iPhone J.D.

In the news

Apple has been in the news this week because of iPhone security.  As noted by Katie Benner of the New York Times, Attorney General William Barr stated that he needed Apple's help to access information on an iPhone used by a gunman at a Pensacola, FL naval station last month.  Barr wants Apple to come up with a way that the government can always access an iPhone, even if it is locked.  And President Trump tweeted that Apple needs to comply.  Back in 2016, I wrote about similar requests by the FBI under the Obama administration in connection with a gunman in San Bernadino, CA.  When you see news stories like this, I urge you to consider the following:  this is all nonsense.

First, the government doesn't really need Apple's assistance.  This is all a show.  Independent forensic companies have been looking for and coming up with ways to hack into the iPhone (and other technology) for a long time.  Every year, Apple improves iPhone security to make this harder, although even with the newest iPhone 11 Pro, Thomas Brewster of Forbes reports that the government has used a device called GrayKey to hack into the device.  In the Pensacola shooting case, the iPhone models are an iPhone 5 and iPhone 7, which were released in 2012 and 2016.  Governments and forensic companies have had ways to hack into these older phones for a while.  The government is picking cases with bad facts — such as mass shootings — to get more sympathy, but the government has other ways to access data on these devices.  Maybe the government wants to avoid paying smart forensic companies and instead have Apple do this for free, but there is a reason that these services are expensive.  They should be expensive.  We don't want it to be cheap and easy to circumvent security.

Second, the government wants you to ignore that there is a cat-and-mouse game going on here, and that this is a good thing.  It should work that way.  Apple comes up with new ways to protect the iPhone.  Then smart hackers find exploits.  And then it continues.  Again and again.  As a result, the iPhone remains as secure as possible for all of the legitimate reasons that people have a right to keep their information private, whether it be confidential legal communications, medical information, or the list of potential present ideas for your spouse.  If Apple has to stop making the iPhone more secure so that it can instead create a back door into the iPhone, it is pure fantasy to assume that only "good guys" will be able to use the back door.  Malicious hackers always find a way to exploit these sorts of openings, but with Apple required to keep it open so that the FBI can use it, Apple won't be able to fix the back door that it was required to create.  Plus, if Apple makes the back door available to the U.S. government, then you can bet that every other government will demand access as well.  Even if you have 100% trust in all agents of the U.S. government, do you feel the same way about the agents of every other government in the world?  And even if access could somehow be limited to only "good" governments — whatever that means — there are countless examples of information leaking from agencies like the NSA and CIA that are supposed to be the best at keeping secrets.  It is critical for it to remain Apple's job to continually improve security, even as hackers continue to find ways to undermine that and the cat-and-mouse game continues.

Third, agencies like the FBI and Department of Justice have access to countless ways to investigate that did not exist years ago.  Yes, I want them to solve cases, but they don't need to have unlimited resources, such as being able to force companies like Apple to build back doors into the iPhone.  I'm sure that many of us would be "safer" if we lived in a complete police state, but at what cost?  It is a good thing to encourage the investigation of crimes, but at some point, the investigators can go too far.

Fourth, even if Apple did create back doors in the iPhone in response to these government demands, then the bad guys would just start using something else.  If you ban guns, only criminals will have guns.  If you force Apple to make the iPhone insecure, then only criminals will have secure phones.

Privacy and secrecy have important and legitimate roles in our society.  It is a good thing to have companies like Apple doing their best to improve security on the devices used by their customers, even if there will never be a device that is 100% secure from hacking.  So when you hear someone from the government complain about Apple refusing to make their own devices insecure, regardless of which political party is in power, please consider the implications of what they are asking for.  Okay, my rant is over, let's get on to the rest of the news of note from the past week:

• California attorney David Sparks offers his own take on the request for Apple to create a back door into the iPhone.
• Kurt Wagner of Bloomberg profiles the General Counsel at Twitter, Vijaya Gadde.
• Glenn Fleishman explains, in an article for TidBITS, why cell phones do not give you cancer.
• Michael Potuck of 9to5Mac reports that, according to estimates, Apple's AirPods are so popular that Apple received 71% of wireless headphone revenue in 2019.
• If you use GoodNotes to take handwritten notes on your iPad, version 5.4 was released this week which adds the ability to automatically keep a PDF backup of your notes on Google Drive, Dropbox, or OneDrive.
• If you own an Apple battery case for the iPhone XS, XS Max, or XR, Apple is now replacing some of the cases because of issues that may cause the battery to stop charging, as reported by Josh Centers of TidBITS.
• Tim Hardwick of MacRumors reports that Apple is now offering less money when you trade in certain models of the iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and other devices.
• Ed Hardy of Cult of Mac reports on a new HomeKit-enabled smart plug from Belkin that is very small and thus takes up very little space in an outlet.
• How impressive have iPhone sales been over the last decade?  Jason Snell of Six Colors shows it in charts — especially the last chart.
• According to an article by Kofo Lasaki of a local CBS affiliate, a woman in Virginia Beach, VA reported that the iPhone's SOS feature called 911 and saved her from an attempted sexual assault.
• Zac Hall of 9to5 reports that an Apple Watch automatically called 911 and helped a person who was hit by a car while riding a bike during a morning commute.
• Marius Masalar wrote an extensive review of the AirPods Pro for The Sweet Setup.
• Shawn King of The Loop shared a great one:  open Safari on your iPhone, type "How big is a wolf" so that you do a Google search for that phrase, tap the top entry, and then tap on the link to View in 3D.  Very cool.
• And finally, Apple hired artists to create posters to promote some of its Apple TV+ shows, and Apple created some neat videos to show how the artists used an iPad and Apple Pencil to do so.  Click here for the video associated with the show Dickinson, and click here or watch below to see that video associated with For All Mankind — which is currently my favorite show on Apple TV+, but I also really enjoyed The Morning Show (especially the last few episodes of Season 1).  I've just started watching Dickinson.

How to add memory foam to AirPods Pro

Yesterday, in my AirPods Pro review, I mentioned that I added memory foam to my AirPods Pro and that this caused them to fit even better in my ears.  In today's post, I am showing you how that is done so that you can try it out yourself.  This modification is easy, inexpensive, and quickly reversible, so there is no downside in trying it out to see what you think.  For me, they make my AirPods Pro more comfortable in my ears.

This modification wasn't originally my idea.  I first saw it mentioned in this thread on Reddit, and it was also mentioned in this article on MacStories.  But neither of those provided step-by-step instructions with pictures, so after I figured out for myself how to do this, I thought I would share what I did in this post so that it is easier for you to try this yourself.

There is nothing about this modification that should damage your AirPods Pro.  This modification simply adds memory foam to the ear tips, and if you don't like it you can simply pull the memory foam off and everything will be back to normal.  Having said that, if you want to be extra cautious, you can also purchase replacement ear tips from Apple for only $3.95 for a set of two.  That way, you can try this out on something that is not your normal ear tip.  Plus, with that very small investment, you can have one set of ear tips with the memory foam and one set without making it faster to go back and forth between them.  Go to this page of the Apple website to order additional ear tips.  But again, you don't need to order more ear tips to do this modification.

What you do need to purchase are some memory foam earbuds, unless you already have a pair from another set of headphones.  The ones that I purchased on Amazon are the Heyous 2 Set Memory Foam Earbuds Sponge Caps Covers, which were inexpensive (only $9.99) and you get 12 earbuds in different sizes.  It is nice to have lots of different sizes to try out because every ear is different and you will want to try different sizes to determine what feels best for your ears.

Each memory foam earbud has a plastic core surrounded by memory foam, and there are two sizes of plastic cores.  It is easiest to work with the larger plastic core, which were the black ones in this set, so I recommend that you start there.  You can then try again using the smaller plastic core to decide what you prefer.

For each size of plastic core, there are three different memory foam sizes.  Again, you'll just have to try them out to see what you like best for your ears.

Now that you have you have the memory foams and you have picked a set to start working with, you are ready to follow these simple steps.

First, remove the plastic core from the memory foam.  This widens the circle in the middle of the memory foam.  Removing the plastic core is fairly easy.  Scrape your fingernail against all of the sides of the plastic core, and you can slowly push down the memory foam and scrape the memory foam off of the core.  It took me about 20-30 seconds to get it off, which left me with the memory foam without the plastic core.  You can discard the plastic core; you won't need it again.

I've seen other people on the Internet talk about doing this type of modification without removing the plastic core, but with the version of the memory foam earpods I purchased, I don't believe that the AirPods Pro tips can fit without removing the core.

Second, decide if you want to cut the memory foam earpod using some scissors to make the memory foam shorter.  If you do cut, do so about one-third to one-half from the bottom.  You are doing this so that the memory foam doesn't stick out too much once you place it in the tip of the AirPods Pro.

This step is optional.  In part, it is aesthetic; do you want to see memory foam sticking out below your the tips?  In part, it is functional.  For the larger AirPods Pro tips and larger memory foam sizes, the AirPods Pro case won't close (or won't close easily) with the memory foam sticking out.  However, with the small blue tips and the medium AirPods Pro tips, I didn't cut the memory foams and my case closes just fine.  And I sort of like the look of having a dash of blue color with the white — not that anyone else will notice the color once these are in your ears.

Third, prepare the AirPods Pro tips for adding the memory foam.  To do this, simply remove the tip from the AirPods pro and unfold the tip. 

Fourth, put the tip inside of the memory foam.  To do so, you need to fold up the rubbery part of the tip.  However, you'll find that as soon as you fold it, it wants to bounce back into shape.  Thus, I found that the best way to do this is to use a small piece of Scotch tape.  Place the end of your tip on some tape, and then roll up the tape, which will also roll up the ear tip.

With the tape on the end, it is easy to slide the tape-and-tip into the memory foam.  Come up from the bottom.

Next, remove the tape.  It comes off easily because the rubbery tip doesn't adhere to the tape.

Fifth, fold the ear tip back to the way that it was when you started.  Now, you have a tip with memory foam installed.

Put the tip back on your AirPods Pro.

With the memory foam installed, there is slightly more passive noise cancellation.  More noticeable, however, is that both of the AirPods Pro stay in my ear much better than they did without the memory foam.  Without the memory foam, they would move around more in my ears, and over time — especially in my left ear — they would start to become loose, making me concerned that they might fall out.  With the memory foam, they do a much better job of staying in place.  I still find myself adjusting them from time to time, but far less than I used to without the memory foam.

I presume that, at some point, a third party company will sell a replacement ear tip containing memory foam.  Or better yet, it would be great if Apple sold replacement ear tips containing memory foam.  For now, however, this do-it-yourself solution is inexpensive and simple.  And I like that it is reversible, so you can try it to see if you like it without having to commit to anything.

For me, using memory foam has enhanced my enjoyment of AirPods Pro because they do a better job of staying in my ear without moving around too much.

Click here to get the Heyous 2 Set Memory Foam Earbuds Sponge Caps Covers from Amazon ($9.99).

Review: AirPods Pro -- wireless earphones with noise cancellation

When I reviewed the first-generation AirPods, my review could not have been more positive.  I called them a perfect example of Apple at its best.  I've been using Apple's new AirPods Pro for about a month.  Because they are similar to the original AirPods with a big new feature — noise cancellation — I expected to love the AirPods Pro even more.  Indeed, the reviews have been incredibly positive.  For example, Parker Hill of Wired calls them "what Apple’s earbuds should always have been," and Brian X. Chen of the New York Times said “I hesitate to recommend older versions because the new model is far superior.”  I really like the AirPods Pro, but I don’t consider them what AirPods should always have been or far superior than AirPods — at least, not for everyone — because they can be less comfortable for some ears, although I found a partial workaround by adding memory foam. 

Apple's first-generation AirPods, announced on September 7, 2016, first went on sale in December 2016 and were in limited quantities for the first few months.  Apple's AirPods Pro were announced on October 28, 2019, and, once again, quantities have been very limited.  I ordered mine in November and it took about five weeks to get them.  Even today, if you order them on the Apple website, Apple says that you will have to wait about four weeks to get delivery.  Suffice it to say that this product is in high demand.  

There a few changes in the look of the AirPods Pro versus the original AirPods.  The case is a little bigger and is now wide instead of tall.

The stem is shorter, and it works differently.  To interact with AirPods, you tap on the side.  To interact with AirPods Pro, you squeeze the stem.  It took me about two weeks to get used to the change, but after I did, I now prefer this approach.  It works more consistently than tapping the side did, and it is a more pleasant gesture.

The shape is also somewhat different, in part because the AirPods Pro needs to go deeper into your ear so that it fills your ear canal.

At $249, they are more expensive than the $159 AirPods (which you can currently get from Amazon for only $129) and the $199 AirPods with wireless charging case (which you can currently get from Amazon for only $169).  You get two things for the extra cost.  First, you get a case with wireless charging, just like the $199 version of the AirPods.  Second, you get noise cancellation. 

If you already use a Qi wireless charger for your iPhone or other devices, then you know whether you like wireless chargers.  I rarely use them because I find it just as convenient, and much faster, to use a Lightning cord to charge.  Thus, the only additional feature that I found intriguing was noise cancellation.

Noise Cancellation

Noise cancellation technology is fascinating, and it works in two ways.  Passive noise cancellation is simple and occurs whenever you block your ears.  Put your hands over your ears, or put in some earplugs, and that is passive noise cancellation.  Active noise cancellation is more sophisticated and works by using a microphone on the outside of the headphones to listen to the outside world and then producing equal but opposite sound waves inside of your ear canal to cancel the outside noise.  Bose pioneered this technology, and it released the first consumer active noise cancellation headphones in 2000.  I've seen them countless times on airplanes since then, and I’m sure that you have too.  Although I've never owned a pair, I have tried them many times.  Two things stopped me from buying my own pair:  the cost and the fact that most models are rather bulky — taking up valuable space in an airplane carry-on and making it too inconvenient to carry them around every day.

Apple has managed to fit active noise cancellation technology into the tiny AirPods.  As a result, you can carry them around with you all the time, and then the noise cancellation technology is there whenever you want it. 

Despite what the name implies, noise cancellation doesn't actually cancel all outside noise.  But it does drastically reduce that noise.  If you are on an airplane or walking around a city, it's like turning down the volume of the outside world to around a 3 on a 1-10 scale.  If you are in a noisy environment, this is a major difference. 

I've found it very unsatisfying to use regular AirPods on an airplane (for example, when watching a video) because the sound from my iPhone or iPad was often hard to hear over the outside noise.  I've instead used corded headphones which can be a little louder, but even that wasn’t perfect.  Using AirPods Pro on an airplane is an almost magical experience.  The cabin noise doesn't completely go away, but it is reduced so substantially that I no longer have any trouble hearing my iPhone or iPad, and I no longer have to crank up the volume to the maximum.  And then when I want to put them away, I just put them in the tiny case and slip them into a shirt or pants pocket.

When using AirPods Pro and walking around on the streets of downtown New Orleans, I've never considered the outside noise too loud to hear regular AirPods, with rare exceptions like walking by a construction project.  But with AirPods Pro, the volume on the outside world is turned down enough that my the music or podcast that I'm listening to sounds much better.  I can still hear the outside world, so I will still hear traffic noises, and if a car honks at me or a person yells my name, I will still hear them.  But the outside world just becomes less obnoxious, which improves the quality of whatever I'm listening to.

I have a treadmill in my house, and it is rather noisy:  less than an airplane, but more than walking around downtown.  I often use my AirPods Pro to watch an episode of a TV show on my iPad while I am walking on the treadmill, and the experience of watching the show is dramatically improved when the sound from the episode doesn't have to complete with the loud noise coming from the treadmill.

All of this was great, but frankly, it was also what I predicted.  I expected the noise cancellation experience to be nice when I was in a loud environment.  I was surprised to find that I often enjoy using noise cancellation when I am in a quiet environment. 

For example, I'll sometimes have lunch in my office with my door closed and I will listen to part of a podcast while I eat.  When I activate noise cancellation, I'll suddenly notice that I can no longer hear the sounds of the air conditioner or heater and other minor sounds in my office, sounds that I previously didn't even realize were there.  But then once that minor outside noise goes away, whatever I am listening to sounds much better.  And then when I remove AirPods Pro from my ears, I find myself wondering how I previously wasn’t annoyed by that air conditioner.  Listening to that podcast in my office would have been perfectly fine with regular AirPods, with the AirPods Pro, I realize that I never knew what I was missing.  I will note, however, that with AirPods Pro in my ear canals, the sound of myself chewing seems even louder, which I didn't expect.

I've also used the AirPods Pro without even playing any sound when I am trying to concentrate.  I normally work just fine when there is noise around me, and there are times when I will even listen to music without words while I am drafting a brief just because that helps my brain to focus on writing.  But there are also times when I find the outside noise distracting, even if it is not loud.  Wearing AirPods Pro with noise cancellation turned on but otherwise not listening to anything effectively turns down the volume on the outside world and can help me to concentrate on whatever I'm working on.  For example, if I'm working on something in my study at home and my kids are one or two rooms over, making noise with something like an iPhone or iPad, I can activate noise cancellation and then I don't really hear them anymore. 

