I listen to a lot of podcasts — when I am driving to and from work, when I am working out, when I am doing tasks such as cutting the grass or washing dishes, etc. One of my favorite podcasts is Mac Power Users. That podcast is aimed at a general audience of folks who use Apple products, but the co-hosts are both attorneys: California attorney David Sparks and Florida attorney Katie Floyd. They were nice enough to invite me to be a guest on their latest episode to discuss the Apple Watch, and I had a great time talking with them and participating in one of my favorite podcasts. We recorded the podcast last Saturday, and I was happy to learn that some of the features we discussed wanting (such as third party complications and the ability to respond to an email on the Apple Watch) are indeed coming in just a few months, as announced by Apple during its WWDC conference a few days ago. If you'd like to listen, here is the webpage for that episode, or you can download Episode 261 in your podcast app of choice. (I use and recommend Overcast.) The full episode is 105 minutes, but I'm on for just the first half hour. And now, the news of note from the past week:
- In addition to co-hosting Mac Power Users, David Sparks also runs the MacSparky website, and this week he shared some of his thoughts on the upcoming iOS 9 which Apple announced at WWDC this week.
- One of the iOS 9 features that I am most excited about are the new multitasking features coming to the iPad Air 2, such as running two apps at the same time, side-by-side. Federico Viticci of MacStories, who uses an iPad as his primary computing device, is excited about those features too and shares his initial thoughts on the announcements.
- Jim Dalrymple of The Loop also shared some interesting thoughts on Apple's announcements at WWDC.
- Serenity Caldwell of iMore posted a list of 18 features in iOS 9 that you may have missed. I see that the URL is "http://www.imore.com/17-features-ios-9-you-may-have-missed-during-keynote" so it looks like she originally planned to discuss just 17 features and then realized that she also missed one.
- Cartoonist Rich Stevens tells us the real reason to look forward to iOS 9 in the latest Pixel Project comic on iMore.
- Juli Clover of MacRumors reports on an interesting new feature in the upcoming iOS 9. Apple already has a technology it calls Continuity, which allows you to answer a phone call not only from your iPhone but also from a computer, iPad or Apple Watch as long as it is on the same Wi-Fi network. But in iOS 9, this feature will work even if you are not using the same Wi-Fi network. Thus, if you leave your iPhone at home, you will be able to make and receive calls using your work computer that is on the Wi-Fi at your office. The article doesn't say whether it also works using an iPad or an Apple Watch on a different Wi-Fi network. And also note that it appears that this new feature only works if your cellular carrier supports Cellular Continuity, which currently only T-Mobile supports. I have more questions than answers at this point on how all of this works, but the idea sounds very useful.
- Buster Hein of Cult of Mac reports that the cool iOS 9 feature that Apple showed off at WWDC on an iPad — the ability to use two fingers to turn the keyboard into a trackpad to move the cursor — will also work on an iPhone. I was wondering about that.
- As noted by Brent Dirks of AppAdvice, Apple also announced this week that iOS 8.4 will be released on June 30. It fixes some bugs, but the big new feature is support for the Apple Music streaming service that Apple announced at WWDC this week. For $9.99 a month, or $14.99 for up to six family members, you can listen to just about any song that you want on your iPhone, iPad or computer.
- Vanessa Freidman, the chief fashion critic with the New York Times, tried using an Apple Watch for six weeks but decided that it wasn't for her. As she describes in her New York Times article Why I'm Breaking Up With the Apple Watch, she didn't like that other people would notice it and ask her about it, she felt weird using the watch, she preferred to exercise based on how she was feeling and not based on numbers and digital encouragement, and she didn't find the watch functions useful (except that she liked how the watch would tap her wrist when her kids were calling). My own opinion is almost exactly the opposite — which won't surprise any of you who would consider me to be pretty much the exact opposite of a New York Times fashion critic — but it was interesting to read an articulate explanation of why the Apple Watch is not for some people.
- There is also a whimsical follow-up to Freidman's article, a back-and-forth between Freidman and Farhad Manjoo, the tech columnist for the New York Times.
- If you have some iTunes purchases planned, 9to5Mac notes that you can currently get $100 worth of gift cards for only $70 via eBay.
- I suspect that many of you have seen — in person or in pictures — the iconic Apple Store on Fifth Avenue, the glass cube at the corner of Central Park. It is in front of FAO Schwarz, the place where Tom Hanks danced on a big keyboard, and the oldest toy store in the U.S. Or at least, it has been up until now; FAO Schwarz is closing down, and the Apple Store is using this as an opportunity to renovate the Fifth Avenue store. As reported by Nick Jesdanun and Barbara Ortutay of AP, Apple will use the FAO Schwarz space as a temporary store while it renovates. No word yet on whether Apple will let you dance on its keyboards.
- Apple acknowledged this week that it has vehicles driving around the world collecting data and taking pictures to improve the Apple Maps app. Indeed, Apple now even has a webpage posting where the vehicles will be next. So if you are in Atlanta, Chicago, Boston, New York, London or a number of other cities during the next few weeks, be sure to wave when the Apple car drives by to take your picture.
- And finally, just before Apple CEO Tim Cook took the stage for the WWDC keynote this week, Apple showed the audience (filled mostly with app developers) a funny video – starring Saturday Night Live alum Bill Hader, Danny Pudi from Community, and Matt Walsh from Veep – the premise being that Hader is directing a dress rehearsal for the opening number of WWDC. Apple posted the video to YouTube yesterday, and it is worth watching to see a lot of popular apps brought to life in a humorous way:
