If something goes wrong with an Apple product—such as if you drop it—fixing the product can be easier and cheaper if you have AppleCare. But just like any type of insurance, if nothing goes wrong, you may feel like you didn’t need it. I have gone back and forth over the years about whether I purchase AppleCare, but for the last few years, I have started to purchase it to provide peace of mind. There are many different kinds of AppleCare services, as noted by Hartley Charlton of MacRumors. Most recently, Apple released AppleCare Family, a service that costs $49.99 per month and covers every eligible device owned by the subscriber and five other family members. I recently realized that my family and I were already paying close to that much every month anyway, so by spending just a little more on AppleCare Family, we now have coverage for many more devices for a single monthly payment. In a perfect world, nothing would ever go wrong with an Apple product owned by me, my wife, and my two kids. But the world is not perfect, and I sleep a little better at night knowing that we have protection just in case. And now, the news of note from the past week:
There has been a lot of recent discussion about the future of the Apple Vision Pro, mostly because of some articles by Mark Gurman of Bloomberg suggesting that Apple may be giving up on the project. I don’t think that is true at all, based on what we have been seeing from Apple lately. Instead, I think that Apple is just taking a slow-and-steady approach to this technology that is still in its early stages but has enormous potential. I agree with much of what Wesley Hilliard of AppleInsider says in this article on the topic.
Apple built a music venue, Apple Music Hall, inside of its Battersea Power Station building in London. The first artist to perform was Elton John, and you can click here to watch him perform Your Song in the Apple Music app.
And finally, in this video, Joanna Stern tests the improved battery life in the iPhone 18 Pro, with the help of a pickle.
Now that people have had the ability to spend more time with Apple’s latest product releases, there is more to say about them. We begin this week’s episode of the podcast discussing the new iPhone 18 Pro, including my experience with the iPhone 18 Pro Max. We also talk about those tiny “hello” signs that started appearing in Apple Stores, the Apple Watch Series 12 and why I am waiting to write my own review, the new Mac models that arrived in stores this week, and more.
In our In the Know segment, I share a tip for anyone who uses the Windowed App mode on the App Store as an occasional way to be more of a power user: the new ability to keep the menu bar visible all of the time.
For the past week, I have been using a new Apple Watch Series 12. The battery life improvement has been substantial, not only because Apple has improved battery life with each new generation of the Apple Watch, but also because the battery in my former Apple Watch was past its prime. That has been nice. But the features I’m most curious to try in the 2026 Apple Watch models are Audio Intelligence features, such as Siri Recap and Live Rewind, which aren’t available yet. However, one Audio Intelligence feature already works: Music Recognition with Shazam. The Apple Watch Series 12 (and Ultra 4) is always listening to see if music is playing. If it is, it automatically recognizes the song, without you having to do anything. Simply scroll up to see the Smart Stack, and you will see a Shazam widget that already knows what music is playing. No need to wait. It’s a useful, neat feature, and it makes me eager to try the additional upcoming Apple Intelligence features. One thing I didn’t like about my new Apple Watch was that it randomly restarted at some point each day. It turns out, this was a bug affecting a lot of people, and as Marko Zivkovic of AppleInsider notes, Apple released watchOS 27.0.1 on Wednesday to fix the bug. (The update seems to have fixed the bug for me.) And now, the news of note from the past week:
Battery life is fantastic on the iPhone 18 Pro Max—so much so that it actually exceeds international shipping restrictions. But as Jess Weatherbed of The Verge notes, Apple came up with a solution. The firmware on new iPhones keeps the battery capacity below a 20Wh limit while units are shipped. Once a user activates the iPhone, the battery is restored to its full capacity of over 21Wh. As Weatherbed further notes: “If the user needs to send off their phone for repair or resale, the charging limitation can be restored using the ‘Prepare to Ship’ feature, which caps charging to 80 percent for 14 days. The restoration feature can be found under the settings menu by opening General settings, tapping Transfer or Reset iPhone, and then Prepare to Ship.” Very clever.
I know that I did it, but most people won’t upgrade from an iPhone 17 Pro to an iPhone 18 Pro. The improvements are nice, but far from essential. But if you are considering it anyway, Jeff Parsons of Tom’s Guide explains what is improved.
Jason Cross of Macworld reviews the iPhone 18 Pro, and says that it is “just like last year’s iPhone, but faster and with a slightly better camera. That’s it.” There are a few more improvements—like the improved Dynamic Island, better battery life, and Apple Reference Image—but for the most part, I agree with him.
If you have an iPhone 18 Pro and you notice that it sometimes freezes and reboots, Benjamin Mayo of 9to5Mac reports that Apple has figured out the cause of the problem and a software update to fix it is coming out next week. (I haven’t seen this bug on my new iPhone.)
If you go to an Apple Store right now, you might notice that each one has a tiny sign that says “hello” in script, but you have to look hard to find it. Amber Neely of AppleInsider says that they are a way for iPhone 18 Pro users to try out the telephoto feature. I didn’t notice it when I picked up my iPhone 18 Pro Max at my local Apple Store a week ago, but now that I look back at a picture I took while waiting in line to enter the store, sure enough, it is there.
If you want to use two iPhones—such as an iPhone 18 Pro and an iPhone Duo—don’t use AT&T if you want to take advantage of the new iPhone Handoff feature that lets you share a single phone number across two devices. Jeff Carlson of CNet reports that AT&T has no current plans for supporting this feature.
Ryan Christoffel of 9to5Mac shares a video from Adrián Santos that compares the size of the upcoming iPhone Duo and an iPad mini. They are similar, but the iPad mini is a little bigger.
Christoffel also says his favorite new features of the Apple Watch Series 12 right now are the faster processor, new health features, and faster charging.
Ed Hardy of Cult of Mac notes that the new Macs that Apple announced last month are now available: the Mac mini M6, the Mac mini M5 Pro, and the Mac Studio with M5 Max or M5 Ultra. I’m typing this on my new Mac mini M5 Pro, which I received this past Tuesday, and it is so very fast.
In addition to releasing new iPhones, new Apple Watches, and new AirPods, Apple also released a ton of accessories in the past week. Chance Miller of 9to5Mac shows off all of the new Apple accessories on a single page.
If you want to use over-the-head headphones from Apple, you have two choices: the Beats 360 vs AirPods Max 2. Malcolm Owen of AppleInsider compares the two. In short, the Beats 360 are less expensive and better for the average user; the AirPods Max 2 are more expensive and better for audiophiles and/or people who want a more refined style.
Apple announced that it opened Apple Music Hall, a beautiful, state-of-the-art, live music venue in London. It looks great, and artist performances can be recorded in spatial audio. I hope Apple also records some immersive video for the Vision Pro in this venue; Apple has released only a few immersive music videos so far, but they are amazing.
October is right around the corner, and Ryan Christoffel of 9to5Mac explains what is coming to Apple TV next month, including a new comedy series called Small Prophets, as well as new episodes of Slow Horses.
The Apple TV show The Savant, which was originally scheduled to air in 2025, has been on again, off again, since then, presumably because some people thought the show could be deemed inappropriate after the assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk. Nellie Andreeva of Deadline reports that the show is now scheduled for release in Spring 2027. Apple still hasn’t said anything officially.
And finally, Mouloud Achour of the French program Clique TV on CANAL+ had the opportunity to interview Apple’s new CEO John Ternus for 30 minutes last week. The video (which is in English) is interesting not only because of the products Ternus discusses—everything from the iPhone Duo to the Vision Pro—but also because it gives us all a chance to get to know the new CEO a little better. Worth watching.
The 2026 edition of the iPhone is the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max. Yes, there is also the new iPhone Duo, coming out next month, but it’s a different kind of device: not quite an iPhone, not quite an iPad. For the latest generation of the type of iPhone that we all know and love, this is it.
For the fourth year in a row, I’ve purchased the iPhone Pro with a larger screen: the Max version. Many years ago, it took me a little while to get used to a larger iPhone in my hand. Now, I prefer the bigger screen, partly because my eyesight is far from 20/20 and it is nice to have everything just a little bit bigger on my screen. Of course, some folks prefer the Max version because it lets you see more at once.
I received my iPhone 18 Pro Max this past Friday morning, and I’ve been using it extensively since then. In this post, I’m calling this new iPhone the “iPhone 18 Pro” for ease of reference; I’ll use “iPhone 18 Pro Max” only when pointing out differences between the two models with different sizes.
The upgrade process
When you upgrade to a new iPhone, you can restore from an iCloud backup or transfer data directly from another device. The iCloud backup route lets you use your new iPhone immediately, but it takes longer to move everything over. This year, I opted for the direct transfer method. At first, I thought I’d made the wrong choice when I was warned it would take almost seven hours. But instead, it took just a little more than two hours. When the process was done, just about everything was ready to go. All that remained was letting my iPhone download third-party apps from the App Store, which took about 20 minutes, and then configuring my new device to work with my law firm’s VPN. I’m glad that I went this route.
Variable aperture
The iPhone 18 Pro looks virtually identical to the iPhone 17 Pro. Other than the new colors available this year, the only visible exterior change is that the main camera has a variable aperture. In other words, the iPhone can adjust the size of the hole in the lens through which light passes into the camera. The variable aperture is hard to see, but if you look very closely (and perhaps shine a flashlight on the camera), you can see it.
The iPhone’s Photos app automatically selects the aperture it deems best for the photo you are taking. However, a new iOS 27 feature lets you choose which photo controls appear at the top of the app, if you want to adjust the aperture yourself.
If you select the Lens Aperture control, you can tap that icon when taking a picture to manually choose between focal lengths of ƒ/1.48, ƒ/1.8, ƒ/2.8, and ƒ/4.0.
Apple says third-party apps can select any range between ƒ/1.48 and ƒ/4.0. A smaller F-stop number means the lens opens wider to let in more light. Think of it as the difference between the “2" in 1/2 and the “4" in 1/4. One-half of an apple is twice as much as one-fourth of an apple; similarly, ƒ/1.48 lets in more light than ƒ/4, so ƒ/1.48 is a larger aperture than ƒ/4. With a larger aperture, the camera can take a picture more quickly; with a smaller aperture, it takes longer.
Variable aperture is nice for three reasons. First, you can take better-quality photos in low light. The iPhone 14 Pro through iPhone 17 Pro use a fixed aperture of ƒ/1.78. This year’s iPhone 18 Pro can use an aperture of ƒ/1.48 to let in even more light when you take a photo in a dark setting. For example, I took a picture of a wicker outdoor couch on my back porch at night when there was very little light. My iPhone 18 Pro with ƒ/1.48 captured more detail of the wicker than my iPhone 17 Pro with ƒ/1.78 by letting in more light. In the comparison below, I cropped in on the two images to show what I mean. (You can click on any of these photos to look at larger versions.)
On the other hand, when there is plenty of light, a larger aperture is also nice because the camera takes the picture more quickly. You can use it to freeze fast motion in sports. It can also help you to have a sharper picture.
A second advantage of variable aperture is that you can adjust the depth of field to achieve a different look in your photograph. This effect is called bokeh, and it keeps one part of the picture in focus (typically something in the foreground) while other parts are blurrier. It makes a picture look more interesting, and professional photographers have used it for decades.
For example, here is a picture I took of items on the bar in my house using an iPhone 17 Pro’s ƒ/1.78 aperture. It automatically does a nice job of creating bokeh, blurring the bottles that are farther back and other items in the background.
Here is a similar picture taken with the four different apertures on the iPhone 18 Pro. At ƒ/4.0, much more of the picture is in focus, including items in the background. Older iPhones cannot do this, and sometimes it is nice to have a picture where everything is as sharp as possible. On the other extreme, the iPhone 18 Pro lets you create more of a dreamy effect, with items in the background even more out of focus.
A third advantage of variable aperture is that a smaller aperture creates a starburst effect on lights, creating some drama and making the photograph more interesting. In this next example, I have cropped the pictures to show the twinkle lights in the top left corner of the above photographs. At the smallest ƒ/4.0 aperture, the LED lights show a starburst effect. This effect occurs because light diffracts around the edges of the aperture blades as the light squeezes through a smaller opening.
Jeremy Gray of PetaPixel interviewed Matt Waldon, Senior Director of Camera & Depth Hardware at Apple, to discuss the variable aperture feature. Waldon said that Apple experimented with different options and decided that six blades—each of which is thinner than a human hair—provided the best effect:
So six blades was really a combination of things. One is just the physical dimensions of it. The more blades you add, given the size constraints, it becomes difficult to fit them all in, frankly. So there’s, there’s a physical constraint. … Obviously we want enough blades to give sort of a nice, smooth aperture at every setting. So we did a lot of optimization around the shape of the blades and at every aperture setting. … You sort of see how the blades have a big impact on how bokeh and out of focus areas look. It impacts how the starburst looks. So for this particular design, six was really the sweet spot.
Apple says ƒ/1.8 is the best setting for most pictures, so the iPhone 18 Pro typically uses it. But it can adjust the aperture when appropriate, and the only thing that you will notice is that your pictures are even better—unless you decide to manually adjust the aperture to achieve a different look.
The iPhone 18 Pro also updates the camera app’s Photographic Styles feature. Unlike prior iPhones, which use Photographic Styles version 2, the iPhone 18 Pro supports version 3, which adds texture and grain controls, letting you take an iPhone picture that looks like it was shot on film. If that matters to you, then that’s an advantage. I’m not sure that it is a feature I will ever use.
There is also a new feature called smart focus tracking. You can lock focus on a single moving object, and the iPhone will stay focused on it even if it goes out of the frame and then comes back. If you are taking video of an active child, this could be nice. I haven’t tested it yet.
I’ve always been a fan of my iPhone camera. As it has improved over the years, I virtually never use my Nikon SLR. For normal photos in good light, the iPhone 18 Pro is similar to last year’s iPhone 17 Pro, except it can do a better job keeping both the subject and the background sharp. But in low light, and when you want to take advantage of the options available with a variable aperture, the iPhone 18 Pro’s camera is better than ever.
Processor and cooling improvements
The iPhone 18 Pro features Apple’s new A20 Pro chip. I covered what is new in this chip in a previous post. Apple also improved the iPhone’s vapor chamber, which means the chip can do more without overheating and slowing down.
How much will you notice these changes? It depends on the iPhone model you are upgrading from. Kimberly Gedeon of PC Mag says the most widely used iPhone model in 2026 is the iPhone 13, introduced five years ago, and notes that the iPhone 18 Pro is three times faster than the iPhone 13. That is a huge speed difference that will be easily noticeable for pretty much everything that you do on the iPhone.
How does it compare to last year’s iPhone 17 Pro? Tom Pritchard ran a bunch of benchmark tests. You can read his post to see all of the details, but his conclusion is that “Apple has made serious gains compared to the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max.” Similarly, Chance Miller of 9to5Mac ran tests and reported: “The iPhone 18 Pro’s A20 Pro CPU consistently came in between 22 and 27% faster than the [iPhone 17 Pro’s] A19 Pro, while the GPU landed between 40 and 45% faster.” That’s good to hear.
The iPhone 17 Pro was still pretty darn fast, and in my use over the last few days, there was not a specific moment when the iPhone 18 Pro was noticeably faster. Even so, with the substantial AI improvements to Siri in iOS 27, I know that I’ll be asking my iPhone 18 Pro to do a lot more than ever before. It is nice to know that this new device will provide the best possible experience.
Dynamic Island
I love the Dynamic Island on the iPhone. It is a handy spot to check on apps running in the background.
In the past, you could see either one or two apps in the Dynamic Island. The iPhone 18 Pro moves one of the cameras hidden in the black part of the Dynamic Island (the infrared Face ID sensor) to the top-left corner behind the screen. You don’t notice this as you are using the iPhone, but with more space available, the Dynamic Island can do more.
First, when you don’t have any apps in the Dynamic Island, it is a little smaller, letting you see a bit more of the screen. This change isn’t really that noticeable. Second, when you are running two apps in the background, you can see more information about both of those apps in the Dynamic Island. Third, when you are running three apps in the background, you can see information from three different apps in the Dynamic Island—a first on an iPhone.
For example, in the picture below, the first screenshot shows last year’s model as I am listening to a podcast and also running a timer. A small circular image shows me the timer is running, but that is all it tells me. The second screenshot is from the iPhone 18 Pro, and it shows three apps running: the timer, directions in the Maps app, and my podcast. The third screenshot shows two apps running in the background on the iPhone 18 Pro. Unlike prior iPhones, the timer app’s indicator is larger, so I can now see the seconds counting down. This is a huge improvement. Just seeing that an app is running in the background is only mildly useful. Seeing key information from that background app—such as the seconds on the timer—tells me everything I need to know without switching apps.
The improved Dynamic Island has already been very nice, and I’ve only just started to appreciate it. This will be a nice improvement as I use this new iPhone over the next year.
Apple Reference Image
The iPhone’s camera app supports modes such as Portrait, Spatial, and Pano. The iPhone 18 Pro adds a new option: Reference. To use it, first turn on Apple Reference Image mode in Settings. After that mode is enabled, when you take a picture in Reference mode, Apple captures the original data from the iPhone’s Main camera and then cryptographically signs that original image, creating a digital negative. You can edit the picture, but if you or anyone else running iOS 27 wants to see the true original image, you can tap the Reference Image indicator at the top of the image to view it. You can tap the screen to switch back and forth between the current image and the reference image to look for changes.
In the following example, I took a picture of a legal pad, and then I rotated the image, making the lines diagonal. Thus, I altered the original image. If I shared the image, another person could compare it with the original and see that I had made a modification.
On the other hand, if the image has not been changed, a person can see that it looks the same and that AI or other techniques were not used to alter the photo.
In my tests, the Reference Image always seems darker, even if I haven’t edited the photo. I assume this is because HDR mode isn’t being saved, or something like that.
There is some complexity associated with this mode. For example, if you take a picture in this mode, you can choose whether to share the Apple Reference Image version of the photo with another person. In other words, you can decide whether the other person can see the digital negative for the photo or only the current (potentially edited) version.
For people taking photos with an iPhone that will be used in court, for people in the news industry who want the ability to prove that a photo is real, and for others for whom authenticity matters, this seems like a fantastic new feature. But to be honest, this is all very new, and I will need more time to learn how this feature works. I’m glad it is there, and I want to learn more.
Etc.
The battery life is better than ever with the iPhone 18 Pro. Apple says that the iPhone 17 Pro Max can play video for up to 39 hours, while the iPhone 18 Pro Max can play video for up to 45 hours. However, after only a few days of use, I haven’t noticed it yet. When it is time to recharge an iPhone, the right 60W power adapter can charge it to 50% in just 15 minutes. (Fast-charging on an iPhone 17 Pro takes 20 minutes.)
I like being able to choose a black iPhone—an option that wasn’t available last year. When I was in the Apple Store this past Friday to pick up my device, I saw the other colors: Burgundy, Glacier, and Silver. Glacier is a lighter blue than I had anticipated. Burgundy has more of a metallic look than I anticipated. Colors often look different in real life than they do in a marketing photo on the Apple website, so if colors matter to you and you have the ability to see the colors in person before you choose one, that is always best.
The Max version that I purchased is the only new iPhone that still uses a modem made by Qualcomm. Other new iPhone models use Apple’s own C2 modem, which is more efficient and uses less battery life. John Gruber and others have speculated that Apple was contractually required to use the Qualcomm modem in one of the new models this year, even though Apple would have preferred to shift all models to Apple’s own C2 modem, so Apple used the Qualcomm modem in the U.S. version (only) of the Max model because it has more than enough battery life to spare. It’s an interesting theory. I wonder if this will be the last iPhone model to use a modem that isn’t made by Apple.
If you put an iPhone in a place where it can stay still for a long time, you can create time-lapse videos. In the past, they were limited to 1080p. The iPhone 18 Pro can create 4K Dolby Vision HDR time-lapse videos—the same resolution as the high-quality video that you can take with an iPhone. You can also enable an Adaptive time-lapse feature, which slows the time-lapse when it detects motion.
Conclusion
The iPhone 18 Pro is a fantastic iPhone. If you are upgrading from an iPhone 17 Pro, only a few things are new. But most folks will be upgrading from older models, which means that you also get the features introduced with the iPhone 17 Pro (more durable design, improved telephoto camera, improved Ultra Wide camera), the features introduced with the iPhone 16 Pro (larger screen, Camera Control button), etc. Plus, the battery and speed improvements will be more noticeable.
Just after Brett and I recorded this week’s episode of the In the News podcast, I picked up my new iPhone 18 Pro Max from my local Apple Store. And shortly after that, the mail arrived with my new Apple Watch Series 12. We talk about both of those new products in the episode, as well as the new AirPods 5. But most of this episode is devoted to iOS 27. There are tons of small features that will make a big difference in your life. Plus, there is the one big feature: the vastly improved version of Siri that uses AI to be so much more helpful. There is so much new that it is a big overwhelming.
In our In the Know segment, Brett explains why moving app icons is better than ever in iOS 27—a feature that I haven’t seen covered much in the press, even though it is a great one. And I provide a Siri AI tip.
The new iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max, Apple Watch Series 12, Apple Watch Ultra 4, and AirPods 5 are all now available for purchase. And while that is big news, even if you don’t buy any new hardware, you still get new stuff this week because iOS 27 and similar versions for other platforms were released, featuring the new and improved Siri. It is still in beta, and you need to turn it on manually in the Settings app, but I have found it substantially better. It is much easier to communicate with this version of Siri, it can help with lots of information in my life because it has access to my key apps like Notes, Mail, Messages, Calendar, Photos, and more, and as a bonus, not only is it private, but—to quote David Pogue—”this is ethical AI: It deceives nobody, puts nobody out of work, and draws 100% of its power from renewable sources.” I am amazed at the range of questions I can now ask. Like any generative AI, it will occasionally make mistakes, but just like other AI systems, it can “show its work” by telling you what it used to provide the answer. I’ve long thought of my iPhone as an extension of my brain: a place to store information so I don’t have to remember it. With iOS 27, this is truer than ever. Check out that David Pogue post for 125 practical examples of what the new Siri AI can (and can’t) do, and here are a few more from Adam Engst of TidBITS. And now, the news of note from the past week:
Right now is the perfect time to click a single button and pay it forward, using just a little of your hard-earned money to make a difference in the world. Please click this link and donate any amount to help kids beat cancer. And if you donate $100 or more, you’ll get an awesome high-quality microfiber cloth featuring the iPhone J.D. logo—whether you use it yourself or create a wonderful gift for a loved one in your life who uses an Apple device. It’s a win-win!
Several reviewers got early access to the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max, and they posted their reviews this week. In his review, Chance Miller of 9to5Mac notes that while the new Dynamic Island can show information from three apps at once, what is really useful is when it shows information from only two apps because you can see even more information from the apps. He also noted a “dramatic year-over-year leap in performance and thermals” thanks to the new process and improved vapor chamber. He says that the new variable aperture is especially useful in low-light situations.
For many years, Apple has given professional photographer Austin Mann early access to the new iPhones so that he can test the new camera features. His review this year is particularly helpful. He not only shows off great photographs that demonstrate what a professional can do better than the rest of us, but he also includes videos and photos that explain the new settings and when you might want to adjust them: tips that we can all use. One of his big tips is to just trust the variable aperture to do its thing automatically. The exception is when you want to adjust the aperture to achieve a specific photographic effect.
Professional photographer Tyler Stalman also prepared a great video showcasing the iPhone 18 Pro’s new camera features.
Marques Brownlee created a fantastic video review of the iPhone 18 Pro. For example, he does a great job showing how the infrared Face ID sensor moved to the top-left corner behind the screen, which allowed the Dynamic Island to shrink.
The iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max support the new Apple Reference Image feature, a way to establish a photograph’s authenticity. A detailed blog post on Apple’s website explains how this feature works.
I enjoyed John Gruber’s review of the iPhone 18 Pro because he focuses on a lot of things not mentioned in other reviews, including where it stands in the history of the iPhone, the new photographic styles that can (optionally) add film texture and grain, although with a bit too much halation (bleeding of light).
When you call someone on their birthday on an iPhone running iOS 27, a new animation appears to celebrate their birthday (and remind you it is their birthday), as noted by Marcus Mendes of 9to5Mac.
If you have HomeKit-compatible home video cameras, iOS 27 lets you use advanced AI to analyze what happens in a clip. But as Glenn Fleishman of Six Colors notes, you only get this feature if you pay for iCloud+.
Although this feature isn’t available yet, the new Apple Watch models support Siri Recap, a technology that can summarize your conversations. Andrew Orr of AppleInsider discusses how Apple designed this feature to protect privacy.
PDF Expert from Readdle is my app of choice for reading and annotating documents in my law practice. As noted on the company’s blog, there is a new feature in the app: the ability to search your handwritten notes. I’ve already used this feature this week. After I had made some handwritten notes in the margins of a PDF version of a draft of an appellate brief, I was able to subsequently search for one of my notes by just using the normal find feature in the app (the magnifying glass icon).
I enjoyed listening to the latest episode of the podcast called The James Altucher Show. It features an interview with Ron Johnson, the former Apple executive who worked with Steve Jobs to develop the Apple Stores.
Mike Wuerthele of AppleInsider reports that GM has changed its mind about CarPlay and is now including CarPlay support in some of its 2027 gas-powered models. The people have spoken. So many people tell me that they would not purchase (or even rent) a car if it didn’t have CarPlay.
The Emmys were this week, and as Peter White of Deadline notes, Apple TV was the big winner. The excellent show Widow’s Bay did exceptionally well with 14 awards.
Ryan Christoffel of 9to5Mac notes that the Apple TV show Slow Horsesbegins Season 6 this week. Better yet, Apple has confirmed that it is working on Seasons 7 and 8. This is the first Apple TV show to go beyond six seasons. That’s great news for fans of this excellent show.
And finally, I was happy to learn this week that Rhea Seehorn—who is fantastic in Pluribus—will be in the next season of the Apple TV show Stick, which debuts on November 4. Here is a sneak peek:
Apple device displays are typically excellent, and often stunning. The colors are rich, the screens are bright, and HDR makes the display quality fantastic. But when a display has fingerprints and dust on it—which is inevitable—you miss out on its full quality. Thus, I’ve often used a polishing cloth on my Apple displays, whether it’s an iPhone, iPad, or monitor. Apple has designed and sold polishing cloths for a while, but I don’t have much experience with them, other than the one that came with my Apple Vision Pro. However, last month Apple released an updated version of the Apple Polishing Cloth, and the price is lower than ever. Since it is only $9.00 and available on Amazon, I decided to splurge and buy one to see how it works. I’m happy to report that it is a nice polishing cloth.
The Apple Polishing Cloth is gray and has an Apple logo in the bottom right corner of one side. The shape is a square, and it is about 6.25" x 6.25" in size.
Apple says that its Polishing Cloth is made with “soft, nonabrasive material” and that it “cleans any Apple display, including nano-texture, safely and effectively.” Apple is right about the soft part. It feels very nice in your hands. And because it’s nonabrasive, you don’t have to worry about the Polishing Cloth damaging an expensive screen. I’ve also used it to clean my eyeglasses.
The results that I get when I use the Apple Polishing Cloth are great. Is this the best cleaning cloth that I’ve ever used? To be honest, I’m still slightly partial to the microfiber cloths that used to be made by MOBiLE CLOTH before that company went out of business; they are even softer, and they seem to do a slightly better job with tough smudges. And as a reminder, you can still get a MOBiLE CLOTH with the iPhone J.D. logo on it from me for free if you donate $100 or more to St. Jude during the next two weeks now that it is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. (Pictured below is the small version of the MOBiLE CLOTH, but you can instead select the larger version that is 9" by 9.5" in size.)
I always enjoy using a high-quality item with an Apple logo. The Apple Polishing Cloth works very well, and I enjoy using it every day as an alternative to my MOBiLE CLOTH. Of course, to get the best of both worlds, you should really get both. Donate $100 to St. Jude, then treat yourself by spending just $9.00 more on this Apple product. After all, this is the cheapest new product from Apple that you can purchase. And just like the much more expensive iPhone Duo, the Apple Polishing Cloth is easily foldable.
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 can keep using the Inbox in your current mail program the same way you always do. But thanks to SaneBox, your Inbox is suddenly much better. This is mainly because your Inbox shifts from being overpopulated with unimportant stuff to a short list of the most important messages. Thus, when you open your Inbox, you see only the good stuff that matters. But that is not all; SaneBox also gives you powerful features that make your email smarter.
SaneBox keeps your Inbox tidy by moving less important emails, such as newsletters, to subfolders. That way, you can deal with them when you have time, and it is often faster to handle these items because they are all together in a subfolder. Additionally, if you tell SaneBox that you never want to see email from a sender again, those go to the SaneBlackHole folder. It is so satisfying to move an item into the SaneBlackHole folder, knowing that I’ll never be interrupted by that sender again. (If I later change my mind, I can always just move an email out of SaneBlackHole and back into Inbox to train SaneBox that I now want those emails. But I think I’ve only done that once in my many years of using SaneBox.)
And 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 you’ve sent—emails that you initiated—that haven’t 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, then see something I did need a reply to, and this SaneBox folder reminds me to follow up.
What if you know you need a reply by a certain date (or time)? SaneBox can help you when you use the SaneReminder feature. When you send the email, BCC an address that tells SaneBox when you need a response. For example, you can use “1.day@sanebox.com,” “2.weeks@sanebox.com,” or a day of the week such as “monday@sanbox.com” or “mon@sanbox.com.” If there’s no reply within that time period, the email will resurface in your Inbox for your attention.
Put it all together, and SaneBox makes your Inbox simpler and more powerful. All at the same time.
I’ve been paying for and using SaneBox for many 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 check the SaneNews folder to see newsletters I subscribe to, or the SaneLater folder to see messages SaneBox thinks are less important, but those messages don’t crowd my Inbox.
SaneBox has been especially useful with my Gmail. I have used my Gmail account for many years for online purchases, so companies send me tons of emails. Before I started using SaneBox, my Gmail Inbox was always so full of unimportant emails that I sometimes missed the important ones. Now, I see only a few emails in my Gmail Inbox, and they’re the important ones. When I want to take time to look at less important emails, I check my SaneNews and SaneLater folder for newsletters and other less important emails. And of course, whenever I see an email from a company that I never want to hear from again, it goes to the SaneBlackHole folder.
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 don’t like having a clean, tidy Inbox and decide to go 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 when you pick a plan—and 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. and for giving all of us a more efficient way to work with email.
It’s a very big episode of the In the News podcast this week because there is so much to discuss in light of Apple’s big product announcements from a few days ago. We start by talking about the A20 Pro and why it is such a significant new feature for all of the new iPhones. Next, we discuss the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max, especially the camera with a variable aperture and why this should help you to take better pictures. Then we turn to the big product announcement: the iPhone Duo. What makes it special, why is it neither an iPhone nor an iPad, and should you get one? We also talk about the new Siri Recap and Live Rewind features of the Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4—two features that are likely to cause some controversy, although is it really any different than being a person with a good memory? We also discuss AirPods 5, free satellite service, and much, much more. Like I said, it is a big episode.
In our In the Know segment, we provide tips for pre-ordering an Apple device.
Before Apple’s big product announcement on Wednesday, I expected Apple to announce an iPhone 18 Pro and a folding iPhone, and I also thought it was likely that Apple would announce a new Apple Watch and AirPods. But in addition to that, I expected new products for the home, such as a HomePod with a screen. Apple did not announce any new products for the home, and I’m incredibly thankful for that because there was so much announced this week that it is going to take a very long time to process it all. The iPhone Duo changes so many basic assumptions about what an iPhone is that I don’t think I’ll have an honest opinion on that product until I can try it out in person. Once it is released in October, a trip to my local Apple Store is definitely in my future. I’ve done my best to pick out the highlights of the week in this post, but I apologize in advance for everything else important that I omitted. There is just too much. Buckle up, here we go, the news of note from the past week:
Before I get started, here is a quick reminder that while new Apple products are exciting to think about, something even better to think about is doing something positive about childhood cancer. Whether you can spare $5 or $500, please take a few seconds to click here and donate any amount to St. Jude now that it is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. Thank you!
An important improvement in all of the new iPhones is the A20 Pro processor. Mark Tyson of Tom’s Hardware reports that, based on some early GeekBench scores, the A20 Pro could be 25% faster than its predecessor. That’s mighty impressive, if true.
Oliver Haslam of AppleInsider says the A20 Pro could be the “secret sauce” that makes the new Siri AI incredibly useful.
Antonio Di Benedetto of The Verge says that the big new camera feature on the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max is not the variable aperture but instead the ability to have an aperture of f/1.48 because people love pictures with bokeh, “that blurry, ‘dreamy’ blur isolating them from the background.”
Rajesh Pandey of Cult of Mac notes that an important new feature of the iPhone 18 Pro is the improved thermal chamber, which has three times the surface area of the iPhone 17 Pro.
Apple announced a new type of iPhone accessory this week. As noted by Ryan Christoffel of 9to5Mac, it is a Wrist Strap accessory that works with certain Apple cases for the iPhone.
I agree with Dan Moren of Six Colors that the iPhone Duo is not really a bigger iPhone, nor is it really a smaller iPad. It seems like a third type of device.
David Sparks of MacSparky believes that the iPhone Duo’s hardware is impressive, “but the software sold the device” for him. “The way apps move between displays, the new dock, the two-app layouts, and all the partially folded positions make this feel like a new kind of iPhone.” I agree. I expected to see a folding iPhone this week. But I was delighted and surprised by the device’s impressive software.
Andrew O’Hara of AppleInsider got to try out the iPhone Duo and says that based on his “time with it, I can easily see it being my daily driver.”
Horace Dediu of Asymco got to try out the new iPhone Duo, and here is his first impression: “The iPhone Duo is stunning to behold. I was mildly skeptical that it would be a necessity. A nice-to-have, sure, but a must-have, I doubted it. I’m now converted. I feel the Duo is going to become extremely desirable. Mostly because to see one is to want one. The more they sell, the more they will be seen and demanded. It’s the ultimate gift and object of desire.”
The ability to share a phone number between two different iPhones is a useful new feature for the small universe of people who own two iPhones. Marcus Mendes of 9to5Mac reports that T-Mobile will support the feature but will charge you $5/month to use it.
Adam Engst of TidBITS provides an overview of the new features in the Apple Watch Series 12: more heart rate measurements throughout the day, Siri Recap (an AI feature that can summarize your conversations), Live Rewind (transcriptions of what was said in the last 15 seconds), sound recognition (which can listen for important sounds like an alarm or a doorbell), and more.
I’ve been thinking a lot about the privacy and ethical implications of Siri Recap and Live Rewind. Glenn Fleishman of Six Colors has been thinking about this too, and he wrote a thoughtful article on the topic. It’s worth reading, since this is the world we will all be living in, whether you own a new Apple Watch or someone else you encounter does.
This page on Apple’s website has lots of detail on the new Audio Intelligence features and their privacy implications.
The new Apple Watch has a new watch face called Siri Modular. Zac Hall of 9to5Mac explains how it works.
Apple announced a lot of things this week that will happen on different dates. Federico Viticci of MacStories prepared a helpful calendar so you can keep track of it all.
Ryan Christoffel of 9to5Mac reports that the new Apple Watch models have double the RAM of last year’s models. I’m sure that this will make a big difference in boosting performance.
You can pre-order the new Apple Watch on Amazon and save some money. For example, this model is $20 cheaper.
AppleCare One costs $19.99/month and protects three products. As Andrew Orr of AppleInsider notes, Apple announced the new AppleCare One Family service this week. It costs $49.99/month, but it covers unlimited eligible devices for up to six family members. As Andrew Orr of AppleInsider notes, you need to do some math to figure out what is right for you, but for some folks, this new plan is worth it, especially if you have three or more people in your family.
When Apple introduced the iPhone 14, one interesting new feature was satellite connectivity. As I reported at the time: “Apple says that the service will be free for the first two years that you use one of these phones. After that, you will have to pay a fee that Apple has yet to disclose.” It is now four years later, and Apple has still not disclosed what that fee might be. Marcus Mendes of 9to5Mac reports that Apple disclosed, in a footnote, that the service will remain free for another year. I wonder if Apple will ever charge for the feature.
