This week, we learned about some ways that Apple technology has a role to play in opposing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. First, here is an interesting report from David Snow of Cult of Mac. Apparently, when Russian soldiers invaded many Ukrainian towns, they stole items from Ukrainian homes. This included stealing Apple products, such as AirPods. Because of Apple’s Find My technology, Ukrainians have been able to track the Russian troops who stole these devices. Second, Joseph Menn and Greg Miller of the Washington Post report (gift article link) that Apple is once again allowing iPhone users in Russia to download an app run by supporters of Alexei Navalny—the opposition leader who Putin tried to kill and who is now in jail. The article notes that, in the past, law enforcement agents in Russia had threatened to arrest top Apple and Google officials if the app was not removed. I’m glad that Apple is doing this, but I do wonder if one of Apple’s reasons for doing so is to justify the continued operation of the App Store in Russia when so many other companies are leaving the country. Don’t get me wrong, I actually support this. I know that iPhones are being used by many folks in Russia as a way to send messages and get accurate news as an alternative to the propaganda on the “news” stations operated by the government. I hope that folks in Russia will continue to be able to use their iPhones and other technology to learn the truth and perhaps even bring about changes. And now, the rest of the news of note from the past week:
- I’ve previously discussed the reasons that the new iPad Air is a better value for most attorneys than the iPad Pro. California attorney David Sparks came to the same conclusion, as he explains in this post on his MacSparky website.
- GoodNotes has been my favorite app for taking handwritten notes on my iPad since I first reviewed the app a decade ago. At only $7.99, I have long considered the app to be a bargain. But starting this week, it is an even better bargain. As noted on the GoodNotes blog, the app is now free to download and you can use it to create three different notebooks. That is a great way to kick the tires on the app and see if it is for you. If you like it, then you can pay the same $7.99 to get the full version of the app. If you own an iPad and any kind of stylus, such as the Apple Pencil, you should download this app right now.
- On last week’s episode of the In the News podcast, my “In the Know” tip at the end was using your fingers to pinch a picture off of an iPhone and then drop it on to an iPad, as shown by a video that went viral. Dan Moren of Six Colors shares that video and explains how and why it works. If you haven’t seen this one yet, check it out. It’s very cool and very useful—I was just using it this afternoon to drop a picture into some notes that I was taking using the GoodNotes app as I was preparing for a trial.
- Moren also notes that Apple announced the dates for its WWDC developer conference: June 6 through 10. That means that we can expect an Apple keynote presentation on June 6, which is sure to include a preview of iOS 16 and perhaps some new product announcements. Mark your calendars.
- Apple updated its Keynote, Pages, and Numbers apps. José Adorno of 9to5Mac reports on what is new. For example, in Keynote, you can now adjust the font size more precisely with up to two decimal places. If you care about the details of your Keynote slides so much that two decimal places in a font size is going to improve your life, then you are spending far more time working on your Keynote slides than I am.
- Today, the season finale of Season 1 of Severance is streaming on Apple TV+. I am very much looking forward to watching it tonight; this show has been fantastic. Benjamin Mayo of 9to5Mac reports that—to the surprise of nobody—Apple has picked up the show for a second season. If you enjoy shows with a lot of mystery and intrigue (such as the first season of Lost) and you haven’t started watching Severance yet, you are in for a treat.
- Tonight is also the first night of Friday Night Baseball on Apple TV+. The first game is the New York Mets at the Washington Nationals at 7 Eastern, and the second game is the Houston Astros at the Los Angeles Angels at 9:30 Eastern. For now, you can watch for free even if you don’t subscribe to Apple TV+, but I suspect that will change after a few weeks. Jason Snell of Six Colors provides details on how Apple is working with MLB to bring some new features to the baseball broadcast.
- Sarah Perez of TechCrunch reports that the Hulu app now supports SharePlay. That means that you and up to 31 other people can watch a show on Hulu at the same time during a FaceTime call.
- Todd Spangler of Variety reports that a new HBO Max app is coming to Apple TV. It is based on a new platform, which means that it is more stable and has more features.
- When there is a new version of iOS available, I often post about it here so that you can manually update your iPhone. If you don’t do so, eventually your iPhone will tell you about the update, but it may not be right away. Stephen Warwick of iMore reports that Apple’s Craig Federighi explained the update process to a Reddit user: “We incrementally rollout new iOS updates by first making them available for those that explicitly seek them out in Settings, and then 1-4 weeks later (after we’ve received feedback on the update) ramp up to rolling out to devices with auto-update enabled.” I didn’t realize that it can take up to four weeks to receive notice of an iOS update.
- Tim Blakely, a 41-year-old personal trainer who lives in the UK, has been snowboarding for the past 17 years, so he figured that he would be fine when he went snowboarding a few weeks ago, by himself, in the Swiss Alps. But then he fell into a crevasse so deep that he was unable to climb out of it. Fortunately, he had his iPhone, so he was able to click the side button five times to call emergency services. Swiss Rescue services found him and saved him. You can see pictures and the rest of the story on his Instagram page, and additional information and pictures are in this article by Neil Sears and Alexandria Williams of the Daily Mail. One of the pictures was taken by Blakely when he was stuck in the crevasse looking straight up, and every time I look at that picture and think about being stuck there, it gives me goosebumps. That settles it; no more snowboarding in the Swiss Alps for me.
- By the way, calling Emergency SOS (such as 9-1-1 in the U.S.) works a little differently depending upon what kind of iPhone you have. Blakely’s story is a good reminder that you should review this page of the Apple website to learn how to call Emergency SOS on an iPhone. Here is a similar page with instructions for doing the same thing using an Apple Watch.
- And finally, I enjoyed watching the trailer for a new show called Prehistoric Planet, coming to Apple TV+ next month. It starts off like any other nature documentary narrated by David Attenborough. But then you realize that this is going to be something very different.