There was a bittersweet anniversary this week: it has now been ten years since Steve Jobs died. Jony Ive, a very close friend of Jobs who was the head of design at Apple for many years, wrote a touching tribute in the Wall Street Journal earlier this week. Tim Cook reminded Apple employees and everyone else that Jobs reminded us that “people with passion can change the world for the better.” Jobs founded Apple in the 1970s, brought the world the Apple II and the Mac in the 1980s, saved Apple from the brink of bankruptcy when he returned in the 1990s and brought a new focus and a new operating system to the company, made Apple successful with the iPod in the early 2000s, introduced the iPhone in 2007, which turned Apple into the largest and most successful company in the world, and introduced the iPad in 2010, a product that Apple started working on even before the iPhone. Nobody was better at introducing new products; his enthusiasm was truly contagious. He was known for some bad traits as well, including an occasional lack of patience and sometimes poor interpersonal skills, especially early on. But he was brilliant, and his passion changed the world for the better, many times. Even though Apple has done quite well during the past decade, one cannot help but wonder how the world would be different if he were still around. And now, one more thing … the news of note from the past week:
- I enjoyed listening to the latest episode of the Law Firm Autopilot podcast in which New Orleans attorney Ernie Svenson interviews California attorney Denise Howell. Ernie and Denise were some of the very first lawyers to ever publish blogs (Denise invented the word “blawg”), Denise created the first law-related podcast, and they have both been on the forefront of legal technology for decades. Along the way, they have helped countless other attorneys take advantage of technology. Indeed, Ernie’s encouragement and advice to me was a big reason that I started iPhone J.D. back in 2008. If you have any interest in the history of legal technology and what might be coming in the future, that episode is worth your time.
- If you use either AirPods Pro or AirPods Max, Apple gave them a new feature this week: the ability to use Find My to locate them. Before this week — and still with AirPods — Apple can tell you the last place that they were used with your iPhone. But now, your iPhone can help you to find the current location of AirPods Pro and AirPods Max by letting you know when you are walking closer and when you are walking farther away. It isn’t as precise as the similar feature with AirTags (for example, there is no arrow pointing you in the right direction) but it is still a big help if you cannot remember where you left your AirPods Pro. Illinois attorney John Voorhees has more details in this post for MacStories.
- Voorhees also recommends extensions for Safari that you might consider using on your iPad.
- How much more powerful is the new A15 chip in the iPhone 13? Andrei Frumusanu of AnandTech ran some sophisticated tests. In short, the new chip is faster, especially when using the GPU for graphics, but the biggest improvement is in efficiency. Thus, the big news this year is not that there is a huge speed increase — although there is a nice speed increase — but instead is that the A15 chip is more efficient, which means that it uses less power. This is one of the big reasons that battery life is so much better with the new iPhone 13 models. Bravo to Apple for this improvement. More speed is always nice, but most iPhone users will prefer a significant battery life improvement over a significant speed improvement considering that the iPhone 12 was already really fast.
- I’m a big fan of the HyperDrive 6-in-1 USB-C Hub for iPad Pro (my review), which lets you connect just about any peripheral to your iPad or iPad Pro. Chance Miller of 9to5Mac discusses a new version called the 6-in-1 Media hub which seems to include all of the features that I reviewed plus dedicated buttons to play, pause, and rewind.
- Jason Snell of Six Colors reviews the two entry-level iPhone 13 models: the iPhone 13 and the iPhone 13 mini. He’s a fan of the iPhone 13 mini.
- Jason Cipriani of ZDNet recommends some hidden features in iOS 15 and iPadOS 15.
- One of the disappointments of iOS 15 is that the Shortcuts app is full of bugs. Federico Viticci of MacStories tweeted this week: “Honestly – and it pains me to say this – if you depend on Shortcuts and reliable automations for your work, my advice is to not upgrade to iOS 15 for now. Stay on 14 until Apple figures this out. Hopefully, quickly.” Some of my Shortcuts are still working, but others are not. Ugh.
- Apple introduced Siri shortly before Steve Jobs died. That means that Siri turned 10 this week. As reported by José Adorno of 9to5Mac, you can ask Siri about her birthday.
- John Gruber of Daring Fireball examines the likely reasons that Apple uses Lightning instead of USB-C for the iPhone.
- What would Ted Lasso look like as a horror film? Perhaps something like this.
- And finally, here is a moving short video released by Apple this week to honor Steve Jobs. The audio is clips of Steve Jobs speaking and the pictures span his long career at Apple. Very much worth watching.