Paresh Dave of Reuters reported yesterday that U.S. states North Dakota, Wyoming, and Alabama are joining Virginia in adding support for the Apple-Google coronavirus contact tracing system, which Apple described back in April in this press release. Over 300,000 people have already downloaded the Virginia app. The North Dakota app launched yesterday, the Wyoming app launches today, and the Alabama app launches on Monday. Washington and Pennsylvania could have apps in a few weeks. On the other hand, according to a Business Insider report from Aaron Holmes and Hugh Langley back on June 10, 2020, seventeen states said that they had no plans to introduce one of these apps: Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, and Vermont. With both of my kids starting school this month, the risk of exposure for my own family is certainly increasing. I hope that some of those seventeen states reconsider because every little bit helps. And now, the news of note from the past week:
- Illinois attorney John Voorhees of MacStories explains what is new about Apple's Maps app in 2020.
- Bryan Wolfe of iMore explains how you can use a $2 app called Opener to take a location in Apple's Maps app and send it to the Google Maps app.
- Fantastical from Flexbits has been my calendar app of choice for a very long time, and I pay $40/year for the premium features. This week, Flexbits announced a new family plan that provides the premium features for five family members for $65/year.
- Karen Freeman of iMore recommends headphones to use on videoconferences. Her top recommendation is to use AirPods Pro, which is what I've been using. Of course, they work great with an iPad or iPhone. I've also been using them with the Dell PC that I use at work. They are far, far superior to the built-in speaker on my Dell PC, but I haven't yet figured out if it is better to use the microphone on the AirPods Pro or the built-in microphone on the Logitech HD Pro C922 webcam that sits on top of my monitor. (When I've asked folks on the other side of a connection which microphone sounds better to them, different folks have had different preferences.) I've mostly used the microphone on the Logitech webcam. One downside of using AirPods Pro for a long videoconference is that they can run low on battery power. That's not a problem for a typical court hearing, and it's not a problem for a video deposition if there is a lunch break. But for one longer video deposition I had this week in which we worked through lunch, after about four hours or so, I heard a tone telling me that a battery was getting low. Fortunately, it was easy to charge my left AirPod in the case for 10 minutes, and then wear the left one again and charge the right one in the case for 10 minutes, and that got me through to the end of the deposition.
- Bryan Wolfe of iMore explains how you can use a $2 app called Opener to take a location in Apple's Maps app and send it to the Google Maps app.
- iOS 13.6.1 and iPadOS 13.6.1 are out this week. As Josh Centers explains in an article for TidBITS, they are designed to address some bugs.
- And finally, actor Amy Acker and her husband, actor James Carpinello, decided to take advantage of being stuck at home during the pandemic by writing, producing, filming, and starring in a short 14-minute film called Outside that was filmed in their home, entirely on their iPhones. The end result is a thriller that is quite good. I enjoyed watching it:
