Every once in a while, an app on the Apple Watch — like an app on the iPhone — will start behaving weirdly. Maybe the app doesn’t update information, or maybe it just doesn’t perform the way that you know that it should. Fortunately, it is possible to force quit and then restart a fresh copy of the app. Before watchOS 3.0 was released, this was done using the side button twice — once to access the power down menu, and then again to quit the app. But after the new watchOS 3 was released on September 13th, I wasn’t sure how to quit an app. And I needed to do so this past Sunday when I wanted to use my watch to follow the score in the Saints versus Carolina game but the ESPN app on my Apple Watch wasn’t working.
You can no longer force quit an app just using the side button — presumably because of the new SOS feature by which you can hold down the side button to trigger an emergency call to 911. But force quitting an app is still possible. Here is how it works in watchOS 3.
First, hold down the side button until the power menu appears. A simple press isn’t enough because that brings up the dock. Instead, hold it down for about 2-3 seconds until you see this screen:
Next, hold down the digital crown button. A quick press of the digital crown button isn’t enough; that instead will just bring you back to the last app that you used — the app that you were trying to quit. Instead, when the power menu is displayed you need to hold down the digital crown for about 2-3 seconds.
You will know you are done when you see the app launcher screen:
At this point, you can launch the app again. Hopefully, once the app is restarted, it will behave normally for you.
And if you were watching the scores of a football game, hopefully your team won. Even if it was thanks to a field goal in the final seconds.
The U.S. Supreme Court says in its official Guide for Counsel that “[n]o personal computers, cellular phones, cameras, PDAs, or other electronic devices are allowed in the Courtroom, and they may not be used in the Lawyers’ Lounge.” Nevertheless, the iPhone very much found itself in the Courtroom on Tuesday, in spirit at least, when oral argument took place in the Samsung v. Apple case. Samsung was found liable for copying design features of the iPhone, and the question in the case is how much damages to award. The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit awarded $400 million, based on the profits from the infringing Samsung phone. The issue for the Supreme Court is whether damages attributable to the infringing design is only based on some subsidiary portion of the Samsung phone (and if so, the issue is how to define that) or instead applies to all profits from the entire phone. Columbia law professor Ronald Mann wrote an analysis of the oral argument for SCOTUSblog, and it sounds like the justices are very confused on what to do. And now, the news of note from the past week:
A big portion of my practice is appellate litigation, and the iPad is an essential tool for me as an appellate attorney. If you are in the New Orleans area and want to get some tips on using an iPad in an appellate practice, I will discuss using an iPad to draft and argue appeals in a CLE hosted by the New Orleans Bar Association on October 25 at Noon. Click here for more details and to sign up.
Florida attorney Katie Floyd reviews the Eero, a Wi-Fi router that uses multiple, networked stations to spread Wi-Fi to even the hard-to-reach areas of your home or office.
Jason Snell explains in an article for Macworld that he always carries his 12.9″ iPad Pro when he travels, and the question for each trip is whether to also take a laptop. Thanks to the iPad, I believe that it has been five years since I traveled with a laptop. The iPad does everything that I need to do — mostly using the native apps such as Mail and Word and GoodReader, but occasionally I will use LogMeIn to connect to my office and remotely access my PC to do some task that requires a PC.
Mandy Oaklander of Time reports on a new study in JAMA Cardiology which finds that a chest strap monitor is the most accurate way to measure heart rate, but that of the wrist wearable devices, the Apple Watch is the most accurate.
Peter Dominiczak of The Telegraph reports that the UK cabinet previously banned smartphones in Cabinet meetings out of concerns that Russian spies could hack the smartphones and listen using the microphone inside, and now the Apple Watch (and presumably other smart watches) is also banned during Cabinet meetings for the same reason. This is the first I have heard of a hack to the Apple Watch — or at least, a theory as to how it might be hacked. I presume that it hasn’t actually happened yet, but the Cabinet is taking a better-safe-than-sorry approach given the sophistication of international espionage. The whole thing reminds me of an episode of The Americans, just with better technology. Which reminds me — if you haven’t yet seen that TV show, it is fantastic, especially if you grew up in the 1980s like I did. Highly recommended.
One of the most common questions I have received about iOS 10 is how to “fix” threaded messages in the Mail app. Caitlin McGarry of Macworld explains that you can go to the Mail portion of the Settings app and turn off the threading features if they annoy you. (They annoy me; I have all three turned off.)
If you want to listen to music using a wired headset and also charge your iPhone at the same time, that is no longer possible on an iPhone 7 because both tasks use the Lightning port. However, you can accomplish this task with an adapter, and Phil Dzikiy of iLounge reviews one such adapter, the Belkin Lightning Audio + Charge Rockstar.
In an article on Tech.pinions, Carolina Milanesi reviews CarPlay, Apple’s technology for connecting an iPhone to your car.
And finally, I’m a big fan of the Apple Music service. It is great to be able to listen to pretty much any song that I can imagine on my iPhone. This week, Apple released a video showing off the features of the new version of the Apple Music app. The video does a good job of showing off what is new:
If you own a 12.9″ iPad Pro, one of the most useful accessories that you can have is a USB-C charger and USB-C to Lightning charger because it charges the iPad so much faster than a regular USB to Lightning charger/cord. Earlier this year, I reviewed Apple’s 29W USB-C Power Adapter and USB-C to Lightning Cable. They work great together, and I wish that they were included in the box with every 12.9″ iPad Pro. Other companies have introduced their own USB-C chargers, for both the iPad Pro and other devices that can use the new USB-C connector. For the last few weeks, I have been trying out a product by Lumsing called the Lumsing 48W dual port Quick Charge 3.0 and Type-C Wall Charger with Foldable plug. It aims to provide in a single charger both a USB-C 29W port, similar to the Apple product, and also a USB port. Lumsing sent me a free review unit to test.
This device is slightly larger than the Apple charger. The Lumsing charger is about 3″ on each side (versus 2 1/8″ for the Apple charger) and about 1 1/4″ thick (versus 1″ for the Apple charger). In the following picture, the Apple USB-C charger is on the right, and the Apple standard iPad USB charger is at the bottom.
The prongs fold flat, which makes it more portable.
The USB-C port can be used with a USB-C to Lightning cable to charge a 12.9″ iPad Pro at a very quick rate. I didn’t notice any speed difference between this charger and Apple’s own USB-C power adapter.
The USB port can be used to charge an iPhone or other device. The USB port includes QC 3.0 technology but I didn’t test that fast-charging technology because it isn’t supported by the iPhone or iPad. (Certain Android phones support QC 3.0 for faster charging.)
My one complaint about this device is that the USB-C port can only charge a USB-C device, such as the 12.9″ iPad Pro. If you put a USB-C to Lightning cord in the port and then plug the Lightning connector end of the cord into an iPhone, nothing happens. Lumsing tells me this is expected; the USB-C port is only intended to charge devices made for USB-C.
Perhaps this is what Lumsing intended, but I don’t believe that it has to be that way. With Apple’s USB-C power adapter, you can charge any Lightning device. At my desk in my office, I have Apple’s USB-C power adapter plugged in on the floor next to my desk, and a single USB-C to Lightning cable extends to the top of my desk. I can use the Lightning end of the cable to charge either my iPad Pro or my iPhone. It is very convenient to have a single cord that can charge anything at top speed. With the Lumsing device, two ports means that I can charge two devices at the same time — which is nice — but it is difficult to tell which cord is which unless I trace a cord back to the Lumsing charger on the floor.
If you like the idea of a single charger that can simultaneously charge a 12.9″ iPad Pro and an iPhone, then this Lumsing charger can fill that need. However, the inability of the USB-C port to support any iOS devices other than the 12.9″ iPad Pro is a drawback.
New York attorney Neil Squillante, publisher of the TechnoLawyer newsletters, is putting together an ebook (in PDF format) that gives tips for using an iPad in a law practice. Segments of the book are being written by Neil along with Houston attorney Brian Beckcom, legal technology consultant Brett Burney, Ohio attorney Joseph Hada, South Carolina attorney Justin Kahn, New Orleans attorney Ernie Svenson, and yours truly. The book is being released as it is being written, and so far includes chapters on the best document management apps, the best PDF apps, and the best note-taking apps (the chapter to which I contributed). The book is free, and available to all members of TechnoLawyer (which is also free). If you are looking for tips on getting the most out of your iPad, click here to download the ebook. And now, the news of note from the past week:
There are very few Apple AirPods outside of Apple right now — just a few journalists were given preview units to try — but California attorney David Sparks managed to try a pair and provided some initial impressions of using Apple’s new wireless headphones.
Legal tech consultant Brett Burney reviews ReadQuick, an app you can use to speed read articles on your iPhone, in the latest post on his Apps in Law website.
In an article for FindLaw, San Francisco attorney Casey Sullivan reviews Duet Display, an app that lets you use your iPad as a second monitor for your computer.
Phil Dzikiy of iLounge reviews the Automatic Pro, a device that you attach to your car to get information related to your driving. It can also be used to track your car and get help if you are in an accident.
A new version of the Drobo was released this week, the Drobo 5C. It is a five-bay Drobo which replaces the four-bay model that I purchased last year and discussed in this review.
And finally, Conan O’Brien produced a fake version of an Apple commercial that leaves me wondering if it is funny or creepy. I suppose both. Watch the video yourself and you decide:
Devices that plug into your car’s charger port / cigarette lighter and provide a USB connector are nothing new. Nor are devices that have two USB ports. But until CableJive shipped me a free review sample of its new PowerPortz product, I never knew that it was possible to have four USB ports coming out of a single car charger port. It turns out that most cars can handle this just fine, even if you are using all four ports at one time, and even if all ports are providing the full 2.4 Amps of power that most iPads can handle, not just the 1 Amp used by an iPhone. So that’s what PowerPortz is: a way to add four USB ports to your car — perfect for any road trip with the family, or for anyone who wants to charge a bunch of devices at once.
The front portion of the PowerPortz has a fairly standard plug for your car’s charger port, and the front portion has two USB ports. In my car, I use that end to power both my iPhone and a Bluetooth device that lets my iPhone send audio to my car stereo. Of course that second port in the front could also be used by someone sitting in the passenger seat, especially if you have a newer car with Bluetooth built-in.
A six foot cord is attached to the front part of the PowerPortz, and at the the cord is an extension pack with two more USB ports. The idea is that the cord goes between the front two seats so that folks in the back seat can use it. The extension pack can just sit on the back seat, or you can affix an included detachable clip to the seat-back pocket, and attach the extension pack to the clip.
Note that this product only gives you USB ports. You use your own USB-to-Lightning or USB-to-whatever cables. The total output of the PowerPortz is 9.6 Amps (2.4 x 4) and 48 Watts.
I’ve been using the PowerPortz for about a month, and it works great. Over Labor Day weekend, my family of four drove to the beach. With the PowerPortz, my wife and I were able to keep our iPhones charged in the front, and the kids were able to use plugged-in iPads in the backseat. Nobody had to worry about a device running out of power.
I’ve also used the PowerPortz several times when I have driven my kids to the park to play Pokemon Go. That game really drains an iPhone, but the PowerPortz gave my kids USB power in the backseat to get more charge on the way there and to recharge after we were done at the park, all while I was using the two USB ports in the front of the car for my iPhone and my Bluetooth system.
I like that this product uses an extension pack that reaches the backseat. That way, the kids (or adults) in the backseat can plug and unplug without bothering the person who is driving. I see on Amazon that companies like Anker and Aukey sell similar products in which all four USB ports are on the plug itself. I suppose the advantage of those products is that when you are not using all four USB ports, you don’t have to worry about that six foot cord. But for me, the advantages of using an extension pack accessible in the backseat outweigh any inconvenience of having a cord go between the front two seats. Indeed, with those other products, if two people in the backseat are using USB power, then you will have two USB cords running between your front seats. The PowerPortz has a small Velcro strap on the cord that you can use to wrap it up.
If you want to have more USB ports in your car, the PowerPortz by CableJive works great and is inexpensive.
In 2014, Apple introduced the iPhone 6, and then improved upon it in 2015 with the iPhone 6s. The iPhone 7 could have just as easily been called something like the iPhone 6ss. I know, that is a horrible name from a marketing perspective, but it would be accurate because the 2016 version of the iPhone is an even further refinement of the iPhone 6. That sounds like a back-handed complement, but my intention is quite the opposite. The iPhone 7 is an amazing device, the phone that the iPhone 6 always wanted to be, and now finally is.
I purchased an iPhone 7 immediately after AT&T started taking pre-orders, but the Jet Black color that I selected was in incredibly limited supply. Thus, I received my iPhone 7 10 days after the September 16 launch day. I ordered the 256 GB model. This is the largest capacity iPhone that I’ve ever used, and was an upgrade from my 128 GB iPhone 6s. I ordered the extra space mainly because I love to take videos of my kids, and I take them in 4K which quickly eats up space. (I don’t even have a 4K TV right now, but taking 4K videos gives me the ability to crop without losing much quality. Also, I suspect that in 20+ years, I’ll be happy that I used the best possible quality when my kids were young.) After using the iPhone 7 for a week, I really love all of the new features. This is a fantastic phone, and I would not hesitate to recommend it to any attorney.
Here are the key new features, roughly in the order of how important they are to me.
Jet black
The first feature that I want to discuss is the specific color that I selected: Jet Black. Normally, I wouldn’t think of a color as a feature, and certainly not one to mention up front, but this year is different. Jet black is a shiny black, similar to the finish of a grand piano.
I love the look, but my favorite part is actually the feel. The Jet Black finish on the back and sides feels fantastic in my hand, plus it is slightly more sticky / tacky than the other models of the iPhone 7 (which feel the same as the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6s). As a result, this is the first time since the iPhone 5s that I have been comfortable using an iPhone without a case, at least part of the time.
The iPhone 4 / 4s / 5 / 5s models were easy to hold without a case because of their flat edges. The iPhone 6 introduced a curved edge which looks great and feels really nice in your hand, but is also more slippery. So after years of not using a case, I used an Apple leather case with my iPhone 6 and 6s.
I also ordered an Apple leather case for the iPhone 7, and it is a better version of the case design. It remains incredibly slim, adding very little bulk to the phone, but improves upon the prior design by having better buttons on the side of the case to sit on top of the volume up/down buttons and the sleep/wake button. (On the old case, the buttons were just part of the leather, and they wore down over time.) The new case is nice, and I use it often.
With the Jet Black iPhone, however, I no longer need the case all of the time. Lately I have been using the case when I am going to and from work, but not using the case in my office. The Jet Black finish makes it easy enough to hold the iPhone without dropping it. Don’t get me wrong; even with the Jet Black finish, the iPhone 7 is still more slippery than the iPhone 4 / 4s / 5 / 5s. But it is less slippery than the iPhone 6, iPhone 6s, and iPhone 7 with any other finish.
Not using a case is really nice when I am holding an iPhone in my hand or storing it in a shirt pocket. The iPhone without a case is even thinner and lighter. It is much easier to swipe across the screen when your finger doesn’t hit the edge of a case. And the curved edge feels really good in my hand.
On the other hand, if my iPhone 7 is on a flat surface like a desk, it is still better to have a case because of the camera bump on the back. Without a case, the iPhone wobbles somewhat when you tap near the corners. With a case, the iPhone stays perfectly flat.
Note that the glossy back of the Jet Black iPhone 7 is also more likely to get scratched up over time. Apple itself warns that the high shine may show fine micro-abrasions with use. I don’t see any scratches yet, but I’ve just told myself that they are going to happen. It reminds me of the last iPod that I ever purchased, which has a glossy silver back which is easy to scratch. (This is the Apple iPod 5th Gen (with Video) 60 GB, released October of 2005.) The scratches didn’t stop me from loving that iPod, and I occastionally still use it today in a Bose speaker in my living room.
Even though I still prefer using a case part of the time, I really enjoy having an iPhone that I can use without a case for at least part of the day.
Speed
Every year, the iPhone gets faster, and the iPhone 7 is no exception. The iPhone 7 has Apple’s new A10 Fusion chip, which is even faster than the processor in the 12.9″ iPad Pro.
The speed increase is impressive. Even tasks that didn’t seem to take long on my iPhone 6s occur noticeably faster on the iPhone 7, and I have heard myself saying “Whoa” out loud many times over the last 10 days.
The net result is that the iPhone is far more responsive, and I love it.
Low light photography
When you are outside during the day with good light, you can get a pretty good picture with most modern iPhones. But when you are in a low-light area, which is often the case inside, picture quality suffers. I find myself in this situation all the time, wanting to take picture of friends at a party, restaurant, bar, etc. and the iPhone 6s camera often just isn’t up to the task.
Low light photograph is dramatically improved in the iPhone 7. The new phone has an f/1.8 aperture which allows 50% more light into the camera sensor than the iPhone 6s with its f/2.2. John Gruber of Daring Fireball explains: “The smaller the f-stop number, the larger the aperture is. You know how the iris of your eyes open wide when it’s dark, to let more light into your eyes? That’s exactly the purpose of the aperture on a camera. A smaller f-stop lets in more light.”
The new camera also captures colors more accurately. And the iPhone 7 camera includes optical image stabilization. Put these together with the f/1.8 aperture, and the result is that even in difficult lighting environments you can get a usable picture.
For example, I set up some items from the bar in my home and turned down the overhead lights low — the sort of mood lighting that you might have at a party. The following three pictures were taken by an iPhone 6, iPhone 6s, and iPhone 7. I didn’t alter any of these photos in Photoshop, but I did reduce the file size so that this page doesn’t take too long to load. You can click on any picture for a larger version:
The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6s pictures are similar, although the iPhone 6s picture is just slightly better because it is less grainy. But the iPhone 7 picture is significantly better, and is much closer to what I actually saw with my own eyes — not only for the objects at the front of the picture, but also for the items in the background.
If you know how to use the Levels feature in Photoshop, in Photos on a Mac, or in many third party apps on an iPhone or iPad, you can often improve low-light photographs. But there is only so far you can go when the original picture isn’t that good. In the following examples, the top picture was the picture taken with the iPhone 6s improved using Photoshop Elements on a Mac, and the picture at the bottom is the picture taken with the iPhone 7 improved using Photoshop Elements on a Mac, in both cases the only adjustment being that I used the Levels feature:
Both pictures are improved when you adjust the levels, but the improved iPhone 7 picture is much better than the improved iPhone 6s picture.
If you like to take pictures with your iPhone, as I do, you’ll find that the iPhone 7 camera is somewhat better when you are outside in good light. But when you are in a low-light situation, the iPhone 7 difference is remarkable.
Louder speaker
Like prior iPhone models, there is a speaker at the bottom of the iPhone for when you want to hear noises without using a headphone. The iPhone 7 adds a second speaker on the other side of the iPhone (where noise comes out of the iPhone when you are using it as a telephone). If you are watching a video with the iPhone in landscape orientation, that means for the first time ever, you get stereo sound. Pretty cool. And it works regardless of which side of your iPhone is up — flip the iPhone around, and what was the left speaker becomes the right speaker.
Better yet, two speakers means that the iPhone is twice as loud. Do you ever listen to a song, podcast, etc. on your iPhone just by pressing play and listening using the built-in speaker? I do this all the time. With the volume now twice as loud, I love that I can hear the audio when I’m farther away. For example, in the morning I may turn on a podcast while I am getting ready for work, and the iPhone 7 is loud enough that I can hear the audio when I am in my bedroom, my closet, my bathroom, etc.
Speaking of audio, I should mention that this is the first iPhone to not have a traditional headphone jack. The iPhone 7 comes with a pair of headphones that you attach via the Lightning port, and they work fine. Apple no longer provides you with a plastic case for the included headphones, but if you want to use the square plastic case that was provided with older iPhones, the new headphones fit. [UPDATE 10/14/16: Well, they sort of fit. I got them in with a tight squeeze the first few times I tried, but now I find that they just sort of fit, and the top almost snaps shut but doesn’t completely do so. It works enough for me, but is far from ideal.] Apple also gives you a small adapter that you can put on the end of any pair of traditional headphones to turn them in to Lightning headphones, and you can purchase extra adapters for only $9.
Apple believes that the future is wireless headphones, and I look forward to using my iPhone 7 with the new Apple Air Pods when they are released later this month.
Taptic Engine
The iPhone has been able to make noises since it was introduced in 2007, but I virtually always have sounds turned off on my iPhone — other than the ringing when I get a phone call, and even then I often flip the switch to put the phone in vibrate mode. I consider it annoying and obnoxious for an iPhone to make a lot of noise in a work environment. I realize that means that I miss out on feedback that I would have with my iPhone making noise, but the tradeoff is worth it.
In the iPhone 6s, Apple first introduced the Taptic Engine. It was a replacement for the vibration motor that had been in prior models, and it allowed for more precise movements. The Taptic Engine in the iPhone 7 is fare more sophisticated, and as a result, apps can provide minor click-like feedback that nobody else can hear, but which you can feel. For example, if you slide the virtual wheel to select a time/date in the Calendar app, you feel like you are turning an analog dial which clicks at each interval.
This feedback provides a richer experience when using the iPhone, and I really like it. When you pinch to zoom a picture, you can feel when your photo is at its maximum or minimum size. When you toggle a switch, you feel that the switch is on or off. If you want more information, Graham Spencer of MacStories did a good job of explaining the new Taptic Engine and where it is currently implemented. Third parties have the ability to tactile feedback to their apps, and I imagine we’ll see even more creative implementations in the future.
This is a good point to mention that the iPhone 7 lacks a physical Home Button. Instead, it is a virtual home button, which feels like you are pushing down on it because of the use of the Taptic Engine, but which actually doesn’t move. You can adjust in Settings how soft or hard the Home Button responds. I like the way that the new Home Button feels, and it is neat that you can adjust the feeling. My understanding is that this change was made for two reasons: (1) to make the iPhone more waterproof and (2) to reduce the risk of the Home Button breaking. Those both seem like worthy goals to me.
The only problem that I’ve had with the new Home Button is that I find it easier to accidentally trigger the Reachability mode, a feature you access by lightly touching (but not pressing) the home button twice, and which brings down the top of the screen. I rarely triggered that mode accidentally on the iPhone 6s, but I did so many times by accident on the iPhone 7. This also led me to realize that I never ever even use the Reachability feature, so I turned it off in Settings. Voila. Problem solved.
Battery life
Apple says that the new A10 Fusion chip is more powerful and more efficient, providing up to two more hours on the iPhone 7 (and up to one more hour on the iPhone 6 Plus) versus the iPhone 6s (and iPhone 6s Plus).
I have a dock in my office, so for those days when I am working at my desk, I have the ability to top off my battery throughout the day. But we all have those days when we are away from a charger and the iPhone is getting at lot of use, and for those days, any battery improvement is welcome.
I haven’t done any scientific side-by-side tests on my iPhone 6s versus my iPhone 7, but it does seem to be doing a little better. Last week, I was involved in a long mediation that lasted over 12 hours, and I was using my iPhone 7 pretty extensively during the mediation. By the time it was all over, I had both a signed settlement document and an iPhone that was down to 10% — just enough power to finish up my day and get home. (I had been charging my iPad during the mediation but hadn’t thought about charging the iPhone.) I don’t know what battery level my iPhone 6s would have had, but with only 10% to spare at the end of the day, I doubt that the iPhone 6s would have made it.
More battery life is a good thing.
Etc.
The iPhone 7 has a few other features that I’m glad to have, but which haven’t been as important for me. First, it is the most water-resistant iPhone. I even see people posting YouTube videos that were taken underwater using an iPhone 7. I don’t plan to do that, but it is nice to know that if my iPhone falls into water, I should have more protection than before.
Second, the screen is better on the iPhone 7 — it shows more colors, and it is brighter. If I put my iPhone 6s and my iPhone 7 side-by-side, I can see the improvement. But if I’m just using one phone, the improvement is not so dramatic that I notice it without doing a direct comparison. I’m all in favor of a better screen, especially a brighter screen that makes it easier to read the screen in direct sunlight. But to be honest, I cannot say that I think about this feature very much.
Third, the flash is brighter. I’m not a big fan of using the flash for iPhone photography, so this isn’t a big deal to me. But this does mean that the flashlight function on the iPhone provides an even brighter flashlight. (And remember, in iOS 10, you can 3D Touch on the flashlight button to select either a low light, medium light, or bright light flashlight.)
Conclusion
I love the iPhone 7. The Jet Black finish feels great in my hand, and the feedback from the Taptic Engine often allows me to feel what I am doing. The increased speed and improved camera are impressive, and a louder speaker and improved batter life are much appreciated. The iPhone has long been an integral part of both my law practice and my family life, and virtually everything that I love about the iPhone is improved in the iPhone 7.
As I noted in my review of the Apple Watch Series 2, I’m a fan of the new watch. I see from other reviews posted this week that I’m not alone. For example, I agree with everything that California attorney David Sparks says in his review of the Apple Watch Series 2. Also, if you are trying to decide if it is worth spending the extra $300 for the stainless steel version of the Apple Watch over the aluminum version, Sparks explains that he used the aluminum version of the original watch, but this time decided that it was worth spending more money for the stainless steel version. That’s my preference as well, for the reasons noted in my review. And now, the news of note from the past week:
New York attorney Nicole Black recommends some apps for lawyers that she recently discovered.
If you have an iPhone 7 Plus — I just have the regular iPhone 7 — you are probably wondering when each of the two cameras is being used. Glenn Fleishman tackles this question in an article for Macworld.
Reggie Ugwu of BuzzFeed News interviewed several Apple executives to discuss Apple Music.
Software developer Alexei Baboulevitch wrote an interesting review of GoodNotes, my favorite app for taking handwritten notes using my Apple Pencil and my iPad Pro.
Zac Hall of 9to5Mac reviews Lutron’s Caséta in-wall dimmer, which is one of my favorite HomeKit devices. (My review from 2015 is here.) In fact, I like that product even more now than when reviewed it in 2015 because HomeKit works even better with iOS 10.
I haven’t yet had a chance to test the Series 2 Apple Watch in a swimming pool, but Eric Slivka is a serious swimmer and wrote about using the Apple Watch while swimming in an article for MacRumors.
And finally, when I reviewed the Apple Watch Series 2 earlier this week, I included a link to a review of the watch by Serenity Caldwell for iMore. It really is a good review, so you should check it out. But in addition to the written review, she produced a really nice video showing off the new Apple Watch features. Definitely worth watching if you own an Apple Watch, are planning to buy an Apple Watch, or are just Apple Watch curious:
I started using an Apple Watch on April 24, 2015, and I have worn one every single day since. I loved my original Apple Watch for its basic functions that were built-in by Apple: receiving notifications such as new emails or messages, quick responses to text messages and emails, the fitness and activity functions, a quick way to glance at my calendar appointments and the current time, etc. But I didn’t like the way that my original Apple Watch worked with third party apps. They were so slow to launch, and slow to update data, that I found myself rarely using them.
Apple addressed the major shortcomings of the original Apple Watch in a one-two punch this month. First, Apple released watchOS 3.0, which made every Apple Watch faster when working with third party apps. Second, Apple released the Series 2 version of the Apple Watch, adding even more speed and other cool new features such as GPS, a brighter screen and being waterproof. I’ve been using the stainless steel 42 mm Apple Watch Series 2 ($599) for about a week now. Here are my thoughts.
What’s new
I’ll start with the new features in Series 2. There are four key differences: speed, brightness, GPS and waterproofing. Battery and size are also worth mentioning.
Speed. The original Apple Watch was begging to be faster. The software upgrade in watchOS 3 improves things by letting you keep your most commonly used apps in memory, even apps from third parties, making it faster when you launch those apps. That’s great, and certainly better than before, but the original Apple Watch running watchOS 3 is still no speed demon. To get more speed, you need updated hardware.
The 2016 version of the Apple Watch features a hardware processor that makes the watch 50% faster, plus a new GPU that makes graphics twice as fast, plus a dual-core processor. Put it all together, and both 2016 models of the Apple Watch (Series 1 and Series 2) are more responsive. When I go to start a workout with my Series 2 Apple Watch, the Workout app pops up with virtually no delay. Third Party apps that I have placed in the dock launch instantly, and while sometimes for some third party apps I need to wait a few seconds for data to load, and a few apps take even longer than a few seconds, it is much faster than when I try the same thing on my original Apple Watch updated to watchOS 3.
Launching a third party app that is not in your dock is still slow, but better than before. Launch times vary from app to app, so rather than a quantitative analysis I’ll provide a qualitative one: on my original Apple Watch, launching a third party app is slow enough that I often just lose interest and go on to something else. But on the Series 2 Apple Watch, the wait for an non-dock app to open is annoying but not so annoying that I give up. And of course, whenever I find a third party app that I want to use often, I just add it to my dock, which turns that app into a fast-loading app.
Speed on an Apple Watch is important for the same reason that it is important on an iPhone or iPad: it improves responsiveness. Whenever you press a virtual button on a screen and have to wait for something to happen, you get at least a little annoyed. On the other hand, when pressing virtual button yields immediate results, you almost forget that the button is virtual, and instead just focus on the task that you were triggering by pressing the button.
I presume that the Apple Watch will get faster every time that Apple updates the hardware. (At this point, we don’t know how frequently Apple will update the Apple Watch. This update took almost a year and a half. I suspect the next update will be in the Fall of 2017, but maybe not until 2018.) A future, Series 3, Apple Watch will surely be faster, but the speed upgrade this year is a significant one, enough to make the Apple Watch noticeably more pleasant to use.
Brightness. The original Apple Watch is more than bright enough when you are inside, when you are outside at night, or when you are outside in the shade. But in the sun, it can be hard to see.
The screen on the Series 2 Apple Watch is twice as bright. I thought that would mean that it is much brighter when I am inside, but frankly I don’t see any difference between the original Apple Watch and the Series 2 Apple Watch. Look at this picture taken inside and tell me if you can see the difference:
The original Apple Watch in the above picture is on the left with the white band; the new Series 2 Apple Watch is on the right with the black band.
On the other hand, when I’m outside, the brighter screen is a noticeable improvement. Let me show you what I mean. There is a watch face called X-Large which I like to use when I am outside on a sunny day. It makes the numbers as large and bold as possible to give you the best chance to see it in direct sunlight. In the following pictures, for both watches, I have brightness turned up to maximum (which is the setting that I always use). In this first picture, it is a sunny day but I waited to take the picture until the sun was behind a cloud, so it wasn’t as bright. I can see the X-Large display on both the Apple Watch Series 2 (left, with black band) and the original Apple Watch (right, with white band), but it is much easier to see on the newer Apple Watch:
Of course even in the above picture, you can read both screens. That’s what I like about the X-Large display, with its large font. But if you are outside at the park or a concert, and you are trying to read a text message from a friend on your watch, the additional brightness in that smaller text message is a big improvement and makes things much more legible.
What if you are in direct sunlight on a hot New Orleans day with no shade? This is a very difficult condition for an Apple Watch (or an iPhone screen, for that matter). With the sun beating down on the watch, the original Apple Watch is just barely visible, even with this X-Large display watch face. The display on the newer Apple Watch is somewhat hard to see in the direct sunlight, but it is a big improvement over the original Apple Watch:
I like this feature of the Series 2 Apple Watch. The Apple Watch often works best when you can glance at it for a half a second and get the info that you need. The brighter screen means that, even on a sunny day, you can still do so in that half a second, without needing to hold up your watch closer to your face and squinting.
GPS. When you are walking or running outside, you can improve the accuracy of your distance, pace, and calorie measurements by using GPS. These accuracy improvements are helpful not only for that specific outdoor workout, but also for calibrating your watch to help it to learn your fitness level and stride, which improves your distance, pace and calorie measurements when you are exercising inside on a treadmill.
With the original Apple Watch, getting the added accuracy that GPS provides meant carrying your iPhone with you while you were exercising. Often, that is not ideal. Because the Series 2 Apple Watch has a built-in GPS, you get the accuracy that GPS provides without the hassle of carrying your iPhone with you. If you have a playlist with songs that you like to listen to when you workout, you can sync those to your Apple Watch. That way, all you need is your Apple Watch and a pair of Bluetooth headphones to walk or run outside. On the other hand, if you want to listen to a podcast while you are outside, there is not an easy way to sync those episodes to the Apple Watch, so it is easier to carry your iPhone with you.
An added bonus of GPS is that the watch gives you a map after your walking or running workout is over so that you can see where you have been. For example, I recently took a walk up and down St. Charles Ave., the beautiful street in New Orleans where the streetcars operate. I started the Outdoor Walk function in the Workout app on the Apple Watch. Then I walked one direction on one side of the street, and the other direction on the other side of the street. When I was done, I could launch the Activity app on my iPhone and see exactly where I had walked, with green areas indicating where I had walked a little faster, and red areas indicating where I had walked a little slower — because, for example, I had to wait for cars to pass before I could cross an intersection.
Screenshot
Although I try to walk or run just about every day, I virtually always do it using a treadmill in my house, so the new GPS feature isn’t particularly useful to me. However, if you regularly exercise outdoors, either walking or running, and you don’t want to carry your iPhone with you, then you might really appreciate the new GPS feature. I’ve heard many serious runners tell me that they wouldn’t even consider using a smartwatch while running unless it had a GPS built-in.
Waterproof. Even the original Apple Watch was reasonably water resistant. I wore it many times when I was in water and when my arm was only occasionally going under water — such as when I was at the beach with my kids and in water that was only up to about my chest, and several times when I was in a “lazy river” at the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans with my kids. But whenever I got my original Apple Watch wet, I was conscious about not getting it too wet, just to be safe.
The Series 2 Apple Watch is waterproof, and it even has workout features designed specifically for swimming laps in a pool or swimming in the open water. I enjoy swimming laps, but I don’t have the opportunity to do it very often. I had planned to test the Series 2 Apple Watch in a pool this past weekend, but unfortunately my schedule didn’t allow for it. I did wear my Series 2 Apple Watch in the shower once and it held up just fine, but the main thing that experience accomplished was to remind me that it is completely unnecessary for me to ever wear a watch in the shower. I mean, seriously, why do people do that?
Even though the hardcore swimming-for-exercise that I do is rare, I know that I will appreciate the peace of mind that comes along with having a waterproof Apple Watch. I can keep my hand underwater for long periods of time, and even keep it on while in a pool with my kids, without having to worry about the water harming the electronics. Thus, any time that I am around water, I just won’t have to worry about the fact that I’m wearing my watch. And since I wear my Apple Watch all day long every day, this is nice.
