Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, it has often been said that you could tell how bad the virus was in a particular city based upon whether or not the local Apple Store was open for business. Often, an Apple Store would close, and then shortly thereafter the local municipality would impose stricter rules because positive cases were starting to increase. It is sort of like the Waffle House Index, which is actually used by FEMA and others to determine the severity of a storm. With that in mind, I was pleased to see this report by Michael Steebar: for the first time since March 2020, all 270 U.S. Apple Stores are now open. That doesn’t mean that we should be foolhardy and drop mask mandates (do you hear me Texas and Mississippi?), but that is a good sign that things are getting better. And now, the news of note from the past week:
- In the latest episode of the great Apps in Law podcast, Roswell, New Mexico attorney Jeremy Worley explains how he uses the Readwise app.
- California attorney David Sparks recommends that lawyers subscribe to Lit Suite, which I’m proud to say is a sponsor of iPhone J.D. this month.
- Michael Potuck of 9to5Mac explains why 5G speeds may increase in 2021.
- Marius Masalar explains how to use VIP notifications in Apple Mail. I rely on this feature to make sure that I get notified when I receive an email from certain clients and partners, depending upon the project that I’m working on.
- Bradley Chambers of 9to5Mac describes the HomeKit devices that he is installing in a new home.
- Andrew Orr of The Mac Observer noted that Eve Systems has new products coming out that work with the Thread mesh network, such as new versions of Eve Energy Eve Weather (which I presume is an update to the Eve Degree that I previously reviewed), and Eve Aqua. I discussed the new Tread protocol in my review of the HomePod mini.
- Oliver Haslam of iMore notes that CarPlay is soon coming to a motorcycle.
- And finally, in this short video for Apple called Hometown, Phillip Youmans used an iPhone to show off a number of black photographers in their cities. There are some amazing photographs and great video angles in this film.
Sorry, Jeff, mask mandates don’t make any difference, per this AEIR article yesterday (and many before).
I removed the link to that AIER report from your comment because I have a lot of questions about it. AEIR is a very strong free-market advocate and has been against most forms of government regulation, including mask mandates, for a long time. I believe that AIER also recommended that we address COVID-19 through herd immunity, which would result in a large number of unnecessary deaths.
Moreover, I’ve seen so much science that mask mandates do make a difference. For example: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02801-8
So we are going to just have to agree to disagree on this.
-Jeff