Most people know Savannah Guthrie as a Today show anchor, but she is also an attorney who graduated from Georgetown Law School. (She was a few years behind me.) She is going through a horrible ordeal right now because her mother is missing, and there is evidence that her mother may have been abducted. I mention all of this because there is an Apple technology connection to this story. As noted by Andrew Orr of AppleInsider, investigators were able to pinpoint the time when she may have last been in her home because she has a pacemaker that communicates with her Apple Watch, even when she is not wearing the Apple Watch. By noting when the data stopped syncing, authorities have some evidence of when she may have left the premises. With technology like an iPhone, Apple Watch, and AirPods that we often keep very close to our bodies, and with those devices syncing with other devices and capturing information such as heart rate and location, mobile technology can play a big role in recreating what may have happened in the past—something that is frequently an issue in civil and criminal lawsuits. And now, the news of note from the past week:
- As I noted earlier this week, Apple just finished its best financial quarter ever, and Apple CEO Tim Cook said that “demand for iPhone was simply staggering.” One reason for that was a big increase in iPhone sales in China. Zeyi Yang of Wired explores some of the reasons why, including: (1) the baseline iPhone 17 model has a ton of features that used to only come in the Pro model, and (2) the baseline iPhone 17 model was priced low enough to qualify for a new Chinese government subsidy aimed at stimulating the economy. Those sound like valid reasons, but I’ve also heard it frequently said that many customers in China prefer a smartphone that stands out as looking different and new, and Apple is now selling an orange Pro phone and an iPhone Air, two models that definitely look like new models.
- Simon Jary of Macworld reviews the new second-generation AirTag. And in case you missed it, here is my review.
- Two years ago this week, Apple released the Apple Vision Pro. Many news reports about this anniversary are similar to this one by Hartley Charlton of MacRumors in that they criticize the device as not yet being a blockbuster. I think they are missing the point. I was excited about this product when I bought one two years ago, and I still love using it today. But more importantly, the Apple Vision Pro is a preview of the future, and I’m thrilled that Apple is working on that future right now, just like the first Mac, first iPhone, and first iPad were all just a tease for much better products that would come later.
- A fascinating Vision Pro game was released yesterday: Retrocade. As Giovanni Colantonio of Polygon notes, it brings a 1980s arcade into your home because you can play full-size arcade games as you stand in an immersive environment that looks like an arcade. I only played with it for a short period of time last night, but it was so much fun! One of my favorite games from the early 1980s was Frogger, and there I was, playing what looked like the actual Frogger game. The in-game graphics and sounds were perfect, and better yet, I could also look at all of the details on the cabinet of the arcade game. When I showed it off to my son, his first reaction was “What is Frogger?”—clearly, I have failed in my duties as a father if he doesn’t recognize that game, although he did recognize some of the other titles in the collection such as Space Invaders and Pac-Man—but minutes later, the two of us were taking turns helping the frog to dodge traffic and laughing at each other’s mistakes, just like I would do with my middle school friends way back when. Thanks, Apple, for the walk down memory lane. I look forward to playing with this one some more. (Although I do agree with Colantaonio—they should add Ms. Pac-Man, which was another one of my favorites.)
- In a post for Six Colors, Shelly Brisbin discusses the Transit app, an app that provides lots of useful information when you need to ride a bus or train.
- Eric Berger of Ars Technica reports that NASA will now let astronauts take their iPhones to the moon.
- The title of this article by Andrew Zucker in the Wall Street Journal is a little bizarre—Call Screening Is Aggravating the Rich and Powerful—but the article does a decent job of describing how the new iOS 26 calls screening function can improve your experience with an iPhone.
- You can instruct an iPhone to take pictures in both RAW and JPEG format. RAW format can be useful if you want to do advanced editing of the photo, but the RAW format takes up a lot more space than a picture in JPEG format. If you want to delete those RAW images while keeping the JPEG version, Glenn Fleishman of Six Colors explains how to do so.
- I’m a big fan of the UGREEN 3-in-1 Foldable MagFlow Wireless Charger ($139.99 on Amazon) that I reviewed a few months ago. It can charge three devices, and it folds up for travel. Juli Clover of MacRumors reviews a new and similar device from Anker called the Anker Prime 3-in-1 Wireless Charging Station ($149.99 on Amazon). The Anker device includes a quiet internal fan to keep an iPhone cooler while charging, and in some circumstances, this could result in faster charging.
- If you want to get some of Apple’s Apple Watch bands at an amazing 70% discount, Woot is once again selling $50 Apple Solo Loop bands for only $14.99 and $100 Apple Braided Solo Loop bands for only $29.99. I have taken advantage of these occasional sales on Woot many times in the past to try out different band colors and sizes.
- In a post on Six Colors, Philip Michaels recommends using a $5 one-day Sling Day Pass when you want to watch a specific sporting event or other program on your Apple TV after you have “cut the cord” with a cable company.
- Apple TV had a press day earlier this week, and Apple revealed lots of information about its upcoming shows. Wesley Hilliard of AppleInsider shares five new TV shows and six new movies that were announced, along with eight returning series.
- One of the shows currently airing on Apple TV that I have been enjoying is Season 3 of Tehran. David Snow of Cult of Mac shares some reasons you should watch Tehran if you haven’t started yet.
- Here is a great video from Apple called Humans of Apple TV. It’s a slideshow with some behind-the-scenes pictures taken from Apple TV productions. Nicely done.
- Ryan Christoffel reports that you can add a subscription to Peacock—allowing you to watch the Super Bowl and the Olympics—to your Apple TV subscription for as little as $2/month.
- Speaking of the Super Bowl, in an article for Six Colors and Macworld, Jason Snell describes Apple’s long history with that game.
- And finally, Apple often sponsors filmmakers who create short films using an iPhone. A great one was created to celebrate the Chinese New Year called Glad I Met You. It runs about 11 minutes, and it is worth watching.