iPhone J.D.

Podcast episode 85: Security iKeys, Ivory Bling, and Average Privacy

We begin this week's episode of the In the News podcast by discussing why I'm very happy to have security cameras installed at my house.  We then talk about additional security that you can obtain with iOS 16.3 thanks to the support of Security Keys.  We also discuss checking the temperature in a room using a HomePod, the new Ivory and timing.is apps, the updated Things app, iPhone privacy, and more. 

In our In the Know segment, Brett discusses creating signatures with images on the iPhone or iPad, and I explain how to designate a single HomePod in a stereo pair as the one that should speak to you when you talk to Siri.

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, I noted how upset I was that Twitter had banned third-party apps such as the excellent Tweetbot app, one of my favorite apps for many years.  Fortunately, the folks behind Tweetbot released a new app this week called Ivory.  Ivory looks very similar to Tweetbot but works with the Twitter alternative Mastodon—which has become the new home for many folks who left Twitter over the last few months.  I've been using Ivory for the last few days, and it is a fantastic app already, plus the developer has plans to make it better than Tweetbot ever was.  Here is a good review of the Ivory app by Federico Viticci of MacStories.  If you have used Twitter in the past, I encourage you to check out Mastodon and the Ivory app in particular.  For a great explainer of what Mastodon is all about, I recommend this article by Amanda Silberling of TechCrunch.  If you want to follow me on Mastodon, you can do so at @[email protected].  If you want to follow iPhone J.D. on Mastodon to receive a new post on Mastodon whenever there is a new post on iPhone J.D., you can do so at @[email protected].  And now, the other news of note from the past week:

• iOS 16.3 came out this week.  Juli Clover of MacRumors discusses some of what is new.  For example, Advanced Data Protection, which I discussed in this post, is now available to all users around the world.
• iOS 16.3 also adds support for Security Key—a small physical device that you carry around to confirm your identity instead of using digital two-factor authentication.  Andrew Orr of AppleInsider identifies some of the best Security Key products.
• If you have a HomePod mini, or the new version of the HomePod, you can now find out the temperature of the area around that device as a result of a software update Apple made available this week.  Tim Hardwick of MacRumors explains how to install the update and to see the temperature readings in the Home app on an iPhone or iPad.
• Why did Apple stop making the HomePod only to come back almost two years later to re-introduce the product?  That's rare for a company like Apple.  I always assumed that the original HomePod was discontinued because not enough people bought them, but the flaw with that theory is that I always heard people talk about how much they enjoyed the big HomePod, quickly buying old units on eBay when they become unavailable from Apple.  John Gruber of Daring Fireball has a different theory: the original model had some sort of design flaw that made them unreliable.  Thus, Apple went back to the drawing board, took what it knew about the HomePod mini (which apparently avoided that flaw), and eventually Apple came out with the HomePod 2.0.  Nobody but Apple knows for sure, but Gruber's theory does explain a lot, so I think he is on to something.
• David Neld of The Ambient lists 30 things that you can do with a HomePod or HomePod mini.
• Ed Hardy of Cult of Mac provides additional details on using these temperature sensors, including an explanation of how you can create an automation to make something else happen whenever the temperature reaches a certain point.
• Chance Miller of 9to5Mac notes that iOS 16.3 fixes a bug in CarPlay that made it difficult to locate someone using the Find My service.
• I use the Things app to keep track of certain items that I need to do, and the app works well for me.  But unlike some of the software that I use, when it comes to Things, I'm the opposite of a power user.  I just keep a single list of items and I check things off as I go.  If you are—or you want to be—a more sophisticated user of the Things app, attorney John Voorhees of Macstories explains how you can take advantage of the latest feature added to Things: expanded support for Shortcuts.  His post includes some examples that you can download and try for yourself.
• If you are looking for something else new in the world of to-do apps, timing.is is a new iPhone app that combines your calendar and your to-do items with an interesting interface that is supposed to help you focus on or plan activities.  I prefer a more traditional approach to calendars, but I suspect that this app will appeal to lots of people.
• Justin Meyers of Gadget Hacks reminds us that, in a pinch, you can use an iPad to recharge an iPhone and certain other devices.
• And finally, tomorrow is Data Privacy Day, so hopefully you have something special planned to celebrate the occasion.  One way to do so is to watch an amusing video released by Apple this week called A Day in the Life of an Average Person’s Data, in which Nick Mohammed (the actor who plays "Nate the Great" on Ted Lasso) teams up with an Apple Store Specialist to show you how to enable features on your Apple devices to keep your data private.

Review: Camo -- use your iPhone as a webcam

In yesterday's post, I explained the advantages (and disadvantages) of using an iPhone as a webcam, and I also explained how you can use the Belkin iPhone Mount with MagSafe to mount your iPhone so that it has a secure spot atop a monitor.  In today's follow-up post, I am reviewing Camo, software that lets your iPhone act as a webcam on a Mac or a PC.  I'll also compare Camo to a free alternative on the Mac: the Continuity Camera feature.

Starting Camo

Camo consists of two sets of software that work together.  On your iPhone, you simply launch the Camo app and then put your iPhone on the Belkin mount or in another location so that the camera on the back of the iPhone is looking at whatever you want on your webcam. 

Note that when you are using Camo, you won't actually see the screen on your iPhone because you will almost certainly be looking at the superior battery on the back of the iPhone.  (I say "almost certainly" because Camo gives you the option of selecting which camera to use, so you could opt to use the front-facing camera if that made sense for some specific use, but I suspect that use would be rare.)

On your Mac or PC, launch the Camo Studio software.  The very first time that you use Camo with a computer, you need to follow the on-screen instructions to pair your iPhone with the computer.  It is very simple, and basically involves scanning a QR code.  After that, if your iPhone is connected to a Mac with a cable, the Camo Studio software will automatically see the iPhone.  If your iPhone is connected to a PC with a cable, and if you are running iTunes on the PC, then the Camo Studio software should work the same way, although I didn't test that configuration.

In the alternative, you can skip the cable and just have your iPhone and your Mac or PC communicate via the same Wi-Fi network.  For this configuration, start the Camo app on the iPhone.  Then start the Camo Studio software on  your Mac or PC and click the button in the middle of the screen that says Connect a device.  Camo Studio will find your previously-paired iPhone in just a second or two.

The developer of Camo says that a cable connection can be better, but I've been using Wi-Fi for most of my video conferences for several weeks, and it has worked great.  The only downside I've experienced is that, very rarely, the video will pause for a second or two.  But I only notice that once out of dozens of uses, and it fixed itself quickly.  Having said that, I suppose if you don't have a good Wi-Fi connection, you may see worse results, so using the cable might be a superior option.

[UPDATE 2/9/2023: Shortly after I published this post, I started to have very occasional problems with the Wi-Fi connection, very short hiccups in the video, and at the time I didn't have Camo configured to run via a cable.  For example, in Episode 85 of the In the News podcast, right around 3:20, the video started to get out of sync with my audio for just a little bit.  Brett and I paused the podcast, and I switched to a different webcam.  I have since switched to using a USB-to-Lightning cable with Camo, and this problem has gone away.  Note also that when I first tried using the cable, I couldn't get it to work.  The problem was that the Windows drivers for the connection to my iPhone were not updating because of security configurations at my law firm.  After temporarily disabling that configuration, I was able to update Apple's driver software, and then I could use Camo with a cord.]

Using Camo Studio

Once the Camo Studio software is running and communicating with your iPhone, the software will take the video that it is capturing from your iPhone's camera and announce itself to other programs (such as Zoom or Microsoft Teams) as another camera called Camo Camera. In the following screenshot, Camo Studio is running on my PC, but the interface is virtually identical on the Mac.  There are lots of settings that you can change if you want to (more on that below), but you don't have to do so.

Now that Camo Studio is running on your computer, start your video conference software of choice—I've tested Camo Studio using both Zoom and Microsoft Teams—and select Camo Camera as your camera.  For example, in Microsoft Teams on my iMac, I see the following list.  Besides Camo Camera, my other choices include FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in), which is the camera that is part of my iMac, and Jeff iPhone 14 Pro Camera, which is the Continuity Camera feature that I will discuss below.

If Camo Camera was the camera that you used when you last used your video conferencing software, it should default to Camo Camera again the next time that you use the software.

Here is a screenshot from a video conference that I was attending in my office.  In this first picture, I was using a Logitech HD Pro C922 webcam.  I have pale skin in real life, but as you can see from my thumbnail photo in the top right, my skin seems to be even more pale with the Logitech camera.

Next, I clicked the three dots that say "More" in Microsoft Teams and I switched my camera to Camo Camera.  Thanks to the iPhone, my skin tone looked more natural, and the iPhone automatically slightly blurred items in my background, which also made the picture look better.

For more comparison photos, check out my review from yesterday of the Belkin iPhone Mount with MagSafe.

Why use Camo?

If you want to use your iPhone as a webcam on a PC, you need to use software like Camo.  I say "software like Camo" because I know that there are alternatives on the PC, but I have yet to come across one that gets great reviews.  Camo, on the other hand, gets very favorable reviews, and it has worked incredibly well for me.

If you want to use your iPhone as a webcam on a Mac, you don't need Camo.  You can instead use Continuity Camera.  Continuity Camera is better than Camo in some ways: it is free, and it starts automatically without having to first open a special program like Camo Studio.  But after using both for a few weeks, I prefer using Camo on a Mac. 

First, I prefer to initially launch the Camo Studio software because that way I can see how I look on camera before I even start Zoom or Teams.

Second, there are lots of settings that you can adjust in Camo to adjust how you look.  For me, there is only one of them I typically change, but it is a nice one.  In the bottom left of Camo Studio, you can Zoom the camera.  I prefer having my face take up a little more space on the screen so that it is easier for other people to see me, so I keep it at 125%.  An advantage of zooming is that you can drag the rectangle at the bottom left of Camo Studio to determine which cropped area of the screen to use.  This makes it super easy to center your face within the image.

If you have a built-in camera on your display, or if you have an external webcam sitting on your monitor that never moves, you probably already know exactly where you need to sit to remain in the center of the screen.  But when I put my iPhone in the Belkin mount to place it on top of my display, it always seems to be in a slightly different position than the last time.  But by taking about two seconds in Camo Studio to adjust the position of the crop area, I can quickly get my face in the best spot without having to fiddle with either the iPhone or Belkin mount.  This is quick and easy, and a big advantage over Continuity Camera.

Other options available in Camo Studio, but not Continuity Camera, include the ability to apply templates to the image.  If you want your name and company logo below your face, or if you want to display your phone number or some other information, you can quickly create an overlay.  This feature is currently only available on the Mac, with PC support planned for Summer 2023.  On the PC, you can currently only display a watermark.

You can also turn on or off the light used by a flash for the iPhone and you can adjust the percentage of the flash level.  It's much better to use natural light, of course, but it is nice to have the option to use the flashlight in a pinch if necessary.

I mentioned above that the iPhone automatically adds a nice, slight background blur.  If you want even more background blur, Camo Studio has a portrait mode feature that can make the background blur more pronounced.

You can make lots of adjustments to the picture quality: exposure, white balance, hue, saturation, etc. In my tests in lots of different lighting conditions, the iPhone did a great job adjusting this manually, so I saw no need to change anything.

Finally, Camo has lots of features that, to me, are just silly, but perhaps they would appeal to others.  For example, you can change your face to an Emoji face.  Or to a Jaguar.  Or you can put a moving virtual cat on your head.  My video conference use is just about 100% for professional purposes, and I don't need to be the next lawyer cat, but if you want to be more creative, you can do that with Camo Studio.

So in short, if you use a Mac, the advantage of Camo over Continuity Camera is that you have a lot more options.  Even though I only find a few of those options useful, I miss them quite a bit when I use Continuity Camera.

Pricing

You can use Camo for free and take advantage of most of its features.  To take advantage of all features, you need to pay either $5/month, $40/year, or $80 for a lifetime license.  Some of the key advantages of the paid version are:

• Use on more than one computer.
• Use 1080p instead of just 720p
• Use the Zoom, pan, and crop feature that I find very useful

You can see all of the differences described on this page.

Conclusion

Apple's Continuity Camera feature is great, in part because it is so simple.  Plus, it is free.  But if you use a PC or if you want more precise control, you should check out the free version of the Camo app to see if you prefer it.  It didn't take me long to figure out that I really like the Camo software, so I paid $40 to use the Pro features for a year.  If I don't see a better option this time next year, I will either pay for another year or just buy the lifetime version.

Click here to get the Camo app on the iPhone (free).

Review: Belkin iPhone Mount with MagSafe for Mac Desktops and Displays

One of the iPhone features introduced with iOS 16 in late 2022 is the ability to use your iPhone's camera as a webcam for video conferencing.  Apple calls this feature Continuity Camera.  However, the idea is not new; in 2020, the Camo app introduced the same feature, albeit in a paid app instead of something that comes free with the operating system.  The thinking behind both Camo and the new Continuity Camera is the same: the camera on your iPhone is likely to be much better than the camera in your external webcam or the one built-in to your computer.

If you are thinking about using an iPhone as your webcam, there are three issues to consider. First, is it worth going through this trouble?  Second, how are you going to mount your iPhone in a way that it can even work as a webcam?  Third, what software should you use to make your computer (Mac or PC) treat the iPhone as a camera?

In today's post, I'm discussing the first two topics.  And for the second topic, I am reviewing the Belkin iPhone Mount with MagSafe.  This Belkin device is currently the best solution for folks using a computer monitor or a computer with a built-in monitor (like the iMac).  As for that third topic, see this post for my review of Camo and how it compares to the Continuity Camera feature that is available in the latest operating systems for the iPhone and Mac.

Why use an iPhone instead of another webcam, and is it worth it to do so?

If you use any recent iPhone, your iPhone has a great camera.  Part of this is because Apple uses excellent camera hardware, which I understand is manufactured for Apple by Sony.  But it is largely because of what Apple does with the images that it gets from that hardware.  Apple uses its custom-built processor chip in the iPhone to perform an insane number of calculations on a large number of images that are taken in rapid succession every time that you click the button to take a picture.  Apple then combines the best part of each of those pictures, plus some filters, plus a sprinkling of AI, to create what the iPhone thinks is the best possible picture.  And the whole process takes just an instant.  A similar process takes place when you are taking video except that the process is going on constantly while you continue to record video—which is the reason that taking video is one of the most battery-intensive things that you can do with an iPhone.

Because of this process, the quality of video taken by an iPhone is excellent.  Unless you are filming a movie that will be shown on a huge screen in a movie theater, there is no reason for most folks to consider using a dedicated video camera instead of an iPhone.  And when Apple releases a new set of iPhones every year, the quality of the iPhone as a video camera improves even more.

At my home, I use an iMac with a 27" screen that was released by Apple in 2019.  It has a built-in webcam at the top, but I've always considered the quality of the video that it takes very poor.  Looking at a single frame of a video doesn't really adequately show you the quality of video, but nevertheless here are three images that I took at my home in rapid succession, using the same lighting and other conditions, using Microsoft Teams and a fake background (with no green screen) on my iMac.  You can click the below image to see it a little larger.  It only takes a fraction of a second for you to see that the quality of my face that comes from my iMac's built-in webcam (at the top) is pitiful compared to my iPhone 14 Pro, either with Continuity Camera or Camo.

In my office, I've been using a Logitech HD Pro C922 webcam since 2020 (I did a short review of it in this post), and I've been very happy with it.  In the following image, the top picture was taken using Zoom on my office PC with the Logitech webcam, and the bottom picture was taken a second later in the same lighting using Zoom on my office PC with the iPhone and the Camo software.  Again, you can click to make the picture bigger.

Unlike the built-in camera on my iMac, I'm reasonably happy with the Logitech camera.  However, I do prefer the quality of the iPhone's picture.  Most notably, the color of my skin looks more natural—something that the iPhone has always been known for.  Also, the iPhone does a better job compensating for the light on the top of my head that comes from the fluorescent office lighting.  Also, the iPhone automatically produces a slight, pleasant bokeh so that I stay in focus but items in the background are slightly blurred, whereas the Logitech just tries to keep everything focused. 

If you want to see video examples, you can easily do that by looking at episodes of the video version of the In the News podcast that I record on Friday mornings with Brett Burney.  For most episodes up until Episode 81, which was recorded on December 30, 2022, I used my Logitech camera.  But for the last two episodes, including Episode 84 recorded on January 20, 2023, I've used my iPhone with Camo and my PC.  Because of the way that Brett creates those videos, my image is in a small box on the side.  But that's somewhat similar to video conferences using Zoom or Microsoft Teams where I am one of many rectangles in the conference.  I've embedded those two videos here if you want to compare the difference between the Logitech webcam and my iPhone as a webcam:

In my opinion, the image from the iPhone camera is always better.  As compared to my iMac—and I suspect as compared to the webcams on most laptop computers—the video quality is far better.  As compared to a nicer external webcam like the Logitech, the clarity of the video is only a little better but the overall feel of the video is better because the iPhone does a much better job with lighting, skin tones, and adding a slight blur to the background.

If the only consideration was camera quality, I'd pick the iPhone every time.  But you should keep in mind that there are some downsides to using an iPhone for video conferences.

First, and most obviously, when your iPhone is being a webcam in a video conference, you cannot use your iPhone.  If I want to look up a contact or see something on my calendar, I need to use my iPad instead of my iPhone.  That works fine, but it is something I need to plan for.

Second, what happens if you get a call while you are using your iPhone as your webcam?  That actually happened to me this week.  While I was in a video conference, I heard my iPhone start to ring and I looked on my Apple Watch screen to see that I was receiving a call from the clerk's office of the Louisiana Supreme Court, where I had filed a brief about an hour earlier.  I suppose in retrospect that I could have taken the call from my Apple Watch.  Instead, I quickly clicked the buttons to mute my microphone and turn off my video in Teams, then I picked up my iPhone from the top of my monitor and answered the phone call.  Camo continued to run in the background, but that didn't matter because I had turned off my video in Microsoft Teams.  Once I finished with the quick call—fortunately, it was a minor issue and not a problem with my brief!—I put my iPhone back on the Belkin mount, turned my microphone and video back on, and I was back to the conference when I could explain my quick absence.  Of course, if the call had been unimportant, I could have just ignored it.  But for me, the Apple Watch was a key part of that equation so that I could learn who was calling me while the front of the iPhone was faced away from me and impossible to see.

Third, because you will only keep your iPhone mounted on your screen while you are on the video conference, you might have to do some slight adjustments every time you mount the iPhone to make sure that your face isn't too high or too low in the video.  This is something that you don't need to think about when you use an external webcam that never moves or a built-in webcam.

To avoid all of these issues, I've heard of some people repurposing an older iPhone to make it a dedicated webcam so that their current iPhone can still be used as an iPhone.  I suppose that is an option if you have an unused but relatively recent iPhone.

One final thing to consider: how good do you need to look in a video conference?  I see so many people who look horrible in video conferences, and I'm sure that you do too.  People who sit in front of a window on a sunny day so that their face is in the dark and can barely be seen.  People who never even look at the camera.  People with horrible lightning.  It may seem silly dressing up for work if everyone else is wearing jeans and a T-shirt, and similarly, it may seem silly fussing about the quality of your video conference camera when others make less of an effort.  On the other hand, if you are talking to clients or a court instead of colleagues, it is always a nice idea to look your best.

For all of these reasons, although I really like the look of my iPhone as my camera for video conferencing, I don't think that I'll use it all of the time.  But I do like being able to use it most of the time.

How to mount your iPhone as a webcam for a video conference

So now that you have decided to use your iPhone as a webcam, how do you mount it?  On a video conference, you want for your camera to be at the top of your monitor and as close to the edge of the screen as possible.  That way, it is easier to create the illusion that you are looking directly at the other people when you start into the camera.

Before this Belkin product was available, I tried some other solutions.  For example, I used a Glif—which does a great job of holding an iPhone and giving you a standard 1/4" tripod screw thread—but I found it difficult to use a tripod, even a flexible tripod like the ones made by JOBY—and get the iPhone in the right position on top of my monitor.  I don't recommend this approach.

Last year, Belkin introduced a mount designed for the relatively thin screen of a laptop computer (available on Amazon for about $28). But that version won't do you any good if you use an external monitor or an iMac.  Fortunately, Belkin is now selling a similar version that is designed to work with any monitor.  It is not yet for sale on Amazon, but you can currently purchase one from Apple or Belkin for about $40.  I purchased one from Apple the day that they went on sale (December 17, 2022) and mine arrived on January 5, 2023.  I've been using it frequently since then.

The Belkin mount has three primary parts connected by hinges.  On the top, shaped like a circle, there is a magnetic MagSafe mount.  Unlike MagSafe chargers, this one doesn’t contain any electronics, so it doesn’t charge your iPhone or transfer data.  It simply uses strong magnets so that you can quickly attach or detach your iPhone.  

This circular part can optionally shift forward almost halfway to bring the iPhone’s camera about an inch closer to you.  This mode only works if you are using your iPhone in landscape mode, not portrait mode.  But for the purpose of videoconferencing, landscape mode is by far the most popular orientation.  I seriously doubt that I will ever mount my iPhone in portrait mode while using this Belkin mount, so I will also be able to take advantage of this slider to bring the camera a little closer to me.

Also, because this top, circular part of the mount is on the hinge, you can bend it forward or backward to make the iPhone camera face more up or more down.  You can have the circle completely vertical, at a 90º angle to the middle portion, or you can bend it forward 25º.  The ability to tilt makes it easier to get your head in the middle of the frame—or top or bottom, if that is what you prefer.

The middle part of the mount is incredibly strong and includes a lip at the front end.  That lip comes over the front of your monitor and holds the mount in place.

The bottom part of the mount, which I will call the foot, is adjustable because of the hinge.  How far you bend the foot at the hinge will depend upon the thickness of your monitor (or your iMac).  It is quick and easy to bend the foot into the right position, and the combination of this foot against the back of the monitor along with the lip of the middle part keeps the mount securely in place, even with the weight of an iPhone.  You can also adjust the foot to make slight adjustments to how high or low the camera is looking.

When you use an iPhone as a camera for your computer, your iPhone can send the video to your computer wirelessly or over a Lightning cord.  If you use a cord, the foot of the Belkin mount has a hole in the bottom that you can run the cord through to keep things more tidy.

Although I don't connect my iPhone to my PC, I do recommend using a cord for charging purposes when you are using an iPhone as a camera for a video conference.  For my iPhone 14 Pro, I find that I use about 30% of my battery power for every hour that I use the iPhone for a video conference.  It is extremely rare for me to be on a video conference that lasts more than three hours so it typically isn't essential to keep my iPhone plugged in, but I often do so anyway just to keep my iPhone with a full charge.  If you keep a charging cord in that hole on the foot of the Belkin mount, it will always be ready for you as soon as you attach your iPhone to the MagSafe circle.

The foot also includes a standard 1/4" tripod screw thread.  Thus, if you have a tripod, you could use this mount to connect an iPhone.  Simply fold up the foot so that it is fairly flat with the middle section and then attach a tripod.

I tried this feature to make sure that it works, and it does, but I didn’t use it for very long.  For something like a tripod that could move accidentally, I personally would feel safer using a more secure mount that clamps to the iPhone.  The Glif by Studio Neat that I mentioned above is something that I've used for many years for this purpose (my review), and that product gets my highest recommendation for a tripod or for a hand grip.  But the Glif doesn’t connect to a monitor, and it is nice to have the tripod connector on the Belkin mount just in case you need it in a pinch.

All of the parts of the Belkin mount have a weighty, sturdy feel to them.  The quality of the components is excellent.  The danger of magnets in general, and MagSafe in particular, is that it doesn’t take a significant amount of pressure to remove an iPhone from a MagSafe connector.  This is nice if you intend to disconnect your iPhone, but you do need to be careful with an iPhone in this Belkin mount that you don’t accidentally push your iPhone hard enough that it drops from the top of a monitor onto the desk below.  Although I have been conscious of this risk, it hasn’t actually happened to me.  This mount does a good job of holding the iPhone secure when it is supposed to be secure, while at the same time, it is not very difficult to pull the iPhone away from the Belkin mount.

When you are not using the Belkin mount to hold your iPhone, you can simply leave the mount on your display.  It stays in place and isn’t all that distracting.  But if you do take it off of your display, you can fold it up so that it is more compact for travel.  Belkin includes a small cloth bag with the mount, which I suppose protects the mount from getting scratched while it is in a purse or briefcase.  It's very thin, and I'm worried that it might tear at some point, but I guess it is something.

Like any external webcam, the iPhone camera will be slightly above the edge of your monitor.  Thus, for other people on a videoconference to have the feeling that you are looking directly at them while you speak, you will need to look just above your monitor at the iPhone’s camera instead of at the Zoom or Teams window on your screen.  But this is nothing new for people using external webcams, and it even applies somewhat to built-in webcams since they are at least a little bit above the screen of a monitor.  I did find that it was better when I positioned my iPhone so that the camera was at the bottom left instead of the top right.

Speaking of which, when you first use an iPhone as an external webcam, it might seem weird that the back of the iPhone is facing you.  This is the opposite of having a FaceTime conversation or using the Zoom or Teams app on the iPhone, where you are looking at the other people on the iPhone's screen and using the front-facing camera.  But it makes sense that Continuity Camera and Camo are designed to use the camera on the back of the iPhone because that is the highest-quality camera.

Belkin says that this mount works with Mac desktops and displays.  That is true, but incomplete.  This mount would likely work with any display, and it works fine with the Dell display that is standard issue in my office.  Unless you are using something unusual like an old CRT display (do those still exist?), I suspect that this mount will work fine no matter what display you are using.

Conclusion

If you participate in video conferences with some regularity and you want to look your best, it is worth considering using your iPhone as your camera.  Depending on what webcam you have been using, the iPhone might be a little bit better, or it might be a lot better.

But to use your iPhone as a camera, you need a good mount.   And the Belkin mount is an excellent mount.  In fact, the highest praise that I can give it is that I am thinking of buying a second one.  For the past few weeks, I’ve been traveling back and forth to my office with this mount in the same bag in which I carry my iPad because I want to be able to use this mount with either my iMac at home or my Dell display in my office.  But just a few days ago, I forgot to pack it in my bag when I went to my office, and Murphy’s Law kicked in because that was the day I had lots of video conferences and couldn't use my iPhone.  Keeping one at home and one at the office would solve that.  And again, if you want to use a mount on a laptop computer that is not connected to an external display, I suspect that the Belkin laptop mount ($28) is also quite good considering how much I like this version for a monitor.

Once you have the mount, you'll need to decide if you want to use it with the Continuity Camera feature or Camo.  Click here for my post with my thoughts on that decision. 

Click here to get the Belkin iPhone Mount with MagSafe for Mac Desktops and Displays one from Apple or Belkin ($40).

Podcast episode 84: Apple’s HomePod Christmas in January and More Immersive Rain

We begin this week's episode of the podcast by discussing Apple's big announcements from this past week: new laptops, new Mac minis, a new HomePod, updates to the existing HomePod mini to activate a previously-hidden sensor, iOS 16.3 coming out next week. and more. Then we discuss using a large external drive with an iPad, taking RAW photos with an iPhone, what do you do with a problem like Twitter, and a few other items.

In our In the Know segment, Brett shares a text replacement tip, and I discuss ambient sounds from a HomePod.

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

What are the four apps that are so important to you that you put them in one of the four spots on your iPhone's dock?  For well over a decade, the dock on my iPhone has contained Calendar (mainly because I like seeing the date on the icon), Safari, Mail, and a Twitter app.  Note that I say a "Twitter app" and not "Twitter" because for a long time, there was no official Twitter app for the iPhone, but even after it was released, I have always vastly preferred the third-party apps.  Back in 2009, I wrote that the TwitterFon app was my favorite, but I noted that there were 23 other apps.  Some apps were better than others, but it was great seeing the variety of features and approaches.  I then switched to Twitterific for a long time (I considered it such an important app by 2014 that I called it one of the apps that has stood the test of time), and then switched to TweetBot, which became my all-time favorite.  Those apps stayed on the most prominent position on my iPhone's Dock (the far right) because I loved using those apps to keep up with news, technology, entertainment, and more so I wanted to have easy access.  For the past decade, I've read reports about Twitter being a great product that was poorly run, so when Elon Musk bought the company a few months ago, I was one of the few people who were optimistic that this might be a good thing that would result in lots of needed improvements.  To the contrary, his chaotic stewardship of the company has made it far worse than ever before.  It all culminated last week when Twitter made third-party clients stop working without even explaining what they were doing.  At first, there was no logical explanation for what happened other than a vague reference to violating API rules—which makes no sense because these apps have been around forever.  Yesterday, a week later, Twitter finally updated its developer agreement to ban third-party apps, as noted by Karissa Bell of Engadget.  I agree with what Jason Snell of Six Colors wrote about how clueless, classless, and cowardly Twitter's actions were.  The whole thing has really soured me on sticking with Twitter, which I find frustrating; for example, Twitter's own app doesn't operate the way that I want a Twitter client to work.  I've started using Mastodon (I'm at @[email protected] if you want to follow me), but that service currently isn't nearly as good as the old Twitter for a number of reasons.  It's all very disappointing for the countless users of the great Twitter third-party clients like TweetBot and Twitterific.  Losing an app—heck, an entire category of apps—that you have loved to use for such a long time is depressing, and I'm just not sure that Twitter can ever come back from this.  And now, let's talk about the other news of note from the past week, which fortunately is far less depressing:

• I love the HomePod mini devices that I have in my house.  I and the other members of my family talk to it to trigger HomeKit actions, ask simple questions, and use it to share music with each other.  If other folks are around me, I typically use my AirPods Pro for music, but if I have the living room to myself, I prefer using my HopePod minis as a stereo pair.  But I know that lots of folks preferred the larger HomePod that Apple launched in 2018 and discontinued in 2021 because the larger one does a better job of filling an entire room with sound.  To the surprise of many, Apple resurrected the HomePod this week with a brand new model.  The full-size HomePod cost $299 when Apple discontinued it.  The new model also costs $299.  Michael Potuck of 9to5Mac does a good job of comparing the specs of the original HomePod, the new HomePod, and the HomePod mini.
• Chris Welch of The Verge got to hear a demo of the new HomePod and he concluded that it sounds very close to the original, but has some additional new features.
• In addition to unveiling the brand new HomePod this week, next week Apple will update all HomePod mini models to activate sensors that up until now had gone unused: an integrated temperature and humidity sensor, as Chance Miller of 9to5Mac explains.  I'll be interested to see how this works.
• Tim Hardwick of MacRumors explains one use: you can use the temperature and humidity sensor to trigger other HomeKit actions.
• iOS 16.3 will be released next week.  Sami Faihi of MacRumors provides a preview of what is coming.
• Apple's relatively new Advanced Data Protection feature ensures that data that you upload to iCloud stays secure from everyone, even Apple.  It takes a little time to activate, but once you have it running, it just works.  This feature rolled out with iOS 16.2 in the United States, but next week in iOS 16.3, it will work in all countries, as reported by Benjamin Mayo of 9to5Mac.
• If you ever have a need for a large amount of external storage for an iPad, Ankur Thakur of iDownloadBlog explains how to connect a flash drive, hard disk, SSD, or SD card.
• I know from personal experience that when you are in a hotel room, it can be difficult to use an Apple TV or HomePod in the room.  Malcolm Owen of Apple Insider offers advice for doing so.
• J.D. Biersdorfer of the New York Times offers tips for using the RAW mode on the iPhone to take better pictures—better in large part because you have more options for editing them later.
• Justin Meyers of Gadget Hacks provides tips for using the Contacts app on the iPhone, including taking advantage of new features.
• In a similar article, Meyers identifies iMessage features that you might not have known about.
• Thorin Klosowski of Wirecutter does a good job of explaining how passkeys will soon replace passwords and how you can take advantage of passkeys on an iPhone.
• Joanna Stern of the Wall Street Journal discusses 5G as a network technology.
• Ed Hardy of Cult of Mac discusses the shows coming to Apple TV+ this Spring.
• And finally, Apple created a somewhat humorous video to show off the Action Mode feature on the iPhone 14 and how it can make video seem smooth even if you are shaking your hand a lot as you are taking video:

Podcast episode 83: Highway Nightmares, Ultra Bullets, and Snowmobile Smash-Ups - Scary Friday the 13th Episode!

What should you do when you are driving on the Interstate and Apple Maps or Google Maps suddenly suggests that you exit the highway to take some small, local roads?  Brett Burney begins today's episode of the In the News podcast by explaining why he should have taken the road less traveled.  We then talk about getting up-to-date sports scores on your iPhone, using an Apple Watch Ultra to track bullets, and situations in which you should consider turning off crash detection on your iPhone and Apple Watch.  We also talk about using Apple Maps to find a parking spot and updating business information on Apple Maps. 

In our In the Know segment, Brett and I share some 1Password tips.  Brett explains how you can get 1Password to pay off what you owe on your current password manager if you switch to 1Passsword, and I provide tips for making it faster to get the information that you need out of 1Password.

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

A few weeks ago, I discussed how much I have enjoyed watching lots of different TV shows and movies on Apple TV+.  But that is just one of Apple's services, and there have been a lot of good things to say about all sorts of services offered by Apple.  Apple Vice President Eddy Cue, who is in charge of many of these services, wrote an interesting article on the Apple website about the past year of entertainment services at Apple.  He's the boss, so you expect him to say good things, but I was still impressed by the sheer volume of high quality offerings that he was able to mention from 2022.  I encourage you to check out his article because you might be surprised too.  And now, the news of note from the past week:

• I wasn't able to read this article because it is beyond a paywall, but the title sounds interesting: Exemplary Evidence: Proving distracted driving using iPhone forensics, by John J. Carney for The Minnesota Lawyer.  The iPhone can keep people safe while they are driving, but if a driver gets into an accident, that driver's iPhone could contain evidence that could be used against him in court.
• Michael Simon of Macworld explains how to use the Live Activities feature of iOS 16 and the Dynamic Island on the iPhone 14 Pro to see live sports scores from NBA and MLB games.
• Here's an advantage of the Apple Watch Ultra that I didn't anticipate: it works great for detecting gunshots when strapped to a drone.  Oliver Haslam of iMore explains that a Norwegian company is using the Apple Watch Ultra, because of its longer battery life and better built-in microphones, to detect gunshots for security services and law enforcement.
• If you are using a snowmobile, skiing, or doing some other activity that has a lot of sudden stops, quick turns, or jumping or traveling over rough terrain, consider disabling your iPhone and Apple Watch's crash detection features.  As Dan Kraker of MPR News from Minnesota warns, keeping crash detection turned on while doing these sorts of activities can trigger unintentional calls to emergency services.  On the iPhone, open the Settings app, go to Emergency SOS, and turn off Call After Severe Crash.  To turn off crash detection on the Apple Watch you need to open the Apple Watch app on your iPhone, then go to the My Watch tab, tap Emergency SOS, and turn off Call After Severe Crash.
• Chance Miller of 9to5Mac writes that Apple Maps is rolling out a partnership with SpotHero to help you find available parking spots from within the Maps app.
• Joe Rossignol of MacRumors reports that businesses can now customize their location card in the Apple Maps app by using a free Business Connect tool.
• And finally, Apple created a funny, 30-second video to show off the new unsend message feature of the Messages app.  It is called R.I.P. Leon.  Just keep in mind that this feature only works if both you and the person you are messaging are using iOS 16 or later, iPadOS 16.1 or later, or macOS Ventura or later.  If the other person is using an Android phone, then you will have some explaining to do about Leon.

Podcast episode 82: Live from NOLA! MagSafe for the Masses, Wrist Gaming, and Flighty Almighty

I had the best time recording this week's episode of the In the News podcast because Brett Burney was in New Orleans so we could record together!  I know that most folks just listen to the audio version of the podcast, and that's how I normally listen to most of my podcasts too, but for this episode, I recommend that you also check out the video version on YouTube.  My law firm, Adams and Reese, has a small recording studio that we use for lots of different purposes for our clients and for internal communications, and Brett and I took advantage of that to record this episode in the same room, which was a first for us.

After beginning the episode with a short recap of what Brett has been doing in New Orleans this week, we then discuss the upcoming Qi2 standard which will take advantage of Apple's MagSafe wireless charging technology.  It is fun to speculate on what great new products we will be seeing soon as a result of this move.  We then discuss an oven that connects to your iPhone, GPS in the new Apple Watch models, games that you can play on an Apple Watch (and which are better than you might think), one of the latest examples of using an AirTag to track down lost luggage, Wi-Fi on plane flights, Apple TV+ shows, and more.

In our In the Know segment, Brett and I share tips that you can use when traveling.  Brett explains how you can share your iPhone's Internet with others in a family and explains why you might want to do so, and I discuss the great Flighty app that I reviewed a few days ago. 

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 hope that you have been having a Happy New Year so far this week.  One thing that we may start to see more of in the coming years is MagSafe wireless charging.  I saw that because, as Jason Cross of Macworld reports, Apple is sharing its Magsafe wireless charging technology with the Wireless Power Consortium, which maintains the Qi wireless charging standard.  The implication is that MagSafe will be used across the industry for future generations of Qi charging. I'm sure it will take some time to develop, but down the road, ths has the potential to make MagSafe-style charging more common and less expensive.  Hopefully, this will result in more, better charging options for iPhone owners.  And now, the news of note from the past week:

• In an article on Law.com, Isha Marathe analyze how Apple's new Advanced Data Protection option for iCloud might complicate some e-discovery efforts in litigation.
• When the iPhone 14 Pro uses its always-on display, how much battery power does it drain?  Michael Potuck of 9to5 Mac reports on a study finding that it drains less than 1% of the battery per hour.  It's great to learn that it really doesn't make much of a difference on battery life.
• Amber Neely of AppleInsider reports on a story that went viral over the holidays. United Airlines lost a woman's luggage, but she was able to track it and locate it using an AirTag, which revealed that the luggage was not at a distribution center but instead, bizarrely, at an apartment complex.
• If you want a refresher on all things HomeKit, Bradley Chambers of 9to5Mac wrote a beginner's guide to HomeKit.
• Eli Blumenthall of CNet reports that, starting February 1, everyone who is a Delta SkyMiles member will get free Wi-Fi on Delta flights thanks to T-Mobile—even if T-Mobile is not your cellphone carrier.
• Zac Hall of 9to5Mac reports that one of the changes in the new Apple Watch models (Ultra, Series 8, and SE 2) is that they use their own internal GPS to determine their location, even when an iPhone is nearby.  Older models use the iPhone's GPS when possible to save battery life.
• Tom Goodwyn of iMore lists eight interesting new shows coming to Apple TV+ in 2023.
• Speaking of the future, will Apple release an AR/VR (augmented reality/virtual reality) headset in 2023?  All we have are rumors for now, but Wayne Ma of The Information provided a detailed report on what he thinks Apple has planned.  If you don't subscribe to The Information, you can read a summary of the article by Hartley Charlton of MacRumors.
• One of the newest iPhone accessories is an oven.  Mitchel Clark of The Verge reports that Samsung has a new oven called the Bespoke AI Oven that uses an internal camera to recognize certain foods and help you cook them.  You can also use your iPhone to watch a live stream of what is inside of your oven on your iPhone, set timers, and preheat the oven.
• Jennifer Tschida of AppAdvice picks the top 10 games that you can play on your Apple Watch.  In other news, there are apparently at least 10 games that you can play on your Apple Watch.
• During last week's episode of the In the News podcast, my co-host Brett revealed that his favorite Christmas present was an Ember Mug2 that his daughter got him—a coffee mug that keeps your beverage at a precise temperature, which you can set with your iPhone, for a very long time.  Andrew Orr of AppleInsider reports that Ember has unveiled an updated model of the travel version of that mug, the Ember Travel Mug 2+, which works with Apple's Find My app so that you can locate your mug and even make it play a noise so that you can find it.  I'd love to see more products with built-in Find My support.
• And finally, I just finished watching the second season of the show Slow Horses on Apple TV+ and it was excellent.  I loved the first season as well, and I think that the second season was even better.  Here is a very short video showing a short discussion about the show between two of the stars—Gary Oldman and Jack Lowden—which doesn't contain any spoilers for season 2 or season 1, but does give you a little of a sense of the show.  If you haven't watched this one yet, I recommend that you put it on your list.

Review: Flighty -- advanced flight tracker (including TriptIt Pro comparison)

There have been times during my career as a lawyer when I needed to do a lot of airline travel.  Fortunately, those days have been behind me for a while, but even for more occasional travel, I still appreciate tools that improve the experience of airline travel.  One of my favorite such tools is TripIt, which I first reviewed a decade ago.  Even if you just use the free version of TripIt, it is a fantastic resource for managing all of a travel itinerary: flights, hotels, restaurants, car rentals, etc.  I reviewed TripIt Pro back in 2017, and it offers even more features, including useful and quick notification of airline cancellations and delays.  I consider the service so valuable that I have paid for it ($50/year) ever since then. 

Flighty is another travel app that I've heard good things about since it debuted in 2019, and the app received lots of buzz over the last few months because of its improved notification features that make the app even more useful on your lock screen or in the Dynamic Island at the top of the iPhone 14 Pro screen.  You can download the app for free, but as I explain below, you need to make an in-app purchase for the Pro version to take full advantage of what makes this app special.  The Pro version is $50/year, but you can also subscribe for just $5.99 a month through an in-app purchase, which means that you can choose to only pay for the app during the months that you are traveling.  There is also a $90 Flighty Pro annual plan for an entire family.  The rest of this review assumes that you are using the Pro version of Flighty.

I used both Flightly and TripIt Pro during recent trips to and from New York for the holidays.  No, I didn't fly Southwest and experience that disaster in late 2022, but I did have my return trip on a Delta flight canceled, so I was able to see how Flighty handles travel disruption.

Getting data into Flighty

TripIt is great because you can forward to [email protected] the booking confirmation email from your airline, hotel, etc., and TripIt will automatically decipher the key detail and create an itinerary for you.  I was delighted to learn that Flighty works with TripIt and quickly imported all of my current and past trips.  If you don't already use TripIt, you can configure Flighty to import that information from an email, or you can add trips manually.

Notably, Flighty does not keep track of hotels, restaurants, meetings, car rentals, etc.  Thus, Flighty does not in any way replace TriptIt as a service for managing itineraries.  Flighty's focus is only on your flights.

Once Flighty knows about your flights, you can see your upcoming flights in a list.

Flighty also shows you information about your historical flights.  You can see the information either in a list or in a fun "passport" mode.  It was interesting to learn that over the past decade that I've been putting data into TripIt, I've flown the equivalent of going around the world 7.6 times.

Flight information

When it is time to travel, the information that Flight provides is excellent, and better yet, the way that it presents the information is fantastic.

When I am waiting for my plane to arrive at an airport, I often find myself wondering where the plane is coming from and whether it is on-time.  Flighty provides this information for the past 25 hours, so you can start to see where your plane is—and whether or not it is on schedule—the day before you leave.  This is a great way to get an early indication if there may be a delay or other problem with your flight.

Flighty also gives you an incredible amount of detail about your plane flight.  The key information like flight number, gate, and scheduled/actual times is prominently displayed at the top.  But other information is included like weather forecasts, detailed information about the plane, a detailed timeline, your travel history on the same plane, etc.

 

 

The information that you can get from Flighty is more detailed than what you get from TripIt Pro, although both services provide you with the most important information.

Notifications

As I noted in my review of TripIt Pro, that service often sends you useful information in an email, such as a connection summary so that you can the gate where you are landing and the gate to which you need to travel for your connecting flight.  TripIt Pro also uses the iPhone's notification system to push certain information to you.  It works well.

But Flighty notifications are much better.  First, Flighty doesn't use email at all, which I consider a plus.  When I am traveling, I often receive a large number of emails while I am in the air, so an email from TripIt Pro can sometimes get lost among the other emails.  Also, it can be cumbersome to have to open the Mail app to see the information that TripIt Pro has sent to me. 

Flighty's notifications are all iPhone notifications: both traditional iPhone notifications and the new Live Activities notifications on the iPhone.  And these notifications typically contain more information than TripIt Pro's notification.  For example, when I landed in New York before Christmas, TripIt's traditional notification told me my gate of arrival and the baggage claim number, which is the most important information.  But Flighty's traditional notification also told me how long my taxi to the gate would be (which can sometimes be lengthy at an airport like LaGuardia) and told me how early I was arriving (nice to know if someone is meeting you at the airport).  Flighty's Live Activities notification provides even more information in numerical and graphical format, including a countdown timer until gate arrival.

Let's talk about those Live Activities notifications from Flighty.  They are amazing.  If you have an older iPhone, as soon as you turn on your screen, the Live Activities notification will provide you with the key information about your flight right on your lock screen.  If you are using a new iPhone 14 Pro with an always-on screen, you can clearly read that information even if the screen is dimmed.  Flighty is even smart enough to put things like your next gate number in a yellow box that is obvious even on a dimmed screen.

Better yet, if you are using an iPhone 14 Pro, the Live Activities information goes into the Dynamic Island.  Thus, while you are doing other things on your iPhone such as looking at email before you get on your plane, you can easily glance up and see key information such as how long before your plane leaves and the gate number.  Hold down your finger on the Dynamic Island and the notification will expand to show you even more information.

 

I really cannot emphasize enough how useful this multitasking feature is.  I love the ability to work on something else on my iPhone while always being able to glance up and see details on the upcoming flight.

It even works while you are on the plane.  During your flight, you can see how long you have until you land in the Live Activities notification in the Dynamic Island.  Hold down on the Dynamic Island for more information.

 

Live Activities also show up on your lock screen, so you can see them even if your iPhone doesn't support the Dynamic Island.

If you are connected to the plane's Wi-Fi system, this information is updated during your flight.  Better yet, for airlines such as Delta, you don't even have to pay for in-flight Wi-Fi to keep Flighty up-to-date.  Delta offers a free in-flight tier that lets you text message someone using the Messages app.  Because that service communicates with Apple's servers, and because those same Apple servers handle app notifications, If there is a change in your flight arrival time while you are in the air, Flighty's Live Activities notifications will update as well.  That's a nice feature.

It was interesting to see that both Flighty and TripIt Pro are excellent at providing updated information.  If something changes about your travel such as a gate change, both Flighty and TripIt Pro provided me with the update at the same time, and they did so before—sometimes long before—the airline's own app did so.

Both apps also notify you immediately if your flight is canceled.  I had originally planned to fly home from New York on December 26.  On the afternoon of December 25, after I had already checked-in for my flight and gotten my boarding pass, both Flighty and TripIt Pro simultaneously told me that my flight had been canceled.  In this circumstance, Delta also alerted me via text message at about the same time.  However, I have had situations in the past when TripIt Pro told me several minutes before I was alerted by my airline, and that extra time can be critical when you want to be among the first to book an alternative flight.  I presume that Flighty is similar to TripIt Pro in this regard because I suspect that they get their information from the same sources.

One can argue that perhaps Flighty gives you too much information in notifications.  For example, two days before one of my flights, I received a notification that my airplane was still an Airbus A220-100, but a different plane with a different tail number would be used.  At the time that I received that notification, that change didn't seem all that important to me.  That turned out to be the flight that was cancelled, but I have no idea if the tail number change had anything to do with the cancellation less than 24-hours later.

Free vs. pay

You can use Flighty for free without paying for a Pro subscription.  And if you do so, you can look up live information on flights for unlimited flights with no ads.

But you need to pay for the Pro subscription to get the standout features that make this app so special such as the amazing notifications, information on your plane's prior locations 25 hours before your flight, lock screen widgets that update live (the free version has limited refreshes), TripIt sync, email forwarding, etc.  If you are looking to check out Flight, my recommendation is that you don't pay much attention to the free version and instead just pay for one month of the Pro service.

Conclusion

I was incredibly impressed by the Flighty app.  It provided all of the key and latest information about my flights, just like TripIt Pro.  It also provided additional information not provided by TripIt Pro, some of which you might not use, but other information that is incredibly valuable such as the past few flights of your upcoming plane.  And best of all, the way that Flighty uses the iPhone's notification system is best-in-class, including the app's fantastic use of the Live Activities feature.  This makes Flighty a fantastic app because the information that you need is always and quickly accessible.  If you are using the iPhone, you can just glance at it.  If you are not using your iPhone, just glance at the lock screen.

Flighty doesn't replace the TripIt service because it doesn't seek to manage your entire itinerary.  But it does replace many of the best features of the TripIt Pro service.  If it wasn't for the fact that I already have a paid TripIt Pro yearly subscription, I would seriously consider using the free TripIt service and then paying for a monthly subscription to Flighty only during the months that I am traveling.

Having said that, it seems obvious that TripIt could update its TripIt Pro service to match the superior notification features provided by Flighty.  I hope that it does so soon.  For now, however, Flighty is the app that I recommend using for the best flight notifications on your iPhone.

Click here to get Flighty (free, but in-app purchase to enable Flighty Pro features).