Apple starts a new fiscal year at the end of September every year. Yesterday, Apple released the results for its 2016 fiscal fourth quarter (which ran from June 26, 2016 to September 24, 2016) and held a call with analysts to discuss the results. Note that Apple's largest financial quarter is always the first fiscal quarter (the one that we are in now) because it includes the holiday sales during November and December. As for the last fiscal quarter, the new iPhone 7 went on sale on September 16, so there was about a week of sales of the new iPhones included in the fiscal fourth quarter. Yesterday, Apple announced quarterly revenue of $46.9 billion and quarterly net profit of $9 billion. If you want to get all of the nitty gritty details, you can download the audio from the announcement conference call from iTunes, or you can read a rough transcript of the call prepared by Seeking Alpha. iMore also prepared a transcript. Apple's official press release is here.
As always, I'm not particularly interested in the financial aspects of this call. But I'm always interested in the statements of Apple executives that pertain to the use of the iPhone and iPad. Here are the items that stood out to me:
iPhone
Apple sold just over 45.5 million iPhones in the last fiscal quarter. By my count, that means that Apple has sold about 1,033,476,000 as of September 24, 2016. Sorry, it's not very often that I get to write a number that is over a billion, so it was fun to write that one out in full. Thanks for indulging me.
Worldwide demand for the iPhone 7, and especially the iPhone 7 Plus, significantly outpaces supply. By the end of the current quarter, Cook believes that Apple will be able to catch up with demand for the iPhone 7, but may not be able to catch up with iPhone 7 Plus demand Nevertheless, Apple says that it is working hard to catch up to demand, so if you are still waiting for your new iPhone, hopefully you will have it soon.
Apple sells iPhones to three groups of customers: new smartphone users, users switching from another brand (typically Android), and users upgrading from an older iPhone. Apple CEO Tim Cook announced yesterday that, looking at fiscal 2016 as a whole, Apple saw more switchers from Android in 2016 than ever before.
iPad
Apple sold almost 9.3 million iPads in the last fiscal quarter. By my count, that means that Apple has sold over 337 million iPads as of September 24, 2016.
Apple said that, according to the independent company NPD, 82% of tablets sold in the U.S. in the last quarter above $200 are iPads.
Etc.
Cook noted that Apple Pay continues to expand around the world. The service launched in Russia and New Zealand this month, and is coming to Spain in the next few months. There were more Apple Pay transactions in the month of September 2016 than all of fiscal 2015.
Cook said that Siri gets two billion requests every week, which means that Apple has shipped more assistant-enabled devices than any other company.
Apple expects that there will be over 100 HomeKit-compatible products on the market by the end of this year.
Cook was asked about what Apple is doing in the automobile space. I expected Cook to simply decline to discuss theoretical unannounced products, but Cook said a little more than that: "I can't speak about rumors, but as you know, we look for ways that we can improve the experience and the customers' experience on different sets of products, and we are always looking at new things. And the car space in general is an area that it's clear that there is a lot of technologies that will either become available or will be able to revolutionize the car experience. And so it's interesting from that point of view, but nothing to, certainly nothing to announce today."
Cook was also asked about Apple's plans for television. Cook said: "I would confirm that television has intense interest with me and many other people here. In terms of owning content and creating content, we have started with focusing on some original content, as you point out. We've got a few things going there that we've talked about. And I think it's a great opportunity for us, both from a creation point of view and an ownership point of view. And so it's is an area that we're focused on."
You probably have a single spot at your home where you charge your Apple Watch every night. If you want to charge your Apple Watch away from home, you need another way to do so, such as bringing an Apple Watch charging cord and a USB power plug with you. But what if you don’t have easy access to a wall outlet? One solution is a self-contained Apple Watch charger, and that is what I am reviewing today: the Apple Watch Portable Charger by Archeer. Archeer sent me a free review sample of this device, and I’ve been using it for the last few weeks. You can buy it for $35.99 on Amazon.
The device is circular in shape. It is 1 1/8" high with a diameter of 3". To charge an Apple Watch, you simply press the side button on the Archeer charger once to turn it on, and then place your watch on top of the device.
The bottom of the device has a rubber pad in the middle so that it has friction and won’t slide around on a flat surface.
The Archeer device has a 1500mAh battery inside of it. Archeer says that is enough to charge an Apple Watch from 0% to 100% three times. If you press a button on the side of the device, between one and four blue lights will illuminate to give you a sense of how much power the battery has left. You recharge the battery in this device by using a Lightning cable (not included) plugged in to the port next to those four lights.
This device does not come with a charger for the Apple Watch itself. You need to supply your own Apple Watch charging cable, such as the one that came with your Apple Watch or another one that you buy from Apple for $29. I discussed this issue when I reviewed the Studio Neat Material Dock last week; because third party Apple Watch chargers are not as good as what Apple sells, you are probably better off using an official Apple cord. But since it is somewhat cumbersome to remove the charging cord from this Archeer device, you might want to buy an extra one and just keep it in this device all the time, which raises the total effective price of this device from $36 to $65.
To add your Apple Watch charging cord to this Archeer device, you untwist the silver top. Then you need to plug the USB end of the charging cord into the device — which is actually more difficult than it should be because of the awkward angle and the limited space provided. Then you wrap the remainder of the cord around the inside of the device. Finally, you place the charging end on top.
Apple makes two different types of watch chargers. The less expensive Apple Watch models (like the one that Apple used to call the Apple Watch Sport) include a white plastic charger. The cord included with the more expensive models has a white top but a silver metal on the charging end — that’s the version you see in this pictures. The metal charger is a little bit thinner than the plastic charger. Accordingly, this Archeer device provides you with a thin piece of foam that you can add to the top to provide a little extra height if you are using the silver metal charger. Thus, both types of chargers will be at the right level at the top of this Archeer device.
In my tests over the last few weeks, this device works as advertised. I took a business trip to Denver and put this device on the nightstand next to my bed in my hotel room. It charged my watch overnight, and I didn’t have to worry about finding an outlet close to the bed. (I’ve never understood why so many hotels fail to provide an accessible and unused outlet next to each nightstand!)
It is rare that I need to charge my Apple Watch during the day, especially my 42mm Apple Watch Series 2. But my wife has the first generation 38mm Apple Watch, which has a smaller battery inside, and she occasionally finds her watch going into power reserve mode at the end of the day because battery power is low. If you like the idea of having an easy way to boost your Apple Watch power during the day — perhaps because you use a 38mm model, or perhaps because you use apps that run down the battery more quickly — a portable, self-contained device like this is a nice accessory. In my tests with both my new 42mm Apple Watch Series 2 and my original 42mm Apple Watch, this Archeer charger typically added about 5% of battery life approximately every seven minutes. (That’s roughly the same speed that the Apple Watch charging cord adds power to my watch when it is connected directly to a wall outlet.)
After living with this device for a few weeks, my conclusion is that it works well, but I’m not sure that I really need it. I virtually never need to charge my Apple Watch during the day, and at night when I travel I already have lots of other devices that I need to charge — iPhone, Apple Watch, etc. — so if I have to set up near an outlet for those devices, I can do the same for my watch. But of course, everyone has different needs. If you like the idea of being able to recharge your Apple Watch no matter where you are, without having to find an outlet, using a small and light self-contained device, then the Archer Apple Watch Power Charger does this for you for $36 (plus $29 if you decide to add a dedicated charging cord and you don’t already have an extra one).
Apple has invited select members of the press to its campus on Thursday, October 27 for a product announcement at 10 Pacific / 1 Eastern. This is widely expected to be an event focused on updates to Apple’s laptop and desktop computers, but there is always the possibility that Apple will announce something related to iOS, such as perhaps an updated iPad. (The invitation simply says “Hello again,” which as Stephen Hackett notes is a throwback to previous Apple Mac announcements.) This is also expected to be the last product announcement event that Apple will host on its current campus; by next year, the new Apple Campus 2 (which features a main building in the shape of a huge circle) should be ready with its new auditorium. For all of us who did not get an invitation, there will be a live stream on Apple’s website. And now, the news of note from the past week:
John Gruber of Daring Fireball reports that, according to Patently Apple, Apple has filed suit against a company that was selling counterfeit power adapters and charging cables on Amazon, claiming that they were made by Apple. Apparently, even if you buy a product that says it is sold “by Amazon.com,” it can still be a cheap counterfeit.
For those of you who remember the days when Apple and IBM were competitors, here is an interesting article by Dennis Sellers of Apple World Today. IBM now has the largest Mac deployment in the world, and is adding 1,300 new Macs every week. IBM reports that it is three times more expensive to support PCs than to support Macs. And 66% of IBM employees use iPhones and/or iPads. We’ve come a long way from this picture.
The Simpsons celebrated 600 episodes — impressive! — with a VR version of the coach gag. As reported by Matt Brian of Engadget, you can download the free Spotlight Stories app to see it on your iPhone. It works even better if you have Google Cardboard, but that isn’t required.
I’ll admit it. One of my guilty pleasures on my iPhone is Candy Crush. When I have a few minutes to kill, it is a fun way to pass the time. But what if you want even more Candy Crush in your life? Nellie Andreeva of Deadline Hollywood reports that a Candy Crush game show is coming to CBS. No explanation of how you are supposed to swipe on your TV screen.
And finally, David Pogue of Yahoo put together a great list of hidden iOS 10 tips. This video is worth watching for the magnifier tip alone. If you don’t want to watch the video, or if the embedded video below isn’t working, you can read all of the tips (and view the video) here.
What do you do with your Apple Watch and iPhone when you go to bed at night? If you are like me, you keep them close to your bed, such as on a nightstand, so that they are with easy reach as you go to bed and when you wake up. And of course you want to charge your devices every night. You can just use their charging cords to do so, but then the cords fall off of the table when you are not using them and everything gets messy. The solution is to have a dock to hold those cords and charge your iPhone or Apple Watch — or better yet, both. The Material Dock by Studio Neat is a charger made to be used on a nightstand or desk. It comes in two versions, one for just the iPhone ($45), and one for both the iPhone and Apple Watch ($70). Studio Neat sent me a free sample of the iPhone and Apple Watch model to review, and I’ve been using it for a few weeks now. I really like this dock. It has a few drawbacks that for some folks will make something like the Spigen Apple Watch Night Stand (which I reviewed last year) a better option, but it has some advantages too, such as its professional appearance and the ability to charge both an iPhone and an Apple Watch.
The Material Dock is an attractive dock. The base is made of solid walnut and has a matte finish. The part that holds up an iPhone or Apple Watch is made of cork. Unless that lighter wood color scheme doesn’t work in your room, I think that most folks would consider this a very professional looking product, whether it is used in a bedroom on a nightstand or in an office on a desk. The wood is a nice contrast to the glass and metal of the iPhone and Apple Watch. And these materials are also environmentally friendly and recyclable.
The two guys behind Studio Neat — Dan Provost and Tom Gerhardt — have designed lots of other interesting products for the iPhone (plus some cool cocktail tools), and they have a podcast with Myke Hurley called Thoroughly Considered. On episode 18, they have an interesting discussion of the design and production of this product, including how they selected the wood, cork, and other materials used to make this.
The dock holds your iPhone in the middle. The dock holds your Apple Watch in the front, and has a round shape which allows the band to naturally curve around the dock. And unlike some docks that hold your Apple Watch with the buttons on the side, Studio Neat positions the Apple Watch with its buttons on top, which is the orientation that lets you use the Nightstand mode. The nightstand mode is incredibly useful when an Apple Watch is charging because you can see the time, date and other information. I would never want to use a dock for the Apple Watch that lacked this orientation.
It is very easy to place the iPhone in the dock. And you can be very casual about placing the watch on the dock; the magnet always puts the Apple Watch where it needs to be. Even when the lights are turned off in my bedroom, I find it easy to put both of my devices on the Material Dock.
The Material Dock has some assembly required, but it is incredibly easy to do, and the Studio Neat website has pictures and videos that walk you through the process. Here is what you get in the box:
What you don’t get are the cords necessary to charge your devices. You have to supply a Lightning cable to charge your iPhone, and you have to supply the Apple Watch charging cord to charge your watch. However, you do get everything else that you need, including even a small (and very high quality) screwdriver.
The cork that holds the iPhone up is adjustable. This means that you can adjust the distance between the Lightning connector and the back of the iPhone, so the Material Dock can support an iPhone with virtually any case on it. The instructions explain how to keep the middle cork loose, then slide it close to your iPhone, and then tighten the screws so that in the future it is a perfect fit. I sometimes use Apple’s leather case on my iPhone, so I configured the dock for that case. But I also find that when I’m not using the case, the dock still holds up my iPhone just fine.
The bottom of the Material Dock has groves to hold both of the cords in precisely the right position. There are other fasteners that ensure that the Lightning connector on the top of the unit is very sturdy and won’t move around as you are putting your iPhone on and off of the dock. Likewise, the Apple Watch charger is firmly in place.
The net result is that both chargers work perfectly in this dock. But there is a downside: it is cumbersome to remove the cords from the Material Dock, so I suspect that you will want to just keep them there all of the time. I suspect that many iPhone J.D. readers already have lots of Lightning cords, but you may only have one Apple Watch charging cord. Thus, if you use this dock with the cord that came with your Apple Watch, you’ll probably want to spend $29 for an extra Apple Watch charging cord to use when you travel. On the podcast episode that I mentioned above, the guys at Studio Neat explained that they looked into buying third party cords to include with the device, but they were unsatisfied with the quality compared to the superior cords made by Apple. Thus, they decided that it was better to ask folks to use their Apple cords with the Material Dock (and buy new ones if necessary) to end up with a high quality dock. I think that this was the right decision, but if you need to buy an extra Apple Watch charging cord you might think of this as a $99 product instead of a $70 product.
Contrast this to the Spigen Apple Watch Night Stand that I really like; it is super easy to remove the Apple Watch charging cable from that stand, so you don’t need to have an extra charging cable for when you are away from home.
The bottom of the Material Dock has a micro-suction pad. It does an excellent job of holding the dock steady on a flat surface. I placed the Material Dock on the nightstand next to my bed, and it is very sturdy. Even though the Lightning connector holds my iPhone very well, I can remove my iPhone just using one hand and the base never moves. It just works.
Because micro-suction is just a bunch of tiny suction cups, you can remove the Material Dock without leaving any sticky residue on the surface of your table. I had no trouble moving the Material Dock when I pulled up the dock slowly. Note, however, that I see that Josh Centers posted a review of this product for TidBITS, and he reported:
The Material Dock perhaps sticks a little too well. I had to remove it to make some adjustments, and it took some of my nightstand’s finish with it! My nightstand is kind of beat up anyway, but you might not want to place the Material Dock on any family heirlooms.
I don’t know anything about the nature of the nightstand that Josh Centers was using, and again, I didn’t see this problem at all.
The Material Dock has a few drawbacks; you may need to buy an extra cord (or two) to use it, and depending upon the surface to which you are attaching the dock, I suppose you might need to be careful about moving it. But otherwise, this is an excellent product. I have been very happy using the Material Dock on the nightstand next to my bed for the last few weeks, so much so that I don’t think I’ll go back to the Spigen stand. It is just so convenient to have both the iPhone and Apple Watch in a central location on a nice looking stand. Plus, it keeps your two devices in a compact location, so they are not sprawled out all over your nightstand or desk. If you are looking for a sturdy, attractive dock for both your iPhone and Apple Watch, one that works well and keeps your Apple Watch in the correct orientation to use the Nightstand feature, you should definitely consider this product.
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.
