The new HomePod is now available in stores, and early pre-orders should start arriving today. Brian Heater of TechCrunch interviews Matthew Costello, Apple’s vice president, Hardware Engineering and Operations, to discuss the new HomePod. Costello says that the new HomePod provides "immersive, room-filling sound users love." The initial reviews that came out this week back up that assertion. Chris Welch and Jennifer Pattison Tuohy wrote an extensive review the new HomePod and conclude that while the sound is similar to the first generation, the new model is better all around. It sounds great on its own, and amazing in a stereo pair. Britta O'Boyle of Pocket-lint also wrote an in-depth review of the new HomePod, as did Billy Steel of Engadget. Reviewers also noted that if you pair two HomePods with an Apple TV 4K, you get a great home theater setup. Connect the Apple TV 4K to the eARC port on your TV and any other source plugged into the TV can have sound come through the HomePods, including game counsels, cable TV, etc. I hope that the re-introduction of the HomePod is the beginning of Apple paying even more attention to devices that are designed for the home. And now, the news of note from the past week:
- I mentioned earlier this week that the note-taking app GoodNotes added the ability to take audio recordings as you take notes. A competitor to GoodNotes, Notability, also got a big update this week, as noted on that company's blog. The new tool is called Pencil. Many similar apps have a pencil tool that makes it look like you drew with a graphite pencil. But Notability's new tool is vector-based, so you can resize or change colors without any loss in quality. It is also pressure sensitive, and you can shade if you tilt your pencil.
- If you want to draw with a stylus that looks like a Mont Blanc pen, Ed Hardy of Cult of Mac reviews the new Star stylus from Adonit.
- I've had very good experiences with Eufy security cameras, which I first reviewed in 2021. As I explained on the In the News podcast last week, my cameras helped the police to catch the criminal who recently burglarized my house—and since that experience, I've ordered two more cameras. One of the selling points of the Eufy cameras is that the video was stored locally and encrypted, reducing the risk of an unauthorized user watching your camera stream on a website. But The Verge reported on a bug in this system, and after a lot of deflection from Anker (the parent of Eufy), Sean Hollister of The Verge reports that Anker has finally admitted that there was a flaw in its software that it is now fixing, plus the company is making other changes to try to stop something like this from happening again. Bravo to The Verge for pursuing this story, and I'm glad that Anker/Eufy are now doing the right thing.
- Felipe Espósito of 9to5Mac reports on a traveler who lost his wallet on an airplane. Because had an AirTag in his wallet, he was able to track his wallet as it traveled to 35 different cities, even though the airline said that it couldn't find the wallet on the plane.
- iOS 16.3 came out last week. iOS 17 will likely be previewed at Apple's developer conference this Summer, but what is left to be added to iOS 16? Chance Miller of 9to5Mac came up with a list of features that Apple has already announced and that we should be seeing soon.
- Miller also reports that the iPhone 14's emergency satellite feature helped two women get rescued after driving into a wall of snow in McBride, Canada. Part of the search-and-rescue team called this feature a "game changer" because instead of searching for people in a wide search area, rescuers can get to them more quickly.
- I reviewed the Motif app in 2019, an app that makes it easy to create photo books on your iPad. I've been creating these books at the end of the year since my kids were little, and even though they are now teenagers and no longer inherently cute, there are always lots of great pictures to put in the year-in-review book every year. Adam Engst of TidBITS reports that Motif was purchased by its competitor Mimeo. For now, you can continue to use the Motif app as always, with Mimeo creating the books.
- Amazon is currently selling all models of the Apple Watch Series 8 for $50 off, such as the 45mm model with a Midnight Aluminum Case and Midnight Sport Band for $479 instead of $529.
- As you can tell from my review of the Flighty app, I'm a fan. Gunnar Olson of Thrifty Traveler feels the same way, calling it his "single favorite travel tool" and "the most valuable resource to have in your pocket on the day you fly."
- Dalvin Brown of the Wall Street Journal warns that if you put an AirTag on a dog collar, there is a danger that the dog could eat the AirTag, which is dangerous.
- Apple requires apps to give you the option of not being tracked, but there are lots of other ways that companies can track you. Consumer Reports released a new, free app called PermissionSlip. The app can tell the type of information that companies can gather about you, and you can use the app to have Consumer Reports act on your behalf and tell companies to stop selling your personal information.
- And finally, one of my favorite Apple TV+ advertisements ran about a year ago: a video called Everyone but Jon Hamm. It's worth watching if you haven't seen it before. Apple now has an updated version of the same concept. This one is titled Call Me with Timothée Chalamet, which is below. There is also a follow-up called A Taste with Timothée Chalamet .
