Summer is often a time for travel, and travel is a perfect time to take advantage of Apple's AirTags. Glenn Fleishman and David Price of the Macworld wrote an excellent roundup of some of the best AirTag accessories such as key rings, bag tags, holders, etc. I've been very happy with two of the products that they mention: the Belkin key ring and the Belkin strap, which only cost about $8. And to underscore the value of AirTags, Ben Lovejoy of 9to5Mac collects some recent stories of people using AirTags to track down lost luggage that airlines claimed that they were unable to find. And now, the news of note from the past week:
- Speaking of AirTags, while I still think that an AirTag is too thick to put in a wallet, I admit that I've never actually tried it. California attorney David Sparks has been using the Nimalist AirTag Wallet for four months, and he says that it works well.
- Illinois attorney John Voorhees of MacStories wrote a good article previewing all of the key features coming in macOS Ventura this Fall, based on the current beta version of the software. The reason that I'm linking to the article is that he had an opportunity to use a pre-production version of a clip that Belkin will sell that will let you use an iPhone as a camera for a Mac laptop, and it was interesting to see how that product will work.
- Federico Viticci of MacStories has been using iOS 16 and iPad OS 16 for about a month, and he wrote a great overview of these updates coming this Fall. This looks to be one of those years when the iPhone and iPad both take major steps forward because of operating system improvements.
- Alex Guyot of MacStories wrote a good article previewing all of the key features coming in watchOS 9 this Fall, based on the current beta version of the software.
- I was delighted to see the first few pictures from the James Webb Space Telescope this week. If those pictures don't give you a sense of awe of the size and contents of the universe, I don't know what will. Chance Miller of Space Explored created versions of those photos that are optimized for an iPhone screen. I also appreciated Zac Hall's comment on Twitter that going from the pictures from Hubble to the pictures from James Webb "is like going from iPhone 3G to iPhone 13."
- Nick Pino of Tom's Guide reports that Netflix has started to upgrade the audio in certain shows to support spatial audio. If you watch a Netflix show using a sound system that supports Dolby Atmos, you already know how that provides an immersive, surround-sound experience. With spatial audio support, you can get a similar surround-sound experience using only two speakers. This caught my eye since Apple has been using a version of spatial audio on some models of the AirPods for a while now, and it is a nice improvement over stereo.
- Louisiana has expanded its LA Wallet app so that it can not only show the COVID vaccination status of the owner of the iPhone but also that person's children, which is helpful now that children six months old and above can be vaccinated. Of course, there are still relatively few places that check for vaccination status, but perhaps the spread of the BA.5 variant will start to change that.
- Apple announced that Apple TV+ shows received 52 Emmy Award nominations. Ted Lasso was the most nominated comedy series with 20 nominations. Severance also received an impressive 14 nominations. The other nominated shows are Schmigadoon!, The Morning Show, The Problem with Jon Stewart, Foundation, Pachinko, See, Lisey’s Story, Central Park, They Call Me Magic, and Carpool Karaoke: The Series.
- In an article for Macworld, Jason Snell praises the iPhone 13 mini, saying that he likes it so much that he doesn't plan to upgrade to whatever iPhone 14 that Apple announces later this year—assuming that Apple is done with the mini iPhones.
- In case you missed it, and as reported by John Gruber of Daring Fireball back on July 1, President Biden awarded Steve Jobs a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom.
- Ed Hardy of Cult of Mac reports that all iPhone users can now use picture-in-picture on YouTube.
- And finally, in the video called Hard Knocks, Apple shows off the durability of the Apple Watch Series 7. But what really makes the video compelling are the impressive action shots.
