Apple has created and/or popularized so many great gestures on the iPhone and other products: the pinch gesture, pull-to-refresh, swipe down or up for controls, switching iPad apps by swiping with multiple fingers, the new Apple Vision Pro gestures, and so many more. When I recently reviewed the Apple Watch Ultra 2, I noted that the new double tap feature added to the Apple Watch last year is a useful gesture that could be even better if it could do more. Zac Hall of 9to5Mac notes that in the upcoming watchOS 11, this Apple Watch gesture will be far more useful because when your Apple Watch is in its default mode (showing a watch face) a double tap will bring up the new Smart Stack feature that shows the widgets you are mostly likely to want to use at any particular time. With new Apple Watches coming out in perhaps just a few weeks, there will soon be a new wave of people upgrading (or getting their first Apple Watch) and taking advantage of this new gesture. And now, the news of note from the past week:
- Ryan Christoffel of 9to5Mac argues that the iPhone 15 introduced by Apple last year will be obsolete faster than any prior iPhone, in part because it won’t support the Apple Intelligence features that are coming soon but also because, if Apple releases a fourth generation iPhone SE this year, the iPhone 15 may pale in comparison. He makes an interesting argument, and I suspect that we will find out in just a few weeks if he is right.
- In another post, Christoffel describes one of the coolest features coming with Apple Intelligence: the ability to describe what you want to see and then have Photos create a Memories movie for you based on your instructions. That sounds like a lot of fun to use.
- Filipe Espósito of 9to5Mac reports that Apple is changing the rules for signing up for AppleCare+ after you purchase an Apple item. Instead of having 30 days after the original coverage expires, Apple is extending that to 45 days.
- Fernando Silva of 9to5Mac recommends seven widgets to use in StandBy Mode on the iPhone.
- Juli Clover of MacRumors notes that you can now use Apple’s Podcasts app in a web browser. And as John Gruber of Daring Fireball points out, this could be useful if you spend time using Windows but still want to listen to your podcasts from the Apple Podcasts app.
- In an article for Six Colors and Macworld, Dan Moren shares some interesting thoughts on CarPlay. On the one hand, it is a feature so beloved that many people won’t even consider purchasing a vehicle that doesn’t support it. On the other hand, because so much control lies in the hands of car manufacturers, Apple has trouble moving the technology forward.
- A woman in New York got sick and tired of someone stealing her mail, so she took matters into her own hands by mailing herself an AirTag. You can probably guess what happened next, as reported by William Gallagher of AppleInsider.
- Click here to see the winning pictures from the 17th annual iPhone Photography Awards. There are some great shots in there, and many of them give me ideas for making my own photos better.
- The monitor that I use with my Mac mini at home (and which also works with an iPad) is the Apple Studio Display. It is fantastic. It cost $1,599 when I purchased it, but it is currently on sale at Amazon for $1,299.99, which is quite a discount.
- This is just a patent application, so it is far from a shipping product. but I was excited by this story from David Schloss at AppleInsider. Apple is working on a future technology for the Apple Vision Pro that would use liquid-filed lenses and an electrical current to generate an eyeglass prescription without the need for lenses. They could be adjusted as your vision changes, and they would work better with AR environments. Sounds great!
- Dark Matter was a great new TV show on Apple TV+ this year. If you like science fiction, I strongly recommend it. Peter White of Deadline reports that Apple has just renewed the show for a second season. The first season is based on a book and there is no sequel, so the folks between the show will have to come up with new stories for the second season. Hopefully, they can do it, and do it well!
- If you have been using an iPad this week, then you have something in common with Vice President Kamala Harris, as shown by this picture on Threads.
- And finally, I was incredibly impressed by the first version of Final Cut Pro for the iPad, and now version 2 is even more amazing. The abilities of this app are far beyond what I need when I put together my simple home videos, but I love having all of this power because every time I make a new video I find an excuse to learn about another feature that is new to me. And this app does a great job of showing how powerful the iPad Pro is. Here is a video released by Apple this week that shows some of the power of this app: