I’m finally back home in New Orleans after Hurricane Ida, and it sure is great to have electricity in my house again. We need a new roof and there are other repairs to do, but step one was to be home so that we could start doing them. Fortunately, Apple provided a great distraction from the hurricane this week by scheduling product announcements for next week. The majority view among those speculating seems to be that Apple will announce several models of an “iPhone 13” and a new Apple Watch with a larger screen, but at this point, anything is possible. I’m excited for next week, and I’m also excited to begin the September-to-November season in which we typically see lots of new Apple products announced. And now, the news of note from the past week:
- It’s been almost 40 years since Jackson Browne first sang about Lawyers in Love, but Debra Cassens Weiss of ABA Journal reports that we finally have an iPhone dating app called Lawyr for lawyers and other legal professionals or those who want to date them. I’m very happily married, but for those who have been waiting for this app, you know who you are and your time has come!
- Illinois attorney John Voorhees of MacStories wrote a comprehensive post on all of the changes coming to HomeKit and related technologies when iOS 15 is released … which could be any day now.
- What new iPhone features will Apple announce next week? Samuel Axon of Ars Technica believes that we will see an iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro, an Apple Watch Series 7, new AirPods, and a new entry-level iPad and iPad mini.
- Sami Fathi of MacRumors discusses some of the more minor features that might be a part of the new iPhone next week.
- Will the next iPhone have a number associated with it, such as “iPhone 13”? John Gruber of Daring Fireball says yes, explaining that unlike some other products sold by Apple, Apple historically sells both older and newer iPhone models at the same time so there needs to be an obvious way to distinguish them.
- Gruber also explains that the Anker 511 Charger is a good deal ($19.99 on Amazon) because it provides 20W of power and thus allows fast charging but is the same size as the classic Apple 5W charger, which charges an iPhone much more slowly.
- Tom Warren of The Verge reports that Microsoft is close to introducing a Microsoft Teams app for CarPlay, which will work in an audio-only mode.
- If all goes according to plan, next week SpaceX will launch Inspiration4, a mission with four private citizens that is part of a fundraising campaign for St. Jude. The astronauts will be doing some tests using Apple technology, including the iPad and Apple Watch, as explained by Zac Hall of Space Explored.
- Mark Gurman of Bloomberg reported this week that Kevin Lynch of Apple has changed jobs from being in charge of the Apple Watch to being in charge of Apple’s Project Titan, the secret (except that we all know about it) project to develop an Apple car. And as John Gruber explains, this could be a big deal because it suggests that we are closer to some sort of shipping product.
- Facebook and Ray-Ban introduced the $299 Ray-Ban Stories sunglasses this week. They look like standard Ray-Ban sunglasses — in other words, they look nice and normal — but they include a camera to take video or still images as you look at things. They can also play music and let you speak to Facebook’s new voice assistant. Joanna Stern of the Wall Street Journal took them for a spin and posted a good story and even better video describing this product, which sends the pictures and videos to a new Facebook View app on your iPhone so that you can share them.
- Chris Velazco of the Washington Post also posted a good review of the Ray-Ban Stories. His colleague Geoffrey Fowler tweeted that the photo quality is similar to an iPhone 5.
- Killian Bell of Cult of Mac provided a reason to subscribe to Apple TV+ other than to get to watch Ted Lasso: it is the only streaming service to protect your privacy.
- Jaclyn Kilani of iMore reviews the Belkin Car Vent Mount PRO with MagSafe, and says that it is her favorite MagSafe accessory yet. I no longer need an iPhone mount in my car because my car has CarPlay, but about four years ago I reviewed a similar (now discontinued) product during the time period before MagSafe. I was a big fan of that former product, so it doesn’t surprise me that this new Belkin product ($39.99 on Amazon) is a great idea for an iPhone accessory.
- And finally, Apple loves to post augmented reality experiences to increase anticipation for its upcoming announcements, so of course, Apple did so for its event next week. If you go to this page on the Apple website using an iPhone or iPad and you tap on the Apple logo, you will see an Apple outline in front of you that you can look around or even enter. It’s a pretty cool effect. Here is a video from Edward Munn that shows what it looks like: