There is an interesting article in the New York Times this week by Jennifer Valentino-DeVries, Natasha Singer, Michael H. Keller and Aaron Krolik about how an iPhone can track, and unfortunately sometimes share, your current location. The article is interesting, but the way that it is presented on the page is also very interesting with lots of graphics that change as you scroll through the article. Virginia attorney Sharon Nelson discusses the article on her Ride The Lightning blog, noting that while the companies collecting location data claim to keep the data anonymous, she has her doubts. And now, the news of note from the past week:
- Illinois attorney John Voorhees of MacStories reports on the latest update to the fantastic CARROT Weather app (my review). In the new version, you can select your weather source — Dark Sky, The Weather Channel, AccuWeather and Aeris Weather — plus there are no Apple Watch complications, support for certain personal weather station data, and more.
- I use my Apple Pencil with my iPad Pro pretty much every day that I am at work, but I realize that some folks have not yet realized for themselves how useful this device is. In an article for Macworld, Jason Snell explains how the second generation version has finally turned him into a believer in the Apple Pencil.
- Amie Tsang and Adam Satariano of the New York Times report that Apple is going to build a $1 billion campus in Austin, Texas.
- Christina Farr of CNBC reports that Apple has hired dozens of doctors — sometimes secretly — to work with Apple to improve the Apple Watch and other health technology.
- If you use Philips Hue lights, you already know that if you lose power in your home, the lights come back on at full brightness with power is restored — which can be rather alarming. Ben Lovejoy of 9to5Mac reports that the latest version of the Philips Hue app fixes this so that lights can be configured to return to their previous states when the power comes back.
- If you use HomeKit-compatible smarthome devices, HomeRun is a great Apple Watch app for controlling your devices. Ryan Christoffel of MacStories reports that the app can now create custom complications.
- If you want a HomeKit-compatible outdoor outlet, I'm still enjoying the iHome iSP100 which I reviewed earlier this year. Christopher Null of TechHive reviews a more expensive competitor, the iDevices Outdoor Switch.
- The Apple Watch Series 4 now support the ECG/EKG function. But it also can do a better job checking your heart rate. Apple recently updated a support page to explain: "To use the electrical heart sensor to measure your heart rate, open the Heart Rate app and place your finger on the Digital Crown. You will get a faster reading with higher fidelity — getting a measurement every second instead of every 5 seconds."
- Andrew Orr of The Mac Observer lists all of the shortcuts you can do with a keyboard connected to an iPad using Apple's apps.
- Starting next week, you will be able to use an Amazon Echo with Apple Music, as reported by Federico Viticci of MacStories.
- David Griner of AdWeek runs down the 25 best ads of 2018. Three of them are Apple ads, including #2 on the list.
- And finally, here is a video Apple released a few weeks ago to show off many of the features of the iPad Pro called Five Reasons iPad Pro Can Be Your Next Computer:
