Yesterday, while I was finishing up a videoconference in my office, my son (who shares my interest in space) texted me to let me know that NASA was about to land its newest rover, named Perseverance, on Mars. Countless incredibly smart people had to make countless complicated calculations and have everything turn out right ... and it did. It was an incredibly impressive landing, and I look forward to seeing all of the new science that Perseverance will bring us. But where would we be now if the United States had devoted even more resources to space, starting in the 1960s? That's the alternative history explored in the Apple TV+ show For All Mankind. I absolutely loved the first season of that show. Season 2 starts today, and I watched the first episode last night when it became available at 11pm Central. While Season 1 focused on the 1960s and early 1970s, Season 2 jumps forward 10 years and begins in 1983. Based on the first episode, it looks like this will be a fantastic season with great character stories in the setting of a far more advanced space exploration than we have ever known. And as someone who was in high school in the 1980s, I look forward to learning about this alternative version of that decade. There are lots of ways to get Apple TV+ for free if you have new Apple products, so I encourage you to watch the show along with me. And to help you to bridge the gap between Season 1 and Season 2, you can check out Apple's immersive augmented reality experience in the new app For All Mankind: Time Capsule, which was described by Scott Stein of CNet. It only takes about 20-30 minutes to get through it, and it does some interesting things with AR. Plus, it features some great music. And now, the news of note from the past week:
- Illinois attorney John Voorhees of MacStories wrote a glowing review of the Logitech Circle View Doorbell, which works with Apple's relatively new HomeKit Secure Video service. This means that if you already pay Apple for additional iCloud storage, you can store the last ten days of video, encrypted end-to-end for privacy, without having to pay Logitech for an online video service.
- Before Apple released its Magic Keyboard for iPad, the Brydge Pro+ looked like one of the best options if you wanted a keyboard and trackpad for an iPad. Unfortunately, when that product came out, the trackpad experience was sub-par. Fortunately, as reported by Jason Snell of Six Colors, a firmware update has greatly improved the experience, making this product a good, less expensive, alternative to Apple's Magic Keyboard for iPad.
- When Apple releases iOS 14.5 — hopefully in a few weeks? — many folks, like me, will rush to install that update because it allows you to unlock an iPhone even while wearing a mask so long as you are wearing an Apple Watch. But others will be interested in iOS 14.5 because of the new emoji. Jeremy Burge of Emojipedia provides a preview of what the new emoji will look like.
- A few months into the pandemic, I reviewed the Adonit Note UVC, and iPad stylus that uses ultraviolet lights as a disinfectant. Helen Carefoot of the Washington Post writes that UV sanitizers do work, but notes that some experts believe that they may not make much difference in reducing your risk of getting COVID-19.
- Apple doesn't release specific numbers on how many iPhones are sold, but others are happy to come up with their own estimates. According to one recent estimate, the iPhone 12 Pro Max is the most popular 5G phone in 49 U.S. states, as noted by Stephen Warwick of iMore. (In the last state, Vermont, the iPhone 12 Pro takes the lead.) If correct, this would be consistent with a statement made by Apple CFO Luca Maestri a few weeks ago during an earnings call, when he noted that there has been high interest in the iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max, and supply has been limited as a result. I'm a big fan of the Pro model of the iPhone 12 because of the third, telephoto lens, but I would have guessed that the regular iPhone 12 would have been more popular than the iPhone 12 Pro / Pro Max.
- Almost a year ago, I reviewed Microsoft Office for iPhone, a new app that combined Word, Excel, and PowerPoint into a single app. I never really understood why there was an advantage of having a single app. Working with Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents are very different experiences. Brent Dirks of AppAdvice notes that Microsoft Office now works on the iPad as well. But until there is a reason to change, I plan to continue using the stand-alone apps.
- Nicole Nguyen of the Wall Street Journal has tips for using an iPad as a laptop replacement. And note that even if you don't subscribe to the Wall Street Journal, you can still read the articles if you have Apple's News+ service, as I noted in this post.
- Apple released a one-minute movie on its YouTube channel in France, called Le Peintre ("The Painter"), to demonstrate that a video shot on an iPhone 12 can look just as good as a professionally-shot movie. Although the short film is in French, you can easily understand what is going on without understanding what they are saying. (Or, you can turn on English subtitles.)
- And finally, The B1M, which produces a series of videos focused on construction, created an interesting six-minute video focused on how Apple builds its stores:
