iPhone J.D.

Review: When Did I...?: track when you last did a task

Just about every lawyer I know uses some system to keep track of tasks that need to be done, and often they do so using an iPhone.  There are tons of great apps to use for this, from the built-in Reminders and Notes apps to numerous third-party apps.  (I use the app Things.)  But there are some tasks that we all do with some regularity that don't need to be done at a specific time or date; nevertheless, it is often nice to know when you did it last.  For example, you might not have a strict schedule for tasks like getting a haircut or washing your bed sheets, but it would be nice to have a quick way to see when you last did it, not to mention a way to see how often you usually do that task.  When Did I...? is an app designed for this need.  It works very well and I think that most anyone would find a good way to use this app on their iPhone.

The main screen of the app lists whatever actions you want to track.  Tap the plus sign at the top left to add a new action, give the action a name, and then select an Emoji that you want to associate with the action.  Once the action is in your list, all you need to do is tap the action and your iPhone will record that you just did that task.  When you come back in the future, you can then easily see at a glance when you last did the actions that you are tracking.

Tap the arrow to the right of each action to see a lot of whenever you did those actions. 

If you forgot to log something, or if you are using the app for the first time so there is no history, you can go back and add past events.  Just tap the three dots at the top right to do so. 

If you recorded an action by mistake, just swipe right to left to delete the action.  Or you can tap the three dots at the top right, tap Delete Events, and then you can easily delete multiple events at once.

Those three dots also give you a way to add a specific action to Shortcuts.  Tap that button and give Siri a specific phrase — such as "when did I last wash my car" — and then whenever you ask Siri that question, Siri will determine the answer from the When Did I...? app and then will tell you the answer.  You can also configure a Shortcut so that when you say a certain phrase to Siri, the When Did I...? app will log that you just conducted one of your activities.

I really like this app because there are so many ways that it can be helpful.  When did I last change the batteries in my smoke detector?  When I did last replace a light bulb?  When did I last have lunch with my college roommate?  When did I last get flowers for my wife?  When did I last charge the battery of the jump starter that I keep in my trunk?  The ways that you can use this app are limited only by your imagination. 

I do wish that this app would add one feature.  Once you have logged a number of entries for an activity, the app could easily determine the average interval between each time you do the task.  It would be nice if the app had a way alert you to this interval on the main page, perhaps by telling you that you normally do this task once every X months/days, or perhaps by suggesting that you are X days away (or past due) from when you would normally do this activity again.  Perhaps this will be added in the future.

I like this app, and the more that I use it, the more useful that it becomes.  I think this app is well worth the $2.99 price.

Click here to get When Did I...? ($2.99): 

In the news

Today's In the news post comes on Saturday instead of Friday thanks to my busy schedule at work plus lots of activities in my life as we started the prime portion of the Mardi Gras season here in New Orleans.  Last night, I used my iPhone 11 Pro to take lots of pictures of friends and family at a nighttime parade, and Night Mode did an amazing job using the limited light available to produce pictures that I would have never been able to take before.  Not every picture came out great — the ones with lots of motion got blurred — but I knew that would happen so I just took lots of pictures.  After deleting the ones that didn't work, I'm left with a great set.  Night Mode is really a fantastic feature.  I wish my iPhone pictures from previous years were so good.  And now, the news of note from the past week:

• California attorney David Sparks created an interesting home screen for his iPhone using Shortcuts.
• Edmund Lee of the New York Times reports that Judge Victor Marrero of Southern District of New York rejected a challenge by 13 attorneys general to the T-Mobile and Sprint merger, clearing the way for the merger to go through.
• I love my iPad Pro.  It debuted in October 2018, but it works so well that I don't have many good ideas of what would make it better.  But there are rumors that a new iPad Pro is coming out soon, and in an article for Macworld, Dan Moren has a few ideas for what might be included.
• I don't edit podcasts, but it amazes me that this complicated task can be done on an iPad Pro, and it can be done quite well using an app called Ferrite Recording Studio along with an Apple Pencil.  Jason Snell of Six Colors shows how Ferrite works, and even if your primary interaction with podcasts is just listening to them, you will find this interesting.  In addition to showing how the app works, Snell shows how the content of podcasts is edited to make the final product sound more professional.
• TJ Louma reviews Bobby, an iPhone app that you can use to track your subscription services.
• Microsoft Word for iOS was updated to version 2.34 this week.  The release notes say:  "Redesigned From Scratch: We have redesigned the app to be simpler, faster and more beautiful than before."  That sounds like it would be significant update, or at least a noticeable update, but so far I'm having trouble seeing what is new on my iPad.  And I use Word on my iPad almost every day, so I would think I would notice.  According to Erik Schwiebert, the Principal Software Engineer in the Apple Productivity Experiences group at Microsoft, this update is part of an effort to increase mobile productivity that was described by Jon Friedman, the head of Microsoft Office Design, in this article from December 2019.
• As reported by Samuel Axon of Ars Technica, Google announced that Gmail for iOS was updated this week to support the Files app.
• Chance Miller of 9to5Mac reports that a woman in Oklahoma credits the Apple Watch for figuring out that her 13-year-old son had an unusually high heart rate and need to go to the emergency room to have a procedure that took over seven hours.  I know that many schools, especially middle schools, don't allow electronic devices like an Apple Watch during the day, and there are good reasons for that, but it worked out well for this boy that he was able to wear his during school.
• Emanuel Maiberg of Motherboard posted a review of the iPhone 6s.  Yes, the 6s, which was released in 2015.  You certainly cannot say that he rushed this review.
• And finally, travel photographer Harshit Vora created this fantastic video of Egypt using his iPhone 11 Pro:

Lawyer iPhone Stories: Russell Knight

I love to hear how other attorneys are using an iPhone or iPad in their law practice, so I always appreciate it when one of you is willing to share what you are using with the rest of the readers of iPhone J.D.  Today I am sharing a submission from Russell Knight, a family law and divorce lawyer with offices in Chicago, Illinois and Naples, Florida.  Russell considers his iPhone an essential part of his law practice.  Here is what Russell told me about some of the ways that he uses his iPhone:

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Living and working in two cities would have been impossible years ago before the almost instantaneous communication that the internet allows. The portability of digitally communicating through a handheld phone has been the true ultimate key in the essentially freeing me professionally from the restraints of any particular location.

My law offices use all Apple products. All of the staff have Macs. This is probably because I use a Mac at home and I am just more comfortable with the interface, but if I had to state an official reason, it's because there are no computer viruses associated with Apple products. Also, my staff is usually a decade or more younger than me and it seems that all millennials are Apple devotees.

I use my iPhone on an almost constant basis whether I am working or not (and I'm almost always working). My iPhone is most useful for email and I access my email in two different ways. First, I use the Gmail app for my personal email account. Second, I have two family law firms, one in Chicago and one in Naples, Florida. Both law firms have their own email account. To access these accounts, I just log onto Google Chrome and access Gmail through the internet browser. Gmail via the internet browser lets me toggle between the two accounts.

I use the Google calendar app constantly as well because it governs my schedule. As a family law litigator with daily status calls judges are constantly requesting dates for the next court. With just a quick glance down at my iPhone, I can confirm or deny my availability. Meanwhile, my staff is able to see any changes I put in my schedule and they can make changes to my schedule themselves.

I use practice management software called MyCase largely as a way to input billable hours and send out invoices. When I'm out of the office, I will access the MyCase app to input my billable time as it is occurring. There is even a timer on the app if a longer term project comes up away from my desk.

In family law, there are frequently hearings where we take testimony from people (usually family members). If someone is not available on the hearing date, a motion to appear electronically is filed. This effectively means, "a motion to appear via FaceTime." FaceTime in court is becoming more and more common and it's getting harder and harder to object to these FaceTime witnesses by saying "my client has a 5th amendment right to confront their accusers." I'm not sure how you can't confront someone effectively via FaceTime but invoking the Constitution usually works.

Speaking of FaceTime, FaceTime Audio is amazing. For whatever reason, cellular reception will go in an out in my Chicago office but we always have WiFi. FaceTime Audio calls are crystal clear.

The Dropbox app lets me access any file I need at any moment on my phone. Of course, a phone can't hold all those files so I'm just accessing them online. I do always carry my MacBook Air in case I need a file and the internet is not working well.

Finally, I use Notes for all of my offline work. When I'm back online, I just forward the note to my email account. I'm writing this article using Notes on my iPhone while I am on a plane with no WiFi. (Spirit Airlines promises WiFi by the end of 2019 ... but alas, it hasn't happened.)

I wish I was one of those lawyers that synced Evernote with Clio and had a million Zapier functionalities on their iPhones, but I'm not. The half dozen apps I listed above are all I need and have needed for years. I believe in keeping it simple ... which is part of the appeal of the iPhone's design and functionality.

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Thanks, Russell, for sharing how you use your iPhone in your law practice.  This is the first time I have heard of using FaceTime to bring a witness to court, and that is a fascinating idea.

If any of you are willing to share your own experiences using an iPhone or iPad in your law practice with other iPhone J.D. readers, I'd love to hear from you.  In case you missed any of them, here are stories that I previously shared from other attorneys:

• Christopher Abernathy:  1/8/15
• William Axtell:  2/19/13
• Scott Bassett:  11/14/16
• Jay Brinker:  8/6/18
• Zane Cagle:  1/1/12
• Carolyn Elefant:  10/8/15
• Megan Erickson:  5/11/11
• Jeff Forbes:  3/21/13
• Tom Freeland:  7/13/10
• Will Harrelson:  8/19/14
• Cliff Maier:  12/22/08
• Paul Kiesel:  8/13/18
• Lindsay Rakers:  12/18/12
• Alfred Saikali:  5/4/11
• Mike Schneider:  4/28/09
• Todd Smith:  11/7/16
• Clark Stewart:  7/22/10
• Joe Suhre:  12/3/13
• John Walker:  7/2/13

In the news

Apple doesn't reveal that actual number of Apple Watch devices that have been sold, but according to a new report by Strategy Analytics (as reported by Chance Miller of 9to5Mac) Apple shipped 31 million in 2019.  To put that number in context, Miller reports that the entire Swiss watch industry sold 21 million watches in 2019.  Anecdotally, I still remember the days when it was very rare to see someone else wearing an Apple Watch, but now I see that all the time.  And now, the news of note from the past week:

• Illinois attorney John Voorhees of MacStories reports on a recent update to the Overcast app, an app for playing podcasts.  It now supports AirPlay 2 and has improved the way that it boosts the sound of voices so that podcasts sound better.
• In a new post on the Lit Software blog, Michigan attorney Aaron Silvenis describes his successful use of TrialPad on his iPad in a trial.
• Josh Nadeau of Fast Company reports on a law in Russia that takes effect in July, pursuant to which all smartphone devices must come with certain applications preinstalled, applications that the Russian government can use to find out all sorts of information about its citizens.  Apple has not yet announced how it will respond.
• Filipe Espósito of 9to5Mac reports that Microsoft's Outlook app for the iPad now supports iPad multitasking features such as Split View and Slide Over.
• Matt Deatherage of the recently-resurrected newsletter MDJ offers his insight on Apple's most recent quarterly financial earnings report.
• Ed Hardy of Cult of Mac reports that Apple appears to be working on a technology called CarKey that would let your iPhone replace your car keys.
• Every year, Jason Snell of Six Colors conducts a survey to determine what Apple seems to be doing right and wrong, and he recently released the report from the most recent survey.
• And finally, Apple released a video to show off Night mode on the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro.  The music is We Only Come Out at Night by The Smashing Pumpkins:

How to make your Apple Watch speak the time out loud -- or not do so

If you wear an Apple Watch, it is possible to have your watch speak the time out loud.  I offer this tip partially for those of you who want to use this feature.  But I also consider this as much of a warning as anything else — if you are in court or some other situation in which it is a bad idea for your Apple Watch to make a noise, you should understand how this feature works so that you don't trigger it accidentally.

You can use this feature when your Apple Watch is displaying the clock (i.e. you don't have another app running).  Hold down two fingers on the screen of the watch for about a second.  Your watch will then speak the time out loud.  This is a nice feature when you trigger it intentionally.  But I can easily imagine someone placing one hand on the wrist of another hand and triggering the feature by mistake and then not realizing what caused their watch to start talking.

There are two ways to turn the feature on or off.  First, you can open the Apple Watch app on your iPhone, tap the "My Watch" button at the bottom left (if it is not already selected), and then scroll down to "Clock" and tap it.  There, you will see a Speak Time option that you can turn on or off.

Note that even with the option turned on, you can decide whether you want the two-finger gesture to always make the clock speak the time or have it only speak the time if Silent Mode on the Apple Watch is turned off.

A second way to turn this feature on or off is on your Apple Watch.  Open the Settings app, and then select Clock.  From there, you will see the same options that are shown in the iPhone app.

I rarely find a talking clock to be all that useful — I can always just look at the clock to see what time it is — but I'm glad that I know how it works.  Having said that, if you are going to use this feature, I recommend doing so with the Mickey Mouse watch face.  When that clock is displayed and the Speak Time option is turned on, a tap with either one or two fingers will cause your Apple Watch to speak the time in a Mickey Mouse voice, often with a laugh or other comment from Mickey.  Having Mickey speak the time is far more entertaining than the generic voice you get with other watch faces.  And you can customize that watch face to display Minnie instead of Mickey, and you will hear her voice instead.

 

Apple 2020 fiscal first quarter -- the iPhone and iPad angle

Since 2009, I have been reporting on Apple's quarterly earning calls, not because I have any interest in Apple's stock price, but instead because it is one of the few times a year when Apple makes public statements about the iPhone and iPad and answers some questions.  Thus, every quarter I pay attention to the parts that concern the iPhone and iPad and related products.  Click here to see my prior reports. 

Last week, Apple released the results for its 2020 fiscal first quarter (which ran from September 29, 2019 to December 28, 2019, and did not actually include any days from calendar year 2020) and held a call with analysts to discuss the results.  This is typically Apple's best quarter of the year because it includes holiday sales, and this year it was Apple's best quarter ever with revenue of $91.8 billion, an increase of 9% from this time last year.  If you want to get all of the nitty gritty details, you can download the audio from the announcement conference call from iTunes, or you can read a transcript of the call prepared by Seeking Alpha, or a transcript prepared by Jason Snell of Six Colors.  Apple's official press release is here.  Here are the items that stood out to me:

iPhone

• Apple CEO Tim Cook said that Apple's record financial performance "was fueled by iPhone where December quarter revenue was up 8% year-over-year" along with double-digit growth outside of iPhone.  iPhone revenue was $56 billion, compared to $52 billion this time last year.  Every week during the quarter, the iPhone 11 was the top-selling model, and the three most popular models in the quarter were the newest models:  the iPhone 11, the iPhone 11 Pro, and the iPhone 11 Pro Max.  Cook said:  "We had double-digit growth in many developed markets, including the U.S., the UK, France and Singapore, and also grew double digits in emerging markets led by strong performances in Brazil, Mainland China, India, Thailand, and Turkey."
• Twice as many people turned in an old iPhone to get credit towards a new iPhone during the quarter as compared to a year ago.
• Apple does not report the specific number of iPhones that are in active use, but said that this quarter that number was at an all-time high.
• Two analysts tried to get Cook to talk about an upcoming 5G iPhone.  Cook declined to do so, noting that Apple does not comment on future products.  All he would say is that "we're in the early innings of its deployment on a global basis" and he is "very excited about our pipeline as well and wouldn’t trade our position for anybody."

iPad

• iPad revenue in the quarter was almost $6 billion.  It was $6.7 billion this time last year, but that is because at that point the 2018 version of the iPad Pro was still new.
• Cook noted that the iPad "saw growth in key emerging markets like Mexico, India, Turkey, Poland, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines and."
• About half of the people around the world who bought an iPad were buying their first iPad.

Other

• Without providing any specific number, Cook said that it was a "blowout quarter for wearables" such as the Apple Watch and AirPods.  For the category of "wearables, home and accessories," Apple reported over $10 billion in revenue, compared to $7.3 billion a year ago.
• For wearable devices, Cook said that Apple set "an all-time record in virtually every market we track around the world, and this product category is now the size of a Fortune 150 company."
• Apple couldn't make enough of the AirPods Pro to keep up with demand, and even now, Cook cannot predict when Apple will be able to catch up.
• Over 75% of the people who bought an Apple Watch during the quarter had never before owned an Apple Watch.  Although Cook did not reveal a specific number for Apple Watch revenue, he did say that it was an all-time revenue record.  He also said that Apple had trouble making enough of the Series 3 Apple Watch to keep up with demand; the Series 3 starts at $199, whereas the Series 5 starts at $399.
• Apple had all-time record revenue in the services category of $12.7 billion.  Services include Apple Music, Apple Pay, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, iCloud, the App Store, Apple News+, Apple Card, and AppleCare. 
• Across all of its services, Apple has over 480 million paid subscriptions.  Apple expects to have over 500 million by March 2020 and is trying to reach 600 million by the end of 2020.
• As Jason Snell points out in an article on Macworld, services is a very important segment for Apple because it can be so profitable:  "Apple’s gross margin on products was 34.2 percent.  Its gross margin on services was 64.4 percent. ... In other words, every dollar of Services revenue generates nearly twice the profit of product revenue.  Apple’s product margins are really good, but its Services margins are spectacular."  As both product and services revenue grow, I wonder how long it will be before Apple reports revenue of over $100 billion in a single quarter?
• Cook said that Apple feels strongly that Apple TV+ should be an ad-free product without commercials.
• Apple CFO Luca Maestri said that every Fortune 500 company in the healthcare sector now uses Apple technology.
• When it predicted revenue for Apple's fiscal second quarter ($63 billion to $67 billion), Maestri said that this is a wider than normal range because of "uncertainty related to the recently unfolding public health situation in China."

In the news

A calendar app is not the #1 most used app on my iPhone and iPad (that would probably be the Mail app), but it is definitely in the top 5.  Fantastical has been my go-to calendar app on the iPhone and iPad since 2012, when it was recommended to me by Portland attorney Josh Barrett.  This week, the app was updated to version 3.  It has a nice new interface and adds lots of new features.  California attorney David Sparks of MacSparky talks about some of the new features in this post, and he also links to a free video tutorial he prepared for the app.  And Federico Viticci of MacStories wrote an comprehensive review of the new version of Fantastical.  If you haven't tried the app yet, you can use many of the features for free so I encourage you to check it out.  For more advanced features, you can pay $40/year.  At this point in this post, I would normally introduce the news of note from the past week.  However, I spent most of this past week working as appellate counsel for a case that was in trial, and as a result of the long hours every day this week, I haven't yet caught up with all of the news.  Nevertheless, here are at least a few of the recent news items of note:

• Ten years ago this week, the iPad was introduced.  It is now a huge part of my law practice, and it was especially useful this week when I was in trial. Illinois attorney John Voorhees of MacStories describes the introduction of the iPad 10 years ago.
• Lauren Goode of Wired provides an overview of everything related to the iPad from the past 10 years.
• In an article for Macworld, Jason Snell explains why apps made the iPad a success.
• I like using the multi-tasking features of the iPad, but if you find that they get in the way and you prefer the one-app-at-a-time approach used by the iPhone, you can turn off multi-tasking on an iPad.  John Gruber of Daring Fireball explains how.
• Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos was using an iPhone X in 2018 when it was hacked, resulting in an attempt to blackmail him.  Sheera Frenkel of the New York Times explains one of the theories on how this may have been accomplished.
• Apple announced this week that all of the United States is now using the new version of its maps, with much better information.  I discussed some of the changes to maps last August, when the new map data came to New Orleans.  One change that I like is that the iPhone now knows where streetlights and stop signs are.  When I'm using CarPlay and getting directions, telling me to turn on "Main Street" can be confusing when I don't know my way around an area, but telling me to turn at the next light or the next stop sign is incredibly useful. 
• Juli Clover of MacRumors reports that iOS and iPadOS 13.3.1 were released this week.
• And finally, there is a one-of-a-kind guitar for sale on Reverb that is made from 106 iPhones (plus one iPod touch).  It was originally listed for around $1 million, but you can now get it for about $6,000 if you act soon.  I have one picture below, but click here to see many more pictures and get all of the details.  I own a guitar and play it a little, but I mostly play the piano so let me know if any of you see a piano made out of iPhones.

In the news

The most important story in the news this week has been the impeachment trial of President Trump.  To my surprise, there is actually an Apple angle here — and not just that millions of people are streaming it live on an iPhone or iPad.  Katherine Tully-McManus of Roll Call reports that at least seven Senators are wearing an Apple Watch and that this technically violates the Senate rules of decorum.  Many judges make you turn off an iPhone in court, but I have yet to hear of a judge telling attorneys to turn off an Apple Watch.  And now, the news of note from the past week:

• Attorneys often have a need to export text messages from an iPhone.  Legal tech consultant Brett Burney of Apps in Law wrote and prepared a video about iMazing, a product that lets you do this.
• John Gruber of Daring Fireball discusses a recent report by Reuters on how Apple was going to encrypt iCloud backups but then did not do so.  As Gruber notes, if you backup your iPhone or iPad to your own computer instead of iCloud, then you get greater protection for your backup.
• William Cohan of Fast Company reports on a $10 million cyber lab used by New York City to gain access to iPhones.
• Federico Viticci of MacStories wrote about his must-have iPad and iPhone apps.
• Khamosh Pathak of How-To Geek explains how you can use an app called My Altitude to determine your altitude using an iPhone.
• In an article for Macworld, Jason Snell explains why apps were key to the success of the iPad.
• Juli Clover of MacRumors reviews an external flash for the iPhone made by Anker.
• I don't wear my Apple Watch when I sleep very often, but a Kentucky woman did so, and her Apple Watch woke her up to warn her that it detected atrial fibrillation, as reported by Chance Miller for 9to5Mac.
• Ryan Christoffel of MacStories writes about some of the shows coming to Apple TV+.  I'm most looking forward to Mythic Quest: Raven's Banquet.
• And finally, if you want to get a sense of how much the iPhone has improved over the years, check out this video by Arun Maini which lines them all up and shows the same activity on all of them at the same time.  (Not that he reads this website, but thanks to my 14-year-old son for coming across this video and sharing it with me.)

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).