The new iPad Pro has been out for a little while now, and as wonderful as that device is, we can't help but start thinking about the next big thing in the world of iOS. We know that iOS 11 is coming soon, and you can even download a public beta now if you want to take it out for spin — but I don't recommend that you do so on a device that you use for work because Apple is still working out the kinks and many third party apps won't work with the beta version. We also know that Apple will come out with new iPhones this Fall, presumably an iPhone 7s and an iPhone 7S Plus, so that is another next big thing to look forward to. But for a while now, there has been a rumor that Apple will also release a premium model, perhaps called the iPhone Pro, giving Apple the ability to sell a more advanced iPhone with features that Apple cannot produce at scale and at a low enough cost to put the features in all iPhones sold. John Gruber of Daring Fireball wrote a fantastic analysis of why it makes sense for Apple to produce an iPhone Pro, and Gruber even explains why the iPhone Pro will likely sell for $1200 to $1400. And now, the news of note from the past week:
- Kentucky attorney Stephen Embry discusses how the iPhone shook up the legal market when it was introduced ten years ago.
- Florida attorney, and former U.S. Senator, George LeMieux discusses how the iPhone and other technology has changed the world, in an article for the Tampa Bay Times.
- California attorney David Sparks reviews the Dash iPad Sleeve from Waterfield.
- Security is a frequent topic here on iPhone J.D., and for good reason. Unfortunately, even if you do everything right, you are still vulnerable. Software developer Justin Williams tells the tale of how he got hacked even though he uses a password manager, two-factor authentication, etc. because an AT&T call center representative was tricked into resetting his iPhone even though the hacker didn't know the passcode. Then the hacker was able to transfer money out of a PayPal account. Ugh.
- Speaking of security, at certain Hilton hotels, you can use your iPhone to unlock the door to your room. As reported by Ben Lovejoy of 9to5Mac, Hilton announced that its system has now been used 11 million times at 1,700 hotels without a single security breach.
- There is a solar eclipse in a few weeks that will be visible from the United States. Jeff Byrnes of AppAdvice reviews the Solar Eclipse app from Redshift that gives you all of the information that you need to view the eclipse.
- It was a little sad to see the report by Chance Miller of 9to5Mac that Jawbone is shutting down. There was a time when the company was known for making some of the best headsets, and the Jawbone Jambox was a very popular speaker for a while. I was a big fan of the Jawbone Prime, a Bluetooth headset I reviewed back in 2009.
- In an article for TidBITS, Glenn Fleishman explains the new video and photo formats (HEVC and HEIF) coming in iOS 11. "HEIF tries to combine all the best aspects of PNG, JPEG, and GIF, while dramatically improving compression and adding new features like the capability to store bursts of photographs." Sounds good, and perhaps it will let Apple make Live Photos even better — a feature that is really fun when you take pictures of kids.
- Leander Kahney of Cult of Mac looks it some of the earliest Apple prototype designs for the iPhone, many of which were revealed during discovery in the lawsuit between Apple and Samsung.
- Who needs an iPhone when you can have a $2,500 Nokia phone which commemorates the meeting today between Trump and Putin? Click, if you must, on this post by Devin Coldewey of TechCrunch for pictures and more information.
- And finally, Apple started out its WWDC developer conference a few weeks ago by showing an amusing video of what the world might be like if all of our apps suddenly went away. It's funny and worth watching if you haven't seen it yet: