amazon Kindle app, but now you can, as reported by Dan Moren of Six Colors.
Sarah Perez of TechCrunch notes how the Patreon app has been changed as a result of the court ruling. When you choose to support a creator in that app, most of the screen gives you the option to make a purchase through the web, outside of the Apple payment system. You need to see and click on a tiny statement at the bottom “Or, continue with in-app payment” to make a traditional in-app payment through Apple. Apps that use this new system can bypass paying Apple a portion of the sale, which might mean that the price for you is less or it might mean that more money goes to the app (which, in the case of Patreon, means that more money goes to the creator). But keep in mind that this also means that you lose the ability to manage all of your subscriptions in the App Store app. I particularly like how easy it is to cancel a subscription using the App Store app. Hopefully, cancelling an app subscription made outside of the App Store won’t be as frustrating as trying to cancel a cable TV subscription.
Fernando Silva of 9to5Mac discusses how you can use an HDMI to USB-C capture card (such as the Guermok Video Capture Card, which is $20.99 on Amazon) and the free Orion app to use the high-quality iPad screen as an external display for an Xbox, PlayStation, or Mac mini.
This past weekend, I ran across my first-generation iPad mini. As I noted in the review that I posted in 2012, that device was a joy to use because it is a great size to hold in the hand. Don’t get me wrong, for many tasks, the large 13-inch screen of my iPad Pro is much better, but that iPad mini is just so adorable. I tried to get that old iPad mini working when I found it last weekend, but since it cannot support modern apps, the version of Safari that it runs is very outdated, and it doesn’t even support the current Wi-Fi security protocols, I’m not sure that I can really do much with that model any more. So for a brief moment, it made me think that it would be fun to buy a modern iPad mini. And when I saw that Amazon is taking $100 off of the iPad mini (A17 Pro) model so that it is only $399, I became even more tempted. I really don’t need an iPad mini since I already have a great iPhone and iPad Proāso that is what I keep telling myself. And yet, it is so cute!
If you like the idea of attaching a wallet to your iPhone so that you can carry just one thing, you can purchase a MagSafe wallet from Apple that holds 3-4 cards and costs about $60. That Apple product has limited support for the Find My service: if it becomes disconnected from your iPhone, you can find out where the wallet was when it disconnected. But if someone then picks up that wallet and leaves with it, you cannot track it again (unless they attach it to their iPhone). Bradley Chambers of 9to5Mac says that ESR’s Geo Wallet Boost is a good alternative. It is larger so it holds about one additional credit card, it costs only $34.99, and it has Find My support plus a battery built-in so that if the wallet gets disconnected from your iPhone, you can track it.
iOS 18.5 may be released as soon as next week. Ryan Christoffel of 9to5Mac identifies five of the new features.
As I noted in my review of the Apple Watch Series 10, one of its best features is the nice, large display. Unfortunately, Apple has not yet created versions of all of its watch faces that take full advantage of the large display. Zac Hall of 9to5Mac reports on the five watch faces that doāone of which, the 2025 Pride Harmony face, will be included in watchOS 11.5, which may come out as soon as next week.
By the way, the Apple Watch Series 10 is also $100 off at Amazon right now, starting at $299. That’s an all-time low price.
Apple also introduced the 2025 version of its Pride Edition Apple Watch band, and this year’s version looks really great.
One of the most comfortable watch bands made by Apple is the Braided Solo Loop, which I reviewed last year. My only real complaint about that band is that if you pay the full retail price of $100, I think it is too expensive. Another complaint I’ve heard from some people is that it can stretch over time and become too loose. Nick deCourville of The Mac Observer says that this has not happened to him after a year of using this band, and he says that he really likes it.
Which Apple Watch features drain the battery more than others? Halyna Kubiv of the German publication Macwelt ran some tests to find the answer, and if you don’t spreken de Deutsch, Macworld presents a version of her article translated into English.
Zac Hall of 9to5Mac shares the story of how an Apple Watch saved the life of a man who blacked out as he was walking to his car after work thanks to the fall detection feature.
Twenty-seven years ago this week (in 1998), Steve Jobs introduced the iMacāthe first new product released after Jobs returned to Apple as a result of Apple’s acquisition of NeXT. Jason Snell of Six Colors says that the spirit of the iMac lives on today in Apple’s other products. I got my first iMac on my birthday the following yearāan iMac DVāand I loved that computer so much, even though the puck-style mouse was ill-conceived.
Uber One (for Uber and Uber Eats) normally costs $9.99/month, which gets you no delivery fee on many food and grocery deliveries, 6% back on rides, and up to a 10% discount on orders. Juli Clover of MacRumors reports that if you use an Apple Card, you can use the service for six months at no cost.
Joe Rossignol of MacRumors reports that Apple TV+ announced this week that it renewed two highly-rated series: Trying and The Studio. The first season of The Studio has been amazing to watch. And Trying is one of my favorite shows on Apple TV+, a show about a British couple who go on the adoption journey. Trying was actually renewed for a fifth season. No show has aired a fifth season on Apple TV+ yet, and the only fifth seasons currently in production are Trying, For All Mankind, and Slow Horsesāwhich has been renewed for both a fifth and a sixth season.
Apple announced this week that the third season of the Apple TV+ show Foundation will debut on July 11.
Ryan Christoffel of 9to5Mac reports that a crime thriller movie is coming to theaters and then Apple TV+ on September 5 claled Highest 2 Lowest. It stars Denzel Washington and Jeffrey Wright, and it is directed by Spike Lee. From the teaser trailer, it looks like it could be quite good.
A new comedy TV series about golf called Stick comes to Apple TV+ on June 4. It stars Owen Wilson, Marc Maron, and Judy Greer. Apple released a trailer this week.
A new thriller movie called Echo Valley starring Sydney Sweeney and Julianne Moore comes to Apple TV+ on June 13. Apple released a trailer this week.
Wendy Lee of the Los Angeles Times interviewed a ton of people in Hollywood who have been involved with shows for Apple TV+ and discusses Apple’s strategy for that service, a focus on quality, not quantity.
And finally, I’m mostly lukewarm about the current state of Apple Intelligence, but this six minute video from Apple does a really good job of showing off useful things that you can do today with Apple Intelligence.
A few days ago, Apple released the results for its 2025 fiscal second quarter (which ran from December 29, 2024, to March 29, 2025) and held a call with analysts to discuss the results. The fiscal first quarter is always Appleās best quarter of the year because it includes holiday sales. Three years ago, Apple set a new Q2 record of $97.3 billion. This year, the quarterly revenue was $95.4 billion, which was 5% better than this time last year and was Apple’s second-best Q2 ever. If you want to get all of the nitty-gritty details, you can listen to the audio from the conference call on this page of Apple’s website, or you can read a transcript of the call prepared by Jason Snell of Six Colors. Appleās official press release is here. Here are the items that stood out to me.
iPhone
iPhone revenue for the quarter was $46.8 billion, up 2% from last year. The all-time high for Q2 was $51.3 billion in iPhone sales in 2023 Q2.
As Jason Snell of Six Colors notes, “the truth is that iPhone revenue has been essentially flat for the last three years. Not since fiscal 2021 has there been multiple quarters of double-digit growth.” Of course, the iPhone still generates tons of revenue, and no other company has a product like the iPhone.
Because of the Trump tariffs, Apple plans for the majority of iPhones sold in the U.S. in 2025 Q3 to come from India instead of China.
When asked about why Apple has had to delay the Apple Intelligence feature that will make Siri do more with your personal data, Apple CEO Tim Cook said that “we just need more time to complete the work so they meet our high-quality bar, and thereās not a lot of other reason for it. It’s just taking a bit longer than we thought. But we are making progress and weāre extremely excited to get the more personal Siri features out there.”
iPad
iPad revenue for the quarter was $6.4 billion, up 15% from last year. The all-time high iPad revenue in any quarter was 2023 Q1, when revenue was $9.4 billion. The all-time high iPad revenue in a Q2 was 2021 Q2, when revenue was $7.8 billion.
With the growth this past quarter, Apple has now had four quarters in a row of iPad revenue growth, which comes after growth being down in nine of the ten prior quarters. Note that Apple did not introduce any new iPads in all of calendar year 2023: after introducing a new iPad and iPad Pro on October 18, 2022, the next iPad announced by Apple was on May 7, 2024, when Apple introduced a new iPad Air and new iPad Pro. Thus, it is not surprising that iPad revenue growth stalled before 2024, and with Apple now introducing new iPads more frequently, iPad revenue is getting back on track.
Because of the Trump tariffs, Apple plans for the majority of iPads sold in the U.S. in 2025 Q3 to come from Vietnam instead of China.
Other
Apple’s service revenue was an all-time record of $26.6 billion, up 12% from this time last year. This is a huge category that includes money that Google pays Apple for search, the App Store, Apple Pay, services like Apple TV+ and Fitness+, iCloud subscriptions, and more.
Apple continues its efforts to be more environmentally sustainable, and has cut its emissions 60% since 2015. Cook explained: “Today weāre using more clean energy across our operations and more recycled materials in our products than ever. We have worked with suppliers to bring 17.8 gigawatts of renewable electricity online. We’re also saving billions of gallons of fresh water and redirecting millions of metric tons of waste from landfills. All of this will help us make important progress towards our goal of carbon neutrality across our supply chain and the life cycle of our products by 2030.”
Apple said that the Trump tariffs had only a minimal impact on Q2, in part because Apple was able to optimize its supply chain and inventoryāwhich I presume means importing a lot of items just before the tariffs began. Apple warned that it does not know the precise impact that these tariffs will have on 2025 Q3, in part because of all of the uncertainty, but as a rough estimate, it could add $900 million to Apple’s costs.
Apple noted that many large organizations continue to invest in Apple products. For example, KPMG is now providing iPhone 16 to all U.S. employees.
Apple has gotten in some trouble with a court, and we begin this weekās episode of the In the News podcast discussing how we got here and what changes Apple has made to the in-app purchase rules for the App Store. Next, we talk about Dan Morenās last column for Macworld and why I recommend the fantastic books in Danās Galactic Cold War series. We also discuss how Apple products are viewed in large companies, some iPhone tips, options for sending a text via satellite with your iPhone, and more.
In our Where Yāat segment, we discuss a man in Ohio who had a dangerous stroke but was rescued thanks to his Apple Watchāand how you can see on video everything that happened.
In our In the Show segment, we discuss some intriguing shows that are coming to Apple TV+ this month.
In our In the Know segment, Brett shares a tip for making websites less annoying in Safari, and I share a tip for using Siri with the Apple Vision Pro.
One of the tech writers that I often link to in these Friday posts is Dan Moren, who works with Jason Snell to publish the great website SIx Colors and also hosts a number of great podcasts. I mention Dan this week because I just finished reading the last book in his Glactic Cold War series, and I loved it, just like I loved all of the books in that series (and the short stories that fill in some gaps between the books). If you like science fiction, adventure, space, and spy thrillers, then you will love these books, and I highly recommend them. Coincidentally, the same day that I finished reading the last book in that series, Dan published his last Stay Foolish article for Macworld, ending a decade of that great column. In his final article, Dan discusses what it means to be a fan of Apple products in today’s world. And now, the news of note from the past week:
Although Apple won most of the claims in the lawsuit filed against it by Epic a few years ago, the judge did issue an order against Apple that related to in-app payments. This week, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ruled that Apple failed to comply with the judge’s prior orders, and even found that an Apple executive lied under oath. There are lots of good reports about the ruling from people like Jason Snell of Six Colors, John Voorhees of MacStories, and John Gruber of Daring Fireball (1, 2). Apple says that it will appeal, but in the meantime, it has changed the App Store Guidelines in several different ways, as noted by Chance Miller of 9to5Mac.
What is the general opinion on how Apple products are doing in large companies? Jason Snell of Six Colors published the results of his fifth annual Apple in the Enterprise survey. I know for a fact that at least some of the report reflects the use of Apple products in a law firm because I was one of the 124 people surveyed.
Modern iPhones can use satellites to send and receive text messages when cellphone service is not available. Jared Newman of @dvisorator does a good job running down the available options.
Zac Hall of 9to5Mac shares the story of a man in Ohio who had a stroke during a workout and was rescued thanks to his Apple Watch.
Last week, I noted that Jason Snell of Six Colors is lukewarm about wearing an Apple Watch when he sleeps, but I find it valuable to do so. Shelly Brisbin wrote an alternative take on Six Colors, explaining why she also finds it valuable.
It’s a new month, so that means new shows are coming to Apple TV+. Ryan Christoffel of 9to5Mac lists all of the new shows coming this month. The list includes the sci-fi thriller comedy Murderbot (starting May 16), the action-adventure movie Fountain of Youth (May 23), and the show Bono: Stories of Surrender (May 30), which will also be available as an immersive movie on the Apple Vision Pro.
Not on that list is an Apple TV+ show that debuted on April 30 called CarĆŖme, a sexy historical culinary drama loosely based on the life of the famous French chef Antonin CarĆŖme. It currently has 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, and I plan to check it out. (Note that this is a French show, so prepare for subtitles if you don’t parlez the franƧais.)
If you want to send some Star Wars-themed emoji and stickers this Sunday as you celebrate May the 4th (be with you), Justin Meyers of Gadget Hacks came up with a ton of different ways to do so.
I’m all in favor of using technology in new and creative ways in a law practice, but there is a certain point when you clearly go too far, and as Kevin Underhill of Lowering the Bar explains, the Dragon Lawyer went way too far.
Suno is a service that uses AI to generate songs. An iPhone J.D. reader (who has asked to remain anonymous) got frustrated at Siri one day when he asked Siri to play Alicia Keys and it instead played Carol King, so he asked Suno to create a Blues song about his frustrations. The result is the amusing song Siri Blues, which is presented for your enjoyment. There is something apropos about having one AI make fun of another AI.
And finally, in this video called Clean Up Photos: Flex, Apple shows off one way that you can use the Clean Up tool in the Photos app (which is part of Apple Intelligence) to quickly remove a part of a picture that you don’t like. I remember working with photos years ago when features like this were slow and complicated. It is amazing that you can now do it with just a few taps in a few seconds.
Thank you to Sanebox for sponsoring iPhone J.D. this month. SaneBox is a service that works in the background at the server level, so you continue to use your Inbox of your current Mail program the same way that you have always done. But your Inbox is suddenly much better. Primarily, this is because your Inbox changes from being overpopulated with lots of unimportant stuff into a short list of the most important messages. Thus, when you open your Inbox, you essentially see just the good stuff that matters. But SaneBox also gives you powerful features so that your email is more helpful.
SaneBox keeps your Inbox tidy because less important emails, such as newsletters, are moved to subfolders so that you can deal with them when you have time, and it is often faster to deal with all of those at once. And if you tell SaneBox that there is an email sender from which you never want to see email again, those go to the SaneBlackHole folder.
But that’s just the beginning. SaneBox also gives you lots of tools that you can (optionally) enable to make you more productive. For example, I love the SaneNoReply folder. It gives you an overview of all the emails youāve sentāemails that you initiatedāthat havenāt yet received a reply. Sometimes, no reply is necessary. (If you don’t need a response, simply delete the email from SaneNoReplies, and SaneBox will stop tracking it.) But I often skim the emails in this folder and then see that there is something for which I did need a reply, and so this SaneBox folder reminds me to follow up.
What if you know that you need to get a reply by a certain date (or time)? SaneBox can help you when you use the SaneReminder feature. When you send the email, send a BCC to an address that tells SaneBox when you need a response by. For example, you can use “1.day@sanebox.com” or “2.weeks@sanebox.com” or a day of the week such as “monday@sanbox.com” or “mon@sanbox.com.” If thereās no reply within that time period, the email will resurface in your Inbox for your attention.
Put all of this together and SaneBox makes your Inbox both more simple and more powerful. All at the same time.
Iāve been paying for and using SaneBox for over two years, and I find the service well worth it. For my iPhone J.D. emails, when I look at the Inbox, I can quickly focus on the messages that matter the most to me, such as a reader sending in a suggestion with a news story for my Friday In the News post or interactions with someone who matters to me. Every once in a while, I’ll look in the SaneNews folder to see newsletters that I subscribe to or the SaneLater folder to see messages that SaneBox thinks are less important, but I don’t see all of those messages crowding up my Inbox.
If you want to try out SaneBox to see what a huge difference it can make in your life, click here to get a 14-day free trial with no credit card required. If you donāt like having a clean and tidy Inbox and decide to return back to how you had it before, no sweat. But if you appreciate having a better way of working with email, using this link in this post will give you a generous $25 credit for when you pick a planāand there are lots of different plans offered so that you can choose the one that gives you just what you want.
Thanks again to SaneBox for sponsoring iPhone J.D. this month and for giving all of us a more efficient way to work with email.
We begin this episode of the In the News podcast looking back at ten years of the Apple Watch. The models that we use today are so much better than that first Apple Watch that went on sale on April 24, 2015, and yet the best features of today’s Apple Watch were all right there at the very beginning. We then discuss Perplexity, an app that shows some of what we think Siri should be. We also have lots to say about the Apple Store in Amsterdam, iPhone-related crime, the Vision Pro, and the Ceramic Shield.
In our In the Know segment, we discuss two great tips that let you get the most out of an Apple Watch.
Just two days after providing an Apple Watch award for doing a workout on Earth Day, Apple declared yesterday Global Close Your Rings Day and provided a limited-edition award and animated stickers for the Messages app to anyone who closed all of their rings. Apple had a reason to celebrate yesterday because, as Jason Snell of Six Colors noted, it was ten years ago yesterday that Apple started selling the Apple Watch. I closed my three circles yesterday in my absolute favorite way: walking around Jazz Fest. There are lots of great things about New Orleansāthe restaurants, the architecture, the history, Mardi Gras, etc.ābut one of the very best is the last weekend in April and the first weekend in May every year when the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival takes place. Whether it is local New Orleans artists or international superstars, the music is always great, the food is incredible, there are lots of arts and crafts for sale, and it is almost impossible not to have a great time. Yesterday, my wife and I saw an artist that I expected to be great, and he was amazingāthe Cajun fiddler Waylon Thibodeauxāand I saw an artist I had never heard of before, and he was also amazingāthe bluegrass artist and multiple Grammy award winner Sam Bush. My Apple Watch wasn’t just used to close circles yesterday. I also made a lot of purchases at Jazz Fest (mostly from food vendors), and it was a delight to use Apple Pay to make each purchase quickly. If you haven’t yet experienced Jazz Fest in New Orleans, now you have something great to put on your bucket list. And now, the news of note from the past week:
Speaking of the Apple Watch, this week Jason Snell of Six Colors discussed sleeping with an Apple Watch. After trying it for a while, he is thinking about stopping doing so. However, I still like wearing mine every night for all of the reasons that Snell discussed as the reasons he tried it out, and I intend to keep doing so. The only real downside is the need to charge it when I wake up, but I find that putting my Apple Watch on a fast charger while I get ready in the morning is almost always enough time for it to recharge.
If you’d like a new watch band for your Apple Watch, I’ve noted in the past the occasional sales from Woot where you could get a $50 Solo Loop for only $20. Mitchel Broussard of MacRumors notes that Woot is currently running a really interesting sale: you can get three Solo Loop bands (normally $150) for just $20. And you can get two Braided Solo Loop bands (normally $200) for only $30. The catch is that you don’t get to pick the colors. Woot selects the colors, although they promise that you won’t get the same color more than once. I took advantage of the Solo Loop band deal, and I’m interested to see what colors I’ll get Maybe they will be colors that I would never buyālike Canary Yellowābut at these prices, I’m willing to spin the wheel and see what I get. [UPDATE 4/29/25: The colors I received are Sunglow (which is pretty much the “Canary Yellow” I predicted), Dark Cherry, and Deep Navy.] In fact, I’m thinking of taking advantage of the Braided Loop deal too. I tried out a Braided Loop last year (I returned it when I also returned an Apple Watch model), but as I noted in my review, the Braided Loop is a very comfortable watch band, and my only complaint was the $99 price. But two for $30? Hmm. [UPDATE 5/5/25: I decided to roll the dice on this one too. The colors I received are Dark Cherry and Rainforest, two great colors.]
We all know that Apple needs to improve Siri, and David Sparks of MacSparky created a short but compelling video that demonstrates why Apple should just buy a product called Perplexity. Check it out to see what this app can do today. David is right: Siri should be doing all of this and more.
Speaking of AI, one of the best engines for converting audio into text is Whisper, which was created by OpenAI. Zac Hall of 9to5Mac reports that the excellent app that brings Whisper to the Mac called MacWhisper is now available for iPhone and iPad.
I haven’t seen it yet, and since the reviews have been poor, I’m not sure if I will see it, but Netflix is airing a Dutch movie called iHostage that tells the true-life story of a 2022 event in the Amsterdam Apple Store when a gunman held dozens of people hostage. Whether or not you watch the movie, you should watch the short behind-the-scenes video shared by Hartley Charlton of MacRumors that shows how the the production team recreated an entire Apple Store on a sound stage. Very neat.
Speaking of the Amsterdam Apple Store, Malcolm Owen of AppleInsider reports that on a day that the store was recently closed, the doors were left openāand instead of chaos ensuing, the folks who discovered it acted responsibly. That’s not interesting enough to be the plot of iHostage 2: Open Doors, but it is nice to see people doing the right thing.
Stephen Silver of AppleInsider shares a number of interesting iPhone-related stories from police reports and elsewhere, such as a Florida UPS driver accused of stealing 171 iPhones, a thief of a STIHL concrete saw whose crime was thwarted by an AirTag, a false report of an iPhone theft, and more.
Two weeks ago, I discussed the thorny issue of customs agents demanding to search your iPhone when you return to the United Statesāespecially if you are an attorney with confidential information on your iPhone that you are legally bound to keep confidential. Although this article wasn’t written for attorneys, Lily Ham Newman and Matt Burgess of Wired provide tips for protecting yourself from iPhone searches at the U.S. border.
Apple released a new Immersive Video for the Apple Vision Pro yesterday. It is an episode of the Adventure series (Apple TV+ link), and it is called āHill Climb.ā In the episode, you ride along with driver Laura Hayes as she races the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb.
And finally, Apple released a new video yesterday called Trust Issues that emphasizes the Ceramic Shield that Apple uses on the iPhone 16, which Apple says is two times tougher than any other smartphone glass. The Ceramic Shield was first used with the iPhone 12, and it has become even more durable in subsequent iterations. It is a neat technology because Apple binds nano-ceramic crystals, which are harder than most metals, into glass while still keeping the glass clear.
When Apple announced iOS 15 almost four years ago, one of the features added to Apple Maps was support for immersive walking directions using augmented reality. It’s a neat feature because after you start using the Maps app to walk to a place, you can just hold up your iPhone, and once the camera senses the buildings around you, the iPhone screen changes to a live view of the outside world with directions superimposed on top. This makes it crystal clear which way you need to walk. It is much better than looking down at a 2D map and trying to figure out which way you are currently facing.
When this feature first launched, only a few cities were supported: London, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, San Diego, San Francisco, and Washington D.C. I never had both a reason and an opportunity to try out the feature in any of those cities, so I hadn’t used it. But as I noted this past Friday, Apple recently enhanced the Apple Maps data in New Orleans, which is where I live, so I have now had a change to try out the feature. It works really well.
This past weekend, I was at the Audubon Aquarium and Insectarium with my kids, which is right next to the Mississippi River. When we were done, my daughter requested that we get ice cream, so I used Apple Maps and found a store that was close and initiated walking directions. Next, I held up my iPhone, and I could see exactly which way to walk next thanks to large arrows and street names superimposed on the world around me:
Once we got close enough that the store was just across the street, the Maps app showed me exactly where the store was located, making it unnecessary to figure out the precise street address:
And the pin remained there as we got closer:
I realize that this feature is not new to Apple Maps. And I realize that Google Maps also has a similar feature called Google Maps AR Live View. But this was the first time that I tried this feature, and it was nice to use.
While using this feature, I couldn’t help but think about how incredible it would be to have this feature embedded in a future generation of the Apple Vision Pro, one that is compact enough to be the size of a normal pair of glasses. Let’s call it Apple Glassesā¢. It would be great to be able to look at the world around me just like I always do and also see relevant informationāsuch as Apple Maps directionsāsuperimposed on the world around me. I have no doubt that this is coming in the future. It is just a question of when, and how much it will cost.
A really good album just showed up on the music streaming services: Looziana Wing Dang Doo by the New Orleans band Beau Swank. You should check it out. Okay, I’ll admit to some bias here because this is my father’s band, and he wrote all of the songs. But trust me: he is a very talented songwriter, and these songs are great. If you want to start with just one song, my favorite is probably Track 8, “Back in Thibodaux,” but I also love Track 2, “Marigny Mambo.” Those are Apple Music links, but you can listen to the album on Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, Tidal, Pandora, iHeartRadio, or just about any other streaming music service that is out there. Here is some information on this album and the impressive musicians in Beau Swank. And at the end of this post, I have some bonus links and a video from a live performance.
Looziana Wing Dang Doo!
The album Looziana Wing Dang Doo! from Beau Swank is collection of songs that celebrate New Orleans and Southeast Louisiana. In New Orleans, The Livinā is Easy (Track 1) on Frenchman Street, where the hipsters meet to do the Marigny Mambo (Track 2). We made it through Hurricane Katrina, and The New New Orleans (Track 3) is our revival. Up Burgundy on a Sunday cruise we meet the Bywaterās daughter, the beautiful Dauphine (Track 4). And on River Road and Oak, we see the Batture Girl (Track 5).
Heading outside of the city, we cruise through Bridge City (Track 6) and Paradis (Track 7) before we find ourselves Back In Thibodaux (Track 8). In Lafayette, we do the two-step as we dance the Lafayette Waltz (Track 9). We pass a good time enjoying the Looziana Wing Dang Doo (Track 10). And of course, we celebrate the voodoo swamp chant ChaQueVuLeMau (Track 11). We finish up our dancing with the Bon Ton Boogie (Track 12). And we finish up the year with a Crescent City Christmas (Track 13).
Beau Swank is a cast of well-seasoned musicians. The band was founded by New Orleans musician Bob Richardson, who wrote all of the songs, plays rhythm guitar, and sings lead vocals on this album. The studio magic was sparked by Buzzy āBeanoā Langford (guitarist for The Topcats), who served as co-producer. The other artists on this album include:
Ronnie Rauber. Rauber plays bass guitar for Beau Swank. He toured during the 1970s and 1980s with The Roaminā Togas, a Louisiana supergroup.
Skeet Stiller. Stiller plays lead guitar with Beau Swank. He has also played with the New Orleans group Pigeon Town.
Mike Loupe. Loupe played guitar and horns on this album, and he is often seen performing throughout the French Quarter.
Dwight Breland. Breland played played steel guitar on the song “Lafayette Waltz.” He has played with many other Cajun and rock artists over the years including Waylon Thibodeaux and Beaubassin.
Sit back, open the windows, and smell the gumbo and the sauce piquante. Beau Swank is at the wheel, so you can relax as you enjoy the album.
More from Beau Swank
For more from Beau Swank, an EP called Gras Deux is also available on Apple Music and elsewhere. It features four of the songs on Looziana Wing Dang Doo, but the singer on those tracks is Pete Adams (who was the lead singer of The Roamin’ Togas), so the songs have a different sound. I prefer the versions of the songs on Looziana Wing Dang Doo, but Pete Adams does have a great voice.
There is also a great cover of the song “Back to Thibodaux” that was recorded by the Louisiana band The Abita Stumps on their 2024 album You Know Why I’m Here. (Apple Music link.) They played it as a slow song, which almost makes it sound like a completely different song. It’s a fun change, even though I prefer the original.
And finally, one of my all-time favorite songs that my father wrote and that Beau Swank performed is not available on an album, but there is a YouTube video of the band performing the song live at the famous venue Rock ‘N’ Bowl in New Orleans in 2021. It is called “Mexican Eyes.” The tune is catchy, and it tells a sweet (fictional) story of a man who works making doughnuts in Brownsville, Texas, while daydreaming about a woman he met one night in Tijuana, Mexico. Here is that video, and I’ll end this post with the lyrics:
Mexican Eyes
In a room down the hall In a hole in the wall Charlie dreams that heās south of the border
