iPhone J.D.

Review: iPhone 12 Pro

The iPhone 12 Pro is a fantastic phone.  I think it is the phone to get if you are in the market for a new iPhone that will perform incredibly well for many years and if you also enjoy taking pictures with your iPhone.  I'm a little disappointed that the flat edge of the iPhone isn't as nice as I had hoped, but I still like this design, and this is a great device.

Design:  the edges

One of the biggest changes in the iPhone 12 Pro is the new design.  And the most noticeable design change is the flat sides.  

If you used an iPhone 4/4s/5/5s, then you remember what it is like to have an iPhone with flat sides.  The iPhone 5/5s design of 2012 and 2013 was my all-time favorite iPhone design to hold in my hand.  In 2014, Apple introduced the iPhone 6 with a rounded edge, and Apple kept that type of edge design through the iPhone 11 family in 2019.  The rounded edge feels great but it makes the iPhone more slippery, more like a bar of soap (although obviously not that bad).  Which meant that you really need a case as a safeguard against dropping the iPhone.  Here is the edge of the iPhone 12 Pro next to the edge of the iPhone 11 Pro:

My hope was that the iPhone 12 Pro would feel as good as the iPhone 5/5s and that the flat edge would make a case unnecessary.  Unfortunately, the iPhone 12 Pro is not quite as comfortable to hold as the iPhone 5/5s because the edges on the iPhone 12 Pro (and iPhone 12) are squared off at the corners.  The corners are not sharp, but they are just not quite as comfortable as the corners on the iPhone 4/4s/5/5s.  On the iPhone 4/4s, the front and back of the phone were not quite as wide as the aluminum band, creating a slight step instead of a corner.  On the iPhone 5/5s, the corners are chamfered so that there is a sloping edge.  Those tiny details make the corner of the iPhone much more comfortable in your hand.  The following picture shows the top edges of the iPhone 12 Pro, iPhone 5s, and iPhone 4s so that you can see the differences:

Note that the flat edge works great on the iPad Pro, and I presume it is also fantastic on the new version of the iPad Air.  But with a larger tablet, you are not cupping both sides in your hand.  When my hand wraps around the iPhone 12 Pro, I find myself wishing that it had chamfered edges so that it would feel as good as the iPhone 5.

Having said that, the flat edge does make it easier to grip the side of the iPhone, making it more secure in the hand.  If I was walking quickly and holding one iPhone in one hand, the iPhone 11 design with the curved edges would likely slip out of my hand, but I think I could hang on to the iPhone 12 Pro.  None of this will make a difference if you plan to use a case with an iPhone 12 Pro, but I do like that the iPhone 12 design means that I feel safer about not using a case.  That makes the iPhone 12 Pro a little less bulky in my pocket, and I also prefer the feel of using the iPhone without a case.

Note that the iPhone 12 might be even less slippery than the iPhone 12 Pro.  The iPhone 12 Pro uses stainless steel for its edges (which look great) and a matte back.  The iPhone 12 uses aluminum for its edges and has a glossy back.  John Gruber of Daring Fireball had a chance to try out both models and noted in his review that the iPhone 12 was less slippery:  “Glossy sounds like it would be more slippery than matte, but when it comes to glass, glossiness adds grip — it gives your fingers a bit of tack, like clean sneakers on a polished basketball court.”

[UPDATE:  Today, Jason Snell of Six Colors published a review of both the iPhone 12 and the iPhone 12 Pro.  From a design standpoint, he prefers the iPhone 12 with matte sides and a glossy back over the iPhone 12 Pro.  I haven't touched an iPhone 12 yet, but reading his review makes me think that I would agree with his assessment.  Nevertheless, I still prefer the iPhone 12 Pro because of the better camera, as explained below.  Too bad I cannot get an iPhone 12 design with the iPhone 12 Pro camera.]

Of course, there are two reasons to use an iPhone case.  The first reason is to reduce the risk of the iPhone slipping out of your hand, which is much less of a risk with the iPhone 12 design.  But the case also provides additional protection if the iPhone 12 Pro does fall out of a hand and hits a hard surface.  That additional protection is less necessary with the iPhone 12 design because it also includes a much more durable glass on the front, a new material that Apple calls Ceramic Shield.  Apple says that the Ceramic Shield provides 4x drop protection for the front of the iPhone.  A test done by the MobileReviewsEh YouTube channel showed that the iPhone 11 screen cracked with 352 Newtons of force (about 79 pounds) whereas the iPhone 12 didn't crack until 442 Newtons of force was applied (about 99 pounds).  (The tests also showed the front of the iPhone 12 to be much more resistant to scratches.)  But even with the added protection of the Ceramic Shield, it seems that you would get even more protection with a case.

Design is inherently subjective, but here is the bottom line for me.  Unless you are upgrading from an incredibly old iPhone 5s or earlier model, when you upgrade to an iPhone 12 or iPhone 12 Pro you will be changing from an iPhone with a curved edge to an iPhone with a flat edge.  The good news is that it will be easier to hold the new iPhone in your hand without dropping it, so perhaps you won't need a case.  The bad news is that while the flat edge feels good, it doesn't feel as good as the iPhone 5/5s because the chamfered corners on that model gave the corner an even more comfortable feel.  On the other hand, I very much like the look of the shiny stainless steel flat edge.  Of course, if you plan to put your new iPhone in a case, then you are unlikely to even notice the change from the curved to the flat edge.

Design:  screen size

The other design change is the screen size.  Unlike the iPhone 11 Pro, iPhone XS, and iPhone X which all had a 5.8” screen (measured diagonally), the iPhone 12 Pro has a 6.1” screen.  

In part that is because of smaller bezels.  In part, that is because, as you can see in the next picture, the new iPhone is just a tiny bit taller:

With the 6.1” screen, there is just a little more usable screen real estate.  It isn’t a major difference, but it is nice.  For example, when you are looking at a list of emails, you can see an additional half-a-line.  The first picture is the iPhone 11 Pro, and the second picture is the iPhone 12 Pro:

 

If you already have an iPhone 11 (which is larger than the iPhone 11 Pro), then you already know what it is like to have a 6.1” screen.  But the iPhone 12 Pro puts that same 6.1” screen size in a smaller device, which is nice.

5G

If you watch any of the advertisements for the iPhone 12 family, you would think that 5G is the primary reason to buy a new iPhone.  It is not.  At least not yet.  I know that 5G will be more important in the future, and it is nice to know that a new iPhone that you purchase today will be ready for the new network that will become more important over the next few years.  But for now, 5G is a mixed bag.

To even use 5G, you need to have a carrier plan that supports it.  Although I already had an AT&T unlimited plan, it was a plan I signed up for in 2018 that AT&T no longer offers, and that plan doesn't support 5G.  Fortunately, it was easy for me to use the myAT&T app to select a new unlimited data service (all of the new unlimited plans support 5G) and in the process, I actually saved some money.  My prior plan (AT&T Unlimited Plus) cost $185/month for three phones with 10 GB of monthly hot spot data plus my Apple Watch.  My new plan (AT&T Unlimited Elite) costs me $170, although the price varies based upon the features that you select.  The plan that I selected keeps hotspot data for each phone and increases it to 15 GB/month for two of the phones and 30 GB/month for my iPhone 12 Pro.  On the other hand, my new plans offer HD video on my phone (just like AT&T Unlimited Plus) but only SD video on the other two phones.  That still seems like a net win for my family, but I didn't realize before I received my iPhone 12 Pro that I was going to need to change my plan to use 5G.

After I changed my plan using the app, about 30 minutes later I started to see the option to use 5G on my iPhone 12 Pro.  That's when I started to run some speed tests, and I have been running tests every day in various locations in New Orleans.  And that's when I saw the limitations of 5G.

First, there are many places that don’t have 5G at all.  And if you live in the United States, to get the incredibly high speeds that 5G has the potential to deliver, you need to use a type of 5G that uses millimeter wave (mmWave) technology.  But the mmWave towers can only send a signal for about a block and are easily interrupted, so you have to be outside with a clear line of sight to an mmWave tower to take full advantage.  AT&T says that there are mmWave towers in New Orleans where I live, but I haven’t yet found one, even though I went hunting for them over the last few days.  The AT&T website doesn't tell you where mmWave towers are located, and neither an AT&T representative at a local store nor the AT&T 1-800 support line could give me a location for even one AT&T mmWave tower.  I thought that I might find them downtown or in the French Quarter, and maybe they are there somewhere, but I couldn't find them.  I know from what I have read online that if you find one of the mmWave towers, you can get incredibly fast speeds of 1Gbps or higher.

The other type of 5G is called Sub-6 GHz, and it covers a much larger area.  It has the potential to be faster than LTE, in part because of the way that it deals with congestion.  If you are at a concert or a sporting event or some other event in which there are lots of people close to each other using the same cellular network — exactly the sort of situation that we cannot be in right now due to the pandemic — 5G might be considerably better than LTE.  But in my tests over the past few days, I really haven’t noticed much of an improvement, and often 5G was actually worse than LTE.

Fortunately, the iPhone 12 family supports three different modes, accessed by going to Settings -> Cellular -> Cellular Data Options -> Voice & Data.  You can select 5G On (5G all the time, which uses more battery life), 5G Auto (which uses 5G only when the iPhone feels that it would help without significantly reducing battery life), and LTE.

For the following tests, I used the Ookla Speedtest app on my iPhone 12 Pro.  First, I ran a speed test using the 5G On mode.  Second, I ran the speed test in the same location using the LTE mode.  The numbers listed below are download/upload speed, measured in Mbps, with 5G first and then LTE.  You would expect the first set with the 5G numbers to always be better.  A few times it was, but most of the time, LTE was faster — especially for download speeds, which is typically more important than upload speeds.

5G — LTE

62.2 / 6.9 — 43.8 / 11.9

68.7 / 6.64 — 34.5 / 6.28

104 / 12.8 — 101 / 10.3

43.2 / 17.7 – 71.9 / 28.6

33.5 / 8.85 — 60.2 / 10.5

119 / 18.5 — 127 / 25.2

42.3 / 18.1 — 64.0 — 10.5

56.4 / 10.8 — 79.6 / 15.6

47.8 / 15.3 — 74.1 / 17.9

41.6 / 15.7 — 49.7 / 8.17

61.9 / 27.5 — 79.1 / 26.6

55.2 / 12.4 — 97.8 / 17.8

Granted, I wasn't running these tests when I was with a big crowd.  Had I done so, perhaps 5G would have been a clear winner.  But in normal circumstances, my tests do not show Sub-6 GHz 5G being better than 4G LTE.

And of course, you can make an argument that small differences in numbers don't really matter that much.  For many iPhone uses, you may not even notice whether you are getting 25 Mbps or 50 Mbps or 100 Mbps.  Your emails and texts will seem just as fast.  You can notice a difference in loading web pages, but there are lots of other factors that cause that to vary.  You can also notice a difference when you download or upload larger files (especially videos), but that is not something that I do every day.  5G would have to be substantially faster than LTE for it to be a noticeable change.  AT&T 5G+ using mmWave might provide that.  AT&T 5G using Sub-6 GHz does not yet seem helpful to me.

I'm going to keep my iPhone in 5G Auto mode for a while just to spend more time experimenting with 5G.  Maybe I'll find myself in an mmWave area at some point, and I'd like to see how much faster that is.  But I certainly don't want my iPhone to use 5G when it will significantly reduce my battery life because, for now at least, 5G doesn't seem to be better than LTE.  And if I find myself in a situation in which I need to get maximum speed, that might mean switching back to LTE.

Camera

The iPhone 12 Pro camera is awesome.  In my own tests, I haven't noticed much of a difference as compared to the iPhone 11 Pro, although the reviewers that I mentioned last week mostly concluded that the camera is a little better in low light or around the edges of a face when taking portrait photos (the ones that blur the background to provide an effect similar to an SLR camera).  But if you are considering purchasing an iPhone 12 Pro, my guess is that you are upgrading from an earlier model, something that you got in mid-2019 or earlier.  And if that's the case, you will see some substantial improvements with the camera in the iPhone 12 Pro.

Moreover, this will be the first time that you will have to decide whether you want two cameras or three cameras on your iPhone.  The iPhone 12 features two cameras, but the iPhone 12 Pro adds a telephoto camera.  In my review from last year, I provided many examples of how adding the telephoto lens to an iPhone can make a big difference.  And in the year since I have posted that review, I have used the telephoto lens very frequently.  For example, on January 18, 2020, before the pandemic — which feels like 10 years ago — I attended a basketball game.  By using the three different lenses on my iPhone 11 Pro, I took three images that really each tell a different story.  The photo taken with the ultrawide lens tells the story of the entire arena:

The photo taken with the regular lens feels like it approximates what I saw from my "cheap seats" near the top of the arena:

And the photo taken with the telephoto lens gets much closer to the action on the court:

(Note that I have embedded lower quality pictures to make this webpage faster to load; my point here is to comment on the feel of each photo, not the detail that you get with each lens.)

Yesterday, I visited that same arena, but this time it was to vote early.  Here are three pictures taken with the three different lenses on the iPhone 12 Pro:

The quality of the telephoto lens on the iPhone is not quite as good as the quality of the regular camera.  Thus, you will get the best quality picture by simply getting closer to the object or person that you want to photograph.  But often, that is not an option, and in those circumstances, the optical zoom provided by the telephoto lens is far superior to using the regular camera and just cropping the picture to fake a zoom.  For example, yesterday while I was walking around downtown New Orleans and the French Quarter to search (unsuccessfully) for an mmWave tower, I took these three pictures.  With the wider lenses, your focus is on a bunch of buildings.  But you need the zoom lens to focus on the Hibernia Bank Building, which in the 1920s was the tallest building in Louisiana:

The telephoto lens on the iPhone is not as powerful as the telephoto lens that you can get on an SLR camera, but it can still make a big difference.  For example, when I watch my daughter play soccer or volleyball or basketball and I want to get closer to the action, I certainly cannot move from my seat but the telephoto lens makes my photos and videos even better.  When my daughter played volleyball for her school during the last few months (wearing a mask), her team only played four games, and spectators were only allowed at two of those games because of COVID-19.  And for those two games, each child could bring only a single spectator.  I was happy to have that telephoto lens on my iPhone 11 Pro so that I could take a video of the game and be even closer to the action.  After the game, I created a highlights reel to share with other family members.  They could not attend as a result of the pandemic, but thanks to the iPhone and the telephoto lens, they could still experience the game.

If taking pictures and/or video is important to you, I strongly recommend that you consider the iPhone 12 Pro over the iPhone 12 because of the third camera with the telephoto lens.  You can get an even better quality telephoto lens with the iPhone 12 Pro Max that comes out next month — 2.5x zoom versus the 2.0 zoom of the iPhone 12 Pro — but you have to use the larger phone, which I find to be too large for my hands.

As you make your own decision about whether you want an iPhone 12 or an iPhone 12 Pro, take a look at my review from last year which contains additional comparison pictures with the three different lenses.  I think it will help you to decide whether getting the telephoto lens is worth the extra money for the Pro model.

Etc.

Every year, the iPhone gets a faster processor.  There are certain things that seem a bit more snappy with the iPhone 12 Pro, but I have not run any objective measurements of speed.  Suffice it to say that if you are upgrading from an iPhone that is two years old or more, you will appreciate the additional speed.

The iPhone 12 Pro features a MagSafe connector for even faster wireless charging.  I almost never used wireless charging with my iPhone 11 Pro, but I may try out the MagSafe on the iPhone 12 Pro in the future.  For now, though, I cannot share any first-hand experiences.

Conclusion

With the new iPhones in 2020, there is more choice than ever before.  The iPhone 12 Pro is coming next month, and it will have an even better camera.  If you don't mind very large phones, that might be a good model for you, but it is not for me.  And of course, the iPhone 12 mini is coming next month too, which is perfect for those who want the smallest phone.  For me, the size of the iPhone 12 / iPhone 12 Pro is the sweet spot.  And between those two models, I prefer the iPhone 12 Pro.  The iPhone 12 Pro looks good, feels good in the hand (although, unfortunately, not as good as the iPhone 5), takes great pictures, is incredibly fast, and has an amazing screen.  If you are ready for a new iPhone, you will love the iPhone 12 Pro.

In the news

Can you feel the excitement in the air?  It's new iPhone day!  At least, it is for those getting the new iPhone 12 or iPhone 12 Pro.  The small one (iPhone 12 mini) and the big one (iPhone 12 Pro Max) come out next month.  Yesterday, Juli Clover of MacRumors shared some photos of folks in Australia getting their new iPhones at 8am Australian Eastern Daylight Time, which is 15 hours ahead of the Eastern Time Zone.  Plus, we have the new iPad Air coming out today — which looks like a fantastic device.  And now, the news of note from the past week:

• Illinois attorney John Voorhees of MacStories reviews Halide Mark II, a sophisticated camera app that allows you to have lots of control over your photographs.  Whenever I have tried to use prior versions the app, I find myself a little overwhelemed by the options, but I see that this update includes some tutorials so I may have to give it another go.
• Jack Nicas of the New York Times explains how police departments use sophisticated tools that can sometimes unlock the iPhones used by criminals.
• Joel M. Podolny used to be the dean of the Yale School of Management, and now he is the Dean of Apple's in-house educational program for its own employees called Apple University, which helps Apple employees learn from the company's past successes and failures.  In an article for the Harvard Business Revue, Podolny and Morten Hansen of U.C. Berkeley discuss how the program works.
• With the pandemic limiting social activity, I was surprised to see this report by Dennis Sellers of Apple World Today saying that the top-grossing app in September was Tinder.
• iOS 14 makes it possible to customize the way that your iPhone looks in ways that were never before possible.  Tim Hardwick of MacRumors explains how you can use the Launch Center Pro app to create custom app icons.
• Apple released iOS 14.1 this week.  As Chance Miller of 9to5Mac explains, it fixes lots of bugs, adds support for the new iPhones, and more.
• If you want wireless headphones but the AirPods are too expensive, Apple released the Beats Flex, which cost only $50.  Chris Welch of The Verge wrote a favorable review.
• If you were around in the 1980s like I was, you remember when MTV played music videos.  This week, Apple began a new 24-hour stream of music videos called Apple Music TV.  Jem Aswad of Variety describes the new offering.  As I'm typing these words, I've got Apple Music TV running on my iPad, and the channel is showing Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band play songs from their new album, Letter to You.  I love it when a band that has been around for decades still sounds so incredible.  I saw them play New Orleans Jazz Fest on May 3, 2014 (picture to the right; click to enlarge).  The band was fantastic then and they still sound great today.  If you subscribe to Apple TV+, you can now watch a documentary about the making of the new Springsteen album.
• John Gruber of Daring Fireball reviews the new 2020 version of the iPad Air.
• If you are getting a new device in the iPhone 12 family and will change to a cellphone plan in the U.S. that supports 5G, there are lots of plans to choose from.  Eli Blumenthal of CNet explains all of the 5G options.  I see that my current AT&T unlimited plan isn't even being offered any more.
• And finally, Apple shared a video showing what three-time Academy Award winner Emmanuel "Chivo" Lubezki was able to film with the iPhone 12 Pro.  It won't surprise you that there are some stunning shots in here:

iPad Air (4th generation): the initial reviews are in

Although Apple debuted the fourth generation of the iPad Air last month (I discussed it on September 16), the first day that you can purchase the 2020 version of the iPad Air is tomorrow.  Apple gave review units to select journalists, and yesterday many of these folks posted their reviews.  And the folks who have spent time with these devices have come to a conclusion that is very similar to what I wrote last month:  this is the first iPad Air that is good enough to almost be an iPad Pro, and for many attorneys, it is the perfect device to get.  If you think that you might want more than what the iPad Air offers and if you can wait, I encourage you to NOT purchase an iPad Pro today.  The writing seems to be on the wall, and I expect Apple to announce new iPad Pro models at some point soon.  The last iPad Pro update was announced on March 18, 2020, so you may have to wait until March 2021.  But at this point, the iPad Pro is starting to look a little outdated while the iPad Air is fantastic.  It is a great time to get an iPad Air.  It is not a great time to get the iPad Pro.

Here are the initial reviews that jumped out at me, the ones that I recommend that you read if you are thinking about getting a new iPad Air:

• Jason Snell of Six Colors had this to say about the current iPad Air versus the next iPad Pro:  "There is, undoubtedly, an iPad Pro update on the horizon that will put plenty of distance between those models and today’s iPad Air.  But who cares?  Many features that were previously locked into Apple’s top-of-the-line iPads have migrated down to a more affordable model.  Not everyone needs an iPad Pro, especially when there’s an iPad Air that’s this good."
• Federico Viticci of MacStories likes the new iPad Air, but says that Face ID is better than Touch ID on an iPad because it works automatically, without having to reach up and touch anything.  I suspect that I would agree with this.  When I wear a mask because of the pandemic, I often miss Touch ID on my iPhone, but I have never missed Touch ID on my iPad Pro.  But if you are upgrading to the new iPad Air from a prior iPad model that didn't have Touch ID, you may not be as bothered by the lack of Face ID.
• Matthew Panzarino of TechCrunch concludes his review of the iPad Air with this good advice:  "Buy this if you want a portable iPad Pro to use alongside a MacBook or desktop computer for those times you don’t want to carry or can’t carry it.  If you want an iPad Pro as your only computer, get the big iPad Pro, but probably wait until they update that one in a few months."
• Henry Casey of Tom's Guide did a good job analyzing all of the features of the new iPad Air.

iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro: the initial reviews are in

Although you cannot purchase an iPhone 12 or an iPhone 12 Pro until this Friday, Apple seeded a few journalists with review units, and yesterday they started to post their reviews.  I am very excited about the "new" design — a word I use in quotes because the flat edges remind me of an older design, the iPhone 4 / iPhone 5 design that I loved so much — and the initial reviews seem to agree that it looks great and makes it much easier to hold an iPhone without a case.  If you want to learn more about the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro from folks who have actually used them, here are the reviews that jumped out at me.  Note that the iPhone 12 mini and iPhone 12 Pro Max don't go on sale until next month so the smallest and largest new models have not been reviewed yet.

• You need to subscribe to the Wall Street Journal to read Joanna Stern's review, but anyone can view the video at the top of her review and I absolutely recommend it.
• Matthew Panzarino of TechCrunch does a great job of explaining and showing off what is new and different about the cameras as well as many other new features such as MagSafe, but he didn't test 5G.  He noted that because of the magnets on the back of the iPhone 12, it may not be a good idea to put a hotel key card right next to the iPhone 12 in your pocket.
• Dieter Bohn of the Verge prepared an excellent video review of the iPhone 12 along with his written review.  He noted that the design of the iPhone 12 is better than any iPhone we have had in years.  He says that, compared to the iPhone 11, the iPhone 12 has less noise and better colors in photos.  And in challenging shots, the iPhone 12 is better than the iPhone 11 in every single shot.  As for the new A14 processor, he says:  "The real reason to care isn't that the iPhone 12 is fast now, it's that it will still be fast in three or even five years.  That's the kind of longevity that no Android phone can really match."
• Attorney Nilay Patel of The Verge produced a video and written review of the iPhone 12 Pro.  I learned a lot from his description of the video features, including the new Dolby Vision feature.
• Chris Velazco of Engadget says that the iPhone 12 line is the "beginning of a new era at Apple." He adds:  "The iPhone 11 was chunky in a cute way, but this year’s model is 11 percent thinner and 16 percent lighter, according to Apple.  While those might not sound like dramatic changes, you can really feel the difference."  He also said that there are fewer differences between the iPhone 12 and the iPhone 12 Pro than in previous years.
• Julian Chokattu of Wired says that LiDAR is the best feature of the iPhone 12 Pro because it "does a lot to improve the camera system on the iPhone 12 Pro."  He notes that "it enables faster autofocus and the ability to capture portrait photos in Night mode.  The latter has been my favorite camera feature to test.  I no longer encounter that 'Not enough light' message when taking a Portrait mode photo in low light."
• Todd Haselton of CNBC likes the new iPhone 12 line, saying:  "The iPhone 12 has great cameras, an awesome screen, excellent battery life and future-proofs you with 5G."
• Raymond Wong of Input likes the new design of the iPhone 12 line.  "I could spend all day waxing poetic about the iPhone 12 and 12 Pro’s gorgeous homage to the iPhone 4, but no amount of words or photos can replace the experience of holding them in your own hands.  More than any iPhone in recent years, you really have to touch the materials to appreciate their balanced elegance.  Making them thinner and shrinking their volume (compared to the iPhone XR/11) only adds to their luxurious look and feel."  I love the time-lapse video that he posted of Grand Central Station.
• And finally, if you want to watch an excellent but extensive video review, Rene Ritchie prepared a 45 minute video that goes deep on every aspect of the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro.  Whether you watch the whole thing or skip around to the parts that interest you, you will learn a lot:

2020 ABA Tech Survey provides information on attorney use of iPhones and iPads

For the past 30 years, the ABA has conducted an annual survey of lawyers to find out what legal technology they use.   These results are released every year by the ABA Legal Technology Resource Center.  The 2020 report (edited by Gabriella Mihm) was just released.  There are five volumes, and you can purchase a copy using this page of the ABA website.

I have been looking at these reports every year since 2010 because it has been the best source of statistics on the use of mobile technology by lawyers.  (My reports on the prior ABA surveys are located here:  2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010.)  Starting in 2011, the survey asked lawyers what smartphones they use, and from 2011 to 2019, we saw a steady increase in iPhone use, reaching a record high of just over 79% in 2019.  Android use by lawyers started at 17% in 2011, reached a peak of slightly over 25% in 2018, and then was down to about 18% in 2019.   During those same years, we saw the fall of the once-dominant BlackBerry along with all other smartphone brands other than the iPhone and Android.

Unfortunately, we don't have updated numbers for 2020.  The ABA has decided to switch each year between Life & Practice questions, including which type of smartphone a lawyer uses, and Litigation Technology & E-Discovery questions.  This year is a Litigation Technology & E-Discovery year, so we will have to wait until 2021 to get updated information from the survey on which smartphones are being used by lawyers in their law practices.

Nevertheless, there are still lots of questions in this year's survey that shed some light on how lawyers are using mobile technology in their law practice.  Here are the survey results that jumped out at me.

Online research

About 77% of lawyers reported that they do online legal research when they are out of the office.  The most popular way to do so is with a laptop or desktop computer (63%).  But 20% of attorneys reported doing legal research in the web browser on a smartphone or tablet, and almost 13% reported using a mobile app for legal research.

Doing online research on an iPad works very well, and I do it all the time.  Legal research on an iPhone is more difficult with the smaller screen, but sometimes that is the only device that you have with you when you have an immediate need to consult a statute or a case.  The answers to the question of how often do you use a smartphone to conduct legal research while away from the office were:

Regularly:  23.8%

Occasionally:  25.9%

Seldom:  20.0%

Never:  30.3%

The iPhone and iPad in the courtroom

Speaking of legal research while out of the office, one such venue for doing so is the courtroom.  But of course, there are many other reasons to use an iPhone or iPad in the courtroom, from consulting a calendar to scheduling upcoming dates to giving an appellate oral argument. 

According to the survey, 83% of lawyers say that they use a smartphone in the courtroom.  And for the last four years, the responses to that question have remained in the 80% to 84% range, so lawyers have been doing this for some time now.  Lawyers at law firms with 100 or more attorneys are somewhat more likely to use a smartphone in the courtroom (90%) and sole practitioners are slightly less likely to do so (74%).

Here is a chart showing what lawyers report doing with their smartphone in court (click to enlarge).  The most popular uses are email and calendaring.  I was amused to see 21% of lawyers report that they use their smartphone in court to browse the web to kill time — something that I hope attorneys only do while waiting for the judge to enter the courtroom.

Far fewer attorneys report using a tablet device in the courtroom — about 33%.  Having said that, while virtually every attorney has a smartphone (99% in the 2019 survey), only about 50% reported using a tablet device in their law practice in the 2018 survey (and we don't have more recent numbers). 

Mobile Device Management

Back when the Blackberry was practically considered part of a lawyer's uniform, it was common for law firms to purchase a Blackberry and provide it to attorneys, which of course is still fairly standard for computers.  But for many years now, law firms have embraced the BYOD (bring your own device) philosophy.  Of course, law firms still need to worry about security, so many law firms implement some form of Mobile Device Management (MDM) software so that lawyers can use their personal smartphone to access a law firm's network while also ensuring that certain security safeguards are in place (such as using a complex password).  And MDM has other advantages, such as making it easier to install apps on every attorney's smartphone.

According to the survey, only 33% of all lawyers say that they can access their law firm's network without any restriction.  That number rises to around 40% for smaller law firms, falls to 28% for law firms with 100-499 attorneys, and falls to about 14% for lawyers at law firms of 500 lawyers or more.  What do the remaining lawyers report?  About 54% are required to comply with certain restrictions and/or get pre-approval to use a personal device, whether it be MDM or something else.  (And for law firms of 10 or more attorneys, that goes up to 68% or more.)  About 10% say that they are not allowed to use a personal device to access their law firm's network.

In the news

As of 5 Pacific / 8 Eastern this morning, you can pre-order an iPhone 12 or an iPhone 12 Pro to be delivered as soon as a week from today.  If you want the smallest (iPhone 12 mini) or largest (iPhone 12 Pro Max) phones, you need to wait a few more weeks.  I ordered an iPhone 12 Pro this morning, and I'm excited about this 2020 version of the iPhone for the reasons I noted a few days ago.  And now, the news of note from the past week:

• California attorney David Sparks shared his thoughts about this week's Apple Event shortly after the event ended on Tuesday.
• All of the new iPhones in the iPhone 12 line can record video using Dolby Vision.  In an article for iMore, Rene Ritchie does a great job explaining what Dolby Vision means on the new iPhones.
• In a post written in September that is incredibly relevant today as people decide whether 5G is a reason to upgrade to a new iPhone, Juli Clover of MacRumors does a good job of describing the two types of 5G that are supported by the iPhone 12:  Sub-6Ghz and mmWave.  Note that mmWave is only supported on devices sold in the United States.
• Here is another article by Clover describing less obvious details about the iPhone 12.
• Chance Miller of 9to5Mac offers advice for choosing between the iPhone 12 and the iPhone 12 Pro.
• Every year, Federico Viticci of MacStories writes an incredibly comprehensive review of the new version of iOS and iPadOS.  It is always full of tips and tricks for doing more with your iPhone and iPad.  This year's review of iOS 14 and iPad OS 14 was just posted, and while I've only just started reading the over 60,000 words, I've already learned a lot.  Plus, the images and videos included in the article are impressive.  (If you do nothing else, check out the cool video at the top of the beginning of the article while you are using the Safari browser on an iPad or Mac.)  I look forward to taking some time this weekend to finish reading this.
• Canada is now supporting the Apple-Google COVID-19 alert app.  Amber MacArthur of AmberMac interviews Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to discuss the app.
•  M.G. Siegler of 500ish reviews the new Apple Watch Series 6.
• When Apple updated the Apple Watch operating system to watchOS 7, I noticed that I was running out of battery power before the end of the day.  This week, Apple released watchOS 7.0.2 to fix the problem, and it has made a big difference for me.  I still find that I have less battery power remaining when I take off my watch at the end of the day than I typically did with watchOS 7, but I now have enough to make it to the end of the day.
• The new iPhones come with a Lighting-to-USB-C cord, but not a charging brick.  In an excellent video and article for the Wall Street Journal, Joanna Stern recommends the best charging bricks for an iPhone, iPad, computer, and other devices.  I've also heard good things about the $20 Anker Nano, which is the same size as the 5W charger that Apple used to include with the iPhone but it is 20W and thus can charge over three times faster.
• And finally, Chris Rock stars in a new commercial for the iPhone 12 Pro and Verizon.  It's a funny commercial with even more outlandish excess in every scene:

Why lawyers will love the iPhone 12

Yesterday, Apple introduced its new iPhone 12 line, and one of the taglines used was:  "It's a leap year."  Give the marketing folks some credit; I agree with that one.  Apple introduces a new iPhone every year, and every few years it releases a model that is a major improvement.  For example, when I reviewed the iPhone X in 2017, I said that it had advanced so much from the prior year — thanks to the large screen and thin bezels — that it felt futuristic.  In 2020, I think that Apple has once again taken a great leap forward.  Here are the features of the iPhone 12 line that I think that lawyers will love.

Four new models

Apple introduced four different models of the iPhone 12 yesterday.  The standard model is the iPhone 12, which starts at $799.  If you want the same design in something smaller, the iPhone 12 mini starts at $699.  If you want the same design and size as the iPhone 12 with more professional features, you can get the iPhone 12 Pro, which starts at $999, or you can get the iPhone 12 Pro Max, the largest iPhone that Apple has ever made, starting at $1099. 

Apple is still selling the entry-level iPhone SE (second generation) that it introduced earlier this year at $399, the 2019 iPhone 11 at $599, and the 2018 iPhone XR for $499.  Apple showed this slide during yesterday's presentation to show the range of prices and sizes:

Note that, for the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini models, the price reflects a $30 discount provided by AT&T and Verizon.  If you purchase an unlocked version or a version for Sprint, T-Mobile, or other carriers, you'll have to pay an additional $30.  The prices for the iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max are the same for any carrier or for an unlocked version.

That's seven different iPhone models that you can currently purchase from Apple, four of which were introduced yesterday.  The variety is impressive.

In the rest of this post, I'll discuss the differences between the iPhone 12 and the iPhone 12 Pro.  The other two models are essentially the same, except that they are smaller or bigger. 

For example, the iPhone 12 mini has all of the same features of the iPhone 12 in a smaller package.  The iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro are 5.78" x 2.82".  At 5.18" x 2.53", the iPhone 12 mini is the smallest iPhone that Apple has introduced since the 4.87" x 2.3" iPhone 5 design that Apple first introduced in 2012.  (That same design was used again in 2013 for the iPhone 5s and in 2016 for the iPhone SE (first generation)). 

Similarly, the iPhone 12 Pro Max has almost exactly the same features as the iPhone 12 Pro except that it is bigger at 6.33" x 3.07".  (There are some minor differences in the camera, discussed below.)

New design

There are lots of great features in the iPhone 12 line, but I strongly suspect that my favorite new feature will be the shape.  One of my all-time favorite iPhone designs was the iPhone 4, introduced in 2010, because of its flat sides.  Unlike the curved sides that Apple used before and afterwards, a flat side is easier to hold securely in a hand.  Apple used the same design in the iPhone 5 introduced in 2012 except that the screen was taller, and I loved that design too.  The iPhone 12 is larger than the iPhone 4/5, but my hope is that the flat sides will feel just as good.

When I reviewed the iPhone 6 in 2014, I noted that the curved sides felt nice, but I warned that "as good as those curved sides feel, the one downside is that it makes the iPhone 6 (without a case) more prone to slipping out of your hand."  And sure enough, I've been using a case on my iPhone since 2014.  My hope is that the iPhone 12 feels more secure in my hand, much like the iPhone 5, and that as a result, I won't feel the need to use a case all of the time.

The iPhone 12 uses aluminum on the edges and comes in blue, green, red, white, or black.  The iPhone 12 Pro uses stainless steel on the edges and comes in Pacific Blue, Gold, Graphite, or Silver.

Ceramic Shield

There's another reason that I may be more comfortable not using a case on my next iPhone.  Apple is introducing a new technology that it worked on with Corning called Ceramic Shield.  Here is how Apple's website describes this new technology:

It’s made by introducing nano-ceramic crystals — which are actually harder than most metals — into glass.  Sounds simple, but it’s incredibly difficult because ceramic isn’t transparent.  By controlling the type of crystals and degree of crystallinity, we developed an exclusive formula that maximizes the toughness of the ceramic while remaining optically clear.  This was the breakthrough that made Ceramic Shield ideally suited for the display.  It’s a first in any smartphone, and it’s tougher than any smartphone glass.

The Ceramic Shield certainly sounds good, but another difference in the iPhone 12 line is that the screen sits flush to the edge of the phone, which protects it even more.  Put it all together, and Apple says that the new iPhone 12 line has 4x better drop performance, which Apple says is the largest ever year-over-year improvement for the iPhone.

Although I do not plan to test this new feature myself — at least, not intentionally — I'm sure that professionals will run scientific drop tests and many folks seeking YouTube stardom will run unscientific drop tests.  Assuming that their experiences are consistent with what Apple claims — and I seriously doubt that Apple would make this claim if it couldn't back it up — then this will be a significant improvement in iPhone durability.

More screen

The iPhone 12 line follows a trend that started with the iPad Pro in 2018:  a smaller bezel with a squared-off edge.  This has been a fantastic improvement to the iPad, allowing the device to be smaller and easier to hold while the usable screen size is larger.

For the iPhone 12, the usable screen size (measured diagonally) stays at 6.1", the same as the iPhone 11, but the phone itself is smaller,  5.78" high instead of 5.94", and 2.82" wide instead of 2.98".  It is also a better screen; unlike the LCD display used on the iPhone 11, the iPhone 12 gains a Super Retina XDR OLED display (just like the iPhone 11 Pro and the iPhone 12 Pro).

For the iPhone 12 Pro, the usable screen size increases from 5.8" to 6.1".  There is a slight increase in the size of the device, but hopefully it won't be very noticeable.  The iPhone 12 Pro is 5.78" compared to the 5.67" of the iPhone 11 Pro, and the width is only a tiny bit larger at 2.82" versus 2.81".  You are more likely to notice in your hand a change in width versus a change in height, so that's why I hope that the iPhone 12 Pro will feel essentially the same as the iPhone 11 Pro while also providing more usable screen space.

For the iPhone 12 Pro Max, the usable screen size increases from 6.5" to 6.7" — getting even closer to the 7.9" screen size of the iPad mini.  Once again, there is a slight height increase of 6.33" for the iPhone 12 Pro Max versus the 6.22" iPhone 11 Pro Max, but the width is very similar:  3.07" for the iPhone 12 Pro Max versus 3.06" for the iPhone 11 Pro Max. 

More usable screen space is always appreciated.  In the past, I've taken advantage of increases in screen space to see more of a document on my screen, to see more items in a list at a single time (such as more emails in an Inbox or more items on a to-do list).  And all of this allows me to be more productive in my work.  Providing just a little more screen size while making an iPhone a little smaller and easier to hold seems like an improvement that many lawyers will appreciate.

Faster

Apple designs its own processors and as a result, for many years now, has had the best smartphone chips.  This year, the iPhone 12 line gets the A14 Bionic.

For folks interested in the technical aspects, the A14 is certainly an improvement.  It is the first smartphone chip built on a 5-nanometer process, and since the chip itself is so small, it can do more while using less power.  It also has a faster CPU and GPU, a better neural engine for faster machine learning, and much more.  This is the same chip that Apple showed off last month in the new iPad Air (4th generation).

But most folks don't care about the technical aspects.  They will just notice that the new iPhone is more responsive, performs tasks even more quickly, and can do things that simply were not possible with the prior models of the iPhone.

5G cellular networking

When Apple introduced the new iPhones yesterday, the first thing that Apple emphasized is that this is the first 5G iPhone.  From a marketing standpoint, it certainly sounds good to have the latest-and-greatest cellular technology.  But I'm reserving judgment until I see how it works.  5G has been available in other smartphones for a while now, and the reviews have been rather meh.  If you are in the right spot, it has the potential to offer much faster communications, but often at the cost of running down your battery much more quickly.  And 4G LTE is more than fast enough for most tasks.

Moreover, not all 5G is the same.  For example, AT&T (my current carrier) touts that it has nationwide 5G, but what AT&T calls 5G is not much faster than 4G LTE.  AT&T also has 5G+, which is closer to what most folks think of when they say "5G" because it uses millimeter wave (mmWave) technology, which can provide much faster speed.  But AT&T's 5G+ is currently only available in certain parts of 35 cities (Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore, Charlotte, Cleveland, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, King of Prussia, Las Vegas, Louisville, Los Angeles, Menlo Park, Miami, Miami Gardens, Nashville, New Orleans, New York City, Oakland, Oklahoma City, Ocean City, Orlando, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Raleigh, Redwood City, San Bruno, San Antonio, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, Waco, and West Hollywood).  Verizon calls its version of mmWave "Ultra Wideband," and it is currently available in 55 cities, 43 stadiums and arenas, and seven airports.  Note that the iPhone 12 line only supports the mmWave type of 5G in the United States.

If you are in a location in the United States where mmWave technology is available, it can in theory offer 4 Gbps of performance, and in practice can often deliver 1 Gbps, which is as fast as the fastest consumer Internet available in many parts of the country.  That's fast.  However, you only get that speed when you are close to a cell tower and have a relatively clear line-of-sight to the tower.  Even rain can significantly interfere with performance, and it often does not work well when you are indoors.  During yesterday's presentation, Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg said that some NFL football stadiums will feature 5G, and I can imagine that being an environment in which your iPhone might be able to make a good connection with a milometer wave antenna.  Vestberg explained that this much higher speed in a stadium means that you could watch up to seven camera angles on your phone at the same time.

Although 4G LTE is often fast enough for lawyers and other professionals, faster networking can be useful in some situations.  For example, if you are using remote access software to access your computer from your iPhone while you are out of the office, you want to have the fastest connection possible.  If you are downloading huge exhibits or documents, it is nice to minimize delays.  But in light of all of the current uncertainty about how well 5G works and how much it can drain your battery, perhaps my favorite part of Apple's description of 5G in the new iPhone is that Apple is using something it calls Smart Data Mode.  This means that the iPhone 12 models will normally stay in 4G LTE mode and only switch to 5G if it is going to make a noticeable difference.  Hopefully, this will mean that battery life won't suffer too much as a result of the new iPhone supporting 5G.

Don't get me wrong.  I'm sure that at some point in the future, not having 5G will seem archaic.  Thus, it is nice that the iPhone 12 is more future-proof than earlier models.  But I'm not going to get too excited about 5G until I test it, and I'm not expecting much.

Camera

The camera on the original iPhone was pretty pitiful, but Apple has improved the camera every year to the point where it is now one of the best cameras you can buy.  For many years, the iPhone has been my favorite device for taking video, and it is getting even closer to making my big and bulky SLR camera obsolete — all in a package that I can slip into a pocket.  I love taking pictures to preserve memories, so I'm always a big fan of the annual improvements to the iPhone camera.

The default lens on the iPhone 12 line (which Apple calls the Wide lens) features an f/1.6 aperture.  (Last year it was f/1.8, which is smaller.)  The larger aperture in the iPhone 12 line means that the sensor gets even more light, which reduces the shutter speed time.  That means that there is less blur when objects are moving and less noise when you are in a low-light situation.  Apple says that it is a 27% improvement in low-light conditions.

All of the iPhone 12 devices have both a Wide lens and an Ultra Wide lens.  Just like last year, the Pro models add a Telephoto lens.  (In this post from 2019, I showed you why it is nice to have the three different lens sizes.)  If you get the iPhone 12 Pro Max, you get an even better telephoto lens — 2.5x versus the 2.0x that the 2019 pro models offered and the 2020 iPhone 12 Pro offers.  The Pro Max also offers better optical image stabilization.

Both iPhone 12 Pro models include a LiDAR scanner, which uses lasers to scan the outside world so that the iPhone can sense where objects are located around you.  This improves the camera by providing faster autofocus, especially in low-light conditions.

Because of the power of the A14 Bionic processor, all iPhone 12 models are even better at taking video.  All models offer 4K HDR video with Dolby Vision — a first for a smartphone camera.  The iPhone now captures 700 million colors, a 60x improvement.  And by recording in Dolby Vision, Apple says that each frame of the video looks more true to life. 

Finally, if you like to take digital pictures using the RAW format — which gives you more ability to manipulate the photo after you take it to make it look just right – later this year, Apple will add Apple ProRAW in a software update, but only for the Pro models.

MagSafe wireless charging

All of the new iPhones support a new version of wireless charging that Apple is calling MagSafe.  The new wireless MagSafe charging is twice as fast as last year, supporting 15w charging.  Also, MagSafe supports magnetic attachments.  For charging, this is a good idea because it helps to ensure that the wireless charger is lined up correctly to get the best possible charge.

Additionally, other accessories can take advantage of a magnetic connection.  Apple introduced new cases that attach with magnets to the back of the iPhone.  Additionally, a new leather wallet accessory from Apple will probably be very popular, allowing you to store a photo ID, credit card, etc. in a small, shielded sleeve attached by magnets to the back of the iPhone.

Third parties can also take advantage of MagSafe to create their own magnetic attachments.

What's missing

Although the new iPhone 12 line looks great, there are some items that will be missed.  First, the new iPhones don't include a button with Touch ID, like the new iPad Air.  That will be fine when the pandemic is over, but it would have been nice to be able to unlock my iPhone while wearing a mask without having to type in my passcode.

The new iPhones come with a Lightning-to-USB-C charging cord, but not the charging brick that plugs into a wall.  Apple hopes that folks already have a bunch of those, and said that it wants to protect the environment by not including unnecessary items in the box.  But if you need one, you can buy one from Apple for only $19.  Similarly, the iPhone no longer comes with wired EarPods headphones.  Again, if you need another pair, you can buy them for $19.  Both of those items cost $29 before yesterday, so it's nice that Apple slashed $10 off of the price.  Of course, there are many other options from other companies that are cheaper and/or have additional features.

Which to get?

Although the iPhone 12 mini and iPhone 12 Pro Max won't go on sale until November 13 (pre-orders on November 6), you can pre-order an iPhone 12 or an iPhone 12 Pro this Friday, October 16, and those devices will be available a week later on October 23.  If you are ready to get a new iPhone, which one should you get?

The first decision is size.  If you want a really small phone, get the iPhone 12 mini.  If you want a really large phone, get the iPhone 12 Pro Max.  If you want the medium size, then you need to decide between the iPhone 12 and the iPhone 12 Pro.

The second decision is the camera versus the cost.  Although you can purchase an iPhone 12 with only 64GB for $799, that's not a lot of space for an iPhone.  I encourage you to get at least the 128GB model so that you have ample space for photos, videos, documents, etc.  The 128GB model is $849 for an iPhone 12 and $999 for the iPhone 12 Pro.  (Add $100 to either model for 256GB.)  The extra $150 is worth it if you care about iPhone photography, but if that isn't important to you, then just get the iPhone 12.  With the more expensive Pro model, you gain a Telephoto lens, LiDAR to improve autofocus (especially in low-light conditions), ProRAW (when it comes out later this year), and a few other camera improvements.  And if you want the best camera possible and don't mind a larger device and higher cost, the camera on the Pro Max is slightly better than the camera on the Pro.

For me, the decision is pretty easy.  The mini is cute but the screen is too small.  The Pro Max would be great to use, but I think I would find it too big to carry around all of the time.  And iPhone photography is important to me, so I want the better camera on the iPhone 12 Pro.  I cannot even count the number of times that I've used the telephoto lens on my current iPhone to take a better picture or video of my daughter playing soccer, volleyball, etc., not to mention all of the other interesting pictures I've taken with the telephoto lens.  And I'm curious to try ProRAW.  Although I'm tempted to get the largest 512GB size to be able to carry around even more of my photos and videos, I don't think I can justify the additional $200 for that, so it will most likely be the 256GB iPhone 12 Pro for me.

Conclusion

I'm very excited about the new iPhone 12.  It includes the types of improvements that we expect to see every year, such as a better processor and camera.  It adds a new design with flat sides, something that we haven't seen on an iPhone in a long time, and this may be the new feature that I notice and appreciate the most.  And MagSafe is not only a wireless charging improvement but also a new way to add accessories.  I can't wait to try out this new design, and if it is as good as I think it will be, I suspect that this is what iPhones will look like for many years.

Apple to introduce new iPhone today

Today at 10 Pacific / 1 Eastern, Apple will introduce the 2020 version of the iPhone.  Technically, one new iPhone was already released this year.  The second-generation iPhone SE was released in April, and it is a nice entry-level iPhone.  The SE is especially nice for those who prefer a Touch ID button versus a larger screen with Face ID.  (Before the pandemic, I considered that just a way to save money; now — in the age of wearing a mask —I consider it a feature.)  But this is the time of year when we get to see Apple's new flagship iPhone.

Lots of websites have rumors on what Apple may announce today, but since the event is just a few hours away, I recommend that we all just wait to see what Apple announces.  If we are lucky, perhaps Apple will find a new way to amaze and delight its customers.

You can watch a live stream of the event at this page on Apple's website.

In the news

If you received a free one-year subscription to Apple TV+ when you purchased an iPhone a year ago, the free period was supposed to end next month.  However, Jason Snell of Six Colors reports that Apple decided to extend the free subscription until February 2021, presumably because some of the new shows that should have been available right now to entice you to renew your subscription are delayed due to the pandemic.  Apple could have made this announcement on Tuesday at the next Apple Event; the fact that Apple released this news before then makes me hope that Apple has a huge list of exciting announcements on Tuesday and didn't have room for this one.  Here are the shows that I have watched so far on Apple TV+, listed roughly in order of how much I enjoyed them:  (1) Ted Lasso, (2) For All Mankind, (3) Trying, (4) The Morning Show, (5) Mythic Quest, (6) Dickinson, (7) See, (8) Home.  To be clear, I enjoyed all of those shows, even the ones near the bottom of my list, just not as much as the ones near the top.  I also enjoyed Greyhound, the only movie I've watched on Apple TV+.  And now, the news of note from the past week:

• I mentioned yesterday that I expect to lots of new apps released that are specifically designed with the widgets feature in mind.  Filipe Espósito of 9to5Mac reviews one such app, an app called Hidgets that displays selected health data on your home screen.
• Here is another one.  Brent Dirks of AppAdvice reviews Sticky Widgets, which adds sticky notes to your screen.
• On the other hand, I absolutely, positively, cannot in any way condone doing this to your iPhone screen with widgets.
• Chance Miller of 9to5Mac reviews the Wi-Fi Smart Lock from August, a smart door lock that works with Apple's HomeKit technology.
• Michael Simon of Macworld reviews the Apple Watch Series 6.
• Nicole Wetsman of The Verge explains why Apple needed to get U.S. FDA approval for the EKG feature that it included with the Series 4, but not for the blood oxygen monitor that it included with the new Series 6.
• Tim Hardwick of MacRumors offers tips and tricks for the Apple Watch.
• In the latest episode of the Same Brain video/audio podcast, Justine "iJustine" Ezarik and her sister Jenna interview Apple's Bob Borchers and John Temus to discuss the new iPads.  I'm always amazed at the quality of the videos produced by iJustine.
• And finally, this post started with Apple TV+ so let's end with it too.  Here is a trailer for the upcoming Apple TV+ show The Snoopy Show.  It brings back so many happy memories of me watching the Charlie Brown specials near the holidays that I'm a little bummed that my kids are too old to watch cartoons with me, so I'll have to find some other excuse to tell myself that it is OK for me to watch a Peanuts show.

Use widgets to create a custom iPhone and iPad home screen

When I first discussed iOS 14 on June 23, 2020, I guessed that the new widgets feature would be one of the more noticeable improvements.  What I didn't realize was how popular it would become and how I much I would enjoy the feature.  People like me who use their devices to be productive are finding lots of great uses.  And folks who just want to change the appearance of their iPhone are also loving this feature, evidenced by all of the pictures I'm seeing of creative iPhone screens and the buzz surrounding them.  For example, when Kat Mogus posted a short video on TikTok to show how she was using the fantastic Widgetsmith app to create what she says is her "aesthetic af" pink homescreen, it went viral and already has 3.5 million hearts.  It also helped to push David Smith's Widgetsmith app to the #1 spot on the App Store.  If you haven't started to explore the widgets feature yet, I encourage you to do so because I find that it makes my iPhone and iPad even more useful in my law practice.  Plus, widgets are fun.

Creating a widget

Apple has a helpful page on its website that explains how to create, edit, and delete widgets.  In short, you press down on an empty area of the screen to get into "jiggle mode" where you can move apps around.  In that mode, you will see a plus sign at the top left corner.  Tap the plus sign to bring up a screen with some suggested widgets at the top followed by a list of all of your apps that have been updated to take advantage of iOS 14 widgets.  You can simply browse to find something useful or use the search bar at the top to search for something specific.

For example, let's say that you want to place a calendar widget from the built-in Calendar app.  Tap on Calendar and this brings up a screen where you can see each of the possible sizes of the widget.  In this case, there is a 2x2, a 2x4, and a 4x4.  Tap on one of them, and then drag it to your home screen.

You can either place a widget in its own space on your home screen or you can place a widget on top of another widget in a stack — more on that below.

Making space for widgets

If you are like me, you have considered the 24 app spaces on your first home screen to be prime real estate, second in importance only to the four apps that live at the bottom of all of your home screens.  So at first, I was reluctant to place even the smallest 2x2 widget on my screen because I didn't want to give up four different apps for just a single widget.  But I soon realized that I was wrong to be clinging to my old ways.  Here is why.

First, when you place a widget for an app on your home screen, you really don't need the app icon any more.  For example, if you place the Calendar widget on your home screen and you tap it, it will launch the Calendar app.  Place a widget for a to do app and you no longer need that app icon on the main screen.  Thus, you are taking up the space of at least four app icons, but you no longer need one of those app icons on the home screen.

Second, as noted above, you can stack multiple widgets.  If you stack four widgets in a 4x4 widget space, you are using the same screen real estate that the four apps themselves would have used.  You can switch between the widgets in a stack by just swiping up or down on the stack.

Third, I realized that it really wasn't that hard for me to select a number of apps that used to be on my first home screen that worked just as well on my second screen.  For example, on my iPhone, there are apps like Dropbox and Facebook and eero and Files that I do use frequently, but it isn't really a big hassle to swipe over once to a second screen to get to them.  The slight inconvenience is outweighed by the usefulness of using widgets on the first screen, as discussed below.  Plus, it has given me a new reason to go to the second screen of my iPhone, which is now a perfect place for me to place even more widgets — or, for now, one of the large 4x4 widgets.  As for the apps that used to be on my second screen, they are now on my third (and final) screen organized into folders.  The apps that are not important enough to be on any of those three screens are now on hidden screens.  If I want to use any of lesser-used apps, I use the new App Library feature of iOS 14 to keep track of all of those.

Note that I'm only talking about screen real estate for the iPhone because, unfortunately, you cannot currently place a widget on the main portion of an iPad screen.  They have to live on the left side of the screen, which means that there is actually less space for widgets on a large iPad screen than on a small iPhone screen.  And that just makes no sense.  I still find widgets to be incredibly useful on the iPad, but with all of the additional space on the iPad screen I would love to be able to place widgets anywhere, just like the iPhone.  This is so obvious that I have to imagine that Apple is working on adding this in a future update to iPadOS.

The usefulness of widgets

Now here comes the fun part:  using widgets to improve your life.  I love widgets because they display the useful information that I need the most, often making it unnecessary to open up the app to get the information that I need.  For most widgets, you get to select what information is displayed, so the information that you see is the information that is most useful to you.

For example, although I sometimes use the built-in Calendar app, I prefer to use Fantastical (an app I most recently discussed in this post), and it has some great widgets.  There are currently 12 different widgets to choose from.  In the smallest 2x2 size you can get choose to see what is up next, a list of upcoming events, the entire month, or just today's date (in two possible formats).  Larger widget sizes can display even more information.

I use Things to keep track of my “to do” list for work — the motions, appeals, discovery, and other projects that I am working on.  The 2x2 version of the Things widgets is big enough to display the three items at the top of my list, which are the items that I am most likely to be working on each day.  I find it very useful that when I am on my home screen I am gently reminded of the most important tasks for me to be working on.

Another app with fantastic widgets is Carrot Weather (which I reviewed in 2018).  It has twelve widgets.  These widgets update throughout the day to show you the weather, and if you pay for a Tier 3 subscription, there is a widget that shows a weather radar so you can see if rainclouds are close.  The Carrot app also has an optional personality.  It can be serious and just give you the facts, or you can turn on the snarky feature for the app to provide silly (and often timely) comments along with the weather.

The built-in Photos app has three widgets in 2x2, 2x4, or 4x4 sizes, which display a special moment selected by the Memories part of the Photos app.  The photo selected changes throughout the day, and it often brings a smile to my face to glance at a picture of my kids when they were younger (and cuter!) as I am doing work on my iPhone.  If you want more control over photos, the Widgetsmith app will rotate through pictures that are within a specific album in the Photos app.  Thus, you can use Widgetsmith to display a picture of your spouse, child, pet., etc. that changes over time – whatever you make the subject of one of your albums.

Any of these widgets would be useful on their own, but as I mentioned above, if you drag a widget on top of another one, you can create a stack of widgets.  As I noted above, you can swipe up and down to manually swap through the widgets in a stack.  Better yet, if you hold down your finger on a stack for a second or two, you will see an option to edit the the stack and use the Smart Rotate feature.  (You can also use that feature to rearrange or delete widgets in a stack.) 

 

The Smart Rotate feature is one of the best part of widgets.  Throughout the day, the iPhone rotates the widgets with Smart Rotate turned on, often trying to show you the widget that might be most useful at that point in the day.  I love this feature because I look at my iPhone and iPad home screen frequently, and over a relatively short period of time as the widgets rotate I end up seeing all of the widgets in a stack.  Thus, in a 2x2 space that would normally be devoted to four static app icons that need to be tapped to see any useful information, a 2x2 widget gives me a way to launch an of the four apps while also showing me useful (or fun) information that often makes it unnecessary to launch the app.  By frequently seeing information such as my upcoming schedule and the weather, with some pictures thrown in to give me an occasional smile, the space that used to hold four static app icons is now making me much more productive and happy.

For example, I currently have the Fantastical widget and the Things widget in a single stack.  As they switch back and forth throughout the day, I get subtle reminders of what is coming up and what I should be working on.  With just two widgets in a stack, if the one that I want to see is not currently being displayed, it just takes a quick swipe to see the other one.  And then I can tap on either one to launch the Fantastical or the Things app.

Speaking of Smart Rotate, there is a similar feature if you use the Widgetsmith app.  That app lets you choose from a large variety of information to display — in lots of different styles, fonts, colors, etc. — and then you can have the information displayed in the widget change based upon the time of day.  That's a neat idea that other developers should copy.  Carrot Weather already does; for the 2x4 widgets that I display on my iPad, in the morning it shows me the hourly temperature for the next few hours, but at the end of the day it shows me the daily temperature for the next few days.

You cannot interact with the items displayed on the widget.  For example, for the Fantastical widget, I simply see my calendar items, and tapping anywhere on the widget launches the app so that I can dig deeper in the app itself.  But there is currently one exception:  the Shortcuts app.  Although the 2x2 version of the widget is used to launch one specific shortcut, the 2x4 widget lists four shortcuts and the 4x4 widget contains eight shortcuts.  It selects the shortcuts from whatever folder you select, so within the Shortcuts app, you can create a folder called “widgets” and place the four or eight shortcuts that you want in there.  It is very useful to launch a shortcut and start using it directly from the home screen.  I’m currently using a 4x4 Shortcuts widget on my second home screen so that I can launch 8 shortcuts — the last one of which is a simply shortcut that simply launches the Shortcuts app, making it unnecessary for me to have a Shortcuts icon on my homescreen.

I'm still trying to decide what shortcuts to place on that large widget.  I recommend that, for one of the shortcut slots, you include a shortcut to launch Shortcuts, making it unnecessary to have the Shortcuts app on your home screen. 

It's not all good news.  I'm currently working through a bug that one of my widgets will work when launched within the Shortcuts app but doesn't work when launched from the widget.  I'm still not sure if the fault lies with me or with Apple on that bug.  Nevertheless, it is already obvious that the Shortcuts widget is one of the most powerful widgets.

Conclusion

The widgets feature has fundamentally changed the way that I interact with my iPhone homescreen.  It is probably the most significant thing to happen to the primary screen of my phone since I started using an iPhone in the first place.  And these are early days.  Many popular apps have not yet been updated to support widgets, and those that have are likely to have even better widgets in the future as we all figure out what is best about this feature.  Moreover, the ability to create widgets will cause folks to create new apps that did not exist before.  Widgetsmith itself is a perfect example, and as I was writing this post, I learned of a new app called Scribblet that lets you write something — a handwritten to-do list, a drawing, an inspirational quote, etc. — and have it display in a widget.  Sribblet itself may not be my cup of tea, but it demonstrates that developers are coming up with new ideas to exploit what widgets can do.  And finally, there is Apple itself, which I'm sure will improve widgets in the future — such as, hopefully, allowing widgets to be placed anywhere on an iPad screen.  Suffice it to say that widgets are already great, this feature is certain to become even better in the future.