Do you use your iPhone or iPad in your bed before you go to sleep at night, thinking that it will help you to get tired? Maria Konnikova writes in an article for the New Yorker that doing so makes it harder for you to go to sleep. She cites a Harvard Medical School study that finds that the blue light emitted by these devices is interpreted by your body as daylight, resulting in a surge of energy instead of the melatonin release that tells your body that it is time to go to sleep. The study found that people who read a (traditional) book at night got tired over an hour before people who read an e-book at night, and the e-book readers were less alert the next morning. It’s an interesting study, and perhaps I’ll read it on my iPad before I go to sleep tonight. And now, the news of note from the past week:
- New York attorney Neil Squillante of TechnoLawyer wrote a report on the new DocReviewPad app.
- New York attorney Niki Black discusses good iPhone apps that she has recently discovered in an article for The Daily Record.
- One of the topics discussed on the Clockwise podcast I was on this week was the future of the iPod. Ben Lovejoy of 9to5Mac considered the same question.
- Security expert Glenn Fleishman of Macworld discusses the new two-factor authentication coming in iOS 9. iOS 9 will also require six-digit verification codes, unlike iOS 8 and prior versions that allowed a four-digit code to unlock your iPhone.
- Apple debuted a new set of ads yesterday, with the tagline “If it’s not an iPhone, it’s not an iPhone.” Chance Miller of 9to5Mac discusses the ads and provides links to them.
- Maddy Myers of iMore lists some 1980s video games that you can play on your iPhone. I shudder to think of how many quarters I put into Dragon’s Lair in my youth.
- Rich Edmonds of iMore reports that T-Mobile no longer charges you for using an iPhone in Canada or Mexico.
- Ken Segal reviewed the Apple Watch on his blog. Segal knows a thing or two about Apple — he used to work for Apple’s advertising agency, where he not only authored the famous Think Different campaign, he also came up with the name “iMac.”
- Analyist Ben Bajarin wrote an interesting article on using the Apple Watch, and then not using it for a week, noting that “the Apple Watch is a modern day convenience … in the same way a dishwasher or washer/dryer or a microwave is. None of the items are absolutely necessary, yet so many of their owners can’t imagine life without one.”
- Ariel Adams of A Blog to Watch reviews the Apple Watch from the perspective of someone who reviews traditional watches (including luxury watches) for a living.
- The Apple website has advice for not letting your Apple Watch get too hot or too cold. “For example, Apple Watch shouldn’t sit unattended in direct sun for long periods, undergo dramatic changes in temperature or humidity, or be left in a car on hot days.”
- The Big Think notes that in 1926, Nikola Tesla predicted the iPhone.
- Christine Chan of AppAdvice compares Apple Music with Rdio and Spotify.
- Rene Ritchie of iMore explains how to use Siri to control Apple Music.
- Serenity Caldwell gives tips for using the Apple Music app.
- And finally, Joanna Stern of the Wall Street Journal wrote an interesting review of Apple Music. She gives some tips on using the service, including Siri tips, and also talks about the drawbacks. She doesn’t love the service, but feels that Apple has time to work out the kinks, and she pointed out on Twitter, “I also didn’t love the iPod at first.” She also prepared a humorous video to describe Apple Music, doing it in the form of a music playlist: