In an article for Above the Law, New York attorney Nicole Black describes how using an Apple Watch can reduce your reliance on your iPhone. I agree. For example, every day I use my Apple Watch to quickly glance at new emails and see if there is anything important, and also to quickly delete the junk. If I need to act on the emails, I'll usually use the iPhone (unless only a quick response is required, which I can easily do on the watch), but it is typically far more efficient to see what is there just using the watch. And now, the news of note from the past week:
- Debra Cassens Weiss of ABA Journal shares the news of Connecticut police charging a man with the murder of his wife, in part based upon data from her Fitbit fitness tracker regarding the time of day when she was moving around (which was inconsistent with the husband's story). I could see the same type of thing occurring with an Apple Watch.
- California attorney David Sparks reminds us that free is never free, and if you use a service that you don't have to pay for, keep in mind that the the provider of that service may making money off of you in ways that you are not thinking about. For this very reason, I have a bias in favor of apps that cost money; I want to support developers so that they continue to make good apps, and I don't want the developer to be tempted to resort to unscrupulous tactics to make a living.
- Legal tech consultant Brett Burney reviews iThoughts, a mind mapping app. The video accompanying his review is both informative and entertaining.
- Cameron Summerson of How-To-Geek compares the unlimited plans being offered by all of the major U.S. cellphone companies. As I noted last month, I recently switched to the AT&T Unlimited Plan, and so far I've been very happy with it. The knowledge that I have unlimited data has encouraged me to do much more with my iPhone, such as streaming more audio and video and using LTE when I don't get a good WiFi signal, and it has made my iPhone much more enjoyable to use. My personal plan used to be 4 GB/month, and as I type this I see that I have already used 12.55 GB this month, and I still have five days left in my billing cycle.
- Ben Lovejoy of 9to5Mac describes Apple's new "Today at Apple" program which will increase in-store classes for customer of Apple product at Apple Stores.
- John Gruber of Daring Fireball explains that while Apple Watch sales may pale in comparison to iPhone sales, the Apple Watch has still be very successful for Apple.
- Nick Guy of The Wirecutter describes the best Apple Watch chargers and stands. His favorite is the Spigen stand which I reviewed in 2015. I really like that stand too, and it is the one that my wife uses. He also likes the Material Dock by Studio Neat which I reviewed in 2016. I'm still using the Material Dock every night, and it is nice to have a convenient location next to my bed to charge both my iPhone and my Apple Watch.
- Dan More of Six Colors explains how to purge your completed items from the Reminders app.
- And finally, this past weekend was Earth Day, and Apple debuted an interesting page on its website talking about Apple's environmental initiatives. Also, Lisa Jackson (who is Apple’s vice president of Environment, Policy, and Social Initiatives, and formerly ran the EPA) appeared on John Gruber's The Talk Show podcast to discuss what Apple is doing. It's pretty impressive stuff, and I'm proud to point out that Jackson grew up here in New Orleans. Apple also released four short videos, each of which is amusing and worth watching. They are called "Can a building breath?", "Can we produce zero waste?", "Do solar farms feed yaks?" and finally (and most memorable) "Why does Apple make its own sweat?". Here is the sweat video:
