The next big thing from Apple is only days away. The Apple Vision Pro, first announced by Apple last year, will be available for pre-order starting at 8am Eastern on Friday, January 19, 2024. Two weeks later, on Friday, February 2, 2024, you will be able to schedule a demo of the Apple Vision Pro in an Apple Store to try out the product and purchase it if you like it. This is all in the United States; we don’t yet have a date for other countries.
Last year, we learned that the starting price would be $3,499. That remains true, and it is for a unit with 256GB of storage. I presume that Apple will also sell versions with more storage for a few hundred dollars more, but those specifics have not yet been announced.
If you have good vision, all you need is the device. If you wear glasses, you will need to purchase optical inserts made by ZEISS. If you just need something similar to reader glasses, that will cost $99. If you want to match a prescription, you will need to have a valid prescription and the lens cost will be $149. Apple has not yet provided details on how the process works for getting the prescription inserts. I believe that an eyeglasses prescription in the United States is valid for one year, so if your prescription is older than that, Apple may require you to get an updated prescription to order the lenses, but that is unclear.
I was a little surprised to see Apple provide all of this information yesterday in a mere press release. I thought that we might see another product video with more details on how it works. Perhaps Apple is saving that for February 2. The rumor is that initial supplies are limited, and those folks who are likely to be early adopters probably don’t need to get even more information from Apple to decide that they want to buy one. As you might have guessed, I fall in that category.
As we learn many more details over the coming weeks, it will be exciting to see this news unfold. If the early reports are accurate, this will be a fascinating device to use.
Here is a fun video called Get Ready that Apple released last night to build excitement. It reminds me of the fantastic Hello video that Apple released before the iPhone first went on sale:
I love having the power to find a lost or stolen object using Apple’s Find My technology, and I and the members of my family own multiple AirTags. But an AirTag is too big for your wallet. For the last six months, I’ve been trying out two products that work similarly to an AirTag but that are thin and flat enough to fit in a wallet. First, I started using the Rolling Square AirCard, which I originally backed in a Kickstarter campaign and which you can now purchase on Amazon for $29.90. More recently, I started using a Eufy SmartTrack Card, which is normally $29.99 but which you can currently buy on Amazon for only $16.99 — a fantastic price, so I urge you to buy one quickly before the price goes back up. The core features are similar, but there are some differences between the two products. I prefer the Eufy SmartTrack Card, but my 18-year-old son prefers the Rolling Square AirCard.
The key feature: find your wallet and get notified if you left it behind
The #1 reason to get either of these products is to find your lost wallet and be notified if you left it behind.
Both products let you use the “Add Other Item” feature in the iPhone’s Find My app to add the card so that it appears in the same place in the app as your AirTag and other trackers. Using a map, you can see where the card is currently located. Like an AirTag, these cards lack GPS, but they have Bluetooth, so if any iPhone is in the vicinity of the card, you can get a rough sense of where your card is located. For example, if you go to work and leave your wallet at home with one of these cards in the wallet, you can use use the Find My app to see (1) the last time that the wallet was seen at home (the time when your iPhone was last at home and the card could “see” it via Bluetooth) or (2) the last time that any other iPhone was in the vicinity of the card. So if someone else is in your house, or perhaps even if your wallet is near the front of your house and someone walks by your house with an iPhone, you may be able to see that your wallet was at your house as of just a minute ago.
Both products also help you to find your wallet if you are in the vicinity but cannot find it. Just the other day, I forgot that I had left my wallet in my study. When I went to leave my home and could not find my wallet, I opened the Find My app, selected the card that was in my wallet, and instructed the Find My app to make the card play a sound. My son, who was in the study at the time, immediately yelled that my wallet was in that room. But if he had not been around, I could have just walked around my house until I heard the beeps coming from the card.
Both products also help to prevent you from leaving your wallet behind. You can enable a function in the Find My app to give you a notification if you left the card behind where you are located (with “you” in this case being the place where your iPhone is located). The notification takes a few minutes, so you may be several blocks away before you are alerted that you left your wallet at a restaurant. But that is better than going home and not realizing that your wallet was left in the restaurant until after the restaurant has closed. You can designate certain locations—such as your home—so that you will not receive a notification if your card is left there.
These key features are great, and they work well with both of these products.
Size and weight
Everything that I just described can also be done with an AirTag. What makes these cards different from an AirTag is their size and weight.
A credit card and a driver’s license are mandated to use the dimensions 3.375 inches wide by 2.125 inches high. Both of these tracking cards are that same width and height. In the next two pictures, the Eufy product is at the top and the Rolling Square product is at the bottom:
The ISO requirement for credit card thickness is .76 mm (0.0299 inches). These tracking cards, however, are about three times that thick: about 2.2 mm / 0.09 inches. So by adding one of these tracking cards to your wallet, it is like adding almost three credit cards. By comparison, an AirTag is about 8 mm / 0.31 inches.
Credit card weight varies, with a plastic card around 5 grams and a metal card between 13 and 18 grams. This is a measurement on which these two tracking cards differ. The Rolling Square AirCard weighs about 20 grams whereas the Eufy SmartTrack Card weighs around 18 grams. More importantly, the Eufy card FEELS like it weighs even less, closer to the almost nothingness weight of a business card. I’m not sure why this is so noticeable if it is only a 2 gram difference. Perhaps it is because the Eufy card is surrounded by plastic whereas the Rolling Square product has a glass shell.
I want as little weight as possible in my wallet, and I like the reduced weight and the feel of the Eufy product. My son, on the other hand, also has a Rolling Square AirCard, and he told me that he prefers the feel and look of that product with its glass (see-through in places) and more of techno look to it.
Battery Life
One reason that these two products are smaller and lighter than an AirTag is that there is no replaceable battery. Both devices have a battery sealed inside that should last about 2.5 years or so.
When the Rolling Square AirCard dies, Rolling Square says that you can send back your dead AirCard and get a 50% discount on the purchase of a new one, plus they will recycle the unit you send in. Eufy doesn’t offer a similar service, but considering how inexpensive the product can be (currently $16.99) it isn’t very expensive to purchase a new one.
Additional features of the Eufy SmartTrack Card
If you download the free Eufy Security app—an app that I’ve been using for a long time to work with the Eufy security cameras outside of my home—you gain three more features.
First, if you have a SmartTrack Card but you cannot find your iPhone, you can double-tap the button on the SmartTrack Card to make the Eufy Security app on your phone make noise—even if your iPhone is in silent mode. It plays a version of the B-I-N-G-O song, and if there is a way to change that song, I haven’t found it yet. If you already own an Apple Watch, you won’t need this feature because the Apple Watch can be used to track down an iPhone.
Note that you don’t want to make your iPhone play noise by accident, so the app also has a False Press Prevention mode. This mode turns on automatically 12 hours after you connect the SmartTrack Card. In this mode, if you long press on the button—for example, you sit on your wallet in a way that causes the button to press in—then no sounds will play. This seems like a good precaution to add.
Second, the back of the SmartTrack Card has a QR code, and if you ever lose the card, perhaps someone will pick up the card and scan the QR code to see what happens. If someone does so, and if you have Lost Mode turned on in the Eufy app, then scanning the QR code will lead to a webpage that displays whatever information you choose to provide (if any) in the following fields: Name, Email, Phone, Message. Thus, you can provide your name and phone number and add a message to ask them to call you so that you can get your SmartTrack Card back—and hopefully, your wallet too if it was also lost.
Third, you can optionally choose to let other family members track the the SmartTrack Card using the Eufy app on their iPhone. Note that iOS 17 added the ability to share an AirTag or other item with another person, so this is similar to that except that it uses the Eufy app instead of the Find My app.
Note also that a Eufy SmartTrack card comes with a metal clip that you can (optionally) attach to the card. For me, that removes the key advantage of this product: it is similar to a credit card and can be slipped in a wallet with other cards. But if you want to attach the thin Eufy SmartTrack card to another item, you may find the clip useful.
Additional features of the Rolling Square AirCard
Like the Eufy SmartTrack card, the Rolling Square AirCard has a QR code on it that can be scanned. This is called the Advanced Lost Mode feature, and it allows someone who finds your AirCard and scans the QR code on it to contact you. Rolling Square uses the Sherr.it service for this, which provides certain information about you that you provide.
Second, there is an NFC tag built-in to the back of the AirCard. Tap that spot on your AirCard on top of someone else’s iPhone and that iPhone will go to the same Sherr.it website to get information on you. Rolling Square advertises this as a digital business card; you tap your AirCard with someone else’s iPhone and then they can add you to their contacts. This is somewhat similar to the NameDrop feature that Apple added in iOS 17.
Just like other NFC tags, this NFC tag can also be programmed to do other things, and my son likes being able to program the NFC tag to do various things.
Third, Rolling Square notes that the AirCard can act as an RFID blocker. If you place the AirCard as the outer-most item in your wallet with other credit cards beneath them, signals are blocked before they can get to your credit cards.
Conclusion
With the Eufy SmartTrack card currently almost half the price of the Rolling Square AirCard, it seems like an easy decision to get the Eufy product over the Rolling Square one. This discount may not last long, but I see from the Camel Camel Camel website that this same discount has been offered many times in the past, so I presume it will come back in the future. I also prefer the look and weight of the Eufy product, but consider whether you, like my son, prefer the look of the AirCard and the NFC and RFID features.
Whichever ever one you get, I strongly recommend that you get one of these products for your wallet—whether you carry it in your purse or in a back pocket or elsewhere. You know that, at some point, there is going to be a time when you cannot find your wallet, and this device can come to the rescue. Hopefully, it will just be misplaced in your own home or office while you are still in that location. However, if you left your wallet behind, after you left, either of these devices can notify you using Find My technology. And if someone finds your lost card and scans the QR code, maybe that will be how you recover your wallet. (Note that I use affiliate codes when I link to Amazon, so by using links in this post to make a purchase, a tiny portion of your sale price goes to help pay the costs associated with keeping the lights on here at iPhone J.D.)
Click here to get Eufy SmartTrack card from Amazon (currently $16.99).
Click here to get Rolling Square AirCard from Amazon (currently $29.90).
To start the new year, Brett Burney and I begin this week’s episode of the In the News podcast by discussing what we think will be the biggest Apple-related news of 2024: the Vision Pro headsets, new iPads, AI, and more. We also talk about the Double Tap feature of the Apple Watch Series 9, the new Clicks keyboard for the iPhone, using Shortcuts with the Action button on the iPhone 15 Pro, protecting your iPhone passcode, the fabulous Apple TV+ show Slow Horses, and more.
In our Where Y’At? segment, we discuss using crash detection on the iPhone, SOS on the Apple Watch, and Satellite Roadside Assistance on the iPhone to get assistance when you need it most.
In our In the Know segment, Brett explains why you might want to put a Shazam button on your iPhone Lock Screen, and I explain how you can add advanced filtering features to the Messages app and why it makes sense to do so.
By the way, my microphone settings were incorrect for the first segment of this episode of the podcast, but I fixed it after that. Sorry about the brief technical difficulties!
As we start a new year, one cannot help but think about all of the possibilities for the year ahead. In the world of the iPhone and related products, there is a lot to be excited about. Apple has told us that the Vision Pro headset is coming in early 2024, and there are rumors that might mean as soon as January or February. This will be Apple’s first new platform since the iPad was introduced in 2010, so this should be a very big deal. Like the iPad, I hope that it starts out good and then transforms into being great. And speaking of which, since 2023 was the first year since 2010 in which Apple did not introduce a new iPad, I’m sure that we will see new iPad models in 2024, and hopefully it will be something that we all agree was worth the wait. And I’m sure that we will see lots of other interesting new products, services, and more from Apple this year; here are Jason Snell of Six Color’s thoughts about what might be coming. It is exciting to start the year with so many interesting possibilities. And now, the news of note from the past week:
Before the iPhone, we had the Blackberry and the Palm Treo, both of which featured a small physical keyboard. John Gruber of Daring Fireball reports on a new iPhone case called Clicks that plugs into the USB-C or Lightning port and adds a hardware keyboard. Of course, that also makes the iPhone much taller, but I’ll still be curious to see what reviewers say after trying out this product. I sometimes find it useful to connect a keyboard to my iPhone, so I understand some of the appeal.
As I reported last week, Apple is once again—for now, at least—able to sell the Apple Watch Series 9 in its stores. Should you get one? Wesley Hilliard of AppleInsider has been using one for the last three months and he shares his thoughts on the Series 9. He likes it a lot, but says that the new double-tap features that is unique to the Series 9 has only limited utility.
In last week’s episode of the In the News podcast, I mentioned an interesting interview by Joanna Stern of the Wall Street Journal of a prisoner who stole hundreds of iPhones after getting the passcode. It’s a fascinating story and video that I recommend if you haven’t seen it yet. Let’s all be careful out there and protect your iPhone passcode like it is one of the most confidential and important things in your life. Because it is.
If you have an iPhone 15 Pro, I think that one of the most useful things that you can do with the Action Button is assign it to a simple shortcut personalized to your specific needs. That’s how I have mine configured. George Tinari of Make Use Of shares some great examples of shortcuts to use with the Action Button.
Three-in-one chargers that cost around $150 seem to be all the rage right now. Tyler Hayes of How-To Geek reviews the Mophie 3-in-1 Travel Charger, a compact device that unfolds to charge an iPhone, Apple Watch, and AirPods.
This story is from around two weeks ago, but it is still worth noting. With Apple’s Satellite SOS service, you can obtain roadside assistance through AAA. That’s great if you are a member, and there is a charge if you are not. But what if you use a competitor service? One such competitor is the Verizon Roadside Assistance program, which Verizon sells to its subscribers for $4.99/month or as a pay-per-use option, and Juli Clover of MacRumors reports that the Verizon program now works with Apple’s Satellite SOS service.
Stephanie Stahl and Brad Nau of CBS News report on a woman in Delaware who felt herself starting to pass out due to what was later discovered to be carbon monoxide from a faulty heater. Fortunately, she was able to call 911 from her Apple Watch just before she collapsed, and firefighters were able to save her life, plus the life of her cat.
Chance Miller of 9to5Mac reports on two recent instances in which Apple’s crash detection feature was used to help someone after a crash, including a severe crash in Tennessee on New Year’s Day.
One of my favorite Apple TV+ shows is Slow Horses, and I binged Season 3 during my vacation for New Year’s. It is so great! Season 4 has already been filmed and should come out later this year. And K.J. Yossman of Variety reports that Apple has just renewed the series for a fifth season. That makes Slow Horses the first show to ever get a fifth season on Apple TV+ since the service debuted in late 2019. Yossman says that the fifth season will be based on the fifth Slough House book by Mick Herron, and to answer your next question, Herron wrote eight of those books so I would certainly love to see eight seasons. If you haven’t started watching Slow Horses yet, it is a great spy thriller, and the episodes are not very long so it is easy to binge.
And finally, here is a really nice and touching tribute and look back at the best actors and shows on Apple TV+ from last year, a video from Apple called A Toast to 2023:
In our last podcast episode of 2023, there are a surprisingly large number of interesting topics to discuss. We start by discussing all of the legal drama surrounding the halt on sales of the flagship models of the Apple Watch. Next, we discuss the incredibly sophisticated ways that hackers can hack an iPhone, some favorite picks of 2023, using Apple pay at Lowe’s, Apple’s use of AI, the next version of CarPlay, the next version of the iPad, and more.
In our Where Y’At? segment, we discuss why the iPhone’s Satellite SOS feature helps to save so many lives.
In our In the Know segment, Brett and I both recommend some simple and important security tips for 2024. Brett recommends using a VPN product (like TunnelBear) and a password manager (like 1Password). I explain how to keep your iPhone passcode private so that you can avoid being a victim of someone like this criminal, now in jail, recently interviewed by Joanna Stern of the Wall Street Journal.
For the last two months, I’ve been keeping an eye on legal proceedings that made big news a few days ago when Apple provided a statement to Chance Miller of 9to5Mac saying that it would have to halt selling the Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2. This grows out of a legal dispute between Apple and Masimo, a medical technology company that alleges that the way that Apple Watches shine a light on your arm to read blood-oxygen levels violates Masimo’s patents. Masimo says that Apple and Masimo had initial talks in 2013 (two years before the introduction of the Apple Watch), and then instead of forming a partnership, Apple hired away numerous Masimo engineers who brought Masimo’s technology to Apple. Apple disagrees, saying that its blood-oxygen feature was developed years after that and independently. Masimo first sued in federal court in California, but because that litigation took a long time (and subsequently resulted in a mistrial because of a hung jury in early 2023), Masimo filed another complaint in the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) in Washington, D.C. The ITC is a special type of court in which patent litigation is tried before an Administrative Law Judge (no juries), and the process is typically much faster than federal court litigation. A successful plaintiff is not awarded monetary damages but instead can obtain an order that blocks infringing products from entering the United States. The ITC judge ruled in favor of Masimo on January 10, 2023, which led to a review before the full ITC. The full ITC upheld that ruling on October 26, 2023, which resulted in a 60-day period during which President Biden could veto the decision; otherwise, Apple could take an appeal but the ban would go into effect. The president did not issue a veto, which is why you saw news reports that Apple had to stop selling the Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 right after Christmas. And it was worse than that; if you owned an Apple Watch with this sensor and your watch broke, Apple wouldn’t be able to provide you with a replacement model. (The blood-oxygen sensor has been in the high-end version of the Apple Watch since the Series 6 that was introduced in 2020, but Apple no longer sells the Series 6, 7, or 8 in the United States, which is why you see news reports only mentioning the current flagship models.) Apple (represented by the law firm Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr) then filed an appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, an appellate court that has nationwide jurisdiction over certain types of federal cases including patent disputes. Apple also asked that appellate court to lift the ban during the appeal. On December 27, the appellate court granted Apple’s emergency request, providing the two sides a few weeks for further briefing on whether the ban should stay in effect pending the appeal. That is why there were only about 48 hours when the Apple Watch SE was the only Apple Watch model that you could purchase from Apple. But at some point in the future, the appellate court will decide whether to restore the ban pending the appeal, and then at some point, the appeal itself will be decided. If Masimo is ultimately successful on appeal, I’m sure that Apple will reach a settlement and pay Masimo, but for now, it appears that Apple is trying to win the case and/or keep leverage in settlement negotiations. Moreover, in the meantime, Apple might find some software solution that will allow it to argue that it can continue to sell the current Apple Watch models without infringing on Masimo’s patents—which of course, Masimo will dispute, resulting in more patent litigation. I’ve avoided writing about this dispute for many weeks now because I thought that Apple and Masimo would have settled by now, but the story continues, and now you are up to speed. And now, the other recent news of note as 2023 comes to an end:
Apple is constantly looking for ways to improve the security of the iPhone and other devices. To see how complicated this is, I recommend this article by Michael Potuck of 9to5Mac which describes a sophisticated, multi-step iMessage exploit used by hackers from 2019 until just a year ago.
Jason Snell of Six Colors shares his favorite apps, movies, TV shows, and books from 2023, and there are some great items on his list. One item he likes is Final Cut Pro for the iPad, and I really like the app too, but it seems that whenever I edit 4K HDR video, the app crashes when I try to export my video. My solution has been to open the final package in Final Cut Pro on my Mac and export from there, which works fine, but it is an extra step involving a second device that I’d rather avoid, so I hope that Apple fixes this soon. I also agree with Snell’s praise of the Mastodon client Ivory and almost all of his TV picks.
If you enjoy using Apple Pay to pay for items (like I do), it is nice that the number of stores that don’t take Apple Pay continues to decrease. Chance Miller of 9to5Mac reports that Lowe’s has finally decided to roll out Apple Pay support.
It is clear that AI will have an even larger role in technology in the future. Sharon Goldman of VentureBeat reports that Apple is working with Columbia University and has released an open source multimodal LLM (large language model) called Ferret.
Greg Fink of Car and Driver reports that Aston Martin and Porsche have previewed the next-generation of Apple CarPlay, which will launch with certain models in 2024.
Considering that Apple did not introduce any new iPad models in 2023, you have to think that we will see new iPads in 2024. David Price of Macworld provides his thoughts on what he would like to see in a new iPad.
Chance Miller of 9to5Mac shares the stories of two people whose lives were saved thanks go an Apple Watch and the email exchanges that they had with Apple CEO Tim Cook.
Michael Potuck of 9to5Mac reports that the Lutron Caseta app added a cool new feature to Lutron devices that you cannot do with Apple’s own Home app. You can now instruct a light to automatically turn off a certain amount of time after it goes on: one minute to four hours. If you often forget to turn off a light in a closet, basement, or garage, this could come in very useful. There is a Home app timer feature but it only works when HomeKit itself turns on the timer. For example, I have an outside light that comes on when it senses motion at night and stays on for only five minutes. But this new Lutron feature works even if someone just touches the button on the wall switch to turn on a light.
Jake Kleinman of Inverse interviews numerous showrunners and producers who have worked on science fiction shows airing on Apple TV+ and reveals that one of the reasons that these shows are so good is that Apple is willing to spend series money on making these shows the best that they can be.
And finally, Apple came up with a cute way to highlight the long battery life you get with an Apple 15 Plus: a video starring singing outlets. Here is Apple’s newest ad called Miss You:
Apple released iOS 17.2 this past week, so Brett Burney and I begin this week’s episode of the In the New podcast by talking about some of the dozens of changes. There are big ones like a whole new app—the Journal app—and lots of small but nice quality of life improvements. Thanks to watchOS 10.2, there are also some nice improvement to the Apple Watch. We also talk about some of the top apps of 2023, an interesting new system from Anker for a portable chargerz, the Beeper Mini saga, and much more.
In our In the Know segment, Brett shares a tip for quickly opening a webpage on your Mac that is already open on your iPhone or iPad. I share a tip for using the Workout app once you upgrade your Apple Watch to watchOS 10.2, including instructions for removing some potentially annoying pop-up alerts.
There will be no podcast next week due to Christmas, but we’ll be back on December 29th!
If you own an iPhone 15 Pro or iPhone 15 Pro Max, as you spend time with family and friends over the next few weeks for the holidays, I encourage you to take lots of spatial video. The ability to do so was just added this week in iOS 17.2. Take that video now because, at some point in the future, you will own a device that will play them back in 3D. Perhaps you will be an early adopter and get the Apple Vision Pro in early 2024. Perhaps it will be a few years from now. But eventually, you will get there, and the ability watch spatial video and relive a memory from late 2023 is likely to be quite powerful. I say that because Apple had a small number of journalists take spatial videos over Thanksgiving and then, this past week, let them see their videos using a pre-release version of the Vision Pro. And the reviewers were very impressed. Scott Stein of CNet reports that watching his own home movies from Thanksgiving in 3D on the Vision Pro “made me feel like I was almost there” and “made me want to climb through that fuzzy-bordered window and join my family again on the other side.” Raymond Wong of Inverse says that “the 3D has just the right amount of depth, not too strong or too weak” and that the “sense of presence really tugged at my heartstrings” and caused “a few tiny tears” that he had to fight back. Josh Rubin of Cool Hunting said that the videos work best when you record with plenty of light, but even the videos he recorded with less light available “had plenty of depth and the image quality remained crisp and not grainy.” Lance Ulanoff of Tech Radar said that he was “startled by the quality and immersive nature of” panoramic photos when viewed in the Vision Pro. And as for spatial video, he said: “I suspect that when consumers start experiencing the Vision Pro and spatial videos for themselves they might be surprised at the level of emotion they experience from family videos – it can be quite intense.” Photographer David Imel said that while the “spacial videos were cool … the Panos were my favorite part. Seeing them in massive scale against the wall was amazing, and it feels like you can sort of peek inside the frame. The mountains felt huge. Better than seeing it printed.” Brian Tong created a YouTube video that includes his recommendations for taking spatial videos—for example, try to avoid fast movements. He notes that foodies will especially love the ability to take immersive videos of dishes and then relive the experience later. He also said that, for Christmas, he is going to record his family members in spatial video discussing “what they’re thankful for or what they’re looking forward to” to create a time capsule because “I’m telling you, the spatial videos that I’ve seen with people just like kind of talking in camera, it feels different.” So if you have the newest iPhone and can do so, preserve your own memories over the next few weeks, and then at some point in the future, you can relive them in a brand new way. And now, the news of note from the past week:
iOS 17.2 comes with a new app from Apple called Journal, and Niléane of MacStories wrote a detailed review. I don’t think that journaling is for me, but I have to admit that it is a slick app. I like how it automatically recommends topics based on your recent photos, music that you listened to, places that you were, and more. Better yet, if you already use a third-party app to journal, those apps can now tap into the same system (with your permission) to improve their own apps.
Justin Meyers of Gadget Hacks came up with 59 new features in iOS 17.2. Some of the items he lists are minor changes, but others are really nice new features.
Jonny Evans of Computerworld explains how an Apple TV can now be a Zoom meeting solution for small businesses thanks to the new Zoom app for Apple TV and the continuity camera option for the iPhone or iPad.
After recently picking its favorite apps of the year, Apple has now revealed the most downloaded apps of the year, and Chance Miller of 9to5Mac has the list. Many of these I would have guessed, but others were a surprise to me.
The crew at MacStories also selected their best apps of the year. Some of the winners are apps that I use and love (such as Ivory, Widgetsmith, and Flighty) and there are many more that I now want to try out.
A big item in the news this week has been the Beeper Mini app for Android phones because it allowed an Android phone to communicate using Apple’s iMessage service—i.e. change someone from a green bubble person to a blue bubble person. Then Apple flipped some switch to stop the service from working. Then it started working again for two days. Then it went down again, at least for some people. Who knows what the status will be by the time that you read this. But it all has been interesting to watch, and David Pierce of The Verge wrote a good article on the situation.
One new feature in watchOS 10.2 only works if you have a new model: the Apple Watch Series 9 or the Ultra 2. As Lisa Eadicicco of CNet reports, you will be able to ask Siri for health data. Why does this only work on these models? Because they have the powerful S9 chip, which means that Siri requests can be processed on-device, so your confidential health data remains confidential.
You can now buy a house from your car. Sort of. Zac Hall of 9to5Mac discusses Rocket Homes, a CarPlay app that lets you browse homes for sale based on your car’s location, so you can drive around and see what has curb appeal.
If you have made the move to USB-C with your iPhone and don’t like carrying around a Lightning cord just for your AirPods Pro 2, you can now purchase a new USB-C case for the AirPods Pro 2 for $99. I see that you can also buy a cheap knock-off version on Amazon for under $30 that seems to have positive reviews, but I’d be far too nervous to try that.
If you find that certain people in your house (which I read as “teenagers”) like to steal borrow-on-a-long-term-basis your iPhone chargers for their own personal use, Michael Potuck reviews Lock Socket, something that makes the charger a part of your outlet. It’s $27.92 on Amazon.
I’ve long enjoyed using Anker’s products for portable battery power. Anker has a new system called the Prime power bank that features a portable charger and a charging dock. It comes in different sizes including this powerful version with 27,650mAh ($179.99 on Amazon). Rikka Altland of 9to5Toys wrote a review of the product. If you use portable batteries frequently, you’ll definitely want to consider this solution.
Here’s another story about a person whose life was saved by wearing an Apple Watch, but this time the story catches up with the woman—and her baby—two years later. Megan O’Rourke of WXIX in Kentucky has the story.
I haven’t started watching it yet, but I know that the new season of Slow Horses has started on Apple TV+, and the first two seasons were so great that I am very excited to begin Season 3. Jon Burlingame of Variety talked to Mick Jagger about his great theme song for the show.
And finally, besides the current season of For All Mankind, the other Apple TV+ show that I’m enjoying right now is Monarch: Legacy of Monsters. When I first heard that Apple was doing a Godzilla series, I actually thought that I might not be interested in this show because the Godzilla movies were not something that I got into when I was growing up. But I shouldn’t have been concerned. This is just a fun show, and I recommend it if you are looking for something to watch. Here is a video called “What You Need to Know” that will give you a little of the flavor of the show without spoiling anything:
Before this week, it has never occurred to me that an app’s push notifications on an iPhone could factor used by the government to gain information on a person, and Brett and I start this week’s episode of the In the News podcast by discussing very interesting recent new reports on this topic. We also discuss the powerful chips designed by Apple, different ways to power your devices when you are traveling, what makes the iPhone 15 Pro Max special, the future of Name Drop, Zoom on the Apple TV, and more.
In our Where Y’At? segment, we discuss tracking jackets and finding injured hikers.
In our In the Know segment, Brett and I both discuss the incredibly useful Quick Action menu and tips for making your next presentation more interesting.
Last week, I started In the News by addressing the dilemma of whether to purchase a new iPad for the holidays or to wait until next year when (surely!) Apple will come out with new iPads. This week, Mark Gurman of Bloomberg predicts some of what Apple will come out with next year, and John Gruber of Daring Fireball offers these comments on those rumors. And now, the other news of note from the past week:
Raphael Satter, reporting for Reuters, reveals that certain unidentified governments have required Apple (and Google) to reveal information about push notifications. Once this news was released, Apple decided that the story was public and thus it could offer additional information.
One of the reasons that Apple’s devices are so powerful is that Apple now designs its own chips. Katie Tarasov of CNBC has a 17-minute video and story based on her visiting an Apple chip lab. Although there isn’t anything new announced in this video, it is interesting to see the lab and to hear Apple executives talk about what makes Apple’s chips special.
Apple used to sell a device called the MagSafe Duo Charger. It was small and unfolded to charge both an iPhone (using MagSafe) and an Apple Watch. This week, Twelve South launched a similar product called the ButterFly 2-in-1 USB-C MagSafe Charger, and based on this review by Mitchel Broussard of MacRumors, it seems much better. For example, it can also serve as a StandBy stand for the iPhone, or a NightStand charger for the Apple Watch. Plus, it looks really cute. I see that while Apple is no longer selling the MagSafe Duo Charger on its online Apple Store, it is now selling the Butterfly for $130. I don’t see it on Amazon yet, but you can pre-order it directly from Twelve South.
Another travel-friendly charging option is a tiny power adapter. The Nomad 65W Slim Power Adapter, reviewed by Justin Duino of Make Use Of, looks like an interesting option because it is so small and features two USB-C ports. I don’t know anything about the manufacturer and its reputation so I cannot comment upon the quality, but the main reason I link to that story is that it is amazing how the use of gallium nitride (GaN) has allowed chargers to get smaller and smaller.
Speaking of portable power, Max Buondonno of How-To Geek identifies some of the best MagSafe iPhone battery packs. My need for a battery pack dropped dramatically when I recently updated to iPhone 15 Pro Max—the larger device has a larger battery that lasts much longer than my iPhone 14 Pro—but I know from past experience that portable battery packs are very useful.
Speaking of the iPhone 15 Pro Max, even though it has been out for a while now, you might be thinking of getting one for yourself or someone else with the holidays approaching, and Stephen Hackett of 512 Pixels posted an interesting review of the iPhone 15 Pro Max this week.
Jesse Hollington of Digital Trends explains step-by-step how to share contacts using NameDrop in iOS 17. The process is designed to be very simple; just put the two iPhones next to each other and follow the on-screen prompts. But it is nice to read that article and understand how it all works before you do it for the first time.
Joe Rossignol of MacRumors reports that in iOS 17.2, there will be a NameDrop-like feature for sharing boarding passes, movie tickets, and more. This looks like a great idea.
John Gruber of Daring Fireball reports that when iOS 17.2 comes out along with updates to the other Apple devices (which could be next week), there will no longer be iTunes Movies and iTunes TV Shows apps on the Apple TV hardware device. Instead, you can find those items in the TV app. It looks like Apple is slowly but surely getting rid of all use of the word “iTunes.”
Speaking of the Apple TV, Tim Hardwick of MacRumors reports that Zoom has released an app for the Apple TV that works with the Continuity Camera feature on the iPhone. I’ve had some FaceTime video calls using my Apple TV, Continuity Camera, and iPhone, and the quality of the video has been fantastic. And since Zoom is so popular, it is great to have this functionality. I wish we could have done this with FaceTime and Zoom when everyone was stuck at home in early 2020.
A month ago, I linked to a story about how copes in Washington, DC were promoting hiding an AirTag in your car to help track it if it is stolen. This week, they are promoting another use for an AirTag: put it in your jacket. Apparently, Canada Goose jackets have become popular targets for thieves in our nation’s capital, and since they can cost over $1,000, you will want to try to recover one if it is stolen.
