Today is new iPhone day! If you pre-ordered an iPhone 13 and you are lucky enough, you will get your new iPhone today. Or, you can walk into any Apple Store and many other stores today and purchase a new iPhone, so long as they are in stock. If you are still on the fence, take a look at my preview of the top new features and some of the initial reviews of the iPhone 13. Jason Snell of Six Colors wrote a helpful article explaining what you get if you upgrade to an iPhone 13 from an iPhone 7, 8, X, XR, XS, 11, 11 Pro, and SE. When I placed my order last Friday, I ordered both a new iPhone and a new case. My case arrived on Wednesday, and it was immediately obvious that the square cut-out in the back of the case for the cameras is considerably larger than the cut-out in a case for the iPhone 12. According to Apple and the earlier reviewers, this larger square allows for better cameras, and I look forward to trying them out this weekend. And now, the news of note from the past week:
- If you are a litigator and you have used an iPad for a while, there is a good chance that you have used one or more of the fantastic apps from LIT SOFTWARE over the years: TrialPad, TranscriptPad, or DocReviewPad. Earlier this year, the company switched to a subscription model called LIT SUITE (my review), and offered a $100/year discount for prior customers who upgraded — a discount that you can continue to use every year for as long as you stay a subscriber, so it really adds up over time. I mention all of this today because the company announced this week that the discount ends on October 1, 2021, so you only have a few days left to take advantage of it.
- Jon Porter of The Verge reports that the European Commission of the European Union is considering a proposal that would mandate that all smartphones, tablets, and other devices use a USB-C connector. If passed, that could mean the end of the Lightning port for the iPhone.
- John Gruber of Daring Fireball explains why requiring all of these devices to use USB-C is idiotic. For example, if they picked USB 3 five years ago, we wouldn’t even have USB-C now.
- Brett Burney, my co-host on the In the News podcast, provides tips for converting almost anything to a PDF file on your iPhone or iPad.
- Matthew Panzarino of TechCrunch interviews Apple VP Kaiann Drance and Human Interface Team designer Johnnie Manzari to discuss the new Cinematic Mode on the iPhone 13.
- What do you get when you pair the great new cameras on the iPhone 13 Pro with professional photographer Austin Mann? You get jaw-dropping video and pictures from Tanzania. He is especially excited about the new 3x telephoto lens because “everything I shoot with the Telephoto feels naturally cinematic and has a different feel than imagery captured by previous models.” I strongly recommend that you check this one out.
- The new iPad mini also goes on sale today. Jason Snell of Six Colors posted this review of the iPad mini. He found that this is an iPad that is often more useful when it is in portrait orientation, not landscape orientation.
- Federico Viticci of MacStories posted this review of the iPad mini. He says that it “is a joy to use on a daily basis.”
- iOS 15 came out this week, and I haven’t heard of any problems with the update. Dan Moren of Six Colors wrote a review of iOS 15.
- If you want an incredibly detailed review of every little thing that is new in iOS 15, Federico Viticci of MacStories wrote this tome on iOS 15.
- Jason Snell of Six Colors described some of the best features in iPadOS 15.
- With this update, Safari now supports extensions. My favorite so far is 1Password, which now seems to be almost as powerful on iPad or iPhone as it is on a computer. But there are many others that I want to try, and Parker Ortolani of 9to5Mac recommends some of his favorite Safari extensions.
- Juli Clover of MacRumors does the same thing, recommending some favorite Safari extensions. I see that there is a free one called Super Agent that automatically fills in cookie consent forms on websites so that you never have to see them — and I’m going to start trying that one right now.
- Here is a useful blog post from 1Password explaining their new Safari extension.
- Not only does Safari add extensions, but it also works very differently in iOS 15. Dave Mark of The Loop links to a helpful video from Apple that walks you through the new Safari.
- Patrick Holland of CNet discusses some of his favorite features of iOS 15, including focus mode and live text.
- Speaking of live text, Jason Snell of Six Colors wrote an excellent overview of what is new in the Photos app. And there is quite a bit that is new: a new info window for pictures, the ability to select text in images, a completely new Memories interface, and more. Jason also explains that if you want to search for a photo that contains a word in it, you (confusingly) cannot do that from within the Photos app, but you can do so using Spotlight to search your entire phone. This is so obviously confusing that I cannot imagine why Apple shipped the feature this way. If you ever use the Photos app on an iPhone or iPad, I strongly recommend this article.
- Jennifer Pattison Tuohy of The Verge discusses some of the new iOS 15 features that relate to HomeKit.
- As useful as iOS 15 is today, there are some features announced by Apple that will not be available until later. Juli Clover of MacRumors identifies all of the iOS 15 features you won’t get until later.
- watchOS 8 was also released this week. There isn’t a ton that is new, but Alex Guyot of MacStories wrote the best review that I’ve seen of watchOS 8. And I want to point out one specific part of this article. If you want to take advantage of the new Portraits watch face in watchOS 8, it is confusing at first, and this article does a great job of walking you through it.
- Heather Kelly and Geoffrey Fowler of the Washington Post recommend privacy settings on popular services that you might want to change.
- And speaking of privacy, Fowler and Tatum Hunter of the Washington Post explain why iPhone apps might be able to track you even when you tell them not to do so.
- Jason Snell of Six Colors reviews the new second generation version of the iPhone Leather Wallet and explains how it can help you to find it if you ever lose it.
- Roman Loyola of Macworld explains the differences between the new Apple Watch Series 7 and last year’s Apple Watch Series 6.
- And finally, Joanna Stern of the Wall Street Journal wrote a helpful article on using iOS 15. But even better is the video that she created with tips for using iOS 15. I strongly encourage you to watch it; you are virtually guaranteed to learn something new: