Do you pay much attention to the News app on iOS? In the beginning I ignored it, but then I saw that it was doing a pretty good job of telling me about the important headlines of the day, and I noticed that the articles it recommended were of pretty good quality. Yesterday, Jack Nicas of the New York Times reported that there is a reason for that. Unlike services like Facebook which use algorithms to select headlines, Apple uses a team of humans, led by Lauren Kern, an experienced journalist who was previously the executive editor of the New York Times Magazine. The article explains how the team selects the top stories from reputable sources and finds articles which do a good job reporting on each issue. By the way, if you have any interest in reading iPhone J.D. in the News app, you can search for the iPhone J.D. channel and make it one of your favorites. And now, the news of note from the past week:
- In a post on the LitSoftware Blog, Houston attorney Michael Beckelman of Wilson Elser explains how he uses TrialPad, TranscriptPad and DocReviewPad on his iPad at trial, in depositions, and in mediation.
- The latest episode of the Mac Power Users podcast by attorneys David Sparks and Katie Floyd recommends 30 products under $30, many of which are for the iPhone. It’s a great episode.
- Thomas Brewster of Forbes reports that the GrayKey device used by many government and law enforcement agencies to hack into a seized iPhone no longer works in iOS 12.
- Rene Ritchie of iMore posted a comprehensive review of the iPhone XR, including a long video review.
- Joanna Stern of the Wall Street Journal also wrote a good review, but I especially like the video she prepared at an Apple orchid.
- Tony Romm of the Washington Post reports on a presentation that Apple CEO Tim Cook gave in Brussels about the importance of privacy among tech companies.
- You can now get the 1Password password manager app for free if you are running for office, ensuring that elections run fairly, or are protecting people’s rights, through the new 1Password for Democracy program. That description would seem to apply to many public interest attorneys.
- If you want to use AirPlay 2 to have music or other audio come out of multiple speakers in your house but you don’t need Siri and the other features of the HomePod, Zac Hall of 9to5Mac posted a favorable review of the Libratone Zipp, a portable Bluetooth speaker that works with AirPlay 2.
- In an article for TidBITS, Julio Ojeda-Zapata sings the praises of using Overcast and the Apple Podcasts app on an Apple Watch Series 4. I’m a big fan too. When I’m doing errands around the house, I like being able to listen to a podcast using Overcast no matter which room I’m in without having to carry around my iPhone. When I’m walking outside, I will often have my iPhone in a shirt pocket, but sometimes it will think that I have touched the screen and it will pause the podcast as if I tapped the pause button; I have no such problems when I just connect my AirPods directly to my Apple Watch Series 4. Thanks to the new Apple Watch, I spend some time listening to a podcast on my watch almost every day.
- Ben Lovejoy of 9to5Mac reports on an interview of Apple’s Jony Ive about the Apple Watch that was in the Financial Times.
- It won’t surprise you that I vastly prefer iPhones to Android phones. But there is one part of Android that I think gives Apple a run for its money — the computational photography used in the camera. Vlad Savov of The Verge shows off Google’s upcoming Night Sight feature for Pixel phones, and it is astounding what Google is able to accomplish with very little light. I’m sure that lots of smart folks at Apple are paying attention, and I look forward to seeing something like this on the iPhone in the future.
- Last week, I ended my Friday post with some of the amazing art that Apple used on the invitations for its upcoming October 30, 2018 event in Brooklyn, NY. Juli Clover of MacRumors posted a link to an Imgur album which contains all 350 of these unique takes on the Apple logo. I really enjoyed browsing through all of them.
- And finally, if you visit the Visitor Center at the new Apple Park campus in Cupertino, CA, you can buy Apple-branded T-shirts that are not sold anywhere else. Michael Steeber of 9to5Mac reports that there are three new T-shirts being sold by Apple which hearken back to six-color Apple designs from the 1980s. These hit me in a soft spot because that is when I started using Apple products; I used an Apple ][+ in the computer lab of my high school, and then I purchased a Mac SE as I started my sophomore year in college. I’m glad that Apple brought back the classic logo, and I’m sure that means that Apple will soon bring back its Apple Gift Catalog with items like this:
