We are in peak Mardi Gras season down here in New Orleans, and the weather for the parades has been fantastic this year. Many of the floats feature clever satire, and it goes without saying that the last 12 months have provided ample material to work with. But you came here for iPhones and iPads, not beads and doubloons, so here is the news of note from the past week:
- Florida lawyer Rick Georges discusses the new unlimited data plans offered by U.S. carriers in a post for his FutureLawyer website.
- Legal tech consultant Brett Burney reviews the Documents 5 app by Readdle.
- Some folks are suggesting that Apple should buy Netflix. It has enough money to do so, but does that strategy make sense? Neil Cybart of Above Avalon wrote an interesting analysis of why Apple doesn’t need to buy Netflix.
- Jason Snell has some good and interesting suggestions for improving the iPad Pro in an article for Macworld.
- Joseph Cox of Motherboard explains how with $170 and just a few seconds of access to an Android phone, anyone can install malware to listen to the speaker remotely and track the phone’s location. The article suggests that something similar could theoretically happen to an iPhone too, but the iPhone has to be jailbroken first. For this reason, I discourage every lawyer from jailbreaking an iPhone. Many years ago there were some legitimate arguments for doing so, but improvements in the iOS have made this largely unnecessary and the main reason that people do it nowadays is to run pirated software, which you of course shouldn’t be doing.
- Valentina Palladino of Ars Technica compares Apple’s AirPods to other wireless earbuds.
- Aaron Carroll writes in an article for the New York Times that wearable fitness devices (like the Apple Watch) do not help you to lose weight.
- Overcast, my favorite app for listening to podcasts on my iPhone, was updated to version 3 this week. The author of the app, Marco Arment, explains what is new in this post. And Federico Viticci of MacStories wrote a good review of the updated app.
- How often do you buy apps for your iPhone? Ben Lovejoy of 9to5Mac reports that, according to research by Sensor Tower, the average U.S. iPhone user spent $40 on apps and in-app purchases in 2016.
- Speaking of buying apps, GoodNotes 4, my favorite iPad app for taking handwritten notes, normally costs $7.99 (and is worth it), but for the next few days the app is discounted to $0.99. If you have any interest in trying out the app, get it now by clicking here.
- And finally, Apple announced this week that its new campus, called Apple Park, will open in April, although it will take six months to move in the 12,000 employees who will work there. Here is a short video from Apple showing off the new building: