My son and I traveled from New Orleans to Dallas to see the eclipse earlier this week, and I'm so glad that we made the trip. The time leading up to (and after) the eclipse was fascinating, with the sun forming a crescent that you normally associate with the moon, the temperature dropping noticeably and quickly, and the light dimming in a bizarre way that is very different from dawn or dusk. And then the total eclipse was just crazy. Seeing a black hole in the sky made me feel like I was in the middle of some science fiction movie with big-budget special effects. I took a few pictures and videos with my iPhone that I liked, but my son took some truly incredible pictures with his telescope connected to an SLR camera. (I posted a few to my Mastodon account that are worth checking out.) It was a special way to start the week and something that I will never forget. And now, the news of note from the past week:
- Mark your calendar: the next eclipse that will cross much of the United States will be Saturday, August 12, 2045. It starts in northern California and ends up in Florida, with most of Florida in the path of totality (I cannot even imagine how many people will be packed into Disney World since Orlando is right in the middle of the path). I hope to be there.
- The Humane AI Pin, developed by former Apple engineers, is being marketed as a device to replace your iPhone. But David Pierce of The Verge used it for two weeks and was not impressed, finding a few impressive moments in a sea of lots of frustration. But the video that he created as a part of his review is interesting to watch. My main takeaway is that the Apple Watch solves the same problem and does it much better (an observation that David also makes in this video).
- The Apple Vision Pro also has lots of room for improvement, but it can do many things incredibly well. Jason Snell of Six Colors calls it an ongoing experiment.
- John Voorhees of MacStories reviews Seasons, a weather app for the Apple Vision Pro that takes advantage of spatial computing.
- If you want to watch Netflix programming on an Apple Vision Pro, Zac Hall of 9to5Mac recommends the Supercut app, which costs $5 and includes 4K video and Doby Atmos multichannel audio.
- Lumafield took some X-ray CT images of the Apple Vision Pro that show just how sophisticated the hardware is.
- If you are looking for a hub for your iPad Pro (or MacBook), I see that the Anker 555 USB-C Hub is on sale on Amazon for only $39.95. It includes Ethernet, HDMI, USB-C PD (input), USB-C 3.1 10Gbps (output), two USB-A 3.1 Gen 2 ports, and an SD card (or microSD).
- If you use your iPhone and other Apple devices to get work done, it is critical that you do what you can to keep the device secure, such as installing software updates from Apple. As one data point showing what we are up against, Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai of TechCrunch reports that companies are now paying $5 to $7 million for zero-day iPhone hacks. That's a lot of incentive for hackers to look for the next way to break into your device.
- Of course, the one thing scarier than hackers trying to hack the type of phone that you use is hackers trying to hack your specific iPhone. Manish Singh of TechCrunch reports that Apple spent alerts to specific people in 92 countries on Wednesday that said: "Apple detected that you are being targeted by a mercenary spyware attack that is trying to remotely compromise the iPhone associated with your Apple ID [specific ID]. This attack is likely targeting you specifically because of who you are or what you do. Although it’s never possible to achieve absolute certainty when detecting such attacks, Apple has high confidence in this warning — please take it seriously."
- If you ever get a warning like that from Apple, or you are afraid that you might be the sort of target who could get such a warning in the future, you should consider turning on Lockdown mode on your iPhone. That special mode is made for people like you.
- A new series called Dark Matter is coming to Apple TV+ on May 8, and Oliver Haslam of iMore says that this is good news because it was one of the best sci-fi books of the last decade.
- And finally, Apple TV+ released the first trailer for the movie Fly Me to the Moon starring Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum. It is a comedy-drama that takes place around the Apollo 11 mission, and it looks like a lot of fun. It releases in theaters this July and then I'm sure on Apple TV+ a little after that. Here is the trailer:
