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.
- Liz Plosser of Women's Health says that the new Apple Watch is a "powerful health and fitness accessory."
- 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.
- Travel photographer Austin Mann shows that the new iPhone XS does a great job of capturing what people actually see with their eyes, thanks to the HDR improvements.
- 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.
- Steven Levy wrote a great article for Wired about the history of Apple's Infinite Loop campus, based on interviews with tons of folks connected with Apple.
- And finally, here is a video produced by Apple which shows off the major new features of the iPhone XS in just one minute:
