Ten years ago, I wrote about a new service that Apple was debuting called Apple Pay. I ended that post by saying: “Apple Pay doesn’t yet work with every credit card, and for now only works in some stores. As the service expands over time it will become more and more useful. But whenever I am shopping somewhere that does support Apple Pay, I can’t imagine a reason that I would ever pay any other way.” This week, Apple issued a press release to note the 10th anniversary of Apple Pay. And of course, today, it does work with just about every credit card and just about every store and I use Apple Pay to pay virtually everywhere that I go. Indeed, just last weekend, I was asking my teenagers if they needed some cash for when my wife and I were out of town, and they looked at me as if I had two heads, reminding me that they could just pay with their iPhone wherever they go. Of course, sometimes the tables are turned and I’m the one who is amazed that others don’t appreciate Apple Pay as much as I do. For example, when I use Apple Pay, I virtually always pay with my Apple Watch, not my iPhone, and I’m amazed at the number of times that a cashier will look at me in amazement that I just paid with my watch. Seems like they would see that all the time by now? Well anyway, kudos to Apple for debuting and popularizing Apple Pay, and I look forward to using it for at least another ten years. And now, the news of note from the past week:
- Adam Engst of TidBITS wrote the best article that I have seen describing how to use the Messages via Satellite feature in iOS 18. I recommend that you read this article now so that you will know what to do if you find yourself in a situation in which you need to communicate but there are no working cell towers near you.
- iPhone Roadside Assistance via Satellite, a close cousin of Messages via Satellite, is now available in the United Kingdom according to Tim Hardwick of MacRumors.
- Earlier this week, I discussed the new iPad mini (A17 Pro). Ben Lovjoy of 9to5Mac explores the reasons why there are relatively few changes between this model and the prior version of the iPad mini.
- David Sparks of MacSparky says that some people want an iPad mini Pro. That would be a nice device, but I suspect that the market for it would be pretty small.
- At some point very soon, Apple is going to release iOS 18.1 with some of the first Apple Intelligence features. Ryan Christoffel of 9to5Mac reports that one of them will be to add AI to the Wallet app in the form of notification summaries. For example, as Ryan explains, instead of giving you a lot of different notifications about a lot of different expenses you had yesterday, the app can just say “You spent [$amount] at Disney World yesterday.” I’ll have to see how this works, but this type of very personal AI might be useful.
- Later on this year, I suspect that we will see iOS 18.2. Benjamin Mayo of 9to5Mac reports that one of the new features in 18.2 will be enhanced caller ID for businesses that sign up with Apple. For example, if you get a call from Walgreens, you might see the Walgreens logo—not only a quicker way to see who is calling, but also a confirmation that the real business is the one that is calling you. This sounds like a good idea.
- Kyle Chayka explains in an article in The New Yorker how the ability to take pictures on an iPhone has made him fall in love with photography again. (As a reminder, even if you don’t subscribe to The New Yorker, you can read those articles if you subscribe to Apple News+.)
- Jason Snell of Six Colors reviews the new AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation. His verdict is that the noise cancellation is not as good as the AirPods Pro, but if the AirPods Pro don’t work for your ears, perhaps the AirPods 4 will be a better match for you.
- The brand new Apple Watch Series 10 has a retail price of $429 for the 46mm case and $399 for the 42mm case, but you can already get them both at a nice discount if you purchase from Amazon. (That’s an affiliate link.) I’m surprised to see these nice discounts considering that the product is still so new.
- William Gallagher of AppleInsider wrote a fascinating article about how surgeons using an Apple Vision Pro can not only do their job better but it can also reduce pain for the surgeon because they don’t have to keep twisting and turning to see different screens around the operating room.
- Devon Dundee wrote a comprehensive review of visionOS 2 for MacStories.
- If you miss the keyboard on your Blackberry, Clicks is a hardware device that provides something similar for the iPhone, and Fernando Silva of 9to5Mac says that the new version for the iPhone 16 models adds lots of improvements over last year’s model.
- Chance Miller of 9to5Mac reports that you can now order Chick-Fil-A—or, at least, repeat a prior order—using the Chick-Fil-A app on CarPlay.
- It makes me so mad whenever I see something showing how the Taliban’s treatment of women in Afghanistan has been so insanely oppressive. How can this be happening in our world in 2024? David Snow of Cult of Mac discusses an upcoming Apple TV+ movie called Bread & Roses that tells the story of women being stripped of their human rights as the Islamic fundamentalists took control of Kabul, Afghanistan, in 2021. It debuts in a month (November 22, 2024), and I suspect that this film will be quite powerful.
- One of my favorite shows on Apple TV+ is Bad Monkey, and I’m thrilled that there will be a second season. And perhaps there will even be three seasons or more. Co-creator Bill Lawrence and lead actor Vince Vaughn were interviewed by Max Gao of The Hollywood Reporter. Don’t read that article until you have finished the first season, but when you have, the article is a great read.
- In addition to finishing the first season of Bad Monkey, I also just finished the fourth season of Slow Horses, another amazing show on Apple TV+. It was amazing. If you haven’t started watching Slow Horses yet, I’m so jealous that you have four fantastic seasons to start watching now! Paul Tassi of Forbes predicts that we will see season five around August 2025, and Apple itself announced this week that it has ordered a sixth season. That’s great news.
- And finally, here is a cute video called Who Said That? in which members of the cast of Slow Horses guess which Apple TV+ show a line came from. It’s only 90 seconds long, and it’s fun: