I realize that it was just two weeks ago that I mentioned the now-infamous "I'm not a cat" video and now I'm back to that topic. However, I just saw this article by Debra Cassens Weiss of ABA Journal about ways that some lawyers or their clients have made poor decisions when attending Zoom hearings, and I'm truly amazed by the examples that she compiled in that post. I mean, it is great that you can use Zoom with just an iPhone, but I don't think that means that you should celebrate that mobility by participating in a hearing from a bed, from a hair salon, while drinking alcohol, or while wearing a bikini by a pool. And now, the news of note from the past week:
- California attorney David Sparks discusses Apple's recent response to a discovery interrogatory. Some of the press made fun of Apple's answer, but I agree with David that Apple's response makes good sense.
- Illinois attorney John Voorhees of MacStories reviews Genius Scan 6.0 and calls it a sophisticated iPhone and iPad scanning app. He doesn't compare and contrast the app to other scanning apps, and I'm not yet seeing a reason to switch from the Scanner Pro app that I've used for years, but if you are still trying to find a scanner app that works well for you, it looks like Genius Scan is also one that is worth considering.
- Brett Burney of the Apps in Law website reviews TuneIn, an app that lets you listen to radio stations from around the world. I've used that app in the past when I was driving far from my hometown of New Orleans and I wanted to listen to the radio broadcast of a Saints NFL game. Speaking of New Orleans, Brett mentions using this app to listen to WWOZ, a fantastic listener-supported radio station in New Orleans that plays fantastic music, and you can use TuneIn to do that, but there is also a WWOZ app in the App Store that does the same thing for free.
- For Apple Watch owners who like to listen to podcasts, the Overcast app was already the best way to use just an Apple Watch and Bluetooth speakers, such as AirPods, to listen to podcasts on the go. But the Apple Watch app for Overcast was rewritten this week to add many new features, as explained by Parker Ortolani of 9to5Mac.
- Apple had its annual shareholder meeting this week. That is normally an opportunity for the Apple executives to have to answer a few oddball questions, but since this year's meeting was online and Apple could pre-screen the questions, it was less unpredictable. Even so, Chance Miller's recap of the shareholder's meeting for 9to5Mac is interesting.
- Ever since MagSafe magnetic wireless charging was introduced to the iPhone 12 line, I've wondered if someone would create a small battery that magnetically attaches to the back of the iPhone so that you can get the benefit of a charging case without the bulk of a charging case. There is a rumor that Apple is working on such a product that would take advantage of the full 15W charging speed. But in the meantime, Anker just announced the PowerCore Magnetic 5K, a $39.99 device that does something similar but only charges at 5W. Ian Carlos Campbell of The Verge describes the device and says that it will be available in just a few days. This type of device, whether it is made by Apple or Anker, strikes me as something that could be very useful when traveling. But of course, most of us are not doing that right now.
- Killian Bell of Cult of Mac reviews the new Clear Apple Watch band from Elago, which is only $12.99 on Amazon. It definitely looks different, and I'm somewhat surprised that this is the first time that I've seen an Apple Watch band that is transparent.
- And finally, here is a new Apple ad for the Sleep app on the Apple Watch Series 6. I keep thinking that one day I will see the value of wearing an Apple Watch to sleep, but whenever I try it for a while, I find that it doesn't really provide me with much useful information but it does force me to find times during the day to recharge the watch, which can be inconvenient. But maybe one day this will change. And in any event, this video is rather trippy: