In the news

There are so many serious things going in the world today that sometimes you just need a break, such as a good game.  Unlike my kids, who are experts in sophisticated games like Fortnite, I prefer to play casual games.  A Sunday and a crossword puzzle is a great combination for me.  I’ve long been a fan of Sodoku, but I haven’t found an iPhone or iPad app that I really liked.  And I’ve tried a bunch.  Yesterday, a new app was released called Good Sodoku, and I can already tell that it is excellent.  It lets you play traditional Sodoku with a great interface, but it is even better than that because it also can teach you how to be a better Sodoku player, giving you details on all of the techniques.  It also offers a mode that does some of the tedious parts automatically (such as indicating what number might go in each square), a mode that speeds up the game to make it more fun and let you focus on strategy.  If you want more information, Illinois attorney John Voorhees reviewed Good Sodoku on the MacStories website.  If you like casual games, I encourage you to click here to download Good Sodoku (for free) to see what you think.  If you like it, you can unlock all of the features for only $3.99.  And now, the news of note from the past week:

• Neil Squillante of TechnoLawyer describes iMazing, software for Mac or Windows that can collect text messages from Apple’s Messages app or WhatsApp for a discovery production.
• I had high hopes for the contact tracing software that Apple and Google worked together to develop.  Unfortunately, it is not being used very much in the United States.  In an article for Lawfare, Chas Kissick, Elliot Setzer, and Jacob Schulz note that only four U.S. states have said that that they will use the Apple-Google approach (Oklahoma, Alabama, South Carolina, and Virginia), and none of them are doing it yet.
• Brenda Stolyar of Mashable shows off some of the winners of the 2020 iPhone Photography awards, and these pictures are really impressive.
• In an article for Macworld, Jason Snell discusses each of the important eras in Apple history.
• Apple Vice President Lisa Jackson — former Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency — says that by 2030, Apple will be 100% carbon neutral, and says that Apple will share details on how it is doing it so that other companies can do it too.
• Trevor Daughterty of 9to5Toys reviews a Satechi wireless AirPods charger that has an ultra-portable design for a laptop computer.
• Ed Hardy of Cult of Mac makes a compelling argument that Apple’s version of the medical mask emoji should be changed so that it is happy about wearing a mask.
• Juli Clover of MacRumors explains the new features coming to AirPods with iOS 14.
• Christine Persaud and Joe Maring of Android Central explain how you can use the Google Search app to see 3D animated animals in augmented reality.  They focus on doing this on an Android device, but it also works on the iPhone.  It is really cool to see a Giant Panda and many other animals sitting on my floor or my desk as I walk around them.
• And finally, the Wall Street Journal put together a video showing that Apple has done the best job of closing its stores in different locations just before COVID-19 outbreaks have increased in that area.  So if you see that your local Apple Store is closing because of the pandemic, that may be a sign that you should increase your social distancing: