It seems like I am seeing more and more people wearing an Apple Watch lately. Just a few days ago, a Louisiana judge mentioned to me that he is getting an Apple Watch for his wife for Christmas. (I won't mention what court he is on, just in case his wife is already an iPhone J.D. reader. Wouldn't want to ruin the surprise.) Nevertheless, a technology research firm named IDC recently reported their prediction that Apple Watch sales were down. Presumably in response to that, Apple CEO Tim Cook reached out to Reuters this week to say that Apple Watch sales actually reached a new high, and that they should be one of the most popular holiday gifts this year, although Cook didn't provide specific numbers. (Apple has traditionally reported the number of iPhones sold, but doesn't report specific numbers on the Apple Watch.) If you don't already have an Apple Watch, maybe Santa will leave one under the tree for you this year. And now, the news of note from the past week:
- California attorney David Sparks warns about using knock-off power adapters that you can buy on Amazon. I hear a number of folks say that, to be safe, they only buy iPhone/iPad cords and power adapters directly from Apple.
- Washington, D.C. attorney Reid Trautz has posted the 2016 version of his annual Holiday Gift Guide for Lawyers. There are a few iPhone-related items in there, including a Star Trek Communicator that connects via Bluetooth to your iPhone.
- Apple executive Phil Schiller tweeted that November, 2016 was the highest monthly sales ever in App Store history. Wouldn't surprise me if this month sets the new record.
- Jason Snell has a good wishlist of improvements to the iPad Pro in an article for Macworld. It's a good list, and I hope to see some of these features added soon.
- iLounge shows off the Griffin Pencil Sleeve, an accessory for your Apple Pencil.
- Dan Moren of Six Colors explains how to view your Apple Music songs that are already downloaded to your iPhone, and thus can be played even without an Internet connection. Good advice as many of us prepare for travel over the holidays.
- If you are traveling to New York City over the holidays, you can check out the fun windows on many of the major New York stores, such as Macy's. But if you can't be there in person, now your iPhone can take you there virtually, thanks to Google's new Window Wonderland project. It's really cool. Harry McCracken explains it all in an article for Fast Company.
- I really enjoyed watching the first season of Westworld on HBO. Evan Rachel Wood, who plays Dolores in the show, noticed that Siri appears to be a fan too because there are lots of Westworld-related questions that you can ask, as reported by Ben Lovejoy of 9to5Mac.
- I was never a really big player of Nintendo's Mario games, but I know how popular they are. Nintendo will be releasing Super Mario Run for the iPhone next week, and they put together a fun commercial that even got me excited to check out the game next week.
- Douglas Quenqua of Campaign US put together an oral history of the I'm a Mac/I'm a PC ads, some of my favorite Apple commercials of all time.
- And finally, Apple released a commercial for the iPhone 7 this week called Romeo and Juliet, and it is a pretty good one. As a parent who has recently been watching my own kids on stage at various events, I'm probably guilty of seeing my kids perform through the same prism as the father in this video: