After doing the same thing at your house, day after day, week after week, it’s time for something different that will cheer you up. Use your iPhone to download the WWOZ app. Or go to this page from the WWOZ website on your browser. Or, if you live in New Orleans, tune your radio to 90.7 FM. Why? Because every year, the last weekend in April and the first weekend in May means that it is time for Jazz Fest. Because of COVID-19, the traditional festival — always one of my favorite times of the year in New Orleans — had to be canceled for the first time in its 50-year history. But fortunately, the non-profit radio station owned by Jazz Fest, WWOZ, has stepped up to present Jazz Festing in Place. On April 23-26 and April 30-May 3, from 11am to 7pm Central (the same days and times as the normal Jazz Fest), WWOZ is playing some of the best live performances from the history of Jazz Fest. Yesterday, while I was working, I listened to a 1977 performance by Ella Fitzgerald, including the part where Stevie Wonder gets up on stage and they sing a duet of You Are the Sunshine of My Life. Later, as my wife and I prepared dinner, we listened to a fantastic 2001 performance by Fats Domino. Today, you can hear Aaron Neville and Irma Thomas. This weekend, you can hear Dr. John, Trombone Shorty, Henry Butler, Alvin Batiste, and many, many, many more. I guarantee you that it will make you tap your toes and smile. After all, if you can’t live in New Orleans, let New Orleans live in you. And now, the news of note from the past week:
- There is a great episode of the Apps in Law Podcast this week in which host Brett Burney interviews Commander Ben Robinson, a military judge who describes how use makes extensive use of his iPad in his practice.
- Illinois attorney John Voorhees of MacStories notes that you can now use the Look Around feature of Apple Maps to see Chicago.
- One of the big stories of this week is that you can now get the Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro. There are lots of reviews, and here are the ones that I recommend. Attorney Jeremy Horwitz of VentureBeat does a good job outlining the pros and cons.
- Scott Stein of CNet notes that the Magic Keyboard turns your iPad into something different, a tool for getting work done with the keyboard and trackpad. He suggests leaving it on a desk so that you magnetically attach your iPad to get work done somewhat like a computer, and then you lift up the iPad to return to a traditional tablet mode.
- In an article for Macworld, Jason Snell notes that the Magic Keyboard makes your iPad weigh as much as a laptop — except that you can easily remove the iPad from the Magic Keyboard.
- Federico Viticci of MacStories wrote a good review that includes some great pictures of the device.
- John Guber of Daring Fireball says that the Magic Keyboard is “utterly brilliant” and gives you an “altogether new experience” using an iPad.
- Matthew Panzarino of TechCrunch says: “If you work seriously with the iPad and that work is based on typing, the Magic Keyboard is essentially mandatory.”
- The new iPhone SE is being released today. A number of reporters had a chance to try it out and write some reviews. Here are the ones that I recommend. John Gruber of Daring Fireball points out how powerful the iPhone SE is, even though it lacks many of the fantastic features on more expensive iPhones.
- Joanna Stern calls the iPhone SE the iPhone for people who don’t like new iPhones. And the video at the top of her article is funny.
- Dieter Bohn of The Verge says that the iPhone SE is everything that many folks need.
- Five years ago today, on April 24, 2015, the original Apple Watch became available. I started using mine on that day, and a version of the Apple Watch has been on my wrist every single day since then. Hokinkee, a website devoted to high-end watches, takes a look at the impact that the Apple Watch has had on the industry for the past five years.
- And finally, I recently noted that Apple and Google have teamed up to create a contact tracing system that also preserves your privacy. In this video, David Pogue of CBS Sunday Morning explains what is great about the effort and interviews Bud Tribble, the VP of Software Technology for Apple, and Dave Burke, the VP of Engineering for Android: