I love being a lawyer, but it is one of those professions that tends to fill up whatever available time that you have. It always seems like there is even more that can be done to help my clients. But we all need balance, and one way to find time for the important things in life outside of work is to be more efficient when it comes to tasks that are time sucks. Dealing with a large email inbox is definitely one of those tasks, and this is where Sanebox can be a huge help.
Although I use SaneBox with multiple email accounts, let me focus on just one of them today: my Gmail account. This is my primary personal email account, so I receive numerous emails from people on topics that are unrelated to my work. I have also been using that account for decades when shopping, and that means that it gets tons of marketing emails. These are not spam, becuase many of them are vendors that I use, and if it is time for me to buy an item, I want to take advantage of that email with this month’s coupon. And I also subscribe to some newsletters that go to that account. Before I started using SaneBox, I would sometimes look at my Gmail inbox and see such an overwhelming number of new messages that I didn’t even know where to start.
But thanks to SaneBox, those days are now over for me. My Inbox typically has fewer than 10 emails when I check it, making it easy and quick to see if there is something important there, and then I can get back to my life. This huge increase in efficiency is amazing.
From time to time, I’ll glance at my @SaneNews folder. That is where SaneBox files emails that are likely to be less urgent, things like newsletters and other emails sent to a large audience. I want to see many of these emails, just not all of the time. Thanks to the @SaneNews folder, I can view those emails only when I am ready for them.
I also occasionally look at my @SaneLater folder. Those are likely to be marketing emails that I don’t mind receiving because I occasionally will have an interest in looking at them, but I just don’t want them clogging up my inbox. When I open that @SaneLater folder, I immediately click the box at the top left of Gmail to select all items. If there are one or two that I want to read right now or in the future, I unclick the boxes next to those. Then I click the delete button and delete the rest. I couldn’t easily do that if these emails were in a single inbox along with the key messages that I want and the newsletters that I want to save. But since they are all in @SaneLater, I can deal with them quickly, all at once.
SaneBox does an excellent job of sorting these emails for me. However, if it ever makes a decision that you disagree with—such as placing something in @SaneLater that should be in @SaneNews or even in my main inbox—I just move that email to the folder where it belongs. That teaches SaneBox how to handle future emails from the same sender.
If you want to try out SaneBox to see what a huge difference it can make in your life, click here to get a 14-day free trial with no credit card required. If you don’t like having a clean and tidy Inbox and decide to return to how you had it before, no sweat. But if you appreciate having a better way of working with email, using this link in this post will give you a generous $25 credit for when you pick a plan—and there are lots of different plans offered so that you can choose the one that gives you just what you want.
Thanks to SaneBox for sponsoring iPhone J.D. this month. And a special thanks to SaneBox for giving me extra time in my life.
It turns out, there is a LOT to say about the new AirPods Pro 3, and Brett and I begin today’s episode of the In the News podcast going deep into all of the details. Next, we discuss what makes the iPhone Pro and iPhone Pro Max especially nice models this year, why some people are instead fans of the iPhone Air, what Brett likes most about the Apple Watch Ultra 3, and some less obvious but useful features in iOS 26.
In our In the Vision segment, we discuss numerous new immersive videos coming to the Apple Vision Pro.
In our ‘In the Show’ segment, we discuss two shows that Apple is currently not allowing you to see (Tehran and The Savant), and one show that we are very excited to watch (Season 5 of Slow Horses).
In our In the Know segment, Brett discusses Spatial photos on the iPhone, and I discuss pairing two AirPods to a single Apple TV so that two people can watch TV without making noise that could bother others.
Although I purchased a new iPhone and the AirPods Pro 3 this month, I did not purchase a new Apple Watch because my Apple Watch Series 10 (my review) is still doing everything that I want. For folks who are a fan of the biggest and most feature-packed Apple Watch, the Apple Watch Ultra, the new third-generation model is getting great reviews. For example, Vanessa Hand Orellana of CNet calls it “a Land Rover for your wrist” and says that it “straddles that line between rugged and refined,” even though she also says that she prefers the thinner design of the Series 11 (which is the same, excellent design as the Series 10). What amazes me is that it wasn’t that long ago that the Apple Watch was an innovative but underpowered and slow device; today, it is so much better. And now, the news of note from the past week:
Before talking about tech, please remember that there are only a few days left to show your support for kids with cancer by making a donation, no matter how big or small, to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital as a part of this year’s fundraising campaign. Your donation will make good things happen, so I won’t be the only one who greatly appreciates your generosity.
I’ve really enjoyed using the new AirPods Pro 3 for the reasons I noted in my review. And the reviews from others have been quite positive. Tammy Rogers of Tom’s Guide calls them “the best pair of AirPods that Apple has ever released, with massive and tangible upgrades to one of the best sets of buds from the last five years.”
Jürgen Kraus of Audio Reviews said that he has tested “hundreds” of in-ear headphones and that his audio quality tests the AirPods Pro 3 “blow me away.”
Gareth Beavis of Digital Trends is an avid runner, and while he has long been a fan of AirPods, he wore the Jabra Elite Active 8 while running because of the more secure fit . But the AirPods Pro 3 fit so much better that he remarked: “These are the first set of Apple’s earphones ever that I feel confident using over a long run, and that’s, by far, the feature I wanted above all else.”
I’ve also really enjoyed using the iPhone 17 Pro Max this week (my review). Julian Chokkattu of Wired is also a fan, praising the heat management, battery life, and improved cameras.
In an article for Macworld, Mahmoud Itani shows off what the telephoto lens on the iPhone 17 Pro can do. “Not only does the optical zoom perform better than last year’s model, but the digital zoom has also eliminated noticeable pixelation—even when hitting the 40x limit.”
I enjoyed looking at the portion of iFixit’s teardown video and pictures that showed the Vapor Chamber of the iPhone 17 Pro. The technology itself is almost beautiful to see, and iFixit’s heat tests show that it works to prevent the processor from overheating, which caused the iPhone 16 Pro to throttle back the processor to compensate.
I’ve heard many people say that they opted for a “pro” model instead of the iPhone Air because they want the extra cameras. But for those who were okay with a single camera, the iPhone Air reviews have been quite positive. Ryan Christoffel of 9to5Mac says that he “can’t imagine going back to a thicker, heavier iPhone” now that the thin iPhone Air “feels like the new normal.”
Riley Hill of Slate Pad says that the iPhone Air is the best model for him because it “does the things most people use their phones for in an attractive, futuristic form factor.” I think that a lot of people are going to agree with that.
One of the initial fears about the thin iPhone Air was that it might be too easy to bend. As Ed Hardy of Cult of Mac notes, there is nothing to be worried about.
In Settings -> Battery -> Charging, you have the option to set the charge limit at something less than 100% (as low as 80%), which in theory can extend the life of a battery. But Juli Clover of MacRumors tried it for a full year and concluded that it didn’t make a significant difference on her battery’s health and was more inconvenient.
Ryan Christoffel of 9to5Mac says that a reason to purchase Apple’s products for the home over those from competitors is to avoid obnoxious ads. For example, a recent software update to Samsung’s smart refrigerators shows you ads. In your kitchen. A big NO THANK YOU from me to that.
As noted by Jason Snell of Six Colors, Apple released a new immersive video for the Apple Vision Pro—Tour De Force from CANAL+ and MotoGP—and announced many more immersive videos coming out soon. These are videos produced by people outside of Apple, made possible thanks to the new URSA Cine camera from Blackmagic. I hope that the floodgate is finally opened and that we are about to see a big increase in the number of excellent immersive films. And by the way, that MotoGP video is excellent, on par with anything that Apple has released.
Today was supposed to be the day that Apple TV+ aired the first episode of the new limited series The Savant starring Jessica Chastain. In the show, Chastain’s character infiltrates online hate groups to prevent public attacks. But Apple changed its mind this week, presumably as a result of the assassination of Charlie Kirk. As noted by Denise Petski and Nellie Andreeva of Deadline, Chastain disagrees with Apple’s decision. Chastain makes a good point. If we wait until violence by extremists ends before a show like this can air, it may never air.
Season 5 of Slow Horses on Apple TV+ starts today. The first four seasons were fantastic. My sense of the early reviews for Season 5 is that this is not the best season, but the show remains good. Chris Bennion of The Independent says: “The performances remain superb, the script is as sharp as they come, and the comedy/action balance is handled beautifully.”
And finally, in this YouTube video, D. Griffin Jones of Cult of Mac and Niléane of MacStories provide a demonstration of how the new Live Translation feature works for an English/French conversation. As you can see, this first version of the technology is certainly not perfect, but it absolutely works to let you overcome the language barrier.
AirPods are one of Apple’s best products ever. They are useful, they work great, and the appeal is so universal that you see them everywhere. Almost six years ago, Apple announced AirPods Pro, adding noise cancellation and soft tips. Three years ago, Apple started selling AirPods Pro 2, which improved the sound, improved noise cancellation, improved battery life, and added Find My support for the case. A few days ago, Apple released the latest iteration: AirPods Pro 3 ($249 on Amazon). Once again, they improve upon all of the key features, including how they sound, noise cancellation, battery life, and more.
Design changes
On a quick look, you are unlikely to notice any design difference between the AirPods Pro 3 and the AirPods Pro 2. The case looks almost exactly the same. Only when side-by-side do you notice that the AirPods Pro 3 case is just slightly taller, and you cannot see the LED when it is turned off because it is hidden in the body of the case. In the next three pictures, the newer model is on the left.
When the LED light is on, it is much brighter on the new model:
The back of the case has another slight difference: the back of the AirPods Pro 2 case has a button, used for Bluetooth pairing. With the AirPods Pro 3 case, you double-tap on the front of the case near the LED, while the AirPods are in the case, to enter pairing mode.
If you look at the AirPods Pro itself, you also might miss the difference between the 2 and the 3. There is a difference in the shape, but it is slight. In this picture, the newer model is on the right:
You can, however, notice in the above picture that the tip is smaller on the AirPods Pro 3. More on that below.
Where you really see the difference between the second and third-generation AirPods Pro is when you remove the tip. For the AirPods Pro 2, the speaker grill is flush against the device. For the AirPods Pro 3, the speaker is on a stem, so the sound goes deeper into your ear canal.
These design changes may seem slight, but when combined with updated internals, they make a meaningful difference. Here is how.
Better sound
You wear AirPods to listen to sound, so of course, you want the best sound quality possible. I’ve always thought that the AirPods Pro 2 sounded great. But when you go back and forth between the AirPods Pro 2 and the AirPods Pro 3, it is easy to tell that the sound quality has improved. I’m not sure if this is because of the new design (such as the longer stem with the spaker), new internals, or both.
For example, I’m a fan of the Bluegrass band AJ Lee & Blue Summit. They have a new EP coming out next month, and a few of the songs have been released early, such as the great song Glendale Train. As an acoustic song with strong individual performances, it is nice to hear crisp sound from each of the instruments. As good as that song sounds when I listen to it on my AirPods Pro 2, it sounds noticeably better on the AirPods Pro 3.
Apple has also improved the bass. When listening to a bass-heavy song, such as Boss Mode from Knife Party, you can feel and experience each bass drop more with the AirPods Pro 3.
Improved sound quality is, of course, a good thing. Having said that, I should mention that it was only when I went back and forth between the second and third generation models that I noticed the difference. They both sound really good; it’s just that one sounds slightly better. This is something to consider when you think about whether it is worth spending the money to upgrade.
Better noise cancellation
When the original AirPods Pro were released in 2019, the big new feature was active noise cancellation. Whether you were trying to avoid the white noise of airline travel or the sounds of downtown in a city, it was wonderful to have more focus on your music or a podcast. Three years later, Apple released the AirPods Pro 2, which Apple says had twice as much noise cancellation. This year, Apple says that AirPods Pro 3 have twice as much noise cancellation as AirPods Pro 2 (so 4x the noise cancellation of the original AirPods Pro).
I suspect that part of the improved noise cancellation comes from the longer speaker stem. Additionally, Apple is now using foam-infused ear tips for greater passive noise isolation. The foam is subtle, but it is there.
Just like the sound improvements, the noise cancellation improvements are most noticeable when you go back-and-forth between an older model and the AirPods Pro 3. I would not call it a dramatic improvement, but it is a noticeble improvement.
Better fit
As much as I have enjoyed the AirPods Pro and the AirPods Pro 2, I was never fully satisfied with the way that they fit my ears. As a result, for the last few years, I’ve gone back-and-forth between using the tips that came from Apple and third-party tips, such as the COMPLY Foam tips for the AirPods Pro ($19.99 on Amazon) in an attempt to find an improved fit.
The original AirPods Pro came with three different tip sizes: S, M, and L. The AirPods Pro 2 added a new size: XS. With the AirPods Pro 3, you get five different sizes. They come with M installed, and the other choices in the box are L, S, XS, and XXS.
But the big news this year is not just that you get five sizes instead of four or three. What matters is that AirPods Pro 3 go a little deeper into your ear. As a result, you may want to go down a size. If you had been using the M size on AirPods Pro or AirPods Pro 2, I think you might prefer the S size on AirPods Pro 3. Additionally, I suspect that the foam-infused ear tips are adding to the increase in comfort.
On a past episode of the In the News podcast, my co-host Brett Burney mentioned that because every ear is different, some people have luck using a different tip size in each ear. That never made a difference for me with the AirPods Pro 2, but with the AirPods Pro 3, I have found that my best fit is to use the M size in my left ear and the L size in my right ear. It seems odd to do it that way, but this fit is excellent for me. This is the best that any AirPods model has ever fit me. I no longer have any desire to use a third-party ear tip. I realize that everyone has a different ear shape, so your results may vary, but Apple says that this new design fits more people than ever.
More battery life
I don’t just use my AirPods Pro when I am listening to music or podcasts. I also use them at work. If I am using them while taking a remote deposition via Zoom, I may be using my AirPods Pro 2 for eight hours straight, or more. And they don’t last that long. Apple says that they last up to six hours using active noise cancellation, and I suspect I get less than that. But the AirPods Pro 3 last 33% longer, so up to eight hours using active noise cancellation. That will be a nice change for me.
Note that there is a tradeoff on the battery life front. The case itself recharges AirPods Pro. With the AirPods Pro 2, it could recharge about four times, so a total of about 30 hours. With the AirPods Pro 3, it can recharge about three times, so a total of 24 hours of total listening time. I guess there are more electronics inside of the case, so there is less space for the battery. I don’t expect this to have any impact on me because I charge my case every night using a MagSafe charging stand next to my bed, plus I have another wireless charger in my office. I don’t believe that I have ever had the case for my AirPods run out of battery power. But you should be aware of this change, especially if it makes a difference to you based on how you use AirPods.
Better Find My
Although I try to keep my AirPods in my pocket as much as possible, sometimes I place them on a table, on the couch, or somewhere else. Which means that I sometimes lose them. I love that AirPods Pro 2 added the ability to use the Find My app to locate the case with the AirPods inside. But sometimes, I need to walk around the house quite a bit before I find myself in a room where my iPhone can sense the location of the AirPods Pro 2.
This feature is substantially improved with the AirPods Pro 3 because the MagSafe Charging Case contains the second generation of the Ultra Wideband chip. AirPods Pro 2 use the U1 chip. AirPods Pro 2 use U2. Thus, the new model reduces the risk that I still haven’t found what I’m looking for. (Sorry about that. I couldn’t resist.)
For example, in one test, I put my AirPods Pro 2 and my AirPods Pro 3 (in the cases) on the sofa in my living room. When I was two rooms away, my iPhone had no idea where the AirPods Pro 2 might be, so it just suggested that I move to a different location. But in the exact same spot, my iPhone only took a few seconds to figure out where the AirPods Pro 3 were located, telling me how far away they were and what direction I needed to go to find them. Bravo!
Heart rate sensor
Earlier this year, Apple released the Beats Powerbeats Pro 2 ($249 on Amazon), and it was the first earbud from Apple that could monitor your heart rate. AirPods Pro 3 have the same feature, but it seems to be executed in a better way. Ray Maker publishes the DC Rainmaker blog, where he has written about technology used by runners since 2007. He knows his stuff, and here is what he said about how this works in the AirPods Pro 3:
On the sides of the pods is a little black area, and under that are two infrared sensors that pulse light at 250 times per second. That’s notably different than the more standard green LEDs used in the PowerBeats 2 Pro (which didn’t work well). These infrared sensors look at the blood flow in your ears, and measure the movements of said blood. This data is then fed into a whole slate of algorithms, which attempt to figure out your heart rate, versus something like your thunking footsteps (which is typically what messes up HR sensors). In most cases, it’s the algorithms that are the magic for most companies.
How does it work? Maker ran numerous tests and concluded that it works quite well:
I’m blown away. Like, legit blown away. Not because Apple couldn’t do it, but because the PowerBeats 2 Pro were so bad (and only about 8 months ago), that I’d kinda written off Apple’s ability to get optical HR correct. Further, other companies recent attempts (e.g. Polar’s with Sennheiser), have also been pretty darn bad. All of which tracked with numerous other companies over the years trying, and failing, horrifically.
Apple has managed to do something that really nobody else has: Produce a pretty solid heart rate sensing device in your ears. It’s not absolutely perfect, but it’s really strong.
Many fitness apps, including Apple’s own Fitness app, monitor heart rate to evaluate the intensity of effort as you exercise. If you are working out with AirPods Pro 3, your heart rate can be monitored even if you are not wearing an Apple Watch.
But what if you are also wearing an Apple Watch? Conor Allison of Wareable interviewed Julz Arney, Apple’s Senior Director of Fitness Technologies and Fitness+, to ask this question. Her response: “When you have your AirPods in and you’re also tracking a workout with your Apple Watch, you have three streams of heart rate, so that we can arbitrate the best coverage for heart rate.” Thus, your iPhone can dynamically switch between your Apple Watch and your AirPods Pro 3 to try to get the most reliable reading.
I used my treadmill twice this past weekend, wearing both my Apple Watch Series 10 and the AirPods Pro 3. But I honestly have no idea if the heart rate readings were any more accurate because of these three streams of heart rate data. Hopefully, Apple is right that makes a difference.
On the other hand, if you like to workout while wearing AirPods and not wearing an Apple Watch, then this feature will be more important for you. And the data might also be interesting even if you are not explicitly working out. Eric Charles, Apple’s Senior Manager of Apple Watch Worldwide Product Marketing, told Conor Allison in that same interview: “We’ve really just opened the door for that customer—who may not have an Apple Watch—to learn a bit more about how something like listening to music on their daily walk can now all of a sudden be a workout.”
More dust, sweat, and water resistance
I’ve never encountered a problem with my AirPods not working because of sweat or rain, but I’ve heard reports of others occasionally having an issue with this. On the IP code scale (a measure of ingress protection), AirPods Pro 2 have a rating of IP54. The “4” indicates that they can withstand splashing of water. AirPods Pro 3 have a rating of IP57. The “7” indicates that they can withstand not only powerful water jets but even immersion in water up to a depth of 1 meter.
Does that mean that you could go swimming with AirPods Pro 3? Apple has a webpage devoted to AirPods sweat and water resistance. Apple explicitly says not to go swimming with the first-generation AirPods Pro or to submerge them. But they don’t say on that page to NOT go swimming with the AirPods Pro 3, and that page was last updated after AirPods Pro 3 were announced. On the other hand, Apple knows how to tell you that a product is waterproof and safe for swimming. They say that for the Apple Watch, but they don’t mention swimming with the AirPods Pro 3.
Moreover, there is a practical reason not to swim with AirPods Pro 3. They may not even work. Ray Maker tried it, and he found that as soon as AirPods Pro 3 touched the water, they lost the connection to his iPhone and he could no longer hear music.
Nevertheless, the fact that we are even talking about the possibility of going underwater thanks to the IP57 rating just goes to show you that this model is much more resistant to sweat and water. That’s a good thing.
Live translation
Before finishing this review, I want to mention the new live translation feature. This new feature of iOS 26 is not unique to the AirPods Pro 3. It also works with AirPods Pro 2 and the active noise cancellation model of AirPods 4.
To use this feature, open the Translate app on your iPhone and then tap the Live button. Your AirPods will then start to listen to another person speaking, and shortly after they say something in another language, you hear the same words in your native language through your AirPods. It currently works with English, French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish. Later this year, Apple says that it will add support for Chinese (Mandarin, Simplified), Chinese (Mandarin, Traditional), Japanese, Korean, and Italian.
My wife speaks Spanish (and I do not, although I do parlez a little bit of français), so I tried this feature while she was speaking Spanish to me. And it was pretty magical. Removing the language barrier is amazing.
If both parties to the conversation have AirPods and iPhones, this works both ways. If not, you can show the screen of your iPhone to the other person, and the Translate app will show on the screen the words you are saying with the translation underneath—a little awkward, but it does work.
I know that others like Google have had similar features in the past, but it is amazing to have this feature on the AirPods and iPhone. It makes me want to do some international travel right away.
Conclusion
If you are using the first-generation AirPods Pro or a non-pro AirPods model, I think that AirPods Pro 3 is an incredible upgrade. You will get a big improvement in sound and noise cancellation, plus a large number of new and useful features.
If you are currently using AirPods Pro 2, the improvements are there, but it is not a major step up. Essentially, you get the same features you already had, such as great sound, noise cancellation, and Find My (especially if you already use an Apple Watch to monitor your heart rate while you exercise), but each feature works a little better, and they fit in your ears a little better.
So if it is only a little better, why did I spend the $249 to upgrade from the AirPods Pro 2 to the AirPods Pro 3? I did so because I use my AirPods every single day, both for work during videoconferences and phone calls and outside of work for music, podcasts, watching videos, and more. My guess it that this will be the top-of-the line model of the AirPods Pro for the next two or three years. Even if this new model is only a little bit better than what I had been using, that’s a little bit better in many different ways, every single day, for the next 730 to 1,095 days. I think that is worth the money. I’ve already enjoyed using these for the last few days, and I love that I have many, many more days to come with the AirPods Pro 3.
The 2025 edition of Apple’s highest-end iPhone is the iPhone 17 Pro Max. I’ve been using one since it first went on sale this past Friday morning to put it through its paces. The improvements over last year’s iPhone 16 Pro are few in quantity but important in quality. There is a new design that works better when the iPhone performs complicated tasks, plus it feels great in your hand. The camera system is substantially improved, with the first 8x optical zoom on an iPhone and a clever approach to the front-facing camera. Plus, you get more battery life and more RAM. Moreover, considering that most folks upgrading to this device have been using something even older than last year’s iPhone 16 Pro, they are going to see many more improvements. In short, this device is excellent.
If you can’t stand the heat…
The most noticeable change with this year’s model is the look. No, I’m not talking about the new orange color option, which is the color featured in much of Apple’s advertising. I’m talking about the back and the sides.
Apple used a single sheet of aluminum to create much of the enclosure. Here is what it looks like, using a still frame from a video created by Apple:
This new unibody design results in a number of advantages. Here is an overview, provided by Apple:
The new brushed aluminum unibody design is crafted with a lightweight aerospace-grade 7000-series aluminum alloy to deliver the best-ever thermal performance in an iPhone. On the back, the plateau creates additional space for internal components — making room for a larger battery. The antennas are integrated around the perimeter for the highest-performing antenna system ever in an iPhone.
Let’s break that down. First, the thermal performance. Apple has always used its best processor in the Pro version of the iPhone. This year, it is the A19 Pro chip. John Velasco of Tom’s Guide ran some tests and found that this chip is about 13% faster in single core tasks and almost 20% faster in multicore tasks than the A18 Pro that Apple used one year ago.
Any high-end processor produces heat when it provides maximum performance. For the last few years, I’ve noticed that the iPhone can get rather hot to the touch when this happens. And this also has an impact on performance. There have been times in the past when I have used an iPhone Pro to do something intensive, like record 4K HDR video for a long time in an area with poor cellular service, causing the modem to also push itself to the max, and the heat has caused the iPhone to substantially dim the screen to try to compensate for the overheating. The dimmer screen makes it hard to see what the camera is recording. This year, the single piece of aluminum of the unibody is designed to spread that heat more evenly across the body of the iPhone to help the iPhone cool down more quickly.
And that’s not all. Apple also designed a new vapor chamber. This article by Gwendolyn Rak of IEEE Spectrum provides technical details on how Apple’s vapor chamber works. Better yet, Aldo of Know Art studios released this excellent video a few months ago to show how the vapor chamber in a non-Apple smartphone works and is manufactured, and I’m sure that this is similar to what Apple is doing:
Apple says that the vapor chamber it designed seals deionized water inside the chamber, and then that vapor chamber is laser-welded into the aluminum chassis. The two systems work together to move heat away from the A19 Pro processor and distribute that heat evenly throughout the aluminum unibody. This allows the A19 Pro processor to operate at even higher performance levels while keeping the surface of the iPhone cooler in your hand.
It is easy to notice the difference. When I push this new iPhone to the limit, the body of the iPhone does get warmer, but not nearly as hot as prior models. And I have yet to see this new iPhone get so warm that it needs to dim the screen—although, to be fair, I’ve only been using it for a few days, so perhaps I will see that at some point in the future.
Better battery
The front of the iPhone 17 Pro Max looks the same as last year’s model. In the following picture, the newest model is on the right. I can only tell the difference by seeing at the top that my iPhone 16 Pro Max no longer has cellular service because I moved that service to the iPhone 17 Pro Max, which has two bars of service:
However, the new unibody design changes the shape of the back of the iPhone. Instead of a camera bump on just the top left, the camera plateau on the new model stretches from side to side:
Apple says that this additional space is used to put an even larger battery inside. This contributes to the iPhone 17 Pro Max being slightly heavier than last year’s model—8.22 ounces versus 7.99 ounces—and it provides more battery life. Apple says that video playback on the iPhone 16 Pro Max is up to 33 hours, whereas that increases to up to 39 hours on the iPhone 17 Pro Max. I rarely need more than 33 hours between charges, but of course, other tasks use up the battery much more quickly, so having even more battery life for those tasks is a luxury.
When it is time to recharge, all three new iPhone models introduced by Apple this month can recharge faster when you use a new $39 power adapter from Apple called the 40W Dynamic Power Adapter with 60W Max. Those new iPhone models and that adapter work together to provide a faster charge for a period of time, after which it then charges like other 40W chargers. As a result, you can get to a 50% charge in 20 minutes, which Apple says is about 10 minutes faster than before. I don’t have this new adapter, so I couldn’t test it. I’m curious if third parties, like Anker, will be able to incorporate this feature into their chargers.
Better feel
When Apple designed the shape for this new unibody design, it provided just slightly more curve around the edges. It is a subtle difference that I’m having difficulty photographing, but this still frame from a video created by Apple shows it:
Trust me, you can really feel it when you hold this device in your hand. In my opinion, this is the best feeling iPhone that I can remember using. It is incredibly comfortable to hold, but the slight curve at the corners doesn’t make it too slippery to hold. Considering that this is a device that I will hold in my hand countless times every single day, I’m a big fan of this new design.
More durability
Two years ago, Apple released the iPhone 15 Pro, changing the body from stainless steel to titanium. Apple said that titanium was lighter while remaining very strong. This year, the body is made of aluminum. However, because it is a single unibody, and because Apple has also used its new Ceramic Shield 2 technology to protect both the glass on the front of the iPhone and the back of the iPhone, Apple says that this year’s model is more durable than ever. Apple says that this design is more resistant to scratches and cracks.
More nits, less glare
The screen is improved in two ways. First, peak brightness when outdoors goes from 2000 nits (iPhone 16 Pro Max) to 3000 nits (iPhone 17 Pro Max). That makes the iPhone easier to read on a bright day, and it is a welcome improvement.
Second, the Ceramic Shield 2 on the front of the iPhone uses improved anti-reflection technology to reduce glare. The improvement is noticeable. In the following picture, compare the light fixture reflected on the screen of the iPhone 16 Pro Max (left) and the iPhone 17 Pro Max (right).
Each LED is brighter when reflected on the screen of the iPhone 16 Pro Max. And the rectangle reflected from the lamp around the LEDs is far more pronounced when reflected on the iPhone 16 Pro Max versus the iPhone 17 Pro Max.
8x optical zoom at 200mm
The most noticeable change to the camera system on the back of the iPhone 17 Pro models is the 8x optical zoom, which is equivalent to a 200mm zoom on an SLR camera. A 200mm zoom is a common zoom lens for an SLR camera because it provides quite a bit of magnification, but not so much that you absolutely need to use a tripod to keep the camera perfectly still. First, I want to address how Apple achieved this 8x optical zoom … but I have actually already done that. So allow me to just repeat what I wrote earlier this month when Apple first announced the iPhone 17 Pro:
I like to take pictures and videos, so a major reason that I pay more for a Pro model is the better cameras. Last year, the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max featured three cameras on the back: a 48MP (megapixel) Ultra Wide camera (for 0.5x), a 48MP Fusion Main camera (for 1x and 2x), and a 12MP Telephoto camera (for 5x). This year, the main camera stays the same. The Ultra Wide camera now gains “Fusion,” which is the term Apple uses when the camera takes both a 12MP picture (to maximize light capture) and a 48MP picture (to capture fine detail) and then fuses those into a single 24MP image. In other words, photos that you take with the 0.5x lens should be better with this model.
Instead of last year’s 5x camera, this year there is a 4x camera. But that’s not a step down; it’s actually a step up. That’s because the telephoto camera on the iPhone 16 Pro was only a 12MP camera. The new iPhone 17 Pro telephoto camera is a 48MP camera. What this means is that the iPhone can use all 48MP to give you a 4x zoom, or can focus on just the 24MP in the middle to give you an 8x zoom. Yes, it is true that is cropped from the 4x image, but the 8x 24MP photo should be a step up from last year’s 5x 12MP photo. I often find it very useful to have a zoom lens. A zoom lens that is both better quality (48MP or 24MP versus 12MP) and a higher magnification (8x versus 5x) sounds great to me, and I cannot wait to try it out. The range from 0.5x to 8x is 16x, so you get a ton of flexibility on how you want to frame your shot.
Apple says that the 8x mode is equivalent to a 200mm focal length. Before I shifted to the iPhone for virtually all of my photography, I previously used a Nikon DSLR camera, and I really loved Nikon’s Superzoom lens, which went from 18mm to 200mm. When David Pogue was writing for the New York Times, he would frequently praise that lens, such as in this article from 2007. While I enjoy the 5x zoom on my iPhone 16 Pro (120mm equivalent), going up to 8x (200mm equivalent) seems like a substantial improvement. Of course, with that much zoom, it will be even more important to hold the camera very steady, but Apple has always done a great job with image stabilization software, and I’m sure that Apple has incorporated that into the 8x mode.
So how does the 8x lens work? It works great. Here are a series of pictures that I took in my backyard of a folk art sculpture that my wife and I purchased years ago at the art market at the New Orleans Jazz Fest. These images go from a 0.5x (the wide-angle lens) to the new 8x lens. I’ve reduced the size and compressed these images so that they are not too huge on this website, so keep in mind that the quality of the actual images is better than what you are seeing here. But this still gives you a good sense of the image quality. And more importantly, it shows you how you can compose a completely different picture even though you are standing in the same location.
The 0.5x and 1x lenses show the art in the context of the backyard.
At 2x, the focus of the picture is the art itself.
At 4x, the focus is on the upper half of the girl’s body.
At 8x, the focus is on the face.
Each picture tells a different story, and with a 16x range, from 0.5x to 8x, you have lots of choices without using the crop feature to sacrifice image quality.
Here’s one last picture for comparison. To take this picture, I moved my iPhone so close to the face of the art that the Macro feature of the camera was triggered:
It is no surprise that by moving my camera much closer, I can capture more detail than with the 8x zoom. But the 8x lens gets me almost as close to the object as I got with this Macro picture. If you want a close-up picture and you have the ability to get your camera right on top of the object, then of course, use the Macro feature of the 0.5x lens, the lens that Apple calls the Ultra Wide lens. But if you don’t have that ability, the 8x Telephoto lens can get you closer than ever before.
Here is another example. From my office window, I can look down to see the front of the federal court district court building in New Orleans, the Eastern District of Louisiana. There is an area just in front of the entrance where members of the media often congregate to try to interview attorneys as they leave the courthouse and/or to show the attorneys walking out of the courthouse on the news. I’ve handled some high-profile cases over the years where I have gotten quite good at providing no comment as I walked through this area when that was what my client wanted. Using the 1x Main camera on the iPhone, I can see the building but can only barely make out that area. With the 8x lens, I can easily see this area, including the steps and the flagpole. Again, your picture can tell a completely different story when you have this much flexibility in composing your shots.
I know that I will use all of these different cameras and zoom levels on the back of the iPhone 17 Pro Max. It is great to have lots of good options.
Better selfies
Apple has also provided a new camera system on the front of the iPhone. Apple calls this the Front Camera. Everyone else calls this the Selfie camera. Once again, let me start by repeating what I said earlier this month about what is different:
The front-facing camera—the selfie camera—is also better in multiple ways. First, it is an 18 megapixel square camera instead of a 12 megapixel 4×3 camera. I don’t believe that you can actually take square pictures with this new camera. But what you can do is hold your iPhone in portrait orientation, making it easier to hold in your hand, and take a landscape photograph. And this camera really shines when combined with a new software feature: Center Stage. In the past, Apple has had Center Stage on certain Macs and iPads. It means that the camera can essentially “zoom in” on you, unless multiple people are in the frame, in which case it will “zoom out” to show everyone. You may start taking a selfie picture in the traditional portrait orientation mode, but then if others join you in the picture, the Camera app is smart enough to switch to a landscape orientation mode to keep everyone in the picture.
That better front-facing camera has another trick up its sleeve. If you are taking a video with a camera on the back of your iPhone, you can simultaneously take a video with the front-facing camera. Thus, not only can you have a video of your daughter shooting a three-pointer in a high school basketball game, but you can also film your reaction at the same time. (My daughter’s varsity basketball team just started practices for the 2025-26 school year, so you can understand why that is on my mind.) I want to learn more about how this works. Can I take video with both cameras but then choose only to use the video from the back camera, either some of the time or all of the time? We’ll have to see how it works, but it is an interesting idea. Note that this improved front-facing camera on the iPhone 17 is also used on the iPhone Air and the iPhone 17 Pro models.
Although I don’t use the Front Camera on the iPhone very often, these are nice improvements. I especially like that you can take pictures in landscape orientation while still holding the iPhone in portrait orientation—which gives you a much better grip on your iPhone. The Front Camera will automatically switch from portrait to landscape mode when others come next to you, using the Center Stage feature. But you can also just tap a button on the screen to switch from portrait to landscape mode. I like this feature.
As for simultaneously taking video with the front and back cameras, Dual Capture is an interesting feature, but I don’t think it is for me. I would like the idea of capturing the Front Camera as I film an event using the back camera if, for some specific moment where I and others had a fun reaction, I could show it. But that’s not how the feature works. When you take a video using this Dual Capture, you can decide whether the inset showing you is at the top or bottom, left or right. Here is an example from Apple’s website:
However, once the video is saved, that inset is a permanent part of the video. If you film your daughter playing basketball using Dual Capture, every time you watch the video in the future, you will have to see your own face during the entire game. If that doesn’t bother you, then you might like this feature. And perhaps I will even find a specific circumstance when I will use it. But at this point, I don’t know when that would be.
More RAM
Apple has never advertised how much RAM is used by different iPhone models, which is curious because it is better to have more RAM. You can have more browser tabs open, more apps can run in the background before they close, AI works better with more RAM, etc.
Joe Rossignol of MacRumors reports that the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max both have 12GB of RAM. The iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro both had 8GB of RAM, so that is 50% more. The iPhone 12 Pro, 13 Pro, and 14 Pro had 6GB of RAM.
To the Max
The iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max are identical except for screen size. The only other difference is that if you want a 2TB model, which is available for the first time this year, that is only an option for the iPhone 17 Pro Max.
In 2023, I decided for the first time to try out the “Max” iPhone size when I purchased an iPhone 15 Pro Max. It does take a little time to get used to the larger and heavier iPhone, but I got used to that long ago. And as someone who has always had poor eyesight, I prefer having a larger screen with the Display Zoom set to Larger Text (located in Settings -> Display & Brightness). So I decided to get the Max version again this year, but I understand that many people will prefer the smaller size of the iPhone 17 Pro, especially this year when the two devices are otherwise virtually identical.
Wireless networking
For the first time ever, Apple is making its own wireless networking chip instead of buying one made by another company, such as Broadcom. Apple calls this the N1. It controls Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Thread. It supports the latest versions of those standards—Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6—and Apple says that the N1 chip “improves the overall performance and reliability of features like Personal Hotspot and AirDrop.”
I haven’t had an opportunity to notice these improvements yet, but it makes sense to me that a wireless networking chip designed by Apple specifically for the iPhone is going to be better than something that someone else designs for any smartphone.
Colors
I always prefer getting a black iPhone because I want the device itself to fade away into the background, with all of my focus on the (impressive) iPhone display. For the first time since the original iPhone was released in 2007, that isn’t an option this year. So instead, I opted for the next best thing: the Deep Blue color. It is a very nice color, but I still would have gone for black if that were an option.
The other two color options are Silver and Cosmic Orange. Cosmic Orange has many people excited. It is the first time ever that Apple has offered a vibrant color for a Pro iPhone. I looked at this color when I was in the Apple Store this past Friday, and I understand the appeal. If you like orange, and/or if you like making a statement with the color of your iPhone, you’ll like Cosmic Orange. I applaud Apple for adding Cosmic Orange this year.
But does orange have to be the new black? Dear Apple: next year, please give me the option to select black.
Even more for many folks upgrading
In much of this post, I’ve compared the iPhone 17 Pro Max to the iPhone 16 Pro Max because that is what I had been using. Plus, it makes sense to focus on year-to-year improvements. But I suspect that most folks considering an upgrade this year will be coming from an older iPhone.
If you have an iPhone 15 Pro Max, you’ll see additional improvements, including (1) a smaller bezel and larger display (6.9-inch instead of 6.7-inch), (2) the Camera Control button, (3) better microphones, (4) an ever larger improvement in battery life, and (5) an even more substantial improvement in the processor. If you have an iPhone 14 Pro Max, you’ll see even more improvements, including (1) the Action button, (2) an even bigger telephoto lens improvement, from 3x to 8x, and (3) a USB-C port instead of Lightning.
Cost
The iPhone 17 Pro starts at $1099 for the 256GB model. If you want the Max version with the larger screen, you pay $100 more. Going up to 512GB adds $200; going up to 1TB adds $400. I had been using a 512GB model in the past, but I like the idea of being able to store even more video on my device, so this year, I went for the 1TB model.
If you need the most storage, this year, Apple is offering a 2TB iPhone 17 Pro Max for $1999.
Conclusion
I get a new iPhone every year, and I always appreciate the improvements. This year is no exception. This year’s model feels great in the hand, has the best performance ever, has a great 8x telephoto lens, has a better display, is more durable, has tons of battery life, and has other nice improvements like the new Front camera and more RAM. If you decide that this is a good year for you to upgrade, the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are excellent devices that I think you will love.
This week’s episode of the In the News podcast is a lot of fun, and I think you will enjoy it. We begin by discussing the process of acquiring our new Apple devices. Brett is traveling, so he needs to wait a little bit before the new devices that arrived at his house are in his hands. But I went to my local Apple Store first thing Friday morning and got an iPhone 17 Pro Max (1TB, Deep Blue) and the AirPods Pro 3. And even though I had only had those two new devices for a few hours before we started recording this episode, I was already very impressed—especially with the much-improved fit of the AirPods Pro 3 and the impressive 8x zoom on the new iPhone. We also discuss the new Live Translation feature for AirPods (which works exceptionally well!), iOS 26 and iPad OS 26, improvements to CarPlay, and much more.
In our In the Know segment, Brett discusses a new feature of the iPhone lock screen that shows you how much time it will take to recharge your iPhone. I discuss the best way to take advantage of the new Widowed Apps mode in iPadOS 26: using it in conjunction with the button in the iPad’s Control Center.
The new iPhones are here! And the new models of the Apple Watch, and the new AirPods Pro 3. If you ordered one of these new products, hopefully it will be ready for you to pick up today in your local Apple Store or it will be delivered to you. When Apple started taking pre-orders last week, I ordered a new iPhone 17 Pro Max to be delivered to my office. But then I noticed that it wouldn’t be delivered until later next week, so I placed a second order that I would pick up at 9am at my local Apple Store. Days later, Apple updated my original order, saying that it would actually be delivered today. I guess that for a brief period of time, I’ll have two new iPhones in my possession until I return one of them. But one way or the other, I should be able to start checking out the new features just a few hours after I am writing these words. And now, the news of note from the past week:
For many years now, Apple has given photographer Austin Mann early access to each new iPhone model so that he can test the new cameras. This year, he went to the Dolomites, a mountain range in Italy. In this post, he shares some amazing pictures along with his thoughts on these new cameras.
Raymond Wong of Gizmodo also reviews the iPhone 17. These two reviews are consistent with what I’ve seen elsewhere: this entry-level model of the new iPhone is a better model than what we saw in previous years, making it an especially good value this year.
If you have an Apple Watch Series 9, Series 10, Ultra 2, or Ultra 3, your Apple Watch can now notify you of possible hypertension. Apple added this page to its website to describe how the feature works.
If you have AirPods 4, AirPods Pro 2, or AirPods Pro 3, you can now use the AirPods as a remote camera control, but you have to explicitly turn that feature on. Ed Hardy of Cult of Mac explains how it works. I tried it, and it does work, but if you already have an Apple Watch, I think that the Camera Remote app on the Apple Watch works much better. For example, that app gives you a preview of what your iPhone camera is seeing. So after testing this new AirPods feature, I turned it back off again.
Ryan Christoffel of 9to5Mac notes that if you have the new AirPods Pro 3 and a new iPhone 17 or iPhone Air, the Find My feature is even more precise if you are trying to locate your AirPods.
Apple had a good night at the Emmys. As Joe Rossignol of MacRumors notes,The Studio and Severance received many awards. In fact, The Studio was the most-winning freshman comedy in history.
New shows start on Apple TV+ every week for four weeks, starting today. Today, it is Season 4 of The Morning Show. Next weekend, it is Season 5 of Slow Horses and the new limited series crime thriller The Savant starring Jessica Chastain. On October 3, it is the movie The Lost Bus starring Matthew McConaughey and America Ferrera. And on October 10, it is the new crime thriller The Last Frontier starring Jason Clarke. I’m interested in seeing all of those, but I don’t have nearly enough time.
I’m enjoying the show Chief of War on Apple TV+. Marcus Mendes of 9to5Mac notes that Apple Maps now has a guide so that you can see the locations on a map that are featured in the show.
Apple released a video to help you decide which of the four iPhone models is right for you. It’s a silly video, but it does show off the key features.
And finally, here is a video from Apple that shows off the durability of the iPhone 17 Pro and how it can be used to take epic videos:
This is an exciting time in the world of iPhones. New models of the iPhone, Apple Watch, and AirPods Pro are set to be released in two days. And two days ago, we all got access to the newest versions of Apple’s operating systems. While you are riding the wave of good feelings, I encourage you to pay it forward and share the love by making a donation, no matter how big or small, to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, and I’m working with other websites and podcasts to raise money for St. Jude. This is such a fantastic organization that works tirelessly to help cure and treat pediatric cancer. We all hate cancer, but cancer that affects kids is especially unwelcome. St. Jude has made a real difference over the decades for kids around the world, and with our donations, they can do even more good work.
Donating is simple. Simply go to the page, click the big green DONATE button, decide if you want to select a reward (that part is optional), then check out and pay. If you donate at least $100, you can choose as your reward a high-quality microfiber cloth with the iPhone J.D. logo, which I have previously given away on rare occasions in the past. These cloths are excellent for cleaning iPhone or iPad screens, and I personally use one daily to clean my eyeglasses. This is a limited-time offer, as I have only a few left, and the manufacturer is no longer in business.
Whether you donate $5 or $500, your donation will make a meaningful difference. A special thank you to those of you who have contributed in the past and will contribute again this year!
Yesterday, Apple updated the operating systems for all of its platforms: iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, tvOS, and visionOS. Even the HomePod and AirPods received firmware updates. Everything is new.
The new Liquid Glass interface is the most noticeable change, but much more is new. For an overview of the most significant features that are new in iOS 26 and iPadOS 26, check out this article that I wrote three months ago. Want to dig a little deeper? Then I recommend the reviews posted on Six Colors by Jason Snell and Dan Moren of iOS 26, iPadOS 26, watchOS 26, and macOS 26. And if you want to go incredibly deep on iOS 26 and iPadOS 26, the in-depth review by Federico Viticci of MacStories is excellent.
I updated my devices yesterday, and so far, I’m really happy with the updates. I especially like the new windowing system on the iPad, which is now very similar to the way that we have been using windows on a computer for decades. But note that this new mode is not on by default. You need to go to Settings -> Multitasking & Gestures and then tap on “Windowed Apps” to activate this fantastic new mode.
I’ve been spending some time this year bringing some old memories into the present, not only so that my family and I can enjoy them now, but also so that they are preserved for the future. Earlier this year, I discussed using the Kodak Slide N Scan Digital Film Scanner (Amazon link) to scan 35mm slides and negatives. It was great fun to see the old pictures that were in slide carousels and at risk of never being seen again. But of course, there are other forms of old media. I recently came across a treasure trove of 8mm film reels at my parents’ house that were recorded between the 1950s and the 1980s. I wanted to digitize them so that I can watch them on a TV and share the videos with family members.
You can purchase equipment to digitize 8mm film yourself, such as a $419.99 product called KODAK REELS. However, for the reasons I explain below, I decided instead to pay the experts at Legacybox to do it for me. I was very happy with the results.
Why digitize
This part may be obvious, but there are significant reasons to digitize old 8mm films. Even if you still have access to an old projector—there was one in a closet in my parents’ house—is it actually going to work? Moreover, it is cumbersome (albeit nostalgic) to set up a projector and a screen (or a white wall or a white sheet on a wall, all things that I remember doing when I was very young) and have everyone gather around. It is much better to have the film in a digital video format so that it can be watched on a big and bright TV screen or on an iPhone or iPad. Plus, once the film is in a digital format, it is easy to share the video with others.
Also, once the film is in a digital format, you can do more with it. You can combine multiple related film reels into a single video. You can also split a single film roll into different events. For example, I sometimes found both Thanksgiving and Christmas on the same roll. Critically, for some old films, you can use software to restore some of the lost color in the video so that it can look closer to how it originally looked. You can also stabilize parts of the video to correct for the inherent limitations of old camera hardware that was made when people knew nothing about using software to stabilize video—and, for that matter, knew nothing about what “software” is. You can also enhance the video by adding titles, transitions, etc.
Additionally, digitizing film is a way to preserve the video for yourself and future generations. How long does an 8mm film last? According to the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, they can survive “for decades as long as they are kept in a stable environment that is not too hot, too dry, or too wet.” I’ve seen many people say to expect about 70 years. But for films taken in the 1950s, we are already at that life span, and films from subsequent decades do not have much longer.
Speaking of the years that these films were taken, I expected to find films from the 1970s, when I was a child. I was surprised to find in that closet many videos from the 1950s and 1960s, videos taken by my parents and grandparents that I didn’t know existed. And I was equally surprised to find films from as recently as late 1985; I would have guessed that the move from Super 8 film to VHS-C (with sound) had occurred for my family even earlier in the 1980s.
How Legacybox works
To use Legacybox, you pay in advance for a box (I discuss the cost below), and you put your films in the box. The box sizes are Starter (two items), Family (10 items), Closet (20 items), or Trunk (40 items). Legacybox ships the box to you. You add your items, send the box back, then they scan the items and send the videos to you in the format that you select—such as online, where you can download them. Finally, your original films are returned to you. Here are more details on how everything works.
I used Legacybox for film reels recorded using a home video camera. And I even found one such camera with the reels.
Film reels come in different sizes. Eastman Kodak started selling consumer 8mm spools in the 1930s, and released the higher quality (and easier to use) Super 8 format in 1965. Each roll had 50 feet of film, and a single spool of film is three inches wide. At the standard speed of 18 frames per second for Super 8, a single roll could record around three minutes.
After the film was developed, it was common to splice multiple three-inch reels into a single reel that was five or seven inches (or larger). I remember that when I was a teenager, my mother gave me and my brother a summer project of splicing together multiple film reels from the same event to make single reels. We also sometimes combined multiple events over time, such as a single reel with multiple years of Christmas films.
Each reel, no matter the size, counts as a single item for a Legacybox order. Thus, my work in the early 1980s combining eight three-inch reels into a single seven-inch reel meant that I only needed to pay Legacybox for one item instead of eight items. (Thanks, younger me!)
Legacybox also digitizes other media types, such as VHS video, photo slides, and negatives. A set of 25 photos counts as a single item. But I only used the service for 8mm and Super 8 film.
After you select a box size and pay for it, Legacybox sends you the box along with an instruction booklet and stickers. I purchased a Trunk, so I had 40 stickers. Each sticker had my order number followed by a number, 1 through 40. I placed the stickers directly on each film reel (not the film canister or box).
Pack up all of your items and put them in the items box, add some bubble wrap or something similar to keep everything nice and safe, place that box into the shipping box, and then apply the pre-paid shipping label and send the box to Legacybox (located in Chattanooga, Tennessee) via UPS.
Digitizing your film
When Legacybox receives your films, they scan every frame, compile the footage for each reel, and correct the frame rate so that the film speed looks natural. Unlike old projectors that use hot bulbs and can potentially melt film, Legacybox uses LED lights that run cool. Legacybox also takes some steps to remove flicker, although occasionally, I still saw a little of that in the final product (but nothing obnoxious). Legacybox does not correct the colors, does not stabilize shaky video, and does not perform any other edits. Those are steps that you need to do on your own, if you want them.
Legacybox does a great job of sending you emails to keep you updated on the process. They tell you when they sent you an empty box and when they received your box full of items. They tell you when they have catalogued your order and how many items they found (such as five 7-inch reels, four 5-inch reels, etc.). They tell you when they begin working on your films. And they tell you when the films are posted to the Legacybox cloud service so that you can start to view and download them.
Legancybox told that it can take up to 4-6 weeks to digitize the videos. However, over the past few months, I have ordered two Trunk boxes at different times, and both times, it took only about two weeks to digitize my videos. I did not pay extra for expedited service, nor did I reveal that I would be writing this review.
You can pay extra for Legacybox to create a DVD with your videos, but I don’t see why that is necessary for most people. When you get a link to the website with your videos, simply download the videos to your computer. After 30 days, it costs $4.99/month to keep your videos on that Cloud service, and I don’t see any reason to do so once you have downloaded your videos. Make sure you remember to cancel that Cloud subscription once your videos are safely downloaded to your device.
For my seven-inch reels, the video running time was up to around 30 minutes. The file sizes varied; a 30-minute video could be as much as 1.3GB, but other videos of similar length had smaller files. Videos from the standard three-inch reels varied from around 30MB to almost 100MB.
Note that there are apparently some 8mm film cameras that record sound. All of the 8mm films that my family took were silent films, and Legacybox says that they cannot digitize the sound portion of an 8mm video if there is sound. If you are lucky enough to have 8mm film with sound, you should find another service that handles that.
Legacybox says that your items are kept secure. The website says: “Your orders are processed in our secure, climate controlled, 38,000 square foot processing facility, located right here in the USA. We utilize the latest in barcoding and tracking technology (we even have developers on staff), so we know exactly where your order is at every moment.”
Working with the videos
Of course, you can watch the videos from Legacybox right away. I was having lunch in my office when I learned that my first set of videos was available. I downloaded them to my iPad and started watching some of the videos right away, and they brought tons of smiles to my face. The ones taken before I was born or when I was young were fascinating to watch. The ones taken when I was a little older brought back so many memories. I saw old friends that I haven’t seen in decades, family members who have long since passed away, Christmas morning videos that showed me when I first received items that I subsequently used for many years, and more. Seeing the bedroom that my brother and I shared before we moved to a new house when I was ten years old brought back a wave of memories for every single item on the dresser, bookshelf, and wall.
You could just watch the videos downloaded from Legacybox, but I took the time to improve each video using Final Cut Pro. (You could also use iMovie.) I often found multiple events that were on a single reel, so I broke those up into different videos. Or sometimes, a single event would run across two to three three-inch reels, so I would merge those into a single video.
For some videos, the color was surprisingly good. For others, one or more of the colors had faded over time, so I adjusted the color levels and saturation using Final Cut Pro—the same things that I often do with a scan of an old photograph using the Photos app, Photoshop, and/or Pixelmator Photo. Video taken with a handheld camera that lacked any of the image stabilization that we have on a modern iPhone can be very shaky, so in some cases, I used the Final Cut Pro feature to stabilize the video. But most of the time, I left the shaky video as it was because that is sort of what you expect to see with old videos. I also added titles and dates to the videos—sometimes taking that information from the film reel canister, and other times doing some sleuthing to figure out the date. Some of my videos did not match the film canister, so the contents of the video were a surprise. I ultimately ended up with 72 different videos from the first 40 reels that I sent to Legacybox.
I have an account on SmugMug where I share photos and videos with friends and family members to whom I have given the password, so that is how I have been sharing my final videos from these old film reels. But you could, of course, upload your videos to a service like YouTube and share the videos with others that way.
How does it look?
For most of the videos, I thought that the quality was really good, especially considering that I know my family was using pretty basic consumer equipment to record home movies way back when. For a few others, the quality was just so-so. When I recently showed some of these videos to friends and family members, multiple people remarked that they were surprised that the quality was as good as it was, so I’m not the only one who had that reaction. Most importantly, though, the biggest impact came from seeing the content of the video—the people and places from long ago—so the quality of the transfer was an important but secondary consideration.
One thing to note is that there seems to be some slight cropping on the left and top sides of each video.
I uploaded a video to YouTube with some examples from the 1950s to 1970s, if you want to get a sense of what the quality can look like when you have Legacybox digitize 8mm film reels. I added subtitles so that you can tell when you are looking at the video I downloaded from Legacybox versus when you are looking at video that I improved using Final Cut Pro, such as adjusting the colors or stabilizing shaky video. If you need some help restoring an 8mm film clip using Final Cut Pro, this YouTube video from Kat Tingum has some good tips.
Customer service
I’ve already mentioned that I like how Legacybox communicates with you during every step of the process. I also had a very good experience when I encountered a problem.
One of the reels that I sent to Legacybox was a seven-inch reel. Based on the other reels of similar size that I sent to Legacybox, I expected the video to be between 20 and 30 minutes. But instead, the video that Legacybox sent me for that reel was only about eight minutes long. That just didn’t seem right to me. So I reached out to Legacybox to ask if perhaps they had not digitized it the whole way through. They immediately responded to my inquiry and said that they would address this right away. They gave me a pre-paid shipping label so that I could send that single reel back to Legacybox. And they gave it priority treatment so that as soon as they received it, it was digitized immediately. Sure enough, the second time around, the final video from that reel was 24 minutes long.
Of course, it would have been better if the entire reel had been correctly processed the first time. But the company was so responsive and fast when I alerted them to the potential problem that it left me very satisfied.
The cost
There are a number of services that advertise the ability to digitize old videos, but when I did my research, Legacybox seemed to be the one that most people preferred. Note that there are two other companies that may seem like competitors to Legacybox, but they are actually the same company, and they use the same facility in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Legacybox, Kodak Digitizing, and Southtree are all part of AMB Media, LLC.
What does it cost? There is not a simple answer. The website tells you that there is a “normal” cost, but the website always seems to have a substantial discount of 50% or more. For example, as I am typing this, the website advertises a 55% discount, and the discounted cost is: Starter (2 items) $31.60; Family (10 items) $144.00; Closet (20 items) $288.00; Trunk (40 items) $562.50. Not that long ago, the website was advertising a 50% discount.
I also discovered that if you go to a different page of the Legacybox website, there is a 65% discount, which brings the four prices down to $28.99 / $124.99 / $239.99 / $439.99. That page says that the 65% discount ends in a week, but it said the same thing when I used that same 65% price about a month ago. The way that this particular 65% discount works is that you purchase a coupon code, then you go back and place an order using the 50% discount (or whatever), but then instead of providing a credit card, you provide that code, and that covers the price of the entire order.
I’m not a fan of the practice of constantly claiming that there is a limited sale, urging you to act now when there really is no urgent need to act now. And I don’t like it that different parts of the website advertise different prices. From what I can tell, 65% seems to be the largest discount that has been offered for a while, so I urge you to look for a discount at or near 65% when you use the service.
As I noted above, instead of using Legacybox or one of its competitors, you could purchase something like the $419.99 Kodak REELS and scan the videos yourself. I thought about going this route, but ultimately decided to let a professional do it. First, these devices get pretty bad reviews online, with lots of people saying that they are finicky to use and break easily, especially if you use them to digitize a large number of reels. Second, it takes a lot of time to use them, about 30 minutes for a three-inch reel and many hours for larger reels. I prefer letting Legacybox do all of this work digitizing videos, which lets me spend my time just editing the videos. Third, I have seen mixed reviews about the quality of the scan from a device like the Kodak REELS as compared to Legacybox. To be fair, you can find people online who complain about the quality of Legacybox too, even though I was very satisfied.
Conclusion
Being able to watch family home videos from long ago that otherwise would have been lost to time has been fantastic. Sometimes, it was a video from an event for which I only remember seeing a few photographs in the past. With the video, it was like those old photos came alive. Sometimes, it was a video from an event that I remember, at least a little bit, but the video brought it back to life again. There are even some events from when I was little for which I thought I had a memory of the event, but now that I’ve seen the film, I think that I may just be remembering watching the film years later when I was older. And of course, seeing videos of loved ones who passed away long ago has been really nice.
I have also enjoyed editing what Legacybox sent me to create individual videos for each event—although, of course, you could skip that step if you are not comfortable working with software like Final Cut Pro, iMovie, Adobe Premiere, Camtasia, DaVinci Resolve, or the others.
My only regret is not using Legacybox years ago. I would have loved to have watched many of these videos when my mother and grandparents were still alive, so that they could have answered many of my questions about what I was seeing and shared stories about the events from long ago. Nevertheless, the next best thing is to do it now. Indeed, if I had waited much longer, perhaps some of the films might have deteriorated.
My only complaint about Legacybox is the way that they handle pricing, but if you are a smart shopper and look for the 65% discount, you can get around that.
Overall, I was happy with Legacybox, and I recommend the service. Indeed, a few weeks after I ordered the first Trunk with 40 film reels, I ordered a second Trunk and sent in 40 more reels. They were digitized just a few days ago, and I have just started to edit them. I see that I still have around 40 film reels left in the box that I found in my parents’ house, so I guess I will order one more Trunk from Legacybox when I’m done with this second set.
