Today, Apple will release as a software update the latest version of the operating system for the iPhone and iPad, iOS 12. Apple previewed the features of iOS 12 three months ago, and you can click here to read what is new. Note that I discussed the new version of FaceTime in that post, but Apple has decided to wait a little bit longer before rolling out the group FaceTime feature.
The feature that I am most looking forward to is Siri Shortcuts. I like the Workflow app, and now that it is built-in to the operating system it will be so much more powerful. I like that iOS 12 will recommend shortcuts to you, making this feature accessible to everyone. But I’m especially interested to see all of the great shortcuts that power users will be able to dream up and share.
Moreover, when apps are updated to support shortcuts, they can become much more powerful. Here’s a great example. I often wear my AirPods to listen to a podcast or music as I am walking through an airport to catch a flight. Wit the TripIt app installed on my iPhone, I can say “Hey Siri, upcoming flight” and TripIt will (1) tell my my next flight number such as Delta 123, (2) tell me how long I have before the flight departs, (3) tell me the gate number, and (4) tell me the flight’s status. (Note that #4, flight status, is only available if you pay for the TripIt Pro service, but the other features work for everyone.) That is precisely the information that I want as I’m walking through the airport, and if I’m wearing my AirPods, Siri can just talk to me without me needing to look down at my iPhone screen. And this is just one example of what the TripIt app can do with shortcuts. And TripIt is just one of countless apps that will be updated to support shortcuts. This is cool stuff.
I’m also looking forward to the improvements to notifications. In iOS 12, they are even easier to manage and organize.
It’s always a good idea to backup your device before you install a major new update such as iOS 12. Last night, I backed up my iPhone and my iPad to my iMac so that I would be ready. The update is typically available around 10am Pacific / 1pm Eastern, and I always recommend that you wait a few hours before updating because there have been a few times in the past when Apple had to pull an update shortly after release because a bug was discovered.
watchOS 5
In addition to iOS 12, Apple is also releasing watchOS 5 today. I discussed the major new features in this post. There are fitness improvements, the new Walkie-Talkie feature, support for Siri Shortcuts, podcast support, improved notifications, and more. Thus, if you already have an Apple Watch on your wrist, today it gets better.
Early this morning, Apple started taking orders for the iPhone XS, the iPhone XS Max, and the newly redesigned Series 4 version of the Apple Watch. I placed orders for an iPhone XS and the Series 4 Apple Watch. At the time that I placed my orders, the delivery date for the iPhone XS and the aluminum version of the Series 4 Apple Watch was September 21. However, I ordered the Stainless Steel version of the Apple Watch, and even though I placed my order immediately when the Apple Store opened, my Stainless Steel model has a delivery date of September 28 to October 2. For folks looking to get the iPhone XS Max, I see that it did not take very long for delivery dates to go past September 21 for many of the configurations. It will be interesting to see what kind of demand there is for all of the new products announced this week and how far back the delivery dates start to slip. [UPDATE: Just a few hours later, the Apple Watch delivery dates are now 3-4 weeks, and some models of the new iPhones are now at 1-2 weeks for delivery. We can only guess whether this is a function of supply or demand, but considering that the Apple Watch is a brand new design whereas this is an “s” year for the iPhone, my guess is that Apple Watch demand is particularly high.] And now, the news of note from this busy week in the iPhone and Apple Watch world:
In addition to selling AppleCare+ for the iPhone, Apple has started a new insurance program called AppleCare+ with Theft and Loss. As the name implies, this program will cover two incidents of accidental damage, theft, or loss, although there is a deductible. Get more information on the Apple website.
Last year, Apple announced the AirPower charging pad, but it still hasn’t been released, and most references to it were removed from the Apple website this week. Mike Wuerthele of AppleInsider has some theories on why.
Readdle makes some of the most useful apps for attorneys including Scanner Pro (which I use on my iPhone every week, and sometimes every day) and PDF Expert. Killian Bell of Cult of Mac reports that the company’s apps have now been downloaded 100 million times. Congrats, Readdle!
It is widely known that Apple is planning to open its own video streaming service in the future. Ben Lovejoy of 9to5Mac reports that Apple just won its first Emmy award for Apple-produced content, this one for Carpool Karaoke. I suspect that this won’t be Apple’s last Emmy for a TV show.
If you own an Apple HomePod, it’s going to get better next week. As Ryan Christoffel of MacStories reports, the device will gain support for multiple timers, phone calls, and the ability to play a song if you don’t know the name but you do know a line of the lyrics.
In what almost seemed like a response to that article by Fowler, Apple’s keynote featured a presentation by Lisa Jackson, Apple’s Vice President in charge of environment, policy and social initiatives. (She is also the former administrator of the EPA.) Horace Dediu of Asymco discusses the most interesting aspects of Jackson’s presentation.
And finally, Apple released lots of videos in connection with this week announcements, but today I’m just picking one that is silly and fun. The opening video for this week’s keynote address features someone running across Apple’s new campus in Mission: Impossible style. (As Roger Fingas of AppleInsider points out, Apple took some liberties for the path used by this runner.) The video is entertaining, and also gives you some good views of Apple’s new campus:
There have been four times in the past when Apple has debuted a major new iPhone with a new hardware design, and then the next year has debuted an “s” model: the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4S, iPhone 5s, and iPhone 6s. These “s” models contain new features, sometimes even new hardware features, but the main emphasis seems to be on deeply improving the prior year’s model. Many lawyers have told me that they buy a new iPhone every two years and prefer to buy on the “s” year because that is when Apple really perfects each generation of iPhone. Yesterday, Apple debuted the new iPhone XS (pronounced “ten ess”), and it fits this model perfectly. The iPhone XS answers the question of what can we do if we take the basic hardware of the iPhone X, with that beautiful OLED edge-to-edge screen, and then deeply improve it.
One of the most notable ways that Apple has improved upon the iPhone X model is by releasing three different versions of the iPhone XS. The main model adds the typical types of improvements that we would expect for an “s” model. But Apple also introduced two other versions of the iPhone XS: one for people who want an even bigger screen called the iPhone XS Max, and one for people who to save some money but still get most of the good stuff called the iPhone XR. Add to this that many of the older iPhone models are still available for sale at cheaper prices, and there is truly an iPhone for everyone.
I’ll start by discussing the improvements over the iPhone X that exist in both the main model and the larger Max model — and most of these improvements also exist in the cheaper iPhone XR model.
Performance
For a while now, Apple has been designing its own CPUs, allowing the company to create amazing processors which make the iPhone more powerful every year. For the 2018 iPhone, Apple has added the new A12 Bionic chip. As you would expect, this new CPU is faster and more energy efficient than prior models. But to give the A12 an additional boost, Apple added the Neural Engine, a part of the CPU dedicated to the task of machine learning.
Thanks to the Neural Engine, the iPhone XS can recognize patterns, make predictions, and learn from experience, and do all of this while performing five trillion operations per second. In other words, the iPhone is smarter and faster. The Neural Engine is especially useful for the camera (more on that below), but also allows the iPhone XS to perform more sophisticated computations. Augmented Reality should be significantly better on the iPhone XS.
Obviously this makes the iPhone better for CPU-intensive apps like sophisticated games. But even if you are just drafting an email to a client, surfing the web, or looking at photos, a faster iPhone is a more responsive iPhone, which always makes an iPhone more pleasant to use.
Speaking of making the iPhone faster, the iPhone XS also adds support for Gigabit-class LTE, a faster version of 4G as 5G is still being developed. My carrier, AT&T, currently has Gigabit LTE in 141 markets. Gigabit LTE should be about twice as fast as 4G, up to 400 Mbps. In the real world, I typically see LTE download speeds of around 150 Mbps where I live in New Orleans, whereas if I am close to the Wi-Fi router in my house I see wireless download speeds from my cable modem of around 330 Mbps. I’ll be curious to see if Gigabit LTE is just as fast as Wi-Fi at my house — and significantly faster when I’m not close to the Wi-Fi router — after I upgrade to the iPhone XS.
Camera
It is truly amazing how far the camera on the iPhone has come in the last decade. Apple says that the newest iPhone has the best camera yet. It looks like there are only minor improvements in the camera hardware. Just like the iPhone X, the iPhone XS has two 12 megapixel cameras on the rear, one of which is a wide-angle f/1.8 lens and one of which is a telephone f/2.4 lens. I love having that telephoto lens on my iPhone X, and if you haven’t used an iPhone with this feature before, you’ll love it. There are so many times that I am taking a picture with my iPhone and I want to get closer — such as when I’m taking a picture of my daughter kicking the soccer ball when she is across a soccer field from me. For both pictures and video, that telephoto lens is a nice feature.
The main thing that is new for the iPhone XS in terms of taking pictures is that the CPU features an improved image signal processor which does a heck of a lot more As Apple noted yesterday, what really makes the iPhone camera better is the computational photography. The new the iPhone XS performs up to a trillion operations on every photo you take. For example, the iPhone XS adds a feature that Apple calls Smart HDR, an improved version of HDR photography. Apple VP Phil Schiller describes it this way:
So let’s say you’re taking a picture and the camera recognizes you’re shooting a subject and the subject is moving. You go to press down on the shutter and you get a picture instantly. It’s called zero shutter lag. What the A12 Bionic is actually doing is shooting a four-frame buffer so it can capture that critical moment. But the A12 Bionic is doing even more than that. It’s also capturing secondary inter-frames at the same time. And those inter-frames are shot at a different exposure level to bring out highlight details. And it’s doing more than that. It’s shooting a long exposure so it can get better shadow detail as well. And when you’re taking that picture it’s analyzing all of those, finding out how to match up the best parts of each and merge them into one perfect photo. That’s Smart HDR. It is a breakthrough, and it makes taking photos easier than ever to get beautiful results.
Apple also showed off a cool new feature when taking Portrait Mode photos — photos in which the subject of your picture is in focus but the background is blurred, similar to the bokeh effect you get with a high-end SLR camera. There is now a slider to adjust the amount of blurring in the background, so you can decide if you want to see some of the background details, or if you want your subject to really stand out.
Although I normally think of using the camera to take pictures, the front-facing camera is also critical for Face ID. Apple says that thanks to the advanced A12 Bionic CPU, Face ID is faster and works better on the iPhone XS. It would be great if this was a noticeable improvement, and I can’t wait to find out for myself.
Dual SIM
If you travel internationally with your iPhone, it is sometimes useful to get a different SIM card when you are in another country so that you can avoid expensive roaming charges. The iPhone XS has a traditional SIM card but also supports a second eSIM. When carriers support it — and Apple announced that many are on board — you’ll be able to use two SIMs at the same time, and the iPhone will intelligently switch between them depending upon the circumstances. Thus, you should be able to use a cheaper data plan in another country while still receiving phone calls when people call your normal phone number.
More waterproof
I’m sure that Apple would prefer that you not dunk your iPhone into the ocean. But over time the iPhone has become more resistant to water, and this year the improvement is enough for Apple to increase the IP Code from IP67 to IP68. The first number refers to how dust-proof the device is, and the iPhone X was already at 6, which is the highest. But the increase from 7 to 8 is a noticeable increase in liquid ingress protection, to use the technical words. With 7, a device can go up to 1 meter deep for up to 30 minutes. With the 8 rating, Apple says that the iPhone XS can go up to 2 meters deep for up to 30 minutes.
Apple isn’t advertising the iPhone XS as something you are going to use on your next snorkeling trip as an underwater camera. Having said that, there are plenty of IP68 cameras being sold on Amazon which specifically advertise themselves as being waterproof and designed for underwater photography. In part, this is because there is a wide range of ingress protection which all falls under IP68, but I suspect that if you wanted to be daring and take an underwater picture with an iPhone XS, you may not damage your phone at all.
More importantly, if you accidentally drop your iPhone XS in liquid, there is a good chance that you can just let the phone dry out and then it will be fine. Yesterday, Apple VP Phil Schiller said that the iPhone XS was tested in many liquids, including orange juice, tea, wine, and even beer.
iPhone XS Max
Before the iPhone X, I felt like I had an impossible desire. I wanted a larger screen, but I didn’t want the iPhone to be any larger so that I could continue to use it without stretching my hand too much. The solution, as the iPhone X showed us, was to reduce the bezels so that you get more screen space than a Plus model inside of hardware that is the same size as a non-Plus model.
But there are some folks out there who don’t mind the larger size of the Plus model, and for those folks, Apple has created the iPhone XS Max. The iPhone XS Max is about the same size as an iPhone 8 Plus, but because of the edge-to-edge design, you get a larger screen. While the iPhone XS has a 5.8" screen, the iPhone XS Max has a 6.5" screen. That’s not that far off from an iPad mini, which has a 7.9" screen. While the iPhone XS has a 2436-by-1125-pixel resolution, the iPhone XS Max has a 2688-by-1242-pixel resolution. (Both are at 458 ppi.)
In terms of physical size, the iPhone XS is 5.65" x 2.79" while the iPhone XS Max is 6.20" x 3.05".
You also get extra battery life with the iPhone XS Max. Apple says that the iPhone XS provides about 30 minutes more battery life than the iPhone X, while the iPhone XS Max provides about 90 minutes more battery life than the iPhone X.
iPhones with a Plus-size screen have been around for a while now, so I suspect that you already know whether or not you are someone who minds the larger hardware size. If the larger size isn’t too big for your pocket or purse, then spending an extra $100 for the iPhone XS Max might be perfect for you.
iPhone XR
If you like the idea of the iPhone XS but you don’t want to spend $999 and up for the iPhone XS or $1099 and up for the iPhone XS Max, you’ll want to consider the iPhone XR. Apple didn’t say what the “R” stands for, but I presume the idea is that it is one step below “S” and that sounds about right. The iPhone XR has almost all of the new features that I mentioned above, plus almost all of the features which have made the iPhone X so great. However, the starting price is $250 less than the iPhone XS: $749.
Here is what you lose by saving that $250 over the iPhone XS:
Display. Instead of the beautiful high-resolution OLED display with its rich colors and deep blacks, you get an LCD screen, which is the type of screen that Apple used to always offer before the iPhone X. Apple says that the LCD screen in the iPhone XR is particularly good, but it still won’t look as good as an OLED screen. And while the iPhone XS can show HDR video, much like newer high-end TVs, the iPhone XR cannot.
3D Touch. You cannot push harder on the screen to bring up different options. As a workaround, Apple says that in some situations you can tap and hold down on the screen for a certain amount of time to trigger the same options — not unlike the way it works on an iPad — and Apple even adds some haptic feedback to reinforce that you are using the substitute for true 3D Touch.
Size. The iPhone XR is actually slightly larger than the iPhone XS with a 6.1" screen, but it is definitely smaller than the iPhone XS Max with its 6.5" screen.
Camera. You only get one camera on the back, so you don’t get the telephoto lens.
Less waterproof. The IP rating is IP67, similar to the iPhone X.
LTE. You just get regular LTE, not Gigabit-class LTE.
Having said that, it is not all compromises with the iPhone XR. You also get one feature that you don’t get with the iPhone XS (or the iPhone XS Max): more colors. While the iPhone XS comes in silver, space gray, or gold, the iPhone XR comes in blue, white, black, yellow, coral, and red. And I understand from folks who saw the new iPhone XR in person yesterday that the colors are quite vibrant. Keep in mind that if you are going to keep your iPhone in a case the whole time, you might not notice the color very much.
Conclusion
The new 2018 iPhones look to be great for any lawyer, or anyone else who is looking to get work done with an iPhone. With the large, edge-to-edge screen, you can see even more of your documents, your email, etc., and the faster speed allows your iPhone to help you get your work done without getting in the way. And thanks to the three different models, you can now decide whether you want to pay $250 less to give up a few features that might not even matter to you, or pay $100 more for an even larger screen. With all models offered in 64 GB, 256 GB or 512 GB capacities, you can decide how much space you want. (The 256 GB model is $150 more than the base price 64 GB model, and the 512 GB model is $350 more than the 64 GB model.) And since I presume that you will also use your iPhone for non-work purposes, such as taking pictures of the kids, playing games, or using the latest Augmented Reality app, the new 2018 models are even better at those tasks.
If you currently use an iPhone X, you probably won’t want to upgrade unless you enjoy having the latest and greatest. But if you currently use an older iPhone, then you’ll love using the iPhone X form factor, and as a bonus for waiting an extra year for the “s” model, you can get an iPhone which is significantly improved over the iPhone X with more options on size and price.
What am I going to get? My current iPhone X typically has about 150 GB in use, so I know that the 64 GB model is not enough for me, and the 256 GB sounds just right. I don’t like a larger phone, but I do want that amazing OLED display. Thus, I plan to get the iPhone XS in the 256 GB capacity, probably in space gray.
Apple starts taking orders tomorrow, September 14th, and devices will begin shipping on September 21st, for the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max models. If you want the iPhone XR, you can order starting October 19, and devices ship a week later.
Today at 10am Pacific / 1pm Eastern, Apple will give a keynote presentation at the Steve Jobs Theater, part of Apple’s new Apple Park campus in Cupertino, CA. We will definitely see the 2018 versions of the iPhone, and I expect to see a new Apple Watch. I’m sure that Apple will also say something about iOS 12, which Apple first previewed this past June and which I suspect will be released in the next week or so.
Other than that, I’m not sure what Apple will announce. For example, I expect to see a new iPad Pro this year, but I don’t know if we will see it today. Sometimes Apple announces a new iPad and new iPhone at the same time, other times Apple holds back the iPad announcement until the next month.
Finally, it is always fun when there are surprise announcements, so I hope that something interesting is announced today that I wasn’t expecting at all.
Earlier this year, Apple announced a new iPad with support for the new Logitech Crayon, a stylus this is almost as good as the Apple Pencil for half the price. Although the Crayon was only available for the education market, I said at the time that I hoped it would give rise to many new stylus options with the precision of the Apple Pencil. The jury is still out on whether additional styluses are coming, but in a baby step towards that future, attorney John Voorhees of MacStories reports that Apple announced this week that the Logitech Crayon will be available for everyone to purchase, even if you are not in the education sector, starting September 12. Of course, that is also the day next week when Apple has scheduled a big event at its campus to show off the new iPhones and who knows what else. The Crayon announcement makes me think that we may see a new iPad next week, and if Apple wants to show off even more new stylus options next week, I would certainly love that. And now, the news of note from the past week:
What will the new iPhones being unveiled next week be called? John Gruber of Daring Fireball has some theories.
Earlier this year, I discussed a service called TeenSafe which restricts the ability of your kids to use your iPhone, but does so at great risk because you have to give the service access to your iCloud backup, which is a problem if the site is hacked — and sure enough, TeenSafe was hacked. Ben Lovejoy of 9to5Mac reports that a similar product called mSpy accidentally exposed millions of passwords, text messages, contacts, call logs, notes and location data, etc. to the Internet. I remain very suspicious of services like this. Be careful out there.
Recently, a 15-year-old student tried to share with her mother a photo of a mock crime scene from a medical biology class. She tried to do so using AirDrop, when she was on a plane, and instead she shared the photo with 15 other random passengers, as the plane was taken off. The chaos that ensued resulted in grounding the Hawaiian Airlines flight for 90 minutes. Michael Potuck of 9to5Mac has more details (including the picture). Hopefully something like this will never happen to you.
I cannot tell you what features the new iPhones will have next week, but one thing that they surely won’t have is support for the upcoming 5G standard. I see iPhone 5G support in 2019 or 2020. But that’s not that far away, so it isn’t too early to think about what 5G means. I discussed the transition to 5G earlier this year. This week, David Pogue of Yahoo wrote a good overview of what 5G means, and also created a nice video overview.
Phishing attacks are increasingly common, and are especially dangerous for law firms because of the confidential information stored on law firm networks. Many law firms have had to deal with major hacking attacks over the last few years. Yesterday, the Apple Support account on Twitter posted a good, short video explaining how to look out for phishing attacks on your Apple devices:
Got a suspicious email or text? Don’t click on any links or open any attachments. It could be a phishing scam.
Schools in New Orleans were closed yesterday, and many are still closed today, because for a while it looked like Tropical Storm Gordon was headed this way. That storm instead headed towards the Mississippi/Alabama border, but it had me using my weather apps even more than normal. Dark Sky has long been one of the best iOS weather apps because of its incredibly accurate to-the-minute forecasts for the next hour — so much so that many other apps rely on Dark Sky for their own data. But the app was recently updated to version 6.0 with a new interface, plus it is even faster under the hood. Especially with these improvements, there is no doubt that Dark Sky is one of the very best weather apps for the iPhone and iPad.
Accurate, minute-by-minute predictions for the next hour
One of the best features of the Dark Sky app is that it tells you whether you need to grab your umbrella as you walk out the door. Dark Sky can figure out whether it is going to rain during the next hour at your precise location. When you start the app, if there is rain in the next hour, you will see a graph similar to this one:
If the app tells you it will start raining in 8 minutes, you might as well start opening up your umbrella in 7 minutes.
This information is also useful if it is currently raining and you are trying to decide whether to wait for a gap in the rain, or if you should just go now because it isn’t getting better any time soon.
Great forecasts, with an improved unified interface
Many apps do a nice job of giving you forecasts for the new few hours and the next few days. Dark Sky has always had accurate data, but thanks to the recent version 6 update, I really like the way that this data is displayed all in one place.
When you start the app, the app gives you a forecast for your specific current location, but you can quickly search for another location (and you can save up to six locations, allowing you to swipe left and right to switch between locations). Clear icons and numbers tell you the current conditions.
Next, you see a map with rain indicated. Dark Sky has always used an interesting style for showing radar information on a map; instead of the blocky tiny squares, the colors are smoothed out.
Next you see the hourly forecast, provided in a fantastic interface thanks to the recent update. A bar along the left side gives you a visual indication of rain (the color changes to blue). Next you see the hour, the forecast information, and the temperature in a circle which moves left or right to show relative increases and decreases in temperature. I love the way that Dark Sky now shows all of this information at once, making it incredibly easy to see when rain will start and stop over the next few hours and how the temperature will increase or decrease over the next 24 hours.
If you scroll down, you will see the forecast for the next week. Again, the graphics are clean and the information is easy to understand.
If you tap on any day, you get hourly forecasts for that specific day in the same format that the app normally gives you for the next 24 hours.
Maps with radar
If you tap the Map button at the bottom of the app (or if you tap on the radar map at the top of the main screen of the app), you are brought into a map view. You can zoom in or out to see precipitation, and you can tap a play button at the bottom to see an animation of the last three hours and the predicted next hour. Again, the nice smooth animations which are unique to Dark Sky make it easy to see what is going on.
Time Machine
I usually use a weather app when I want to look to the future. But if you need historical weather information for a particular location, Dark Sky can give you that too.
Apple Watch
If you use an Apple Watch, Dark Sky has a nice app which shows you much of the same information for your current location that you see in the iPhone app, except for the maps.
Conclusion
Dark Sky has long been the leader in accurate forecasts on the iPhone and other devices, and thanks to the recent interface update, it is now one of the best apps for presenting this information in a clean interface which quickly tells you what you need to know. If you ever use an iPhone to pay attention to the weather, this is an app that you should own.
Yesterday, Apple announced that it will hold an product announcement event on its campus in Cupertino, California on Wednesday, September 12 at 10 Pacific. Jason Snell of Six Colors posted a picture of the invitation. If you don’t mind spoiling the surprise of learning all of the details on September 12, Guilherme Rambo and Zac Hall of 9to5Mac seem to have obtained some marketing images from Apple showing off the new iPhone and the new Apple Watch. John Gruber of Daring Fireball speculates that those images may have been posted to a public Apple server by mistake, leading to the leak. If that’s true, there are some very unhappy people in Cupertino today. And now, the news of note from the past week:
Two factor authentication is a fantastic security method which I think will become even more prevalent in the future. At my law firm, we use Microsoft Authenticator as a second authentication method for many of our firm’s resources, such as remote access. It works really well; using either an iPhone app — or easier still, a notification on my Apple Watch — I can confirm that yes, it really is me logging in. This week, Alex Simons, Vice President of Program Management, Microsoft Identity Division, announced that Microsoft is rolling out Microsoft Authenticator as an Apple Watch app. This means that even if you receive a push notification which requires a PIN or biometric, you can approve access with an Apple Watch.
Lisa Vaas of Naked Security reports that a U.S. citizen who is Muslim is suing US Customs and Border Protection for seizing her iPhone in an airport, copying all of the data on it, and keeping the iPhone for 130 days. (via Ride the Lightning).
Michael Rockwell of The Sweet Setup explains how to use your iPhone and HomeKit devices to turn on the lights in your home whenever you or your spouse come home at night.
Kaitlyn Wells of Wirecutter recommends the best bag organizers to store all of your USB-to-Lightning cords, power adapters, and everything else you might want to carry around in a bag.
And finally, tomorrow, September 1, Apple is celebrating national parks around the world by giving you the opportunity to earn an award in the Activity app. The graphic that you can earn was inspired by Redwood National Park’s 50th anniversary. If you do a walk, run, or wheelchair workout of 50 minutes or more, you get to add the below award to your digital collection. I like these awards because they serve as motivators, even though we all know it is just a simple image. If you own an Apple Watch, try to find an hour to walk tomorrow!
Many of us keep handy an external battery that can be used to recharge an iPhone. However, occasionally you need to charge another mobile device: a car. If you ever find yourself with a dead car battery, sometimes it is possible to find a friend with another car and jumping cables, but that is a huge aggravation and may not even be possible depending upon where your car is located. The simple solution is to keep a portable jump starter in your trunk. The Weego Jump Starter 22 is an amazing device that makes it incredibly simple to jump start your car, and as an added bonus you can use it to charge an iPhone or iPad. This device recently saved my bacon, and I enthusiastically recommend that you get this device now so that you have it when you need it.
My story
Virtually all of us have had to deal with a dead car battery at some point. Here is my recent story. I own a relatively new car — a 2017 Honda Accord. (Last year I wrote about how much I love the CarPlay in my new car.) About two weeks ago, I drove my car to a store, but then when I left the store a few minutes later, my car battery was dead. Fortunately, my wife was not too far away so she could drive to me so we could jump my car, but I knew that I wouldn’t always be so lucky. It seemed strange that this would happen to a relatively new car. Did I maybe leave on a light overnight without realizing it? For a while I had been thinking of buying a portable jump starter, and after this occurrence I decided to play it safe and buy the Weego Jump Starter 22 on Amazon that same day.
A week later I had to fly to Florida for business for a few days. When I returned to the New Orleans airport and went to start my car, once again it was dead. This time, getting a friend to drive to me to jump my car would have been a huge nightmare. They would have had to drive all the way to the airport, go into a pay parking lot, and even then I’m not sure how it would have worked because there were cars in all of the spots around me so I wouldn’t have been able to get another car close enough to the battery in my car. And to make matters worse, I could see that it was about to start raining in 15 minutes.
But I didn’t have to worry about any of this. I took the Weego Jump Starter 22 out of my trunk, hooked it up, started my car, and then I was on my way. The whole experience took me less than two minutes and could not have been easier. What normally would have been a disaster was instead incredibly quick and easy.
A few days later, I brought my car to the dealer, which confirmed that my battery had to be replaced, fortunately at no charge to me because it was under warranty. Hopefully that is the end of this story, but if for some reason there is some other electrical issue in my car and I encounter a dead battery again, I’m not worried because I have the the Weego Jump Starter 22 with me.
How it works
Before I explain how it works, let me emphasize again how simple this thing is to use. I am about as far as one can be from a car mechanic, and even for me, using this device was a breeze.
For example, the clamps on this thing are better than any other clamps I have ever seen. Traditional clamps can be hard to fully open, and they open like a crocodile’s mouth and can be difficult to attach to a terminal and sometimes slip off. Weego has a patented innovation the company calls Smarty Clamps. They open ultra-wide so it is simple to attach them to a terminal, and you don’t have to squeeze very hard to get them to open fully. Last year, Wirecutter rated the Weego Jump Starter 22s the best portable jump starter, in part because the “strong, easy-to-use clamps make a good connection on a variety of battery posts.” (The Weego Jump Starter 22 that I purchased has the same clamps; it is slightly more expensive than the 22s because it adds the ability to charge a cellphone, adds a 250 lumen flashlight, and it is rated IP65 so it is water, dust and dirt resistant.)
The Weego Jump Starter 22 comes in a metal box which looks like a lunch box and holds all of the parts. It is nice to have something sturdy to hold it all together, and I just put the lunch box in my trunk. It also comes with a holding bag if you want something even more compact to hold it all together.
The Jump Starter 22 delivers 1700 peak amps and 300 true cranking amps, which Weego says is sufficient for motorcycles, boats and 95% of cars and trucks on the road today — anything with up to a 5L gas or a 2.5L diesel engine. (Weego also sells a Jump Starter 44 and a Jump Starter 66 which will work with muscle cars and big trucks — the types of cars which might laugh at my Honda Accord.)
The top of the Jump Starter 22 has a protective cover, to keep out water or dust. To jump start a car, flip open that lid to expose a connector where you pug in the clamps.
Next, turn the Jump Starter 22 on, using the power button located on the bottom right side.
Next, you attach the black clamp to your negative terminal and the red clamp to your positive terminal. If for some reason you get that mixed up and attach to the wrong terminals, the device will not send power and instead it beeps and lights next to the word “reverse” will flash. So it is idiot-proof.
Next wait a second or two until you see a green ready light. That means everything is good to go. Start your car.
Finally, you disconnect the clamps from the Jump Starter 22. Once you do so, a charge is no longer flowing to the clamps, so you can disconnect the clamps from the terminals in whatever order you want.
All of the lights make it super easy to understand what is going on. Also, four lights on the body of the device tell you how much power you have left. I had all four lights before I jumped my car, and afterwards I still had all four lights. It takes about 2.5 hours to fully charge the Weego Jump Starter 22, and Weego says that the device will hold a charge for at least a year, and it has 1,000 charge cycles.
Unlike traditional jumping cables, you don’t need to worry about the two clamps on the Jump Starter 22 touching each other. The Weego only sends power when it detects that it is connected to a battery. That, along with the reverse polarity detection, means that you don’t need to worry about doing something wrong and creating sparks.
It was easy for me to find a place to put the device when I was charging my car, but if for some reason you don’t have a good space, the device comes with a hook and lanyard that you could use to attach the device to the underside of your car hood. You can also use the hook and lanyard in connection with the built-in flashlight to create a work light that lasts up to 14 hours.
The Jump Starter 22 comes with a USB-to-Micro USB charging cord. It also comes with a USB car charger that goes into a car’s power port / cigarette lighter, so you can charge this device while you are driving and when your battery is strong, and then it will be ready when necessary.
Charge your phone
Carrying a Weego Jump Starter in your car means that you never have to worry about a dead battery again. But hopefully you won’t need to use the device very often to start a car, and since the core of the device is a powerful battery, Weego also lets you use this device to charge your phone. So if you drive somewhere only to realize that your phone is dead or low on power, just take the Weego Jump Starter 22 from your trunk, add a USB-to-Lightning cable, and you are ready to go. (Consider storing a USB-to-Lightning cable, such as an inexpensive Anker PowerLine cable, in the Weego lunch box so you have it if you need it.)
If the Weego is at full charge, you have 1700 Amps, which depending upon your iPhone model should give you somewhere from almost a full charge to multiple charges. Weego advertises “up to 3 full charges” but obviously that depends upon which device you are using. Weego also says that the Jump Starter 22 detects what kind of device you are using and “automatically provides [the] fastest charge to your phones, tablets & other USB devices,” 5V or 9V at 2.4A output.
The Jump Starter 22 (without the clamps) has dimensions of 3.25" x 6.25" x .75" and weighs about 10 ounces. You can certainly buy smaller external batteries to charge your iPhone, but the Jump Starter 22 is not intended to be the portable charger that you carry around and use every day. It works great for the rare situation when you are away from the home or office and you need something to charge your iPhone or iPad right away — and then you are glad that the device is in your trunk so you can grab it and walk wherever you are going with something handy to charge your phone.
Conclusion
Having a portable jump starter in your car gives you peace of mind. Everyone has a car battery die at some point, and with this device in your trunk, you’ll never have to worry about being stranded or dealing with inconveniences when it happens to you. And because of the excellent design of the Weego Jump Starter 22, it is fast and easy to jump start a car. As an added bonus, you have a battery in your car that you can always use to charge an iPhone or iPad — which gives you even more peace of mind.
If you decide that you don’t need an iPhone charger, and if you don’t care about the flashlight and the IP65 rating, then get the Weego Jump Starter 22s. It is cheaper, but the basic design is the same as the Jump Starter 22, including those fantastic clamps and useful status lights that walk you through using the device to jump a car battery.
Whichever model you get, this is a good product to get now, while you are thinking about it, so you have it later when you really need it. You might need it for yourself, but even if you are helping a friend jump a car, it is going to be much, much easier to use a portable device like this versus getting your own car in the right position so that you can jump your friend’s car using your own car.
Rene Ritchie of iMore explains why he believes that Apple’s September product announcement will take place on Wednesday, September 12, just over two weeks from now, and says that we could see a larger version of the iPhone X, perhaps with Apple Pencil support, an iPhone 9 with a design similar to the iPhone X but with an LCD screen, an Apple Watch Series 4 with smaller bezels so that the physical size is the same but the screen is larger, an iPad Pro 3, new Macs, and more. That’s a whole lot of new Apple products that could be just around the corner. Clear some space on your credit card. And now, the news of note from the past week:
Attorney John Voorhees of MacStories discusses an update to the Dark Sky app which I think greatly improves the interface of that weather app. For a long time now, CARROT Weather has been my favorite weather app, but with this update, I’ve started to use Dark Sky even more.
Elizabeth Sullivan of PCMag reviews the Logitech Crayon — the $50 version of the Apple Pencil — and names it an Editors’ Choice. The Crayon is currently only being sold to schools, but I hope that will change in the future. In fact, it would be fantastic to have lots of different stylus choices that all work as well as the Apple Pencil.
VPN software is used to keep your Internet use private, especially if you are using public Wi-Fi. But according to Chance Miller of 9to5Mac, Apple has asked Facebook to remove its Onavo VPN app from the App Store. While that app may keep your Internet use private from other people on the same network, apparently Facebook tracks everything that you do while using the app, making it a privacy nightmare. Kudos to Apple for continuing to make privacy a priority.
Speaking of privacy, John Gruber of Daring Fireball links to a Digital Content Next story about a report from Vanderbilt Professor Douglas Schmidt which finds that while Google doesn’t collect any of your personal data from the Safari web browser when you are not actively using it, a dormant Android phone running the Chrome browser sends information to Google 340 times in a 24-hour period.
Gruber also discusses the shake-to-undo feature of the iPhone, and notes that many people don’t even know that the feature is there. I don’t use it often, but when I do, I’m glad it there. Hopefully, you already know that it is there, but if not, you do now.
Zac Hall of 9to5Mac recommends HomeKit devices that you can use to monitor the temperature at your house.
Roger Fingas of AppleInsider reports that, from today through August 31, Apple will donate $1 to the National Park Foundation for every Apple Pay purchase made at an Apple store or on the Apple website. And on September 1, there will be a special Activity Challenge on the Apple Watch.
Steven Musil of CNet reports that you can now use Apple Pay when you shop at Costco.
This week, I was the guest on one of my favorite podcasts, Mac Power Users. It was episode 444 of that podcast, a number which has a nice ring to it. The co-hosts are California attorney David Sparks and Florida attorney Katie Floyd. The three of us have known each other for a long time, and that camaraderie made for a fun podcast. Although the three of us are attorneys, this is a general interest podcast, so I didn’t discuss legal-specific apps I love such as TranscriptPad or iTimeKeep, but I did discuss just about everything else. The topics included using a Mac at home when you have a PC at work, lots of different ways to get your work done using an iPhone and iPad, home automation using Apple’s HomeKit platform, and CarPlay. If you are interested in the things I write about on iPhone J.D., then I am sure that you will enjoy this podcast episode.
Thank you, David and Katie, for asking me to be a guest on the show. When you click this episode link, you will see links to download this specific episode in your podcast player of choice on your iPhone, including my personal favorite, Overcast:
