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.”