A few days ago, I explained why I recommend that you purchase the On/Go at-Home COVID-19 Rapid Antigen Self-Test. The iPhone app makes that COVID test super easy use, and because you can get reimbursed for up to four boxes (two tests per box) every month per person, the On/Go is essentially free if you live in the United States. Around the same time that I published that post, Joanna Stern of the Wall Street Journal wrote a similar article comparing antigen tests to the more expensive at-home molecular tests, which is basically a PCR test that you can do in your own home with the aid of an iPhone. Her article is good (and you can read it if you subscribe to the Wall Street Journal or subscribe to Apple News+), but the associated video that she produced is even better and is available for anyone to watch. You can watch the video at the top of her article or on YouTube. She explains that the Cue is easiest to use, but the reader costs $249 and a pack of three tests is $225. The Detect is more complicated to use, but the starter kit is $75 (one test), and each additional test costs $49. Thus, those tests are much more expensive than a $12 antigen test (and health insurance only reimburses $12/test), but Joanna explains that these molecular tests can detect COVID earlier than an antigen test—approximately six hours to two days earlier. Joanna also notes that once you have COVID, an antigen test like the On/Go is better for telling you when it is safe to be around other people again; the molecular tests will continue to give you a positive result long after you are contagious because they are so much more sensitive. Even if you decide not to get the more expensive molecular tests right now, it is great to have a better understanding of tests and how they can work with your iPhone. Over time, all of these tests should become less expensive, making it easier to use your iPhone to detect COVID, the Flu, and perhaps other medical conditions without having to go see a doctor. All of this medical technology is really fascinating. And now, the news of note from the past week:
- My podcast co-host Brett Burney created a fantastic video this week, showing you how you can use the Stitch It! app to combine multiple screenshots into one long picture, a useful way to show a long text message conversation. I can definitely see lawyers using this to prepare a trial exhibit and/or demonstrative.
- In a post on the Lit Software blog, Oklahoma attorney Nicole Snapp-Holloway explains how she uses her iPad and the LIT SUITE apps in her practice as a plaintiff attorney handling nursing home cases.
- California attorney David Sparks explains why the iPhone is often the best device for taking videos—and it gets better every year. I've been using my iPhone 13 Pro to take 4K videos of my daughter's basketball games this season, and the quality has been fantastic. I especially like being able to switch between the normal wide lens to see a large part of the court and the 3x telephoto lens to get closer to the action.
- I mentioned yesterday that iOS 15.3 is now available, an update that contains no new features but some pretty important security fixes. Apple subsequently released the beta version of iOS 15.4, and it has the potential to contain lots of new features. (Remember, however, that there are no guarantees that everything in the beta will be part of the iOS 15.4 final release.)
- As John Gruber of Daring Fireball explains, one of the new features is the optional ability to use Face ID while wearing a mask. As I'm sure you know, currently the only way to unlock an iPhone using Face ID when you are wearing a mask is to also wear an Apple Watch. That feature is amazing and I use it all the time. But it looks like in iOS 15.4, you will be able to tell your iPhone to use Face ID just by checking your eyes if you are wearing a mask. I'm sure that decreases security somewhat, but it will make it much more convenient for folks who are, for example, trying to read a grocery list on an iPhone while wearing a mask at a grocery store. I wish that we could move past the point of needing to wear a mask at all, but until that happens, it is nice to see improvements like this.
- Chance Miller of 9to5Mac describes some of the other features currently in the iOS 15.4 beta. Some that jumped out at me include: (1) Universal Control, so you can put an iPad next to a Mac and use a single keyboard and mouse with both devices; (2) thirty new emoji; (3) the ability to connect an Apple TV to a captive Wi-Fi network with a sign-in page (often found in hotels) by using an iPhone with the Apple TV; (4) support for vaccination records in the EU Digital COVID Certificate (EU DCC) format; and (5) a better floating card on the iPhone to show the state of AirPods when the buds are in different states.
- If you own an Apple Watch, a new watch face showed up this week: the Unity Lights watch face to celebrate Black History Month. It looks really cool, although I find that it makes it more difficult to tell the time. But for those times when you decide to go for form over function on your watch face, it is pretty neat. You can also purchase a neat-looking Black Unity Braided Solo Loop. More information on this and everything that Apple is doing for Black History Month is available here.
- Yesterday was the 12-year anniversary of the announcement of the iPad. Twelve years ago today, I wrote about the new iPad in this post. In that post, I focused on the impact that the iPad might have on the iPhone, but soon after I started using my first iPad, I realized that the iPad is a very different device than the iPhone, useful for all new reasons. Ed Hardy of Cult of Mac explains twelve reasons to love the iPad on its 12th birthday. I agree with almost all of his reasons, but I also love the iPad because it is the best way to read and annotate documents, and also a fantastic way to take notes.
- Oliver Haslam of iMore reviews Note Yourself, an app that lets you send notes to yourself as messages to remind you to do something. I do the same thing by just asking Siri to remind me at X time about doing Y, but if you prefer to get a message instead of a Siri alert, this app may be for you.
- Tamara Palmer of Macworld provides tips for squeezing more battery life out of an iPhone.
- I don't know the home address of Apple CEO Tim Cook, but if you do, and if you look at his home on Apple Maps or Google Maps, the home itself is completely pixelated. Killian Bell of Cult of Mac reports that this was done recently because of an unfortunate incident with a stalker.
- I also learned this week that anyone can ask Apple Maps and Google Maps to blur out their home. In a separate article, Killian Bell explains how to do that.
- In early December, I wrote that the Razer Phone Cooler Chroma looked like the craziest MagSafe-compatible accessory ($59.99 on Amazon). Jason Cross of Macworld got his hands on this external fan for the iPhone and concludes in his review that it is "well-built but so ill-conceived on every level that it makes me mad just to know it exists." Ouch. I encourage you to read his review just to see all of the different ways that Cross concludes that this product does not make sense.
- Quinn Myers of MEL Magazine interviews Steve Sheraton to share the story of how his iBeer app made millions of dollars. It was one of the first iPhone apps, and it used the accelerator to make it look like the iPhone in your hand was a glass of beer that you could pretend to pour. Back in 2009, I noted that it was #5 on the list of all-time most profitable apps.
- Joe Plumb fell down during a diabetic episode and passed out. Fortunately, he was wearing an Apple Watch, and it called for help and saved his life. He explained the full story in this post on the British website Metro.
- Chance Miller of 9to5Mac reports that AT&T is now starting to offer fiber optic internet plans at speeds of 5 Gbps. Wow. That service is supposedly available in New Orleans, but the AT&T website says that the fastest internet speed offered at my house is 18 Mbps, which is a tad slower than 5 Gbps.
- And finally, when Apple TV+ debuted, it only offered a few shows. But the content has increased substantially over time, and you can now see lots of different actors in shows ... except for one. Apple has been running this Everyone but Jon Hamm commercial for the past week, and I think it is really funny. Definitely worth watching if you haven't seen it yet, and probably worth watching again if you have:
