I'm excited to use iOS 14 and iPad OS 14, which Apple should release in a few months. Both have lots of new features that will improve the experience of using an iPhone and an iPad. If you want to try out those features without having to wait, yesterday, Apple released public beta of both operating systems. I don't recommend installing a beta version of an operating system on the same iPhone or iPad that you use to get work done, but I will sometimes install the beta version on an extra iPhone or iPad. If you want to try out the beta, Jason Snell of Six Colors wrote a good overview of the iOS 14 beta for the iPhone, as did Jim Dalrymple of The Loop. And Dan Moren of Six Colors wrote a good overview of the iPadOS 14 beta for the iPad, as did Federico Viticci of MacStories. And now, the news of note from the past week:
- In the latest episode of the TechSavvyLawyer.Page Podcast (Overcast link), D.C. attorney Michael D.J. Eisenberg interviews legal technology expert Brett Burney to discuss the best apps for attorneys, tips for production of evidence from an iPhone during discovery, and apps that are underutilized by attorneys.
- In an article for MacStories, Illinois attorney John Voorhees discusses the new Widgets and App Library features of the upcoming iOS 14 home screen.
- Adam Engst of TidBITS compares the AirPods to the AirPods Pro, and he recommends that most people get the AirPods. He makes some good points; I love and prefer to use my AirPods Pro, but there are some specific features of the regular AirPods that I do miss.
- Joseph Keller of iMore discusses the improvements to the Shortcuts app in iOS 14.
- Patrick Lucas Austin of Time gives tips for looking better on a videoconference. His first tip is better lighting. A few weeks ago I recommended getting this $30 Lampat LED Desk Lamp that you can purchase on Amazon for your home and/or office, wherever you might be doing a videoconference. It's made a big difference for me when I've used Zoom or Microsoft Teams, plus it is a great lamp, plus it gives me a place to plug in and charge my iPhone.
- Another helpful tip for appearing in court on a videoconference: wear a shirt.
- Abner Li of 9to5Google reports that the Gmail app for the iPad finally supports split view multitasking.
- As John Gruber of Daring Fireball points out, multitasking is a feature that was introduced with iOS 9 back in 2015. It is remarkable that a company with the resources of Google took half a decade to add an important feature to one of the most popular apps in the App Store — an app that a huge number of people use every single day.
- And finally, last weekend, the movie to watch at home was Hamilton on Disney+, and my family loved it. I've been hearing great Hamilton songs in my head all week. Today, the new Tom Hanks movie Greyhound debuts on Apple TV+. The movie was destined for a theatrical release, but in light of COVID-19, Hanks made a deal with Apple to premiere the movie that he wrote and stars in, along with a star-studded cast. Here is a short inside look narrated by Hanks that doesn't appear to contain any spoilers:
