Month: September 2019

Yesterday, Apple introduced the 2019 iPhone line with three new iPhones.  In the immortal words of Spinal Tap’s Nigel Tufnel, “these go to 11.” The iPhone 11 and the two sizes of the iPhone 11 Pro are better than last year’s models, with the main improvements in iPhone photography and battery life.  But these are incremental improvements, and it would be fair to think of them as representing the third generation of the iPhone X, introduced in 2017.  Having said that, if you are still using a pre-iPhone X model, then upgrading to one of these models will be a major advance for you.  Here are the main features of the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max that I think will most appeal to lawyers.

The screen

I want to begin with a feature that is only somewhat new:  the screen.  I mention this first because the feature that I most love in the iPhone X and iPhone XS, and I’m sure that I will continue to love with the iPhone 11 models, is the edge-to-edge screen.  As I explained in my reviews of the iPhone X and iPhone XS, you can be much more productive with a larger screen on a device that doesn’t take up more space.  Whether you are reading emails or trying to review a document on your phone while you are out of the office, the larger and beautiful screens that Apple first introduced with the iPhone X are fantastic for lawyers. 

The screen on the iPhone 11 is the same 6.1″ screen that Apple used last year with the iPhone XR.  It’s a very good screen.  The iPhone Pro models come with a 5.8″ or 6.5″ screen that uses a beautiful OLED display, which means that blacks are pure black and colors really pop.  And this year’s model is brighter than ever before and features a larger contrast ratio.  Whether you are using your iPhone 11 Pro to get work done, look at photos, or watch a movie on a plane, the iPhone 11 Pro screen is going to be fantastic.

Photography

The hardware of the iPhone 11 probably won’t do much more than the iPhone X or the iPhone XS in terms of making you a better, more productive lawyer.  (Contrast this to the software; iOS 13, coming out later this month, will add lots of features that let you be more productive with an iPhone.)  But when you use your iPhone as a camera. the iPhone 11 has lots of great new features. 

First, Apple is adding a new ultra wide camera.  On the iPhone 11, this means that you have two cameras on the back.  The iPhone 11 Pro models now feature three cameras:  ultra wide, normal, and telephoto. 

The new ultra wide camera has a 120º field of view, which lets you capture even more without having to step back.  The way that Apple has implemented the feature is interesting:  when you are taking a normal photograph, you see on the left and right edges a preview of some of what you will see if you zoom out by switching to the ultra wide lens.

I often find myself in situations in which my iPhone cannot capture everything that I want to include in the picture, so I switch to panorama mode.  That mode works well for a landscape when everything is still, but yields comical results when objects (such as people) in the panorama are moving.  With the ultra wide lens, you may be able to get the picture you want without resorting to panorama mode.

In an article for Macworld, Jason Snell notes that you can even decide to take advantage of the ultra wide lens after you took a picture with the normal lens:

You can optionally set the iPhone 11—for both video and stills—to capture data from both the wide and ultra wide cameras.  The iPhone retains both versions for an undetermined period of time; eventually, if you do nothing with the ultra wide version, it will get thrown away.  What’s really happening here is that the iPhone is stashing away a broader view of the image or video you just took, in case you end up realizing after the fact that an important part of the scene was cropped off the edges of the frame.

To fix that issue, you do exactly what you’d expect—open the image in the Photos app and tap Edit, then select the Crop tool.  You’ll discover that there’s more image beyond the crop marks!  This is image data from the ultra wide camera that has been seamlessly stitched into your photo or video, and if you want to use it, you can just change the crop to reveal more information.  It’s a very clever way to provide a safety net via the ultra wide camera.  Once you’ve tapped that Edit button, that extra off-camera information will continue to be available for later tweaking—iOS won’t throw it away.

Second, Apple has implemented a feature previously seen on some Android phones like the Google Pixel, the ability to take a night mode picture when there is almost no light.  Whether you are taking a picture at a dark restaurant or outside when it is night, night mode allows you to take pictures in environments in which you previously couldn’t take a usable picture at all.

Related to this feature, if you are in a dark environment, the iPhone will show you how long your exposure will be.  And if you put your iPhone on a tripod or other stable surface, you can increase the exposure time to let the iPhone suck in even more light out of the dark environment.  This should allow for some really interesting long exposure photography.

Third, it is now faster than ever to switch between taking a picture and taking a video.  If you are taking a picture and you hold down on the shutter button, you’ll immediately start recording a video as long as you hold down the button, or you can swipe right to lock into video mode.  (Holding down on the shutter button was previously used to bring up burst mode, which you can still access by holding down on the button and then swiping left.)  There are so many times that I am taking a picture of my daughter playing soccer and then I want to quickly start taking a video, but I cannot do so without wasting a few seconds to switch modes.  This will be a nice new feature.

Apple calls that new feature QuickTake.  That name has a history at Apple; back in 1994, Apple sold a $749 digital camera called the QuickTake 100, which could take eight photos at a time at 640 x 480 resolution.  After you took eight pictures, you had to download them to a computer.  My law firm purchased one of those to try out this fancy new technology called digital photography.  To get a sense of how far digital photography has come, here is a picture that my wife took of me using the QuickTake 100 on April 2, 1995, when I borrowed the camera from my law firm to play around with it for a weekend:

While this picture is old and grainy, I still love to play that piano as much as I can.

Fourth, if you are using an iPhone 11 Pro, a feature will be coming later this year called Deep Fusion which combines nine different images taken with the three cameras along with artificial intelligence to create a single, incredibly life-like and detailed picture, the sort of picture that traditionally would require an expert photographer using a high-end DSLR camera.  [UPDATE 9/11/2019:  According to John Gruber, Deep Fusion will also be available on the iPhone 11.  But with only two lenses, I’m curious if the results will be as good.  We’ll see.]

There are other new features too, like better videos, better selfie pictures (including slow-motion video selfies and a widescreen lens to fit more people in your picture), and other tricks that advantage of combining the normal camera with the ultra wide camera, such as better portrait mode pictures on the iPhone 11 versus the iPhone XR. 

Professional photographers and videographers are already using the iPhone quite a bit, and as Apple demonstrated yesterday, the results that these professionals can get with the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro cameras are phenomenal.  But even if you are just taking pictures of your vacation, a birthday, or your kids, you can create some really amazing photographs with the three new iPhone 11 models.

Battery life

From my colleagues at work to my kids at home, everyone I know wants better battery life from an iPhone.  The iPhone 11 gains one extra hour of battery life over the iPhone XR.  Even more impressive, the iPhone 11 Pro gets four additional hours of battery life over the iPhone XS, and the iPhone 11 Pro Max gets five additional hours of battery life over the iPhone XS Max.  For the pro models, that sounds like an incredibly impressive increase in battery life.  I’ve had days when I was using my iPhone extensively (often when traveling) and by 6pm my battery is starting to run low.  Having that deadline extended to 10pm or 11pm is a huge difference.

Perhaps to accommodate a larger battery, the new iPhones are slightly heavier than last year.  For example, the iPhone 11 Pro is 6.63 ounces, versus the iPhone XS, which was 6.24 ounces.

When you do need to recharge your iPhone, the iPhone 11 comes with the same Apple 5W charger that Apple has included with iPhones for many years.  But the iPhone 11 Pro models come with an 18W charger, allowing you to charge up to 50% in only 30 minutes.  Or you can purchase a 29W or 30W USB-C adapter (or third party options like the Anker PowerPort line) to charge an iPhone even faster.

Colors

The iPhone 11 is made of aluminum and glass.  It comes in six colors: purple, white, yellow, green, black, and red. 

The iPhone 11 Pro is made of stainless steel and glass, with a texture matte finish on the back.  It comes in four colors:  space gray, silver, gold, and a brand new midnight green.

To help you see the new colors, Apple is now selling clear cases for all of the iPhone 11 models.

Ultra Wideband

The new iPhone has a new U1 chip that takes advantage of Ultra Widebrand technology so that the iPhone knows where it is located in relation to other devices with Ultra Widebrand.  Apple said that you can use this feature with AirDrop, making it easier to send a file to an iPhone that is closer to yours.  But then after describing that use of this feature, the Apple website teases:  “And that’s just the beginning.”

Given the rumors, I suspect that what Apple is hinting at is that Apple is working on a new tracking device.  If you put one on your keys and you lose your keys, Ultra Wideband technology will let you use your iPhone to find the specific location in a room where your keys are hiding.  Hopefully, we will see this new device later this year.

Faster

Every new iPhone is faster than the year before.  This year, the iPhone 11 uses the A13 Bionic chip to do everything faster.  Apple also says that Face ID is 30% faster than it was before, plus it can recognize your face from even farther away and at new angles.

Etc.

Although Apple doesn’t encourage you to dunk your iPhone 11 in water, Apple does say that the new model is even more water resistant than before, with the iPhone 11 Pro even more water resistant than the iPhone 11.  Also, the glass is even more durable, giving you a little more protection if you drop the iPhone 11. 

The new iPhones also produce better sound, using something Apple calls spatial audio to create “a more immersive, theater‑like surround sound experience.”  And the new iPhones support Wi-Fi version 6, allowing you to download up to 38% faster if you are connected to a Wi-Fi router that also supports Wi-Fi 6.

Apple also removed a feature with the iPhone 11:  3D Touch.  All three models now instead use Haptic Touch, which Apple used last year with the iPhone XR.  The two technologies are similar; Haptic Touch works based on how long you touch the screen, whereas 3D Touch measures how much pressure you apply to the screen.

Pricing

Last year, there was a $250 price difference between the entry level iPhone XR ($749) and the entry level iPhone XS.  This year, the iPhone 11 is $300 less, starting at $699 for a 64GB model.  The iPhone 11 Pro starts at $999 for 64GB, and the iPhone 11 Pro Max with the larger screen starts at $1,099 for the 64GB model.  You can pre-order the new models of the iPhone 11 starting this Friday, September 13.

Conclusion

If you are still using an iPhone older than the iPhone 8 and iPhone X, you are probably ready for an upgrade.  If you want to limit how much you spend on an iPhone and/or if you still like the old design with a button and Touch ID, Apple is still selling the iPhone 8, starting at $449 (or $549 for the iPhone 8 Plus).  But keep in mind that the iPhone 8 is already two years old.  The iPhone 8 will be the right phone for many folks, but I strongly recommend that you also consider the iPhone 11.  Yes, it takes a little while to get used to Face ID, but the edge-to-edge screen of the iPhone 11 along with the better camera, increased speed, and other features make the iPhone 11 a better value.

If you want the best iPhone ever, the two sizes of the iPhone 11 Pro look great.  The two main improvements are photography and battery life, and those are two features that I know that I will really appreciate.

Today at 10am Pacific / 1pm Eastern, Apple will give a keynote presentation at the Steve Jobs Theater, part of Apple’s Apple Park campus in Cupertino, CA.  I’m sure that Apple will announce the new 2019 version of the iPhone.  I’m also sure that we will see more than that, but what else will there be?  I suspect we will hear something about the Apple Watch, such as perhaps new versions of the Series 4 Apple Watch or perhaps even a new Series 5 Apple Watch.  (Apple first announced the Apple Watch five years ago yesterday.)  I also suspect that we will hear more about Apple’s new services, such as its Apple TV+ streaming video service and its new Apple Arcade game service.  For the past few years, when Apple has had a new iPad to introduce in the Fall, it has not done so at the September event but instead at an event held later in the year, so I don’t expect to see new iPads today.  There are rumors that Apple has been working on a new tracker device to help you locate items, and it would be interesting to see Apple introduce that today.  And hopefully, there will be some surprises.

As always, you can watch the event live on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac on the Apple website at this page.  If you have an Apple TV, you can watch the live stream in the Apple special events app.  Additionally, and for the first time ever, Apple will stream its event live on YouTube on this page.  And you should come back to iPhone J.D. tomorrow when I will provide my thoughts on the new iPhones.

Every year in September, Apple announces new iPhones, and now we are just a few days away from this year’s announcement on September 10.   In an article for Macworld, Jason Snell provides his wish list of new iPhone features that he’d like to see, and on Six Colors he posted about other announcements he would like to see.  My own thoughts on the event are very similar to his.  For example, as I take more and more pictures with my iPhone instead of my DSLR camera, I’m always interested in improvements to the camera.  All will be revealed very soon.  And now, the news of note from the past week:

• If you like playing games with your iPad, iPhone, TV, and Mac, you’ll be interested to learn about vastly improved support for game controllers in the next version of the operating systems, including support for PlayStation and Xbox controllers.  Illinois attorney John Voorhees took a deep dive into this upcoming support and prepared this report for MacStories.
• In an article for Medium’s Elemental, Ashley Ladrer offers advice for avoiding hearing loss when you use earbuds.
• Benjamin Mayo of 9to5Mac discusses new HomeKit-compatible accessories from Eve, including a smart water detector that can detect, for example, if a room has flooded.
• Nick Guy of Wirecutter updated his article recommending the best Apple Watch chargers and stands.  I still use the Material Dock by Studio Neat that I reviewed in 2016.
• iOS 13 will feature vastly improved voice control technology, which will be especially useful for folks with accessibility needs but will likely be helpful to many other folks too.  Steven Aquino describes what is new in an article for MacStories.
• Dave Rees of The Gadgeteer reviews the Brydge Pro keyboard for the 2018 iPad Pro.
• Rich Mogull of TidBITS explains that Google’s Project Zero discovered that China exploited a number of iOS vulnerabilities to spy on Muslims.
• In another article for TidBITS, Josh Centers critiques Apple’s inconsistent use of the ellipses icon on the iPhone.
• Leif Johnson of Macworld reviews the Adonit Note stylus, and is frustrated by the same thing that I found frustrating in my review — it is too easy to accidentally press the power button.  That flaw is unfortunate because, otherwise, it is a very nice, less expensive alternative to the Apple Pencil.
• And finally, here is a video of Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano on the International Space Station using his iPad to act as a DJ in orbit, playing music to folks dancing on a cruise ship.  When asked to comment on the performance, the folks on the ship said that it was out of this world.  (I’m a father, so I believe that I have the constitutional right to make dad jokes.)

Wirecutter is one of my favorite sites for reviews and recommendations for almost anything that you can buy.  The site often reveals the most popular picks of the month (for example, here is one for August 2019), which I assume is based upon Amazon affiliates links, and this type of post is an interesting way to learn about products that others consider useful enough to spend money on them.  It occurred to me that I can also see the total number of items purchased on Amazon as a result of a link on iPhone J.D., and that provides some insight into products that I have reviewed here which lots of folks have found interesting enough to purchase.

This is a slow week in the world of iPhone news since everyone is focused on the new Apple announcements coming next week, so I thought that this would be a good time to follow Wirecutter’s lead.  Based on the Amazon data that I can see for the first eight months of 2019, here are the top ten most popular Amazon picks based on iPhone J.D. reviews:

1. Anker Lightning cables

I’ve reviewed lots of different types of Anker Lightning and USB-C cables over the years including the following:

• Anker PowerLine 10ft Lightning (review 8/15/19)
• Anker PowerLine+ C to C 2.0 cable (review 12/17/18)
• Anker PowerLine+ (review 1/3/18 and 11/22/17)
• Anker PowerLine+ II (review 1/3/18)
• Anker Powerline+ USB-C to USB 3.0 Cable (review 5/16/19)

They are good cables and they have held up well for me.  If I need to buy a new cable for my iPhone or iPad, the first thing I do is find out if Anker makes the kind of cable that I need and, if so, that’s typically the one that I end up buying.

2. Weego Jump Starter 22

I’ve purchased two of these.  I use the Weego Jump Starter 22 in my own car, and I like that one because it also provides power to a USB port so you can use it to charge an iPhone, iPad, etc.  My wife didn’t think that she needed that USB port for power, so she has a Weego Jump Starter 22s in her car.  I love these devices because they are compact, super easy to use, and can save your bacon if you ever have a dead battery.  As I noted in my review, that actually happened to me once after a business trip when my car was parked at the airport.  Finding someone to jump my car would have been difficult, and it would have been impossible to get another car close enough to mine to perform a jump.  But with the Weego Jump Starter, it took just minutes to jump my car.  What could have been a disaster ended up being only a very minor annoyance.

3. Canopy by Studio Neat

The Canopy by Studio Neat is a cover that protects an Apple Magic Keyboard, so you don’t have to worry about something knocking off one of the keys while you are traveling.  Better yet, it folds up into a stand to hold your iPad behind the keyboard giving you the same type of setup you would have with a laptop computer.  I’ve been using the Canopy several times a month ever since I first reviewed it in 2017, and as I noted in my 2018 post, you can also use it with the most recent version of the iPad Pro.  I was just using the Canopy this past weekend, and I still love it.

4. HyperDrive 6-in-1 USB-C Hub for iPad Pro

The HyperDrive 6-in-1 USB-C Hub for iPad Pro is a small device that looks great when it is attached to an iPad Pro and provides almost every type of connection that you might want to use with an iPad Pro:  3.5mm Audio Jack, USB-A, SD and Micro SD memory card, USB-C, and HDMI.  The only other connection I might want is VGA, although I have to admit that it has now been a few years since I was forced to use VGA when connecting to my iPad; pretty much every projector I encounter nowadays supports HDMI.  As I noted last month in my review, I’ve been using this device for much of this year, and it is really useful.  It’s like the Swiss Army Knife of connectors for the iPad Pro.

5. Fisher Chrome Clip

I reviewed the Fisher Chrome Clip way back in 2015, and I haven’t used it myself since I started using an Apple Pencil 2 almost a year ago.   But if you still use the first generation Apple Pencil, this tiny clip which usually costs about $5 to $7 on Amazon is fantastic.  The clip lets you put an Apple Pencil in your pocket and attach it to your pocket.  And when your Apple Pencil is on a desk, the clip prevents the Pencil from rolling across the desk (and potentially on to the floor).  When the folks at Fisher designed this simple chrome clip, I’m sure that they had no idea how useful it would be for an Apple stylus.

6. ADIRSports Acrylic Universal Treadmill Bookholder

To encourage myself to use my treadmill more, I purchased the ADIRSports Acrylic Universal Treadmill Bookholder soon after New Year’s (my review) so that I could place my iPad Pro on my treadmill and watch videos while I am on the treadmill.  It does a great job of making time go by much faster, and it even encourages me to stay on the treadmill even longer to get to the end of an episode.  If you have a newer treadmill, it probably already has a shelf to hold an iPad, but if you have an older treadmill like I do, this $20 purchase greatly increases the usefulness of the treadmill.

7. Apple AirPods

When I’m on that treadmill, doing chores around the house, taking a break from work as I have lunch at my desk, and a million other times, you’ll often find me using my Apple AirPods.  They are one of my favorite Apple products of all times.  I reviewed the first generation of AirPods in early 2017, and my only complaint was that after two years of heavy use, the battery started to wear out and wouldn’t last as long.  Earlier this year, I reviewed the second generation AirPods, and they add some nice new features.  Just a few days ago, I was using my AirPods connected to my Apple Watch as I was walking around the neighborhood, and it is fantastic to be able to just take those two devices and nothing else.  If you don’t own AirPods yet, you are missing out.

8. Lutron Caséta Lamp Dimmer

My favorite Lutron Caséta devices are the in-wall dimmers, which I reviewed back in 2015.  But this year, I noted that you can use a Lutron Caséta lamp dimmer not only as a way to turn one or two lamps into smart lamps but also as a way to extend the range of the entire Lutron Caséta system.  One lamp dimmer placed in my upstairs bedroom allows me to extend the Lutron Caséta system to cover my entire house.  As a result, I can control lots of different lights in my house using my iPhone or my Apple Watch, and I have rules so that certain lights go on and off automatically based on the time of day or other event, such as a trigger by a motion detector.  And you can share controls with other family members, so my wife can use her iPhone too — or she can just tap the buttons on the wall or on the dimmer to manually turn lights on or off.  It’s a great smart home system, and you can start small with just a few devices and then add more Lutron devices over time.

9. Apple Pencil 2

I loved my first generation Apple Pencil, so I was surprised how much more I would love the second generation Apple Pencil.  It fixed all of the minor problems with the original Apple Pencil and then added great new features, such as the ability to tap the side to switch between drawing tools.  I gave the Apple Pencil 2 a glowing review last year, and it continues to be a product that I use virtually every day.  I was just using it last night to annotate some briefs and take some notes as I was preparing to be a judge in a moot court, and I’m sure that I will be using it for other tasks today.  One of the main advantages of the iPad Pro over other iPads is that it supports the Apple Pencil 2.

10. AirFly by Twelve South

The last item on the top ten list is the AirFly by Twelve South.  The main use for this item is to create your own Bluetooth connection for the audio on an airplane, so that you can listen using your AirPods or some other Bluetooth headphones.  But you can also plug this device into any audio source with a headphone jack to provide it with Bluetooth capabilities.  As I look at my review again, I am reminded that I connected the AirFly to my Fifth Generation iPod (which I purchased back in 2005) to give that old technology the ability to work with my new AirPods.  It ended up being the last time I would use that iPod, which I really loved and used so much in the days before the iPhone, because the device died shortly after that. 

Each of these 10 items is incredibly useful, so I’m not surprised that lots of folks purchased these items after clicking a link on iPhone J.D.  I haven’t used the AirFly very much since I posted my review, and I no longer need to use the Fisher Chrome Clip now that I have the second generation Apple Pencil, but I still use every other item on this list, and I can still recommend all 10 of these items.