Suffice it to say that the noise cancellation feature of AirPods Pro is very nice.  Once you try it, it is something that you want to always have available.

Transparency

Even though I'm a big fan of noise cancellation, sometimes I don’t want that feature.  For example, sometimes I want to listen to music but also hear what is going on around me.  One solution would be to use a traditional speaker, such as Apple's HomePod, but then everyone else around me would have to listen to whatever I am listening to.  AirPods Pro provide a better solution in these circumstances.

Although you can turn off active noise cancellation on the AirPods Pro, because the AirPods Pro go somewhat deep into your ear just like earplugs, they still block some of the outside noise even with noise cancellation turned off.  In other words, even with active noise cancellation turned off, there is still some passive noise cancellation because you have something in your ear canal.

Fortunately, AirPods Pro has a mode called Transparency that counteracts this.  It uses the microphone on the outside of AirPods Pro to listen to the outside world and then, instead of playing the opposite wavelengths to achieve noise cancellation, it plays the outside noise inside of your ear.  As a result, you can hear 100% of the outside world even though there is something in your ear canal.

This feature works really well.  I used it this past weekend when there was a massive rainstorm in New Orleans and I decided to relax by watching an episode of a TV show on my iPad.  (I finished watching The Man From High Castle on Amazon Prime, a series that I enjoyed.)  Normally, I don’t want to hear anything when I’m watching a TV show, but on Saturday, I decided to sit on my back porch because I liked the idea of sitting in a rocking chair and listening to the rain even though I was also listening to my show.  Perhaps a little silly, but the Transparency mode gave me exactly what I needed.

I also use this mode frequently when I am doing chores around the house while I am listening to a podcast.  Transparency mode is perfect because I can listen to my podcast (often a tech-related one) while I'm working, but I can still hear what is going on around me, especially if someone in my family starts talking to me.

Because regular AirPods do not go deep into your ear and thus don’t have much passive noise cancellation, using AirPods Pro in Transparency mode is somewhat similar to using regular AirPods in terms of what you can hear from the outside world.  I can hear a little bit more of the outside world with Transparency world, but it is pretty close.

Switching between modes is fast and easy.  If you squeeze the flat side of the stem of either one of the AirPods Pro for about a second or two, you will hear a tone indicating that you have changed modes.  By default, you just switch between noise cancellation and Transparency modes, but you can change that in the Settings app if you also want to change to the Off Mode — no noise cancellation but also no Transparency.  You can also change modes using the Settings app:

You can also change modes by invoking the Control Center and long-pressing on the volume bar.

I usually use the squeeze-the-stem approach when I want to switch modes, and I do it frequently.  Transparency mode is the mode that I didn’t realize I would want until I tried it out.

Fit and comfort

Unlike regular AirPods, which are earphones that fit in the outside of your ear, AirPods pro are canalphones, which push deeper into the hole in your ear.  This is a very different feeling, and you might not like it.  My wife tried my AirPods Pro and quickly decided that it felt bizarre and wasn’t for her.  I also found it strange at first, but I grew used to it over a week or two.

I’ve always found the regular AirPods to be perfectly comfortable.  I would sometimes hear reports of folks saying that they disagree, and I would think that I was lucky that they worked with the shape of my ear.

I had the opposite experience with AirPods Pro.  Although I got used to the feeling of something in my ear canal, I had trouble getting them to fit correctly, especially in my left ear.  This led me to frequently try things like turning them, pushing them in more or pulling them out, etc.

AirPods Pro comes with ear tips in three different sizes, and I’ve read many reviews in which people praised this decision, concluding that it helped to make the AirPods Pro the most comfortable AirPods ever.  For me, the largest size feels best in my right ear, but I have gone back and forth between the medium and large size in my left ear.  And even for those times when they felt fine when I first put them into my ear, over the next minute or so they would often start to become loose, especially in my left ear.  I could reach up and adjust them, but then after a certain amount of time — sometimes an hour, but sometimes only a few minutes — I’d have to adjust them again.  This was annoying and tampered my enthusiasm for AirPods Pro.

Fortunately, I found a work-around that has been am improvement:  I added memory foam to my AirPods Pro.  Doing so is easy and inexpensive, but there are a number of steps involved so I’m going to publish a separate post on how to do this.  With the memory foam added, I still need to adjust the AirPods Pro in my ear more often than I would like.  With the regular AirPods, I never had to readjust them.  But they are definitely better.  Plus, the memory foam provides a little more passive noise cancellation.  My hope is that in the future, Apple or a third party will sell replacement tips for AirPods Pro that include memory foam, and that might work even better than my do-it-yourself modification.

While this modification seems to make the AirPods Pro fit in my ear better, the AirPods Pro are still not perfect for my ears.  I say this in part because I still find myself adjusting them and in part because I keep failing the test.  The AirPods Pro settings on the iPhone and iPad give you the ability to run an Ear Tip Fit Test.  Your device plays music for a few seconds — part of the song Awake by the San Francisco musician known as Tycho (Scott Hansen) — and then your device tells you if you have a good fit or if you need to adjust one or both of your AirPods Pro in your ears or try a different size ear tip.  My ears fail both tests almost every single time, either with or without my memory foam modification.  And yet noise cancellation seems to be working just fine.  Either noise cancellation works better for others with a different ear shape, or perhaps just the Apple ear tip test works better for others than it does for me.

Unfortunately, I don't believe that you can determine if AirPods Pro are right for your ears without buying them.  Before I purchased my AirPods Pro, I tried out a sample pair in an Apple Store.  (Don't worry; they clean the ear tips before you use them.)  During the few minutes that I tried them in the store, the experience of having something in my ear canal was so new for me and the feel was so different than what I experienced with normal AirPods that there just wasn’t enough time to determine how they fit.  One of my two ears failed the Ear Tip Fit Test in the store, so maybe that should have been some indication that I might have problems, but at the time, I thought it was just because I had not yet learned the right way to insert them.

But fortunately, if you buy a pair of AirPods Pro to try them out, Apple has a generous 14-day return policy on just about any product that it sells, including AirPods Pro.  Thus, you could try them out, keep them if you like them, or return them and instead purchase regular AirPods to see if they work better for your ears.

Conclusion

I love AirPods, and I think that everyone who owns an iPhone or iPad and listens to music or watches videos should consider getting them.  AirPods Pro have definite advantage over regular AirPods, but for at least some people, they also have drawbacks.  The noise cancellation and Transparency modes are fantastic, a big improvement over AirPods.  But the way that they go into your ear canal is uncomfortable for some people, and for at least some ear shapes — including  mine — it can be difficult to get them in the right place in your ear and then to get them to stay in that place.  Given the number of overwhelmingly positive reviews for AirPods Pro, I recognize that I am likely in the minority when it comes to how they fit in my ears.  

Even though I'm not gushing over the AirPods Pro like some other reviewers, I still prefer them over regular AirPods, especially now that I have added memory foam so that they do a better job of fitting in my ear.  If you are trying to decide between AirPods Pro and regular AirPods and you can justify the additional cost, I recommend that you buy AirPods Pro.  Try them for up to two weeks and see what you think.  You might even try adding memory foam like I did to see what you think of that.  If they are not for you, return them to Apple and get a refund.

AirPods Pro are not perfect for me, but I still really like them, evidenced by the fact that they have been in my pocket virtually all the time since I first received them.  I'm glad that Apple has looked for ways to improve the original AirPods, and I hope that Apple continues to improve this amazing product.

Click here to get AirPods Pro from Amazon ($249)

In the news

If you or someone in your family spent money at the App Store on New Year's Day, then you contributed to Apple reaching a new daily record for App Store sales — $386 million in sales on January 1, 2020.  That's 20% higher than last year.  Not a bad day for Apple.  And now, the news of note from the past week:

• Juli Clover of MacRumors notes that, 13 years ago yesterday, Steve Jobs introduced the original iPhone.  She provides a link to the video of Steve Jobs doing so, and every time I watch it, I'm amazed at what a great job Steve Jobs did with that presentation.
• In an article for Macworld, Dan Moren explains why he expects Apple to push HomeKit forward in 2020.
• Christopher Close of iMore reports that a company called Waciao (pronounced like "watch out") is entering the smart home market and has plans for lots of HomeKit-compatible products.
• I'm a big fan of Lutron's smart home products.  I recently installed a simple Lutron Caseta switch in my garage, and now I can use my iPhone or even my Apple Watch to turn the light on in my garage (which is not connected to my house) before I even go out to the garage.  This is especially great at night; I love having the light already on when I unlock the door.  Even my wife likes this one, and she is not nearly as interested in smart home technology as I am.  I mention this because at CES this week, Lutron announced that it will release a new smart motion sensor and also a new Caséta Repeater which can expand your system range by 60 feet.  A few months ago, I explained how you can use a Lutron Caseta Wireless Smart Lighting Lamp Dimmer to extend the range by 30 feet, so this Repeater will be even better.  If you have a large house, a house in an irregular shape, or you have dense stone or concrete walls, this Repeater sounds like it will let you get much more out of Lutron devices.
• Ben Lovejoy of 9to5Mac describes a HomeKit device that does one simple thing — pushes a physical button.
• Apple plans to launch a series of ads featuring great pictures that people have taken using the Night Mode feature on an iPhone 11.  And if you contribute your photo between now and January 29 and it is selected by the panel of judges, Apple will pay to license your photo for its campaign.  All of the information is contained on this page of the Apple website.  Good luck!
• If you have been waiting to buy a pair of AirPods or AirPods Pro, you wait was worth it (ahem) because now you can order yours with an emoji on it, as July Clover of MacRumors explains.
• Apple has released some fascinating "shot on iPhone" videos.  Apple recently released an interesting one called Fire & Ice.  Click here to watch it — and it is formatted to look best on an iPhone, So I recommend that you watch it there, not on a computer.  When you are done watching that, I found the behind-the-scene video to be even more interesting — and this one is in landscape orientation so it looks great on a computer, or iPad, or iPhone:

Apps in Law podcast -- why I use GoodNotes

The Apps in Law podcast is a fantastic podcast for attorneys looking to get the most out of an iPhone or iPad in a law practice.  In each episode, Brett Burney interviews one attorney (or other legal professional), and the focus is typically on why that person finds one particular app useful in a law practice.  I appeared on the podcast when it started in 2017 to discuss why I consider 1Password such an essential app.  Burney recently invited me back to the podcast, and this time I decided to talk about GoodNotes, an app that I use to take handwritten notes on my iPad.  We recorded the episode near the end of last year, and I see that the episode was posted yesterday. 

In this episode, I talk to Brett about how I use GoodNotes, why I prefer taking handwritten notes on an iPad versus on paper, and why I prefer taken handwritten notes versus typing notes on a laptop.  I also give some tips for getting more out of the GoodNotes app.

Once nice difference between Episode 4 that I recorded in 2017 and this new Episode 23 is that I'm now using a Blue Yeti USB Mic.  (I'm not sure what I used in 2017, but it may have just been the headphones that come for free with an iPhone.)  The Blue Yeti microphone produces audio that sounds so much better. 

The timing of the release of this episode was very appropriate for me.  I used GoodNotes extensively yesterday (and I plan to use it again today) to prepare an outline for an appellate oral argument that I'm giving tomorrow.  I plan to use my iPad at the podium — the backlit, large iPad screen makes it easy to see my outline and related notes — but I'll also export to PDF and print that out later today to have the paper version as a backup, just in case I need it.

You can click the episode link to listen to the episode on a computer, but I recommend that you subscribe to the podcast in your iPhone podcast app of choice (I use Overcast) to check out prior episodes and to learn about new ones as they are released.  I learn something new from every episode.

Click here to listen to the episode in the Overcast app.

Click here to listen to the episode in Apple's Podcasts app.

In the news

It's hard to believe that we are now in the 2020s.  Ten years ago, the iPhone was still fairly new (with far more attorneys using a BlackBerry) and the original iPad was introduced by Apple in January 2010.  Now, almost 80% of all attorneys are using an iPhone (according to the ABA), and the iPad is a sophisticated tool for attorneys, especially the iPad Pro.  California attorney David Sparks has decided that the iPad is the Apple device of the last decade.  He makes a strong argument, and I'm now at the point where I cannot imagine practicing law without an iPad.  Having said that, I also cannot imagine practicing law, communicating with friends and family, taking pictures, and a host of other activities without using my iPhone, which was substantially improved when the iPhone X was released in 2017 and is now even more powerful thanks to additional improvements.  If I had to pick just one Apple device of the decade, I'd probably pick the iPhone, but the iPad would be an incredibly close second-place pick.  And now, the recent news of note:

• Massachusetts attorney Bob Ambrogi wrote an interesting article on his LawSites blog discussing the ten most significant developments in legal technology over the past decade.  #3 on the list is the untethering of law practice thanks to devices like the iPhone and iPad.
• Illinois attorney John Voorhees of MacStories reports on tests conducted by Stephen Coyle showing that Bluetooth latency on AirPods Pro is greatly reduced.
• The New York Times Editorial Board discusses the dangers of surveillance possible as a result of modern technology.  My hope, as we enter the 2020s, is that consumers will start to demand more privacy and will reward companies like Apple that do a better job of protecting it.
• Michael Simon of Macworld discusses some of the most impactful moments in the world of Apple products over the past decade.
• In an article for Macworld, Jason Snell predicts what we might see in the iPhone and iPad world in 2020.
• I've been impressed by the content on Apple TV+ so far, and it looks like it is only going to get better in the future.  For example, John Koblin of the New York Times reports that Richard Piepler — who previously ran HBO and spent 27 years there — is now going to produce programs exclusively for Apple TV+ for the next five years.
• Zac Hall of 9to5Mac identifies some of the best CarPlay apps.
• Jason Cross of Macworld identifies some of the best Apple Watch apps.
• Christopher Close of iMore explains how you can add notes to HomeKit devices in the Home app and explains some of the reasons for doing so.
• Amos Chapple of PetaPixel went to Murmansk in Russia — the biggest city in the Arctic Circle — to take pictures in December (when the sun never rises) using Night Mode on the iPhone 11 Pro.  The pictures and his article describing them are interesting.
• And finally, as the weather is getting colder, this is a good time to enjoy some magic from iPad magician Simon Pierro in a video he calls Olaf's Magical Adventure:

[Sponsor] GoodNotes -- take handwritten notes on your iPad

Thank you to GoodNotes for sponsoring iPhone J.D. this month.  I've been using this app for many years, and it is one of my all-time favorite apps for the iPad, an app that I use almost every day in my law practice.  I especially love using GoodNotes on the large screen of my 12.9" iPad Pro, but any size iPad paired with an Apple Pencil can be a fantastic substitute for a legal pad.  And "substitute" is probably not the right word because it doesn't capture what a dramatic improvement it is over pen and paper.

The GoodNotes app allows you to create notebooks and organize those notebooks into folders.  I have a folder for firm-related notebooks, a folder for one client for which I have a high-volume of cases, and a folder for all of my other clients.  I have a folder of older notebooks that I probably won't need again, but you never know when it is useful to dig up something from the past.  (The oldest notebook that is still on my iPad hasn't been modified since January 13, 2014, but I have older ones on my computer that I exported many years ago.)  I also have a folder for notebooks related to my family, a CLE folder for any notes that I take during a CLE, and a Miscellaneous folder that has various different notebooks including one dedicated to puzzles.  (I take a screenshot of a crossword on my iPad, paste that onto a page of my puzzle notebook, and then I use GoodNotes to try to solve a crossword — which I prefer doing with a stylus rather than typing letters on an on-screen keyboard.)  That Miscellaneous folder also contains a scratch paper notebook that I use for various things.  A few nights ago, I used that one when I was helping my sixth grade daughter study for a math test; I would write a problem and then she would solve it.

For my litigation practice, I typically have a single notebook for each case.  That makes it easy to search all of the notes related to a case when I'm trying to find something that I wrote months or years earlier.  Sometimes I will use a dedicated notebook for a project.  For example, when I prepare for and attend an appellate oral argument, a mediation, or a trial, I sometimes create a special notebook for that project.

I take virtually all of my notes using a legal pad template.  There is one built-in to GoodNotes, but I prefer to use one that I created myself because I like having the dotted red lines on the left and right side.  If you want to download my legal paper template and use it yourself with your own notebooks in GoodNotes, click here to download my legal paper template file.  You can import any PDF file into GoodNotes and save it as a template to use with one or more notebooks.

Now that GoodNotes supports using two windows at once, I'm surprised how often I find it useful to have a page of reference notes on the left while I take new notes on the right.

Sometimes I use this to open two instances of the same notebook so that I can see different pages at the same time.  For example, I often attend a meeting where there is an agenda sent around by email before the meeting.  I insert that PDF File into my notes (if the agenda is in Word format, I use the Word for iPad app to convert it to PDF).  Sometimes I take handwritten notes right on the agenda.  Other times I use my legal pad template, and it is nice to look at the agenda on the left at the same time that I am writing on subsequent pages on the right.  The ability to open up two instances of the same notebook is very useful, so much so that it was recently honored by the MacStories website, which gave that feature the runner-up award for best new app feature of 2019.  (The top award went to the new feature in the Overcast app that lets you share a clip from a podcast, which I agree is a neat feature, but it is far less useful in a law practice.)

I usually just keep my notes in the GoodNotes app, but sometimes I will export a notebook as a PDF file, which I then save using my firm's document management system.  Because GoodNotes automatically performs an OCR of your notes, the PDF file is searchable.

Using GoodNotes to take digital notes is great for so many reasons.  All of my notes for all of my cases are with me at al times, even notes that I took years ago.  I like being able to use different pen colors in my notes to make them easier to read and organize, and it is nice that you can insert a picture into a document and then annotate that image.  You can even use your iPhone or iPad to take a picture of something like a PowerPoint slide and then immediately insert that into your notes, ready for you to annotate.  And it is easy to move around your notes between pages to make room for something else that you want to insert.

If you own an iPad and a stylus and you are not yet taking digital notes on your iPad, I strongly encourage you to try doing so with the GoodNotes app.  This is a fantastic app, and it is a key part of my paperless law practice.  Thanks again to GoodNotes for sponsoring iPhone J.D. this month.

Click here to get GoodNotes 5 ($7.99): 

In the news

I love using HomeKit to control various devices in my home.  This time of year, the most useful one is a Lutron Caseta Wireless Smart Lighting Lamp Dimmer, which my wife and I control from an iPhone or Apple Watch to turn on and off the lights on our Christmas tree.  It is so nice to not have to reach all the way around the tree to the outlet every morning and every night.  But sometimes I see a home automation device that doesn't support HomeKit, and with a few minor exceptions (like a Nest smoke detector) I ignore those because I like being able to control everything in the Home app on my iPhone.  Fortunately, this may change soon.  Jason Snell of Six Colors reports that Apple, Google, Amazon, Zigbee, and others have formed a smart home alliance to increase compatibility across devices.  I look forward to seeing what comes of this.  And now, the news of note from the past week:

• Glenn Fleishman of Macworld explains how to enable or disable Deep Fusion and Smart HDR photography on the iPhone 11.
• Julio Ojeda-Zapata wrote a comprehensive review of the AirPods Pro for TidBITS.
• Brad Gibson of Cult of Mac reports that the rubber tips on AirPods Pro have a new plastic odor that sort of smells like blueberries.  I've noticed this on my new AirPods Pro.  There is nothing offensive about the smell, and I suppose it will go away over time, but it did surprise me.
• MacStories selected its favorite apps of 2019.
• Chandra Steele of PC Magazine recommends 26 iOS apps that she thinks are worth paying for.
• App Annie lists the most downloaded apps of the past decade.
• Chance Miller of 9to5Mac reports that a woman in Iowa was able to find her car after it had been stolen because her iPhone was in it, and she was able to use Find My iPhone to help the police locate her car.
• Jeff John Roberts of Fortune reports on an attempt to create a sophisticated mask to fool facial recognition systems.  It couldn't fool Apple's FaceID, but it did fool some other systems.
• Federico Viticci created used Apple's Shortcuts app to create a free, sophisticated assistant for Apple Music that he calls MusicBot.  It makes it faster to access certain aspects of Apple Music and enables a few other features that are not simple to do in the Music app itself.
• Ryan Christoffel of MacStories explains the new Quick Find feature of the Things app.
• Ben Lovejoy of 9to5Mac reports can now pay for Apple Arcade on an annual basis instead of a monthly basis, and when you do so, you save $10 a year.
• I was in an AT&T store the other day and noticed an interesting screensaver running on all of the iPhones.  You can view it here.
• Time magazine selected the 10 best gadgets since 2010, and three Apple products made the list:  The iPad, the Apple Watch, and Apple AirPods.  (The iPhone came out in 2007.)
• And finally, speaking of 2010, Joanna Stern of the Wall Street Journal decided to leave her iPhone at home and see what it is like to travel only with gadgets that she used in 2010, such as an old BlackBerry and a Garmin GPS.  And she picked an interesting destination for her trip.  Click here or the picture below to watch the video on the Wall Street Journal website.

Review: Flipster -- read magazines, for free, on your iPad thanks to your local library

The holiday season can be a perfect time to flip through some magazines, whether you are traveling by plane or train or just looking to fill a few minutes of down time at an in-law's house.  Instead of spending lots of money at an airport newsstand, you can get magazines for free at your local library.  And thanks to the digital services available at modern libraries, you can download full copies of magazines, for free, on your iPad.  There are different apps that offer this service so you need to find out which one your library uses.  My library, the New Orleans Public Library, uses an app called Flipster.  (A similar app used by some libraries is RBdigital.)

The Flipster service is not limited to public libraries.  It also works with certain academic libraries, schools, companies, and governmental entities.

Although you don't have to visit a branch of your library to download magazines to the Flipster app, you do need to have an active library card.  Once you follow the instructions in Flipster to authenticate through your local library, you can then use the Explore tab at the bottom left to see all of the magazines that are offered. 

The Flipster service offers access to almost 1,500 titles, but you'll only see the ones to which your local library has provided access.  I see that I currently have access to over 80 titles through the New Orleans Public Library, and the selection is quite good, including:

• Bloomberg Businessweek
• Bon Appétit
• Brides
• Bust
• Car and Driver
• Condé Nast Traveler
• Consumer Reports
• Cosmopolitan
• Country Living
• Eating Well
• Ebony
• Elle
• Entertainment Weekly
• Essence
• Esquire
• Fast Company
• Food & Wine
• Forbes
• Good Housekeeping
• GQ
• Harper's Bazaar
• Health
• Highlights
• InStyle
• Kiplinger's
• Louisiana Life
• Marie Claire
• Martha Stewart Living
• Men's Health
• Men's Journal
• Money
• Mother Jones
• Motortrend
• National Geographic
• New Orleans
• The New Yorker
• Newsweek
• O, the Oprah Magazine
• Out
• Outdoor Photographer
• Paper
• Parents
• PCWorld
• People
• Popular Mechanics
• Popular Science
• Rolling Stone
• Runner's World
• Shape
• Southern Living
• Sports Illustrated
• Time
• Travel + Leisure
• Us
• Vanity Fair
• Vogue
• Wired
• Woman's Day

I think that most folks will be able to find something that they consider worth downloading. 

When you select a magazine, you then have a choice of either downloading the current issue or a back issue. 

You can see all of the magazines that you have downloaded in the My Shelf tab.  Some titles expire after a certain amount of time, and the amount of time varies depending upon the title.  But you can download an issue again, and the app shows you when an expiration date is coming soon.  Using percentages below each magazine icon, the Flipster app gives you a sense of how much of the magazine you have already viewed.

Once you select a specific issue of a magazine, you can read it.  In landscape mode, you can read two pages at a time, which is nice because some magazine content was designed to spread across two pages. 

Or you can turn your iPad to portrait mode and read one page at a time.  In either orientation, you can pinch to zoom to make things larger.  And many magazines feature hyperlinks within the issue so that, for example, you can tap on a story title on the cover on in the index and then the app will jump to that page.

In full-screen mode, you just see the content of the magazine.  When not in the full-screen mode, you can see menu options, such as a table of contents.

You can bookmark pages of a magazine.  You can also enter a text view mode in which you just focus on the words.  In that mode, you can copy text and paste it elsewhere to quote it. 

My only significant complaint about the Flipster app is that you cannot search for text within a magazine.  This is curious because there is also a version of Flipster that works in a web browser (either on a computer or an iPad), and that version gives you the option to search.

I really like using the Flipster app.  It is a great way to read some of my favorite magazines.  It is also fun to browse through magazines that I would never purchase but which might contain an interesting article.  And to be honest, sometimes I will decide to give my brain a break and I'll just flip through a magazine mostly just to look at the pictures.

Magazines are not the only digital assets that you can download thanks to your public library.  You can also use apps to download audiobooks, videos, comic books, and of course, books.  For example, before I started watching the show Watchmen on HBO (which was incredible, by the way — I recommend it), I used the Hoopla app to download and read the Watchmen graphic novel, which made the television show (which is somewhat of a sequel) even more enjoyable.  But when I am traveling and sometimes have only short periods of time to read, a magazine is perfect, and the Flipster app along with the large screen of my 12.9" iPad Pro makes for a fantastic reading experience.

Click here to get Flipster (free): 

In the news

Last month, for my birthday, my wife purchased me a pair of AirPods Pro.  But due to the intense demand, I didn't actually receive them until this week.  If you are lucky, you can occasionally find them in limited quantity in an Apple Store or on Amazon (they are out of stock as I am typing this), but for the most part you have to wait.  I want to use them for a few weeks before I write my review, but I was interested to read an article this week by financial analyst Horace Dediu called iPods Pro.  That title isn't a typo; Dediu is making the point that products like the AirPods are surpassing the "peak iPod" point which occurred in 2007.  At the time, the iPod was credited with saving Apple, showing that the company could branch out beyond the Mac with a successful product.  Of course the iPhone would become far more popular than the iPod, but "peak iPod" is still an interesting point of comparison.  Dedui believes that the Apple Watch already passed "peak iPod" and that the AirPods are about to do so now.  This doesn't surprise me; almost everyone I encounter who uses AirPods really likes them.  My son recently received AirPods as a present when he turned 14, and they instantly became his constant companion.  (I can't judge; mine are almost always in my pocket too.).  And now, the news of note from the past week:

• Louisville, Kentucky attorney Stephen Embry is featured in a recent blog post on the Lit Software website because of his extensive use of apps like TrialPad and TranscriptPad and other iPad apps. 
• Legal ethics expert Dane Ciolino reports that South Carolina recently became the 38th state to adopt the duty of technology competence in ABA Model Rule 1.1, comment 8.  You can get details on all 38 of the states on this webpage maintained by Massachusetts lawyer Bob Ambrogi.
• In article for Wired, Lily Hay Newman discusses the problem of smart devices like the Ring Doorbell and Ring indoor cameras being exploited by hackers, who can then hear what is going on inside your house and in some cases even force you to listen to them.  Yikes.  This is why I see so much value in buying products from a company like Apple that pays attention to privacy.
• Apple released iOS 13.3 this week.  It includes some minor feature improvements, as discussed by Ryan Christoffel of MacStories, and also fixes some important bugs, such as an AirDrop flaw described by Chance Miller in an article for 9to5Mac.
• Killian Bell of Cult of Mac recommends Apple Watch stocking stuffers for $40 or less.  There is an interesting item on the list I had never heard of before:  the EdgeGear Shift, a band that wraps around your hand to hold an Apple Watch so that it is easier to see why you are running.
• Jonny Evans of Computerworld offers tips for getting better battery life on an iPhone.
• Ed Hardy of Cult of Mac reviews the AirFly Pro, which you can use to wirelessly connect your AirPods to any device with a headphone jack, or to send audio from your iPhone to any device with an AUX-in jack.
• Hardy also reviews the ConnectSense, which replaces a traditional power outlet to provide HomeKit compatibility. 
• Ryan Christoffel of MacStories reports that you can now post a Live Photo taken with your iPhone on Twitter; Twitter converts them to GIFs so that anyone can see the short video.
• And finally, this week Apple released a very impressive video shot on iPhone in a desert in Suadi Arabia called The Saudi desert riders.  Very cool.