One of the tech writers that I often link to in these Friday posts is Dan Moren, who works with Jason Snell to publish the great website SIx Colors and also hosts a number of great podcasts. I mention Dan this week because I just finished reading the last book in his Glactic Cold War series, and I loved it, just like I loved all of the books in that series (and the short stories that fill in some gaps between the books). If you like science fiction, adventure, space, and spy thrillers, then you will love these books, and I highly recommend them. Coincidentally, the same day that I finished reading the last book in that series, Dan published his last Stay Foolish article for Macworld, ending a decade of that great column. In his final article, Dan discusses what it means to be a fan of Apple products in today’s world. And now, the news of note from the past week:
- Although Apple won most of the claims in the lawsuit filed against it by Epic a few years ago, the judge did issue an order against Apple that related to in-app payments. This week, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ruled that Apple failed to comply with the judge’s prior orders, and even found that an Apple executive lied under oath. There are lots of good reports about the ruling from people like Jason Snell of Six Colors, John Voorhees of MacStories, and John Gruber of Daring Fireball (1, 2). Apple says that it will appeal, but in the meantime, it has changed the App Store Guidelines in several different ways, as noted by Chance Miller of 9to5Mac.
- What is the general opinion on how Apple products are doing in large companies? Jason Snell of Six Colors published the results of his fifth annual Apple in the Enterprise survey. I know for a fact that at least some of the report reflects the use of Apple products in a law firm because I was one of the 124 people surveyed.
- Chifundo Kasiya of Make Use Of identifies some useful iPhone accessibility features and other features that are worth checking out.
- Modern iPhones can use satellites to send and receive text messages when cellphone service is not available. Jared Newman of @dvisorator does a good job running down the available options.
- Zac Hall of 9to5Mac shares the story of a man in Ohio who had a stroke during a workout and was rescued thanks to his Apple Watch.
- Last week, I noted that Jason Snell of Six Colors is lukewarm about wearing an Apple Watch when he sleeps, but I find it valuable to do so. Shelly Brisbin wrote an alternative take on Six Colors, explaining why she also finds it valuable.
- It’s a new month, so that means new shows are coming to Apple TV+. Ryan Christoffel of 9to5Mac lists all of the new shows coming this month. The list includes the sci-fi thriller comedy Murderbot (starting May 16), the action-adventure movie Fountain of Youth (May 23), and the show Bono: Stories of Surrender (May 30), which will also be available as an immersive movie on the Apple Vision Pro.
- Not on that list is an Apple TV+ show that debuted on April 30 called Carême, a sexy historical culinary drama loosely based on the life of the famous French chef Antonin Carême. It currently has 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, and I plan to check it out. (Note that this is a French show, so prepare for subtitles if you don’t parlez the français.)
- If you want to send some Star Wars-themed emoji and stickers this Sunday as you celebrate May the 4th (be with you), Justin Meyers of Gadget Hacks came up with a ton of different ways to do so.
- I’m all in favor of using technology in new and creative ways in a law practice, but there is a certain point when you clearly go too far, and as Kevin Underhill of Lowering the Bar explains, the Dragon Lawyer went way too far.
- Suno is a service that uses AI to generate songs. An iPhone J.D. reader (who has asked to remain anonymous) got frustrated at Siri one day when he asked Siri to play Alicia Keys and it instead played Carol King, so he asked Suno to create a Blues song about his frustrations. The result is the amusing song Siri Blues, which is presented for your enjoyment. There is something apropos about having one AI make fun of another AI.
- And finally, in this video called Clean Up Photos: Flex, Apple shows off one way that you can use the Clean Up tool in the Photos app (which is part of Apple Intelligence) to quickly remove a part of a picture that you don’t like. I remember working with photos years ago when features like this were slow and complicated. It is amazing that you can now do it with just a few taps in a few seconds.