Apple has shown incredible leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic. It started by donating masks to medical professionals that Apple already had in its possession (presumably accumulated during the California fires). Apple then found a company to make more masks that Apple could give away, and a few days ago Apple CEO Tim Cook announced that Apple would be obtaining and giving away over 20 million masks to medical workers. Cook also announced that Apple designed and was producing face shields for medical workers. You can see how the face shield works in this support document on Apple's website. And then Cook announced that Apple was contributing $10 million to Lady Gaga's effort to raise money for the World Health Organization, which will put on a concert on April 18 called One World Together At Home. It will be broadcast by Apple and by all three U.S. networks, it will be hosted by Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, and Stephen Colbert, and the list of participating artists is impressive including Paul McCartney, Elton John, Keith Urban, Billie Eilish, Stevie Wonder, Alanis Morissette, and many more. As so many of us are using Apple devices to stay connected while we practice social distancing, kudos to Apple for inspiring us all by doing what it can to help. And now, the news of note from the past week:
- California attorney David Sparks explains why he is a fan of Watchsmith, an interesting app that lets you create your own complications for the Apple Watch.
- Ryan Christoffel of MacStories also wrote an extensive review of Watchsmith,
- Apple's upcoming Magic Keyboard incorporates a keyboard and a trackpad into an iPad case. It looks fantastic and starts at $299. Jason Snell of Six Colors reviewed the Brydge Pro+ keyboard, which is about $100 cheaper. Unfortunately, Snell reports that the trackpad doesn't work well so this isn't a good alternative.
- Matt Webb Mitovich of TV Line reports that everyone can now watch many of the best shows on Apple TV+ for free. Not all of the shows are available — for example, The Morning Show and See are missing — but of what is available, I can recommend For All Mankind and Dickinson.
- If you are following the latest guidelines and wearing a mask to prevent COVID-19, FaceID on an iPhone no longer works while a mask covers your mouth and nose. Joanna Stern of the Wall Street Journal discusses possible work-arounds.
- Jack Foster of Hodinkee writes a detailed and passionate argument for the Solar Face on the Apple Watch.
- Not that any of us are traveling right now, but if you want a travel charger for your Apple Watch, Ed Hardy of Cult of Mac wrote a favorable review of the Satechi Charging Dock for Apple Watch. It uses USB-C and appears to take up almost no space. Looks neat. $39 on Amazon.
- GoodNotes updated an older post on Medium in which it selects the best styluses to use with an iPad. Unsurprisingly, the Apple Pencil comes up on top, but they also like what they call the Adonit Jot Pro. I believe that stylus is now called the Adonit Pro 4 and costs only $29.99 on Amazon. For many years, the Adonit Jot Pro was my favorite stylus (here is my review of the 2015 model), because of its fine tip attached to a clear disk. One nice thing about the Adonit Pro 4 is that it works with any device, even the iPhone. If you want a stylus but don't want to pay over $50 and/or want to use it on an iPhone, I think that the Pro 4 would be a great pick. Having said that, once you start using an Apple Pencil, everything else pales in comparison.
- And finally, here is an interesting drone video by Duncan Sinfield showing what Apple Park looks like when virtually everyone is working at home: