Amy Howe of SCOTUSblog describes the U.S. Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision this week in the Apple v. Pepper case. The Court reversed the dismissal of an antitrust lawsuit in which the plaintiffs allege that Apple should be required to allow users to buy apps from places other than Apple’s own App Store. I’m not an antitrust lawyer so I cannot comment on decision itself, and I realize that this is just a preliminary so we are still far from a decision on the merits in the case. Nevertheless, if the plaintiffs are successful, it could mean that Apple will have to significantly change the way that you load apps into an iPhone and iPad, so it is worth watching this lawsuit. And now, the other news of note from the past week:
- Joseph Marks of the Washington Post reports that federal agencies are spending millions of dollars to hack into locked phones.
- Geoffrey Fowler of the Washington Post tested Apple’s new Beats Powerbeats Pro against the Apple Airpods and the Bose SoundSport Free in terms of which is best for head banging, with the help of Sammy Hagar, former Van Halen singer. I think Fowler expected the Beats product to come out on top, but the AirPods seemed to be the favorite.
- Ben Lovejoy of 9to5Mac reviews the new official Statute of Liberty app, and app which does a good job with augmented reality (AR). The app is free and worth checking out.
- Drew Coffman of The Sweet Setup compares two of the top apps for taking handwritten notes with an iPad: GoodNotes and Notability.
- Alex Roth of Wirecutter explains how you can charge your iPhone and iPad faster using a USB-C charger. I pointed out the same thing when I reviewed Apple’s USB-C power adapter.
- Yesterday in my review of the Anker Powerline+ USB-C to USB 3.0 Cable, I mentioned the $350 Anker Powerhouse 200 portable battery. Phil Nickinson of iMore reviewed that battery this week, noting that it can quick charge an iPhone 12 times over.
- Lief Johnson of Macworld list some of the best Apple Watch complications.
- And finally, here is a new Apple ad for the iPhone XR which shows off the great battery life of that phone.