It seems that Apple is very close to the release of iOS 14.5, and I cannot wait. This is the release that will let you unlock your iPhone even if you are wearing a mask (preventing Face ID from working) so long as you are wearing your Apple Watch. I’m getting my second dose of the vaccine later today (woo-hoo!) but I suspect that wearing a mask will continue to be a thing for quite a while. Matthew Panzarino of TechCrunch reports on another new feature coming in iOS 14.5. In the past, the iPhone would assume that you want a female voice for Siri unless you change it. (In the United States, at least; in some other countries, the default is the male voice, unless you change it.) But when you install iOS 14.5, you select your preferred voice at the outset. There are also two brand new Siri voices to pick from. And there is more as well. iOS 14.5 will be a nice update. And now, the news of note from the past week:
- In an article for Slaw, legal technology experts Sharon Nelson and John Simek explain why, before long, lawyers may not have to worry about passwords, instead providing authentication based on biometrics (like Face ID) and hardware security keys. In the meantime, however, I strongly encourage that you use a password manager.
- The apps TrialPad and DocReviewPad now support bookmarks in PDF files, as explained in this LitSoftware blog post.
- Illinois attorney John Voorhees of MacStories reviews the HoverBar Duo, an iPad stand that holds your iPad up as if it were a monitor.
- Tim Cook noted on Twitter that Apple celebrated its 45th birthday on April 1, 2021.
- Reuters reports that airlines may soon require the use of an iPhone app to confirm that you have received the COVID-19 vaccine before allowing you to get on an airplane.
- Mike Schmitz of The Sweet Setup names Timery the best time-tracking app.
- For All Mankind is one of my favorite shows on Apple TV+ — heck, it is one of my favorite shows of the last few years — and it is currently in the middle of its second season. Last Friday’s episode was one of the best of the series, and today’s episode is also quite good. Jeff Wilser of GQ discusses the show and explains why more people should check it out.
- Ed Hardy of Cult of Mac reports that there are three Apple TV+ shows with 100% approval ratings on Rotten Tomatoes: Dickinson, For All Mankind, and The Snoopy Show. Those are great shows, but somehow Ted Lasso only has a 91% critic score (and a 98% audience score) even though that is definitely one of the best shows on Apple TV+.
- Dan Moren of Six Colors reports that Apple’s WWDC developer conference will begin on June 7. That is when I expect to see Apple first preview iOS 15, which I expect to be released this Fall.
- Jake Peterson of Gadget Hacks notes that there is a Code Scanner app on the iPhone that you may not know about. You can also just use the Camera app to scan many codes, such as QR codes.
- And finally, I have fond memories for many older operating systems that I used long ago, such as the ones on the Sinclair ZX81 that I used for many years and on the Commodore 64 that I used after that. I do not have any fond memories of using DOS, except perhaps that I remember having to use it to launch WordPerfect 5.1 on some PCs when I was a summer law clerk in 1992. But if you do have fond memories of DOS, the Will It Work? channel on YouTube shows in a video out how to get DOS running on an iPhone and then install some DOS games from a disk. Very impressive: