I have now had a week with the new 12.9″ iPad Pro, and I am enjoying this new iPad even more today than I was when I wrote my review a few days ago. Because it has been a busy week, I haven’t had the chance to take advantage of the incredible screen by viewing additional HDR content. But as I have been using this new iPad in my law practice, I’m appreciating the speed even more. There have been dozens of instances in which I have been amazed how quick everything is and how smooth the experience is — from working with large PDF documents to surfing complex web pages to loading and saving documents. It is really impressive. I’ll talk about this more in today’s edition of the In the News podcast, which will be the first new episode since Brett and I introduced the podcast a few days ago. Thanks to all of you who have already subscribed in your podcast player of choice. (So far, the Overcast app has been the most popular app used to download episodes.) And now, the news of note from the past week:
- Massachusetts attorney Bob Ambrogi has a great video that shows off the LINK app from Mobile Helix, an app that allows attorneys to use their traditional law firm software such as email and document management within a secure environment on an iPad. This is part of Bob’s “How it Works” series, which I believe means that it is a sponsored post, but it is still really interesting to see Seth Hallem, the CEO of Mobile Helix, show off the app.
- Fantastical has long been my favorite calendar app on the iPhone and iPad. I last mentioned it almost a year ago when the app was updated to support videoconference calendar entries, a feature that I have used countless times during the pandemic. Although you can use many features of Fantastical for free, for $40 a year you get access to premium features. This week, Flexibits, the company behind that app, updated another one of its apps called Cardhop. Cardhop makes it easier to work with all of your contacts entries by using natural language to search and work with that information. This week, the app was updated to add some new features, and the same subscription that gives you access to the advanced features of Fantastical also gives you access to all of Cardhop’s features. California attorney David Sparks of MacSparky explains what is new, some of which he shows off in some videos created for Flexibits.
- David Sparks also reviews the new remote for the Apple TV. And his last two sentences say it all: “Now I need to order a second one for the bedroom TV. There is no way I can go back after just 30 minutes with this new one.”
- Joe Rosensteel wrote a comprehensive review of the new Apple TV 4K.
- This week, Apple released iOS 14.6. Juli Clover of MacRumors explains what has changed.
- The Ford F-150, the most popular motor vehicle of all time and the best-selling vehicle in the United States for the last 30 years, has been in the news lately because of its upcoming Lightning electric truck, which President Biden recently test drove. But the current Ford F-150 also has some tech changes, including a new SYNC 4 system that works with both wired and wireless CarPlay. Eric Slivka of MacRumors shows off the new SYNC 4.
- Ed Hardy of Cult of Mac notes that the Center Stage feature of the new iPad Pro now works in the Zoom app.
- Sebastiaan de With is part of the team that makes the impressive Halide app, a full-featured camera app. He does a great job looking at all of the changes in the camera on the new iPad Pro. For example, the new iPad happens to do a great job with close-up pictures, which is not something that I expected.
- Apple has a new Pride Edition band for the Apple Watch, and it comes with a new Apple Watch face. In this post on Twitter, kevinv posted a GIF that shows off this interesting new band.
- The YouTube channel Adam’s Tech Life shows off some neat Shortcuts that you can use to speak a command to a HomePod mini and then have your Apple TV and the lights in your house do a bunch of things.
- And finally, let’s talk about the newest Apple Store. Some Apple Stores are relatively small, in a mall, and — except for during a pandemic — busy and crowded. But a few Apple Stores are flagship stores with lots of space. For those flagship stores, Apple often devotes serious attention (and money) to restoring a historical venue. This week, Apple opened its new flagship store in Rome, located in the historic Palazzo Marignoli. Apple itself has a webpage that shares some images of the new store and includes a great video. But even better is the discussion of the store and amazing photographs by Federico Viticci and Silvia Gatta of MacStories, who got early access to the store and took some pictures (using the iPhone 12 Pro Max). Here is one of the photos of the store provided by Apple, taken in the Genius Bar “where a team of conservators have worked thousands of hours to restore the exquisite, geometrically patterned, hand-painted ceiling.” This place is impressive.
