As of the time that I am typing these words, we still don't know the details on what caused the massive outage on AT&T's network yesterday except that it wasn't a cyber attack. Fortunately, service was restored by yesterday afternoon. It didn't affect everyone. Some cities were worse than others. Here in New Orleans, I didn't notice it on my iPhone, but my son did. Marlene Lenthang and Katherine Itoh of NBC News report that Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, and Atlanta had more issues than many other cities. And while it was just a minor annoyance for some, I hope that the number of critical calls that did not go through, including 911 calls, were minimal. It all serves as a good reminder that many services that we rely on and take for granted can be quite fragile. And now, the news of note from the past week:
- Due to a schedule conflict, Brett Burney and I will not be able to record an episode of the In the News podcast this week. That's a shame because, over the last few weeks since the release of the Apple Vision Pro, we have had many new listeners to our (usually) weekly podcast, and there is actually quite a bit to talk about this week. But fear not, we'll make up for it next week. If you haven't yet become a regular listener of the podcast, I encourage you to check out the latest episode and subscribe in your podcast player of choice so you are ready to join us next week. Or you can always just watch on YouTube: youtube.com/InTheNewsShow
- Last week, Brett Burney was at ABA TECHSHOW. While I could not attend, I always enjoy hearing the technology tips at the 60 in 60 session that traditionally ends the legal technology conference. Danielle Braff of ABA Journal reports on that session and even provides a link to the slides so that you can see all of the tips yourself—most of which are useful even if you are not a lawyer.
- The iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro are even better than we thought. Apple originally said that the battery would remain in good shape (able to retain up to 80% of its original capacity) for 500 complete charge cycles. As reported by Chance Miller of 9to5Mac, Apple is now saying that it can do that for 1000 complete charge cycles.
- Apple released a new free iPhone app this week called Sports. The app focuses on giving you the latest sports scores and doing it as fast as possible. It looks great. Harry McCracken of Fast Company discusses the new app and shares quotes from Apple executives about why they created the app.
- Jason Snell of Six Colors also wrote about the app, and his article includes comments from Apple's Eddy Cute.
- What do you do if you drop your iPhone in water? Apple's offers advice in this article on its website. Notably, Apple says to ignore the often-heard advice to put your iPhone in a bag of rice because doing so could allow small particles of rice to damage your iPhone.
- As reported by Joe Rossignol of MacRumors, this week Apple announced that it will be implementing a new post-quantum cryptographic protocol for iMessage called PQ3 that will offer extensive defenses against even highly sophisticated quantum attacks. I don't think that I know what any of these words mean, but I guess that sounds good?
- Stephanie Stahl and Brad Nau of CBS News report that a man in New Jersey—who purchased an Apple Watch because he thought it looks "cool" "hip" and "in style"—is now thankful for his purchase for another reason: it saved his life, warning him that his heart rate was too low while he was sleeping. The article also notes: "Recently, the National Institutes of Health published research that reviewed 18 studies on smartwatches' ability to detect cardiac arrhythmias and said the accuracy is high."
- There are not a lot of accessories available for the Apple Vision Pro, but there are a few worth considering. MacStories rounds up some of the best accessories that are available now.
- In the demo reel for the Vision Pro, Apple shows short clips of sports in spatial video, and it looks amazing. Chance Miller of 9to5Mac reports that Apple said this week that it will release a film about the 2023 MLS Cup Playoffs that will show the soccer being played in 3D, thanks to cameras that filmed the games in 8K 3D with a 180-degree field of view. This sounds amazing. I want the ability to watch highlights from a Saints NFL football game in spatial video.
- Dan Barbera of MacRumors created a really interesting video review of the Apple Vision Pro.
- And finally, an even more impressive Apple Vision Pro video comes from Ryan Hudson-Peralta. He shows off the tons of different ways that you can use and control an Apple Vision Pro even if you don't have hands. Wow:
