Joanna Stern of the Wall Street Journal wrote an interesting article this week comparing three services that you can use to keep track of the location of a friend or family member: Apple's Find My Friends, Google Maps location sharing, and Life360. She also put together a great video, which you can watch at the top of the article. As she explains, Apple has the best privacy policy because location data is encrypted, it is only stored by Apple for two hours and then deleted, and Apple doesn't use the data to try to advertise to you. Stern notes that you can also use Find My Friends for someone who is just a temporary friend — you can share your location for just an hour, or just a day. I've had a few instances recently in which another attorney I'm working with has shared location with me for just a short time period (and I have with him), making it easy to meet up and easy to know how far away someone is when they are running late. Like me, you may already know how useful it is to share location with close family members, but don't overlook how useful it can be to temporarily share location with someone just for a limited time period and purpose. And now, the news of note from the past week:
- Illinois attorney John Voorhees of MacStories describes the new Sidecar feature coming this Fall to iPadOS 13 and macOS Catalina which will allow you to use an iPad as a second screen for your Mac — either to mirror the screen (helpful if you want to use an Apple Pencil) or extend the screen (if you just need more screen real estate).
- Xiumei Dong of Law.com reports on law firm cybersecurity based on a recent ABA panel discussion in San Diego with presenters Ruth Hill Bro of the ABA Cybersecurity Legal Task Force, Jill Rhodes of Option Care, Stephen Wu of Silicon Valley Law Group, and my law partner Lucian Pera.
- Speaking of security, Brian X. Chen of the New York Times describes all of the information that a hacker can obtain just by knowing your cellphone number.
- Also speaking of security, Joseph Cox of Vice describes a presentation given at the recent Def Con hacking conference in which the presenter modified an Apple Lightning cable to incorporate a way that a hacker could access your computer whenever the cord is plugged in to your computer. Yikes.
- There are lots of HomeKit-compatible devices that plug into an outlet turn a lamp into a smart lamp. Just a few days ago, I purchased another Lutron lamp dimmer, which has two outlets so you can control two lamps. But that device, like most in this category, control both lamps at the same time. Lory Gil of iMore reviews the Satechi Dual Smart Outlet, which has two outlets that you can control independently.
- I cannot even imagine what kind of road warrior you would need to be to justify buying an Apple Watch in-car charging stand, but if that describes you, Killian Bell of Cult of Mac reviews the Elgato W Stand for Apple Watch, a stand you can use to charge an Apple Watch anywhere which also happens to fit in a car's cupholder.
- Apple and the jeweler Tiffany & Co. are two companies that I would not normally think of working together, but Mike Wuerthele of AppleInsider explains how the two companies are working together to find new ways to locate gold in Alaskan rivers while also protecting the environment.
- Zac Hall of 9to5Mac wrote an article for the Clarion-Ledger about how parents can monitor how their children use an iPhone with the Screen Time and Family Sharing features.
- And finally, there is a rumor that Apple will offer a "pro" version of the next version of the iPhone, which I expect to be announced next month. Apple has done well with the iPad Pro, so I can see having an iPhone Pro too. In the latest episode of his Vector video podcast, Rene Ritchie speculates on what features we might see in an iPhone Pro, such USB-C, a larger size, Apple Pencil support, multi-tasking, a glowing Apple logo on the back, and more:
