A calendar app is not the #1 most used app on my iPhone and iPad (that would probably be the Mail app), but it is definitely in the top 5. Fantastical has been my go-to calendar app on the iPhone and iPad since 2012, when it was recommended to me by Portland attorney Josh Barrett. This week, the app was updated to version 3. It has a nice new interface and adds lots of new features. California attorney David Sparks of MacSparky talks about some of the new features in this post, and he also links to a free video tutorial he prepared for the app. And Federico Viticci of MacStories wrote an comprehensive review of the new version of Fantastical. If you haven’t tried the app yet, you can use many of the features for free so I encourage you to check it out. For more advanced features, you can pay $40/year. At this point in this post, I would normally introduce the news of note from the past week. However, I spent most of this past week working as appellate counsel for a case that was in trial, and as a result of the long hours every day this week, I haven’t yet caught up with all of the news. Nevertheless, here are at least a few of the recent news items of note:
Ten years ago this week, the iPad was introduced. It is now a huge part of my law practice, and it was especially useful this week when I was in trial. Illinois attorney John Voorhees of MacStories describes the introduction of the iPad 10 years ago.
I like using the multi-tasking features of the iPad, but if you find that they get in the way and you prefer the one-app-at-a-time approach used by the iPhone, you can turn off multi-tasking on an iPad. John Gruber of Daring Fireball explains how.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos was using an iPhone X in 2018 when it was hacked, resulting in an attempt to blackmail him. Sheera Frenkel of the New York Times explains one of the theories on how this may have been accomplished.
Apple announced this week that all of the United States is now using the new version of its maps, with much better information. I discussed some of the changes to maps last August, when the new map data came to New Orleans. One change that I like is that the iPhone now knows where streetlights and stop signs are. When I’m using CarPlay and getting directions, telling me to turn on “Main Street” can be confusing when I don’t know my way around an area, but telling me to turn at the next light or the next stop sign is incredibly useful.
And finally, there is a one-of-a-kind guitar for sale on Reverb that is made from 106 iPhones (plus one iPod touch). It was originally listed for around $1 million, but you can now get it for about $6,000 if you act soon. I have one picture below, but click here to see many more pictures and get all of the details. I own a guitar and play it a little, but I mostly play the piano so let me know if any of you see a piano made out of iPhones.
The most important story in the news this week has been the impeachment trial of President Trump. To my surprise, there is actually an Apple angle here — and not just that millions of people are streaming it live on an iPhone or iPad. Katherine Tully-McManus of Roll Call reports that at least seven Senators are wearing an Apple Watch and that this technically violates the Senate rules of decorum. Many judges make you turn off an iPhone in court, but I have yet to hear of a judge telling attorneys to turn off an Apple Watch. And now, the news of note from the past week:
Attorneys often have a need to export text messages from an iPhone. Legal tech consultant Brett Burney of Apps in Law wrote and prepared a video about iMazing, a product that lets you do this.
John Gruber of Daring Fireball discusses a recent report by Reuters on how Apple was going to encrypt iCloud backups but then did not do so. As Gruber notes, if you backup your iPhone or iPad to your own computer instead of iCloud, then you get greater protection for your backup.
William Cohan of Fast Company reports on a $10 million cyber lab used by New York City to gain access to iPhones.
I don’t wear my Apple Watch when I sleep very often, but a Kentucky woman did so, and her Apple Watch woke her up to warn her that it detected atrial fibrillation, as reported by Chance Miller for 9to5Mac.
Ryan Christoffel of MacStories writes about some of the shows coming to Apple TV+. I’m most looking forward to Mythic Quest: Raven’s Banquet.
And finally, if you want to get a sense of how much the iPhone has improved over the years, check out this video by Arun Maini which lines them all up and shows the same activity on all of them at the same time. (Not that he reads this website, but thanks to my 14-year-old son for coming across this video and sharing it with me.)
Apple has been in the news this week because of iPhone security. As noted by Katie Benner of the New York Times, Attorney General William Barr stated that he needed Apple’s help to access information on an iPhone used by a gunman at a Pensacola, FL naval station last month. Barr wants Apple to come up with a way that the government can always access an iPhone, even if it is locked. And President Trump tweeted that Apple needs to comply. Back in 2016, I wrote about similar requests by the FBI under the Obama administration in connection with a gunman in San Bernadino, CA. When you see news stories like this, I urge you to consider the following: this is all nonsense.
First, the government doesn’t really need Apple’s assistance. This is all a show. Independent forensic companies have been looking for and coming up with ways to hack into the iPhone (and other technology) for a long time. Every year, Apple improves iPhone security to make this harder, although even with the newest iPhone 11 Pro, Thomas Brewster of Forbes reports that the government has used a device called GrayKey to hack into the device. In the Pensacola shooting case, the iPhone models are an iPhone 5 and iPhone 7, which were released in 2012 and 2016. Governments and forensic companies have had ways to hack into these older phones for a while. The government is picking cases with bad facts — such as mass shootings — to get more sympathy, but the government has other ways to access data on these devices. Maybe the government wants to avoid paying smart forensic companies and instead have Apple do this for free, but there is a reason that these services are expensive. They should be expensive. We don’t want it to be cheap and easy to circumvent security.
Second, the government wants you to ignore that there is a cat-and-mouse game going on here, and that this is a good thing. It should work that way. Apple comes up with new ways to protect the iPhone. Then smart hackers find exploits. And then it continues. Again and again. As a result, the iPhone remains as secure as possible for all of the legitimate reasons that people have a right to keep their information private, whether it be confidential legal communications, medical information, or the list of potential present ideas for your spouse. If Apple has to stop making the iPhone more secure so that it can instead create a back door into the iPhone, it is pure fantasy to assume that only “good guys” will be able to use the back door. Malicious hackers always find a way to exploit these sorts of openings, but with Apple required to keep it open so that the FBI can use it, Apple won’t be able to fix the back door that it was required to create. Plus, if Apple makes the back door available to the U.S. government, then you can bet that every other government will demand access as well. Even if you have 100% trust in all agents of the U.S. government, do you feel the same way about the agents of every other government in the world? And even if access could somehow be limited to only “good” governments — whatever that means — there are countless examples of information leaking from agencies like the NSA and CIA that are supposed to be the best at keeping secrets. It is critical for it to remain Apple’s job to continually improve security, even as hackers continue to find ways to undermine that and the cat-and-mouse game continues.
Third, agencies like the FBI and Department of Justice have access to countless ways to investigate that did not exist years ago. Yes, I want them to solve cases, but they don’t need to have unlimited resources, such as being able to force companies like Apple to build back doors into the iPhone. I’m sure that many of us would be “safer” if we lived in a complete police state, but at what cost? It is a good thing to encourage the investigation of crimes, but at some point, the investigators can go too far.
Fourth, even if Apple did create back doors in the iPhone in response to these government demands, then the bad guys would just start using something else. If you ban guns, only criminals will have guns. If you force Apple to make the iPhone insecure, then only criminals will have secure phones.
Privacy and secrecy have important and legitimate roles in our society. It is a good thing to have companies like Apple doing their best to improve security on the devices used by their customers, even if there will never be a device that is 100% secure from hacking. So when you hear someone from the government complain about Apple refusing to make their own devices insecure, regardless of which political party is in power, please consider the implications of what they are asking for. Okay, my rant is over, let’s get on to the rest of the news of note from the past week:
California attorney David Sparks offers his own take on the request for Apple to create a back door into the iPhone.
If you use GoodNotes to take handwritten notes on your iPad, version 5.4 was released this week which adds the ability to automatically keep a PDF backup of your notes on Google Drive, Dropbox, or OneDrive.
If you own an Apple battery case for the iPhone XS, XS Max, or XR, Apple is now replacing some of the cases because of issues that may cause the battery to stop charging, as reported by Josh Centers of TidBITS.
Tim Hardwick of MacRumors reports that Apple is now offering less money when you trade in certain models of the iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and other devices.
How impressive have iPhone sales been over the last decade? Jason Snell of Six Colors shows it in charts — especially the last chart.
According to an article by Kofo Lasaki of a local CBS affiliate, a woman in Virginia Beach, VA reported that the iPhone’s SOS feature called 911 and saved her from an attempted sexual assault.
Zac Hall of 9to5 reports that an Apple Watch automatically called 911 and helped a person who was hit by a car while riding a bike during a morning commute.
Shawn King of The Loop shared a great one: open Safari on your iPhone, type “How big is a wolf” so that you do a Google search for that phrase, tap the top entry, and then tap on the link to View in 3D. Very cool.
And finally, Apple hired artists to create posters to promote some of its Apple TV+ shows, and Apple created some neat videos to show how the artists used an iPad and Apple Pencil to do so. Click here for the video associated with the show Dickinson, and click here or watch below to see that video associated with For All Mankind — which is currently my favorite show on Apple TV+, but I also really enjoyed The Morning Show (especially the last few episodes of Season 1). I’ve just started watching Dickinson.
Yesterday, in my AirPods Pro review, I mentioned that I added memory foam to my AirPods Pro and that this caused them to fit even better in my ears. In today’s post, I am showing you how that is done so that you can try it out yourself. This modification is easy, inexpensive, and quickly reversible, so there is no downside in trying it out to see what you think. For me, they make my AirPods Pro more comfortable in my ears.
This modification wasn’t originally my idea. I first saw it mentioned in this thread on Reddit, and it was also mentioned in this article on MacStories. But neither of those provided step-by-step instructions with pictures, so after I figured out for myself how to do this, I thought I would share what I did in this post so that it is easier for you to try this yourself.
There is nothing about this modification that should damage your AirPods Pro. This modification simply adds memory foam to the ear tips, and if you don’t like it you can simply pull the memory foam off and everything will be back to normal. Having said that, if you want to be extra cautious, you can also purchase replacement ear tips from Apple for only $3.95 for a set of two. That way, you can try this out on something that is not your normal ear tip. Plus, with that very small investment, you can have one set of ear tips with the memory foam and one set without making it faster to go back and forth between them. Go to this page of the Apple website to order additional ear tips. But again, you don’t need to order more ear tips to do this modification.
What you do need to purchase are some memory foam earbuds, unless you already have a pair from another set of headphones. The ones that I purchased on Amazon are the Heyous 2 Set Memory Foam Earbuds Sponge Caps Covers, which were inexpensive (only $9.99) and you get 12 earbuds in different sizes. It is nice to have lots of different sizes to try out because every ear is different and you will want to try different sizes to determine what feels best for your ears.
Each memory foam earbud has a plastic core surrounded by memory foam, and there are two sizes of plastic cores. It is easiest to work with the larger plastic core, which were the black ones in this set, so I recommend that you start there. You can then try again using the smaller plastic core to decide what you prefer.
For each size of plastic core, there are three different memory foam sizes. Again, you’ll just have to try them out to see what you like best for your ears.
Now that you have you have the memory foams and you have picked a set to start working with, you are ready to follow these simple steps.
First, remove the plastic core from the memory foam. This widens the circle in the middle of the memory foam. Removing the plastic core is fairly easy. Scrape your fingernail against all of the sides of the plastic core, and you can slowly push down the memory foam and scrape the memory foam off of the core. It took me about 20-30 seconds to get it off, which left me with the memory foam without the plastic core. You can discard the plastic core; you won’t need it again.
I’ve seen other people on the Internet talk about doing this type of modification without removing the plastic core, but with the version of the memory foam earpods I purchased, I don’t believe that the AirPods Pro tips can fit without removing the core.
Second, decide if you want to cut the memory foam earpod using some scissors to make the memory foam shorter. If you do cut, do so about one-third to one-half from the bottom. You are doing this so that the memory foam doesn’t stick out too much once you place it in the tip of the AirPods Pro.
This step is optional. In part, it is aesthetic; do you want to see memory foam sticking out below your the tips? In part, it is functional. For the larger AirPods Pro tips and larger memory foam sizes, the AirPods Pro case won’t close (or won’t close easily) with the memory foam sticking out. However, with the small blue tips and the medium AirPods Pro tips, I didn’t cut the memory foams and my case closes just fine. And I sort of like the look of having a dash of blue color with the white — not that anyone else will notice the color once these are in your ears.
Third, prepare the AirPods Pro tips for adding the memory foam. To do this, simply remove the tip from the AirPods pro and unfold the tip.
Fourth, put the tip inside of the memory foam. To do so, you need to fold up the rubbery part of the tip. However, you’ll find that as soon as you fold it, it wants to bounce back into shape. Thus, I found that the best way to do this is to use a small piece of Scotch tape. Place the end of your tip on some tape, and then roll up the tape, which will also roll up the ear tip.
With the tape on the end, it is easy to slide the tape-and-tip into the memory foam. Come up from the bottom.
Next, remove the tape. It comes off easily because the rubbery tip doesn’t adhere to the tape.
Fifth, fold the ear tip back to the way that it was when you started. Now, you have a tip with memory foam installed.
Put the tip back on your AirPods Pro.
With the memory foam installed, there is slightly more passive noise cancellation. More noticeable, however, is that both of the AirPods Pro stay in my ear much better than they did without the memory foam. Without the memory foam, they would move around more in my ears, and over time — especially in my left ear — they would start to become loose, making me concerned that they might fall out. With the memory foam, they do a much better job of staying in place. I still find myself adjusting them from time to time, but far less than I used to without the memory foam.
I presume that, at some point, a third party company will sell a replacement ear tip containing memory foam. Or better yet, it would be great if Apple sold replacement ear tips containing memory foam. For now, however, this do-it-yourself solution is inexpensive and simple. And I like that it is reversible, so you can try it to see if you like it without having to commit to anything.
For me, using memory foam has enhanced my enjoyment of AirPods Pro because they do a better job of staying in my ear without moving around too much.
When I reviewed the first-generation AirPods, my review could not have been more positive. I called them a perfect example of Apple at its best. I’ve been using Apple’s new AirPods Pro for about a month. Because they are similar to the original AirPods with a big new feature — noise cancellation — I expected to love the AirPods Pro even more. Indeed, the reviews have been incredibly positive. For example, Parker Hill of Wired calls them “what Apple’s earbuds should always have been,” and Brian X. Chen of the New York Times said “I hesitate to recommend older versions because the new model is far superior.” I really like the AirPods Pro, but I don’t consider them what AirPods should always have been or far superior than AirPods — at least, not for everyone — because they can be less comfortable for some ears, although I found a partial workaround by adding memory foam.
Apple’s first-generation AirPods, announced on September 7, 2016, first went on sale in December 2016 and were in limited quantities for the first few months. Apple’s AirPods Pro were announced on October 28, 2019, and, once again, quantities have been very limited. I ordered mine in November and it took about five weeks to get them. Even today, if you order them on the Apple website, Apple says that you will have to wait about four weeks to get delivery. Suffice it to say that this product is in high demand.
There a few changes in the look of the AirPods Pro versus the original AirPods. The case is a little bigger and is now wide instead of tall.
The stem is shorter, and it works differently. To interact with AirPods, you tap on the side. To interact with AirPods Pro, you squeeze the stem. It took me about two weeks to get used to the change, but after I did, I now prefer this approach. It works more consistently than tapping the side did, and it is a more pleasant gesture.
The shape is also somewhat different, in part because the AirPods Pro needs to go deeper into your ear so that it fills your ear canal.
At $249, they are more expensive than the $159 AirPods (which you can currently get from Amazon for only $129) and the $199 AirPods with wireless charging case (which you can currently get from Amazon for only $169). You get two things for the extra cost. First, you get a case with wireless charging, just like the $199 version of the AirPods. Second, you get noise cancellation.
If you already use a Qi wireless charger for your iPhone or other devices, then you know whether you like wireless chargers. I rarely use them because I find it just as convenient, and much faster, to use a Lightning cord to charge. Thus, the only additional feature that I found intriguing was noise cancellation.
Noise Cancellation
Noise cancellation technology is fascinating, and it works in two ways. Passive noise cancellation is simple and occurs whenever you block your ears. Put your hands over your ears, or put in some earplugs, and that is passive noise cancellation. Active noise cancellation is more sophisticated and works by using a microphone on the outside of the headphones to listen to the outside world and then producing equal but opposite sound waves inside of your ear canal to cancel the outside noise. Bose pioneered this technology, and it released the first consumer active noise cancellation headphones in 2000. I’ve seen them countless times on airplanes since then, and I’m sure that you have too. Although I’ve never owned a pair, I have tried them many times. Two things stopped me from buying my own pair: the cost and the fact that most models are rather bulky — taking up valuable space in an airplane carry-on and making it too inconvenient to carry them around every day.
Apple has managed to fit active noise cancellation technology into the tiny AirPods. As a result, you can carry them around with you all the time, and then the noise cancellation technology is there whenever you want it.
Despite what the name implies, noise cancellation doesn’t actually cancel all outside noise. But it does drastically reduce that noise. If you are on an airplane or walking around a city, it’s like turning down the volume of the outside world to around a 3 on a 1-10 scale. If you are in a noisy environment, this is a major difference.
I’ve found it very unsatisfying to use regular AirPods on an airplane (for example, when watching a video) because the sound from my iPhone or iPad was often hard to hear over the outside noise. I’ve instead used corded headphones which can be a little louder, but even that wasn’t perfect. Using AirPods Pro on an airplane is an almost magical experience. The cabin noise doesn’t completely go away, but it is reduced so substantially that I no longer have any trouble hearing my iPhone or iPad, and I no longer have to crank up the volume to the maximum. And then when I want to put them away, I just put them in the tiny case and slip them into a shirt or pants pocket.
When using AirPods Pro and walking around on the streets of downtown New Orleans, I’ve never considered the outside noise too loud to hear regular AirPods, with rare exceptions like walking by a construction project. But with AirPods Pro, the volume on the outside world is turned down enough that my the music or podcast that I’m listening to sounds much better. I can still hear the outside world, so I will still hear traffic noises, and if a car honks at me or a person yells my name, I will still hear them. But the outside world just becomes less obnoxious, which improves the quality of whatever I’m listening to.
I have a treadmill in my house, and it is rather noisy: less than an airplane, but more than walking around downtown. I often use my AirPods Pro to watch an episode of a TV show on my iPad while I am walking on the treadmill, and the experience of watching the show is dramatically improved when the sound from the episode doesn’t have to complete with the loud noise coming from the treadmill.
All of this was great, but frankly, it was also what I predicted. I expected the noise cancellation experience to be nice when I was in a loud environment. I was surprised to find that I often enjoy using noise cancellation when I am in a quiet environment.
For example, I’ll sometimes have lunch in my office with my door closed and I will listen to part of a podcast while I eat. When I activate noise cancellation, I’ll suddenly notice that I can no longer hear the sounds of the air conditioner or heater and other minor sounds in my office, sounds that I previously didn’t even realize were there. But then once that minor outside noise goes away, whatever I am listening to sounds much better. And then when I remove AirPods Pro from my ears, I find myself wondering how I previously wasn’t annoyed by that air conditioner. Listening to that podcast in my office would have been perfectly fine with regular AirPods, with the AirPods Pro, I realize that I never knew what I was missing. I will note, however, that with AirPods Pro in my ear canals, the sound of myself chewing seems even louder, which I didn’t expect.
I’ve also used the AirPods Pro without even playing any sound when I am trying to concentrate. I normally work just fine when there is noise around me, and there are times when I will even listen to music without words while I am drafting a brief just because that helps my brain to focus on writing. But there are also times when I find the outside noise distracting, even if it is not loud. Wearing AirPods Pro with noise cancellation turned on but otherwise not listening to anything effectively turns down the volume on the outside world and can help me to concentrate on whatever I’m working on. For example, if I’m working on something in my study at home and my kids are one or two rooms over, making noise with something like an iPhone or iPad, I can activate noise cancellation and then I don’t really hear them anymore.
Suffice it to say that the noise cancellation feature of AirPods Pro is very nice. Once you try it, it is something that you want to always have available.
Transparency
Even though I’m a big fan of noise cancellation, sometimes I don’t want that feature. For example, sometimes I want to listen to music but also hear what is going on around me. One solution would be to use a traditional speaker, such as Apple’s HomePod, but then everyone else around me would have to listen to whatever I am listening to. AirPods Pro provide a better solution in these circumstances.
Although you can turn off active noise cancellation on the AirPods Pro, because the AirPods Pro go somewhat deep into your ear just like earplugs, they still block some of the outside noise even with noise cancellation turned off. In other words, even with active noise cancellation turned off, there is still some passive noise cancellation because you have something in your ear canal.
Fortunately, AirPods Pro has a mode called Transparency that counteracts this. It uses the microphone on the outside of AirPods Pro to listen to the outside world and then, instead of playing the opposite wavelengths to achieve noise cancellation, it plays the outside noise inside of your ear. As a result, you can hear 100% of the outside world even though there is something in your ear canal.
This feature works really well. I used it this past weekend when there was a massive rainstorm in New Orleans and I decided to relax by watching an episode of a TV show on my iPad. (I finished watching The Man From High Castle on Amazon Prime, a series that I enjoyed.) Normally, I don’t want to hear anything when I’m watching a TV show, but on Saturday, I decided to sit on my back porch because I liked the idea of sitting in a rocking chair and listening to the rain even though I was also listening to my show. Perhaps a little silly, but the Transparency mode gave me exactly what I needed.
I also use this mode frequently when I am doing chores around the house while I am listening to a podcast. Transparency mode is perfect because I can listen to my podcast (often a tech-related one) while I’m working, but I can still hear what is going on around me, especially if someone in my family starts talking to me.
Because regular AirPods do not go deep into your ear and thus don’t have much passive noise cancellation, using AirPods Pro in Transparency mode is somewhat similar to using regular AirPods in terms of what you can hear from the outside world. I can hear a little bit more of the outside world with Transparency world, but it is pretty close.
Switching between modes is fast and easy. If you squeeze the flat side of the stem of either one of the AirPods Pro for about a second or two, you will hear a tone indicating that you have changed modes. By default, you just switch between noise cancellation and Transparency modes, but you can change that in the Settings app if you also want to change to the Off Mode — no noise cancellation but also no Transparency. You can also change modes using the Settings app:
You can also change modes by invoking the Control Center and long-pressing on the volume bar.
I usually use the squeeze-the-stem approach when I want to switch modes, and I do it frequently. Transparency mode is the mode that I didn’t realize I would want until I tried it out.
Fit and comfort
Unlike regular AirPods, which are earphones that fit in the outside of your ear, AirPods pro are canalphones, which push deeper into the hole in your ear. This is a very different feeling, and you might not like it. My wife tried my AirPods Pro and quickly decided that it felt bizarre and wasn’t for her. I also found it strange at first, but I grew used to it over a week or two.
I’ve always found the regular AirPods to be perfectly comfortable. I would sometimes hear reports of folks saying that they disagree, and I would think that I was lucky that they worked with the shape of my ear.
I had the opposite experience with AirPods Pro. Although I got used to the feeling of something in my ear canal, I had trouble getting them to fit correctly, especially in my left ear. This led me to frequently try things like turning them, pushing them in more or pulling them out, etc.
AirPods Pro comes with ear tips in three different sizes, and I’ve read many reviews in which people praised this decision, concluding that it helped to make the AirPods Pro the most comfortable AirPods ever. For me, the largest size feels best in my right ear, but I have gone back and forth between the medium and large size in my left ear. And even for those times when they felt fine when I first put them into my ear, over the next minute or so they would often start to become loose, especially in my left ear. I could reach up and adjust them, but then after a certain amount of time — sometimes an hour, but sometimes only a few minutes — I’d have to adjust them again. This was annoying and tampered my enthusiasm for AirPods Pro.
With the memory foam added, I still need to adjust the AirPods Pro in my ear more often than I would like. With the regular AirPods, I never had to readjust them. But they are definitely better. Plus, the memory foam provides a little more passive noise cancellation. My hope is that in the future, Apple or a third party will sell replacement tips for AirPods Pro that include memory foam, and that might work even better than my do-it-yourself modification.
While this modification seems to make the AirPods Pro fit in my ear better, the AirPods Pro are still not perfect for my ears. I say this in part because I still find myself adjusting them and in part because I keep failing the test. The AirPods Pro settings on the iPhone and iPad give you the ability to run an Ear Tip Fit Test. Your device plays music for a few seconds — part of the song Awake by the San Francisco musician known as Tycho (Scott Hansen) — and then your device tells you if you have a good fit or if you need to adjust one or both of your AirPods Pro in your ears or try a different size ear tip. My ears fail both tests almost every single time, either with or without my memory foam modification. And yet noise cancellation seems to be working just fine. Either noise cancellation works better for others with a different ear shape, or perhaps just the Apple ear tip test works better for others than it does for me.
Unfortunately, I don’t believe that you can determine if AirPods Pro are right for your ears without buying them. Before I purchased my AirPods Pro, I tried out a sample pair in an Apple Store. (Don’t worry; they clean the ear tips before you use them.) During the few minutes that I tried them in the store, the experience of having something in my ear canal was so new for me and the feel was so different than what I experienced with normal AirPods that there just wasn’t enough time to determine how they fit. One of my two ears failed the Ear Tip Fit Test in the store, so maybe that should have been some indication that I might have problems, but at the time, I thought it was just because I had not yet learned the right way to insert them.
But fortunately, if you buy a pair of AirPods Pro to try them out, Apple has a generous 14-day return policy on just about any product that it sells, including AirPods Pro. Thus, you could try them out, keep them if you like them, or return them and instead purchase regular AirPods to see if they work better for your ears.
Conclusion
I love AirPods, and I think that everyone who owns an iPhone or iPad and listens to music or watches videos should consider getting them. AirPods Pro have definite advantage over regular AirPods, but for at least some people, they also have drawbacks. The noise cancellation and Transparency modes are fantastic, a big improvement over AirPods. But the way that they go into your ear canal is uncomfortable for some people, and for at least some ear shapes — including mine — it can be difficult to get them in the right place in your ear and then to get them to stay in that place. Given the number of overwhelmingly positive reviews for AirPods Pro, I recognize that I am likely in the minority when it comes to how they fit in my ears.
Even though I’m not gushing over the AirPods Pro like some other reviewers, I still prefer them over regular AirPods, especially now that I have added memory foam so that they do a better job of fitting in my ear. If you are trying to decide between AirPods Pro and regular AirPods and you can justify the additional cost, I recommend that you buy AirPods Pro. Try them for up to two weeks and see what you think. You might even try adding memory foam like I did to see what you think of that. If they are not for you, return them to Apple and get a refund.
AirPods Pro are not perfect for me, but I still really like them, evidenced by the fact that they have been in my pocket virtually all the time since I first received them. I’m glad that Apple has looked for ways to improve the original AirPods, and I hope that Apple continues to improve this amazing product.
If you or someone in your family spent money at the App Store on New Year’s Day, then you contributed to Apple reaching a new daily record for App Store sales — $386 million in sales on January 1, 2020. That’s 20% higher than last year. Not a bad day for Apple. And now, the news of note from the past week:
Juli Clover of MacRumors notes that, 13 years ago yesterday, Steve Jobs introduced the original iPhone. She provides a link to the video of Steve Jobs doing so, and every time I watch it, I’m amazed at what a great job Steve Jobs did with that presentation.
Christopher Close of iMore reports that a company called Waciao (pronounced like “watch out”) is entering the smart home market and has plans for lots of HomeKit-compatible products.
I’m a big fan of Lutron’s smart home products. I recently installed a simple Lutron Caseta switch in my garage, and now I can use my iPhone or even my Apple Watch to turn the light on in my garage (which is not connected to my house) before I even go out to the garage. This is especially great at night; I love having the light already on when I unlock the door. Even my wife likes this one, and she is not nearly as interested in smart home technology as I am. I mention this because at CES this week, Lutron announced that it will release a new smart motion sensor and also a new Caséta Repeater which can expand your system range by 60 feet. A few months ago, I explained how you can use a Lutron Caseta Wireless Smart Lighting Lamp Dimmer to extend the range by 30 feet, so this Repeater will be even better. If you have a large house, a house in an irregular shape, or you have dense stone or concrete walls, this Repeater sounds like it will let you get much more out of Lutron devices.
Ben Lovejoy of 9to5Mac describes a HomeKit device that does one simple thing — pushes a physical button.
Apple plans to launch a series of ads featuring great pictures that people have taken using the Night Mode feature on an iPhone 11. And if you contribute your photo between now and January 29 and it is selected by the panel of judges, Apple will pay to license your photo for its campaign. All of the information is contained on this page of the Apple website. Good luck!
If you have been waiting to buy a pair of AirPods or AirPods Pro, you wait was worth it (ahem) because now you can order yours with an emoji on it, as July Clover of MacRumors explains.
Apple has released some fascinating “shot on iPhone” videos. Apple recently released an interesting one called Fire & Ice. Click here to watch it — and it is formatted to look best on an iPhone, So I recommend that you watch it there, not on a computer. When you are done watching that, I found the behind-the-scene video to be even more interesting — and this one is in landscape orientation so it looks great on a computer, or iPad, or iPhone:
The Apps in Law podcast is a fantastic podcast for attorneys looking to get the most out of an iPhone or iPad in a law practice. In each episode, Brett Burney interviews one attorney (or other legal professional), and the focus is typically on why that person finds one particular app useful in a law practice. I appeared on the podcast when it started in 2017 to discuss why I consider 1Password such an essential app. Burney recently invited me back to the podcast, and this time I decided to talk about GoodNotes, an app that I use to take handwritten notes on my iPad. We recorded the episode near the end of last year, and I see that the episode was posted yesterday.
In this episode, I talk to Brett about how I use GoodNotes, why I prefer taking handwritten notes on an iPad versus on paper, and why I prefer taken handwritten notes versus typing notes on a laptop. I also give some tips for getting more out of the GoodNotes app.
Once nice difference between Episode 4 that I recorded in 2017 and this new Episode 23 is that I’m now using a Blue Yeti USB Mic. (I’m not sure what I used in 2017, but it may have just been the headphones that come for free with an iPhone.) The Blue Yeti microphone produces audio that sounds so much better.
The timing of the release of this episode was very appropriate for me. I used GoodNotes extensively yesterday (and I plan to use it again today) to prepare an outline for an appellate oral argument that I’m giving tomorrow. I plan to use my iPad at the podium — the backlit, large iPad screen makes it easy to see my outline and related notes — but I’ll also export to PDF and print that out later today to have the paper version as a backup, just in case I need it.
You can click the episode link to listen to the episode on a computer, but I recommend that you subscribe to the podcast in your iPhone podcast app of choice (I use Overcast) to check out prior episodes and to learn about new ones as they are released. I learn something new from every episode.
It’s hard to believe that we are now in the 2020s. Ten years ago, the iPhone was still fairly new (with far more attorneys using a BlackBerry) and the original iPad was introduced by Apple in January 2010. Now, almost 80% of all attorneys are using an iPhone (according to the ABA), and the iPad is a sophisticated tool for attorneys, especially the iPad Pro. California attorney David Sparks has decided that the iPad is the Apple device of the last decade. He makes a strong argument, and I’m now at the point where I cannot imagine practicing law without an iPad. Having said that, I also cannot imagine practicing law, communicating with friends and family, taking pictures, and a host of other activities without using my iPhone, which was substantially improved when the iPhone X was released in 2017 and is now even more powerful thanks to additional improvements. If I had to pick just one Apple device of the decade, I’d probably pick the iPhone, but the iPad would be an incredibly close second-place pick. And now, the recent news of note:
The New York Times Editorial Board discusses the dangers of surveillance possible as a result of modern technology. My hope, as we enter the 2020s, is that consumers will start to demand more privacy and will reward companies like Apple that do a better job of protecting it.
I’ve been impressed by the content on Apple TV+ so far, and it looks like it is only going to get better in the future. For example, John Koblin of the New York Times reports that Richard Piepler — who previously ran HBO and spent 27 years there — is now going to produce programs exclusively for Apple TV+ for the next five years.
Amos Chapple of PetaPixel went to Murmansk in Russia — the biggest city in the Arctic Circle — to take pictures in December (when the sun never rises) using Night Mode on the iPhone 11 Pro. The pictures and his article describing them are interesting.
And finally, as the weather is getting colder, this is a good time to enjoy some magic from iPad magician Simon Pierro in a video he calls Olaf’s Magical Adventure:
