Another weekend is just hours away. If you enjoy relaxing on the weekend (or any other time) with word games like crossword puzzles and Wordle, and/or puzzle games like Sudoku, you should check out a fun new game for the iPhone and iPad called Knotwords. The app is free, but you can also pay to unlock additional puzzles. It comes from the makers of Good Sodoku (an excellent app for playing Sodoku and learning how to become a better player). Illinois attorney John Voorhees of MacStories explains how the game works, and Jason Snell of Six Colors interviews one of the developers, Zach Gage. Click here to download the app and try it out for yourself. I’ve only played a few games so far, but I like it, although I do wish it could sync games between the iPhone and iPad. And now, the news of note from the past week:
- Yesterday, Apple opened a new store: an online self-service repair store. Or more accurately, Apple hired someone else to do so. As reported by Stephen Hackett of 512 Pixels, you can purchase all of the tools and parts that you need to replace an iPhone display, battery, camera, etc. If you are just repairing one device, the amount that you need to pay to buy everything is likely more than it would cost you to have Apple repair your iPhone, plus you run the risk of damaging something and voiding your warranty. On the other hand, if you don’t mind running that risk and paying more just to have a do-it-yourself project, go to selfservicerepair.com to see what you can buy.
- Tatum Hunter of the Washington Post (gift link so anyone can read the article) explained that your cellphone carrier uses your web history to target you with ads and explains the somewhat complicated steps that you can go through to turn off this feature. I see that AT&T had this turned on for me by default, so I turned it off.
- Emma Roth of The Verge reports that Apple has alerted app developers that apps that have not been updated in a significant (but unspecified) amount of time will be removed from the App Store within 30 days. I’ve certainly become frustrated with some apps that haven’t been updated in forever. On the other hand, sometimes I have a use for an old app and it doesn’t much matter to me if the app is getting long in the tooth. Overall, I support Apple’s plan to spruce up the App Store, but as Matt Deatherage of MDJ explains, updating an app to comply with Apple’s requirements to work with the latest operating system can take a lot of work, and for some developers, that work is just not worth it.
- Jason Cross of Macworld wrote an article for Macworld with the click-bait title 10 little-known iPhone features that will blow your mind. My mind was not blown and I didn’t learn anything new, but I’ll admit that he mentions some good tips, so it is worth you checking to see if any of them are new to you.
- Jason Snell wrote a great article on Six Colors with his take on why Apple decided to start showing live MLB baseball games on Apple TV+. His analysis seems very solid to me.
- If you have an extra iPad that you are not using, Bradley Chambers of 9to5Mac recommends using a wall mount to turn it into a HomeKit controller.
- If you have an extra iPhone that you are not using, Jason Snell of Six Colors recommends using the Camo app to turn it into a webcam for your computer, and he recommends another tip to make the iPhone act as nothing but a webcam.
- Rikka Altland of 9to5Toys reports that Anker has a new Nano II 100W GaN USB-C charger that is 30% smaller than Apple’s 96W charger. Altland says that it is available for $76 but as I am typing this the product page on Amazon doesn’t seem to be ready yet. That’s about the same price that you would pay for Apple’s 96W charger, but you can charge up to three devices with the Anker charger.
- Eric Slivka of MacRumors reports that you can now purchase Belkin’s Wemo Smart Video Doorbell, which works with Apple’s HomeKit Secure Video. It is $259.99 on Amazon. There are not many good video doorbells that work with HomeKit, and as a result when I bought one for my house last year, I purchased a eufy wireless doorbell that works well, but I would like it even more if it worked with HomeKit so that I could use the Home app to manage it, view the camera, etc.
- Evan Selleck of the iDownloadBlog reports that the Wristcam—an Apple Watch band with a built-in camera—has updated software that lets you make videocalls using an Apple Watch.
- Allison Sheridan of Podfeet Podcasts explains why she likes using the Apple Card credit card. I have an Apple Card and I like it too. I always use it when I can get 3% cashback—the Apple Store, Exxon gas stations, Walgreens, etc.—and I use it for some other purchases too.
- Nathan Pilling of the Kistap Sun (from the state of Washington) shares the story of a woman who tried to retrieve her phone after she mistakenly dropped it in a vault toilet (an outhouse structure) and … well let’s just say that it did not turn out very well for her. She did recover the phone, but had to use it to call the fire department to rescue her. The article doesn’t say if it was an iPhone or an Android, but I’m going to give her the benefit of the doubt and imagine that it was a brand new top-of-the-line iPhone, although I’m not sure even that would justify the experience.
- And finally, Joanna Stern of the Wall Street Journal published a great video this week in which she interviews Ken Kocienda, who invented the original autocorrect system on the iPhone, to talk about common autocorrect fails and what you can do about this, ahem, duckin’ problem. Definitely worth watching: