Apple has gotten in some trouble with a court, and we begin this weekâs episode of the In the News podcast discussing how we got here and what changes Apple has made to the in-app purchase rules for the App Store. Next, we talk about Dan Morenâs last column for Macworld and why I recommend the fantastic books in Danâs Galactic Cold War series. We also discuss how Apple products are viewed in large companies, some iPhone tips, options for sending a text via satellite with your iPhone, and more.
In our Where Yâat segment, we discuss a man in Ohio who had a dangerous stroke but was rescued thanks to his Apple Watchâand how you can see on video everything that happened.
In our In the Show segment, we discuss some intriguing shows that are coming to Apple TV+ this month.
In our In the Know segment, Brett shares a tip for making websites less annoying in Safari, and I share a tip for using Siri with the Apple Vision Pro.
One of the tech writers that I often link to in these Friday posts is Dan Moren, who works with Jason Snell to publish the great website SIx Colors and also hosts a number of great podcasts. I mention Dan this week because I just finished reading the last book in his Glactic Cold War series, and I loved it, just like I loved all of the books in that series (and the short stories that fill in some gaps between the books). If you like science fiction, adventure, space, and spy thrillers, then you will love these books, and I highly recommend them. Coincidentally, the same day that I finished reading the last book in that series, Dan published his last Stay Foolish article for Macworld, ending a decade of that great column. In his final article, Dan discusses what it means to be a fan of Apple products in today’s world. And now, the news of note from the past week:
Although Apple won most of the claims in the lawsuit filed against it by Epic a few years ago, the judge did issue an order against Apple that related to in-app payments. This week, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ruled that Apple failed to comply with the judge’s prior orders, and even found that an Apple executive lied under oath. There are lots of good reports about the ruling from people like Jason Snell of Six Colors, John Voorhees of MacStories, and John Gruber of Daring Fireball (1, 2). Apple says that it will appeal, but in the meantime, it has changed the App Store Guidelines in several different ways, as noted by Chance Miller of 9to5Mac.
What is the general opinion on how Apple products are doing in large companies? Jason Snell of Six Colors published the results of his fifth annual Apple in the Enterprise survey. I know for a fact that at least some of the report reflects the use of Apple products in a law firm because I was one of the 124 people surveyed.
Modern iPhones can use satellites to send and receive text messages when cellphone service is not available. Jared Newman of @dvisorator does a good job running down the available options.
Zac Hall of 9to5Mac shares the story of a man in Ohio who had a stroke during a workout and was rescued thanks to his Apple Watch.
Last week, I noted that Jason Snell of Six Colors is lukewarm about wearing an Apple Watch when he sleeps, but I find it valuable to do so. Shelly Brisbin wrote an alternative take on Six Colors, explaining why she also finds it valuable.
It’s a new month, so that means new shows are coming to Apple TV+. Ryan Christoffel of 9to5Mac lists all of the new shows coming this month. The list includes the sci-fi thriller comedy Murderbot (starting May 16), the action-adventure movie Fountain of Youth (May 23), and the show Bono: Stories of Surrender (May 30), which will also be available as an immersive movie on the Apple Vision Pro.
Not on that list is an Apple TV+ show that debuted on April 30 called CarĂȘme, a sexy historical culinary drama loosely based on the life of the famous French chef Antonin CarĂȘme. It currently has 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, and I plan to check it out. (Note that this is a French show, so prepare for subtitles if you don’t parlez the français.)
If you want to send some Star Wars-themed emoji and stickers this Sunday as you celebrate May the 4th (be with you), Justin Meyers of Gadget Hacks came up with a ton of different ways to do so.
I’m all in favor of using technology in new and creative ways in a law practice, but there is a certain point when you clearly go too far, and as Kevin Underhill of Lowering the Bar explains, the Dragon Lawyer went way too far.
Suno is a service that uses AI to generate songs. An iPhone J.D. reader (who has asked to remain anonymous) got frustrated at Siri one day when he asked Siri to play Alicia Keys and it instead played Carol King, so he asked Suno to create a Blues song about his frustrations. The result is the amusing song Siri Blues, which is presented for your enjoyment. There is something apropos about having one AI make fun of another AI.
And finally, in this video called Clean Up Photos: Flex, Apple shows off one way that you can use the Clean Up tool in the Photos app (which is part of Apple Intelligence) to quickly remove a part of a picture that you don’t like. I remember working with photos years ago when features like this were slow and complicated. It is amazing that you can now do it with just a few taps in a few seconds.
Thank you to Sanebox for sponsoring iPhone J.D. this month. SaneBox is a service that works in the background at the server level, so you continue to use your Inbox of your current Mail program the same way that you have always done. But your Inbox is suddenly much better. Primarily, this is because your Inbox changes from being overpopulated with lots of unimportant stuff into a short list of the most important messages. Thus, when you open your Inbox, you essentially see just the good stuff that matters. But SaneBox also gives you powerful features so that your email is more helpful.
SaneBox keeps your Inbox tidy because less important emails, such as newsletters, are moved to subfolders so that you can deal with them when you have time, and it is often faster to deal with all of those at once. And if you tell SaneBox that there is an email sender from which you never want to see email again, those go to the SaneBlackHole folder.
But that’s just the beginning. SaneBox also gives you lots of tools that you can (optionally) enable to make you more productive. For example, I love the SaneNoReply folder. It gives you an overview of all the emails youâve sentâemails that you initiatedâthat havenât yet received a reply. Sometimes, no reply is necessary. (If you don’t need a response, simply delete the email from SaneNoReplies, and SaneBox will stop tracking it.) But I often skim the emails in this folder and then see that there is something for which I did need a reply, and so this SaneBox folder reminds me to follow up.
What if you know that you need to get a reply by a certain date (or time)? SaneBox can help you when you use the SaneReminder feature. When you send the email, send a BCC to an address that tells SaneBox when you need a response by. For example, you can use “1.day@sanebox.com” or “2.weeks@sanebox.com” or a day of the week such as “monday@sanbox.com” or “mon@sanbox.com.” If thereâs no reply within that time period, the email will resurface in your Inbox for your attention.
Put all of this together and SaneBox makes your Inbox both more simple and more powerful. All at the same time.
Iâve been paying for and using SaneBox for over two years, and I find the service well worth it. For my iPhone J.D. emails, when I look at the Inbox, I can quickly focus on the messages that matter the most to me, such as a reader sending in a suggestion with a news story for my Friday In the News post or interactions with someone who matters to me. Every once in a while, I’ll look in the SaneNews folder to see newsletters that I subscribe to or the SaneLater folder to see messages that SaneBox thinks are less important, but I don’t see all of those messages crowding up my Inbox.
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 donât like having a clean and tidy Inbox and decide to return back 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 planâand there are lots of different plans offered so that you can choose the one that gives you just what you want.
Thanks again to SaneBox for sponsoring iPhone J.D. this month and for giving all of us a more efficient way to work with email.
We begin this episode of the In the News podcast looking back at ten years of the Apple Watch. The models that we use today are so much better than that first Apple Watch that went on sale on April 24, 2015, and yet the best features of today’s Apple Watch were all right there at the very beginning. We then discuss Perplexity, an app that shows some of what we think Siri should be. We also have lots to say about the Apple Store in Amsterdam, iPhone-related crime, the Vision Pro, and the Ceramic Shield.
In our In the Know segment, we discuss two great tips that let you get the most out of an Apple Watch.
Just two days after providing an Apple Watch award for doing a workout on Earth Day, Apple declared yesterday Global Close Your Rings Day and provided a limited-edition award and animated stickers for the Messages app to anyone who closed all of their rings. Apple had a reason to celebrate yesterday because, as Jason Snell of Six Colors noted, it was ten years ago yesterday that Apple started selling the Apple Watch. I closed my three circles yesterday in my absolute favorite way: walking around Jazz Fest. There are lots of great things about New Orleansâthe restaurants, the architecture, the history, Mardi Gras, etc.âbut one of the very best is the last weekend in April and the first weekend in May every year when the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival takes place. Whether it is local New Orleans artists or international superstars, the music is always great, the food is incredible, there are lots of arts and crafts for sale, and it is almost impossible not to have a great time. Yesterday, my wife and I saw an artist that I expected to be great, and he was amazingâthe Cajun fiddler Waylon Thibodeauxâand I saw an artist I had never heard of before, and he was also amazingâthe bluegrass artist and multiple Grammy award winner Sam Bush. My Apple Watch wasn’t just used to close circles yesterday. I also made a lot of purchases at Jazz Fest (mostly from food vendors), and it was a delight to use Apple Pay to make each purchase quickly. If you haven’t yet experienced Jazz Fest in New Orleans, now you have something great to put on your bucket list. And now, the news of note from the past week:
Speaking of the Apple Watch, this week Jason Snell of Six Colors discussed sleeping with an Apple Watch. After trying it for a while, he is thinking about stopping doing so. However, I still like wearing mine every night for all of the reasons that Snell discussed as the reasons he tried it out, and I intend to keep doing so. The only real downside is the need to charge it when I wake up, but I find that putting my Apple Watch on a fast charger while I get ready in the morning is almost always enough time for it to recharge.
If you’d like a new watch band for your Apple Watch, I’ve noted in the past the occasional sales from Woot where you could get a $50 Solo Loop for only $20. Mitchel Broussard of MacRumors notes that Woot is currently running a really interesting sale: you can get three Solo Loop bands (normally $150) for just $20. And you can get two Braided Solo Loop bands (normally $200) for only $30. The catch is that you don’t get to pick the colors. Woot selects the colors, although they promise that you won’t get the same color more than once. I took advantage of the Solo Loop band deal, and I’m interested to see what colors I’ll get Maybe they will be colors that I would never buyâlike Canary Yellowâbut at these prices, I’m willing to spin the wheel and see what I get. [UPDATE 4/29/25: The colors I received are Sunglow (which is pretty much the “Canary Yellow” I predicted), Dark Cherry, and Deep Navy.] In fact, I’m thinking of taking advantage of the Braided Loop deal too. I tried out a Braided Loop last year (I returned it when I also returned an Apple Watch model), but as I noted in my review, the Braided Loop is a very comfortable watch band, and my only complaint was the $99 price. But two for $30? Hmm. [UPDATE 5/5/25: I decided to roll the dice on this one too. The colors I received are Dark Cherry and Rainforest, two great colors.]
We all know that Apple needs to improve Siri, and David Sparks of MacSparky created a short but compelling video that demonstrates why Apple should just buy a product called Perplexity. Check it out to see what this app can do today. David is right: Siri should be doing all of this and more.
Speaking of AI, one of the best engines for converting audio into text is Whisper, which was created by OpenAI. Zac Hall of 9to5Mac reports that the excellent app that brings Whisper to the Mac called MacWhisper is now available for iPhone and iPad.
I haven’t seen it yet, and since the reviews have been poor, I’m not sure if I will see it, but Netflix is airing a Dutch movie called iHostage that tells the true-life story of a 2022 event in the Amsterdam Apple Store when a gunman held dozens of people hostage. Whether or not you watch the movie, you should watch the short behind-the-scenes video shared by Hartley Charlton of MacRumors that shows how the the production team recreated an entire Apple Store on a sound stage. Very neat.
Speaking of the Amsterdam Apple Store, Malcolm Owen of AppleInsider reports that on a day that the store was recently closed, the doors were left openâand instead of chaos ensuing, the folks who discovered it acted responsibly. That’s not interesting enough to be the plot of iHostage 2: Open Doors, but it is nice to see people doing the right thing.
Stephen Silver of AppleInsider shares a number of interesting iPhone-related stories from police reports and elsewhere, such as a Florida UPS driver accused of stealing 171 iPhones, a thief of a STIHL concrete saw whose crime was thwarted by an AirTag, a false report of an iPhone theft, and more.
Two weeks ago, I discussed the thorny issue of customs agents demanding to search your iPhone when you return to the United Statesâespecially if you are an attorney with confidential information on your iPhone that you are legally bound to keep confidential. Although this article wasn’t written for attorneys, Lily Ham Newman and Matt Burgess of Wired provide tips for protecting yourself from iPhone searches at the U.S. border.
Apple released a new Immersive Video for the Apple Vision Pro yesterday. It is an episode of the Adventure series (Apple TV+ link), and it is called âHill Climb.â In the episode, you ride along with driver Laura Hayes as she races the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb.
And finally, Apple released a new video yesterday called Trust Issues that emphasizes the Ceramic Shield that Apple uses on the iPhone 16, which Apple says is two times tougher than any other smartphone glass. The Ceramic Shield was first used with the iPhone 12, and it has become even more durable in subsequent iterations. It is a neat technology because Apple binds nano-ceramic crystals, which are harder than most metals, into glass while still keeping the glass clear.
When Apple announced iOS 15 almost four years ago, one of the features added to Apple Maps was support for immersive walking directions using augmented reality. It’s a neat feature because after you start using the Maps app to walk to a place, you can just hold up your iPhone, and once the camera senses the buildings around you, the iPhone screen changes to a live view of the outside world with directions superimposed on top. This makes it crystal clear which way you need to walk. It is much better than looking down at a 2D map and trying to figure out which way you are currently facing.
When this feature first launched, only a few cities were supported: London, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, San Diego, San Francisco, and Washington D.C. I never had both a reason and an opportunity to try out the feature in any of those cities, so I hadn’t used it. But as I noted this past Friday, Apple recently enhanced the Apple Maps data in New Orleans, which is where I live, so I have now had a change to try out the feature. It works really well.
This past weekend, I was at the Audubon Aquarium and Insectarium with my kids, which is right next to the Mississippi River. When we were done, my daughter requested that we get ice cream, so I used Apple Maps and found a store that was close and initiated walking directions. Next, I held up my iPhone, and I could see exactly which way to walk next thanks to large arrows and street names superimposed on the world around me:
Once we got close enough that the store was just across the street, the Maps app showed me exactly where the store was located, making it unnecessary to figure out the precise street address:
And the pin remained there as we got closer:
I realize that this feature is not new to Apple Maps. And I realize that Google Maps also has a similar feature called Google Maps AR Live View. But this was the first time that I tried this feature, and it was nice to use.
While using this feature, I couldn’t help but think about how incredible it would be to have this feature embedded in a future generation of the Apple Vision Pro, one that is compact enough to be the size of a normal pair of glasses. Let’s call it Apple Glassesâą. It would be great to be able to look at the world around me just like I always do and also see relevant informationâsuch as Apple Maps directionsâsuperimposed on the world around me. I have no doubt that this is coming in the future. It is just a question of when, and how much it will cost.
Updated on June 29, 2025, to add links at the bottom to performances from Friends Fest IV
A really good album just showed up on the music streaming services: Looziana Wing Dang Doo by the New Orleans band Beau Swank. You should check it out. Okay, I’ll admit to some bias here because this is my father’s band, and he wrote all of the songs. But trust me: he is a very talented songwriter, and these songs are great. If you want to start with just one song, my favorite is probably Track 8, “Back in Thibodaux,” but I also love Track 2, “Marigny Mambo.” Those are Apple Music links, but you can listen to the album on Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, Tidal, iHeartRadio, or just about any other streaming music service that is out there. Here is some information on this album and the impressive musicians in Beau Swank. And at the end of this post, I have some bonus links and videos from live performances.
Looziana Wing Dang Doo!
The album Looziana Wing Dang Doo! from Beau Swank is collection of songs that celebrate New Orleans and Southeast Louisiana. In New Orleans, The Livinâ is Easy (Track 1) on Frenchman Street, where the hipsters meet to do the Marigny Mambo (Track 2). We made it through Hurricane Katrina, and The New New Orleans (Track 3) is our revival. Up Burgundy on a Sunday cruise we meet the Bywaterâs daughter, the beautiful Dauphine (Track 4). And on River Road and Oak, we see the Batture Girl (Track 5).
Heading outside of the city, we cruise through Bridge City (Track 6) and Paradis (Track 7) before we find ourselves Back In Thibodaux (Track 8). In Lafayette, we do the two-step as we dance the Lafayette Waltz (Track 9). We pass a good time enjoying the Looziana Wing Dang Doo (Track 10). And of course, we celebrate the voodoo swamp chant ChaQueVuLeMau (Track 11). We finish up our dancing with the Bon Ton Boogie (Track 12). And we finish up the year with a Crescent City Christmas (Track 13).
Beau Swank is a cast of well-seasoned musicians. The band was founded by New Orleans musician Bob Richardson, who wrote all of the songs, plays rhythm guitar, and sings lead vocals on this album. The studio magic was sparked by Buzzy âBeanoâ Langford (guitarist for The Topcats), who served as co-producer. The other artists on this album include:
Ronnie Rauber. Rauber plays bass guitar for Beau Swank. He toured during the 1970s and 1980s with The Roaminâ Togas, a Louisiana supergroup.
Skeet Stiller. Stiller plays lead guitar with Beau Swank. He has also played with the New Orleans group Pigeon Town.
Mike Loupe. Loupe played guitar and horns on this album, and he is often seen performing throughout the French Quarter.
Dwight Breland. Breland played played steel guitar on the song “Lafayette Waltz.” He has played with many other Cajun and rock artists over the years including Waylon Thibodeaux and Beaubassin.
Sit back, open the windows, and smell the gumbo and the sauce piquante. Beau Swank is at the wheel, so you can relax as you enjoy the album.
More from Beau Swank
For more from Beau Swank, an EP called Gras Deux is also available on Apple Music and elsewhere. It features four of the songs on Looziana Wing Dang Doo, but the singer on those tracks is Pete Adams (who was the lead singer of The Roamin’ Togas), so the songs have a different sound. I prefer the versions of the songs on Looziana Wing Dang Doo, but Pete Adams does have a great voice.
There is also a great cover of the song “Back to Thibodaux” that was recorded by the Louisiana band The Abita Stumps on their 2024 album You Know Why I’m Here. (Apple Music link.) They played it as a slow song, which almost makes it sound like a completely different song. It’s a fun change, even though I prefer the original.
Friends Fest IV
On June 14, 2025, Beau Swank performed at the famous venue Rock ‘N’ Bowl in New Orleans at a party called Friends Fest IV. Here are five of the band’s original songs that were performed. In these videos, the band members are Bob Richardson (vocals and rhythm guitar), Lauren Henry (lead vocals), Ronnie Rauber (vocals and bass guitar), Zen Crook (keyboard), Skeet Stiller (lead guitar), and Paul Santopadre (drums).
Marigny Mambo:
The Living is Easy Down in New Orleans:
Batture Girl:
Lafayette Waltz:
Back in Thibodaux:
Mexian Eyes at Friends Fest I
And finally, one of my all-time favorite songs that my father wrote and that Beau Swank performed is not available on an album, but there is a YouTube video of the band performing the song at Friends Fest I on November 13, 2021. It is called “Mexican Eyes.” The tune is catchy, and it tells a sweet (fictional) story of a man who works making doughnuts in Brownsville, Texas, while daydreaming about a woman he met one night in Tijuana, Mexico. Here is that video, and I’ll end this post with the lyrics:
Mexican Eyes
In a room down the hall In a hole in the wall Charlie dreams that heâs south of the border
I was a guest on the latest episode of the excellent Vision Pros podcast hosted by Tim Chaten. I listen to every episode of this podcast, and if you have any interest in the Apple Vision Pro, I think that this is the best podcast out there. For example, I loved Tim’s recent interview of Tom Rettig to discuss what Rettig is doing with The Spatialists, including the astonishing good video it created featuring bluegrass band AJ Lee & Blue Summit. In that episode, Rettig discussed additional spatial videos that they plan to release in 2025, and I cannot wait.
In episode 39 of the Vision Pros podcast, I talk with Tim about how I use my Apple Vision Pro to get work done as a lawyer, why the Vision Pro is so amazing for photos and videos (especially Immersive Video), and how I think that future generations of the Apple’s Vision devices and similar devices from other companies have the potential to be transformative for lawyersânot only to be more productive, but also as a tool to persuade a judge or jury.
You can click here to listen to the podcast. There is also a YouTube version (no video) if you prefer that method of listening to a podcast:
My law firm was closed yesterday for Good Friday, but I went to my office anywayâwearing shorts and an Emory T-shirt instead of a button-down shirtâto record the latest episode of the In the News podcast, and it came out great. Brett Burney and I started by explaining why you should immediately update to iOS 18.4.1, then we discussed the latest news on Apple tariffs and the recent rumors from Mark Gurman about the sequels to the Apple Vision Pro. We also talked about the multiple ways that Apple is celebrating Earth Day on Tuesday, a fun new look for the Apple Pencil Pro, what is so magical about Hex Code #242424, a few great iPhone tips, the latest features of Apple Maps, and nano-texture screens.
In our In the Show segment, we discuss the Apple TV+ shows The Studio and Mythic Quest.
In our In the Know segment, Brett shares a tip for using Focus Mode to adjust your Home Screen, and I explain how and why it can be incredibly useful to create and hide home screen pages.
I love using my Apple Vision Pro, but I know that it is tough to recommend because it is an expensive, first-generation device. (I love my iPhone too, but even I didn’t own the very first one that was released in 2007.) Thus, I’m incredibly curious about where the product might go in the future, not only to make the product better but also to increase its appeal. This week, Mark Gurman of Bloomberg reported a rumor that Apple has two new devices in development. And while you need to be a Bloomberg subscriber to read that article, his article has been discussed extensively on other sites, such as this article by Aminu Abdullahi of TechRepublic. Rumor has it that one model will be a cheaper and lighter version of the Apple Vison Pro. That seems obvious to me. Indeed, I always assumed that this first model was called the Apple Vision Pro specifically because there would at some point be something called “Apple Vision” or “Apple Vision Air” that is cheaper and lighter. The rumor is that the second model will be a cheaper device that must be tethered to a Mac to work. I guess the idea is that you leave the two screens in the Vision Pro but that is about it, turning it into a display that is connected to a Mac. It is easy for me to understand how this would work because I routinely use my Apple Vision Pro in Mac Virtual Display mode where I use the keyboard, mouse, and brain of my Mac Mini, and the Apple Vision Pro connects (wirelessly) and becomes a huge virtual screen for my Mac. Indeed, there would be an advantage to tethering: the connection could be much faster than my current wireless connection, which Gurman says would be perfect for low-latency tasks like surgical imagining or flight simulators. These two new versions of the Vision Pro both sound like great ideas, so it seems highly likely to me that Apple has been at least trying to make these two devices. Whether either or both will ever be released as shipping products remains to be seen. And now, the other news of note from the past week:
Apple released iOS 18.4.1 this week and similar updates for its other platforms. As Marko Zivkovic of AppleInsider reports, this update fixes two security exploits that were actively being used by bad guys. If you have been waiting to update your device, I encourage you to go ahead and do so now.
The two security flaws Apple patched have the security designation CVE-2025-31200 and CVE-2025-31201. The “CVE” part refers to the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures system, a critically important system used by everyone to identify and address security flaws. The system is maintined by a not-for-profit organization founded in 1958 called The Mitre Corporation, and it is funded primarily by the U.S. federal government. It looked like that was going to change this week when the Trump Administration inexplicably decided to stop funding the CVE program, as reported by Jessica Lyons of The Register. Fortunately, as Lyons reported in a follow-up article, saner heads prevailed at the 11th hour, and the Trump Administration reversed course. Thank goodness, but it is astonishing that this was even a possiblity this week.
Last week, I discussed the impact of the Trump Administration tariffs on Apple. Jeff Stein, Elizabeth Dwoskin, and Cat Zakrzewski of the Washington Post report on how Apple CEO Tim Cook worked behind the scenes with the Trump to get an exemption for some of those tariffs, at least for now.
Earth Day is on Tuesday, April 22. To celebrate, Apple announced that the day will be Global Close Your Rings Day on the Apple Watch. If you close all three Activity rings that day, you will earn a limited-edition award, plus 10 animated stickers and an animated badge that you can use in the Messages app.
…but that’s not all. From now until May 16, 2025, Apple is running a 2025 Earth Day Promotion. If you go to an Apple Store and turn in an old device for recycling, you can get 10% off the cost of over a dozen Apple items such as Apple Watch bands, the Apple Pencil, iPhone cases, and AirPods 4. The discount doesn’t apply to other popular products like the iPhone, AirPods Pro, or Macs. Details are on this page of the Apple website.
If you want to get a cable from Apple but you want something more exciting than the color white, Malcolm Owen of AppleInsider reports that this week the Beats division of Apple has launched a line of colorful, premium cables featuring a woven design to avoid tangles and fraying. The colors offered at this time are Bolt Black, Surge Stone, Nitro Navy, and Rapid Red.
Speaking of colors, ColorWare has long offered the ability to sell Apple products painted with vibrant colors. Marko Zivkovic notes that ColorWare is now selling a custom-painted Apple Pencil Pro that looks like a crayon. They are very cute. I certainly don’t need one, and I suppose that it wouldn’t look very professional to use one in court or in a deposition. But I cannot deny that a part of me really wants one.
David Sparks of MacSparky has used some interesting home screens for his iPhone in the past, but his latest home screen is particularly interesting and unlike anything I have seen before. He created it using the great Widgetsmith app. Check it out.
The staff of Wirecutter, part of the New York Times, identified 18 iPhone tips and tricks that you might not know about.
Last year, Apple released a beta version of Apple Maps that you can access using a web browser. Filipe EspĂłsito reports that Apple Maps on the web is no longer in beta, and it now works on many new devices. You can also now use the service on an iPhone (maps.apple.com), but I’m not sure why you would do so when you can just use the native Maps app. But it is nice that you can share an Apple Maps link and know that someone else can open it, even if they are not using a device with an Apple Maps app.
Speaking of Apple Maps, I just noticed that the the Look Around service of Apple Maps (which is similar to Google Street View) came to New Orleans in January 2025âjust before the Super Bowl took place in this city, although maybe that is just a coincidence. So if you cannot come visit me in the Big Easy, you should now feel free to take a virtual look around. You can tell when Look Around is available for a location because a binoculars icon appears at the bottom left of the Maps app. The images of New Orleans in Apple Maps seem to be from 2023 and 2024, which, for now, makes them a little more recent than the images in Google Maps. But Google Maps has the advantage of including multiple images taken over one or two decades. In my law practice it is sometimes more useful to see what a location looked like many years ago.
Along with adding Look Around, New Orleans now has the Apple Maps Detailed City Experience, which means that when you are using the Maps app (not the web browser version), there is considerably more detail, such as 3D buildings, trees, crosswalks, turn lanes, etc. And many landmarks have detailed 3D models, such as the St. Louis Cathedral in Jackson Square in the French Quarter. There is a page on the Apple website that identifies 27 cities with a Detailed City Experience, but it doesn’t yet include New Orleans on that list, nor does it include Amsterdam, which was added in October 2024, according to Bogdan Popa of Autoevolution.
One of the new hit shows on Apple TV+ is The Studio. Russ Milheim of The Directinterviewed co-showrunner Alex Gregory to discuss the show. One thing Gregory noted is that while Apple has yet to pick up the show for a second season, the creators of the show have no specific endpoint in mind, and they can see the show going on for many seasons. Gregory says “I think we’d like to keep doing it indefinitely.”
I’m a fan of the Apple TV+ show Mythic Quest. The fourth season just ended, and while a fifth season had been planned, Apple apparently decided that four seasons were enough. However, as reported by Joe Ottreson of Variety, an alternative version of the last episdoe of Season 4 was filmed, and that different version of that epside is now being released to provide more finality to the series. I plan to watch that tonight. A four-episode anthology series called Side Quest was also released in 2025, and it is also quite good.
And finally, certain Apple devices such as the iPad Pro and the MacBook Pro provide the option of purchasing a nano-texture display, which reduces glare. I’ve never felt the need to add it to any of my devices (it is rare for me to use them for long periods of time in the bright sun or a bright light that I cannot avoid), but many people tell me that they love this feature. Apple released a new commercial this week called Low Glare that emphasizes the advances of a nano-texture display. (And for another funny commercial released by Apple this week, check out Up to 24 hours.)
