Apple released iOS 14.2 and iPad OS 14.2 yesterday. The most noticeable change is that it adds support for the new 2020 additions to the Emoji character set. Jeremy Burge of Emojipedia shows and describes each of the new Emoji characters, such as Smiling Face with Tear, Disguised Face (with Groucho Marx glasses), new animals, new objects, and more. And California attorney David Sparks discusses some of the other new features in iOS 14.2, as does Alex Guyot of MacStories. One noticeable addition is the ability to add Shazam (Apple calls it Music Recognition) to your Control Center (the thing you access by swiping down from the top right on an iPhone with FaceID). Another interesting new feature is that you can now ask Siri "What's my update" to get a personalized update of your weather, calendar, reminders, and the news, as noted by Benjamin Mayo of 9to5Mac. And now, the news of note from the past week:
- Starting today, you can pre-order an iPhone 12 mini or an iPhone 12 Pro Max. Chance Miller of 9to5Mac links to some reviewers who have already posted initial impressions.
- You can improve security on your Wi-Fi router if it supports HomeKit. If you use an eero or eero Pro, you can take advantage of this, as I noted in my recent review. Illinois attorney John Voorhees of MacStories reviews HomeKit security on the Linksys Velop Mesh WiFi Router System.
- Glenn Fleishman of Macworld explains how the Wi-Fi button in the Control Center works.
- Juli Clover of MacRumors compares the iPhone 12 and the iPhone 12 Pro.
- Michael Potuck of 9to5Mac reviews Apple's new Leather Wallet with MagSafe.
- I'm a big fan of the Material Dock by Studio Neat, which I reviewed back in 2016. It gives you a central location to charge an iPhone and Apple Watch, and I use one on my bedstand. The one I use works with a Lightning cord to charge the iPhone, but Studio Neat now has a new version that works with MagSafe if you want to just place your iPhone down instead of plugging it in.
- Jason Cross of Macworld reviews the new iPad Air.
- Apple is now offering the AppleOne bundle. If you get the Premier Plan, you get 2TB of iCloud storage. What if you need more than that? Benjamin Mayo of 9to5Mac explains that you can now add an additional 2TB of iCloud storage for another $9.99/month.
- Have you ever noticed a small orange or green dot at the top of your iPhone and wondered what it means? Benjamin Mayo of 9to5 explains what the dots mean. They show that the videocamera or the microphone on your iPhone is in use — a good security measure to watch out for in case you don't realize that an app is using the camera or microphone.
- If you are looking for a new show to watch on Apple TV+, I really enjoyed the first season of Tehran. It's a spy thriller set in Iran, full of suspense and with twists and turns. Much of the dialogue is not in English so you have to watch subtitles, but the show is totally worth it.
- So far, I've been unimpressed by 5G. Michael Simon of Macworld notes that 5G can be incredibly fast on the iPhone 12, if you are lucky enough to be in the small area in which an mmWave tower is providing a signal. He also says that sub-6GHz 5G can still be faster than 4G LTE; I'm sure that can be true, but it hasn't been true in most of my tests in New Orleans.
- And finally, if you want to learn more about 5G, I did enjoy watching this YouTube video in which Justine "iJustine" Ezarik interviews Francesca Sweet of Apple to discuss 5G on the iPhone:
