My entire family has been working and attending school from home for the past eight weeks. Although New Orleans is slowing starting to open up tomorrow, I have no doubt that we will be spending a lot more time at home in 2020 than in prior years. That means that the Wi-Fi at my house has been getting much more use than normal, and I suspect that the same is true for many of you. At my house, I’m still using the Apple AirPort Extreme system that I described in this 2015 post, but Apple stopped selling and upgrading that equipment long ago, and I’ve been considering an upgrade to improve performance throughout my house. If you are also considering an upgrade to your Wi-Fi hardware, the best systems today seem to be the mesh Wi-Fi systems such as the Eero Pro. California attorney David Sparks points out on his MacSparky website that Apple is now selling Eero products in its online store, an indication that Apple approves of the product, and he notes that the system has been working well for him. And now, the news of note from the past week:
- Samuel Axon of Ars Technica reports that Apple has acquired NextVR for an estimated $100 million. We don’t know exactly what Apple has planned for AR and VR in the future, but the company is clearly working on something big.
- One way to see why a lot of people are very happy with Apple’s new Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro is to take a look inside of the product. iFixIt used X-Ray photography and took a Magic Keyboard apart to show how it all works.
- If you are interested in using a stylus with your iPad but don’t want to pay $99 or $129 for an Apple Pencil, Ed Hardy of Cult of Mac reviews the Meco Stylus Pen, which costs $33 on Amazon.
- If you are interested in using a stylus with your iPad and want your stylus to also sterilize your iPad screen, the Apple Pencil won’t do that — and I think that it is safe to predict that the Apple Pencil will never do that — but the new Adonit Note-UVC will, according to Ed Hardy of Cult of Mac.
- Michael Potuck of 9to5Mac reports that a new smart lock from August is smaller than previous models and works with Apple’s HomeKit technology.
- John Gruber of Daring Fireball points out that Apple’s A13 chip used in its newest iPhones, including the $400 iPhone SE, is faster than any chip used on even the most expensive Android phone that you can buy.
- Ben Lovejoy of 9to5 reports that a Stanford University study is trying to determine if the Apple Watch can detect COVID-19.
- And finally, Joanna Stern of the Wall Street Journal prepared an interesting video showing how the exposure notification app that should soon be available on the iPhone (and Android) works:
If you want a new mesh wi-fi, we have been nothing but pleased with Google Wi-Fi. No troubles covering 3 floors and square footage I’m embarrassed to type. We have had to reset one access point once in three years.