iPhone J.D.

In the news

Apple introduced the iPhone in 2007, and sold about 6 million devices in the first year.  Last year when Apple introduced the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, the company sold over twice as many, about 13 million devices, in just three days.  As Apple has improved the iPhone year over year, the company has sold as astonishing number of devices, and of course you can now see iPhones everywhere.  Apple announced this week that it has now sold over 1 billion iPhones.  It was only about two years ago that Apple sold its 500 millionth iPhone.  I liked how Joseph Keller of iMore tried to put that number in context:  "[I]t took 27 years for one billion PCs to be sold. Disney welcomed the one billionth visitor to its theme parks after 49 years of operation, and it was 131 years before there were one billion cars driving across roads across the world."  And now, the news of note from the past week:

• Florida attorney Katie Floyd describes 10 great productivity apps. 
• South Carolina attorney Justin Kahn reviews Dark Sky, one of my favorite iPhone weather apps.
• California attorney David Sparks notes on his MacSparky website that he created a series of videos teaching how to use the Drafts app.
• Jim Dalrymple of The Loop reports that Pokemon Go has set an App Store record for downloads, and that Apple has now paid out $50 billion to app developers.  Seems like it was just yesterday when the App Store started in 2008.  How far we've come.
• Jason Snell of Six Colors prepared some interesting graphs after Apple's 2016 Q3 financial announcements and provided interesting commentary.
• Apple has slowly been taking steps into the content business.  Even so, I was surprised to see that Apple bought to right to a new TV series based on the Carpool Karaoke skits of James Corden's late night show, as reported by Cynthia Littleton of Variety.
• Ben Lovejoy of 9to5Mac explains how an iPhone app and an implant are giving a 9-year-old boy his hearing back.
• Chuck La Tournous explains how his Apple Watch helped to save his life, in an article for Macworld.
• And finally, Apple announced that it will sell limited edition Apple Watch nylon bands during the Olympics, with each band based on a country flag.  Looks like a fun way to support your country at the Olympics and remember the experience afterwards.  Here is what some of them look like.  (via GQ).

Apple 2016 fiscal third quarter -- the iPhone and iPad angle

Yesterday, Apple released the results for its 2016 fiscal third quarter (which ran from March 27, 2016 to June 25, 2016) and held a call with analysts to discuss the results.  This is typically not a big fiscal quarter for Apple; the important quarter for Apple every year is the first fiscal quarter containing the holiday sales season, and during the fiscal third quarter, most potential Apple customers are waiting to see what new products Apple will introduce in the Fall.  Apple reported revenue of $42.4 billion, which was down from the $49.6 billion that Apple reported in the 2015 fiscal third quarter, but was at the upper end of what Apple predicted three months ago.  Don't lose any sleep for Apple — the company is still making tons of money — but it is just no longer making even more money every quarter as was previously the case.  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 rough transcript of the call prepared by Seeking Alpha.  iMore also prepared a transcript.  Apple's official press release is here. 

As always, I'm not particularly interested in the financial aspects of this call, which did account for most of the call — it is, after all, an earnings call.  But I'm always interested in the statements of Apple executives that pertain to the use of the iPhone and iPad.  Here are the items that stood out to me:

iPhone

• Apple sold just over 40 million iPhones in the last fiscal quarter.  By my count, that means that Apple has sold almost 988 million iPhones as of June 25, 2016. 
• At some point very soon, Apple will sell its 1 billionth iPhone.  In fact, it is possible that it will happen this week.  [UPDATE:  Apple just announced that it has indeed sold the 1 billionth iPhone.]
• Apple sells iPhones to three groups of customers:  new smartphone users, users switching from another brand (typically Android), and users upgrading from an older iPhone.  Apple CEO Tim Cook announced that this past quarter, Apple saw a higher percentage of switchers than ever before.  Switchers and new smartphone users are important to Apple because hopefully those folks will stick with the iPhone and become upgraders in the future.
• Cook says that he sees the iPhone becoming "even more instrumental and important to people's lives" and "more and more your assistant, you're not going to leave without it."

iPad

• Apple sold almost 10 million iPads in the last fiscal quarter.  By my count, that means that Apple has sold over 328 million iPads as of June 25, 2016.
• Apple said that its iPad revenue grew 7% versus the year-ago quarter, with an average selling price of $490 this year versus $415 in the year-ago quarter.  In other words, people are buying more expensive iPads — the two versions of the iPad Pro.
• Cook announced that half of the people buying iPad Pros are buying them for work.  That is certainly where I spent most of my time using my iPad Pro.

Apple Watch, Apple TV

• Cook hinted at future Apple Watch announcements, noting that Apple is "just getting started with Apple Watch and we look forward to even more exciting announcements in this space."
• Cook also hinted at future Apple TV announcements.  He said to think of the current Apple TV "as sort of building the foundation for what we believe can be a broader business over time.  And, so I don't want to be more precise than that, but you shouldn't look at what's there today and think we've done what we want to do.  We've built a foundation that we can do something bigger off of."

In the news

One of my favorite iPad apps is GoodReader, which I use to manage PDF versions of all of the documents in all of my case files.  I knew that for many years, the developer, Yuri Selukoff, lived in Moscow, which raised security concerns for some.  But I recently came across this February, 2016 article about Selukoff by Eric Lai of the official BlackBerry blog.  Apparently Selukoff was no fan of the Russian government, especially after the invasion of Crimea, and applied for an EB-1 U.S. visa, reserved for an alien of extraordinary ability — typically folks like Nobel prize winners.  He got it in July of 2015 based on his development of the GoodReader app.  (I'm curious if any others have obtained an EB-1 visa simply based on the development of an app.)  I discuss all of this today because, in a newsletter sent this week (which I don't yet see posted online), Selukoff announced that he is now living in San Francisco and is working on a major update to GoodReader.  Version 5 will have a new user interface and will be a free upgrade.  The release date has not yet been announced, but I'd love to see a new, clean interface on this essential app for my litigation practice.  (For example, I used that app all day long yesterday in a deposition of a plaintiff; all of the documents produced in discovery were quickly available to me in GoodReader.)  And now, the recent news of note:

• California attorney David Sparks discusses Scrivener, a beloved writing tool for the Mac that is now available on the iPad.
• South Carolina attorney Justin Kahn discusses the latest update to DocReviewPad, an iPad app for reviewing and annotating a document production.
• Brett Burney reviews Westlaw Case Notebook Portable E-Transcript, an app that can open a .ptx file from a court reporter.
• Geoffrey Fowler of the Wall Street Journal reviews Eero (his favorite) and other Wi-Fi routers that you can use to spread Wi-Fi throughout your house and eliminate dead spots.  I addressed this problem in my own house in early 2015 by paying someone to run Cat 6 cable from one end of my house to another.  My own solution has worked very well, except that there is still one spot at the end of my living room (between my two AirPort Extreme routers) that sometimes gives me trouble.  If I had to do it again today, I would seriously consider Eero and similar products.
• GoodNotes, my favorite app for using my Apple Pencil to take handwritten notes on my iPad, was updated this week to add support for tabs.  The update also supports one-finger panning when using an Apple Pencil, a feature that I wish existed in every app that supports the Apple Pencil.  Read more on the GoodNotes blog.
• Sascha Segan of PC Magazine released the 2016 version of its report on best mobile networks in the U.S. It is an extensive report that looks at differences in numerous cities across the country.  Here in New Orleans where I live, AT&T comes out on top, which I was glad to hear because I use AT&T.  But in other cities there are other carriers with the best networks.
• Serenity Caldwell of iMore explains an update to Apple Music that lets you store your music library without digital rights management (DRM) — which essentially means that it incorporates the iTunes Match service.
• Apple's Lisa Jackson (VP of Environment, Policy and Social Initiatives) explains why Apple is buying and protecting forests, not only in the U.S. but also in China.
• Apple's Eddy Cue (VP of Internet Software and Services) talked to Natalie Jarvey of The Hollywood Reporter about Apple's plans for TV.
• Peter Kafka of Recode offers a "translation" of what Eddy Cue told the Hollywood Reporter.
• Karen Freeman of WatchAware reports that a man's Apple Watch mostly survived being submerged at the bottom of a lake for over a month.
• J.D. Power announced that Apple ranks highest among manufacturers of smartwatches. The Apple Watch "ranks highest in customer satisfaction with smartwatches and performs particularly well in comfort, styling/appearance and ease of use."
• The folks at iMore discuss their favorite bands for the Apple Watch.
• And finally, one of Apple's newest "Shot on iPhone" ads shows a sped up version of a trip down a mountain on a cable car in Bregenz, Austria as a blimp passes overhead.  Looks fun.

Review: All is Not Forgotten by Wendy Walker -- thrilling novel about erased memories

I am always surprised when I meet an attorney who is an avid reader but who never listens to audiobooks on an iPhone.  They are really missing out.  A great voice actor can make a book come alive.  And while that is enough of a justification, the biggest advantage for me is that one can "read" while driving, doing chores around the house, cutting the grass, exercising ... it is a great way to multitask.  If you haven't tried an iPhone audiobook yet, check out a store like Audible (owned by Amazon).

And if you are looking for a good audiobook, I have a recommendation for you.  Last week, Connecticut divorce attorney Wendy Walker released a novel called All is Not Forgotten, and I listened to it last week and over the weekend at the beach.  It was fantastic.

Wendy and I went to law school together at Georgetown, and we were even in a study group together during our first year.  Thus, I've known for a long time how smart and clever she is.  You'll definitely see that yourself when you read this book.  Indeed, I'm not the only one to love her book; as reported by Variety, Reese Witherspoon's production company (known for “Wild,” “Gone Girl” and “Hot Pursuit") bought the film rights last year, and I understand that a screenplay is in the works.  Of course, you should read the book before you see the movie — movies are great, but always leave out so many interesting details.

The book is a psychological thriller crime novel.  It is full of surprises, including one that begins at the beginning — the story is told from the perspective of a narrator, but you don't learn who the narrator is for several chapters.  I don't want to spoil anything, so I won't say much more other than the story is about a rape and the implications of erasing a (traumatic) memory.  It is full of twists and turns that keep you guessing whodunit until the end.  You can see and hear Wendy discuss the structure of this novel (without any spoilers) in this YouTube video:

The audiobook version was especially good because it has a celebrity reader who is perfect for the role:  Dylan Baker (IMDB link).  If the name is not familiar to you, click the IMDB link and I suspect that you will recognize his face, perhaps from the Spiderman movies or the TV show The Good Wife.  I most identify him with one of my favorite TV series, The Americans, in which Baker played a key role during the most recent season.  The narrator of All is Not Forgotten is smart and somewhat elitist and arrogant, and Dylan Baker is perfect.  He doesn't just read the book, he essentially plays that role, almost like a radio drama.  I don't know who Reese Witherspoon will cast in the movie, but Dylan Baker would be great.  (Reese Witherspoon told Wendy that she wants to play the mother character in the movie version of the book; I can definitely see Witherspoon playing that role very well.)

Wendy told me that authors typically are not involved in the creation of the audiobook, but her publisher did consult Wendy about using Dylan Baker, and she knew that he would be perfect.  Wendy told me:  "He has done many audio books and has a voice that most people recognize immediately.  He is a character actor as well, so I had no doubt that he would be able to get into the head of my narrator and become him.  This is very important with a first person narrative."  She told me that his reading of the book was "brilliant" and "his vision really brought the characters to life."  I agree.

I asked Wendy how her training and experience as a lawyer impacted her writing this book.  She told me that her legal training helped her to map out the story meticulously, with colored index cards and a master sheet which kept track of what was happening when.  "Because the plot involves multiple characters and an intricate plot that depends as much on the psychological elements that are revealed as it does on the events that occur, the careful layering was essential to making it work.  I credit the years of [legal] training to analyze, break down issues, and build an argument with my ability to execute this vision for the structure of the novel.  Also, my work as a family law attorney and a trained guardian ad litem gave me a deeper knowledge of psychology, which I utilize in the novel."

If you listen to the audio version of this book, the last chapter is a short interview with Wendy.  I love it when a book does this because when I finish reading a good book (or watching a good movie or a good TV show), I find myself craving more.  Thus, I'll often go to my computer and search for reviews or anything else to get just a little more insight into the creative work.  It was great fun to go from the last few words of the book directly into listening to Wendy talk about it, all without having to do anything on my iPhone other than keep listening.

Whether you read the paper version of this book or enjoy the fantastic audio version like I did, I encourage you to put All is Not Forgotten on your summer reading list.  It's an engaging story, told in an interesting way, with lots of great characters.

Click here for All is Not Forgotten on Amazon (which also gives a link to the Audible version).

Hands on with watchOS 3.0

Yesterday, Apple released updates for the iPhone and iPad (iOS 9.3.3) and Apple Watch (watchOS 2.2.2).  They were minor updates that fixed a few bugs and don't add any new features that I have seen.  What I'm really waiting for is iOS 10 and watchOS 3.  Both are due in a few months, and developers are working with beta versions of them now so there are lots of folks kicking the tires.  This past weekend, I had a chance to spend some time with the beta version of watchOS 3, running on the Apple Watch of a developer.  I normally don't talk about beta software on iPhone J.D., but I know that lots of attorneys and others are really looking forward to watchOS 3 for the reasons set forth in my preview last month, especially the improvements that make the Apple Watch faster to use.  After using the beta of watchOS 3, I can confirm that watchOS 3 is a significant upgrade and will vastly improve the experience of using an Apple Watch.

Faster app launching and access

One of the best features of watchOS 3 is that apps launch faster.  This feature works really well.  If you put an app in the new Apple Watch Dock, accessed by using the side button, then the app launches much, much faster than on watchOS 2.  Often it is instantaneous, which is amazing.  Other times there is maybe a second delay in launching, which is still much better than watchOS 2.  (And remember, I was using beta software, so everything may be even faster and more optimized when the final software is released in a few months.)

 

The Dock also makes it much easier and faster to find the apps that you use the most.  It is much better than having to find an app on the honeycomb shaped home screen.

When you launch an app that isn't in the Dock or a complication, it takes a long time to launch — perhaps just as long as on watchOS 2.  But I don't see that as a real issue.  Seeing the most frequently used apps launch faster is a very big improvement.

Watch faces

Changing watch faces is much faster in watchOS 3.  Instead of a force touch followed by a swipe left or right, you can now use an edge-to-edge (left or right) swipe on the watch face to change to  a different face.  Put two watch faces that you like side-by-side, and you can swap them pretty quickly.

This feature works so well that changing faces in watchOS 3 becomes not just a fashion statement but also a utility.  You can create a few watch faces that make the most sense depending upon the task that you are doing, and then quickly switch between them as necessary.

I still wish that Apple would allow third party watch faces, and perhaps this will come in watchOS 4.  But this one change will make watch faces, and the complications that can be added to watch faces, much more useful.

Scribbling text

With the new scribble feature in watchOS 3, you can easily send more complicated replies to emails or text messages, without having to talk and use the dictation function and without being limited to the pre-set replies.  Scribbling letter by letter is somewhat slow, but I found it incredibly useful to have the freedom to write any word.  Better yet, I didn't realize before using the beta software that you usually don't have to scribble every letter in a word.  Just scribble one or two letters and a faint icon will appear on the right with an up and down arrow:

That icon indicates that you can scroll the digital crown to see words and phrases that begin with your letter(s).  It is similar to the autocomplete feature on the iPhone, and it often means that you can enter a word by only scribbling one or two letters.

As a former Palm user, I did find myself wishing that Apple used something similar to Palm's old Graffiti alphabet.  For example, instead of using two strokes to make the letter T, I found myself wishing that I could just use a single stroke to make an upside-down L (the Graffiti shortcut for a T).  And there were a few times when I tried to make a capital B but the Apple Watch thought I was making a 13.  I'm sure that with more use, one gets better at using the scribble feature on an Apple Watch.

Of course, for really long and complicated replies you will want to just reach for your iPhone and use the keyboard.  But after just a few minutes of trying out this feature, I was really impressed by how useful it is.  I've learned over the past 15 months of using an Apple Watch that there are times when it is far more convenient to send a message from the watch instead of pulling an iPhone out of my pocket, and the scribble feature of watchOS 3 assists with this convenience.

Now playing

There was one part of watchOS 2 that I missed on watchOS 3.  The only Glance that I regularly use in watchOS 2 is the Now Playing Glance.  I swipe up on my watch face and instantly see the play/pause button, which is useful for controlling music, a podcast, or an audio book that is playing on my iPhone — sometimes using the built-in speaker, but more often using a Bluetooth speaker.  My iPhone and/or speaker might be located across the room, but I can currently control the audio, and even skip back or forward, using a simple swipe up on the watch on my wrist:

In watchOS 3, Glances are gone.  Swiping up on the clock face just brings up the Control Center.  You can still control audio using the Music app, which you can put in your Dock, but in my tests over the weekend that is somewhat less convenient.  First, you need to press the side button.  Then, you need to swipe to locate and then select the Music app.  You can move any app so that it is at the beginning of the Dock, but it still takes more steps to get to a screen with a play/pause button in watchOS 3 than on watchOS 2.

I thought that a workaround would be to put a Music complication on my watch face.  That way, I could just tap the complication on the face of my watch and launch the app with the play/pause button.  My gut tells me that there must be a way to make this work, but I couldn't figure out how to do that during my tests over the past weekend.  If any of you are already using the beta of watchOS 3 and have found a simple way to get to that play/pause/FF/RW screen, I'd love to hear about it.  Otherwise, this is one of the first things that I will be trying to figure out when watchOS 3 is released and on my own watch.

Conclusion

I also tried out iOS 10 on an iPhone this past weekend, and it also has some nice features as I noted in my preview.  But once you are ten versions into an operating system, I suppose it is natural that the improvements are more incremental.  In contrast, the Apple Watch is still young with lots of room to grow and improve.  Perhaps for this reason, watchOS 3 is a major step forward.

Overall, I was incredibly impressed with the beta version of watchOS 3.  Except for the Now Playing feature noted above, I was disappointed to return to using watchOS 2 on my own Apple Watch.  Indeed, considering that this was beta software, I was surprised how well it worked, only crashing once during all of my tests.  Maybe it will be even faster and more polished when the final version is released in a few months, but even if the final experience is exactly the same as what I tried this past weekend (other than that one crash), I think that most Apple Watch users will be incredibly satisfied.

In the news

Back in 2014, explicit photographs of about 100 celebrities started showing up on the Internet, and it was discovered that many came from Apple's iCloud server.  At first, folks thought that Apple was hacked, but investigation revealed that the celebrities had been tricked into revealing their iCloud passwords to hackers, a process called social engineering, and then the bad guys just logged in using the username and password to access the photos.  A few months ago, one of the men responsible pled guilty, and Engadget reports this week that now a second man has pled guilty.  I mention this because this week, Dan Moren of Six Colors published two articles (1, 2) that explain how to turn on Apple's relatively new two-factor authentication system.  I had previously been using a prior Apple system called two-step verification.  The point of these systems is that someone cannot access your account with just the password, so even if they trick you into giving it to them, or if they find a piece of paper where you wrote it down, etc., that isn't sufficient.  Logging in also requires physical access to one of your trusted Apple devices, such as your iPhone.  For example, if you try to use an iPad to connect to your iCloud account for the first time, not only do you have to enter your password on the iPad, but also you need to enter a number that appears on your iPhone screen.  A bad guy might have your password, but hopefully he won't also have your unlocked iPhone — and if he does, you have bigger problems on your hand.  Better yet, when that special number appears on your iPhone, a map shows you the location of the person trying to log in.  Thus, if the number appears when you are not intending to authorize a new device, and if the map shows that the request is coming from a different state or a different country, you know that someone else is trying to improperly access your account.  I recommend that you turn on the new two-step authentication system, which is what I did this week after reading Dan Moren's article.  It's quick and easy to turn on, and it gives you some extra security.  And now, the other news of note from the past week:

• Florida attorney Rick Georges discusses the Palm Pilot (state of the art in 1998) and links to a PCMag.com history of all of the Palm devices, including the Treo 650 that I used for many years, and really loved when it was in its prime.
• Florida attorney Katie Floyd discusses IFTTT, a useful service for controlling devices and automating actions.
• Brett Burney reviews Grafio, an app that you can use to create visual diagrams and flowcharts.
• If you want to get cable stations without cable TV (or satellite TV), one option is to subscribe to Sling TV, which you can do via an Apple TV.  I haven't tried the service, but when I've looked at the offerings in the past I've been confused by the packages.  Jared Newman wrote a good article for TechHive that explains the pricing.  It looks like you need to pay about $40 a month for full basic channel selection, then you pay extra for additional channel packages.  By the time you are done, it looks like you might be paying about the same that you pay for cable, but still I like that this option is out there.
• Julie Strietelmeier of The Gadgeteer reviews Automatic, a device that lets your iPhone collect information from your car.
• Strietelmeier also reviews the Ring Smart Video Doorbell, a device that lets you see on your iPhone a video of the person ringing your doorbell.
• Have you ever found that the Messages app on your iPhone has two separate message threads even though they are with the same person?  This has happened to me in the past.  Dan Moren of Six Colors explains what you can do if this happens — but unfortunately there often isn't much you can do.
• Michael Simon of Macworld discusses third party keyboards for the iPhone.  I have Gboard, the keyboard he recommends, and it is sometimes useful.
• There is an interesting post on the Molly Watt Trust website about a woman who uses her Apple Watch to cope with Usher Syndrome (she was born deaf and has lost most of her sight).  It works very well for her to have the Apple Watch tap on her wrist to get her attention.
• Serenity Caldwell of iMore reviews the Apple Music service on its first birthday.  I use Apple Music and I really like it.
• Ben Brooks offers advice for choosing between the 9.7" and the 12.9" iPad Pro.
• And finally, Dennis Sellers of Apple World Today reports that Apple's Cookie Monster commercial for Siri was named a Top 10 Breakthrough Ad by Ace Metrix.  That's as good an excuse as any to watch the two videos again:

Review: Apex Fusion by Lynctec - thin, active stylus with fiber tip

The best stylus on the market is the Apple Pencil, but it costs $99 and requires an iPad Pro.  If you don't use an iPad Pro, there are other good choices on the market because stylus technology has improved considerably over the last year.  Lynctec recently sent me a free review sample of their latest stylus, the Apex Fusion.  I've been trying it out over the last few weeks, and it is an excellent stylus that is worth your consideration if you cannot use an Apple Pencil.

In addition to the black model that Lynctec sent me, the company also sells silver, gold and rose gold versions of the Apex Fusion.

To speed things up in this review, I will start by referring you to my review of the Adonit Jot Dash that I wrote last October.  As fully explained in that review, Jot Dash was the first active stylus (a powered stylus that uses a fine tip) available in a thin stylus, with a barrel diameter similar to a pencil or pen.  (Earlier active styluses were thicker, more like a Sharpie or other marker; and before active stylus, we only had non-powered styluses that could be thinner but had thick tips so it felt more like you were using a crayon then a pen or pencil.) 

In the following picture, the Apex Fusion is at the top, the Jot Dash is in the middle, and the Apple Pencil is at the bottom:

The Apex Fusion has a lot in common with the Jot Dash.  The barrel of the stylus is thin, so it looks like a normal pen.  It has a fine tip (2 mm) so that when the end touches your iPad screen it works like a pen, not a crayon.  It is powered, so you have to charge it.  And unlike more sophisticated styluses that have extra buttons that can communicate with certain apps using Bluetooth (for example, telling the app to switch to an eraser mode), there are no extra buttons on the Apex Fusion (or the Jot Dash).

But the Apex Fusion has a few tricks up its sleeve that I think make it a better option than the Jot Dash for many people.  First, the tip has a fiber polymer tip, so it is soft against your iPad screen.  The Jot Dash has a hard tip, so it makes a little noise against the screen.  The soft tip on the Apex Fusion is much more quiet, which I prefer when I am taking notes in a room with others.  I also like the way that the soft fiber glides against the screen.  I'll admit that there is a personal preference at play here, and others might disagree, but my preference is to use a tip like the one on the Apex Fusion and I suspect that many others would agree.

Second, the front of the barrel is not smooth like the Jot Dash but instead has a patterned grip area that makes the stylus easier to hold in your hand.

Third, the Apex Fusion doesn't require a special adapter to charge.  There is a small micro USB port on the side near the back of the stylus.  It doesn't get in your way, and I barely even notice it unless I am looking to charge the stylus.  Compare this to the Jot Dash, which comes with a device that fits into a (normal sized) USB port and holds the stylus.  It works well if you have it with you, but if you need a charge and that small device isn't with you, you are out of luck.  Micro USB cords come with a ton of different devices, so there is a good chance that you will have one or can find one wherever you are.

In terms of performance, the Apex Fusion and Jot Dash work about the same.  That means that they work pretty well, but are not nearly as good as the Apple Pencil.  Of course, nothing for the iPad is as good as the Apple Pencil.  There is a noticeable lag between the time that you start to write and when you see the digital ink appear, and sometimes the digital ink is less smooth than what you actually drew.  It's the reason that, before the Apple Pencil, many folks concluded that the trade-offs of an active stylus were not worth it and they preferred a traditional, non-powered stylus.  I myself often fell in that camp.

But if you want an active stylus because you like the idea of a tiny tip, and the Apple Pencil isn't an option for you, there is a lot to like about the Apex Fusion.  If the Apple Pencil is not an option for you — because, for example, you use an iPad Air or Air 2 or older iPad — the Apex Fusion by Lynctec is one of my favorite styluses on the market today.  On the other hand, if you use an iPad Pro, I recommend that you spent the extra money and get an Apple Pencil, which is the gold standard.  And finally, if using a stylus is important to you and you don't currently use an iPad Pro, you should consider upgrading to a new iPad so that you can use the Apple Pencil.

Click here to get Apex Fusion by Lynctec from Amazon ($49.99)

In the news

One of my favorite features of the Apple Watch is that it is so easy to swap out watchbands.  I typically wear the Milanese Loop when I'm at work or otherwise wearing nicer clothes, and I typically wear the black XL Sports Band at night, when working out, and when wearing more casual clothes on the weekend.  I wouldn't want to wear the Sports Band at the office or the Milanese Loop when I am working out, so it is great to have just the right band for the right occasion.  Mitchel Broussard at MacRumors has an interesting post this week about the large number of bands that are currently listed as "sold out."  In early May, my wife ordered a Classic Buckle for her 38mm Apple Watch in the Marine Blue color — a really nice looking band that looks great on her — and it took over a month to arrive after we ordered it.  And now I see on the Apple website that it is listed as Sold Out.  The MacRumors article points out that Apple plans to follow a seasonal cycle, so certain styles will sell out and then be gone forever.  I suppose the moral is that if you see an Apple Watch band that you really like, consider buying it before it is gone forever.  And now, the news of note from the past week:

• I've never been an Evernote user, but I know many lawyers who love the service.  The company increased its prices this week, which as you can imagine was unpopular with many users.  Both Florida attorney Katie Floyd and California attorney David Sparks discuss the new prices.
• Law Technology Today interviews a panel of lawyers to discuss finding a work life balance through technology.
• Brett Burney reviews LawStack, an app that contains rules and statutes.
• San Francisco lawyer Casey Sullivan discusses a survey of New York judges regarding the use of technology in an article for the Technologist blog.
• Long after the rest of the world moved on to iPhones and Android, many in government in D.C. continued to use Blackberry devices.  Jim Swift of Bomble.com reports that Senate staffers received notice this week that they will no longer be issued Blackberry smartphones.
• Oscar Raymundo of Macworld describes a few of the smaller, but useful, features of iOS 10 (coming this Fall).
• Serenity Caldwell of iMore describes some of the most underrated features in watchOS 3 (coming this Fall).
• John Brownlee wrote an interesting article on how Apple brought Apple Watch fitness features to wheelchair users in an article for Fast Company.
• I've seen some very favorable reviews of the new Bose QC35 noise-cancelling wireless headphones.  For example, Serenity Caldwell of iMore says in her review that it is on the short list of her favorite tech purchases of 2016.
• Dan Moren of Six Colors discusses Philips Hue bulbs, and also HomeKit accessories in general.
• J.R. Bookwalter of Macworld reviews Streets, an app that integrates Google Street View with Apple Maps — and even brings Street View to the Apple Watch.
• Zac Hall of 9to5Mac reports that the Walgreens app now has better integration of coupons.  This reminds me that I should use the app more.  There is a Walgreens close to my house, and I love that it is so easy at that store to use Apple Pay and to even enter my Walgreens reward card using my iPhone and Apple Watch.
• As reported by Jared Nelson of TouchArcade, the iPad game Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens was released this week.  My son and daughter give it two big thumbs up, and after watching them play the game a little, I may have install it on my iPad too to give it a spin.
• And finally, I enjoyed this short story by Ben Lovejoy of 9to5Mac about a French TV talk show that suddenly had a power outage, which caused the TV cameras to stop functioning.  But the show must go on, so the folks on stage took out their iPhones and filmed the rest of the show that way.  Here is a video that shows what happened.  Even if you don't speak French, you can see how the folks involved are being pretty creative to switch to iPhones.  Lovejoy says that this is the first time that a broadcast TV show in France has ever been shot on an iPhone.  Here is the video: