Month: June 2021

Apple has been making a box called the Apple TV since 2007.  Other companies make cheaper devices that can connect to a TV and stream video, but as each new Apple TV model has come out, it has always been a high-quality device that works extremely well with other Apple devices.  Thus, if you already use an iPhone, iPad, and/or Mac, I’ve always thought that it was worth the extra money to get an Apple TV instead of devices sold by other companies.  On April 20, 2021, Apple introduced the latest version of the Apple TV called the Apple TV 4K (2nd generation).  I’ve been using one for the last few weeks, and for me it was an upgrade from an Apple TV HD, which I reviewed in 2015 (at a time when it was called the Apple TV fourth generation).  I’m very happy with the new features of this version of the Apple TV, and I recommend it — even if you, like me, don’t have a 4K television.

What I continue to love

Just in case you don’t yet have an Apple TV, let me begin by making a pitch for this device.  The Apple TV is great for streaming video and works with all of the major video streaming services like Netflix.  It also works seamlessly with the iCloud Photo Library, so all of the pictures on my iPhone, iPad, and Mac are also available on the Apple TV, which is a great way to show off pictures and videos to friends and family.  I also use it to stream all of the video files that are on my Mac, which is on the same network at my home. 

The Apple TV has an App Store, so you can download apps such as games.  I don’t use apps nearly as much as I use the Apple TV to stream video or photos, but I use them sometimes.

Consistent with Apple’s commitment to privacy, the Apple TV doesn’t spy on what you are watching and sell your habits to third parties.  Note that your TV itself may still try to do so when it is connected to an Apple TV, but the Apple TV doesn’t play any role in that.

An Apple TV works as an AirPlay speaker so it can play audio at the same time as other devices.  For example, in my house, I have two HomePod minis and an Apple TV in different rooms on the first floor of my house.  I can tell music to play simultaneously on all three devices so that the same music plays in all of the rooms.

An Apple TV can also act as a hub for your HomeKit accessories so that you can control them or check their status even if you are not in the house.  For example, you can turn on the porch light before you get home.

And finally, it is incredibly easy to share the screen of an iPhone or iPad to an Apple TV.  This is really nice if friends or family come over and want to share pictures from their iPhone so that we can all see them on the big screen.  There are now some TVs that you can buy with built-in AirPlay functionality, but an Apple TV makes this great feature work with any TV.

The new remote

Depending upon how you count them, the new Apple TV comes with either the fourth or fifth version of an Apple TV remote.  The original remote in 2007 was very small and white.  In 2010, Apple introduced a thin silver model that was easier to hold.  In 2015, Apple introduced the black Apple TV remote.  There were some nice feature to that remote, but also had some drawbacks:  the symmetrical design and flat buttons made it difficult to figure out which button you were pressing in a dark room, and worse, yet, made it hard to know if the remote was upside down in your hand.  I’m honestly surprised that Apple kept that remote around for six years.  Apple made one small change to the Apple remote during that time, placing a white circle around the MENU button, but that was about the smallest change that one could make to the remote to make it easier to use, so I don’t really consider that a different remote model.

With this year’s update to the Apple TV, we now have a new silver remote.  It is thicker than previous models, which is a good thing because it makes it easier to hold in your hands.  It also makes it harder for the remote to slip between cushions on your couch. 

The new remote also features a touchpad, but it is part of a four-directional D-pad.  Thus, if you want to use it as a touchpad you can, but if it is easier to just click buttons to go up/down/left/right, you can do that instead.  I find that it is easier to jump 10 seconds forwards/backwards in a video by pressing the right/left D-pad arrows than it ever was to do the same thing with the old remote. 

Better yet, because the D-pad is in a circular shape, you can use it as a jog dial — spin your finger around the circle to scrub through a video.  That feature only works in Apple TV apps that are made to work with the feature, but I presume that most services will add this feature.  To use that feature, pick up your finger from the D-pad and then place your finger along the edge of the circle for about a second or two.  You will see a circle appear on screen around your current position in the video, and then you can move your finger around the circle as much as you need to get to a new position in the video, either forward or backward.

The circular D-pad is also nice because it provides an obvious physical barrier to the touch surface.  With the old remote, it was easy to accidentally touch the touch pad when picking up the remote.  That is far less likely with the new remote.

The new remote also moves some buttons around and adds new buttons.  The Siri button is moved from the face of the remote to the side edge, which reduces the chance that you will trigger Siri accidentally.  I find that it also makes Siri easier to trigger in the first place because I don’t have to look down at the remote to find the Siri button before I can press it.  There is also a new power button at the top right.  It turns the Apple TV itself on or off, and also turns on/off other devices that support HDMI-CEC.  For me, the power button will turn on (or off) both my Apple TV and my TV, but not my audio receiver.  Finally, there is a new mute button, which is something that I always missed on the prior remote.

Like prior models, the volume up/down buttons can either control the sound via HDMI, or you can teach them to use RF to work with an audio source.  Thus, I can use the remote to control the volume on my audio receiver.

Like before, the circle button at the top right is the Apple TV+ button.  Press it to jump directly to the Apple TV+ app.  If you prefer, in Settings you can reprogram that button to go to the home screen.  If you keep that as an Apple TV+ button, you can always hold down the back button for a few seconds to jump directly to the home screen.  And if you hold down the top right Apple TV+ button for a few seconds, you can see the Control Center — a quick way to connect to AirPods, see the time, and perform some other functions.

The new remote is such an improvement over the prior model that Apple is selling it separately for $59 so that you can use it with any of the Apple TV models that came with the black remote.  And if you already have the first generation Apple TV 4K, you may not need or want the new features in this second generation Apple TV 4K other than the remote.  However, if you are currently using the Apple TV HD that was released in 2015, consider instead upgrading the new Apple TV 4K like I did.  If you have an even older model of the Apple TV, then I have an even stronger recommendation that you upgrade.  (Click here to see a page on the Apple website that you can use to identify which Apple TV model you have.) 

The new Apple TV 4K

Here are the other features of the new Apple TV 4K that make it a worthy upgrade from a prior model, and make it a great device if this is your first Apple TV. 

4K.  I don’t have a 4K television.  I bought the last model of the Panasonic VIERA plasma TV before Panasonic and the rest of the industry stopped making plasma televisions.  This type of plasma TV looks great if you are in a room that doesn’t have windows, so I’m not in a rush to give it up, but at some point in the future I’m sure I will upgrade to a 4K TV with HDR.  If you have a 4K television, especially one that supports HDR, then the reviews I have read indicate that you can make the most of your TV with this newest Apple TV because of the HDR support.

One note about HDR.  Although I don’t have a TV that supports HDR, I know that it looks great on the latest models of the iPad Pro and the iPhone, so whenever I record video on my iPhone, I record it using 4K at 60 fps using Dolby Vision.  This results in videos that look incredibly true to life.  With my Apple TV HD, I often had trouble playing these videos on my TV, especially if I modified the videos using Final Cut Pro.  I knew that I would not see the full spectrum of dark to light areas because my TV doesn’t support Dolby Vision HDR, but I still wanted to see the video on my TV.  This new Apple TV 4K will display all of those videos on my TV.  No, I don’t get the full effect of HDR like I do on my iPad, but this new Apple TV can still produce a nice version of the video that works on my TV.

This is important to me because the main reason I shoot in 4K HDR today is so that my home videos will look as good as possible 5, 10, 15, etc. years from now.  When my kids were young, I bought a HD camcorder that recorded to tapes, and I’m glad that I did so because those videos still look very good today, whereas the home videos I took before that using a camcorder look pretty pitiful.

Speed.  Unsurprisingly, this new model is much faster than the 2015 model that I had been using.  It is faster in multiple ways.

First, the Apple TV HD and earlier models only supported 100 Mb/sec Ethernet.  Like the first generation Apple TV 4K, this second generation model supports Gigabit Ethernet, which is 10x faster.  I use the eero Pro to provide Wi-Fi in my house, and the eero Pro in my TV room has a wired Gigabit Ethernet connection to my router.  I use the second Ethernet port on my eero Pro to connect to my new Apple TV, and it makes a huge and noticeable difference on downloads.  When I stream video, it plays virtually instantly.  With my prior Apple TV, the Speed Test app never showed speeds about 100, whereas with this new Apple TV, I get scores above 900.

Second, the new Apple TV 4K has a faster chip in it.  This is probably another reason that the Photos app works so much better.  This new model uses an A12, the same chip that was first used on the iPhone XS, XS Max, and XR in 2018.  (The Apple TV HD uses an A8 chip, which was first used on iPhone 6 in 2014.)  With this much faster chip, everything has much more zip to it.  It is a noticeable and very welcome improvement.

These two changes — the faster Internet and the faster chip — result in a vastly improved experience when I use the Photos app on the Apple TV, which downloads pictures from my iCloud Photo Library.  Still photos now display almost instantly, whereas with my older Apple TV, I had to wait a while for them to appear.  Live Photos — the ones you take with your iPhone that have a short video associated with them — sometimes appear almost instantly, and sometimes take about a second to load, but again, that is far better than what I used to see.

A third reason that this new Apple TV is faster is, if you use Wi-Fi 6, the newest version of Wi-Fi, this is the first Apple TV model to support it.  But note that if you use a wired Ethernet connection like I do, then the Internet speed will be the same on this second generation Apple TV 4K as it was on the first generation Apple TV 4K.

Other technical improvements.  Finally, this new version of the Apple TV supports the latest-and-greatest standards for video, audio, and connectivity.  Things like HDR10, Dolby Vision, Bluetooth 5, HDMI 2.1, 2160p, Dolby Atmos, Thread, etc.  You know, all the new and fancy buzz words.  To take advantage of these features, you need to make sure these features are supported by other devices that you use to watch TV, such as the TV itself and your receiver if you use one.

I use an older audio receiver that supports 5.1 surround sound and Dolby Digital but not Dolby Atmos.  When I first started using this new Apple TV, I noticed that when I watched programs that use Dolby Atmos, such as shows on Apple TV+, I would only hear the left and right speakers, but not the center or rear speakers.  To solve this, in the Settings app on the Apple TV, I told the Apple TV to always use 5.1 sound.  With that one change, everything works for me.

I noticed a connectivity improvement when using Apple’s Fitness+ app to do a workout.  On my prior Apple TV, when I was using both my Apple Watch and my AirPods Pro (so that others in the house didn’t need to listen to my workout), my watch or AirPods Pro would sometimes lose their connection with the Apple TV.  That is not what you want to happen in the middle of a workout.  That hasn’t happened at all with this new Apple TV.  I don’t know why this is fixed:  perhaps it is the Bluetooth 5 support, perhaps it is the faster processor, or perhaps it is something else.  But it’s nice to not have to worry about this anymore.

Storage.  You can purchase an Apple TV with either 32GB or 64GB of storage.  For virtually anyone, either size should be sufficient for whatever apps you want to download.  Because the price difference is only $20, I opted for the larger size because I’ve seen some reports that the Apple TV can take advantage of the extra space to store photos and videos in the cache, meaning that they come up more quickly if you go to look at them again.  I don’t think that I’ve ever seen Apple confirm that the extra storage space is used this way, but hopefully that is true.  Speaking of price, the official MSRP is $179 (32GB) or $199 (64GB), but I see that Amazon is currently selling both models with a $10 discount.

Conclusion

Apple doesn’t update the Apple TV very often, sometimes going two years, three years, or more between updates.  Thus, on the somewhat rare occasions when a new Apple TV model is introduced, that is a good time to consider upgrading from an older model.  Since I never used the first generation Apple TV 4K released in 2017, I don’t have any first-hand experience to recommend whether this is enough of an improvement to recommend an upgrade from that specific model.  Here’s some advice from Chris Welch of The Verge:

If you have the original Apple TV 4K, there’s really no sensible reason to upgrade to the new one. Wi-Fi 6 is nice to have, and Thread might prove important to the smart home someday, but that time isn’t now. Otherwise, you’re getting a slightly faster experience than what the old box is capable of. Just buy the Siri Remote, and call it a day.

But if you have the Apple TV HD (originally called the Apple TV fourth generation) that was released in 2015 or an earlier model, then I think that this is an excellent time to upgrade to take advantage of all of the improvements.  And if you have never used an Apple TV before, this is a great time to get one.

Click here to get Apple TV 4K (second generation) from Amazon ($169 / $189).

Episode 7 of the In the News podcast is now available.  In this week’s episode, Brett Burney and I begin by discussing the HomePod mini, which I’ve been using for a few months and which is now available for sale in some new countries.  Next, we discuss upcoming improvements to Apple’s Maps app, including some augmented reality features.  Next, we talk about the poor fellow who recently swallowed an AirPod.  We also discuss which iPhone and iPad models can take advantage of iOS 15 this Fall, and the new Apple Store Tower Theater in Los Angeles. 

Finally, in our In the Know segment, Brett and I both share Apple Watch tips.

Click here to listen to the audio podcast.  Or you can watch the episode on YouTube:

Earlier this year, I discussed exposure notification apps that are designed to warn you if you may have been exposed to someone else with COVID-19.  In an article for MIT Technology Review, Betsy Ladyzhets reports that it appears that these apps had only limited success because so few people used them, but also reports that now that we have the technology, similar apps could be useful when we have the next public health crisis.  Which hopefully will not be any time soon.  I think that a more useful COVID-19 app is one that you can use to show that you are fully vaccinated.  For example, Mark Gurman of Bloomberg noted yesterday that wearing a mask is now optional in Apple Stores if you are fully vaccinated.  As I discussed earlier this year, states like New York and Louisiana now have apps that certify that you are vaccinated.  However, so far, I’m not seeing many places in the United States ask for proof of vaccination, instead relying on an honor system.  Regardless of whether apps are involved, it is nice to see many communities begin to return to a more normal state as more folks get vaccinated.  My wife and I are certainly relieved that both we and our teenagers are now fully vaccinated.  Having said that, I know that we have it much better here in the United States than most other countries do.  And now, the news of note from the past week:

• If you are reading this on Friday morning and you are looking for some CLE credits, I’m co-presenting a one-hour webinar at Noon Central today for the New Orleans Bar Association along with New Orleans attorney Sean Brady.  Our topic is Preserving Error for Appellate Courts, and we will be providing advice for making the best record at the trial court level to prepare for an appeal.  Louisiana CLE credit is available, including Appellate Specialization, and you may be able to get CLE credit in other states too.  There is not really an iPhone/iPad angle here, except that I did prepare our slides using the Keynote app on my iPad.
• Josh Centers of TidBITS explains which models you will need this Fall to take advantage of new features in iOS 15, iPadOS 15, watchOS 8, and more.
• Philip Michaels of Tom’s Guide explains what is new in Maps in iOS 15, including an interesting AR walking directions feature where you can hold up your iPhone screen and AR-powered overlays with arrows and street names will make it very clear where you need to go next.
• Juli Clover of MacRumors explains what is new with FaceTime in iOS 15.
• In an article for Macworld, Dan Moren reports on other new features coming in iOS 15:  the new Safari, improvements to Shortcuts, and the new multitasking system on the iPad.
• I’m a big fan of the HomePod mini, which I reviewed a few months ago.  Joe Rossignol of MacRumors reports that the HomePod mini is now available in Australia, Ireland, and New Zealand.
• Clark Collis of Entertainment Weekly reports that the Apple TV+ show Ted Lasso received a Peabody Award for “offering the perfect counter to the enduring prevalence of toxic masculinity.”  That’s true, but it’s also very funny.
• If you are looking forward to Season 2 of Ted Lasso like I am, I’ve heard folks recommend that you NOT watch the new trailer because, while funny, it contains some spoilers for Season 2.  For that reason, I haven’t watched it.  Instead, if you want to hear the wisdom of Ted Lasso now, I recommend that you watch this video in which he and Coach Beard introduce the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team for the upcoming Olympics in Tokyo.
• In an article for The Guardian, Bradford Gauthier of Worcester, Massachusetts, explains how he accidentally swallowed one of his AirPods, but a doctor was able to remove it, and it still works.
• If you are looking to get a new set of AirPods — hopefully not because you swallowed your last pair — Michael Simon of Macworld reports that they are at an all-time low price.  For example, on Amazon, you can get AirPods Pro, which are normally $249, for under $200.  That’s a great price for a product that I love.  In fact, during last week’s episode of the In the News podcast, my co-host Brett Burney revealed that he took advantage of this sale and he is loving his new AirPods Pro.
• Apple announced some new features coming soon for Fitness+.  First, there are new Time to Walk workouts featuring people such as Stephen Fry, Naomi Campbell, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, and others.  Second, there will be workouts in which the entire playlist is dedicated to a single artist, starting with Alicia Keys, Jennifer Lopez, Keith Urban, and Lady Gaga.  Third, Apple will add a series of workouts with fitness expert Jeanette Jenkins.
• Simon Jary of Macworld recommends USB-C hubs for the iPad Pro or the newest iPad Air with a USB-C port.  The first one that he recommends is the HyperDrive 6-in-1 USB-C Hub ($69.99 on Amazon), which was my pick during last week’s episode of the In the News podcast.  I’ve used that hub a couple of times this week while using my iPad Pro in my office.
• In an article for Macworld, Jason Snell explains why he thinks that Apple may be planning to add an iPad feature that lets you connect to an external monitor and then run multiple apps in different overlapping windows, similar to a computer.
• And finally, as a fan of Apple and the son of an architect, I always love it when Apple takes an abandoned historic building and restores it to become an Apple Store.  Apple recently did that to the Tower Theater in Los Angeles.  According to this local news report from two years ago, it was no longer possible to use the former theater for its original purpose, so it has sat abandoned.  But there is a lot of history here — this was the first theater in the world to show a full-length motion picture with sound (The Jazz Singer in 1927) — and it was an interesting building.  Now you can visit the site and purchase a new iPhone to create your own movies, appreciating the incredible restoration of this building as you do so.  You can read about the restoration and see lots of great photos on the Apple website, and I’ve embedded below the video that is on that page.

I love using Apple Pay in stores because it is such a quick and secure way to pay for items.  Two years ago, Apple debuted Express Transit with Apple Pay, which allows you to pay for a subway ride in New York (and some other cities) by simply holding your iPhone close to the contactless reader at a turnstile.

If you don’t live in New York but you still want to see how easy it is to use the system, Chance Miller of 9to5Mac noticed that Apple just added an Augmented Reality experience to its webpage dedicated to the New York MTA transit system.  Scroll down that webpage to the section that says “Take a virtual trip with Pay” and then tap the link that says Experience in AR.  When you do so, you will place a picture of a turnstile wherever you are in the real world, and then you can place your iPhone on the reader to to pretend to pay.

The whole thing is a little silly, but after you do it, you will definitely understand from first-hand experience how easy it is to pay for a subway ride with an iPhone.  And the next time that you are in New York or another city that supports this system, you will know exactly what to do.  According to this page, you can currently use Express Transit with certain transit systems in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, Portland, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C.  Outside of the U.S., you can use Express Transit with certain systems in China, Finland, Hong Kong, Japan, and parts of the United Kingdom.

Episode 6 of the In the News podcast is now available.  In this week’s episode, Brett Burney and I begin by discussing the Apple TV+ service including some of our favorite shows.  Next, we discuss some new information about how Apple views its Apple Watch and aims to make that device better.  Third, we talk about upcoming improvements to the iPad in iPadOS 15.

Finally, in our In the Know segment, Brett recommends Apple’s AirPods Pro and we discuss what makes them better than regular AirPods or other headphones.  I recommend two great devices for connecting accessories to an iPad.  If you have an iPad Pro model that was released in 2018 or later, you have USB-C, and I recommend the HyperDrive 6-in-1 ($89.99 on Amazon).  If you have an iPad model with Lightning, I recommend Apple’s Lightning to USB3 Camera Adapter ($34.57 on Amazon).

Click here to listen to the audio podcast.  Or you can watch the episode on YouTube:

On November 1, 2019, Apple TV+ debuted.  The cost is $4.99 a month (or it is also part of an Apple One subscription), but from the beginning, Apple made the first year free for anyone who bought certain new Apple hardware such as an iPhone or iPad.  There have been some fantastic shows on Apple TV+.  Ted Lasso is universally loved, and my wife and I are both looking forward to the second season, which starts on July 23.  I also really loved For All Mankind; after watching the first two seasons myself as new episodes came out, I’m currently re-watching that series with my son, who loves it too.  And I’ve enjoyed lots of other shows:  Mythic Quest, Trying, Tiny World, Dickinson, Tehran, The Morning Show, Bruce Springsteen’s Letter to You, Greyhound … and even the show See had some good moments.  When Apple announced that the first year was free, I’m sure that Apple expected to have new shows and the second seasons of the original shows available in late 2020 as most folks would be deciding whether to renew.  But the pandemic slowed production for the entire industry, and with not much that was new in late 2020, Apple extended the free deal.  (And for those of us paying for Apple One, Apple has been sending a $4.99 credit every month.)  Benjamin Mayo of 9to5Mac reports that, starting in July, the free trial period is being reduced to three months, and those who have been enjoying the extended free subscription until now will have to start paying in July.  I plan to continue paying for the service.  Even though the service started with only a few shows, Apple has ramped that up fairly quickly (aside from the pandemic) and there are many things coming later this year.  But if you don’t plan to start paying for a subscription in July, then you have a lot of binging to do this month.  And now, the news of note from the past week:

• New York attorney Neil Squillante of TechnoLawyer discusses the TranscriptPad app from Lit Software.
• On the latest episode of the Apps in Law podcast, Brett Burney interviews Colorado attorney Ryan Kalamaya.  It is an interesting episode in which Kalamaya explains how he uses technology such as Microsoft Teams, Microsoft To Do, and more to share a law practice with other attorneys who are in different parts of the state.  And given that I just went through a big mailing list move here at iPhone J.D., I was interested to hear how he uses mailing list software to send specific communications to his clients at the outset of his representation.
• Blair Altland of 9to5Toys discusses Anker’s new Nano II GaN chargers, which are powerful but very small.
• In an article for Macworld, Jason Snell explains that when iOS 15 comes out this Fall, Apple will (for the first time) offer the option of not upgrading to the next operating system but instead continue to receive security updates for iOS 14.
• Matthew Panzarino of TechCrunch discusses the improvements to multitasking in iPadOS 15 with Apple VPs Bob Borchers and Sebastien Marineau-Mes.
• Jason Snell of Six Colors notes that that iPadOS 15 features many new keyboard shortcuts.
• In a 30-minute video on YouTube, Rene Ritchie had an interesting discussion about the Apple Watch with Apple VP Kevin Lynch (who is in charge of Apple Watch) and Deidre Caldbeck of Apple marketing.
• Apple has added new detail to Apple Maps in certain cities.  Justin O’Beirne provides some great screenshots and animations that make it easy to see how the maps have improved.  Presumably, we will see similar changes roll out in additional cities.
• There are two reasons that I have no desire to put an AirTag in a men’s wallet that goes in a back pocket:  the device is too thick, and the round shape would be awkward in a wallet.  Juli Clover of MacRumors describes a product from Nomad that seems to solve the second problem, but I’m not sure that it can address the thickness.
• Ben Lovejoy of 9to5Mac discusses the Level Lock, a smart lock for your front door that is HomeKit compatible and that looks like (and replaces a) normal deadbolt.
• Back in 2019, I reviewed a USB-C hub for the iPad Pro called the HyperDrive 6-in-1 ($89.99 on Amazon).  I love that product because it attaches snug to the side of the iPad Pro and gives you lots of different ports.  It has been my go-to hub for the last two years.  When I upgraded to the 2021 version of the iPad Pro, at first I thought that the HyperDrive 6-in-1 would not fit the slightly thicker new iPad Pro.  But I just learned that the HyperDrive has always shipped with a somewhat larger plastic clip that was made for an older model of the iPad Pro with a screen protector.  You can use that same larger clip with the 2021 iPad Pro if you are not using a screen protector.  It took me 30 seconds to swap out the clips, and now I am back in business.  I’m glad that I can continue to use that valuable accessory with my new 12.9″ iPad Pro.
• And finally, Apple created a cute video recommending that your next computer should be an iPad.  The video features a fun parody of a song from The Little Mermaid.  Worth watching:

Massachusetts attorney Bob Ambrogi, who has published LawSites since 2002, invited me to join him as a guest on this week’s episode of his show Law Insights with Bob Ambrogi, which broadcasts on LiteraTV.  We talked about lots of legal technology topics, but the focus was on Apple’s announcements last week at its WWDC conference including the preview of the iOS 15 and iPadOS 15, which are due this Fall.  I thought it was an interesting discussion.

You can watch the episode on YouTube, or I’ve embedded the video below:

Back in 2014, Apple acquired Beats Music.  I suspect that the main reasons that they acquired the company were to get the smart people working there to work for Apple and to acquire the online streaming music service that eventually became Apple Music.  But the acquisition also brought to Apple the Beats brand of headphones.  Because there are wireless versions of Beats headphones, Apple has two distinct wireless headphone brands:  AirPods and Beats. 

My AirPods Pro are one of my favorite Apple devices.  It is no exaggeration to say that I use them every single day.  I use them for work-related tasks like phone calls and videoconferences.  I use them to listen to music and podcasts.  I use them when I’m watching a video on my iPad and don’t want to bother the people around me.  And the noise cancellation works quite well.

Yesterday, Apple released the new Beats Studio Buds, a $149.99 product that is less expensive than the entry-level AirPods ($159) and yet it has many of the same advantages of AirPods Pro ($249) including active noise cancellation.  I haven’t tried the Beats Studio Buds myself, but based on the large number of initial reviews that I have read, they seem to be a reasonable alternative to AirPods and AirPods Pro.

As Chance Miller of 9to5Mac explains, the new Beats Studio Buds “feature an in-ear design similar to AirPods Pro, but without the stem.”

While AirPods currently only come in white, with the Beats Studio Pro you can choose between white, black, and red.  Like AirPods Pro, they come with silicone tips in three different sizes.  Jeff Dunn of Ars Technica says that “each earbud is exceptionally light and compact, giving off a sense of near-weightlessness in the ear.” 

The top of each of the Buds has a small physical button for playback control, switching between active noise cancellation and transparency mode, and/or accessing Siri, depending upon how you configure the buttons to work.  (You can also just say “Hey Siri” without pressing a button.)  Pressing a button controls playback, and you can assign functions to press-and-hold.  Miller notes that a downside of this design is that “it’s pretty easy to accidentally trigger one of the controls when you adjust an earbud’s fit in your ear.”

The Beats Studio Buds have a five-hour battery life (or eight hours if you don’t use noise cancellation) and 24 hours of playback with the charging case.  That’s similar to AirPods and AirPods Pro.

Most of the reviews that I read said that the sound was pretty good for a $150 device. Over-the-ear Beats headphones have a reputation for being bass-heavy, but many reviews found that to be less true for this device.

Reviewers noted that the noise cancellation works, but it is noticeably inferior to the more expensive AirPods Pro.  For example, Chris Welch of The Verge says that he “was underwhelmed in most scenarios where I tested it.”  He adds:  “The Studio Buds do a poor job at eliminating basic traffic street noise, which makes me wary of how they’d manage on a plane.  The transparency mode also lacks the natural feeling of the AirPods Pro and other premium buds like the Bose QuietComfort Earbuds.”  Similarly, Dunn notes:  “the Studio Buds’ [active noise cancellation] isn’t bad: it has a noticeable effect, and it doesn’t let chunks of outside noise come through wherever you go. …  This is just a competitive category, so while the [active noise cancellation] here is fine, it doesn’t stand out as a slam-dunk value.”  David Carnoy of Cnet reported that Beats Studio Pro “didn’t muffle the noisy HVAC unit in my apartment as well as [AirPods Pro] did, nor were they as successful at muffling New York street noise.”  Tim Gideon of PCMag says that there is a faint white noise hiss that is “a hallmark of less-than-top-notch noise cancellation.”

Some reviewers also noted that when you are using the microphone on the Beats Studio Buds to have a telephone conversation, your voice sounds more muffled compared to AirPods or AirPods Pro.  Dunn offers some recordings at the end of his review if you want to hear them for yourself.

So what are Beats Studio Buds missing that you get with AirPods or AirPods Pro?

First, there is no wireless charging case.  I rarely use this function with my AirPods Pro so I don’t consider this a big loss.  Even with AirPods, you don’t get a wireless charging case with the $159 version; you need to get the $199 version to get wireless charging.

Second, there is no in-ear detection.  When you are listening to music and you remove AirPods or AirPods Pro from an ear, the music stops.  With the Beats Studio Buds, the music continues to play.

Third, there is no instant device switching because Beats Studio Buds don’t have a W1 or H1 chip.  I enjoy using this feature with my AirPods Pro.  I can listen to music on my iPhone, pause the music and start playing a video on my iPad and the AirPods Pro switch automatically, then I can go back to my iPhone again all without having to touch any settings.

Fourth, there is no instant pairing via iCloud.  When you pair AirPods or AirPods Pro to one of your Apple devices, other Apple devices using the same iCloud account know about them.  With Beats Studio Buds, you need to manually pair to each different device.

Fifth, there is no audio sharing with another pair of headphones.

Sixth, you only get partial support for spatial audio, a feature that Apple has been pushing lately.  The Beats Studio Pro has no gyroscopes or accelerometers, so it doesn’t support head-tracking spatial audio for videos.  On the other hand, spatial audio in Apple Music seems to work for all types of headphones (even though it may sound better on some devices than others), so that does work with Beats Studio Pro.

If you are looking for something like AirPods Pro that features noise cancellation but you don’t want to spend $250 for AirPods Pro, the Beats Studio Buds seems like a reasonable alternative.  AirPods Pro are better, but they are also $100 more.  With the Beats Studio Buds, you lose a few features and the noise cancellation and microphone isn’t quite as good, but you still get a nice portable product that will work well with your Apple devices.

Click here to get Beats Studio Buds from Amazon ($149.95)

I’m interrupting the normal iPhone J.D. content for a programming note.  Although most folks read iPhone J.D. using a web browser, there are also thousands of people who have new posts show up in their email Inbox because, for about a decade, I have used a free email delivery service provided by Google called FeedBurner.  However, Google recently announced that it will soon end this service. 

And perhaps that was just as well because people would often alert me to problems with FeedBurner subscriptions.  Posts would sometimes show up late.  The message format was sometimes poor.  Any time that I embedded a video (such as at the end of most of my Friday posts), the FeedBurner email would only show a blank area with no way to access the video.  And there were other minor issues from time to time.

As a result, I recently started paying for a service called FeedBlitz, and I’ve been testing it for the last few weeks.  While not perfect, it seems to work much better. 

What does this mean for you?  If you currently subscribe to the old Google FeedBurner feed, very soon I will move the entire subscription list to FeedBlitz.  If all goes as planned, you should continue to receive emails as you always have, with no interruptions and nothing extra for you to do, but the emails will look better.  You can easily tell which service is being used because the old emails have a square icon at the top and the new emails have a full banner.  Here is an example of the old FeedBurner email followed by the new FeedBlitz email:

If this is the last iPhone J.D. email you receive, then there was clearly a problem for you.  I recommend that you try to resubscribe using the new sign-up link, located at the top right of the iPhone J.D. website.

Speaking of which, if you do not currently receive new iPhone J.D. posts via email, you might want to try it out.  You can subscribe or unsubscribe at any time, and I don’t share your email address with anyone else (other than FeedBlitz, and they have a good privacy policy).  Receiving new posts via email is a good way to learn when there is a new post, whether you read the post in your email client or click on the header to read the post on the website.  Typically, I only post a few times a week, so it is not a lot of additional email traffic in your Inbox.  On the other hand, if you are happy with the current way that you read iPhone J.D., then I suppose there is no reason to change what is not broken.

Speaking of subscriptions, I know that I speak for Brett Burney when I say that we both appreciate all of you who have subscribed to the audio version of the In the News podcast and all of you who have become a subscriber to the video version on YouTube.  If you haven’t done so yet, I encourage you to do so.  That way, the new episodes are available to you just as soon as they are released, and you can listen or watch whenever you are ready.

I hope that you enjoy the improved email service via FeedBlitz, and I apologize in advance for any problems that I wasn’t able to anticipate despite my best efforts over the last few weeks.

Episode 5 of the In the News podcast is now available.  In this week’s episode, Brett Burney and I discuss all of the news arising out of Apple’s WWDC conference this week, and then address some additional topics including the addition of spatial audio with Dolby Atmos to Apple Music. 

In our In the Know segment, Brett shares two tips.  First, he recommends swapping out the blank canvas in the Notes app for a background with lines or grids, as noted by Christine Chan of iMore.  Second, he explains how to forward text messages to different recipients:  tap and hold on a message, then tap “More,” select the messages you want to forward, and tap the arrow pointing to the right.  I recommend the Deliveries app.

Click here to listen to the audio podcast.  Or you can watch the episode on YouTube: