Apple’s WWDC conference is going on this week. As a result, all week long, Apple has been sharing a ton of information about what is coming to future versions of Apple software, and that is the focus of most of the links that I am sharing today. I realize that I probably feel this way every year at this time, but the news of this week has me incredibly excited for how much better my iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and even AirPods will be in a few months. So let’s get to it, the news of note from the past week:
One of the new features in iOS 14 is the ability to double-tap or triple-tap the back of your iPhone to trigger some action. California attorney David Sparks shows off in a video how to use the Shortcuts app to make these actions trigger the flashlight or open the Camera app. This sounds useful and I could see myself doing this myself once iOS 14 comes out.
In an interesting article in ABA Journal, San Francisco attorney David Lowe discusses how he prepared for a Zoom trial, including why he had to use his PC instead of his iPad.
Juli Clover of MacRumors notes that a new feature of iOS 14 is that it gives you an alert when an app reads the clipboard. And folks running the beta version discovered this week, as a result of that feature, that the TikTok app was reading the clipboard every few seconds.
Raymond Wong of Input wrote a similar article comparing iOS 14 to Android. In that article, he writes: “I think it’s inevitable someone creates a double-tap Shortcut to launch the camera app, which would put it on par with Android’s double-tap on the power button to activate the camera.” Obviously, Wong has yet to see the video from David Sparks, linked above, in which David has already done that.
Many law firms and other companies use Mobile Device Management (MDM) to manage and protect secure information on iPhones and other mobile devices. Bradley Chambers of 9to5Mac reports that Apple purchased one of the MDM companies, a company called Fleetsmith.
In this 90-minute video episode of The Talk Show, John Gruber interviews Apple executives Craig Federighi and Greg Joswiak to discuss the announcements at WWDC this week. Even if you don’t watch the whole video, watch at least a few minutes to see how beautiful Apple Park is as a background behind Federighi and Joswiak.
Andrew Cunningham and Thorin Klosowki of Wirecutter pick 1Password as the best password manager.
Jonathan Mann created a silly music video called I Just Go Into Jiggle Mode by using clips from the Apple keynote earlier this week.
This has nothing to do with technology, but since I’m talking about music, I also enjoyed watching this one. Andry Greene of Rolling Stone shares a video of Paul McCartney, Dave Matthews, Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters), Elvis Costello, Jim James (My Morning Jacket), Nathaniel Rateliff, Irma Thomas, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, and others signing When the Saints Go Marching In. Paul McCartney on the trumpet is something that I haven’t seen before.
And finally, Serenity Caldwell of Apple has been producing some great videos at the end of every day of WWDC this week to highlight the big announcements of each day. Here are the videos for Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, and Day 4. (I’ll update this post with links when she posts more.) Each video is short and worth watching. Here is the video for Day 1:
As a part of Apple’s WWDC conference that is taking place this week, Apple previewed the next version of the operating system for the Apple Watch called watchOS 7. The Apple Watch has an important role in my law practice — especially because of notifications, reminders, and the calendar — and is also a big part of my life outside of work — especially because of the fitness features and its ability to play music and podcasts. There will be some nice changes coming in watchOS 7 that will make the current Apple Watch even better. (And of course, Apple might also release new Apple Watch hardware this year with even more new features.) Here are the new changes in watchOS 7 that I think will be most valuable to lawyers and others.
Watch Face Improvements
Although there are many useful apps that run on the Apple Watch, the Apple Watch is often most useful when I can just glance down at the face of the watch. It is already possible to create many different types of watch faces with different types of complications, but there will be even more than you can do in watchOS 7.
First, a single app will be able to have multiple complications on the same watch face. (Right now, each different watch face can only have one complication from each different app.) Thus, if you have a calendar app that works really well for keeping you on track during your day, you can have a single watch face that uses multiple complications that all come from the same calendar, such as one complication that tells you what the next appointment is, another that gives you a sense of your overall day, etc. Or if you want to have a watch face that is focused on the weather, you can have multiple different weather indicators on the same watch face. In this example, a watch face for parents with a new baby features multiple complications from the Glow Baby app:
Second, watchOS 7 lets you share watch faces. Once you take the time to tweak a watch face so that it is perfect for some specific purpose, you can share that watch face with someone else so that they can use it without going through all the work of getting it configured. Better yet, the App Store will offer faces recommended by the App Store editorial team, and watch faces can be shared on websites. This is a great idea because I know that most folks don’t take the time to configure many watch faces, not only because it takes time but also because they don’t have a good idea for how to make it better. It will be great for all of us to take advantage of the curated work done by others in creating fantastic watch faces that we can use right away or tweak further without starting from scratch. I look forward to the ability to share great watch faces right here on iPhone J.D.
Third, there will be some new face designs that you can customize. For example, if you just want to have the time and that one important complication as large as possible, the X-Large face includes the option to add a rich complication.
Fitness improvements
Apple frequently adds new workout types to the Workout app, and in watchOS 7, Apple adds Core Training, Dance, Functional Strength Training, and Cooldown.
Apple also redesigned the iPhone app that works with the Workout app. The app currently called Activity is changing its name to Fitness, and it provides more information in a more streamlined view.
Shortcuts
The Shortcuts app on the iPhone can be used to trigger lots of complex actions with a simple trigger. In watchOS 7, the Shortcuts app will come to the Apple Watch — or perhaps I should say will return to the Apple Watch, because Shortcuts is based on an app called Workflow that Apple purchased a few years ago, and Workflow worked on the watch until Apple turned off that feature. I used to use Workflow on my watch to trigger some type of automated task, and I imagine that this will also work with Shortcuts on the watch. In watchOS 7, you can create complications that trigger a specific shortcut.
Sleep tracking
Sleep tracking is a new feature that intrigues me, but I have my doubts on how useful it will be. It is already possible to use a third-party sleep tracking app on the Apple Watch. I’ve tried them before, but I have never really found the information that they provide to be all that useful to me. Plus, if you wear your watch all night long, you need to make sure you built-in time to your schedule to charge your watch. I found that charging while I prepared to go to work made a big difference but wouldn’t get me all the way to 100%.
But now that this will be a built-in feature designed by Apple, I suspect that sleep tracking will be even more powerful and efficient. If sleep tracking is already something that you find useful, then you’ll definitely want to check out this new feature.
Also, to make it easier to charge your Apple Watch at a time other than overnight, when your Apple Watch is charging, your iPhone can alert you when it has reached 100%.
Automatic handwashing detection
Proper handwashing techniques are critical as we protect ourselves and others from COVID-19. Having said that, I think I have the whole handwashing thing figured out and I’m not sure that I need my watch to remind me how long it takes to properly wash my hands. Having said that, I don’t see anything wrong with getting some help from the watch — I guess it will save me from singing Happy Birthday to myself twice — and the way that Apple has implemented this feature seems fun.
In watchOS 7, the Apple Watch will be able to tell when you are washing your hands based on the motion sensors and the microphone listening for the sound of running water and soap. When it senses you are washing your hands, it initiates a 20-second countdown timer, along with a whimsical timer graphic and optional noises. If you stop washing your hands too early, your watch will prompt you to continue washing. Moreover, when you get home, your watch can remind you to wash your hands, and you can use the Health app on the iPhone to show the frequency and duration of your handwashing.
…and the rest
And of course, that is just the tip of the iceberg. Other features include the ability to use Siri on the watch to translate words into another language, great features for folks who use a bike such as bike-friendly courses recommended by Maps, new noise-detection features, optimized battery charging so that the battery lasts longer, and more.
I’m also happy to see that Siri requests will be processed on the watch itself. This should make the Apple Watch even more responsive when you talk to it, and will hopefully eliminate the delays that occur when I talk to my watch and it needs to take some time to use the iPhone to figure out what I said.
I’ve also seen some initial reports that the Apple Watch works much faster with watchOS 7. Everything is much more responsive. I know that there is only a tiny processor in the Apple Watch, and it is great that Apple is figuring out how to get the most out of it.
Finally, I’ve seem reports that Force Touch is removed in watchOS 7. That’s the gesture where you push down on the screen and then push down even more to trigger a second function. This will be replaced by a long press. This is similar to what Apple did on the iPhone, where 3D Touch was replaced with a long press. My guess is that Apple is removing this feature so that it can remove the Force Touch sensor in future models of the Apple Watch, which gives Apple more space for a larger battery or another new feature — or allows Apple to make the Apple Watch even slimmer. We’ll see.
Put this all together, and I’m very much looking forward to watchOS 7. I presume that it will be available in a few months.
Yesterday, Apple gave a Keynote address to kick off WWDC, its annual developer conference. There were lots of announcements about lots of different types of products, but today I’m going to focus just on the next version of the operating system for the iPhone and iPad called iOS 14 and iPad OS 14. (My guess is that both will be released around October 2020.) There are a lot of improvements coming, and I’m very much looking forward to this update. Here are the new features that I am most looking forward to and which I think will be the most interesting to attorneys and other professionals who use an iPhone or iPad.
Widgets on the iPhone Home Screen
In addition to showing apps on your iPhone home screen, you can also place widgets of different shapes and sizes around your app icons. This looks like a great way to show useful information in a place where it is easy to see the information.
You can stack up to 10 widgets in a single location. You can swipe through to find the widget you want. And if you select the Smart Stack widget, Apple will place the most relevant widget on top based upon the time of day, your location, and what you are doing — such as News in the morning, your calendar during the day, and the Activity widget at night.
The new widgets will also be available on the iPad, but it appears that you don’t have the flexibility to place them wherever you want on the screen, which seems like an odd omission. Instead, they all go on the left side of the first screen, just like the current today view. You do gain the ability to put two smaller widgets side-by-side in that same space, and you can arrange and stack widgets within that part of the iPad screen.
App Library on the iPhone
I have a large number of apps on my iPhone. On the first two screens, I remember where the important apps are located. Beyond that, I don’t really know where any app lives. Is it on page 3 or page 5? Top or bottom? I don’t know, so I just have to hunt for the icon or do a search.
With the new App Library, you decide how many initial screens you want to manage – for me it would probably be just two — and then everything after that can be on a hidden screen. How do you find them? After swiping past the first screen or two (depending upon how many you keep) you then see the App Library. Apps are sorted by category into folders, and the apps you use the most are near the top, but there is a big search bar at the top making it easy to just search for the app you want. And when you search, the iPhone shows you a big long list of every app listed alphabetically, giving you a quick way to locate the app you need.
This looks like a great feature and I cannot wait to use it on my iPhone. Unfortunately, it appears that the App Library will only be available on the iPhone, not the iPad.
Compact Calls
Currently, if you are using your iPhone and someone calls you, the entire iPhone screen shows you that someone is calling. In iOS 14, the notification is less obnoxious. A small banner notification appears at the top of the screen with buttons to accept the call or hang up, but you can continue to see almost all of your iPhone screen while the banner is up there.
This feature is also on the iPad, so if your have your iPad configured to take calls from your iPhone, the notification is less obnoxious. The same compact notification is used for other apps like FaceTime and certain third party apps.
Better search
The App Library feature makes it easier to search for an app on an iPhone. But Apple has also improved the general Search feature on both the iPhone and iPad to take up less screen space and to provide many more useful suggestions, presented as you are typing your search terms.
iPad interface improvements
On the Mac, there are many apps that have a sidebar on the left to show additional controls. For example, in Photos on a Mac, the Sidebar gives you a place to click to see Photos, Memories, Favorites, People, Places, Recents, Imports, Recently Deleted, and many different albums. In iPad OS 14, many apps will gain a similar sidebar. This should make it much faster and easier to use these apps, and if you don’t want the sidebar you can just dismiss it. Apple says that this Sidebar is coming to the apps Photos, Notes, Files, Music, Shortcuts, Voice Memos, Contacts, Mail, and Calendar. (Some iPad apps like Files and Notes already feature a sidebar, but it looks like it will be improved in iPad OS 14.)
Another feature inherited from the Mac and PC are toolbars with pull-down menus in certain situations. And instead of using the small date picker from the iPhone, the iPad now has its own date picker with a full-size calendar.
With these and other improvements, the iPad interface will be more powerful and also easier to use.
Improved Apple Pencil support
I love using my iPad Pencil to take notes and annotate documents on my iPad Pro, and support for the Pencil will get even better in iPad OS 14.
First, Apple is added a feature called Scribble that lets you write by hand in any text field. Thus, when your Pencil is already in your hand and you need to enter some text, you don’t need to put down the Pencil and then type on the on-screen keyboard or an external keyboard. You can just handwrite in the text field and the iPad will automatically convert your handwriting to text. When I saw the demo of the feature, it reminded me of what the Apple Newton always wanted to achieve in the 1990s, although the technology of the time wasn’t quite up to the task.
I think that this is going to make a big difference for me whenever I sit down with my iPad Pro and my Apple Pencil to annotate documents — something that I do just about every day in my law practice. My Pencil will already be in my hand for the purpose of highlighting and scribbling notes in the margins, and seems very efficient to use that same stylus whenever I need to enter a quick word or two.
Apple also made it easier to work with handwritten notes. You can d0uble-tap to select a word or double-tap again to select a line, very similar to the gestures that you would use when working with printed text. Or you can select an entire paragraph. Apple uses advanced machine learning to make sure that just the words are selected and not the drawings next to the words.
After you have selected one or more words, you can paste them elsewhere as typed text. And if Apple recognizes the type of data that you handwrote — such as an address, phone number, etc. — Apple will give you appropriate options to work with that data.
Apple says that you can also circle a word to select it or scratch a word to delete it. I’m not sure if this is just for handwritten text or if it also works on printed text.
iPad OS 14 also gives you better handwriting. Well, sort of. If you draw a shape, like a line, and then keep holding your Pencil down, Apple will turn your handwritten line into a perfectly straight line. The new technology can handle a line, curve, square, rectangle, circle, oval, heart, triangle, star, cloud, hexagon, thought bubble, arrow (an outlined arrow, a line with an arrow at the end, or a curve with an arrow at the end), or a continuous line with 90º turns. Apple also made it easier to add space between two areas where you have writing, moving things down so that you can write above them.
These look like great features, and I presume that they will be implemented in third-party apps like GoodNotes. For example, in GoodNotes, you can currently draw a perfect square by first tapping the shapes tool and then drawing a square and then tapping the pen tool to go back to your regular pen. It would be nice to switch from handwriting to drawing shapes without having to change tools.
Pinned Conversations in Messages
iOS 14 and iPad OS 14 will introduce lots of new features in Messages, but the one that looks most useful to me is Pinned Conversations in Messages. Currently, your most recent conversations go to the top of the Messages app. This is nice, but often when I open Messages I want to text someone like my wife or my son, and it is a pain to have to search for where I last texted them. With this new feature, I can pin my conversation with my wife to the top of Messages so that it is always quick and easy to send my wife a message, even if she was not the last person with whom I texted.
Translation tools
iOS 14 and iPad OS 14 will make it easier to communicate with people who speak a different language and easier to work with webpages in a different language. Safari will add the ability to translate a webpage in seven different languages (English, Spanish, Chinese, French, German, Russian, and Brazilian Portuguese).
A new app called Translate gives you and another person the ability to have a conversation with the iPhone acting as a translator. You can even download a language directly on the iPhone so that all translation is done on the phone itself, keeping the conversation private and away from a server. Apple’s new Translate app sounds very similar to Google’s own Translate app, and I look forward to comparing them to see which one works best.
AirPods improvements
I use my AirPods all the time with my iPhone and iPad, but it is a pain to have to switch them between those two devices. Last year I shared a tip for using the Shortcuts app to ease this process, and I still use that shortcut almost every day, but I still wish there were a better way. in iOS 14 and iPad OS 14, Apple says that AirPods will automatically switch over to whatever device you are using. That sounds amazing, and I cannot wait to see how it works in practice.
Apple also described a Spatial Audio feature for the AirPods Pro that will make it seem like sounds are in certain locations around you. For example, something on your left will only play in the left ear … unless you turn your head, in which case it will switch to both ears or the right ear so that the sound seems like it is continuing to come from the same location. It will be interesting to see what Apple does with this technology. It could provide a richer experience for watching a movie, it could be used for interesting 3D-audio experiences, and it could be used in connection with other directional technology like Maps or the widely rumored AirTags to help you to go in the right direction to find something.
AirPods are such a fantastic accessory, and I love that Apple is coming up with creative ways to make them better.
Shortcuts improvements
If you use the powerful Shortcuts app on your iPhone or iPad, there will be lots of improvements in the next few months. You will be able to organize Shortcuts into folders, disable confirmation dialog boxes, copy and past actions, use new automation triggers, and more. And it also works on the Apple Watch.
…and the rest
These new features are more than enough to make me excited to use the new software, but this is truly just the tip of the iceberg. Apple lists the major new features for the iPhone on this page and for the iPad on this page. Apple also has a more detailed list for the iPhone and a more detailed list for the iPad. On those pages, you can learn about Siri improvements, Maps improvements, improvements to the Home app for having a better smart home, using your iPhone as a car key to unlock your car, CarPlay improvements, Camera improvements (such as shooting photos 90% faster at up to four frames per second and better Night Mode), a new technology called App Clips, improvements to Photos (including captions), improvements to Reminders, improvements to Notes, on-device dictation to improve privacy, the ability to search for emoji, and much more.
It’s nice knowing that, in just a few more months, our iPhones and iPads will get some major improvements.
Today is the first day of Apple’s Worldwide Developer’s Conference, known as WWDC. Due to COVID-19, developers will not come to California for the conference this year, and instead Apple is hosting a virtual conference. WWDC always starts up with a keynote address today at 10am Pacific / 1pm Eastern, and Apple always uses the occasion to announce new products. Sometimes there is new hardware, but Apple typically uses WWDC to show off the next major version of the operating system for iPhone and iPad. Major announcements from past WWDC keynotes have included iPadOS (2019), improved notifications, group FaceTime, and Shortcuts (2018), drag-and-drop and the Files app (2017), split screen in Safari on the iPad and Memories in the Photos app (2016), and slide-over view and side-by-side apps (2015).
What will Apple announce today? Nobody knows for sure, but lots of people are guessing. Mark Gurman of Bloomberg predicts the ability to use your iPhone to unlock a car, a new feature similar to Google Translate, and the ability to change the default mail app and default browser from Mail and Safari to a third-party app. He also predicts that the Apple will shift Macs from using Intel processors to using the same Apple-made processors that Apple uses on the iPhone and iPad, new faces for the Apple Watch, minor upgrades to Apple TV, and updates to the HomePod speaker. I’ve also seen predictions that Apple will unveil a long-rumored product called AirTags that will let you attach a small object to things like keys so that you can use your iPhone to find them.
It was a big week at the United States Supreme Court, and one person who was happy with the decisions is Apple CEO Tim Cook. After Monday’s decision in Bostock, Cook — the most prominent gay CEO in the world — tweeted: “Grateful for today’s decision by the Supreme Court. LGBTQ people deserve equal treatment in the workplace and throughout society, and today’s decision further underlines that federal law protects their right to fairness.” The other big decision this week was in the DACA case Department of Homeland Security v. Regents of Univ. of Cal. After the decision was announced yesterday, Cook tweeted: “The 478 Dreamers at Apple are members of our collective family. With creativity and passion, they’ve made us a stronger, more innovative American company. We’re glad for today’s decision and will keep fighting until DACA’s protections are permanent.” Apple submitted amicus briefs in both of those cases, so Apple certainly helped to contribute to those victories. With everything else going on in the world nowadays, it’s certainly nice to see good decisions coming out of Washington, D.C. And now, the news of note from the past week:
Last month, I reviewed the Photos Field Guide, created by California attorney David Sparks of MacSparky. This week, David announced that he added transcripts to the Field Guide. This is actually a very big deal and makes the already great guide even more useful. First, you can quickly skim the transcript of a lesson to decide if you want to watch it. This is really a visual guide so reading the transcript alone doesn’t tell you everything that you need to know, but it certainly tells you enough to help you decide if you want to watch a video. Second, the guide now includes a single PDF transcript of the entire course. You can look at the PDF file from within the course, or better yet, you can download it to your PDF app of choice, which makes it easier to work with. You can use that full transcript to search for a needle in the haystack. I mean that literally; when I searched for “needle” I see that David uses the phrase “needle in a haystack” in § 6.10, in which he discusses searching for photos on an iPhone or iPad. Thus, you can search for the part of the course that discusses any topic that you want. This is especially useful after you have finished multiple lessons and cannot remember which one included the discussion of some specific topic. As I am typing this, you can still sign up for the Photos Field Guide (2nd Edition) for only $24, but David is just about to raise the price, so act quickly if you want it.
This week, Apple announced a new program that gives you 0% financing on a new iPad, AirPods, Mac, and other products when you purchase using an Apple Card — which also gives you a 3% cash back. For example, if you want to buy a 12.9″ iPad Pro with 256GB, the cost is $1,099. But instead of paying that all at once, your Apple Card can automatically pay $91.58 a month for 12 months, at which point you will have paid for the device without paying any interest. And along the way, Apple will pay you $32.97 for the 3% cash back — which makes you feel better about the extra $100 you spent to get the 256GB model instead of the entry-level 128GB model.
Speaking of money, Apple also announced this week that the App Store ecosystem facilitated over half a trillion dollars of commerce in 2019. And in case my wife is reading this, I promise that only a small part of that was from me.
If you want to learn about great apps that you can use for task management, calendars, and note-taking on your iPad, you should check out the recent Episode 27 of the Adapt podcast in which Federico Viticci and Ryan Christoffel discuss a large number of the options. I enjoyed listening to this one.
I’m always interested to learn about new smarthome technology that works with the iPhone. Michael Potuck of 9to5Mac reviews Flo by Moen, a device that monitors the plumbing in your home and can shut off your water if it detects leaks or burst pipes.
And finally, Joanna Stern of the Wall Street Journal created an interesting video to show how the iPhone and other smartphones have become a tool over the last decade to tell the story of police brutality:
One of the most noticeable changes to my law practice since the COVID-19 pandemic began was the vast increase videoconferences that I have attended. Instead of driving across the city for an appellate argument or across the state for a hearing on a motion for summary judgment, I attended court via Zoom. Instead of attending a meeting with the members of the Appellate Team at my law firm, we talk to each other using Microsoft Teams. And instead of flying across the country for a client development opportunity, I have introduced myself to people via a webcam. A large number of the events on my calendar are videoconferences, and that’s a big change that you may be noticing as well.
Because a calendar is so important to lawyers and other professionals, many people like to go beyond the features of the built-in Calendar app on the iPhone and iPad by using a third-party calendar app. One of the most popular choices is Fantastical, which has been my primary calendar app since I first reviewed it in 2012. This week, Fantastical was updated to version 3.1, an update that is focused on making the app more useful for folks who have videoconferences on their calendars. This is a great update that reminds me how much I appreciate this app.
Fantastical 3.1
The new version of Fantastical takes advantage of the fact that when you add a videoconference to your calendar, the calendar invite includes information for joining the videoconference. Fantastical has learned how to interpret these invitations so that it knows what kind of videoconference you will be attending. Specifically, the app now recognizes Zoom, Webex, Microsoft Teams, GoToMeeting, RingCentral Meetings, BlueJeans, and Skype for Business. When it sees one of these videoconferences, it adds a special icon to your calendar.
For example, there were times last week when literally every other entry on my calendar was some type of videoconference. With the new version of Fantastical, things like Zoom and Teams meetings are easy to recognize thanks to the icons that Fantastical places right next to the meeting time. Here is what it looks like on an iPad:
Here is what it looks like on an iPhone:
Just having the visual indications is nice enough because it helps you to prepare for what is coming next. But when you are ready to join the meeting, if you will be doing so from your iPad or iPhone, Fantastical can help with that too. When you tap the calendar entry, Fantastical places an obvious link at the top that you can tap something like “Join Zoom Meeting” to join the meeting:
And better yet, when it is close to the time to join a meeting, Fantastical places a blue “Join” button right in the calendar so that you can click a button without having to even open the calendar entry:
I like this feature because I sometimes find it annoying to have to search through the calendar invite to locate the specific link that I need to click to join the meeting. Now, it is easy with Fantastical.
And of course, you can use services like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, etc. for audio conferences as well as a videoconference. Thus, these services can substitute for the conference call numbers that we have all been using for years. With this update to Fantastical, it is easier to connect to an audio conference on your iPhone.
I prefer to have Fantastical mirror the same calendar used by the built-in Calendar app on my iPhone and iPad. That way, I can easily switch between looking at my calendar in either app. But if you want to use Fantastical as a stand-alone calendar client, you can manually subscribe to calendars such as Google, Exchange, Office 465, Outlook.com, Yahoo!, etc. — and with this update, you can use Fantastical to subscribe to a Zoom calendar.
Since we are talking about videoconferences, I have two more suggestions for you.
Lampat LED Desk Lamp
First, one of the most important things that you can do to improve the way that you look on a videoconference is to adjust the lighting. I’m sure you know that you don’t want to have something bright right behind your head, such as a window without a shade. But even with just the typical overhead light in your office, you won’t look your best.
You can easily spend lots of money on fancy external lighting to make your face well-lit. Television studios and folks who make their living on YouTube have been doing this for years. But an inexpensive solution that I like is this $30 Lampat LED Desk Lamp that you can purchase on Amazon. I’ve used one for many years just as a desk lamp in my home office, but I discovered over the past few months that it also works great to light up a face during a videoconference because (1) it has a long strip of LEDs so it provides even light across your face, (2) you can tilt the lamp up so that it shines light on your face, and (3) you can adjust the brightness and the light temperature to provide more natural light on your face. When I use my iPad to join a videoconference, I turn on this lamp and adjust it so that my face looks much better.
I recently bought a second one of these lamps to keep on the desk at my office at my law firm. Overhead fluorescent lights in an office are not great sources of lighting. Now, whenever I’m at work and I have a videoconference, I can easily get much better lighting on my face.
And when you are not on a videoconference and you just want a nice lamp, this is a fine lamp. Because it is an LED lamp, it doesn’t get hot. I like that you can adjust the brightness and temperature so that it provides just the right amount of light to a document or whatever else you are reading. It also has a handy USB port on the side, giving you an easily-accessible location to charge an iPhone or other device using a cord. The other day, my Apple Watch didn’t charge overnight for some reason, so I used the lamp to bring my watch up to 100% while I was typing an appellate brief. And if you don’t need to use the lamp, the arm folds down so that it takes up very little space.
Logitech HD Pro C922 webcam
Second, you will look better on your videoconferences if you use a nice camera. The built-in front-facing camera on the iPhone is good, but the screen is too small for me to use in a videoconference unless I have no other option. The built-in front-facing camera on most modern iPads is decent enough. But what if you are using a computer? As Joanna Stern of the Wall Street Journal recently reported, even if you are using a new laptop such as a MacBook Air or a Dell, all of the cameras are bad. And if you use an external monitor with your laptop — that’s the setup I use in my office with my PC — there won’t even be a camera on the monitor.
I recently purchased a Logitech HD Pro C922 webcam, and I’ve been very happy with the video quality. It is better than the built-in camera on the iMac that I use in my home office, and it is much better than the built-in camera on the Dell PC that I use for work. Sites that review webcams such as PC World, The Gadgeteer, and Wirecutter have raved about the quality of these Logitech webcams, and whenever I have been in a videoconference with someone else using this model, I’ve been very impressed. Best of all, this thing is light and can sit anywhere on top of a monitor, so I can select the best place to put it on top of my external monitor so that I am looking right at the camera — and thus right at the court or my clients — when I’m using it.
I will warn you that webcams have been incredibly hard to find ever since the COVID-19 pandemic started, and that is still true. Even if you try to order directly from Logitech, this model has been sold out for months. The link I’m providing is an Amazon link to a search result to give you more merchant options. As I type this, for example, one of the options is the C922x (the same model that I have but without an included, tripod, which I don’t need anyway) for $150, which is about $50 more than you would normally pay for a camera like this if there were not a pandemic. But if you don’t mind paying a little extra, you can get one now. I was able to get mine because a partner at my law firm placed two orders with two vendors months ago, and when the second one finally came in, he sold it to me for the $100 he paid. Hopefully, it won’t be long before it is much easier to purchase these webcams.
I think that a webcam is a good purchase because even after the pandemic is over — and PLEASE LET THAT DAY BE SOON — I suspect that attorneys and other professionals will be doing a lot more videoconferencing now that we have all gotten used to it. By purchasing a light and a nice webcam, you will be prepared for the future.
To return to the main reason for this post, I love this new update to Fantastical. If you already use the app, look out for these new features. If you don’t, you can use many features in the app for free, and you can upgrade to a premium subscription if you want to take advantage of additional features for $5/month or $40/year.
The iPad is a perfect tool for any attorney going paperless, and more and more of the documents that attorneys work with are already digital. But sometimes you encounter a paper document that you need to scan. In my law office, the copy machine does a great job of scanning documents, but I often find it far more convenient to just use my iPhone as a scanner. For a long time now, my go-to scanner app has been Readdle’s Scanner Pro app, which I reviewed in 2016. Oliver Haslam of iMore discusses the latest update to Scanner Pro, which can now remove shadows from a scan. I look forward to seeing how this works because shadows are occasionally a problem when using an iPhone to scan a document. And now, the news of note from the past week:
The Peabody Awards were announced this week, recognizing “the most compelling and empowering stories released in broadcasting and digital media during 2019.” One of the 10 award winners in the Entertainment category was the Apple TV+ show Dickinson. I enjoyed the first season of that show, although I thought that For All Mankind, The Morning Show, and Trying were even better.
If you want to get a camera for your smart home, should you get one that is compatible with Apple’s HomeKit technology? Bradley Chambers of 9to5Mac explains the advantages of doing so.
Oliver Haslam of iMore shares the story of a man in Pheonix who fainted, but fortunately, his Apple Watch noticed and automatically called for help.
And finally, yesterday, California attorney David Sparks linked to an interesting video in which Arun Maini demonstrates — at the same time — how Apple’s Siri compares to Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, and Samsung’s Bixby. Here it is:
I have been publishing iPhone J.D. for almost a dozen years, and for that entire time, the focus has been on how lawyers can use mobile devices to do a better job of seeking justice for their clients. For the past two weeks, as the entire world has focused on abuses of power, I’ve thought about how mobile devices have also played a critical role in implementing the famous reminder by Justice Brandeis that sunlight is the best disinfectant. A picture may tell a thousand words, but a video taken at the very time when power is being abused makes it easier for everyone to understand what is actually happening. We see how long the knee is on the neck and how unconscionable that is. We sympathize with peaceful protestors as they are gassed and beaten. We understand injustice in a way that words alone cannot really convey. As Apple improves the camera in the iPhone every year, it becomes an even better device for preserving memories of family and friends, and I love that, but it also becomes a better tool for social justice. And now, the news of note from the past week:
If you own an Apple Watch, you know that, from time to time, you can earn an activity award in various different days. Ryan Christoffel of MacStories reports that today you can earn an award for World Environment Day by simply closing your stand ring — get up and move around at least once during 12 different hours. With all of the difficulties in modern life as a result of COVID-19 etc., it is nice to have an activity award that is easy to achieve.
On the Apple website, Apple CEO Tim Cook shares his thoughts on speaking up on racism.
In an interesting article for Macworld, Glenn Fleishman discusses what happens to digital purchases that a loved one made from Apple after they pass away.
Joe Maring of AndroidCentral interviews developers to discuss how much more difficult it is to develop apps during the COVID-19 pandemic. The article reveals that it is even harder to develop Android apps than iPhone apps because there are so many more different types of Android devices, so when a developer is not working in an office with access to lots of different devices to test, app development slows down.
If you don’t have an Apple Card credit card yet, and if you sign up for one this month and spend $50 at Walgreens, you will get $50 back. Details are on the Apple website.
For attorneys and others with a lot on our plates, a good task manager can be essential. Filipe Espósito of 9to5Mac reviews a new app called Tasks that allows you to organize tasks by project. I haven’t tried the app yet, but this review makes it sound pretty good.
And finally, last night I saw a trailer for a new series starting on Apple TV+ today that looks like it could be uplifting during these troubled times. It is called “Dear…” and it profiles game-changing individuals such as Spike Lee, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Stevie Wonder, Oprah Winfrey, Gloria Steinem, and even Big Bird, who have inspired many people to do great things:
It hasn’t been that many days since Apple released iOS 13.5, which I called the COVID-19 update, but yesterday Apple released iOS 13.5.1 and iPadOS 13.5.1 When Apple releases an update that close to a prior update, you know that it must be to address some sort of bug. In this case, it was a security update, which Apple says addresses a “memory consumption issue” that resulted in an app being able to “execute arbitrary code with kernel privileges.” It was well-known that there was some kind of security flaw in iOS 13.5 because many websites, such as Lifehacker, offered instructions for how to jailbreak an iPhone running iOS 13.5.
In the very early days of the iPhone, I know that some folks had a legitimate reason to jailbreak an iPhone — i.e., bypass the normal iPhone security to do something that the iPhone is not designed to do. For example, it used to be impossible to show off everything on an iPhone screen on an external monitor. Folks who wanted to teach people how to use an iPhone would sometimes jailbreak an iPhone to connect it to a projector and mirror everything on the screen. Of course, that particular feature has been part of iOS for a long time now.
Nowadays, some folks jailbreak just to tinker around with the iPhone, but the most popular reason to jailbreak is to run pirate software (often games) that a user has not paid for. And the potential downside of jailbreaking is huge; you make your device vulnerable to malware that would not be a threat to a normal iPhone, and also risk making it not work correctly. If you are using your iPhone or iPad to get work done, and especially if you are an attorney with confidential information on your device, I strongly discourage jailbreaking and I strongly encourage installing security updates whenever Apple releases them.
