Jeff Richardson

[UPDATE:  For my latest post on Anker cables dated August 19, 2020, click here.]

Last year, I reviewed the Anker PowerLine+ USB to Lightning cord, and I was incredibly impressed.  It costs less than the cord that Apple sells (or includes with an iPhone or iPad), and it is far more durable.  Indeed, shortly after I purchased that cord, two of the Apple Lightning cords that some of my family members had been using started to fray near the ends.  Rather than risk damage to their iPhones, those cords went right into the trash and I decided order some more Anker cords from Amazon.  We got different colors for different family members to avoid confusion, and this also gave me an opportunity to compare the difference between the original version of the Anker PowerLine+ and the Anker PowerLine+ II. 

Durability

The PowerLine+ I have been using for months seems incredibly durable.  The nylon surrounding the cord protects the cord and makes it virtually impossible to knot the cord.  And the plugs on the ends seem much more durable than the Apple Lightning cords — which always seem to be the spot where my Apple cords fray over time.

The PowerLine+ II cord also features nylon surrounding the cord, but it is just a hair thicker.  And the plugs on the ends of the PowerLine+ II are a little bit larger and are more tapered than the PowerLine+ cord.  In the following picture, the Lightning end of the PowerLine+ II is at the top, followed by the Lightning end of the PowerLine+, then the USB end of the PowerLine+ II, and at the bottom the USB end of the PowerLine+.

What difference does this make?  Anker advertises the PowerLine+ as lasting 6 times longer than other (unspecified) Lightning cables with a 6,000+ bend lifespan.  Anker advertises the PowerLine+ II as lasting 30 times longer than ordinary cables, able to withstand 30,000 bends.  So apparently Anker believes that the PowerLine+ II is about five times more durable than the PowerLine+ cord.  Anker says that both cords have a tensile strength that can support 175 pounds.

The PowerLine+ comes with an 18 month warranty, but the PowerLine+ II comes with a lifetime warranty.  Anker’s website says:  “We’re so confident in PowerLine+ II, we are offering a hassle-free replacement for all quality issues.  Not for half a year, not for 18 months, but for an entire lifetime.  It’s the only cable you will ever need to buy.”

I haven’t tried to bend any of these cords 6,000 times, let alone 30,000 times.  I have tried to see what is different between the cords, and I see a few minor differences.  First, the nylon on the PowerLine+ II is thicker and feels a little softer than the PowerLine+.  Second, if I bend the PowerLine+, the cord tends to keep the shape of the bend, but if I bend the PowerLine+ II, the cord doesn’t keep the shape as much.  I don’t know if either of those two qualities has anything to do with durability.

I’m sure that the longer plugs on the PowerLine+ II are important for durability.  Since that is a common point of failure for the Apple Lightning cords, I can understand that Anker would want to make them as strong as possible.

Speaking of the plugs, keep in mind that — as I noted in my prior review — the Lightning end of the Anker plugs are slightly larger than the Lightning end of Apple’s cord.  If you have an iPhone case with a tiny hole for the Lightning cord made precisely for the Apple cord, it is possible that the Anker plug will be too big.  Otherwise, I doubt you will notice the difference.

Colors

The PowerLine+ cords come in four colors:  gray, red, white and golden.  I bought my original PowerLine+ cord for my car, and the dark gray color is a great match for my car’s interior.  My wife picked the red color for her cord, and the red does look really nice.  Here are the gray and red colors:

The PowerLine+ II cords come in four colors:  black, red, silver and golden.  Here are the black, silver and golden colors:

The gray of the PowerLine+ is dark enough that it is only a shade lighter than the black of the PowerLine+ II.  The following picture shows all five cords, with the gray PowerLine+ at the top and the black PowerLine+ II in the middle:

Cases

One big difference between the two products is that the PowerLine+ comes with a felt pouch that folds over, whereas the PowerLine+ II comes with a nicer zippered pouch.  Here is the felt pouch for the PowerLine+:

Here is the pouch of the PowerLine+ II, the 3 foot version on the left, and the slightly larger 6 foot version on the right:

With both cases, you can wind up the cord inside of the case to make the part of the cords that come out of each side just the length that you need.  This works with the leather pouch because both ends are open; this works with the zippered pouch because it has zippers at both ends. 

I think that most people would prefer the zippered pouch because it zips completely closed.  Both cases give you someplace to store the cord when you are not using it, but the PowerLine+ II version seems like a nicer case to toss into your purse, briefcase, luggage, etc.

Price difference

Typically, the PowerLine+ II cord costs $1 or $2 more than the same length PowerLine+ cord.  But this isn’t always true.

You can buy these cords in 1 foot, 3 foot, 6 foot and 10 foot lengths.  The cost for the PowerLine+ versions are $12.99, $14.99, $16.99 and $17.99.  For the same length versions of the PowerLine+ II, the prices are $13.99, $15.99, $17.99 and $19.99.  But those prices can vary, both on Amazon and the Anker website.

Also, if you like the red color, the PowerLine+ can be even cheaper than the PowerLine+ II because Anker offers a two-pack:  two 3 foot cords for $19.99, or two 6 foot cords for $21.99.  And even if you just want a single red cord, as I type this, the 3 foot red cord is currently $13.99 ($1 cheaper) on Amazon and $11.99 on Anker’s website.  I don’t know if red is always cheaper or if there are other times in which another color is cheaper.

My recommendation

If you decide that you are ready to get a high-quality Lightning cable, these nylon-coated Anker cables get my very highest recommendation.  If you find that for the price and color that you want, the PowerLine+ II version is only $1 or $2 more, you might as well get the PowerLine+ II version.  Even to my eyes, the II version appears to be a little more durable, and Anker apparently thinks the difference is enough to offer the lifetime warranty with the II version.  Plus, the case is much nicer with the II version, which is something that you will appreciate right away.

But if you find that the price difference is more substantial, opting for the PowerLine+ version is still a fine choice.  When I purchased my new cords, I took advantage of the discount on the red PowerLine+ two-pack, which meant that I spent $11 on each red 6 foot cord versus $16 for a red PowerLine+ II version.  I’d make that same decision again.  For me, the nicer case and the increase in durability for a product that is already very durable isn’t worth another $5 for each red cord. 

Here are links to the sizes and prices I’m seeing on Amazon right now:

PowerLine+ 1 foot ($12.99)

PowerLine+ II 1 foot ($13.99)

PowerLine+ 3 foot ($14.99); red PowerLine+ 3 foot ($13.99)

PowerLine+ 3 foot red two-pack ($19.99)

PowerLine+ II 3 foot ($15.99)

PowerLine+ 6 foot ($16.99)

PowerLine+ 6 foot red two-pack ($21.99)

PowerLine+ II 6 foot ($17.99)

PowerLine+ 10 foot ($17.99)

PowerLine+ II 10 foot ($19.99)

I'm a big fan of Face ID on the iPhone X.  It is a big improvement over the Touch ID fingerprint identification system on other iPhone models because, when it works, it provides security without any inconvenience at all.  You are looking at your iPhone anyway when you pick it up to use it, and then Face ID unlocks the phone, almost as if you didn't even have a passcode at all.  In an excellent recent article on the iPhone X, John Gruber of Daring Fireball described it this way:

Consider the aforementioned process of opening a notification from the lock screen. Touch ID adds an extra step, every time, even when it works perfectly. Face ID is not perfect — it’s true that I wind up either authenticating a second time or resorting to entering my PIN more often than with Touch ID — but it only adds these extra steps when it fails for some reason. When it works perfectly, which for me is the vast majority of the time, the effect is sublime. It really does feel like my iPhone has no passcode protecting it. That was never true for Touch ID. Touch ID feels like a better way to unlock your device. Face ID feels like your device isn’t even locked.

Unfortunately, as Gruber noted, the current generation of Face ID fails more often than Touch ID fails.  Here is a tip I recently figured out (just by dumb luck) for dealing with Face ID when it does fail.

If Face ID fails on the Lock screen, you are presented with a keypad to type in a number of password.  If you want to try Face ID again, I previously thought that the only way to to do was to press the cancel button and start all over again. 

Here is a better way.  If you turn your iPhone away from your face for just a second — so that the Face ID camera is looking at something else — and then you turn it back towards your face, I find that Face ID works the second time almost 100% of the time.  This saves you the trouble of pressing that cancel button and starting over again.  Just slightly rotate your wrist, turn it back, and you are done.

This also works with apps that use Face ID as an alternative to typing a username and password.  If Face ID fails, you will see a message like this one with the option to tap an on-screen button to Try Face ID Again:

But you can ignore that button.  Just turn the iPhone away from your face, then bring it back, and Face ID will see you without you having to touch the screen at all.  You'll see the green happy face, and then the app will unlock.

Since I started using this method, the relatively rare instances in which Face ID fails have become far less annoying for me.

If you have enough interest in the iPhone to read iPhone J.D., then there is a good chance that your friends and family look to you when they have questions about their devices.  And I suspect that you will see lots of friends and family members over the next few days for the holidays.  A question you are likely to hear is “why is my [older] iPhone getting so slow?”  Of course, one reason is that as iOS gets more sophisticated, it takes more advantage of newer iPhones with faster processors.  An older iPhone that did well with iOS 9 will run slower with iOS 10 and iOS 11.   This week, Apple provided another part of the answer, as discussed by Niraj Chokshi and Brian X. Chen of the New York Times.  As iPhones get older, the lithium ion batteries inside start to run out of battery capacity.  Instead of having folks get stuck with iPhones that don’t last very long, Apple scales back the processing power.  The result is that an older iPhone runs slower, but can keep going for longer.  Since you don’t always need an iPhone to run at top speed, I think that Apple has its priorities in the right place.  But if you use an older iPhone and this is starting to bother you, you can pay Apple $79 to get a new battery installed, and then that older iPhone will run faster (and last longer).  And now, the news of note from the past week:

• Attorney Scott Killian told Zac Hall of 9to5Mac the story of how his Apple Watch saved his life when it woke him up to warn him that he was having a heart attack.  Killian used a third-party app, but Apple itself recently launched the Apple Heart Study to research how to do more of this.  You can sign up to participate in the study if you have an Apple Watch; I started doing so nine days ago.
• Texas attorney Jnana Settle recommends 25 legal influencers to follow on Twitter in an article for Disrupter Daily.
• Zac Hall of 9to5Mac reports that Twitter is now supporting two-factor authentication using third-party authentication apps.  (In this post, I described how you can do this with 1Password.)  This is more secure than using text messaging as the second factor of authentication because it is possible for a hacker to spoof your cellphone and get your text messages, but only you should have access to a device running an authentication app.  I configured this for my Twitter accounts yesterday, and it was easy and fast to set up.
• If you are lucky enough to receive Apple AirPods for Christmas, they probably were not a last minute gift.  Chance Miller of 9to5Mac reported this past Monday that AirPods were sold out from Apple and other retailers until 2018.
• Back in early 2015, I recommended a great ebook on the Photos app called Photos: A Take Control Crash Course by Jason Snell.  Snell recently updated the ebook to account for the new features in Photos on the Mac and iOS 11.  If you purchased the ebook in the past, the new content is a free upgrade.  Otherwise, the ebook is only $10 and it is full of fantastic information that will help you do so much more with the pictures on your iPhone, iPad and/or Mac.  Highly recommended.
• Geoffery Fowler of the Washington Post recommends some favorite smart home gadgets.  The main devices I use in my house are Lutron in-wall switches (my review), but I also recently started using a Nest Protect smoke detector, and I like it so much that I’m planning to get a second one.
• Federico Viticci of MacStories put together a good list of must-have iOS apps.
• FYI, the new Star Wars movie — The Last Jedi — is really good.  I really enjoyed seeing it last weekend, and I my kids and I already have plans to see it again.
• And finally, speaking of answering tech support questions from family members, Joanna Stern of the Wall Street Journal provides some great advice to common questions in this video, and does so with the aid of puppets:

The International Legal Technology Association (ILTA) is a peer networking organization for people who work in the legal technology field, such as the people who work in law firm IT departments.  This week, ILTA released the results of ILTA’s 2017 Technology Survey, which is based on survey responses fro 579 law firms (including mine).  

Unlike the ABA Tech Survey, which indicates the percentage of lawyers using an iPhone and iPad, ILTA’s technology surveys have always just asked which operating system is supported at law firms.  For many years now, virtually every law firm has had at least some attorneys using an iPhone or iPad, so these survey responses have not been particularly exciting to me for a while now.  I started paying attention to this survey back in 2013, when 97% of all law firms had one or more iOS devices in use.  That number increased slightly to 98% in 2014, and in 2015, 2017 and 2017 the percentage has held steady at 99%.  Breaking down that number by firm size, the 2017 survey says that 98% of law firms with under 50 attorneys have iOS use, 99% of law firms with 50 to 149 attorneys have iOS use, and 100% of law firms with 150 or more attorneys have iOS use.  Suffice it to say that, for many years now, virtually all law firms have supported iPhones and iPads.

Most law firms also support other smartphone devices, but for the most part that means Android nowadays.  In 2017, 80% of law firms support Android devices, 25% support Blackberry OS devices, and 18% support Windows Mobile devices.

ILTA also asks law firms if they are using third-party systems for Mobile Device Management (MDM).  Since 2012, there has been a slow-but-steady increase in use, from 34% in 2012 to 58% this year.

For those firms who are using MDM to manage their iPhones and other mobile devices, the five most popular vendors (in order) are Airwatch, MobileIron, IBM Fiberlink MaaS 360, Blackberry Work (formerly Good Technology) and Citrix XenMobile.

They survey also reports that most law firms (81%) provide some type of financial support for attorneys and others using smartphones, but the amount varies widely among law firms, and 45% of law firms do not pay anything at all towards the cost of the smartphone itself.  A different question on the survey shows similar results:  56% of law firms do not buy smartphones for attorneys, 37% do, and 7% have some other response.  I would have guessed that the 56% number would be even higher because, just anecdotally, it seems that most attorneys I talk to tell me that their law firm has a Buy Your Own Device (BYOD) approach towards smartphones.

One of the last questions in the survey is the top three technology issues or annoyances within your firm.  At the top of the list are items like security compliance and user acceptance of change.  But mobile device maintenance is at the very bottom of the list, right next to print drivers and print-related issues.  There are a lot of technology challenges at law firms today, but apparently iPhones and iPads cause far less trouble for law firm IT professionals than other legal technology items.

If you have been thinking of getting Lit Software’s incredibly useful iPad apps for attorneys, this is a good time to do so if you act quickly.  The TranscriptPad, TrialPad and DocReviewPad apps are all available in a bundle called the Ultimate Litigation Bundle.  That bundle typically goes for $300, which is a $10 discount versus buying the apps individually.  But Lit Software is having a flash sale today and tomorrow only (December 18-19, 2017) where you can get the bundle for $50 off. 

I’ve written about these apps many times before.  And while Lit Software has been a sponsor of iPhone J.D. in the past, I started using these apps long before that sponsorship started.  I use TranscriptPad at least once a week to annotate and work with deposition transcripts (my review).  TrialPad is a great app that lets you present evidence on screen during a trial, arbitration, meeting, etc. (my review).  And DocReviewPad (my review) is an app that you can use to review and annotate documents on your iPad, so this app is especially useful during the request for production of documents process.

While nothing official has been announced, Lit Software has indicated that it is considering a switch to subscription pricing, which is what many other apps like Microsoft Office and 1Password have done.  If and when that takes place, I’m sure that Lit Software will come up with a way to make the transition to a subscription make sense and be appealing from both a technical and financial standpoint.  But if you like the idea of buying the three apps outright, you should take advantage of this limited sale because these sales do not happen very often and this is as good of a price as I would ever expect to see on this bundle.

Click here for the Ultimate Litigation Package (sale for $249.99, normally $299.99): 

Need some last-minute gift ideas for an iPhone user?  Florida attorney Katie Floyd recommends some tech-related gifts, most of which work with the iPhone.  And CarPlay Life recommends gifts for folks who use Apple CarPlay.  Here are my own recommendations for folks who use CarPlay:  (1) I really like the Anker PowerLine+ USB to Lightning cord that I reviewed last month; (2) To keep your CarPlay screen nice and clean, without the dust, keep a MobileCloth in your car.  And now, the news of note from the past week:

• Attorney John Voorhees reports on MacStories that app developers can now make their new apps available for pre-order on the App Store.
• Voorhees also notes that Apple purchased Shazam this week, the service that can identify a song that is playing.  Apple has incorporated Shazam technology into iOS for a while now and didn’t need to acquire the company to do that, so I’m curious what bigger plans Apple has for Shazam its technology.
• Speaking of Voorhees, in the latest episode of the Free Agents podcast of California attorney David Sparks and Jason Snell interviews John Voorhees.  He explains why he quit his job as a bankruptcy attorney at a large Chicago law firm to be an app developer and to cover Apple-related stories at MacStories.
• LitSoftware, the maker of apps like TrialPad and TranscriptPad, explains why it is likely to shift to a subscription model for its apps.
• Maps in iOS supports not only the great outdoors, but also some indoor areas including airports and shopping malls.  Chance Miller of 9to5Mac has a list of all of the locations currently supporting this feature. 
• Rene Ritchie of iMore shows some examples of the Maps app working inside of New York LaGuardia Airport.
• Mikey Campbell of AppleInsider discusses an interview with Lisa Jackson, Apple’s VP for Environment, in which she discusses how Apple designed the iPhone 8 and iPhone X to be more environmentally friendly.
• Dan Grabham of the UK website T3 interviewed Apple’s VP of Worldwide Marketing, Phil Schiller, to discuss the iPhone X and other Apple topics.
• Zac Hall of 9to5Mac discusses how he used his Apple Watch and Apple AirPods to run his first half marathon.
• Jason Snell of Six Colors explains how you can use Homebridge to make HomeKit  support a device that is not HomeKit compatible. 
• And finally, here is a short video featuring magician Simon Pierro, who incorporates an iPad into his act as a stand-in for a glove.  You can keep the audio muted (unless you speak German).  The slight-of-hand techniques are impressive:

As we approach the end of the holiday season, I suspect that many of you — like me — have lots of packages coming your way via FedEx, UPS, the U.S.P.S., etc.  Thus, you are likely to be wondering what you have coming and when you will get it.  I reviewed the Deliveries app back in 2015, and I continue to use that app all of the time, especially during time periods like right now when I have lots of packages coming.  It is so incredibly useful to have a single app that lists the shipping status of each of my packages.

All of the core features of the app are the same as when I reviewed it in 2015, so if you don’t currently use Deliveries, I encourage you to check out that review.  In short, you just copy your tracking number from an email or website or wherever else you have the number.  When you launch the Deliveries app, it sees that there is a tracking number on your clipboard and it offers to create a new entry.  Just add a title for the item.  Then you can launch the app whenever you want to see a list of items, and you can tap any item for more details.

The app was recently updated to take advantage of the larger screen of the iPhone X:

Deliveries is a fantastically useful app for anyone who receives (or sends) packages.  If that sounds like you and you don’t currently use the app, check out my prior review for more details, and get this app.  You’ll be glad that you have it.

Click here to get Deliveries ($4.99): 

One of my favorite tips to share for using an iPhone and iPad is Apple’s built-in text replacement system.  You access it by going to Settings -> General -> Keyboard -> Text Replacement.  You can create traditional shortcuts, such as as series of letters that your device will turn into something longer.  (For example, if I type jji my iPhone/iPad changes it to jeff@iphonejd.com; if I type jja it becomes jeff.richardson@arlaw.com; etc.)  You can add a phrase without a shortcut to add a word to the built-in dictionary.  (For example, I added the phrase “limine” and left the shortcut field blank so that my auto-correct doesn’t annoy me whenever I type “motion in limine” on my iPhone or iPad.)  And you can even use the feature to access characters that cannot be directly typed on the keyboard.  (For example, I have ¶ as a Phrase which appears when I type #7, which is useful because there is no way to directly type the paragraph symbol on an iPhone.)  I mention all of this today because California attorney David Sparks reported this week that the built-in text replacement on the iPhone, iPad and Mac is much more reliable now that Apple improved the way that phrases and shortcuts are synced among multiple devices using iCloud.  It is nice to see a good feature get even better.  And now, the news of note from the past week:

• New York attorney Nicole Block recommends a few of her favorite Apple Watch and iPhone apps for lawyers.
• Sarah Perez of TechCrunch reports that the iPhone remains the most popular camera on Flickr.
• In an article for Lifehacker, Patrick Lucas Austin agrees with my recommendation that you add a clip to your Apple Pencil.
• Cody Lee of the iDownloadBlog has gift recommendations for Apple Watch owners.
• Seamus Bellamy of Macworld says that if you like Apple’s AirPods but want something that sounds better (and costs more), the B&O Beoplay E8 are a good option, which are $299 on Amazon.
• Charlie Sorrel of Cult of Mac says that the AirPods are the best wireless earbuds, but has some other recommendations if you want an alternative.
• Adam Engst of TidBITS reports that watchOS 4.2 was released this week, which lets you send and receive payments using Apple Pay Cash on the watch, and which also adds support for HomeKit sprinklers and faucets.  I’ve never thought about turning on a faucet using my watch, but I suppose I could do that now.
• Tom’s Guide names the most innovative tech of 2017, and explains why the iPhone X is on the list.
• Amazon Prime Video is (finally) available on the Apple TV.  Dave Mark of The Loop explains how to get it up and running.
• Jason Cipriani of PC World recommends the best USB car chargers for your phone.
• Nick Guy of Wirecutter recommends the best iPhone X cases.  His overall pick is the Anker Karapax Touch, but for a leather case he likes the Apple Leather Case that I reviewed last week.
• Juli Clover of MacRumors reports that Apple updated its Renew and Recycling program to accept the Apple Watch.  Apple will pay you $50 to $175 for your used watch, depending upon which model it is.
• And finally, earlier this week I mentioned that Apple Pay Cash is now active.  If you haven’t had a chance to try Apple Pay Cash yet, Apple posted a short video this week that shows off how easy it is to use:

Juli Clover of MacRumors did some incredibly useful testing and wrote a helpful article on MacRumors to compare and contrast the different ways to charge an iPhone X.  I suspect that many of her conclusions carry over to other models of the iPhone as well, and her tests confirmed many of the things which I have seen more anecdotally.  If you are interested in great tips for iPhone charging — and pretty much every iPhone owner falls into this camp — I strongly recommend that you check out her article, which also includes some great graphs. 

Normally I would save a link like this for my Friday In the news post, but I wanted to take some extra space to highlight some of the most important take-aways from this article, most of which I can also confirm from my own experiences:

• The charger that comes with the iPhone is slow.  The iPhone has long shipped with that small, almost cube-shaped 5W charger.  It charges the iPhone very slowly.  For the iPhone X, it gets you up to an 11% charge in 15 minutes and 39% in 60 minutes.
• USB-C charging is 2x to 3x faster.  Back in early 2016, I reviewed the combination of Apple’s 29W USB-C Power Adapter and USB-C to Lightning Cable, which together cost around $75.  In that review, I pointed out that it is the fastest way to charge an iPad Pro.  But the iPhone X can also take advantage of USB-C charging, and it can get you almost three times the charge of a 5W charger after 15 minutes and about two times the charge of a 5W charger after 60 minutes.  If you need to get the maximum charge to your iPhone X in the shortest amount of time, this is the way to go.  And while this Apple combination will cost you $75, Clover notes that you can pay about half as much by using reputable third-party devices.  If you own an iPad Pro. I think it is well-worth the $75 investment to get the fastest charge on all of your iOS devices.
• Higher-wattage USB-C doesn’t make a difference.  Although I reviewed Apple’s 29W USB-C Power Adapter, Apple also has a 87W USB-C Power Adapter that comes with the 12" MacBook, and third party USB-C adapters come in 18W.  For the iPhone X, the test results are the same for all of those.
• The 12W charger is a nice sweet spot.  Apple’s 12W charger, which is included in the box with an iPad, will charge your iPhone much faster than the 5W charger that comes with the iPhone.  It’s not quite as fast as USB-C, but it is much less expensive.  It may even be free, if you own an iPad and thus already have one.  Even if you buy another one, it only costs $19, and you can use the same USB-to-Lightning cord that came with your iPhone.  So for either free or $19, you can charge almost as fast as USB-C without spending the $75 for the Apple USB-C products (or about half as much with third party products).  If you don’t think it is worth spending the money for USB-C, this is the perfect alternative.
• Wireless charging is slow, but the 7.5W version is a little faster.  The iPhone X and iPhone 8 support what Apple calls wireless charging, the ability to place the back of the iPhone down on a charging plate and let it charge without plugging in a cable.  Some consider it a major convenience, even though it isn’t the fastest way to charge.  Most of these wireless chargers are 5W and charge at essentially the same speed as that slow 5W plug that is included in the box with an iPhone.  Some Apple-approved devices are 7.5W, and when Apple releases its AirPower wireless charger in 2018 it will also support 7.5W.  Those 7.5W chargers are a little faster than the 5W version — not a big difference, but enough that if you are going to buy a wireless charger, you might as well buy the 7.5W version to get more bang for your buck.

A few days ago, Apple released iOS 11.2.  For those with iOS 11.2 installed, yesterday Apple turned on the Apple Pay Cash feature, which lets you send and receive money within the Messages app.  Need to pay someone to split the cost of lunch, or want to send someone a request to send you a specific amount?  You can now do so, and it is just as quick and easy as sending a text message.  Writing a check to someone seems prehistoric compared to Apple Pay Cash.

When you receive money, it goes into your Apple Pay Cash card on your iPhone.  You can keep the money in there so that you have it in the future to pay other folks using Apple Pay Cash, or use it to pay a merchant using traditional Apple Pay, or you can transfer it to your bank account.  If you need to make a payment and don’t already have sufficient funds on your Apple Pay Cash card, the service will let you add money to your account from either a credit card or a debit card.  If you use a credit card, Apple charges you a 3% fee, so if you owe someone $20 and you use your credit card to add the funds to Apple Pay Cash, it will cost you 60¢.  But if you connect your bank’s debit card to Apple Pay Cash, then you can add money without any service fee.

I received two bucks from someone last night and then sent $2 back just to see how the process works, and it was really easy to use.  Perhaps the most startling aspect of all was that for the first time, I saw a color in the Messages app other than blue or green.  Messages associated with sending or receiving Apple Pay Cash are in black.  When you send money, you need to confirm money using either Face ID (on an iPhone X) or Touch ID on older iPhones.

 

You can also send or receive money just using an Apple Watch (after you upgrade to watchOS 4.2).  Or you can ask Siri to “send 25 dollars to Martin” or even “ask Martin for $22 for lunch.”

Other services like Venmo have offered something similar for a while, but because Apple Pay Cash is built-in to Messages and works with the Wallet app, and because Apple is a trusted company when it comes to preserving your privacy, Apple Pay Cash has the potential to become incredibly popular.  And as more people become comfortable with using the service, it will become even more useful.

The minimum amount that you can send or receive is $1, and the maximum limit on any specific transaction is $3,000.  There is also a $10,000 limit on transactions within each seven-day period, and $20,000 is the most that you can have on your Apple Pay Cash card at one time.  So you probably won’t be using Apple Pay Cash for asking your clients to pay their invoices for legal services, unless it is just a small, one-off type of thing.  But for sending and receiving small amounts of money between friends and family, Apple Pay Cash should be perfect.

Following Apple’s on-screen instructions for setting up Apple Pay Cash is pretty easy, but if you want some detailed step-by-step instructions for doing so, Joseph Keller of iMore wrote a helpful guide to Apple Pay Cash.  And for a good overview (including some animations) showing how Apple Pay Cash works, check out this page on Apple’s website.