There were two iPhone-related stories out of the UK this week, one tragic, and one with a happy ending. Starting with the bad news, Amie Gordon of the Daily Mail reports that a man in London was electrocuted when he tried to use and charge an iPhone in the bathtub. It sounds like the deadly part was not the iPhone itself or the charging cord, but the fact that he had an extension cord that ran to his tub. In happier UK iPhone news, Steven Sande of Apple World Today shares the story — and the recorded audio — of a four year old boy whose mother lost consciousness. The boy asked Siri on his mother’s phone for help and was connected to emergency services (999 in the UK). The boy told them that he thought his mother was dead because her eyes were closed and she wouldn’t wake up. The paramedics arrived a few minutes later, and the mother was saved. Good job, Siri! And now, the news of note from the past week:
- There was a news story earlier this week that hackers were going to remotely wipe iCloud accounts unless Apple paid the hackers $150,000. Apple responded that it was not hacked, and that the account information came not from Apple but from third party sites. Florida attorney Katie Floyd discusses this story and correctly concludes that, even if this was just a hoax, it is a good reminder that you should use unique, complex passwords for each website, and that a password manager can help you do that. I use, and recommend, 1Password.
- California attorney Jacob Flesher shares tips for using TrialPad in a post on the Lit Software blog.
- Massachusetts attorney Robert Ambrogi discusses upcoming enhancements to the MyCase mobile app.
- Workflow is a cool app that can automate many tasks on your iPhone or iPad. I discussed the app when I reviewed a video field guild on using the Workflow app created by California attorney David Sparks. Matthew Panzarino of TechCrunch reports that Apple recently purchased Workflow and the team that makes it. Going forward, the app will be free. Sparks shares his thoughts on this acquisition. My hope is that Apple isn’t just hiring the developers, but also plans to keep the app going. Indeed, if Apple builds support for Workflow deeper into iOS, the app can become so much better than it already is.
- Speaking of Apple apps, I mentioned earlier this week that Apple will release its new Clips app next month. Lauren Goode of The Verge got a chance to see a beta of the app. The ability to transcribe what you are saying and add that text on top of the video is a neat trick; Apple calls that Live Titles.
- Margaret Rhodes of Wired also discusses the neat Live Titles features of the upcoming Clips app.
- Dan Moren of Six Colors notes that Apple updated iTunes to version 12.6 this week. The new version lets you rent a movie on a computer and then watch the movie on an iPhone, iPad or Apple TV.
- Mark Gurman of Bloomberg reports that he believes that Apple is working on augmented reality, including a pair of glasses, as its next big thing.
- And finally, you may not need this app for yourself, but there is a good chance that someone in your family does — an app to help a person remember to take medications. David Pogue of Yahoo notes that 125,000 Americans die every year because they don’t take the right medicine at the right time. After looking at dozens of apps in this category, Pogue concludes that Medisafe is the best one. The app can even alert you if your loved on misses a dose so that you can reach out and remind the person to take the medicine. Here is Pogue’s full story, but you can get most of what you need to know from his video at the top of that story, and also embedded right here: