Month: October 2019

Apple 2019 fiscal fourth quarter — the iPhone and iPad angle

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Yesterday, Apple released the results for its 2019 fiscal fourth quarter (which ran from June 30, 2019 to September 28, 2019) and held a call with analysts to discuss the results.  Apple’s fiscal fourth quarter is typically a transitional quarter.  It is the quarter that we are in now — Apple’s first fiscal quarter — which will contain all of the revenue from holiday sales and will thus be Apple’s best fiscal quarter of the year.  But even though the fiscal fourth quarter is less important, there are always some interesting nuggets.  Yesterday, Apple announced quarterly revenue for the past quarter of $64 billion, up from $62.9 billion this time last year.  That makes this past quarter the best fiscal fourth quarter in Apple’s history.  The $64 billion was composed of $51.5 billion for products and $12.5 billion for services, the most revenue that Apple has ever seen for services.  If you want to get all of the nitty gritty details, you can download the audio from the announcement conference call from iTunes, or you can read a transcript of the call prepared by Seeking Alpha, or a transcript prepared by Jason Snell of Six Colors.  Apple’s official press release is here.  Here are the items that stood out to me.

iPhone

  • Apple is no longer reporting each quarter the number of iPhones sold, and instead now reports iPhone revenue.  iPhone revenue this past quarter was $33 billion, which is down from almost $37 billion this time last year.  However, Apple CEO Tim Cook pointed out that this 9% decline from last year is better than the average 15% decline for Apple’s first three 2019 fiscal quarters. 
  • Although Apple didn’t say this, I suspect that one cause of the decline is that the iPhone 11 is less expensive than the higher-end iPhones Apple was selling this time last year.  In what appears to be a reference to the price of the iPhone 11, Cook said:  “And we did decide to to be more aggressive and looking at the results in the early going, I think it was the right call.”
  • Apple CFO Luca Maestri said that Apple “saw great customer response to the launch of iPhone 11, 11 Pro, and 11 Pro Max at the end of the quarter” and said that the overall number of people using an iPhone has reached a new all-time high.
  • Apple will soon add the ability to purchase a new iPhone by using an Apple Card (Apple’s credit card) and pay for the iPhone over 24 months with no interest.  And like any other Apple product that you purchase using the Apple Card, you earn 3% cashback with no fees.  Since most folks use an iPhone for at least two years before upgrading, this seems like a nice way to spread out the cost.

iPad

  • iPad revenue this past quarter was almost $4.7 billion, up from almost $4 billion this time last year.
  • Over half of all customers purchasing an iPad in the last fiscal quarter were new to the iPad.  That’s surprising to me considering that the iPad has been around since 2010.
  • Apple said that surveys show that among both consumers and businesses who plan to purchase a tablet before the end of 2019, more than 80% plan to purchase an iPad.

Misc.

  • Apple calls one category of its products “Wearables, Home and Accessories,” and that includes the Apple Watch, AirPods, and Beats products.  Apple sold $6.5 billion in products in this category, compared to $4.2 billion this time last year.  Cook said that Apple’s “wearables business showed explosive growth and generated more annual revenue than two-thirds of the companies in the Fortune 500.”
  • Cook said that 75% of Apple Watch customers this past quarter were buying their first Apple Watch.
  • The new record in Apple services revenue includes over 450 million paid subscriptions, which includes Apple Music, App Store apps with subscriptions, and iCloud.  And starting in this current fiscal quarter, subscription revenue will also include Apple Arcade and Apple TV, so subscriptions will become even more important for Apple in the future.

iOS 13.2 and AirPods Pro released yesterday; more to come soon?

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Ever since Apple held an event on September 10 to announce the new iPhone 11, many have wondered if Apple would have another event in October to announce other products.  With the month about to end, it is now obvious that won’t happen.  Instead, Apple released a new product yesterday without all of the fanfare of an event, and Apple also updated IOS 13.

AirPods Pro

The AirPods have been a great product for Apple, and virtually everyone I meet who owns AirPods really loves them.  (My son turned 14 last week and he was thrilled to receive his first set of AirPods.)  When Apple has a hit on its hands, it makes sense for Apple to try to expand the line. 

Yesterday, Apple announced the AirPods Pro.  The cost $249, so they are more expensive than AirPods with Wireless Charging Case ($199) and AirPods with Charging Case ($159).  But with the extra money, you get:

  • Active noise cancellation, which you can turn off by holding a button on the AirPods Pro, entering a mode that Apple calls Transparency.  Transparency mode not only turns off the active noise cancellation technology, it also passes sound from outside through the silicone tips so you hear more than you would otherwise hear with the silicone tips deep in your ear.
  • Soft, flexible silicone tips that come in three sizes to customize the fit.  The AirPods Pro can even conduct a test of the sound level in your ear to help you figure out what size will work best for your ears.
  • Instead of tapping an AirPod to trigger an action such as play/pause, there is now a force sensor button that you squeeze.
  • Sweat and water resistant
  • Qi wireless charging case

I know that I will wish that I had noise cancellation every time I use AirPods on a plane, but because I don’t fly that often and the normal AirPods feel great in my ears, I don’t see any reason to rush out and buy a pair of AirPods Pro when they go on sale tomorrow.  Having said that, I look forward to reading the reviews.

iOS 13.2

Yesterday, Apple also released iOS 13.2 and iPadOS 13.2.  For many folks, the top new feature will be the ability to use new Emoji, which I previewed three months ago.  Here come the orangutan, waffle, banjo, and 395 more — which you can see here on Emojipedia.

New Siri privacy settings let you decide whether you want to let Apple engineers listen to short recordings of your voice that Siri had trouble understanding to help make Siri more effective.  Your identity is protected if you do agree to share with Apple, but if you want to avoid even the possibility that someone could learn something that they shouldn’t know by listening to a recording of your voice, then just decline to share this data with Apple when you first use your device after upgrading to iOS 13.2.

iOS 13.2 also enables the new Deep Fusion mode, which allows the iPhone 11 to take better pictures with sharper details when there is a medium amount of light, such as indoors.  This is not a mode that you turn on or off, and Apple doesn’t even give you a notification when Deep Fusion is in use or was used on a picture.  Nevertheless, hopefully you will notice that your indoor pictures come out even better with a new iPhone and iOS 13.2.

When you are in video mode in the Camera app, an indicator in the corner now tells you whether you are in HD or 4K mode and whether you are capturing 24, 30, or 60 frames per second.  Tap either one of those to change the mode without having to exit the Camera app to go to the Settings app.

If you use AirPods, the new Announce Messages with Siri feature lets Siri read messages to you as they come in.  Siri will announce the sender, then read you the message, and then ask if you want to reply.

And like every iOS update, iOS 13.2 also includes security updates and bug fixes.

…and more?

Although that may be all that Apple has to say this week, there are rumors floating around of other new Apple products waiting in the wings, such as AirTags and a battery case for the iPhone 11 line.  So perhaps we will hear even more from Apple before this week is over.  We’ll see.

In the news

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If you are like me and you enjoy listening to podcasts, I heard two really good ones this week.  First, in Mac Power Users 506, California attorney David Sparks and his co-host Stephen Hackett describe their favorite iOS accessories, and they discussed a ton of items.  Second, in iOS Today 469, host Mikah Sargent interviews Jason Snell of Six Colors to talk about the new Photos app in iOS 13 and other items.  And now, here is the news of note from the past week:

2019 ABA Tech Survey shows all-time high iPhone use by attorneys

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New survey results indicate that a record number of attorneys are using an iPhone in their law practice — almost 80% of all attorneys in the United States.  These numbers come from the ABA Legal Technology Resource Center, which has conducted a survey every year since 1990 to gauge the use of legal technology by attorneys in private practice in the United States.

The 2019 report (edited by Gabriella Mihm) was just released, and as always, I am particularly interested in the statistics on mobile technology.  In the past, there was a special volume (Volume VI) called Mobile Lawyers.  The ABA discontinued that volume this year and instead included more limited survey results on mobile technology in other volumes, such as Volume 5, titled Life & Practice.  This is the tenth year that I have reported on this survey, and with multiple years of data we can see some interesting trends.  (My reports on the prior ABA surveys are located here: 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010.)

Almost 80% of all U.S. attorneys use an iPhone

There were some notable changes in this year’s survey.  This was especially true for the answers to this question:  What type of smartphone do you use for work-related tasks?  This year, the percentage of attorneys not using a smartphone in their law practice is at an all-time low of 1.5%.  It was around 5% for the past three years and around 10% in 2015 and earlier.  Suffice it so say that virtually all attorneys in the United States now recognize the value of using a smartphone in a law practice.

Last year, the percentage of attorneys using Android smartphones was at an all time high of 25.4%.  But this year that number is down to 18.4%  Similarly, the percentage of attorneys using a Blackberry was cut in half (from 1.5% last year to 0.7% this year) and the percentage who answer either “other” or “don’t know” is at 1% this year.

All of the other lawyers are using an iPhone, with a record high of 79.2% of lawyers reporting that they use an iPhone for work-related tasks. (The total ends up to a little more than 100% because less than 1% of attorneys use two types of smartphones.)

What is most interesting to me is the trend over time.  Back in 2011, when the ABA first started to ask attorneys what type of smartphone they used, the Blackberry was still the leader.  Indeed, if you have been practicing law for as long as I have, you remember a time when it seemed like almost every attorney had a Blackberry.  But in 2012, the iPhone overtook the Blackberry, and the gap has widened substantially since then.  Four years ago in 2015, the iPhone percentage crossed over the 60% mark.  Two years ago in 2017, the iPhone percentage crossed over 70%.  And as noted, this year it is almost at 80%.

The ABA also asked whether a law firm paid the cost of the mobile phone service, and overall, 50% answer yes, with another 20% saying that the firm gave them a fixed stipend.  The survey results also revealed that smaller law firms were more likely to fully pay for mobile phone service whereas larger firms were more likely to give a fixed stipend.

Some of the survey questions asked about how attorneys use their smartphones.  For example, one question asked attorneys to identify the primary way that they access email outside of the office.  70% answered that they use a smartphone for this task.  15% use a work laptop.  11% use a computer (laptop or desktop) owned by the attorney.  2% don’t check email outside of the office.  And even though iPad wasn’t listed as one of the answers, 2% decided to identify the iPad as a write-in response.

In Volume III of the report (Law Office Technology), the ABA asked attorneys whether they use a smartphone in the courtroom.  This year, 58% of respondents said yes, which is down from 84% in 2018, 80% in 2017, and 80% in 2016.  Respondents said that they used a smartphone in the courtroom for email (54%), calendaring (40%), real-time communications (32%), and legal research (22%).

Attorney tablet use

In my past reports on the ABA Technology Survey, I’ve reported on attorney iPad use.  For the past few years, 50% of attorneys have reported that they use a tablet to get work done.  And for those who do, the large majority (around 80% to 90%) use an iPad.  This year, however, the ABA didn’t ask about whether individual attorneys use a tablet and, if so, what type of tablet they are using.

Although the survey did not ask about whether individual respondents used a tablet, it did ask whether tablet devices are available for use at the attorney’s law firm.  This year, 46% said yes, which is down from 58% in 2018, 61% in 2017, and 56% in 2016. 

The ABA also asked respondents whether they use a tablet device in the courtroom.  29% of the respondents said yes.  That’s down from 32% in 2018, 38% in 2017, and 37% in 2016.

Quick way to switch AirPods pairing between iPad and iPhone

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I frequently use my AirPods with two different devices:  my iPhone and my iPad.  I use them with my iPhone to listen to music and podcasts.  I use them with my iPad to watch videos such as TV episodes.  When AirPods are connected to one device, like my iPad, it is a pain to have to go through the multi-step process to switch the pairing to my other device.  I can either open Settings, tap Bluetooth, and then tap on my AirPods (three steps), or I can swipe down from the top right to see the Control Center, long-press on the media controller, then tap on the source icon and then tap on my AirPods (four steps).  Fortunately, thanks to the Shortcuts app, there is a way to switch pairing between an iPhone and an iPad using only one step.  Here is how.

Open up the Shortcuts app and create a new Shortcut.  You only need to add a single action to it:  Set playback destination.  Once you enter it, tap on the variable (which by default may say iPhone) and then change it to your AirPods.  The result will look something like this:

Next, tap on the three dots at the top right and give your Shortcut a name and an icon that makes sense to you (I selected a purple icon with a speaker icon) and then tap Add to Home Screen. 

That’s it!  Save your shortcut and you are done.  Any shortcut that you create on your iPhone will be synced over to your iPad.  After it syncs, you need to edit the shortcut on your iPad to add an icon to your iPad home screen — the same step that I just showed you.  Now, you will have an app icon on both your iPhone and iPad home screen called AirPods (or whatever you called your shortcut).

At this point, you are ready to use your shortcut.  If your AirPods are currently paired to your iPad, just tap the icon on your iPhone home screen.  The Shortcuts app will open and after a few seconds your AirPods will be paired to your iPhone — and it only took one step.  Similarly, if your AirPads are currently paired to your iPhone, just tap the icon on your iPad home screen, and then the AirPods will become paired to your iPad.

Here is another way to use the shortcut that is perhaps even better.  Invoke Siri on the device that you want to pair to your AirPods and just speak the name of your shortcut.  So in my case, I just say “Hey Siri.  AirPods.”  That will run the shortcut and pair the AirPods to my iPhone.

 

There are lots of ways that you can customize this shortcut, such as adding a step at the end to open up a particular app on your device after pairing to your AirPods — although if you want that to be a different default app on the iPhone and iPad you will need to create two shortcuts.  Or I suppose you could even create a pop-up menu with a list of apps to open next.

If you want to create more complicated shortcuts, I refer you to folks who are better at this than me, such as California attorney David Sparks who created a great video guide on using Shortcuts.  But even I can handle a shortcut with only one step, and so can you.

Review: Courtroom Objections — trial assistance on your iPhone

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Over nine years ago, I reviewed an app created by Houston attorney Anthony Shorter called Courtroom Objections.  Shorter reached out to me to tell me that he had recently updated his app, and it has been so long since I mentioned the app on iPhone J.D. that I thought it was time for another look. 

The purpose of the app is to provide you with a quick guide to making and responding to objections in court.  The app includes a list of common objections and responses.  I think that the app would be most useful for those who are relatively new litigators, but any attorney who tries cases could use this app.

The app divides objections into two categories.  If you tap the first button at the bottom, the app lists admissibility objections.  Tap the second button to list objections to form.

 

When you tap on any objection, the app first gives you an example of words that you could use to make the objection.  Next, the app explains the objection. 

Finally, the app lets you see the text and number for the rule of evidence associated with that objection. Of course, this varies depending upon the state or federal jurisdiction in which you are trying a case, so the bottom of the app has buttons that you can use to select a jurisdiction.  Currently, the app has the rules of evidence for the following jurisdictions:  Federal, AZ, CA, CO, FL, GA, IL, IN, LA, MD, MA, MI, NJ, NY, OH, PA, TX, UT, WI.

If you ever want to scroll a list of all of the objections (to both admissibility and form), at the bottom of any page dedicated to a rule there is a big button called All Rules.  Tap it and you can select any jurisdiction and any type of objection to see the rule.

Although I like the interface of this app better than the version I reviewed nine years ago, there is room for improvement.  The buttons for jurisdictions at the bottom of the app are very tiny.  It would be nice if there was a way that you could only display the jurisdictions that pertain to you.  (For example, I’m licensed in Louisiana and Florida so I’d like to see those two and federal, but I’ll probably never have a reason to view the other states.)  And it seems that the All Rules button should be an option from the main screen (such as a third button at the bottom), not a feature that you can only access by first going to some other rule.

Nevertheless, the app is quick and simple to use, which I like.  If you find yourself preparing to make an objection, you could quickly scroll through the list of admissibility or form objections to remind you of the objection that you need to make.  Even if the app only helps you to make a few objections, that’s more than enough to justify the $3 price tag.

Click here to get Courtroom Objections ($2.99):  app

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This article won the LitigationWorld Pick of the Week award on October 31, 2019. The editors of LitigationWorld, a free weekly email newsletter for litigators and others who work in litigation, give this award to one article every week that they feel is a must-read for this audience.

In the news

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Apple released iOS 13.1.3 and iPadOS 13.1.3 this week to fix more bugs — the fifth version of iOS 13 released since 13.0 was released on September 19, 2019.  And it looks like Apple is getting close to the release of iOS 13.2, which will add new features.  One feature planned for iOS 13.2 is Deep Fusion, a technology that will improve the detail in photos when there is a medium amount of light, such as indoors.  This week, Jason Snell reviews Deep Fusion for Tom’s Guide based on the beta version of iOS 13.  Another new feature is support for the new Emoji that are coming out in 2010, which I previewed in July.  And now, the news of note from the past week:

  • Josh Ginter of The Sweet Setup explains why he picks Lightroom as the best app for editing photos on the iPad.  It’s a good article that also discussed some of the other great iPad apps for editing photos, but I wish that he had included more than just a passing reference to the fact that Photoshop is coming to the iPad in just a few weeks (early November, according to a recent Bloomberg report).  When it comes out, Photoshop for iPad may immediately become the best app for editing photos.  Having said that, it may be that the same Adobe Creative Cloud subscription will get you access to both apps; we’ll know more about that when Photoshop for iPad is released.
  • Matt Birchler of The Sweet Setup offers advice for using Microsoft PowerPoint on an iPad.  I prefer to use Apple’s Keynote app when I give presentations, but sometimes I need to work with a PowerPoint deck, and the iPad app is very good.
  • If you want to add an audio headphone jack to an iPad Pro without using a multi-port adapter, Steven Sande of Apple World Today reviews the $25 Satechi Type-C to 3.5mm Audio Headphone Jack Adapter.
  • If you use an iPad Air 2 and you find iPad OS 13 to be really slow, Adam Angst of TidBITS has advice for speeding it up.
  • The iPhone 11 Pro does a great job taking pictures.  Federico Viticci of MacStories provides some great examples from an iPhone 11 Pro photo tour of his hometown of Rome, Italy.
  • Reed Albergotti of The Washington Posts explains that clever kids have found ways to circumvent the Screen Time function on the iPhone, which is supposed to allow parents to restrict what kids can do on an iPhone during certain hours of the day.
  • That article in the Washington Post links to this article by Chris McKenna which describes 12 tricks that kids use to circumvent Screen Time and explains how you can protect against just about all of them.  Kids these days are pretty smart; if only they could devote that brain power to studying for tests instead of circumventing parents.  (And while you are at it, you kids get off my lawn…)
  • Ben Lovejoy of 9to5Mac reviews the RapidX MyPort, an interesting wireless charger that can stand on your desk, but can also turn into a portable battery with wireless charging.
  • Charlie Sorrel of Cult of Mac has tips for using the Dock on the Apple Watch, which you access by pressing that large button on the side.  There are some good tips in there, including a trick I had forgotten — double-press the digital crown button on the side to switch between the last app that you used on the Apple Watch and the app that you use most frequently on the Apple Watch (which for me is the Overcast app).
  • Apple’s new Maps data, which came to parts of the South in August and parts of the Northeast earlier this month, has now come to West Virginia, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, and parts of Illinois, as reported by Oliver Haslam of iMore.
  • And finally, here is a story that I probably wouldn’t have believed if it wasn’t captured on video.  A man dropped his iPhone X while on a roller coaster in Spain and someone else managed to catch the iPhone in mid-air as it was falling.  And the whole thing was recorded because the roller coaster has cameras that record your ride.  Impressive.

[Sponsor] iTimekeep — time entry without the hassles

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Thank you to Bellefield Systems, the creator of iTimekeep, for sponsoring iPhone J.D. again this month.  iTimekeep is a fantastic service for attorneys because it allows you to eliminate all of the miserable parts of timekeeping.  Here are three specific ways in which iTimekeep is a big improvement for me, and can be for you too if you click here to try iTimekeep for attorneys.

Eliminate the burden of reconstructing time entries

iTimekeep is everywhere that you are.  If you are in front of your computer at work, you can use iTimekeep in your browser.  If you are in front of your personal computer at home — Mac or PC — you can similarly use a browser to enter your time.  If you are working off-site at someplace like a coffee house on your iPad, you can use the fantastic iPad app.  And, if you are on-the-go, you can use the iPhone app.

Having iTimekeep everywhere is important because it means that you can enter your time as you are doing tasks, no matter where you are located.  And this matters because it vastly reduces the need to reconstruct your time entries.  For example, if you take a client call while you are out of the office, just take a few seconds using the iPhone app to log the call, something like:  “Telephone conference with Mr. Smith re revisions to contract in light of change in legislation.”  This way, at the end of the day (or the week), you don’t need to waste time trying to reconstruct everything that you did, such as remembering who you talked to on the phone and what you talked about.

I find it so easy to enter time in iTimekeep that my time entries are complete, but you don’t have to use the product that way.  You could also have an entry that just has a few words in it along with the time.  Then, later on, either you or a secretary could clean up the time entry.  The point is just to get something recorded contemporaneously so that you don’t have to reconstruct from scratch at a later time when the work that you did is no longer fresh in your mind.

Stop losing time

A related advantage of being able to enter the time anywhere, especially when you are not in front of a computer, is that you are more likely to log everything that you did.  Tasks that involve small time increments that take place while you are on the go are often not captured when you are not doing contemporaneous time entry.  By using iTimekeep, you don’t lose that time.

iTimekeep also helps you with missing time.  You can tell iTimekeep the minimum number of hours that you typically record in a day.  (I have mine set to 8.)  Then, using the missing time feature of the app, you see at a glance if there are any days in the month in which your hours were low.  For example, this past Friday, I left work early to take my daughter to a volleyball game.  (She won!)  When I tap the Missing Time button, the app alerts me that I recorded only 7.1 hours that day.  In this case, there is a good explanation, so I don’t have anything else to add.  But if there were not some special circumstance, the app would help me to realize that I failed to complete my time entries for that day.

Sometimes, the time entries that iTimekeep helps you to save are small — a 0.1 here, a 0.2 there — but they all add up over time.  Moreover, your timesheets are not just a way for your clients to pay your bills; they are also a way to tell your clients the story of everything that you did for them during the month.  By having a more complete timesheet with all of the 0.1 entries, the story of what you did for the client is more complete.  Thus, iTimekeep helps you to give your clients a better picture of what you did throughout the month, improving your relationship with clients as well.

Stop using overcomplicated and difficult to use technology

iTimekeep is simple to use, requires no training, and provides a consumer-grade experience where attorneys can track time in a consistent way across devices.  Unlike some other software developers, the developers of iTimekeep have a laser focus on making the experience for the attorney entering and reviewing time as great as possible.  That’s the whole reason that iTimekeep exists and has been so successful over the years.  

Also, the iTimekeep user experience is consistent across platforms, whether you are using it on a PC, a Mac, an iPhone, an iPad, or Android.  This is similar to how you can learn how to use Netflix on one platform, like a TV, and then you already know how to use it on another platform, like an iPad or computer.

Because it is so easy to use, you can give iTimekeep to all of the attorneys in your law firm and they can start using the service right away.  And every time that iTimekeep updates the service (which happens frequently), the focus is always on making the product even more valuable while still keeping it incredibly simple to use.

I frequently talk to attorneys who use iTimekeep.  The tech-savvy attorneys love it because it is such a powerful tool.  But even the attorneys who don’t live-and-breathe technology like I do tell me how much they like using iTimekeep — and I know that they wouldn’t be doing so if they found the app to be complicated.

Conclusion

Everything about the time entry process is better with iTimekeep.  You spend less time entering your own time, and you do so more accurately and efficiently.  And because your iPhone is probably always with you, it is incredibly easy to enter time contemporaneously or record an entry from earlier in the day whenever and wherever you think about it.  Thanks to iTimekeep for sponsoring iPhone J.D. this month and for improving my own law practice.

Click here to try iTimekeep for attorneys.

Review: Sport Loop band — comfortable band for the Apple Watch

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Two years ago, at the same time that Apple introduced the Apple Watch Series 3, Apple introduced its first Sport Loop band for the Apple Watch.  Until last month, I had never tried one.  This year, with the Apple Watch Series 5, Apple has introduced a new mix-and-match approach where you can purchase almost any Apple Watch band to pair with any style of Apple Watch.  (You do, however, have to purchase some type of band; you cannot just purchase the body of the watch without any band.). So when I purchased an Apple Watch Series 5, I used that as an opportunity to try out something new and I opted for one of Apple’s Sport Loop bands — which cost $49, just like Apple’s Sport Band.  If I had any idea how fantastic this band is, I would have purchased one two years ago.  This is by far the most comfortable band that I’ve ever used with the Apple Watch.

Hook-and-loop

The Sport Loop band opens and closes with a hook-and-loop … don’t call it Velcro™ … system.  But more than just a fastener, the hook-and-loop is what defines this entire band.  Almost all of the band is composed of a double-layer nylon weave with tiny loops.  

You cannot really see the loops with your eyes, but they make the entire band very soft, light, and breathable.  

Underneath one of the ends of this band are five small pads with hooks on them.  The hooks are smaller than any other hook-and-loop or Velcro system that I’ve tried before, so much so that when I touch the hooks they almost don’t even feel like hooks.  But when you place the end of the band down, the hooks easily attach to the loops.

You can sweat while working out with this band and it dries very quickly thanks to the tiny loops.  One of the biggest complaints about the Apple’s Sport Band is that sweat can get trapped under the band.  The Nike version of the Sport Band tries to solve that by having lots of holes in the band, but that still isn’t a perfect solution.  With the Sport Loop, unlike the Sport Band, I never really notice sweat.  I do notice that the Sport Loop will get a little damp as it absorbs sweat but then it dries out pretty quickly.

I haven’t tried swimming with the Sport Loop, but I have gotten it completely drenched in a sink.  The nylon band absorbed a small amount of water but not enough to feel like it was getting heavy — nothing like a wet cotton cloth rag — and it dries pretty quickly once your arm is out of the water.

Perhaps my favorite feature is that the nylon loops give this band a very soft and comfortable feel.  I also own Apple’s Woven Nylon band, and it feels nothing at all like the Sport Loop band even though both bands use woven nylon.  The Woven Nylon band feels good but feels flat.  This one feels soft.

The hook-and-loop system adds a feature to this band that I also love with Apple’s Milanese Loop band:  the band adjusts to any size.  With other bands like the Sport Band, Classic Buckle, and Woven Nylon band, sometimes one hole can be a little too tight and one hole can be a little too lose.  By using hook-and-loop or magnets, the Sport Loop and the Milanese Loop can be adjusted to the perfect size.

But the Sport Loop is even better than the Milanese Loop because the band itself is slightly strechy.  So if your wrist gets just slightly bigger or smaller during the day, you don’t need to adjust the Sport Loop band.  It is always snug without being too tight around your writ.  And unlike the Milanese Loop, the Sport Loop won’t slide up and down your wrist unless your purposefully make the band too lose.

Size

I have a larger wrist, around 215mm.  While I can use a large Sport band (which Apple says is designed for up to 210mm wrists), I prefer the XL version (designed for up to 245mm wrists), which currently comes in only black.  Apple says that the Sport Loop for the 44mm Apple Watch is designed for 145-220mm wrists.  Even though I’m at the top of that range, the Sport Loop fits great on my wrist.  And it looks to me like you could probably go up to 225-230mm before your wrist would be too large to use the Sport Loop (because then the part of the band with the five pads of hooks would not be able to fold over).  On the other extreme, if you have a small wrist and use a 40mm Apple Watch, the Sport Loop is designed for a 130-200mm wrist.  If your wrist size is around 130mm or smaller, I imagine that you might run out of room to fasten the band, so you might want to try a Sport Loop in an Apple retail store before buying it.

Style

Rene Ritchie of iMore calls the Sport Loop the yoga pants of Apple Watch bands, and that’s not a bad comparison.  It’s very comfortable.  I love this band so much that I would be tempted to wear it all day long with my Apple Watch.  But just like those yoga pants wouldn’t be appropriate for work, I find the style of the watch to be a little casual for work.  Thus, I’ve been using the Milanese Loop at work and when I want to look more dressy at night, and I’ve been switching to the Sport Loop after work, on the weekends, and when working out.

If you are thinking about buying this band, keep in mind that it has a loop style.  Like the Milanese Loop, this band always forms a circle with the watch.  You slide your hand in and out of the circle to put it on or take it off.  If you use some sort of a stand for your Apple Watch charger, make sure that it works for the band to loop around the stand; you cannot just have two wings coming off of each side of the watch like you can with many other bands.

The Sport Loop comes in lots of different colors.  When the watch was first released in 2017, the colors were uniform on both sides of the watch band.  Although Apple no longer sells that style of Sport Loop band in its online store, you can still find it on Amazon.  Indeed, as of the time that I am typing this, some of the colors such as Indigo and Hibiscus are on sale on Amazon for under $25, which is a fantastic price.

If you buy from Apple, the current generation of the Sport Loop (other than Pride Edition) has one color on one side and a different color or shade on the other side.  Because the Sport Loop wraps around itself, the end result is that it looks like the band coming from the top of the Apple Watch is a different color/shade than the band coming from the bottom of the Apple Watch.

The current color combinations being sold by Apple this season are Anchor Gray with two shades of gray, Midnight Blue with black one one side and blue on the other and a blue trim, Alaskan Blue, with a darker blue on one side and a lighter blue on the other side and a yellow trim (the one that I bought), Khaki with one side blue and one side tan, Camel with one side yellow and one side lighter tan with a light blue trim, Pomegranate with two colors that are almost pink, and Pride Edition.  To my eye, they all look like nice combinations.  Having said that, if Apple were still selling versions that used the same single color on both sides, I’d probably opt for that style.  

Conclusion

If you plan to get your Apple Watch wet a lot, such as when swimming, or if you will be using your Apple Watch in an environment in which food or other substances are likely to come in contact with your band, then the Sport Band with its easy-to-wipe-off fluoroelastomer might be the best band for you.  But otherwise, the Sport Loop band is so incredibly comfortable that it gets my highest recommendation.  I’m very happy that I opted for this style when I purchased my Apple Watch Series 5.  If you are not buying a new Apple Watch, consider buying one from Apple for $49 or getting one of the older color styles on Amazon for only $25.

Having said that, the Sport Loop is such a casual watch band that I recommend that you also get a nicer watch band to wear whenever you are dressed up.  For me, that is the Milanese Loop.

In the news 500

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Almost every week for over ten years, I’ve been collecting the news of note related to the iPhone from the prior week and posting a Friday column called In the news.  Add them all up and you’ll see that today is the 500th edition, a number that I certainly did not have in mind when I wrote this post in 2009.  If you are interested, I explained the origin of In the news back in 2011 when I published the 100th edition.  Having said that, if you are around my age and used to watch Saturday morning cartoons in the 1970s and/or early 1980s, then you already know what my inspiration was for the title.  Before I head out to the fancy 500th celebration gala, here is the news of note from the past week:

  • Lit Software makes some of the very best apps for attorneys who use an iPad, such as TrialPad and TranscriptPad, and has more lawyer-specific apps coming in the future.  In a post on the Lit Software blog, the company explains what is on the future roadmap for Lit Software, including a new subscription model and better support for iPadOS 13.
  • In an article for Law Technology Today, attorney Dennis Kennedy discusses attorney use of cloud computing, including use on mobile devices.
  • Illinois attorney John Voorhees of MacStories discusses the new features in GoodNotes, my favorite app for taking handwritten notes on the iPad (and a current sponsor of iPhone J.D.)
  • This week, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to three scientists who developed lithium-ion batteries:  Stanley Whittingham, John Goodenough, and Akira Yoshino.  As John Timmer of Ars Technica explains, that discovery spawned the mobile-electronic revolution, including the iPhone.  And in an article in the New York Times, Prof. Whittingham is quoted as saying that “he always hoped lithium-ion technology would grow, ‘but we never envisaged it growing this far.  We never imagined it being ubiquitous in things like iPhones.'”  Congrats!  All three of you are invited to New Orleans for the 500th celebration gala.
  • Jason Cross of Macworld compiled a list of all of the modern iPhone touch gestures and commands.
  • When iOS 13.0 debuted on September 19, 2019, it had an unfortunate number of bugs, resulting in the need for numerous software updates over the past few weeks.  Chaim Gartenberg of The Verge says that there is still a long way to go, but fortunately, both iOS 13 and iPadOS 13 are fairly stable for me now.
  • William Gallagher of AppleInsider offers advice for using the Control Center in iOS 13.
  • If you are interested in using Shortcuts on iOS 13 and/or iPadOS 13, Shawn Blanc of The Sweet Setup wrote a comprehensive guide for doing so.
  • The team at MacStories identifies apps that do a good job of taking advantage of iOS 13 and iPadOS 13.
  • Eric Griffith of PCMag identifies hidden features in iOS 13 that you might want to try.
  • iOS 13 and iPadOS 13 are very similar, but there are some important differences, as noted by David Nield of Gizmodo.
  • If you liked the idea of using a Logitech Crayon with your iPad instead of an Apple Pencil but the bright colors deterred you from doing so, Malcolm Ower of AppleInsider reports that you can now buy an all-gray version of the Crayon for the same price of $70.
  • Michael Grothaus of Fast Company explains why you should be careful about accepting a Lightning cable from a stranger now that a hacked Lightning cable is being mass-produced that can be used to take over your computer.  Yikes.
  • If you have a new car with a wide video screen, CarPlay looks much better, as Danny Zepeda of iMore demonstrates.
  • In an article for Wired, Sophie Charara interviewed DJ Zane Lowe to discuss the future of Apple Music.
  • If you prefer Spotify over Apple Music, Brent Dirks of AppAdvice explains that you can now control Spotify using Siri.
  • In just a few weeks, Apple will debut its Apple TV+ streaming video service.  Ramin Setoodeh of Variety interviews Jennifer Aniston, who talks about her new show and why she brought it to Apple TV+.  Aniston explained that Apple is “all about quality, not quantity, so that was really appealing.  And in spite of their comical secrecy, it’s been worth it.  Who doesn’t want to be part of the Wild Wild West?”
  • Adam Schefter of ESPN reports that the NFL fined Ben Roethlisberger $5,000 for wearing his Apple Watch on the Pittsburgh Steelers’ sideline during the Monday Night Football game against the Cincinnati Bengals.
  • And finally, here is a one-minute video from Apple that shows off some of the new features of iPadOS 13.  In showing off the new swipe-to-type feature that Apple calls Quick Path, the video shows that you can pinch on the full-size iPad keyboard to turn it into a small, iPhone-size keyboard.  Even when I’m not using Quick Path, I use that feature quite a bit when I want to type something but I also want to be able to see more items on my screen.  If you haven’t tried it yet, you should check it out.

© 2008-2025 Jeffrey Richardson