iPhone J.D.

Podcast episode 40: Mardi Gras, MagSafe, and Mobile Health

In this week's episode of the In the News podcast, Brett Burney and I discuss masking at Apple Stores, Apple's MagSafe battery, the new gender-neutral voice for Siri, and more.  We also discuss Rene Ritchie's interview of Dr. Sumbul Desai, Vice President of Health at Apple.

In our In the Know segment, Brett shares a practical tip for getting files from a USB drive to an iPhone or iPad.  On the other hand, my tip is just for fun.  If you like Wordle, I explain why you should try Dordle, Quordle, and Octordle: they sound ridiculous at first, but the use of multiple boards results in a different type of game with new strategy considerations.

Click here to listen to the audio podcast, or just use your podcast player of choice.  You can also watch the episode on YouTube:

In the News

I don't know what is going on where you live, but here in New Orleans, we are starting the big weekend leading up to Mardi Gras day on Tuesday.  Mardi Gras was canceled due to COVID last year, and that is a pretty rare occurrence.  There was no Mardi Gras during the Civil War, in 1875 (violence during reconstruction), 1879 (yellow fever outbreak), 1918 (World War I), 1919 (the so-called Spanish Flu), 1942-45 (World War II), 1951 (Korean War), and 1979 (police strike).  But many folks celebrating Mardi Gras this year were either very young or not born yet the last time it was canceled, so not having Mardi Gras last year was a very big deal.  As I noted last year on Mardi Gras day, the streets were eerily quiet.  My family and friends have been enjoying parades since last weekend (last night, the Muses parade was particularly good), and hopefully, the weather will cooperate and give us many more good days.  But most of you are not here for a carnival update, so let's move along to the news of note from the past week:

• On a much sadder note, my heart is with all of the people in Ukraine right now, and that definitely includes all of the folks who work at Readdle.  Readdle makes a number of incredible apps, including PDF Expert (an essential iPad app for me and many other lawyers) and Scanner Pro (an essential iPhone app for me and many other lawyers).  Denys Zhadanov, a board member of Readdle and the former Vice President of Marketing for Readdle, noted on Twitter that there are a number of well-known companies with Ukranian roots including Readdle, Grammarly, MacPaw, and more.  (According to Allison Prang of the Wall Street Journal, Brad Hoover, CEO of Grammarly, says that the company has contingency plans for various scenarios—whatever that means.)  I cannot imagine what all of those folks are going through right now.  I hope that, somehow, they make it through this sad chapter in history.  For one good take on life in Ukraine, I recommend this short Twitter thread by Sofiya Alexandra, a comedian from Odessa.
• California attorney David Sparks explains why he is still enjoying the Apple MagSafe battery.
• If you are not living in New Orleans and thus won't be celebrating Mardi Gras this weekend, Apple announced that its CODA movie is returning to many theaters this weekend with free screenings featuring open captions for accessibility.  CODA has a number of well-deserved Oscar nominations.  If you haven't seen it yet, I encourage you to do so, either in the theater or on Apple TV+.
• Mark Gurman of Bloomberg reported this week that Apple is dropping the mask mandate at most of its retails stores in the United States.  As I've noted in the past, how Apple has responded to COVID has often been a good barometer of the severity of the epidemic, so hopefully, this is another good sign that we are getting to a much better place.  We still have a mask mandate here in New Orleans through Mardi Gras—no surprise there considering that New Orleans was an early COVID hot spot due to Mardi Gras 2020—but hopefully we are now moving to a much better phase of the pandemic.
• Jeff Benjamin of 9to5Mac discusses some of the new features that could be coming in iOS 15.4 including one that I didn't know about, a new optional voice to select for Siri.
• Ina Fried of Axios reports that one of this new voice for Siri coming in iOS 15.4 is more gender-neutral and was recorded by a member of the LGBTQ+.  I've always thought of Siri as having a female voice, but I know that many people prefer a male voice, and I think that it is great that soon we will have another option.
• Michael Simon of Macworld provides a sample of the new Siri voice.
• If you want an iPhone without the phone, get an iPod touch.  At least, that used to be the advice.  As Hartley Charlton of MacRumors notes, the seventh-generation iPod touch hasn't been updated in 1,000 days, and the the last time that there was a major redesign was almost 10 years ago.  It is interesting that Apple is still selling this device without updating it in any way.
• Juli Clover of MacRumors reviews CARD Spot from Chipolo, a $35 device that is the shape of a credit card and the thickness of about three credit cards.  It is designed to be stored in a wallet so that you can locate a lost wallet using the Apple Find My app.
• Eve continues to add Thread support to its home automation products.  I recently reviewed one such product, the new Eve Weather.  Bradley Chambers of 9to5Mac discusses another one coming out soon: Eve Water Guard, which can provide water leak notifications.
• Dan Moren of Six Colors reviews the Level Bolt, a smart lock for your door that works with HomeKit.
• If you are looking for advice on which Apple product to buy, Josh Centers of TidBITS announced this week the launch of his new Apple Buying Advice site.  I don't agree with all of his recommendations on that site, but I agree with many of them, and he does a good job of explaining the choices so that you can decide if the product is right for you.
• Graham Bower of Cult of Mac explains the blood oxygen sensor on the Apple Watch.
• And finally, this week, Dr. Sumbul Desai, Vice President of Health at Apple, was interviewed by Rene Ritchie to discuss Apple's health initiatives.  It is an interesting interview.  She talked about how Apple tries to use devices like the Apple Watch to provide "actionable information and insights to take the steps to stay healthy."

Major discount on the newest Apple Watch (stainless steel, 41mm version)

The Apple Watch Series 7 was released just a few months ago, and it is a fantastic device for all of the reasons that I explained in my review: a larger screen than ever before, faster speeds so that it feels much more responsive, faster charging, lots of sensors, and more.  I have always purchased the stainless steel models of the Apple Watch because I think that the stainless steel looks and feels better than the aluminum, plus it comes with a more durable screen.  The stainless steel models always come with cellular built-in, but you can decide whether or not you want to pay the monthly service charge to activate the cellular radio.

The reason for this post is that the smaller 41mm version of the stainless steel Series 7 normally costs $699 (when paired with the least expensive band), but I see that there is currently a big sale at Amazon.  It currently lists on Amazon for $489.99 plus you get a $40 discount once you put it in your cart, so the final price is only $449.99.  That's a massive $250 discount, and almost completely covers the $300 price difference between the cheapest aluminum model (without cellular) and the stainless steel model.  And if you were going to get the cellular version anyway, this discount means that the $449.99 stainless steel version from Amazon is actually less expensive than the $499 that Apple charges for the aluminum model with cellular.  Note that you have to select the Starlight Sport Band to get this big discount, but if you are upgrading from an earlier model of the Apple Watch, the bands that you previously used will work with this model too.

Unfortunately, this massive discount only applies to the 41mm model, which is designed for a smaller wrist.  If you want the larger 45mm stainless steel model, the Amazon price is currently $100 less than what Apple charges ($699 at Amazon versus $799 at Apple, for the model with the least expensive band).  $100 is a nice discount, but not nearly as good as this $250 discount on the 41mm model.

If you have been thinking of getting a 41mm stainless steel Apple Watch for yourself or as a gift for someone else, this is an excellent deal that you might want to grab before it goes away.

[UPDATE:  I posted this late Tuesday morning, but I see that as of Tuesday night, the models with the $250 discount are sold out.  So unfortunately, if you subscribe to iPhone J.D. via email and are seeing this post for the first time on Wednesday morning, this sale is now over.]

Podcast episode 39: AirTagging Husbands and Cleaning Phones with Toothpicks

In this week's episode of the In the News podcast, Brett Burney and I discuss the differences between Apple's AirTag and GPS tracker devices, wireless CarPlay options and the pros and cons of using them, the possibility of purchasing apps outside of Apple's App Store on the iPhone, an Apple Watch that you have to work for, and more. 

In our In the Know segment, we focus on Microsoft Word for the iPad.  Brett has a tip for selecting text, and I share a tip for converting to PDF format.

Click here to listen to the audio podcast, or just use your podcast player of choice.  You can also watch the episode on YouTube:

In the News

This time last week, the lead story concerned AirTags.  I am starting with the AirTag again this week because of an excellent article by Kashmir Hill of the New York Times called I Used Apple AirTags, Tiles and a GPS Tracker to Watch My Husband’s Every Move.  (Gift link, so even non-subscribers can read it.)  The article does a great job of explaining the pros and cons of using different devices to track a person and demonstrates that the AirTag is far less concerning than an inexpensive GPS tracker like the LandAirSea.  As the author's husband explains:  "For all the bad press the AirTags have gotten, and as flaky as the detection mechanisms were, at least I was consistently getting notifications they were following me. ... The privacy dangers of the other trackers were way worse."  There are lots of other interesting details in that article, so whether you own a tracking device or simply want to learn more about them in case someone else tries to track you, I recommend that you read it.  And now, the other recent news of note:

• Illinois attorney John Voorhees discusses a number of solutions that he uses to manage email in this long post.  The part that jumped out at me is a discussion of the Triage 2 app (near the end of the article).  Triage 2 doesn't replace a normal email app, but instead, it gives you a quick way to triage your messages: decide what to toss and what to keep.  Each new message is displayed as a card.  Swipe one way to archive or delete, swipe the other way to keep (either marked read or unread, which you configure in the settings).  That way, when you use the email app to go to your real mailbox, all of the junk is gone and you can focus on the messages that matter to you.  I just tried it with my Gmail account, and it seemed to work quite well.
• California attorney David Sparks discusses options for keeping an AirTag in your wallet, such as the Wallet Holder for Apple AirTag by Elevation Labs ($10 on Amazon).
• In an article for Macworld, Jason Snell argues that Apple should allow iPhone owners to install apps from a source other than Apple's App Store, much like one can do so on a Mac.  I'm not as enthusiastic about this idea as Jason is.  I'm concerned about the risks associated with an app that can bypass Apple's review and can thus invade your privacy and security in lots of different ways, which is especially dangerous for a device that is always with you.  Nevertheless, Jason does raise some interesting points.
• Oliver Haslam of iMore reports that when Apple releases iOS 15.4, Apple's Podcasts app will add filtering features.  Thus, you can select a podcast, and then filter episodes by played, unplayed, downloaded, or saved.
• If you use Shortcuts automations, they will be much better in iOS 15.4 because, as Chaim Gartenberg of The Verge explains, you will be able to turn off the notifications that currently pop up every time you run them.
• If you want to use your iPhone with CarPlay in your car but do so wirelessly (and don't have one of the few car models that supports the feature), you can use a dongle to achieve the same thing.  Anthony of CarPlay Life has a good article and video review of the Ottocast U2 ($89 on Amazon).  One disadvantage of this approach is that your iPhone isn't charging while you are using the CarPlay, which I find useful.  But for some folks, I'm sure that a wireless solution is desirable.
• Opensignal, an organization that studies mobile networks, reports that 5G speeds are increasing quite a bit around the world.  For example:  "In South Korea average download speeds were 129.7 Mbps at the end of 2021, up from 52.4 Mbps at the start of 2019, before 5G. Similarly, our users’ speeds more than doubled in Germany rising from 22.6 to 48.7 Mbps, in the Philippines (from 7 to 15.1 Mbps), Saudi Arabia (13.6 to 31.1 Mbps), and in Thailand (5.7 to 17.4 Mbps) — all of which are 5G markets."
• Nick Guy of Wirecutter provides tips on keeping your iPhone clean.
• Jennifer Pattison Tuohy of The Verge wrote a comprehensive review of the Belkin Wemo Video Doorbell, which works with Apple's HomeKit and seems to have a lot of good features.  ($250 on Amazon.)
• Bruce Crumley of 9to5Mac reports on an Australian health insurance company, AIA Health, that provided an Apple Watch Series 7 to its customers and told them that if they exercised 4 or 5 times a week, the Apple Watch would be free.  The result was that activity rates jumped 35%.  This probably says more about human psychology than it does about the Apple Watch, but it is interesting nonetheless.
• One of the commercials during the Super Bowl that made me smile was the Cutwater Spirits commercial called "Here's to the Lazy Ones."  It's funny because it is a pretty good parody of Apple's Here's to the Crazy Ones commercial from 1997.  How fascinating that a company can run a commercial in 2022 that is a parody of another commercial from 25 years earlier and enough folks will remember the original to justify spending the big bucks necessary for a Super Bowl commercial.  That tells you something about the success of Apple's Think Different campaign.
• And finally, here is a video from Apple that shows how two people in two locations can use their Apple TVs and SharePlay to watch a TV show or movie at the exact same time.  You start by initiating a FaceTime call with one or more other people, and then you just press a few buttons.  I haven't tried this feature myself, but this video makes it look like it is really easy to do.

28 years of Apple cameras

Twenty-eight years ago today, at the Tokyo MacWorld conference on February 17, 1994, Apple introduced the QuickTake 100, a digital camera.  It went on sale for $749 on June 20, 1994.  There was no autofocus.  There was no zoom.  There was no way to delete a specific photo.  It could only store eight pictures at 640x480 resolution—or, if you opted for 320x240 resolution, 32 photos.  After taking pictures, you had to connect it to a Mac to download your pictures and see how they came out (because there was no way to view the photos on the QuickTake).  It all sounds horrible today.  At the time, it was groundbreaking because it was essentially the first consumer digital camera.  (There were a few earlier digital cameras from other companies, but they were far more expensive and sometimes limited to black and white.)  Going straight from a camera to a computer, without having to develop film and then scan it, was amazing at the time.  In 2010, when Time magazine selected the 100 greatest and most influential gadgets since 1923, the QuickTake 100 made the list.

(Picture from Hannes Grobe on Wikimedia Commons)

Apple eventually updated the camera to the QuickTake 150 and the QuickTake 200.  However, shortly after Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1997, the Quick Take line was discontinued, as were many other Apple products, so that the company could focus on its computers.  It was ten years before Apple introduced its next consumer product that could take pictures: the iPhone.  Since then, as the camera has improved with each model of the iPhone, taking pictures with the iPhone has become so good that most folks do not even bother purchasing a digital camera anymore.  Indeed, although I have Nikson DSLR camera that uses nice lenses to take great pictures, I typically just use my iPhone because the pictures and videos come out great and it is a bit of a pain to carry around the larger Nikon camera.  Plus, as photographer Chase Jarvis said, the best camera is the one that's with you, and that is typically the iPhone.

In 2019, Apple introduced the iPhone 11 and came up with a new use for the name "QuickTake."  Now, it refers to a feature of the iPhone's camera app.  If you are in the Photo mode but you want to start taking a video very quickly, just hold down the volume up or down button and the iPhone will immediately begin taking a video for as long as you hold down the button.  When I discussed the iPhone 11 in 2019, I mentioned that I had previously used a QuickTake 100.  My law firm purchased one to get a sense of what lawyers might do with digital photography, and I took it home for a weekend to try it out.  Here is a picture that my wife took of me using the QuickTake 100 on April 2, 1995:

The quality of that picture is bad by today's standards, but that was cutting edge digital photography back in 1994-1995.

The iPhone's ability to take video is so good that I no longer see a need to use any other device for home videos, even though I previously owned dedicated video cameras.  As the iPhone's ability to take photos improves, we may not be far from a day when I will no longer see a need to use my Nikon DSLR.  I always marvel at how the engineers at Apple can come up with new ways every year to get more out of a tiny iPhone camera.

And it all started 28 years ago today.

Podcast episode 38: Revealing AirTags, Prevalent AirPods, and Happy-Tappy Apple Pay

In this week's episode of the In the News podcast, Brett Burney and I discuss Apple's upcoming changes to its Find My service, which reduce the risk of an AirTag or other device being used to stalk someone.  We discuss using Celeebrite to hack into an iPhone and a new software update that protects your iPhone from hackers.  And we discuss using headphones as a sleep aid, using a cat filter in court, and using an iPhone for payments.

In our In the Know segment, Brett Burney provides tips for paying for an item with an iPhone.  I discuss Picsew, a fantastic app for stitching together iPhone screenshots and for merging other pictures.

Click here to listen to the audio podcast, or just use your podcast player of choice.  You can also watch the episode on YouTube:

In the News

In response to concerns that AirTags and other devices using the Find My network can be used to stalk people, Apple announced a number of changes this week.   First, Apple will add new privacy warnings during AirTag setup, letting folks know that an AirTag is meant to track belongings, not people.  Apple will also remind folks that law enforcement can request from Apple identifying information about the owner of the AirTag, which I would hope would be a strong deterrent to improper use. As Michael Kan of PCMag puts it, "If you abuse AirTags for stalking, expect police to come knocking."  Apple will also adjust alerts so that if unknown AirPods have been traveling with another person, that person will receive an alert that explains that.  Apple will also adjust the precision finding feature.  Right now, if you are trying to find your own AirTag, you can see the distance and direction to the AirTag (if you are using an iPhone 11 or newer).  In the future, Apple will let the recipient of an unwanted tracking alert do the same thing so that they can locate the AirTag that a stalker tried to hide on their person or elsewhere.  Currently, when an AirTag is moving with someone besides its owner, it will eventually make a sound.  What if a hacker disabled that speaker or did something to muffle the sound?  To address this, Apple will also play an alert on a nearby iPhone.  And Apple's announcement mentions other changes to make AirTags safer for everyone.  Apple says that it has been "working closely with various safety groups and law enforcement agencies" to come up with these changes.  I'm sure that some will be critical that it has taken time to make these changes, but these changes seem to be good ones.  Also, remember that while there are stories of some folks using Apple's Find My network for bad deeds, there are also good stories, such as one this week from Jessica Schladebeck of the New York Daily News, who explains how former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg's housekeeper was kidnapped by someone searching for the billionaire's daughters at a Colorado ranch, but the armed suspect was located because the housekeeper's iPad was in her possession and it was tracked to a motel room.  And now, the news of note from the past week:

• Hard to believe that it has already been a year since Texas lawyer Rod Ponton uttered the words heard around the world:  "I'm here live.  I'm not a cat."  The judge who presided over the Zoom civil forfeiture hearing in which the cat filter was used, Judge Roy Ferguson, celebrated the anniversary by posting the full 41 second Lawyercat video to Twitter, including the ending that I had never seen.  Thank you to all involved for teaching the rest of us the importance of checking our video settings before starting a Zoom hearing with a court.
• Lafayette attorney Claire Roubion reports on the Louisiana Legal Ethics website that an Arizona lawyer was suspended from the practice of law for using the chat feature to communicate with his client while the client was being cross-examined via GoToMeeting during trial.  Don't do that.
• California attorney David Sparks of MacSparky discusses the new features in Fantastical 3.6, including a Quarterly View in the iPad app that makes it easy to see at a glance lots of your upcoming activity.  He also includes videos showing off the new features.
• Illinois attorney John Voorhees of MacStories discusses the new features in Tweetbot 7, including a great Stats view, which had been missing from the app for three years.
• New Orleans attorney Ernie Svenson explains in this video why TextExpander is so useful for lawyers and others.
• Yesterday, Apple issued an update to the iPhone and iPad to fix a critical security vulnerability in Safari that hackers may be using right now.  Jason Cross of Macworld explains the details, and while you are reading that, why don't you go ahead and install iOS 15.3.1 and iPadOS 15.3.1.
• In another article, Cross laments the errors in autocorrect on the iPhone.
• Filipe Espósito of 9to5Mac reports that, based on a new study by Statista, Apple leads the headphone market in the United States “by a considerable distance” thanks to the success of the AirPods and Beats brands. 
• Cellebrite is a hardware and software solution used by law enforcement and others to unlock smartphones.  Ben Lovejoy of 9to5Mac reports that Celebrite can still collect data from an iPhone if the Cellebrite customer knows the password, but if the iPhone is locked, the Celebrite hardware can no longer crack the device—although Cellebrite customers can still send an iPhone to the company and pay $4,000 to unlock a device.
• For seven years, Jason Snell of Six Colors has surveyed a set of people who follow Apple to produce a report card on how Apple is doing in several areas.  This year's report card is now out. 
• If you have trouble going to sleep, Julian Perry of The Gadgeteer recommends Kokoon Nightbuds, a $224 pair of headphones that is designed for you to go to sleep with while you listen to soothing sounds produced by an app on your iPhone.  I've also heard good things about Bose Sleepbuds II, which are $249 on Amazon.  I think that I would prefer the Bose design because it doesn't wrap around the back of the head, but I haven't tried either product.
• Up until now, if a merchant wanted to accept payments using an iPhone, they would need to add external hardware such as a Square credit card reader.  Apple announced this week that the iPhone will soon handle this without any external hardware using tap to pay.  The purchase can simply tap their credit card or smartphone on the merchant's iPhone.  The merchant will still need to sign up with a third-party company to handle the payments, and Apple says that Stripe will be the first payment platform to offer this new Tap to Pay on iPhone feature.  My guess is that this will be part of iOS 15.4, which I'm guessing will be available in March, but we'll see.
• iOS 15.4 will also enable Universal Control, which lets you use the same keyboard and mouse with both a computer and an iPad.  David Nield of Gizmodo explains the difference between Universal Control and Sidecar and recommends the times when you might want to use one or the other.
• Sebastiaan de With, one of the developers of the Halide app, wrote a comprehensive analysis of the cameras on the iPhone 13 Pro.
• When I was in college and planning to one day go to law school and become a lawyer, one of the books that I loved reading was Presumed Innocent, the first novel by Scott Turow.  Turow also wrote One L, which was an essential book for new law students in the early 1990s, and I know that many still read it today before starting law school.  A few years after Presumed Innocent was released, the book was turned into a movie starring Harrison Ford.  I mention all of this today because, according to Joe Otterson of Variety, David E. Kelley—a former attorney who created numerous TV shows such as Doogie Howser, M.D., Ally McBeal, Chicago Hope, Boston Legal, and many more—is turning Presumed Innocent into a TV show with J.J. Abrams as the executive producer, and it will run on Apple TV+. Turow, Abrams, Kelley, Apple... this one ticks a lot of the boxes for me, so I'm excited to see this one.
• And finally, Oscar nominations were announced this week, and I was happy to see that the Apple TV+ movie CODA received three nominations:  Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor for Troy Kotsur (who played the father), and Best Adapted Screenplay for writer/director Siân Heder.  CODA was one of my favorite movies in 2021, and I'm still running into people who haven't seen it yet, so clearly, not everyone knows how good this one is.  A few of the scenes with Troy Kotsur had me and my wife laughing out loud, and the other actors are also fantastic, especially Emilia Jones and Marlee Matlin.  Even if you don't subscribe to Apple TV+, you should spend $5 for a one-month subscription just to watch this movie, and then you can spend the rest of the month watching lots of other great titles like Ted Lasso, For All Mankind, Foundation, On the Rocks, Mythic Quest, The Morning Show, and so much more.  Or just watch CODA, and you will more than get your $5 worth of laughs, and perhaps a few tears.  Here is the trailer for CODA if you want to watch that first, but frankly, I recommend that you skip the trailer and just watch the movie.

Podcast episode 37: The Automated Jeff, Who’s Tracking Who, and Knocking Off the Dock

In this week's episode of the In the News podcast, Brett Burney and I focus on tracking.  We talk about how Apple's App Tracking Transparency feature has had a significant negative impact on Facebook's ability to sell advertising based upon your personal information.  We talk about tracking your kids (or pets) using an AirTag.  And we talk about the surprisingly small number of third-party products that work with Apple's Find My network to help you track the item if it is lost.  We also discuss secret links to unlisted App Store apps and the Apple iPhone Dock, a product that I have used virtually every day since 2008 but Apple is no longer selling.

In our In the Know segment, Brett Burney talks about using the mute button during a phone call on the iPhone.  I discuss the KeyPad app and how it compares to the Universal Control feature that is coming in iOS 15.4 / macOS Monterey 12.3.

Click here to listen to the audio podcast, or just use your podcast player of choice.  You can also watch the episode on YouTube:

In the News

Last week, I started to report in iOS 15.4, the next version of the iPhone operating system that I expect to see released in a few weeks or so.  I mentioned last week that in iOS 15.4, you will be able to unlock an iPhone while wearing a mask even without using an Apple Watch.  But I subsequently learned that this new feature does even more.  It also lets you use Face ID with any app on your iPhone even if you are wearing a mask.  It also works with Apple Pay.  José Adorno of 9to5Mac provides lots of details on this upcoming feature.  I'll be curious to learn what impact this has on security.  Apple says that the odds of guessing a 4-digit passcode are 1 in 10,000, the odds of the wrong person unlocking using Touch ID is 1 in 50,000 (for a single feature), and the odds of the wrong person unlocking using Face ID is approximately 1 in 1,000,000.  I presume that Face ID with a face mask will be less secure than 1 in 1,000,000, but will it still be more secure than Touch ID?  Hopefully, Apple will explain all of this whenever iOS 15.4 is released so that people can make informed decisions on whether the convenience is worth it.  And now, the news of note from the past week:

• California attorney David Sparks went to Disney World last week and he reports that he saw lots of AirTags.  On kids.  I understand the logic of doing that.  There is always a risk of a young child running away in an amusement park, and with so many people walking around with an iPhone, it should be possible to locate a child with an AirTag no matter where they are in the park.  Nevertheless, Apple has previously told reporters, such as Michael Grothaus of Fast Company, that "the company designed the AirTag to track items, not people or pets" and that "an Apple Watch with Family Setup might be a better choice" for tracking young children. 
• The CARROT Weather app was updated to version 5.5 this week — just in time for the severe cold weather sweeping part of the United States.  Attorney John Voorhees, who lives in the Chicago area and knows something about cold weather, discusses the new features.
• Many people use an access card to gain entrance to office buildings.  For a few months now, the iPhone has had the ability to act as an access card.  Chance Miller of 9to5Mac reports that the World Trade Center in New York City now lets you use an iPhone or Apple Watch to access any location where an access card is accepted.  I would love to see this implemented at my office building in New Orleans.
• I've discussed the NSO Group in the past, an Israeli company that sells incredibly sophisticated software at a very high price to governments that can be used to hack into some iPhones.  Ronen Bergman and Mark Mazzetti of the New York Times wrote an incredibly detailed report on NSO Group after an extensive investigation.
• Along with improvements to Face ID, iOS 15.4 will contain a large number of new emoji.  Keith Broni of Emojipedia shows off what the new characters will look like.
• The Shortcuts app currently gives you lots of notifications when shortcuts are being run, and sometimes those just get in your way.  Matthew Cassinelli reports in an article in iMore that you will have the ability to turn off those notifications in iOS 15.4.
• Although this is not a feature iOS 15.4 announced by Apple, apparently another advantage of that upcoming update is that you will be able to download the popular Wordle app into a shortcut so that you can play it whenever you want—playing the same words that others are playing on the webpage version—and this offline version will continue to work no matter what the New York Times does with the game now that it has purchased it.  This is all thanks to a shortcut created by Federico Viticci of MacStories.  And if you cannot wait for iOS 15.4, Dave Mark of The Loop explains how you can do the same thing right now on a Mac.
• Zac Hall runs through the useful voice commands that you can use with a HomePod.  I have my HomePod minis for a while now, and I had forgotten about some of these commands until I read this post.
• When I first saw that Gucci released a $980 case for the AirPods Max, I must admit that I rolled my eyes a bit.  On further reflection, people spend lots of money on other luxury items, so if this one floats your boat, I guess go for it.  David Price of Macworld explains why for some people, this product makes perfect sense, even if it doesn't appeal to many others. 
• Emma Rich of The Verge reports that Apple is now allowing unlisted apps in the App Store.  For example, if your company has an app used by its employees, the app can now be in the App Store and accessible by any employee with a specific link while remaining hidden from a search in the App Store.  I can see lots of circumstances in which this makes lots of sense, such as a private app for folks who attend a conference.
• I've been using a version of the Apple dock in my office since 2008, the same year that I started using an iPhone.  Over the years, I've reviewed the iPhone 3G Dock (12/5/08), the iPhone 4 Dock (8/9/10) the iPhone 5s Dock (11/26/13) and the iPhone Lightning Dock (6/16/15).  I use it for my iPhone and also for my AirPods Pro (much like I previously did for my AirPods).  Suffice it to say that I'm a fan.  Thus, I was disappointed to see Filipe Espósito of 9to5Mac report this week that Apple has discontinued the Lightning Dock.  And sure enough, I no longer see it on Apple's website or on Amazon.  I guess Apple is encouraging folks to instead use MagSafe chargers, but I prefer a dock that physically connects to the iPhone (and charges it much faster).  Hopefully, the dock that I've been using since 2015 will continue to work for many years.
• José Adorno of 9to5Mac identifies third-party accessories that work with Apple's Find My network.  What I find most interesting about that list is that it hasn't really changed very much since Apple announced last year that companies outside of Apple could use Find My.  I'm curious why that is.  I don't know.
• Greg Fink and Duncan Brady of Motor Trend speculate on what an Apple Car might be.  There isn't much substance to that article, but I don't get to link to Motor Trend very often so I couldn't resist.
• As long as we are speculating about possible future Apple products, Jason Snell discusses what an AR headset from Apple might include in this article for Macworld.
• The App Transparency feature that Apple introduced last year allows iPhone owners to decide whether apps can track them in certain ways, a change from the past when you could be tracked without knowing it.  Kif Leswing of CNBC reports that Facebook said this week that this feature will reduce Facebook revenue by $10 billion in 2022.  And John Gruber of Daring Fireball notes that this announcement from Facebook resulted in a $200 billion drop in Facebook's market cap, the biggest one-day drop in market value ever.
• And finally, speaking of Apple's focus on privacy, it doesn't just come by accident.  Apple focuses on privacy throughout every stage of product development.  Rene Ritchie interviewed Erik Neuenschwander, the Head of User Privacy at Apple, to discuss some of the ways that Apple works to protect your privacy.  It's an interesting video.

Automators episode 94 -- text shortcuts, HomeKit, Shortcuts, and more

California attorney David Sparks has been sharing tips on using technology to be more efficient since at least 2009, when he started the Mac Power Users podcast with Florida attorney Katie Floyd.   I met computer programmer Rosemary Orchard in early 2018 at a Mac Power Users meet-up in Chicago that took place while I was attending ABA TECHSHOW.  A few months after that, I was delighted to see Rosemary and David start the Automators podcast, a podcast dedicated to providing useful tips for automating tasks using a computer, iPhone, hardware accessories, etc.  I've been a fan of the show since Episode #1, so I was honored when they invited me to be a guest on Episode #94, which is now available.

In this episode, I talk to David and Rosemary about how I currently use automation tools.  We start by discussing text expansion, both what is built-in to the iPhone/iPad and also the more advanced things that you can do with TextExpander.  Next, we talk about Keyboard Maestro, a sophisticated app on the Mac.  Then we talk about automating lights and more in a smart home.  We finish up by discussing the Shortcuts app on the iPhone. 

During each of these discussions, David and Rose shared fantastic ideas for improving upon the automation techniques that I discussed.  Thus, I myself learned a lot by being a guest on this episode, and I am positive that you would learn some great tips by listening.  If any of these topics interest you, I recommend that you check out the episode in your podcast player of choice.  (Here is a link for using Overcast, my favorite podcast client app.)

A big thank you to David and Rosemary for giving me the opportunity to join them on their excellent podcast.  It was great fun.

Click here to listen to Automators Episode 94.