In the News

I wish I could just talk about useful apps today, but this week, it is impossible to talk about Apple news without talking about politics. For example, Aditya Kalra, Abhijith Ganapavaram, and Munsif Vengattil of Reuters report that Apple chartered planes to bring 600 tons of iPhones to the United States from India to get them in the United States before President Trump’s tariffs began, and I’ve seen similar reports about Apple bringing in more iPhones from China and elsewhere. And yet, that might not make much of a difference. John Gruber of Daring Fireball discusses some math done by Ryan Jones: five freight plans full of iPhones is only 12 days of sales, at most. And it may be even less than 12 days because I’ve heard numerous anecdotal reports that people packed Apple stores this past weekend to purchase iPhones before they became subject to a potential Trump Tax in the event that Apple raises prices to compensate for the tariffs. Raising prices is one of Apple’s options, but Jason Snell of Six Colors notes that Apple has a few other options as well, not that any of them are good. Richard Luscombe of The Guardian reports that the White House asserts that Apple can simply make iPhones in the United States to avoid the tariffs, but experts who actually know what they are talking about have explained that the United States doesn’t have the workforce or the manufacturing capacity to do so, and it would take years for Apple to try to compensate in this way. To be fair, I recognize the need for perspective: the misfortune resulting from President Trump’s executive orders on people who want to purchase Apple products pales in importance compared to what many other people are going through right now as a result of this administration. Nevertheless, this is undeniably the big news for Apple this week. And now, the rest of the news of note from this week:

• One of the recent Trump administration scandals involving the iPhone was when National Security Advisor Mike Waltz discussed plans for an airstrike in Yemen using the Signal app instead of normal governmental channels and then added a reporter, Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic, to the chat group. We now have an answer for why Goldberg was added to the group. Anthony Ha of TechCrunch reports that the iPhone’s contact suggestion update feature caused Waltz, in the past, to mistakenly add Goldberg’s phone number to his contact entry for Brian Hughes, who is now a Trump spokesman. I recommend that you read this report so that you don’t make a similar mistake when you update one of your own contact entries. As for the even bigger question of why they used Signal to discuss incredibly confidential military secrets, we still don’t have a satisfactory answer to that one.
• Apple is not just dealing with the United States government. The UK government has ordered Apple to break its encryption so that the UK can access confidential information that it deems important about people located anywhere in the world. Moreover, the UK has prohibited Apple from even talking about that order or Apple’s challenge to the order in the courts. Nevertheless, the press found out about it anyway and challenged the confidentiality requirement. James Warrington of The Telegraph reports that media organizations prevailed in their challenge to the secrecy order. As a result, we should be learning more about what Apple and the UK government are arguing and how the UK court ultimately rules.
• One thorny issue for U.S. lawyers who travel outside of the United States is what to do when federal customs agents demand to search your iPhone when you return home. You are likely to have confidential information on your iPhone that is protected by the attorney-client privilege and the work product doctrine, so you don’t want to reveal that information to the federal government as a condition for your returning home. But you also cannot just ignore customs agents. I first wrote about this issue back in 2017, and unfortunately, I don’t have much of a better answer today than I did back then. Attorney Amir Makled recently dealt with this issue, as reported by Tresa Baldas of the Detroit Free Press. Because he had happened to represent someone who had been arrested during a college protest, the attorney’s name was placed on a government list. Thus, when he came home after taking a family vacation out of the country, customs agents stopped him at the Detroit airport, brought him to an interrogation room, and demanded access to his phone. The article describes how Makled responded. If you are a U.S. attorney and you plan to travel outside of the country, I urge you to think about what you will do if you are subject to a similar interrogation so that you will have an action plan in place.
• Mahnoor Faisal of XDA provides three good tips for using the Goodnotes app to take notes.
• The Zens Quattro Charger Pro 4 is an interesting charger that was recently released. It costs $149.99, and it lets you charge four different devices at the same time on two shelves. Zac Hall of 9to5Mac wrote a review, and he is impressed.
• Jason Cross of Macworld explains why he is a big fan of using Comply foam tips with the AirPods Pro. (They are about $20 on Amazon.) I’ve used them and been a fan for many years, for the reasons I explained in this post. I recently went back to using Apple’s tips just to remind myself of the differences. I like that Apple’s own tips do a better job of fitting in the case. However with Apple’s tips, I have had an AirPod fall out of my ears twice over the last few weeks, and for that reason, I am thinking about going back to the Comply tips.
• The latest version of Apple’s HomeKit technology supports robot vacuums. Rajesh Mishra of the Mac Observer recommends specific models that now work with HomeKit.
• Chris Keall of The New Zealand Herald reports on a woman who learned that she had cancer because of her Apple Watch. The Vitals app alerted her that her heart rate had increased substantially, and that prompted her to see a doctor and learn that she had blood cancer that could have killed her within days. She is now receiving treatment.
• Rudie Obias and Danielle Directo-Meston of The Hollywood Reporter note that for the next few weeks, you can sign up for Apple TV+ for only $2.99/month, a 70% savings. That’s a great discount, and with so many fantastic shows on Apple TV+ right now, I encourage you to take advantage of it if you don’t currently subscribe.
• David Snow of Cult of Mac explains why you should watch the Apple TV+ show The Studio. I’ve really enjoyed the first three episodes, and I’m looking forward to the rest of the season.
• The new show on Apple TV+ that starts today is Your Friends and Neighbors, a dark comedy starring Jon Hamm, Olivia Munn, and Amanda Peet. The early reviews have been quite good. For example, John Powers of NPR calls it “a perfect role for Hamm, who carries with him our memories of Don Draper’s dark-souled charisma, then takes this sort of character in a new direction—funnier, sadder and more sympathetic. He’s never been better.” I’m excited to start watching it.
• Jason Snell of Six Colors identifies his favorite shows on Apple TV+, and he has some great ones on his list.
• There is a new show coming to Apple TV+ on May 16 that looks very interesting called Murderbot. It is a Sci-Fi workplace comedy, which is a genre you don’t see very often, starring Alexander Skarsgård, and it is based on the award-winning book The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells. Ryan Christoffel of 9to5Mac describes the show and shares the trailer.
• There is a new movie coming to Apple TV+ on May 23 called Fountain of Youth. It is from director Guy Ritchie, it stars John Krasinski and Natalie Portman, and it looks to have an Indiana Jones vibe to it. Christoffel describes the show and shares the trailer.
• It is now much easier for an Apple Vision Pro owner to let someone else try out the device, thanks to improvements in visionOS 2.4. Devon Dundee of MacStories explains what is new. I tried out this new system a few times now—including with Brett Burney when I was at ABA TECHSHOW last week—and it works really well.
• At the end of 2024, Apple released Ice Dive, an episode in its Adventure Immersive Video series for the Apple Vision Pro. It shows diver Ant Williams attempting to break the world record for swimming the longest distance under ice with just one breath. As Chance Miller of 9to5Mac notes, the latest episode of the Voices of PR podcast interviews Williams to talk about the making of that video. It is fascinating to learn how the video was created. And as Williams notes, it is incredible to have something like this filmed in an Immersive Video because it allows others to understand what Williams did in a way that a traditional 2D video simply cannot convey. I agree with that 100%, and this is why I believe that, at some point in the future, Immersive Video is going to be an incredible tool for lawyers to use to let a judge and jury understand a setting in a way that traditional demonstrative exhibits simply cannot convey. Of course, because it is such a powerful tool, it also has the potential to be prejudicial, but lawyers have navigated those waters in the past with high-quality photos, videos, accident reconstruction demonstrative exhibits, etc.
• As a reminder, you can find an updated list of all of Apple’s Immersive Videos on this page.
• If a law firm website is something that is of interest to you, my firm Adams and Reese now has a new logo and a new website. While I wasn’t involved in the rebranding, I think it came out really well. On the other hand, here at iPhone J.D., my current plan is to keep using the same banner I created in 2008. It makes me smile to remember my old iPhone 3G and think about how far the iPhone has come since then.
• And finally, this week, Apple released a video called Rick’s Rescue to share the true story of how Rick Sherman used the Emergency SOS feature on his Apple Watch to call for help when he was swept out to sea while swimming off the coast of Australia. For more on this dramatic story, includng details on how the Apple Watch saved his life, here is a 2024 report from ABC News in Australia.