Battery. Apple doesn’t advertise the Series 2 Apple Watch as having better battery life than the original Apple Watch; the company suggests 18 hours for both. But in this first week of usage, I have noticed more battery life at the end of every day.
Does this matter? For me, mostly no. I charge my watch every night when I go to bed, so whether it has 10% or 50% left at the end of the day is of no real consequence. But if you use the smaller 38 mm size watch — which has a smaller battery — this might matter to you. Serenity Caldwell of iMore wrote a recent review in which she says that the improved battery life is one of her favorite new features for the 38 mm watch. For example, she states that “a morning cross-training workout dropped my battery from 100% to 89%; the same workout on the [original Apple Watch] put it at 53%.”
Size. If you own an original Apple Watch, the new Series 2 is almost exactly the same size, but it is about 1 mm thicker. This is an incredibly minor difference. In the following picture, the original stainless steel Apple Watch is on the left, and the Series 2 stainless steel Apple Watch is on the right. Zoomed in like this, I suppose you can see the slight difference.
In actual use, however, I really don’t think I can feel the difference. The other day, I was wearing a shirt with a tighter cuff, and I thought to myself — aha, I can feel the larger size of the new Apple Watch. But then I put the old Apple Watch on, and the cuff was still tight with the original watch underneath it.
Don’t get me wrong; I’d much prefer for Apple to make the Apple Watch slimmer with each generation, not thicker. I wasn’t thrilled to learn about the 1 mm increase. Fortunately, I really haven’t noticed the difference.
Summing up the new features. The new features of the Series 2 are nice. If you are a swimmer or an outdoor runner, then they will be really important for you. For me, the speed is the main reason that I am happy that I upgraded from the original Apple Watch to the Series 2 Apple Watch, although the brighter screen and being waterproof are also nice.
Note that you can get the speed increase in the Series 1 Apple Watch, which is cheaper than the Series 2. However, the Series 1 Apple Watch only comes in the aluminum model. I greatly prefer the look of the stainless steel model. After all, a watch is not just a useful device, it is also jewelry, and if you are going to wear a piece of jewelry all day long every day, you want for it to be something that you like. Also, the stainless steel model has a Sapphire crystal face, while the aluminum watch uses the not-quite-as-good Ion-X glass. I suppose I’m a clumsy oaf because I cannot even count the number of times that I accidentally hit the face of my original Apple Watch on an object — wall, fence, lamp, chair, table, pretty much you name it. But after almost a year and a half of abuse, there isn’t a single scratch on the face. Would the Ion-X glass have held up as well? Who knows, and I don’t want to find out.
If you own the original Apple Watch and you are thinking of upgrading, you’ll need to decide whether the cost of the Series 1 or Series 2 makes sense for you. If swimming and the GPS features are not particularly important for you, then speed is the main reason to upgrade. The Series 2 (and I presume also the Series 1) speed increase is noticeable and very nice. But to be fair, it is not Earth-shattering. For me, every noticeable speed increase is a welcome speed increase. If I am holding up my arm to look at my watch, the last thing I want to do is hold up my arm even longer to wait for something to happen. But if you are satisfied with the speed increase that watchOS 3 brings to your first generation Apple Watch (the Series Zero?), then perhaps it makes the most sense for you to put off a watch upgrade for another year or so when the Series 3 is released.
What’s old, but still great
Those are my thoughts if you are interested in what is new in the 2016 edition of the Apple Watch. But if you don’t currently own an Apple Watch at all, feel free to pat yourself on the back for waiting for Apple to work out the kinks in its first generation watch. You now have some great options with the Series 1 Apple Watch (if you want aluminum and don’t care about GPS or being waterproof) or the Series 2 Apple Watch that I have. (Or you can be even fancier and get the white ceramic “Edition” model, which is even more expensive.)
The Apple Watch is a fantastic iPhone companion. When notifications come in, you no longer have to locate and look at your iPhone. Just glance at your wrist. Better yet, you don’t have to listen for a beep or feel for a buzz on the iPhone; the Apple Watch silently taps on your wrist when it wants your attention. Nobody else will ever know.
Sometimes, a notification of a new message or email or other item will prompt you to reach for your iPhone. But often, the notification itself was sufficient. Or if a response is required, it is easy to send one from the Apple Watch by tapping on one of the suggested responses, or using your finger to draw a few letters. Or, if you are in an environment where you can make noise, it is easy to dictate a response on the watch using Siri.
I also love that I can glance at my wrist to quickly get the information that I need. When I’m at work, I use a watch face that shows me the time, date, and my next appointment, plus shows in a small circle my activity for the day. On the weekend when I’m being active with my kids, I switch to a watch face that has a larger activity circle — or, if I’m feeling silly, to a Mickey Mouse watch face. Thanks to watchOS 3, I can press the button on the side of the watch to quickly get information from, or use the features of, other apps. For example, I love that when my iPhone is playing music or a podcast, I can use the Now Playing app to play, pause, skip forward or backward, etc.
With the Apple Watch, I don’t even have to worry about having my iPhone in my pocket. Sometimes my iPhone is somewhere else in the room. Or, my iPhone can be in my house while I am doing work outside, and my watch will let me know if I get a call, an email, etc. (because the Wi-Fi at my house extends out far enough).
I also love Apple Pay on the Apple Watch. Being able to pay for a sandwich just by moving my arm closer to the little machine next to a cash register is both fast and fun.
If you use devices in your home compatible with Apple’s HomeKit, it is really nice to be able to tap a button on your watch, or speak to Siri on your watch, to turn lights on or off, dim lights when you are ready to watch a movie, etc.
And finally, I love that the Apple Watch motivates me to be more active. Thanks to my Apple Watch, I have been using my treadmill or otherwise been active virtually every single day.
Conclusion
If you have been thinking about getting an Apple Watch but were waiting for a second generation model, your wait is over. I encourage you to get one. You’ll get all of the advantages of the original Apple Watch, plus the new bells and whistles, plus much less of the aggravation associated with the slower hardware and less refined 1.0 software.
If you already have an original Apple Watch, you don’t need to upgrade — unless you are a swimmer or an outdoor runner, in which case this new watch is made just for you. Having said that, even if the GPS and waterproofing are less important to you, if you upgrade anyway, I’m sure that you’ll still appreciate the increase in speed, and the brighter screen will be nice when you are outside.
Thank you to Drobo for sponsoring iPhone J.D. this month. Drobo appears to your computer to be a single external hard drive, but it actually has multiple hard drives inside of it and your data is always stored on multiple drives. Thus, when one of the hard drives fail — and remember, all hard drives will fail at some point — your data is still safely stored on the remaining drives. Just eject the dead drive and replace it with another drive, and you are back in business. You can also swap out the hard drives to larger versions, making it easy to expand your storage.
I’ve written about the Drobo several times before. Last December, I described the Drobo 4 Bay, which is a great basic system and attaches directly to your computer. Last month, I described the Drobo 5N, which has five drive bays and attaches to your network, and which also supports Drobo apps to support lots of different functions such as remote access to files. (See also my posts from March and June of this year.)
Once thing new that I’ve done with the Drobo 5N in the last few weeks is use its large (and expandable) space to create disk images of other hard drives. Using SuperDuper! — which costs $28, and is one of the very best pieces of software for backing up drives on a Mac — I created a disk image on the Drobo 5N. Every night when I’m asleep, SuperDuper! launches and sees what is new on my home computer (an iMac) and updates the disk image on the Drobo 5N accordingly. If the hard drive on my iMac ever fails, I’ll have an up-to-date backup right there on my desk. (I also use BackBlaze so I also have an online backup, so even if my house burns down and I lose all of my local media, I still haven’t lost any files.)
I previously had been using SuperDuper! to backup my Mac to 2 TB external hard drive, but I now have more than 2 TB on my internal hard drive so that wasn’t going to work anymore. Plus I didn’t keep that external drive connected all of the time, which means that sometimes I would go a week or two before I remembered to create a backup. But I always have access to the Drobo 5N on my local network, so my computer remembers to backup every single night without me having to remember.
There are countless ways to use external storage. If you are considering getting an external hard drive for your Mac or PC for any reason, you should consider getting a Drobo instead so that you have external storage that is both safe and expandable.
Demand for Apple’s newly announced products outstripped supply for many of the popular models, but Apple is beginning to catch up. In the last 48 hours, I’ve seen reports from many folks who were originally going to have to wait a long time for a product, but were informed this week that the ship date was moved up substantially. And the Hermés version of the Apple Watch Series 2 goes on sale today. I finally received my Stainless Steel Apple Watch Series 2 just a few days ago (I’ll have a review soon). And while the iPhone 7 Jet Black 256 GB model that I ordered from AT&T was originally not expected to ship until October 7 to 14, I just received notice last night that it is now about to ship. If you ordered a new iPhone or Apple Watch and are still waiting, hopefully the wait won’t be for too much longer. And if you have been waiting for the initial rush to die down before buying something, your time has just about come as well. And now, the news of note from the past week:
I see that a post on Above the Law recommends that you listen to the podcast interview that I recently did with Adriana Linares. I second that recommendation.
Phil Dzikiy of iLounge writes a favorable review of the Simplex iPad stand by Thought Out. I reviewed that stand last month and concluded by saying that I liked it almost as much as a more expensive stand sold by Thought Out. But since I posted my review, I’ve continued to use the Simplex at my desk every day, so much so that I finally moved the other stand off of my desk. The price is right, and I can highly recommend the Simplex.
The shuffle and repeat buttons are a little hard to find in Apple Music in iOS 10. Kirk McElhearn tells you where to look.
If you are the type of attorney who cannot stand common grammar errors and don’t mind correcting others, then the Grammar Snob sticker pack for Messages might be perfect for you. Aldrin Calimlim of AppAdvice shows it off. Its literally amazing what stuff is in their, and I ensure you that your, going too love the affect.
Whenever Apple releases iOS 10.1, it will include support for Portrait mode on an iPhone 7 Plus, the mode that makes iPhone pictures look similar to pictures taken with an expensive SLR camera thanks to the bokeh effect. Matthew Panzarino tried out the beta version of Portrait mode and explains, and shows in pictures, how it works.
Jordan Kahn of 9to5Mac notes that while the iPhone 7 is brighter than previous iPhones, you have to have auto-brightness enabled — and most likely have to be outside — to get the maximum brightness.
Jeff Benjamin of 9to5Mac reviews the new leather case that Apple is selling for the iPhone 7. It has quite a few improvements, which I know first-hand because I ordered one for my new iPhone 7. I may not have my new iPhone yet, but the case arrived earlier this week. I couldn’t stand just looking at it without an iPhone in it, so I did briefly put my iPhone 6s in it — which fits except for the camera hole — and I can already tell you that I far, far prefer the real buttons on this case versus the leather indent “buttons” on the leather case for the iPhone 6 / 6s.
Chance Miller gave up on the original Apple Watch, but explains why he may change his story with the Apple Watch Series 2.
Walt Mossberg of The Verge explains why watchOS 3 is an even bigger deal than Apple Watch Series 2.
One of the new features of watchOS 3 is that the Apple Watch encourages you to take a 60 second break to breathe. Georgia Dow, who is a practicing therapist, explains why this breathing exercise is helpful in an article for iMore.
And finally, Apple produced a funny commercial in which late night TV host James Cordon pitches ideas for an Apple Music commercial to three Apple executives (Jimmy Iovine, Eddy Cue and Bozoma Saint John). Silly premise, but it works because Cordon is funny. Here is the video:
