This is the best time of the year for the iPhone. We have new devices, and the iPhone XS has been a real champ for me this week during a crazy busy week for me both at work and after work. We are also seeing more apps being updated to work with iOS 12 and watchOS 5. And CarPlay has been seeing some nice improvements thanks to more third party apps. Here is the news of note from the past week:
I was in my local Apple Store last week and I saw that they were selling the Logitech Crayon, a stylus with all of the precision of an Apple Pencil except that you save $30. It currently only works with the 2018 version of the 9.7″ iPad, but I suspect that will change when Apple releases additional new iPads. It has some advantages and some disadvantages as compared to the Apple Pencil, but it is definitely worth considering. Leif Johnson of Macworld posted a review of the Logitech Crayon to help you make that decision.
This scenario seems pretty far-fetched, but Ed Hardy of Cult of Mac has a scenario in which Apple Watch fall detection could get you sideways with law enforcement. Spoiler alert: it involves other evidence of a crime being around when the police go to save you.
Zac Hall also posted some iPhone X and iPhone XS photograph comparisons. He finds lots of circumstances in which the iPhone XS is noticeably better (as did I).
Michael Potuck of 9to5Mac reminds of us of the procedure to force quit an Apple Watch app: hold the power button until the power screen appears, and then hold the digital crown.
If you are thinking of getting a portable solar battery charger for your iPhone or iPad, Sarah Witman of Wirecutter picks the best ones.
And finally, Apple is running a commercial for the Apple Watch Series 4 showing how the device can make you a better version of yourself. It’s a cute commercial.
Last year’s iPhone X was, in my opinion, the most significant year-to-year advance in iPhone technology. Apple found a way to almost defy physics, fitting a larger, beautiful OLED screen into a device that remained the same size in your hand. Apple also added a second camera lens — a telephoto lens — which Apple previously only found space for on the larger Plus models. Toss in the speed improvements and various other new features, and it was a major upgrade. The 2017 iPhone X seemed like it was a 2018 iPhone X that we were somehow seeing a year early. (And as if to emphasize that point, last year Apple introduced an iPhone 8, and then skipped number 9 to also introduce the iPhone X.)
How do you follow up on an act like that? Apple actually has some experience in this area. It adds nice but incremental improvements to the prior year model, and then to indicate that it is a less significant upgrade, Apple adds an “s” to the name. Hence, Apple has introduced the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4S, iPhone 5s, and iPhone 6s. An “s” year iPhone doesn’t mean that there are no big new features. For example, the iPhone 4S added Siri and the iPhone 5S added a way to authenticate without typing a password (Touch ID), and both of those features remain critical parts of the iPhone. But in an “s” year, hardware changes are typically less noticeable.
That last sentence holds true this year in one way, but doesn’t hold true in two other ways. The iPhone XS, which I purchased, fits the mold of prior “s” year upgrades. The hardware on the outside looks almost exactly the same, so the real improvements are under the hood. But in addition, Apple made the iPhone larger in the iPhone XS Max, and Apple made the iPhone less expensive with the iPhone XR. If you purchase either the iPhone XS Max or the iPhone XR, then you are getting a phone with obvious physical differences from the 2017 iPhone X. This review focuses on the iPhone XS, but I at the end I also have some comments about the other two new iPhones.
The iPhone X
Before talking about the iPhone XS, I want to say a few words about the iPhone X, because I am sure that most of you who are considering a new iPhone this year are upgrading from a model that is at least a few years old. Crossing over from an iPhone with a home button to an iPhone with an edge-to-edge screen is a major change. And at least initially, perhaps not a welcome change. Many attorneys (including my wife) have told me that they like having a home button; something that you can always press to exit from an app and go back to the main screen. Additionally, there are real advantages to using Touch ID over Face ID. For example, your face has to be in front of the camera, so you cannot just reach over to touch your iPhone to unlock it; you need to move the iPhone (or move your face) to the right position. And while you can discretely unlock an iPhone using Touch ID while you are talking to someone else, the other person will notice if you stop looking at them and start looking at your iPhone.
Nevertheless, I think that the advantage of a larger screen is more than worth it. I’m reminded of ten years ago, when I heard from countless attorneys who loved the small keyboards on their BlackBerries and Palm Treos, folks who said that they couldn’t imagine typing on a flat glass screen. I would always say that the space used up by a physical keyboard is wasted when you are not typing, resulting in a tiny screen that could be twice as large, allowing you to see more emails and other information. The same is true today. When you give up the space dedicated to the home button and the bezels around the edges, you have so much more screen real estate without increasing the size of the device. I used this picture with my review of the iPhone X, and it sums up why I love, love the larger iPhone X, and now iPhone XS, screen — you get Line 8 and Line 9:
Learning to swipe up from the bottom of the screen instead of pressing a button involves a learning curve, and you do give up something when you move from Touch ID to Face ID. But I think it is worth it, and I encourage you to keep an open mind about the change. The large and beautiful screen on the iPhone X and now the iPhone XS is a delight to use, and my enthusiasm hasn’t waned one bit even after almost a year of using it. You can use a device that feels the same size in your hand, but you can see so much more on the screen, and the screen technology itself is so much nicer to look at. The iPhone has always been about the touchscreen, and for the past year that touchscreen has been amazing.
Better photography
If you skipped over the iPhone X and are now thinking about getting the iPhone XS, one of the big reasons to do so is that you can take much better pictures with the iPhone XS. Last year’s iPhone X already did a great job of taking pictures, but there were circumstances in which it struggled, such as when you had lots of contrast in a picture with both bright and dark areas.
The iPhone XS is really impressive in these circumstances because of technology which Apple calls Smart HDR. When you are talking about photography, a picture really is worth a thousand words, so here are some examples. I took some pictures this weekend using both my iPhone X and my iPhone XS, and I think that the differences are pretty remarkable. If you are using an iPhone even older than the iPhone X, the differences will be even more noticeable. I did not do anything to correct the color, exposure, etc. in any of these pictures. I did crop them a little. In every picture below, the first picture was taken with the iPhone X, and the second picture was taken with the iPhone XS, in both cases using the normal 1x wide angle lens, not the telephoto lens. You can click on any picture to see a larger version.
In this first example, I’m taking a picture of brick walls with a bright sky in the background. The sky was bright enough that the contrast overwhelmed the iPhone X. It is not until you look at the second picture taken with the iPhone XS that you realize that you are supposed to be seeing a roof of a house just over the brick wall. And the color of the bricks in the iPhone XS picture better matches what my eyes actually saw.
Now let’s go to St. Charles Avenue in New Orleans to look at a passing streetcar. On a bright day, many pictures taken with the iPhone X are hazy, which causes the colors to be more drab. The iPhone XS does a better job of showing the true colors of the green streetcar with its crimson accents. You also see more color, and more detail, in the shadow on the grass created by the streetcar. The text on the side of the streetcar is crisper. The skin tones on the people are more accurate. It is just a better picture.
As the streetcar passed me, I took another set of pictures. Once again, the iPhone X picture is far more hazy, so the colors look worse. I will admit that there is one small advantage to the haze in the iPhone X picture: You see rays of light, which is an interesting artistic effect. But the rest of the picture looks worse. One noticeable difference: the sky. Over and over again in my pictures, I noticed that on a bright day you are far more likely to see the blue in the sky with the iPhone XS. If you like a blue sky, get an iPhone XS. (Note to Apple: feel free to use that marketing line in your advertising.)
I even tried to save the iPhone X picture by using the edit feature in the Photos app to restore some of the green and crimson on the streetcar and the green of the grass that is washed out in the original iPhone X picture. That helped, but it still didn’t look as good as the iPhone XS picture; for example, I still couldn’t see the blue of the sky.
As the streetcar started to head away from me and towards the French Quarter, I took one last set of pictures. With the streetcar taking up less of the screen, I was finally able to see some of the blue sky even in the iPhone X picture. But the shadow on the side of the streetcar and on the ground next to the streetcar was too much of a challenge for the iPhone X, resulting in a darker picture with fewer details. But the iPhone XS handled this with aplomb.
I think that these streetcar picture examples are informative because they reflect many of the pictures that I take with an iPhone in real life. The times when I think to myself something like: “Oh cool, there is a streetcar, let me take a quick picture as it passes.” Because your iPhone is with you so often, the convenience makes it the perfect camera for those quick, unplanned moments in life in which you want to quickly snap a picture of friends or family or the world around you.
Professional photographers use equipment and techniques to get the right amount of light for a photograph. But in real life, you don’t have all that fancy stuff, and often you want to take a picture when the light isn’t that great. As iPhone low light photography has improved every year, you are more likely to get a great picture to remember that special moment. It comes as no surprise that the iPhone XS also does a better job with low-light photography, and thanks to the advanced processor, it is a big leap forward. John Gruber of Daring Fireball has some excellent examples of both photos and videos in low light in this set on Flickr. The video examples near the bottom are particularly impressive.
One thing that you notice in low light photos in which there is a source of light is that the source of light itself looks much better. In the following pictures, notice how you can actually see the shape of the flame in the iPhone XS picture. It is all just a blob in the iPhone X picture:
The iPhone XS also does a great job with videos. I took some videos of my daughter playing soccer on Saturday, and they came out great. The grass is green, the sky is blue, and the images are crisp. Jason Snell of Six Colors may have figured out the reason that the video looked so good when he tweeted the following on Friday: “Maybe the most bananas thing I’ve learned about iPhone XS is that if you shoot 4K 30fps video, it actually shoots 60fps with every other frame stepped up/down, and then stitches the frame pairs together on the fly to create extended dynamic range.” By the way, if you enjoy using your iPhone to take videos, I strongly encourage you to consider getting the Glif + Hand Grip by Studio Neat, which I reviewed last year.
Portrait mode photographs are pretty neat on the iPhone XS. You can adjust the amount of blur in the background, an effect called bokeh, commonly seen in pictures taken with high-end SLR cameras. I tried this with some pictures of my daughter, and it was nice to have this level of control. As you blur the background more, you place more emphasis on the subject of the photo, and then you get to decide how much blur is too much. Apple did a nice job with this.
Every year, there is new iPhone that takes better pictures, but this year Apple did an especially good job with the improvements. What is most fascinating to me is that while the iPhone XS does feature a slightly better wide angle lens (the zoom lens is the same as the iPhone X), the picture quality is often substantially better simply because the processor inside of the iPhone is so much faster and more sophisticated. The iPhone X was already a good camera, but the iPhone XS is much better. If you take pictures with your iPhone, this is the iPhone for you.
Performance
Speaking of the processor improvements, the new CPU is faster and more energy efficient, and it includes a neural engine which allows the iPhone to handle even more sophisticated tasks. Updating from an iPhone that is two or more years old to the iPhone XS result in a noticeable speed increase, with everything seeming much more responsive. And even as compared to last year’s iPhone X, the iPhone XS does a much better with complicated operations. For example, the free augmented reality LightSpace app is much more fluid on an iPhone XS than on an iPhone X. I rarely play games with sophisticated 3D graphics, but I have no doubt that those perform even better on the iPhone XS.
I haven’t yet been able to test Gigabit-class LTE, a faster version of 4G as 5G is still being developed, which the iPhone XS supports. My carrier, AT&T, is bringing this service to New Orleans this year, but apparently, it isn’t live yet. In cities where it is available, Gigabit-class LTE should be about twice as fast as current LTE.
The iPhone XS Max and the iPhone XR
I stopped in my local Apple Store this weekend to see what the new Apple Watch Series 4 looks like. (It looks awesome, and the one I ordered should be delivered soon.). I also checked out the iPhone XS Max. It looks just like an iPhone XS, only bigger, which makes everything easier to see. However, it felt ridiculously large in my hand. For me, the advantage of a larger screen isn’t worth the tradeoff of the device being so much harder to hold, not is it worth losing the ability to use the iPhone with just one hand. Having said that, soon after I tried out the iPhone XS Max, I ran into someone telling me how much he likes his iPhone 8 Plus, which is about the same size, so I know that there are people who like this form factor. If that describes you, then the iPhone XS Max is a major leap forward because you get a crazy large screen in a device size that you are already used to holding.
If you want to spend less money but get most of the features of the iPhone XS, then the iPhone XR might be perfect for you. In my September 13, 2018 post, I listed everything that you give up with the iPhone XR. The feature that I would most miss is the telephoto lens, but if that isn’t important to you, the iPhone XR looks like a very compelling device. You can order an iPhone XR starting October 19, and devices ship and are available in stores a week later.
Misc.
There are a few other things worth knowing about the iPhone XS and the iPhone XS Max. First, they come in a new color: gold. It is sort of a mocha/copper type of gold. It doesn’t appeal to me, but I’m sure that it will appeal to many folks.
Second, Apple says that the screen is even more durable. Vanessa Hand Orellana of CNet did some drop tests, and the results were promising: “I’ve done my fair share of drop tests in my time at CNET, and I’ve never come out of one without a broken phone. Until now. The iPhone XS didn’t crack.” Hopefully none of us need to “test” this ourselves.
Third, the iPhone has dual-SIM support using a second eSIM. If you travel intentionally, this could be very useful.
Fourth, Face ID is a little better on the iPhone XS versus the iPhone X. In my side-by-side tests, sometimes it worked just as well, but other times Face ID worked better on the iPhone XS. Every little bit helps, but so far this has not been a major improvement. One important caveat — Face ID is a technology that is supposed to improve over time. Is it possible that I’m really comparing an iPhone X with a year of learning my face against an iPhone XS which has only had a weekend, and will get even better over time? I’m not sure, but perhaps.
Fifth, the sound is improved. The speakers are much better than the iPhone X, with wider sound, so much so that the first time I played a video I was actually startled that this sound was coming from my iPhone. And when you record video, the iPhone XS now records in stereo, so it sounds better. Check out those John Gruber videos I linked above to see what I mean.
Sixth, the iPhone XS is more water resistant. I didn’t test this with my expensive new phone, but as I described in more detail in my September 13, 2018 post, Apple has increased the IP Code rating from IP67 to IP68. And that’s better.
Conclusion
Unless you are an early adopter who loves using the latest and greatest technology, I don’t recommend upgrading from an iPhone X to an iPhone XS unless you want the larger size of the Max or if photography is really important to you. But for everyone else, the iPhone XS is amazing, combining everything I loved about the iPhone X with even more nice features.
With the large and beautiful screen of the iPhone XS, you can see more information on the screen at one time. Whether you are reading emails, looking at a document, doing some quick legal research, or looking at a PDF file, you can be more productive than ever with the iPhone XS. Sure, there will still be times when you want to instead reach for an iPad or a computer, but I have been able to do more with my iPhone X for the last year and the same will be true with the iPhone XS. When you are done with your work, the iPhone XS is the perfect device for the rest of your life, especially if that involves taking pictures.
It is also nice that you get more choice this year. If you want a crazy large screen, get the iPhone XS Max. If you want to shave off some of the features that you can live without and save some money, get the iPhone XR next month. But for the best all-around phone, I think that the iPhone XS hits the sweet spot.
My past year of using an iPhone X was my favorite year ever of using an iPhone. I can already see that the iPhone XS is going to be even better. If you are ready for an upgrade, you are in for a treat.
Many of Apple’s newest products go on sale today, including the iPhone XS, the iPhone XS Max, and the Apple Watch Series 4. (The iPhone XR will be available in stores starting October 26.) Using the Deliveries app on my current iPhone, I’ve been monitoring my iPhone Xs this week as it went from Shenzhen, China to Anchorage, Alaska to Louisville, Kentucky, and as I type this it should soon be on an early Friday morning plane to New Orleans. My own travel over the last few days has been far less interesting because my days have mostly been consumed with drafting appellate briefs. This has been a crazy busy week in the world of iOS-related stories, thanks to the new version of iOS and watchOS that came out earlier this week, the numerous reviews written by folks who got early looks at the new iPhones and new Apple Watch, and tons of app updates to take advantage of the new features in iOS 12. I’ve tried to select some of the most interesting items to feature in this collection of the news of note from the past week:
California attorney David Sparks posted a video review of the Elevation Labs Draft Table, a strong and sturdy stand that can tilt your iPad to various angles. I like that it can be adjusted to different angles. In my law practice, I mostly use my iPad Pro in two different angles. First, when I am taking handwritten notes, and sometimes when I am annotating documents, I prefer a slight tilt, and the Apple Smart Cover is perfect for that. Second, when I am mostly reading things on the screen and doing some light annotation, I prefer a more upright position, and for that, I love the strong and sturdy Simplex Tablet iPad Stand by Thought Out (my review). The Simplex only has one viewing angle, but I find that it is the only angle that I need other than the one I get with my Apple Smart Cover. Whatever product you use, I think that getting your iPad in the right angle for the work you are doing is a key part of being more productive with an iPad in a law practice.
Suzanne Barlyn of Reuters reported this week that John Hancock, one of the oldest life insurers in North America, will stop underwriting traditional life insurance policies and instead will only offer policies that adjust the life insurance premiums based upon how much you exercise, as measured by a wearable device such as the Apple Watch.
To get you ready for your new insurance policy, let’s start with some news items about the Apple Watch. I wasn’t surprised to see reviews of the new Series 4 Apple Watch this week by traditional media outlets, but I was surprised to see a review by Jon Hamm — yes, that Jon Hamm, of Mad Men — who talked to John Lonsdale of Men’s Journal about his thoughts on the new device. Hamm says: “It’s not as chunky on your wrist, but the face is bigger, so if you have fat fingers like me, you can press those little buttons and it all works well.”
Stephen Pulvirent of Hodinkee, who specializes in reviewing expensive watches, wrote a great review of the Series 4 Apple Watch. The video which accompanies the review is beautifully-produced and informative. Given his job, it is no surprise that he concludes by saying that he still plans to wear his Rolex most days, but he admits that he is going to keep a Series 4 charged and ready to go for certain days, and says that “Apple is on a trajectory where each new version of the Apple Watch gets more useful, cooler, more fun to wear, and we’re on a path where at some point, it’s just going to become indispensable. And with the Apple Watch Series 4, Apple is showing us that that future is closer than we thought.” I’ve never owned a Rolex or other super-expensive traditional watch, and because I love wearing an Apple Watch so much, I’m quite certain that I never will.
The new Series 4 Apple Watch looks amazing, but almost every Apple Watch model got better this week thanks to watchOS 5. Alex Guyot wrote a comprehensive review of watchOS 5 for MacStories.
The other new Apple hardware in the news this week was the iPhone XS. Rene Ritchie of iMore wrote a comprehensive review of the iPhone XS.
David Pogue of Yahoo reviews the new iPhone XS and, as always, includes one of his funny and goofy videos to go along with it.
Former White House photographer Pete Souza took some amazing pictures for DailyMail with the new iPhone XS in Washington, D.C.
Almost every model of the iPhone got better this week thanks to iOS 12. Jason Snell of Six Colors explains the improved search feature in Photos in iOS 12 which allows you to, for example, see pictures you have taken of dogs, and then refine that to just see pictures of dogs in the snow.
I love, love, love, love, love the deep integration of 1Password into iOS 12. Ryan Christoffel of MacStories shows off how it works. If you still don’t use a password manager, now that iOS 12 is out, you really don’t have an excuse.
Overcast was already my favorite podcast app, but it is now so much better with iOS 12 and watchOS 5. I particularly love the ability to listen to podcasts using just my Apple Watch and my AirPods, which is great for doing tasks around the house without having to carry around an iPhone. I haven’t yet used this combination when walking or jogging outside, but I look forward to trying that out soon. Zac Hall of 9to5Mac wrote a good review of what is new in Overcast on the iPhone and Apple Watch.
It’s going to take me months to get my arms around the new automation that is now possible thanks to Siri Shortcuts and the Shortcuts app in iOS 12. But as if that wasn’t enough, Federico Viticci of MacStories figured out how to trigger IFTTT applets using Siri and the Shortcuts app, which gives you the ability to trigger hundreds of additional services and devices such as a Sonos, a Roomba, an online document, and more.
A few days ago, Apple provided select members of the press with an iPhone XS and an iPhone XS Max so that they could post a review yesterday, shortly before the 2018 versions of the iPhone officially go on sale this Friday. Review units were given to John Gruber of Daring Fireball (review), Matthew Panzarino of TechCrunch (review), Joanna Stern of the Wall Street Journal (review), Nilay Patel (a former practicing attorney) at The Verge (review), Raymond Wong of Mashable (review), John Paczkowski of BuzzFeed (review), Brian X. Chen of the New York Times (review), Lauren Goode of Wired (review), Todd Haselton of CNBC (review), and Scott Stein of CNET (review). Here are my major takeaways from what these folks wrote after using the new iPhones for the last few days:
Many people found the camera to be much better than the iPhone X. John Gruber was particularly impressed, and the photos that he provided as examples show that the iPhone XS produces noticeably better pictures than the iPhone X in situations in which HDR makes a difference — pictures in which you have both light and dark spots. If you are taking pictures outside on a nice day, this may not matter very much. But if you are inside with less light, this can make a big difference. Similarly, Matthew Panzarino provided some stunning sample pictures and said that he thinks Apple “dramatically undersold how much improved photos are from the iPhone X to the iPhone XS. It’s extreme, and it has to do with a technique Apple calls Smart HDR.” And Nilay Patel says that the “camera upgrades on the XS over the X are significant. The XS makes the X camera look terrible most of the time.” (Patel still prefers the pictures taken by the Google Pixel 2, but when I looked at his sample pictures, I preferred the iPhone XS picture over the Google Pixel 2 picture every time. Just goes to show you that there is certainly a subjective element to an art like photography.)
On the other hand, some of the other reviewers were less impressed with the camera. For example, John Paczkowski said that the iPhone XS pictures were better than ones he took with the iPhone X, and yet it was still “pretty hard to tell” the difference. And Lauren Goode said that pictures taken with the iPhone XS were only “slightly improved from the iPhone X photos,” although she did see a more noticeable improvement in portrait mode photos.
Considering that you can actually see how much better the pictures are in the reviews posted by folks like Gruber and Panzarino, I find myself believing that the iPhone XS camera really is a big improvement over the iPhone X, but only some of the time, and perhaps other reviewers were taking pictures in conditions in which the improvement was less noticeable. As Joanna Stern noted: “The smart HDR feature and new sensors did make for a more even and clear photo when shooting almost directly into brighter lights—plus crisper, more colorful low-light shots—but overall my photos looked similar to the ones I’ve taken with the X.” But she also found that autofocus and launching the camera is much faster.
If you like the idea of a bigger phone, the iPhone XS Max is a very nice bigger phone. If you previously used a Plus model of an iPhone, then you know whether that type of size is too large for your hands. But many reviewers, such as Brian X. Chen, said that after trying both, they preferred the iPhone XS size. If you want an interesting perspective, check out the video at the top of the review by Joanna Stern in which she shows what an iPhone XS Max looks like in the hands of basketball player Gheorghe Muresan.
Only one reviewer, Todd Haselton, tested the improved water resistance of the iPhone XS. He said that he put the iPhone XS “in a fountain about 1 foot deep for five minutes and it was totally fine after I took it out.”
The screen on the iPhone XS supposed to be more durable. Nevertheless, Joanna Stern reported that the screen on her iPhone XS Max cracked after “a minor fall onto wood.”
The built-in speakers are noticeably better. Raymond Wong says that there is more separation between the left and right channels. And many reviewers noted that the sound is noticeably louder.
The iPhone XS is noticeably faster. Raymond Wong notes that complicated games like Fortnite play better on the iPhone XS. And Joanna Stern noted that even “[e]veryday actions are faster too — even just pressing the reply button in the Gmail app.” Several folks noted that Face ID is also faster and thus works better.
If you use a wireless charger, it will work better with the iPhone XS because the iPhone XS is more forgiving about where you place the iPhone on the charger.
My iPhone XS is supposed to be delivered this Friday. In light of these initial reviews, I’ll definitely be taking lots of pictures this weekend to see what I think about the improvements. And I hope that I notice the speed increases in everyday actions, as Joanna Stern pointed out.
Today, Apple will release as a software update the latest version of the operating system for the iPhone and iPad, iOS 12. Apple previewed the features of iOS 12 three months ago, and you can click here to read what is new. Note that I discussed the new version of FaceTime in that post, but Apple has decided to wait a little bit longer before rolling out the group FaceTime feature.
The feature that I am most looking forward to is Siri Shortcuts. I like the Workflow app, and now that it is built-in to the operating system it will be so much more powerful. I like that iOS 12 will recommend shortcuts to you, making this feature accessible to everyone. But I’m especially interested to see all of the great shortcuts that power users will be able to dream up and share.
Moreover, when apps are updated to support shortcuts, they can become much more powerful. Here’s a great example. I often wear my AirPods to listen to a podcast or music as I am walking through an airport to catch a flight. Wit the TripIt app installed on my iPhone, I can say “Hey Siri, upcoming flight” and TripIt will (1) tell my my next flight number such as Delta 123, (2) tell me how long I have before the flight departs, (3) tell me the gate number, and (4) tell me the flight’s status. (Note that #4, flight status, is only available if you pay for the TripIt Pro service, but the other features work for everyone.) That is precisely the information that I want as I’m walking through the airport, and if I’m wearing my AirPods, Siri can just talk to me without me needing to look down at my iPhone screen. And this is just one example of what the TripIt app can do with shortcuts. And TripIt is just one of countless apps that will be updated to support shortcuts. This is cool stuff.
I’m also looking forward to the improvements to notifications. In iOS 12, they are even easier to manage and organize.
It’s always a good idea to backup your device before you install a major new update such as iOS 12. Last night, I backed up my iPhone and my iPad to my iMac so that I would be ready. The update is typically available around 10am Pacific / 1pm Eastern, and I always recommend that you wait a few hours before updating because there have been a few times in the past when Apple had to pull an update shortly after release because a bug was discovered.
watchOS 5
In addition to iOS 12, Apple is also releasing watchOS 5 today. I discussed the major new features in this post. There are fitness improvements, the new Walkie-Talkie feature, support for Siri Shortcuts, podcast support, improved notifications, and more. Thus, if you already have an Apple Watch on your wrist, today it gets better.
Early this morning, Apple started taking orders for the iPhone XS, the iPhone XS Max, and the newly redesigned Series 4 version of the Apple Watch. I placed orders for an iPhone XS and the Series 4 Apple Watch. At the time that I placed my orders, the delivery date for the iPhone XS and the aluminum version of the Series 4 Apple Watch was September 21. However, I ordered the Stainless Steel version of the Apple Watch, and even though I placed my order immediately when the Apple Store opened, my Stainless Steel model has a delivery date of September 28 to October 2. For folks looking to get the iPhone XS Max, I see that it did not take very long for delivery dates to go past September 21 for many of the configurations. It will be interesting to see what kind of demand there is for all of the new products announced this week and how far back the delivery dates start to slip. [UPDATE: Just a few hours later, the Apple Watch delivery dates are now 3-4 weeks, and some models of the new iPhones are now at 1-2 weeks for delivery. We can only guess whether this is a function of supply or demand, but considering that the Apple Watch is a brand new design whereas this is an “s” year for the iPhone, my guess is that Apple Watch demand is particularly high.] And now, the news of note from this busy week in the iPhone and Apple Watch world:
In addition to selling AppleCare+ for the iPhone, Apple has started a new insurance program called AppleCare+ with Theft and Loss. As the name implies, this program will cover two incidents of accidental damage, theft, or loss, although there is a deductible. Get more information on the Apple website.
Last year, Apple announced the AirPower charging pad, but it still hasn’t been released, and most references to it were removed from the Apple website this week. Mike Wuerthele of AppleInsider has some theories on why.
Readdle makes some of the most useful apps for attorneys including Scanner Pro (which I use on my iPhone every week, and sometimes every day) and PDF Expert. Killian Bell of Cult of Mac reports that the company’s apps have now been downloaded 100 million times. Congrats, Readdle!
It is widely known that Apple is planning to open its own video streaming service in the future. Ben Lovejoy of 9to5Mac reports that Apple just won its first Emmy award for Apple-produced content, this one for Carpool Karaoke. I suspect that this won’t be Apple’s last Emmy for a TV show.
If you own an Apple HomePod, it’s going to get better next week. As Ryan Christoffel of MacStories reports, the device will gain support for multiple timers, phone calls, and the ability to play a song if you don’t know the name but you do know a line of the lyrics.
In what almost seemed like a response to that article by Fowler, Apple’s keynote featured a presentation by Lisa Jackson, Apple’s Vice President in charge of environment, policy and social initiatives. (She is also the former administrator of the EPA.) Horace Dediu of Asymco discusses the most interesting aspects of Jackson’s presentation.
And finally, Apple released lots of videos in connection with this week announcements, but today I’m just picking one that is silly and fun. The opening video for this week’s keynote address features someone running across Apple’s new campus in Mission: Impossible style. (As Roger Fingas of AppleInsider points out, Apple took some liberties for the path used by this runner.) The video is entertaining, and also gives you some good views of Apple’s new campus:
There have been four times in the past when Apple has debuted a major new iPhone with a new hardware design, and then the next year has debuted an “s” model: the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4S, iPhone 5s, and iPhone 6s. These “s” models contain new features, sometimes even new hardware features, but the main emphasis seems to be on deeply improving the prior year’s model. Many lawyers have told me that they buy a new iPhone every two years and prefer to buy on the “s” year because that is when Apple really perfects each generation of iPhone. Yesterday, Apple debuted the new iPhone XS (pronounced “ten ess”), and it fits this model perfectly. The iPhone XS answers the question of what can we do if we take the basic hardware of the iPhone X, with that beautiful OLED edge-to-edge screen, and then deeply improve it.
One of the most notable ways that Apple has improved upon the iPhone X model is by releasing three different versions of the iPhone XS. The main model adds the typical types of improvements that we would expect for an “s” model. But Apple also introduced two other versions of the iPhone XS: one for people who want an even bigger screen called the iPhone XS Max, and one for people who to save some money but still get most of the good stuff called the iPhone XR. Add to this that many of the older iPhone models are still available for sale at cheaper prices, and there is truly an iPhone for everyone.
I’ll start by discussing the improvements over the iPhone X that exist in both the main model and the larger Max model — and most of these improvements also exist in the cheaper iPhone XR model.
Performance
For a while now, Apple has been designing its own CPUs, allowing the company to create amazing processors which make the iPhone more powerful every year. For the 2018 iPhone, Apple has added the new A12 Bionic chip. As you would expect, this new CPU is faster and more energy efficient than prior models. But to give the A12 an additional boost, Apple added the Neural Engine, a part of the CPU dedicated to the task of machine learning.
Thanks to the Neural Engine, the iPhone XS can recognize patterns, make predictions, and learn from experience, and do all of this while performing five trillion operations per second. In other words, the iPhone is smarter and faster. The Neural Engine is especially useful for the camera (more on that below), but also allows the iPhone XS to perform more sophisticated computations. Augmented Reality should be significantly better on the iPhone XS.
Obviously this makes the iPhone better for CPU-intensive apps like sophisticated games. But even if you are just drafting an email to a client, surfing the web, or looking at photos, a faster iPhone is a more responsive iPhone, which always makes an iPhone more pleasant to use.
Speaking of making the iPhone faster, the iPhone XS also adds support for Gigabit-class LTE, a faster version of 4G as 5G is still being developed. My carrier, AT&T, currently has Gigabit LTE in 141 markets. Gigabit LTE should be about twice as fast as 4G, up to 400 Mbps. In the real world, I typically see LTE download speeds of around 150 Mbps where I live in New Orleans, whereas if I am close to the Wi-Fi router in my house I see wireless download speeds from my cable modem of around 330 Mbps. I’ll be curious to see if Gigabit LTE is just as fast as Wi-Fi at my house — and significantly faster when I’m not close to the Wi-Fi router — after I upgrade to the iPhone XS.
Camera
It is truly amazing how far the camera on the iPhone has come in the last decade. Apple says that the newest iPhone has the best camera yet. It looks like there are only minor improvements in the camera hardware. Just like the iPhone X, the iPhone XS has two 12 megapixel cameras on the rear, one of which is a wide-angle f/1.8 lens and one of which is a telephone f/2.4 lens. I love having that telephoto lens on my iPhone X, and if you haven’t used an iPhone with this feature before, you’ll love it. There are so many times that I am taking a picture with my iPhone and I want to get closer — such as when I’m taking a picture of my daughter kicking the soccer ball when she is across a soccer field from me. For both pictures and video, that telephoto lens is a nice feature.
The main thing that is new for the iPhone XS in terms of taking pictures is that the CPU features an improved image signal processor which does a heck of a lot more As Apple noted yesterday, what really makes the iPhone camera better is the computational photography. The new the iPhone XS performs up to a trillion operations on every photo you take. For example, the iPhone XS adds a feature that Apple calls Smart HDR, an improved version of HDR photography. Apple VP Phil Schiller describes it this way:
So let’s say you’re taking a picture and the camera recognizes you’re shooting a subject and the subject is moving. You go to press down on the shutter and you get a picture instantly. It’s called zero shutter lag. What the A12 Bionic is actually doing is shooting a four-frame buffer so it can capture that critical moment. But the A12 Bionic is doing even more than that. It’s also capturing secondary inter-frames at the same time. And those inter-frames are shot at a different exposure level to bring out highlight details. And it’s doing more than that. It’s shooting a long exposure so it can get better shadow detail as well. And when you’re taking that picture it’s analyzing all of those, finding out how to match up the best parts of each and merge them into one perfect photo. That’s Smart HDR. It is a breakthrough, and it makes taking photos easier than ever to get beautiful results.
Apple also showed off a cool new feature when taking Portrait Mode photos — photos in which the subject of your picture is in focus but the background is blurred, similar to the bokeh effect you get with a high-end SLR camera. There is now a slider to adjust the amount of blurring in the background, so you can decide if you want to see some of the background details, or if you want your subject to really stand out.
Although I normally think of using the camera to take pictures, the front-facing camera is also critical for Face ID. Apple says that thanks to the advanced A12 Bionic CPU, Face ID is faster and works better on the iPhone XS. It would be great if this was a noticeable improvement, and I can’t wait to find out for myself.
Dual SIM
If you travel internationally with your iPhone, it is sometimes useful to get a different SIM card when you are in another country so that you can avoid expensive roaming charges. The iPhone XS has a traditional SIM card but also supports a second eSIM. When carriers support it — and Apple announced that many are on board — you’ll be able to use two SIMs at the same time, and the iPhone will intelligently switch between them depending upon the circumstances. Thus, you should be able to use a cheaper data plan in another country while still receiving phone calls when people call your normal phone number.
More waterproof
I’m sure that Apple would prefer that you not dunk your iPhone into the ocean. But over time the iPhone has become more resistant to water, and this year the improvement is enough for Apple to increase the IP Code from IP67 to IP68. The first number refers to how dust-proof the device is, and the iPhone X was already at 6, which is the highest. But the increase from 7 to 8 is a noticeable increase in liquid ingress protection, to use the technical words. With 7, a device can go up to 1 meter deep for up to 30 minutes. With the 8 rating, Apple says that the iPhone XS can go up to 2 meters deep for up to 30 minutes.
Apple isn’t advertising the iPhone XS as something you are going to use on your next snorkeling trip as an underwater camera. Having said that, there are plenty of IP68 cameras being sold on Amazon which specifically advertise themselves as being waterproof and designed for underwater photography. In part, this is because there is a wide range of ingress protection which all falls under IP68, but I suspect that if you wanted to be daring and take an underwater picture with an iPhone XS, you may not damage your phone at all.
More importantly, if you accidentally drop your iPhone XS in liquid, there is a good chance that you can just let the phone dry out and then it will be fine. Yesterday, Apple VP Phil Schiller said that the iPhone XS was tested in many liquids, including orange juice, tea, wine, and even beer.
iPhone XS Max
Before the iPhone X, I felt like I had an impossible desire. I wanted a larger screen, but I didn’t want the iPhone to be any larger so that I could continue to use it without stretching my hand too much. The solution, as the iPhone X showed us, was to reduce the bezels so that you get more screen space than a Plus model inside of hardware that is the same size as a non-Plus model.
But there are some folks out there who don’t mind the larger size of the Plus model, and for those folks, Apple has created the iPhone XS Max. The iPhone XS Max is about the same size as an iPhone 8 Plus, but because of the edge-to-edge design, you get a larger screen. While the iPhone XS has a 5.8″ screen, the iPhone XS Max has a 6.5″ screen. That’s not that far off from an iPad mini, which has a 7.9″ screen. While the iPhone XS has a 2436-by-1125-pixel resolution, the iPhone XS Max has a 2688-by-1242-pixel resolution. (Both are at 458 ppi.)
In terms of physical size, the iPhone XS is 5.65″ x 2.79″ while the iPhone XS Max is 6.20″ x 3.05″.
You also get extra battery life with the iPhone XS Max. Apple says that the iPhone XS provides about 30 minutes more battery life than the iPhone X, while the iPhone XS Max provides about 90 minutes more battery life than the iPhone X.
iPhones with a Plus-size screen have been around for a while now, so I suspect that you already know whether or not you are someone who minds the larger hardware size. If the larger size isn’t too big for your pocket or purse, then spending an extra $100 for the iPhone XS Max might be perfect for you.
iPhone XR
If you like the idea of the iPhone XS but you don’t want to spend $999 and up for the iPhone XS or $1099 and up for the iPhone XS Max, you’ll want to consider the iPhone XR. Apple didn’t say what the “R” stands for, but I presume the idea is that it is one step below “S” and that sounds about right. The iPhone XR has almost all of the new features that I mentioned above, plus almost all of the features which have made the iPhone X so great. However, the starting price is $250 less than the iPhone XS: $749.
Here is what you lose by saving that $250 over the iPhone XS:
Display. Instead of the beautiful high-resolution OLED display with its rich colors and deep blacks, you get an LCD screen, which is the type of screen that Apple used to always offer before the iPhone X. Apple says that the LCD screen in the iPhone XR is particularly good, but it still won’t look as good as an OLED screen. And while the iPhone XS can show HDR video, much like newer high-end TVs, the iPhone XR cannot.
3D Touch. You cannot push harder on the screen to bring up different options. As a workaround, Apple says that in some situations you can tap and hold down on the screen for a certain amount of time to trigger the same options — not unlike the way it works on an iPad — and Apple even adds some haptic feedback to reinforce that you are using the substitute for true 3D Touch.
Size. The iPhone XR is actually slightly larger than the iPhone XS with a 6.1″ screen, but it is definitely smaller than the iPhone XS Max with its 6.5″ screen.
Camera. You only get one camera on the back, so you don’t get the telephoto lens.
Less waterproof. The IP rating is IP67, similar to the iPhone X.
LTE. You just get regular LTE, not Gigabit-class LTE.
Having said that, it is not all compromises with the iPhone XR. You also get one feature that you don’t get with the iPhone XS (or the iPhone XS Max): more colors. While the iPhone XS comes in silver, space gray, or gold, the iPhone XR comes in blue, white, black, yellow, coral, and red. And I understand from folks who saw the new iPhone XR in person yesterday that the colors are quite vibrant. Keep in mind that if you are going to keep your iPhone in a case the whole time, you might not notice the color very much.
Conclusion
The new 2018 iPhones look to be great for any lawyer, or anyone else who is looking to get work done with an iPhone. With the large, edge-to-edge screen, you can see even more of your documents, your email, etc., and the faster speed allows your iPhone to help you get your work done without getting in the way. And thanks to the three different models, you can now decide whether you want to pay $250 less to give up a few features that might not even matter to you, or pay $100 more for an even larger screen. With all models offered in 64 GB, 256 GB or 512 GB capacities, you can decide how much space you want. (The 256 GB model is $150 more than the base price 64 GB model, and the 512 GB model is $350 more than the 64 GB model.) And since I presume that you will also use your iPhone for non-work purposes, such as taking pictures of the kids, playing games, or using the latest Augmented Reality app, the new 2018 models are even better at those tasks.
If you currently use an iPhone X, you probably won’t want to upgrade unless you enjoy having the latest and greatest. But if you currently use an older iPhone, then you’ll love using the iPhone X form factor, and as a bonus for waiting an extra year for the “s” model, you can get an iPhone which is significantly improved over the iPhone X with more options on size and price.
What am I going to get? My current iPhone X typically has about 150 GB in use, so I know that the 64 GB model is not enough for me, and the 256 GB sounds just right. I don’t like a larger phone, but I do want that amazing OLED display. Thus, I plan to get the iPhone XS in the 256 GB capacity, probably in space gray.
Apple starts taking orders tomorrow, September 14th, and devices will begin shipping on September 21st, for the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max models. If you want the iPhone XR, you can order starting October 19, and devices ship a week later.
Today at 10am Pacific / 1pm Eastern, Apple will give a keynote presentation at the Steve Jobs Theater, part of Apple’s new Apple Park campus in Cupertino, CA. We will definitely see the 2018 versions of the iPhone, and I expect to see a new Apple Watch. I’m sure that Apple will also say something about iOS 12, which Apple first previewed this past June and which I suspect will be released in the next week or so.
Other than that, I’m not sure what Apple will announce. For example, I expect to see a new iPad Pro this year, but I don’t know if we will see it today. Sometimes Apple announces a new iPad and new iPhone at the same time, other times Apple holds back the iPad announcement until the next month.
Finally, it is always fun when there are surprise announcements, so I hope that something interesting is announced today that I wasn’t expecting at all.
Earlier this year, Apple announced a new iPad with support for the new Logitech Crayon, a stylus this is almost as good as the Apple Pencil for half the price. Although the Crayon was only available for the education market, I said at the time that I hoped it would give rise to many new stylus options with the precision of the Apple Pencil. The jury is still out on whether additional styluses are coming, but in a baby step towards that future, attorney John Voorhees of MacStories reports that Apple announced this week that the Logitech Crayon will be available for everyone to purchase, even if you are not in the education sector, starting September 12. Of course, that is also the day next week when Apple has scheduled a big event at its campus to show off the new iPhones and who knows what else. The Crayon announcement makes me think that we may see a new iPad next week, and if Apple wants to show off even more new stylus options next week, I would certainly love that. And now, the news of note from the past week:
What will the new iPhones being unveiled next week be called? John Gruber of Daring Fireball has some theories.
Earlier this year, I discussed a service called TeenSafe which restricts the ability of your kids to use your iPhone, but does so at great risk because you have to give the service access to your iCloud backup, which is a problem if the site is hacked — and sure enough, TeenSafe was hacked. Ben Lovejoy of 9to5Mac reports that a similar product called mSpy accidentally exposed millions of passwords, text messages, contacts, call logs, notes and location data, etc. to the Internet. I remain very suspicious of services like this. Be careful out there.
Recently, a 15-year-old student tried to share with her mother a photo of a mock crime scene from a medical biology class. She tried to do so using AirDrop, when she was on a plane, and instead she shared the photo with 15 other random passengers, as the plane was taken off. The chaos that ensued resulted in grounding the Hawaiian Airlines flight for 90 minutes. Michael Potuck of 9to5Mac has more details (including the picture). Hopefully something like this will never happen to you.
I cannot tell you what features the new iPhones will have next week, but one thing that they surely won’t have is support for the upcoming 5G standard. I see iPhone 5G support in 2019 or 2020. But that’s not that far away, so it isn’t too early to think about what 5G means. I discussed the transition to 5G earlier this year. This week, David Pogue of Yahoo wrote a good overview of what 5G means, and also created a nice video overview.
Phishing attacks are increasingly common, and are especially dangerous for law firms because of the confidential information stored on law firm networks. Many law firms have had to deal with major hacking attacks over the last few years. Yesterday, the Apple Support account on Twitter posted a good, short video explaining how to look out for phishing attacks on your Apple devices:
Got a suspicious email or text? Don’t click on any links or open any attachments. It could be a phishing scam.
Schools in New Orleans were closed yesterday, and many are still closed today, because for a while it looked like Tropical Storm Gordon was headed this way. That storm instead headed towards the Mississippi/Alabama border, but it had me using my weather apps even more than normal. Dark Sky has long been one of the best iOS weather apps because of its incredibly accurate to-the-minute forecasts for the next hour — so much so that many other apps rely on Dark Sky for their own data. But the app was recently updated to version 6.0 with a new interface, plus it is even faster under the hood. Especially with these improvements, there is no doubt that Dark Sky is one of the very best weather apps for the iPhone and iPad.
Accurate, minute-by-minute predictions for the next hour
One of the best features of the Dark Sky app is that it tells you whether you need to grab your umbrella as you walk out the door. Dark Sky can figure out whether it is going to rain during the next hour at your precise location. When you start the app, if there is rain in the next hour, you will see a graph similar to this one:
If the app tells you it will start raining in 8 minutes, you might as well start opening up your umbrella in 7 minutes.
This information is also useful if it is currently raining and you are trying to decide whether to wait for a gap in the rain, or if you should just go now because it isn’t getting better any time soon.
Great forecasts, with an improved unified interface
Many apps do a nice job of giving you forecasts for the new few hours and the next few days. Dark Sky has always had accurate data, but thanks to the recent version 6 update, I really like the way that this data is displayed all in one place.
When you start the app, the app gives you a forecast for your specific current location, but you can quickly search for another location (and you can save up to six locations, allowing you to swipe left and right to switch between locations). Clear icons and numbers tell you the current conditions.
Next, you see a map with rain indicated. Dark Sky has always used an interesting style for showing radar information on a map; instead of the blocky tiny squares, the colors are smoothed out.
Next you see the hourly forecast, provided in a fantastic interface thanks to the recent update. A bar along the left side gives you a visual indication of rain (the color changes to blue). Next you see the hour, the forecast information, and the temperature in a circle which moves left or right to show relative increases and decreases in temperature. I love the way that Dark Sky now shows all of this information at once, making it incredibly easy to see when rain will start and stop over the next few hours and how the temperature will increase or decrease over the next 24 hours.
If you scroll down, you will see the forecast for the next week. Again, the graphics are clean and the information is easy to understand.
If you tap on any day, you get hourly forecasts for that specific day in the same format that the app normally gives you for the next 24 hours.
Maps with radar
If you tap the Map button at the bottom of the app (or if you tap on the radar map at the top of the main screen of the app), you are brought into a map view. You can zoom in or out to see precipitation, and you can tap a play button at the bottom to see an animation of the last three hours and the predicted next hour. Again, the nice smooth animations which are unique to Dark Sky make it easy to see what is going on.
Time Machine
I usually use a weather app when I want to look to the future. But if you need historical weather information for a particular location, Dark Sky can give you that too.
Apple Watch
If you use an Apple Watch, Dark Sky has a nice app which shows you much of the same information for your current location that you see in the iPhone app, except for the maps.
Conclusion
Dark Sky has long been the leader in accurate forecasts on the iPhone and other devices, and thanks to the recent interface update, it is now one of the best apps for presenting this information in a clean interface which quickly tells you what you need to know. If you ever use an iPhone to pay attention to the weather, this is an app that you should own.
