In our last podcast episode of 2023, there are a surprisingly large number of interesting topics to discuss. We start by discussing all of the legal drama surrounding the halt on sales of the flagship models of the Apple Watch. Next, we discuss the incredibly sophisticated ways that hackers can hack an iPhone, some favorite picks of 2023, using Apple pay at Lowe’s, Apple’s use of AI, the next version of CarPlay, the next version of the iPad, and more.
In our Where Y’At? segment, we discuss why the iPhone’s Satellite SOS feature helps to save so many lives.
In our In the Know segment, Brett and I both recommend some simple and important security tips for 2024. Brett recommends using a VPN product (like TunnelBear) and a password manager (like 1Password). I explain how to keep your iPhone passcode private so that you can avoid being a victim of someone like this criminal, now in jail, recently interviewed by Joanna Stern of the Wall Street Journal.
For the last two months, I’ve been keeping an eye on legal proceedings that made big news a few days ago when Apple provided a statement to Chance Miller of 9to5Mac saying that it would have to halt selling the Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2. This grows out of a legal dispute between Apple and Masimo, a medical technology company that alleges that the way that Apple Watches shine a light on your arm to read blood-oxygen levels violates Masimo’s patents. Masimo says that Apple and Masimo had initial talks in 2013 (two years before the introduction of the Apple Watch), and then instead of forming a partnership, Apple hired away numerous Masimo engineers who brought Masimo’s technology to Apple. Apple disagrees, saying that its blood-oxygen feature was developed years after that and independently. Masimo first sued in federal court in California, but because that litigation took a long time (and subsequently resulted in a mistrial because of a hung jury in early 2023), Masimo filed another complaint in the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) in Washington, D.C. The ITC is a special type of court in which patent litigation is tried before an Administrative Law Judge (no juries), and the process is typically much faster than federal court litigation. A successful plaintiff is not awarded monetary damages but instead can obtain an order that blocks infringing products from entering the United States. The ITC judge ruled in favor of Masimo on January 10, 2023, which led to a review before the full ITC. The full ITC upheld that ruling on October 26, 2023, which resulted in a 60-day period during which President Biden could veto the decision; otherwise, Apple could take an appeal but the ban would go into effect. The president did not issue a veto, which is why you saw news reports that Apple had to stop selling the Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 right after Christmas. And it was worse than that; if you owned an Apple Watch with this sensor and your watch broke, Apple wouldn’t be able to provide you with a replacement model. (The blood-oxygen sensor has been in the high-end version of the Apple Watch since the Series 6 that was introduced in 2020, but Apple no longer sells the Series 6, 7, or 8 in the United States, which is why you see news reports only mentioning the current flagship models.) Apple (represented by the law firm Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr) then filed an appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, an appellate court that has nationwide jurisdiction over certain types of federal cases including patent disputes. Apple also asked that appellate court to lift the ban during the appeal. On December 27, the appellate court granted Apple’s emergency request, providing the two sides a few weeks for further briefing on whether the ban should stay in effect pending the appeal. That is why there were only about 48 hours when the Apple Watch SE was the only Apple Watch model that you could purchase from Apple. But at some point in the future, the appellate court will decide whether to restore the ban pending the appeal, and then at some point, the appeal itself will be decided. If Masimo is ultimately successful on appeal, I’m sure that Apple will reach a settlement and pay Masimo, but for now, it appears that Apple is trying to win the case and/or keep leverage in settlement negotiations. Moreover, in the meantime, Apple might find some software solution that will allow it to argue that it can continue to sell the current Apple Watch models without infringing on Masimo’s patents—which of course, Masimo will dispute, resulting in more patent litigation. I’ve avoided writing about this dispute for many weeks now because I thought that Apple and Masimo would have settled by now, but the story continues, and now you are up to speed. And now, the other recent news of note as 2023 comes to an end:
Apple is constantly looking for ways to improve the security of the iPhone and other devices. To see how complicated this is, I recommend this article by Michael Potuck of 9to5Mac which describes a sophisticated, multi-step iMessage exploit used by hackers from 2019 until just a year ago.
Jason Snell of Six Colors shares his favorite apps, movies, TV shows, and books from 2023, and there are some great items on his list. One item he likes is Final Cut Pro for the iPad, and I really like the app too, but it seems that whenever I edit 4K HDR video, the app crashes when I try to export my video. My solution has been to open the final package in Final Cut Pro on my Mac and export from there, which works fine, but it is an extra step involving a second device that I’d rather avoid, so I hope that Apple fixes this soon. I also agree with Snell’s praise of the Mastodon client Ivory and almost all of his TV picks.
If you enjoy using Apple Pay to pay for items (like I do), it is nice that the number of stores that don’t take Apple Pay continues to decrease. Chance Miller of 9to5Mac reports that Lowe’s has finally decided to roll out Apple Pay support.
It is clear that AI will have an even larger role in technology in the future. Sharon Goldman of VentureBeat reports that Apple is working with Columbia University and has released an open source multimodal LLM (large language model) called Ferret.
Greg Fink of Car and Driver reports that Aston Martin and Porsche have previewed the next-generation of Apple CarPlay, which will launch with certain models in 2024.
Considering that Apple did not introduce any new iPad models in 2023, you have to think that we will see new iPads in 2024. David Price of Macworld provides his thoughts on what he would like to see in a new iPad.
Chance Miller of 9to5Mac shares the stories of two people whose lives were saved thanks go an Apple Watch and the email exchanges that they had with Apple CEO Tim Cook.
Michael Potuck of 9to5Mac reports that the Lutron Caseta app added a cool new feature to Lutron devices that you cannot do with Apple’s own Home app. You can now instruct a light to automatically turn off a certain amount of time after it goes on: one minute to four hours. If you often forget to turn off a light in a closet, basement, or garage, this could come in very useful. There is a Home app timer feature but it only works when HomeKit itself turns on the timer. For example, I have an outside light that comes on when it senses motion at night and stays on for only five minutes. But this new Lutron feature works even if someone just touches the button on the wall switch to turn on a light.
Jake Kleinman of Inverse interviews numerous showrunners and producers who have worked on science fiction shows airing on Apple TV+ and reveals that one of the reasons that these shows are so good is that Apple is willing to spend series money on making these shows the best that they can be.
And finally, Apple came up with a cute way to highlight the long battery life you get with an Apple 15 Plus: a video starring singing outlets. Here is Apple’s newest ad called Miss You:
Apple released iOS 17.2 this past week, so Brett Burney and I begin this week’s episode of the In the New podcast by talking about some of the dozens of changes. There are big ones like a whole new app—the Journal app—and lots of small but nice quality of life improvements. Thanks to watchOS 10.2, there are also some nice improvement to the Apple Watch. We also talk about some of the top apps of 2023, an interesting new system from Anker for a portable chargerz, the Beeper Mini saga, and much more.
In our In the Know segment, Brett shares a tip for quickly opening a webpage on your Mac that is already open on your iPhone or iPad. I share a tip for using the Workout app once you upgrade your Apple Watch to watchOS 10.2, including instructions for removing some potentially annoying pop-up alerts.
There will be no podcast next week due to Christmas, but we’ll be back on December 29th!
If you own an iPhone 15 Pro or iPhone 15 Pro Max, as you spend time with family and friends over the next few weeks for the holidays, I encourage you to take lots of spatial video. The ability to do so was just added this week in iOS 17.2. Take that video now because, at some point in the future, you will own a device that will play them back in 3D. Perhaps you will be an early adopter and get the Apple Vision Pro in early 2024. Perhaps it will be a few years from now. But eventually, you will get there, and the ability watch spatial video and relive a memory from late 2023 is likely to be quite powerful. I say that because Apple had a small number of journalists take spatial videos over Thanksgiving and then, this past week, let them see their videos using a pre-release version of the Vision Pro. And the reviewers were very impressed. Scott Stein of CNet reports that watching his own home movies from Thanksgiving in 3D on the Vision Pro “made me feel like I was almost there” and “made me want to climb through that fuzzy-bordered window and join my family again on the other side.” Raymond Wong of Inverse says that “the 3D has just the right amount of depth, not too strong or too weak” and that the “sense of presence really tugged at my heartstrings” and caused “a few tiny tears” that he had to fight back. Josh Rubin of Cool Hunting said that the videos work best when you record with plenty of light, but even the videos he recorded with less light available “had plenty of depth and the image quality remained crisp and not grainy.” Lance Ulanoff of Tech Radar said that he was “startled by the quality and immersive nature of” panoramic photos when viewed in the Vision Pro. And as for spatial video, he said: “I suspect that when consumers start experiencing the Vision Pro and spatial videos for themselves they might be surprised at the level of emotion they experience from family videos – it can be quite intense.” Photographer David Imel said that while the “spacial videos were cool … the Panos were my favorite part. Seeing them in massive scale against the wall was amazing, and it feels like you can sort of peek inside the frame. The mountains felt huge. Better than seeing it printed.” Brian Tong created a YouTube video that includes his recommendations for taking spatial videos—for example, try to avoid fast movements. He notes that foodies will especially love the ability to take immersive videos of dishes and then relive the experience later. He also said that, for Christmas, he is going to record his family members in spatial video discussing “what they’re thankful for or what they’re looking forward to” to create a time capsule because “I’m telling you, the spatial videos that I’ve seen with people just like kind of talking in camera, it feels different.” So if you have the newest iPhone and can do so, preserve your own memories over the next few weeks, and then at some point in the future, you can relive them in a brand new way. And now, the news of note from the past week:
iOS 17.2 comes with a new app from Apple called Journal, and Niléane of MacStories wrote a detailed review. I don’t think that journaling is for me, but I have to admit that it is a slick app. I like how it automatically recommends topics based on your recent photos, music that you listened to, places that you were, and more. Better yet, if you already use a third-party app to journal, those apps can now tap into the same system (with your permission) to improve their own apps.
Justin Meyers of Gadget Hacks came up with 59 new features in iOS 17.2. Some of the items he lists are minor changes, but others are really nice new features.
Jonny Evans of Computerworld explains how an Apple TV can now be a Zoom meeting solution for small businesses thanks to the new Zoom app for Apple TV and the continuity camera option for the iPhone or iPad.
After recently picking its favorite apps of the year, Apple has now revealed the most downloaded apps of the year, and Chance Miller of 9to5Mac has the list. Many of these I would have guessed, but others were a surprise to me.
The crew at MacStories also selected their best apps of the year. Some of the winners are apps that I use and love (such as Ivory, Widgetsmith, and Flighty) and there are many more that I now want to try out.
A big item in the news this week has been the Beeper Mini app for Android phones because it allowed an Android phone to communicate using Apple’s iMessage service—i.e. change someone from a green bubble person to a blue bubble person. Then Apple flipped some switch to stop the service from working. Then it started working again for two days. Then it went down again, at least for some people. Who knows what the status will be by the time that you read this. But it all has been interesting to watch, and David Pierce of The Verge wrote a good article on the situation.
One new feature in watchOS 10.2 only works if you have a new model: the Apple Watch Series 9 or the Ultra 2. As Lisa Eadicicco of CNet reports, you will be able to ask Siri for health data. Why does this only work on these models? Because they have the powerful S9 chip, which means that Siri requests can be processed on-device, so your confidential health data remains confidential.
You can now buy a house from your car. Sort of. Zac Hall of 9to5Mac discusses Rocket Homes, a CarPlay app that lets you browse homes for sale based on your car’s location, so you can drive around and see what has curb appeal.
If you have made the move to USB-C with your iPhone and don’t like carrying around a Lightning cord just for your AirPods Pro 2, you can now purchase a new USB-C case for the AirPods Pro 2 for $99. I see that you can also buy a cheap knock-off version on Amazon for under $30 that seems to have positive reviews, but I’d be far too nervous to try that.
If you find that certain people in your house (which I read as “teenagers”) like to steal borrow-on-a-long-term-basis your iPhone chargers for their own personal use, Michael Potuck reviews Lock Socket, something that makes the charger a part of your outlet. It’s $27.92 on Amazon.
I’ve long enjoyed using Anker’s products for portable battery power. Anker has a new system called the Prime power bank that features a portable charger and a charging dock. It comes in different sizes including this powerful version with 27,650mAh ($179.99 on Amazon). Rikka Altland of 9to5Toys wrote a review of the product. If you use portable batteries frequently, you’ll definitely want to consider this solution.
Here’s another story about a person whose life was saved by wearing an Apple Watch, but this time the story catches up with the woman—and her baby—two years later. Megan O’Rourke of WXIX in Kentucky has the story.
I haven’t started watching it yet, but I know that the new season of Slow Horses has started on Apple TV+, and the first two seasons were so great that I am very excited to begin Season 3. Jon Burlingame of Variety talked to Mick Jagger about his great theme song for the show.
And finally, besides the current season of For All Mankind, the other Apple TV+ show that I’m enjoying right now is Monarch: Legacy of Monsters. When I first heard that Apple was doing a Godzilla series, I actually thought that I might not be interested in this show because the Godzilla movies were not something that I got into when I was growing up. But I shouldn’t have been concerned. This is just a fun show, and I recommend it if you are looking for something to watch. Here is a video called “What You Need to Know” that will give you a little of the flavor of the show without spoiling anything:
Before this week, it has never occurred to me that an app’s push notifications on an iPhone could factor used by the government to gain information on a person, and Brett and I start this week’s episode of the In the News podcast by discussing very interesting recent new reports on this topic. We also discuss the powerful chips designed by Apple, different ways to power your devices when you are traveling, what makes the iPhone 15 Pro Max special, the future of Name Drop, Zoom on the Apple TV, and more.
In our Where Y’At? segment, we discuss tracking jackets and finding injured hikers.
In our In the Know segment, Brett and I both discuss the incredibly useful Quick Action menu and tips for making your next presentation more interesting.
Last week, I started In the News by addressing the dilemma of whether to purchase a new iPad for the holidays or to wait until next year when (surely!) Apple will come out with new iPads. This week, Mark Gurman of Bloomberg predicts some of what Apple will come out with next year, and John Gruber of Daring Fireball offers these comments on those rumors. And now, the other news of note from the past week:
Raphael Satter, reporting for Reuters, reveals that certain unidentified governments have required Apple (and Google) to reveal information about push notifications. Once this news was released, Apple decided that the story was public and thus it could offer additional information.
One of the reasons that Apple’s devices are so powerful is that Apple now designs its own chips. Katie Tarasov of CNBC has a 17-minute video and story based on her visiting an Apple chip lab. Although there isn’t anything new announced in this video, it is interesting to see the lab and to hear Apple executives talk about what makes Apple’s chips special.
Apple used to sell a device called the MagSafe Duo Charger. It was small and unfolded to charge both an iPhone (using MagSafe) and an Apple Watch. This week, Twelve South launched a similar product called the ButterFly 2-in-1 USB-C MagSafe Charger, and based on this review by Mitchel Broussard of MacRumors, it seems much better. For example, it can also serve as a StandBy stand for the iPhone, or a NightStand charger for the Apple Watch. Plus, it looks really cute. I see that while Apple is no longer selling the MagSafe Duo Charger on its online Apple Store, it is now selling the Butterfly for $130. I don’t see it on Amazon yet, but you can pre-order it directly from Twelve South.
Another travel-friendly charging option is a tiny power adapter. The Nomad 65W Slim Power Adapter, reviewed by Justin Duino of Make Use Of, looks like an interesting option because it is so small and features two USB-C ports. I don’t know anything about the manufacturer and its reputation so I cannot comment upon the quality, but the main reason I link to that story is that it is amazing how the use of gallium nitride (GaN) has allowed chargers to get smaller and smaller.
Speaking of portable power, Max Buondonno of How-To Geek identifies some of the best MagSafe iPhone battery packs. My need for a battery pack dropped dramatically when I recently updated to iPhone 15 Pro Max—the larger device has a larger battery that lasts much longer than my iPhone 14 Pro—but I know from past experience that portable battery packs are very useful.
Speaking of the iPhone 15 Pro Max, even though it has been out for a while now, you might be thinking of getting one for yourself or someone else with the holidays approaching, and Stephen Hackett of 512 Pixels posted an interesting review of the iPhone 15 Pro Max this week.
Jesse Hollington of Digital Trends explains step-by-step how to share contacts using NameDrop in iOS 17. The process is designed to be very simple; just put the two iPhones next to each other and follow the on-screen prompts. But it is nice to read that article and understand how it all works before you do it for the first time.
Joe Rossignol of MacRumors reports that in iOS 17.2, there will be a NameDrop-like feature for sharing boarding passes, movie tickets, and more. This looks like a great idea.
John Gruber of Daring Fireball reports that when iOS 17.2 comes out along with updates to the other Apple devices (which could be next week), there will no longer be iTunes Movies and iTunes TV Shows apps on the Apple TV hardware device. Instead, you can find those items in the TV app. It looks like Apple is slowly but surely getting rid of all use of the word “iTunes.”
Speaking of the Apple TV, Tim Hardwick of MacRumors reports that Zoom has released an app for the Apple TV that works with the Continuity Camera feature on the iPhone. I’ve had some FaceTime video calls using my Apple TV, Continuity Camera, and iPhone, and the quality of the video has been fantastic. And since Zoom is so popular, it is great to have this functionality. I wish we could have done this with FaceTime and Zoom when everyone was stuck at home in early 2020.
A month ago, I linked to a story about how copes in Washington, DC were promoting hiding an AirTag in your car to help track it if it is stolen. This week, they are promoting another use for an AirTag: put it in your jacket. Apparently, Canada Goose jackets have become popular targets for thieves in our nation’s capital, and since they can cost over $1,000, you will want to try to recover one if it is stolen.
Whenever I am asked for advice on smart home lights, my #1 suggestion since 2015 has been to use Lutron Caséta products. I recommend them without hesitation because they perform so well. Some of the most popular products in this line are wall switches, which work by replacing your current switch. That way, anyone in the room can just press a button on the wall to turn lights on or off the way that they would with any other wall switch. But because these products work with HomeKit, they also can be controlled via an iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Siri, HomePod, etc.. And they can also be programmed so that whenever X happens (such as a time of day, a sensor is triggered, or other event) the light can go on or off. Perhaps best of all, Lutron Caséta devices use a proprietary wireless network to talk to each other that is rock solid.
In 2015, I reviewed the original Lutron Caséta Wireless Dimmer, and I now have many of those devices in my house. I recently decided to purchase a few more Lutron switches, and I tried out two of the newest products in the Lutron Caséta family: the Diva Smart Dimmer Switch ($70 on Amazon) and Claro Smart Switch ($60 on Amazon). These products have been on the market for about a year, and like the other Lutron Caséta products, they work great.
An elegant look that works well
The Caséta Diva and Caséta Claro share a similar, elegant look. Each has a paddle-style on/off switch. The difference is that the Diva includes the ability to dim lights—either from a device like an iPhone or by using a slider that is just to the right of the switch. The Claro only supports on or off. In the following picture, the Diva is on the left, and the Claro is in the middle and the right:
The wall plate that I am using around these three switches is a Lutron Claro 3 Gang Decorator/Rocker Wallplate ($13 on Amazon). You can purchase Lutron switches and wallplates in a number of different colors.
For the Diva, you can press the top of the paddle to turn on the light to the level of brightness set with the slider. Or, double-press the top of the paddle for full brightness, regardless of the slider’s position. Press the bottom of the paddle to turn the light off. With the Lutron or Home app (or Siri), you can set the dimmer to whatever you want from 0% to 100%, regardless of what position the physical slider on the Diva is in.
I’m using the Diva to control a light on an outside porch. I’m using the two Claro switches to turn fans on or off—one inside my living room, and one on the outside porch. Note that Lutron also sells a switch ($60 on Amazon) that is designed for a fan and that also controls the fan speed, but the fans in my house don’t support that function—the speed is controlled with a pull chain—so I just needed a simple on/off switch.
One advantage of the Diva dimmer over Lutron’s original smart dimmer switch (which Lutron still sells; $60 on Amazon) is that the Diva has a more elegant, less technical look. In the below picture, the switch on the right is the original smart dimmer switch:
There are light bars to the side on the Caséta Diva and the Caséta Claro. For the Diva, the intensity of the light bar increases or decreases based upon how bright or dim you have the light set. When the switch is turned off, the light bar is very dim. It is difficult to capture that in a photograph, so in real like it looks nicer than what you see in the below picture when the Diva switch is off:
The light bars on the side of the switches make it easier to see the switches and also make it more obvious that a switch is accepting a command from the app. However, using the Lutron app, you can turn the light bars on or off. Or you can make them appear only in certain states. For example, you can decide that when the switch is off the light bar is also off so that it doesn’t bother you in the dark. Or you can decide that when the switch is off the light bar is on so that it is easier to find the switch in the dark. I think that these light bars are a nice touch so for now I have them on all of the time, but it is also great that you can make then go away if you don’t want them.
The Diva and Claro swtiches support LED lights up to 150 watts and incandescent or halogen lights of up to 600 watts. Some older LED lights don’t work as well with a dimmer switch, but you can use a “trim” feature in the Lutron app to set a minimum and maximum brightness level.
Wireless control
Before you can wirelessly control any Lutron Caséta devices in your house using an app, Siri, etc., you have to have a Lutron Smart Hub. You can buy the hub by itself for $80 from Amazon, or you can get it as part of a kit such as a Diva and a Hub together for $107 from Amazon. Once you have a single hub, connect it to power and to a wired Ethernet Internet connection. You can then control up to 75 different Lutron Caséta devices.
You can control the Caséta Diva and the Caséta Claro on your iPhone using the Lutron app, but you don’t need to do so. Lutron devices work great with Apple’s HomeKit technology, so you can control them using the built-in Home app on the iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Mac.
You can also create automations. For example, the lights on the porch in the front of my house come on near sunset and go off near sunrise. I have another automation that turns on my back porch light for five minutes (using the Lutron Diva Smart Dimmer Switch) when motion is detected on the back porch using my Eufy camera that detects motion and records video of my back porch.
And lights can work together. From my living room, I often talk out loud to Siri (picked up from my HomePod mini) and ask it to turn on my backyard lights, which causes a number of different lights to come on, most of which are connected to a Lutron Caséta switch of one sort or another.
Installation
Although technology and electricity seem like close cousins, I know a lot about technology but very little about electricity. I have successfully installed Lutron wall switches in the past when there was just one of them. Each one took me a while to do so, and it was never as simple as the instructions or YouTube videos made it seem, but I did it and everything worked. However, for many of the other Lutron wall switches in my house, including the ones that had multiple wall switches next to each other, I had an electrician do the installation.
When I started to install the Diva and two Claro switches next to each other, I tried to do it with just the help of my teenage son, who has a pretty good handle on circuits. However, I quickly discovered that I was confused by the huge number of cords packed together so tightly in my wall. The Diva doesn’t require a neutral wire but the Claro does, and for my wall, the line, load, neutral, and ground wires for each switch were difficult for me to distinguish. Fortunately, I have a relative who understands this stuff way better than I do and he was nice enough to come to my house and help me get everything working. (Thanks, Steve!) Keep this in mind when you decide whether you are going to install these switches yourself or hire an electrician.
One difference that I noted between the Diva / Claro and Lutron’s original smart dimmer switch is that there are metal “wings” on the side of the original smart dimmer switch (three on each side) that you need to break off if you are installing one switch right next to another one. Here is what the original smart dimmer switch looks like before any wings are snapped off:
The Diva and Claro switches lack these wings, so it is easier to install them adjacent to another switch:
Although I didn’t try this myself, one advantage of the Diva and Claro switches is that they can also work with an accessory switch sold by Lutron ($30 on Amazon). That way, you can have a second wall switch that turns on or off the same light. Or, if you already have a second switch that controls the same light, it should continue to operate as normal once you install the provided jumper wire, although I didn’t test this. Note that the second switch won’t act as a dimmer.
Dependability
Lutron Caséta devices have worked very well for me for many years, and I frequently hear others say the same thing. Unlike other smart home devices in my house that can sometimes seem to have a mind of their own and occasionally won’t respond to my commands, the Lutron devices just work. Over the last eight years, I have had two occasions when a Lutron device stopped working. One stopped working when we had some other electrical work taking place, and a simple reset fixed the problem. A few months ago, one of my older original dimmer switches stopped working. I sent in a support request and after talking to someone at Lutron about my problem, he sent me a replacement unit for free.
So based on my experience, these products work very well, and if you are unlucky enough to have an issue, customer support is fantastic.
Conclusion
After starting with my first Lutron Caséta dimmer switch eight years ago, I’ve now installed Lutron switches—some with dimmers, some without—at 9 different locations in my house. Plus, I have four Lutron Caséta lamp dimmers ($45 on Amazon) that plug in to an outlet and control lamps in my house. Everything works great. Anyone not using the app can just press a button on the wall, just like a traditional switch, or the lights can be controlled using the numerous methods noted above. These newest Lutron Caséta devices, the Diva and the Claro, work just as well as the units that I have been using for years, plus they look a little nicer thanks to the paddle and small slider instead of multiple buttons. These are great devices to install in a smart home. And if you are looking for a good gift for someone else who already has a Lutron hub, I suspect that they would love being able to control yet another switch.
Click here for the Lutron Caséta Diva Smart Dimmer Switch ($70 on Amazon)
Click here for the Lutron Caséta Claro Smart Switch ($60 on Amazon)
As we eagerly await the release of iOS 17.2, Brett and I begin this week’s In the News podcast by discussing a security update released by Apple this week. We then discuss all of the Apple year-end lists with the top apps, books, and podcasts. We also discuss how Apple Music and Spotify give you end-of-the-year looks at the music that you yourself listened to during the past year. We also discuss Apple’s satellite service, using an Apple Watch to help with insomnia, and how running Windows on an iPhone or iPad can be a real thing but something that looks almost exactly like an iPhone can be a fake thing.
In our In the Know segment, Brett explains why it is nice to use an Apple Watch as a wake-up alarm. I explain how you can get rid of annoying alerts in some apps that pop-up whenever you want to paste something.
Welcome to December. I find it hard to believe that we are already at the end of the year, but here we are. The end-of-the-year holidays make it a great time to give and receive Apple products as gifts, and I have had a large number of people ask me in person and via email what I would recommend for giving an iPad as a gift this month. This year, it is harder than ever to make a recommendation. On the one hand, and for the first time that I can remember, Apple has not updated ANY of its iPad models this year. I presume that means that iPad updates are coming in 2024, perhaps in the first half of 2024, and thus if you can wait to make a purchase you may be able to get even more for your money. On the other hand, nobody wants to give an “IOU” as a gift, and Apple does have a pretty compelling iPad lineup right now even though the models were released in 2022. Apple sells four types of iPads—the entry level model just called “iPad,” the mid-level iPad Air, the high-end iPad Pro, and the iPad mini. If you want a big model with a large screen, which is perfect for lawyers who want to read and annotate documents, then the 12.9″ iPad Pro is for you. If you want something small and portable like a larger phone, that’s the iPad mini. The harder decision is if you want an iPad with the traditional size of around 11″ because it can be tough to decide between an iPad Air and an iPad Pro. The iPad Air comes in 64GB (too small for many lawyers) and 256GB (either just right or too large for many lawyers). A 256GB iPad Air is $750, whereas an iPad Pro is either $50 more for 128GB or $150 more for 256GB. While the iPad Pro has a somewhat nicer screen, somewhat faster processor, and a few other minor improvements, is that worth $50 or $150 more? I don’t know. The iPad Pro does come with Face ID, which I think is a nice advantage over Touch ID. But I could see an argument either way on iPad Air vs. iPad Pro as the 11″ size. If selecting the right iPad to give someone is on your mind right now, you have my sympathy because there are lots of things to think about. And now, the news of note from the past week:
As we continue to await the new features coming in iOS 17.2, yesterday Apple released iOS 17.1.2, a security update, and Jason Cross of Macworld explains what was fixed.
The end of the year means end of the year lists, and Apple released quite a few this week. John Voorhees of MacStories reports that Apple named some apps the App of the Year. For example,The AllTrails app is the iPhone App of the Year, and Prêt-à-Makeup is the iPad app of the year.
If you use Apple Music and want to see what you have been listening to this year, go to the Apple Music Replay webpage to find out.
Apple also announced the most popular podcasts of 2023 based on folks who use the Apple Podcasts app. The In the News podcast that I record with Brett Burney did not make the cut this year, but all we need is for all of the listeners of the This American Life and Dateline NBC podcasts to subscribe to ours as well and then we are so there in 2024. Or maybe we’ll aim for the top Apple Music list if Taylor Swift reaches out to ask to record a song with us. Hey, 2024 is a new year, and the possibilities are endless.
Speaking of podcasts, there are a number of popular podcasts apps. Apple makes Podcasts, my favorite app is Overcast, I know that lots of people like Pocket Casts, but the Castro app has also had its fans because of its nice interface. Jason Snell of Six Colors reports that the Castro app is currently not working and may be shut down in the next two months. If you have been a Castro user and are now looking for something new, I recommend that you switch to Overcast or Apple’s Podcasts app.
A few weeks ago, Apple announced that emergency satellite access for the iPhone 14 and 15 would continue to be free for an additional year. This week, John Gruber writes that he thinks that Apple will never charge for the service. As he notes in a follow-up post, why would Apple want to be in a position of not saving someone’s life just because they didn’t pay some annual fee?
You can now run Windows on an iPhone. Well, sort of. as Tom Warren of The Verge reports, you can control a remote windows machine using apps from Microsoft. The technology behind this is nothing new. I use LogMeIn on my iPad (and sometimes my iPhone) to control a computer running Windows in my office. When I am working on my iPad and I need to do something that requires Windows, I just open the LogMeIn app on my iPad and do what I need to do using my Windows computer, just as if I was sitting in my office. And you can do something similar with other remote access software. In some circumstances, remote access to a computer can be the easiest way to do something on an iPad.
When the Workflow app was originally released in 2014, it was a groundbreaking automation app that was so useful and powerful that I was almost surprised that Apple let the app on the App Store. A few years later in 2017, Apple acquired the app, renaming it Shortcuts, and brought-in house the team that created the app including Ari Weinstein, Conrad Kramer, and Nick Frey. For many years now, Shortcuts has improved to become even more impressive. After several years at Apple, those folks have left—Weinstein left Apple only a few months ago—and Alex Heath of The Verge reports that Ari Weinstein and Conrad Kramer have teamed up with former Apple employee Kim Beverett (who has been involved with various teams including Safari, Messages, and FaceTime) to start a new company focused on using AI on desktop computers. It doesn’t look like their company even has a name yet, let alone a product to show off, but it will be interesting to see what this team of smart folks comes up with. In the meantime, I’ll continue to be thankful that we have Shortcuts on the iPhone and iPad.
And finally, with iOS 17, your iPhone can record your voice and create a digital version of it. That way, if you lose the ability to speak, your iPhone can speak for you using a voice that is similar to the one that you used to have. I’ve tried this out, and while not perfect, it does sort of sound like my voice. Apple released a video called The Lost Voice to show off this feature. This video, directed by Oscar-winner Taika Waititi, starts off pretty trippy, but wait until the end. For more information on the film and the narrator, Dr. Tristram Ingham, check out this article on the Apple website.
