I am a big fan of the Apps in Law podcast, hosted by Brett Burney. Brett always finds interesting attorneys to interview about (typically) just one app that they use in their law practice. In the most recent episode, Brett interviews Illinois attorney Chuck Armbruster, who recommends an app that does something I've been wanting for a while. The app is called OCR Scanner with LEADTOOLS SDK, and while the name is a mouthfull, it has a great function: it performs an OCR on a PDF file. There are many apps that will convert an image to a PDF file, including OCR, but those apps won't help you if your file is already in PDF format. For example, if opposing counsel sends you a PDF file and you just want to do a quick OCR so that you can search the text and highlight using an app like PDF Expert, you can run the document through OCR Scanner with LEADTOOLS SDK and then send the document to another app like PDF Expert to read and annotate it. The app is free, and although I've just started trying it out, it seems to work well. For more details, listen to that episode. It amazes me that there are not more apps like this in the App Store, and it also seems like a feature that should be built-in to premium PDF apps for the iPad, just like it is built-in to many PDF programs for the computer. And now, the news of note from the past week:
- Illinois attorney John Voorhees of MacStories discusses the HomePod Mini, including its ability to work with Thread-compatible smart devices — something that I didn't know about before reading his article.
- Jason Cipriani and Sarah Mitroff of CNet share tips for using a HomePod Mini.
- I'm a fan of Apple's new Fitness+ service, for the reasons that I explained in my recent review. But this is just a 1.0 product and there is definitely room for improvement. Dan Moren of Six Colors offers suggestions for how Apple could improve the Fitness+ service, and I would love to see many of the features he describes added in a future update.
- Over on Macworld, Moren shares some thoughts about what Apple might be planning with the augmented reality technology that it has been working on for years.
- If you subscribe to Apple TV+, you can watch the shows on your Apple TV, iPad, iPhone, or in the Apple TV app on a Mac. But you can also stream to any browser by going to tv.apple.com, and Apple updated and improved that website this week.
- Brent Dirks of AppAdvice reviews Phone Buddy, an Apple Watch app that alerts you if your iPhone is not nearby, to try prevent you from leaving it somewhere by accident.
- Nick Guy of Wirecutter recommends some cases for the iPad Pro.
- The Find My app on your iPhone can be used to locate a person or an Apple device. But Apple is obviously looking to expand this to other items. When you are using Safari on your iPhone, type this into the address bar (or just click this link) — findmy://items — and Safari will ask if you want to open the Find My app. Say yes, and you will see a hidden page in the app explaining that the app can be used to track everyday items like keys, a backpack, or a bike. There is even an option to identify an item that you found but which does not belong to you. Given that at least part of this item tracking feature is now a part of the Find My app (albeit hidden) perhaps it won't be long before Apple starts to ship its long-rumored AirTags devices and Apple opens up the Find My app to third-party developers.
- Juli Clover of MacRumors points out some of the interesting Apple-related accessories unveiled at the (virtual) CES convention this week.
- And finally, if you are interested in hearing how noise cancellation works on the new AirPods Max, Faruk Korkmaz of iPhonedo put together a fascinating video that you need to listen to while wearing a pair of headphones. Using some interesting technology, he gives you a good sense of how they work. It's a really interesting video, and worth checking out even if you have no intention of purchasing an AirPods Max just because it does neat things with audio.