In the News

After causing incredible destruction in Louisiana, Hurricane Ida has moved across the country and caused death and destruction all the way up to New York.  In the Greater New Orleans area, the lack of power and brutal heat has made it difficult to begin the rebuilding process.  My family has now relocated to Alabama, and who knows how long it will be before we can get home.  I see a report that it will take 21 days to get power to 90% of the people in Jefferson Parish, which is next door to New Orleans.  I have no idea if that is faster or slower than what it will take in New Orleans.  I went through something similar once before, after Hurricane Katrina.  I remember at that time, people were just learning how to use text messaging, using non-smart phones with numbers that you would have to press multiple times to spell out letters.  Technology, especially mobile technology from Apple such as the iPhone and iPad, has made it so much easier to represent my legal clients, communicate with friends and family, keep up with the news, etc.  So as frustrating as it is right now for folks from southeast Louisiana — and believe me, it is incredibly frustrating — there are also many things to be thankful for.  And now, the news of note from the past week:

• The ABA recently released its 2021 Profile of the Legal Profession report.  Page 94 of the report states that 79% of lawyers use an iPhone and 18% of lawyers use Android.  However, as far as I can tell, it looks like this information comes from a 2019 survey that I described in this post, so this does not appear to be a new statistic.
• I’ve previously discussed how useful it is to have your driver’s license on your iPhone.  Soon, this ability will be built-in to the Wallet app on the iPhone, and it looks like Apple has come up with a fantastic implementation.  Apple announced this week the first eight states that will support this feature (Arizona and Georgia at first, and then Connecticut, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Oklahoma, and Utah).  John Gruber of Daring Fireball has a great post explaining how it works and why the way that Apple implemented this feature is so impressive from a security, usability, and privacy standpoint.  
• In another post, Gruber explains that Apple will allow certain subscription apps to provide a link on the opening page directing someone to a website so that they can purchase or manage the subscription.
• This is just a rumor, but Rolfe Winkler of the Wall Street Journal asserts that Apple plans to make an Apple Watch that can check your blood pressure and that can check your temperature (to assist with fertility planning).
• And since I mentioned that rumor, I guess I should also mention another one.  Mark Gurman of Bloomberg asserts that Apple plans to introduce an iPhone that can communicate with satellites so that you can send an emergency text to a first responder even without cellular coverage.
• Let’s leave the world of rumors and return to what we know that Apple will do.  Apple announced this week that it acquired the classical music streaming service Primephonic.  Not only will this improve listening to classical music on Apple Music with better music quality, but Apple also plans to introduce a new music app that focuses on listening to classical music.
• As reported by Brent Dirks of AppAdvice, Tweetbot app was updated this week to add a new customization menu that lets you remove some features that many people, like me, did not like.  For example, you can remove the feature that when you tap at the top of the screen you scroll up to the most recent tweet, a feature which I only ever activate by accident. Also, you can remove the feature that when you swipe with two fingers you change the theme, another feature that I have accidentally triggered numerous times.
• Geoffrey Fowler of the Wall Street Journal explains how Facebook can gather information about you from apps on an iPhone even if you don’t use the Facebook app.
• Juli Clover of MacRumors provides a preview of what will be new in the Notes and Reminders apps when iOS 15 comes out.  Which could be as soon as this month.
• And finally, two months ago, Apple TV+ released a video called The Lasso Way.  I avoided watching it at the time because I thought it might have spoilers for Season 2 of Ted Lasso.  It does not, and this cute video captures some of the spirit of what makes Ted Lasso such a great show, including the importance placed on helping others.  With everything going on in the world, I really needed this message right now, and perhaps you do too.  For all fans of Ted Lasso, this one is worth watching: