In a week with many highlights, one of the very best moments was the poetry written and performed by 22-year-old Amanda Gorman during the inauguration. As lawyers, we write words every single day, but I have never written anything as beautiful and powerful as her poem, The Hill We Climb. I was moved when I first saw it, and then I enjoyed it, even more, when I went back and watched it again last night. When James Corden of The Late Late Show asked Gorman about the experience, she shared that she received so many messages afterward that — notwithstanding the cold weather — her iPhone overheated. She also mentioned that she should ask her mother for a new iPhone. Tim Cook, if you are reading this, please send Gorman a new iPhone 12, perhaps with a yellow case to match her coat. And now, the news of note from the past week:
- Catherine Reach, the director of the North Carolina Bar Association’s Center for Practice Management, recently reviewed the Microsoft Lists app. And as Nicholas Terry of 9to5Mac noted earlier this week, that app is now available for the iPhone.
- California attorney David Sparks shares some tips for cleaning AirPods and AirPods Pro.
- Megan Cerullo of CBS News reports on a new study that concludes that smartwatches like the Apple Watch can help to spot COVID-19 days before people are symptomatic.
- If you like the way that an iPad seems to float above a keyboard in Apple’s Magic Keyboard for iPad but you just want a stand, Ed Hardy of Cult of Mac reviews the Satechi Aluminum Desktop Stand for iPad, and it looks like an interesting product.
- Adam Engst of TidBITS shares some tips for using Apple’s HomeKit smart home technology.
- If you want HomeKit compatibility for a smart home device that is not made to work with HomeKit, one solution is the HOOBt, which CS Starter Kihristopher Close reviewed for iMore.
- Ben Lovejoy of 9to5Mac reviews the Neatmo Smart Video Doorbell, which works with HomeKit.
- Michael Potuck of 9to5Mac reviews the Logitech Circle View Doorbell, which works with HomeKit secure video.
- Ron Amadeo of Ars Technica explains the new Wi-Fi 6E standard. The iPhone works with Wi-Fi 6, but it doesn’t currently work with 6E — something that may change later this year.
- If you purchased an iPhone in late 2019, you received a free year of Apple TV+. Although that was going to run out a few months ago, Apple announced in October that the free trial was extended to February. This week, Apple announced that it is extended again, to July 2021, as Benjamin Mayo of 9to5Mac explains. I’m sure that Apple had planned to have a lot of new things available to watch when it was time for folks to renew, but the pandemic surely delayed those plans. I guess Apple currently thinks that as of June-July 2021, there will be lots of compelling content to convince people to renew.
- Apple shared some truly incredible photos taken with the iPhone 12.
- And finally, to return to Amanda Gorman, do yourself a favor and watch or rewatch what she said on Wednesday, and then check out the full James Corden interview: