Jeff Richardson

Whenever I am asked for advice on smart home lights, my #1 suggestion since 2015 has been to use Lutron Caséta products. I recommend them without hesitation because they perform so well. Some of the most popular products in this line are wall switches, which work by replacing your current switch. That way, anyone in the room can just press a button on the wall to turn lights on or off the way that they would with any other wall switch. But because these products work with HomeKit, they also can be controlled via an iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Siri, HomePod, etc.. And they can also be programmed so that whenever X happens (such as a time of day, a sensor is triggered, or other event) the light can go on or off. Perhaps best of all, Lutron Caséta devices use a proprietary wireless network to talk to each other that is rock solid.

In 2015, I reviewed the original Lutron Caséta Wireless Dimmer, and I now have many of those devices in my house. I recently decided to purchase a few more Lutron switches, and I tried out two of the newest products in the Lutron Caséta family: the Diva Smart Dimmer Switch ($70 on Amazon) and Claro Smart Switch ($60 on Amazon). These products have been on the market for about a year, and like the other Lutron Caséta products, they work great.

An elegant look that works well

The Caséta Diva and Caséta Claro share a similar, elegant look. Each has a paddle-style on/off switch. The difference is that the Diva includes the ability to dim lights—either from a device like an iPhone or by using a slider that is just to the right of the switch. The Claro only supports on or off. In the following picture, the Diva is on the left, and the Claro is in the middle and the right:

The wall plate that I am using around these three switches is a Lutron Claro 3 Gang Decorator/Rocker Wallplate ($13 on Amazon). You can purchase Lutron switches and wallplates in a number of different colors.

For the Diva, you can press the top of the paddle to turn on the light to the level of brightness set with the slider. Or, double-press the top of the paddle for full brightness, regardless of the slider’s position. Press the bottom of the paddle to turn the light off. With the Lutron or Home app (or Siri), you can set the dimmer to whatever you want from 0% to 100%, regardless of what position the physical slider on the Diva is in.

I’m using the Diva to control a light on an outside porch. I’m using the two Claro switches to turn fans on or off—one inside my living room, and one on the outside porch. Note that Lutron also sells a switch ($60 on Amazon) that is designed for a fan and that also controls the fan speed, but the fans in my house don’t support that function—the speed is controlled with a pull chain—so I just needed a simple on/off switch.

One advantage of the Diva dimmer over Lutron’s original smart dimmer switch (which Lutron still sells; $60 on Amazon) is that the Diva has a more elegant, less technical look. In the below picture, the switch on the right is the original smart dimmer switch:

There are light bars to the side on the Caséta Diva and the Caséta Claro. For the Diva, the intensity of the light bar  increases or decreases based upon how bright or dim you have the light set. When the switch is turned off, the light bar is very dim. It is difficult to capture that in a photograph, so in real like it looks nicer than what you see in the below picture when the Diva switch is off:

The light bars on the side of the switches make it easier to see the switches and also make it more obvious that a switch is accepting a command from the app. However, using the Lutron app, you can turn the light bars on or off. Or you can make them appear only in certain states. For example, you can decide that when the switch is off the light bar is also off so that it doesn’t bother you in the dark. Or you can decide that when the switch is off the light bar is on so that it is easier to find the switch in the dark. I think that these light bars are a nice touch so for now I have them on all of the time, but it is also great that you can make then go away if you don’t want them.

The Diva and Claro swtiches support LED lights up to 150 watts and incandescent or halogen lights of up to 600 watts. Some older LED lights don’t work as well with a dimmer switch, but you can use a “trim” feature in the Lutron app to set a minimum and maximum brightness level.

Wireless control

Before you can wirelessly control any Lutron Caséta devices in your house using an app, Siri, etc., you have to have a Lutron Smart Hub. You can buy the hub by itself for $80 from Amazon, or you can get it as part of a kit such as a Diva and a Hub together for $107 from Amazon. Once you have a single hub, connect it to power and to a wired Ethernet Internet connection. You can then control up to 75 different Lutron Caséta devices.

You can control the Caséta Diva and the Caséta Claro on your iPhone using the Lutron app, but you don’t need to do so. Lutron devices work great with Apple’s HomeKit technology, so you can control them using the built-in Home app on the iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Mac.

You can also create automations. For example, the lights on the porch in the front of my house come on near sunset and go off near sunrise. I have another automation that turns on my back porch light for five minutes (using the Lutron Diva Smart Dimmer Switch) when motion is detected on the back porch using my Eufy camera that detects motion and records video of my back porch.

And lights can work together. From my living room, I often talk out loud to Siri (picked up from my HomePod mini) and ask it to turn on my backyard lights, which causes a number of different lights to come on, most of which are connected to a Lutron Caséta switch of one sort or another.

Installation

Although technology and electricity seem like close cousins, I know a lot about technology but very little about electricity. I have successfully installed Lutron wall switches in the past when there was just one of them. Each one took me a while to do so, and it was never as simple as the instructions or YouTube videos made it seem, but I did it and everything worked. However, for many of the other Lutron wall switches in my house, including the ones that had multiple wall switches next to each other, I had an electrician do the installation.

When I started to install the Diva and two Claro switches next to each other, I tried to do it with just the help of my teenage son, who has a pretty good handle on circuits. However, I quickly discovered that I was confused by the huge number of cords packed together so tightly in my wall. The Diva doesn’t require a neutral wire but the Claro does, and for my wall, the line, load, neutral, and ground wires for each switch were difficult for me to distinguish. Fortunately, I have a relative who understands this stuff way better than I do and he was nice enough to come to my house and help me get everything working. (Thanks, Steve!) Keep this in mind when you decide whether you are going to install these switches yourself or hire an electrician.

One difference that I noted between the Diva / Claro and Lutron’s original smart dimmer switch is that there are metal “wings” on the side of the original smart dimmer switch (three on each side) that you need to break off if you are installing one switch right next to another one. Here is what the original smart dimmer switch looks like before any wings are snapped off:

The Diva and Claro switches lack these wings, so it is easier to install them adjacent to another switch:

Although I didn’t try this myself, one advantage of the Diva and Claro switches is that they can also work with an accessory switch sold by Lutron ($30 on Amazon). That way, you can have a second wall switch that turns on or off the same light. Or, if you already have a second switch that controls the same light, it should continue to operate as normal once you install the provided jumper wire, although I didn’t test this. Note that the second switch won’t act as a dimmer.

Dependability

Lutron Caséta devices have worked very well for me for many years, and I frequently hear others say the same thing. Unlike other smart home devices in my house that can sometimes seem to have a mind of their own and occasionally won’t respond to my commands, the Lutron devices just work. Over the last eight years, I have had two occasions when a Lutron device stopped working. One stopped working when we had some other electrical work taking place, and a simple reset fixed the problem. A few months ago, one of my older original dimmer switches stopped working. I sent in a support request and after talking to someone at Lutron about my problem, he sent me a replacement unit for free.

So based on my experience, these products work very well, and if you are unlucky enough to have an issue, customer support is fantastic.

Conclusion

After starting with my first Lutron Caséta dimmer switch eight years ago, I’ve now installed Lutron switches—some with dimmers, some without—at 9 different locations in my house. Plus, I have four Lutron Caséta lamp dimmers ($45 on Amazon) that plug in to an outlet and control lamps in my house. Everything works great. Anyone not using the app can just press a button on the wall, just like a traditional switch, or the lights can be controlled using the numerous methods noted above. These newest Lutron Caséta devices, the Diva and the Claro, work just as well as the units that I have been using for years, plus they look a little nicer thanks to the paddle and small slider instead of multiple buttons. These are great devices to install in a smart home. And if you are looking for a good gift for someone else who already has a Lutron hub, I suspect that they would love being able to control yet another switch.

Click here for the Lutron Caséta Diva Smart Dimmer Switch ($70 on Amazon)

Click here for the Lutron Caséta Claro Smart Switch ($60 on Amazon)

As we eagerly await the release of iOS 17.2, Brett and I begin this week’s In the News podcast by discussing a security update released by Apple this week. We then discuss all of the Apple year-end lists with the top apps, books, and podcasts. We also discuss how Apple Music and Spotify give you end-of-the-year looks at the music that you yourself listened to during the past year. We also discuss Apple’s satellite service, using an Apple Watch to help with insomnia, and how running Windows on an iPhone or iPad can be a real thing but something that looks almost exactly like an iPhone can be a fake thing.

In our In the Know segment, Brett explains why it is nice to use an Apple Watch as a wake-up alarm. I explain how you can get rid of annoying alerts in some apps that pop-up whenever you want to paste something.

Click here to listen to the audio podcast, or just listen using your podcast player of choice.  You can also watch the episode on YouTube:

Welcome to December. I find it hard to believe that we are already at the end of the year, but here we are. The end-of-the-year holidays make it a great time to give and receive Apple products as gifts, and I have had a large number of people ask me in person and via email what I would recommend for giving an iPad as a gift this month. This year, it is harder than ever to make a recommendation. On the one hand, and for the first time that I can remember, Apple has not updated ANY of its iPad models this year. I presume that means that iPad updates are coming in 2024, perhaps in the first half of 2024, and thus if you can wait to make a purchase you may be able to get even more for your money. On the other hand, nobody wants to give an “IOU” as a gift, and Apple does have a pretty compelling iPad lineup right now even though the models were released in 2022. Apple sells four types of iPads—the entry level model just called “iPad,” the mid-level iPad Air, the high-end iPad Pro, and the iPad mini. If you want a big model with a large screen, which is perfect for lawyers who want to read and annotate documents, then the 12.9" iPad Pro is for you. If you want something small and portable like a larger phone, that’s the iPad mini. The harder decision is if you want an iPad with the traditional size of around 11" because it can be tough to decide between an iPad Air and an iPad Pro. The iPad Air comes in 64GB (too small for many lawyers) and 256GB (either just right or too large for many lawyers). A 256GB iPad Air is $750, whereas an iPad Pro is either $50 more for 128GB or $150 more for 256GB. While the iPad Pro has a somewhat nicer screen, somewhat faster processor, and a few other minor improvements, is that worth $50 or $150 more? I don’t know. The iPad Pro does come with Face ID, which I think is a nice advantage over Touch ID. But I could see an argument either way on iPad Air vs. iPad Pro as the 11" size. If selecting the right iPad to give someone is on your mind right now, you have my sympathy because there are lots of things to think about. And now, the news of note from the past week:

• As we continue to await the new features coming in iOS 17.2, yesterday Apple released iOS 17.1.2, a security update, and Jason Cross of Macworld explains what was fixed.
• The end of the year means end of the year lists, and Apple released quite a few this week. John Voorhees of MacStories reports that Apple named some apps the App of the Year. For example,The AllTrails app is the iPhone App of the Year, and Prêt-à-Makeup is the iPad app of the year.
• If you use Apple Music and want to see what you have been listening to this year, go to the Apple Music Replay webpage to find out.
• Apple also announced the top books and audiobooks of the year based on the Apple Books app.
• Apple also announced the most popular podcasts of 2023 based on folks who use the Apple Podcasts app. The In the News podcast that I record with Brett Burney did not make the cut this year, but all we need is for all of the listeners of the This American Life and Dateline NBC podcasts to subscribe to ours as well and then we are so there in 2024. Or maybe we’ll aim for the top Apple Music list if Taylor Swift reaches out to ask to record a song with us. Hey, 2024 is a new year, and the possibilities are endless.
• Speaking of podcasts, there are a number of popular podcasts apps. Apple makes Podcasts, my favorite app is Overcast, I know that lots of people like Pocket Casts, but the Castro app has also had its fans because of its nice interface. Jason Snell of Six Colors reports that the Castro app is currently not working and may be shut down in the next two months. If you have been a Castro user and are now looking for something new, I recommend that you switch to Overcast or Apple’s Podcasts app.
• A few weeks ago, Apple announced that emergency satellite access for the iPhone 14 and 15 would continue to be free for an additional year. This week, John Gruber writes that he thinks that Apple will never charge for the service. As he notes in a follow-up post, why would Apple want to be in a position of not saving someone’s life just because they didn’t pay some annual fee?
• You can now run Windows on an iPhone. Well, sort of. as Tom Warren of The Verge reports, you can control a remote windows machine using apps from Microsoft. The technology behind this is nothing new. I use LogMeIn on my iPad (and sometimes my iPhone) to control a computer running Windows in my office. When I am working on my iPad and I need to do something that requires Windows, I just open the LogMeIn app on my iPad and do what I need to do using my Windows computer, just as if I was sitting in my office. And you can do something similar with other remote access software. In some circumstances, remote access to a computer can be the easiest way to do something on an iPad.
• When the Workflow app was originally released in 2014, it was a groundbreaking automation app that was so useful and powerful that I was almost surprised that Apple let the app on the App Store. A few years later in 2017, Apple acquired the app, renaming it Shortcuts, and brought-in house the team that created the app including Ari Weinstein, Conrad Kramer, and Nick Frey. For many years now, Shortcuts has improved to become even more impressive. After several years at Apple, those folks have left—Weinstein left Apple only a few months ago—and Alex Heath of The Verge reports that Ari Weinstein and Conrad Kramer have teamed up with former Apple employee Kim Beverett (who has been involved with various teams including Safari, Messages, and FaceTime) to start a new company focused on using AI on desktop computers. It doesn’t look like their company even has a name yet, let alone a product to show off, but it will be interesting to see what this team of smart folks comes up with. In the meantime, I’ll continue to be thankful that we have Shortcuts on the iPhone and iPad.
• Ben Lovejoy of 9to5Mac explains how his Apple Watch helped him to deal with insomnia.
• I’m surprised to learn from Ben Lovejoy of 9to5Mac that a fake iPhone 15 Pro Max can look surprisingly similar to the real thing, until you dig deeper.
• And finally, with iOS 17, your iPhone can record your voice and create a digital version of it. That way, if you lose the ability to speak, your iPhone can speak for you using a voice that is similar to the one that you used to have. I’ve tried this out, and while not perfect, it does sort of sound like my voice. Apple released a video called The Lost Voice to show off this feature. This video, directed by Oscar-winner Taika Waititi, starts off pretty trippy, but wait until the end. For more information on the film and the narrator, Dr. Tristram Ingham, check out this article on the Apple website.

If you want to save money on some great technology, then you are in the right place. Brett and I spent a large portion of this week’s episode of the In the News podcast discussing the best Black Friday deals, many of which continue through Cyber Monday. iPads, AirPods, batteries, apps, services, and more, we have some great recommendations. We also discuss a new feature in iOS 17.2, a new web browser, new news about domestic spying activities that have been going on for a long time, and a sneak peak into how Apple protects the iPhone from hackers.

In our Where Y’at segment, we discuss calling for automobile help using iPhone 14 or 15 satellite roadside assistance. It’s a nice feature that could really save your bacon if you are having car trouble and off of the cellular grid.

In our In the Know segment, Brett and I provide some final Black Friday tips. Remember, links for the products that we discussed are available in the show notes.

Click here to listen to the audio podcast, or just listen using your podcast player of choice.  You can also watch the episode on YouTube:

I don’t often post on the day after Thanksgiving, But I see that I did so 15 years ago, a few days after I started this website, so why not do it again. It’s Black Friday, so I’ll begin by sharing some great deals that I see at Amazon. (These are affiliate links, so if you purchase something you’ll be helping iPhone J.D.). First, I see that Amazon is selling the 10th Generation iPad (which I discussed in this post) for only $349 instead of $449. That is a really great price for a nice iPad, an iPad that is even better now because you can use it with the new Apple Pencil (USB-C) which I discussed in this post and which is only $71.10 on Amazon, a 10% discount. And if you are looking to get AirPods for yourself or for a gift, Amazon is selling the AirPods (second generation) for only $79.00, down substantially from the normal price of $129.00, and the AirPods Pro are only $189.99, down substantially from the normal $249.00 price. And now, the news of note from the past week:

• One more Black Friday discount: app developer James Thomson posted on Mastodon that his apps are more than 42% off for Black Friday. You can get PCalc (the calculator app that I use) for $5 instead of $10, and his Dice app is only $1.
• For some interesting and techy gift ideas, check out Episode 719 of the Mac Power Users podcast.
• Michael Potuck of 9to5Mac explains that when iOS 17.2 comes out, you and your friends will be able to collaborate on playlists in Apple Music.
• If you are interested in trying out a very different kind of web browser on the iPhone, Niléane of MacStories reviews Quiche, a modular web browser.
• In an article for Wired, Dell Cameron and Dhruv Mehrotra discuss a surveillance program within the United States that gives the police access to trillions of U.S. phone records. It involves AT&T, but it still affects just about all calls, including landline calls and mobile calls using Verizon and T-Mobile. John Gruber of Daring Fireball offers additional insight into this program.
• Andrew Griffin of The Independent discusses a team of elite Apple engineers working in an undisclosed location in Paris whose job is to try to break into the iPhone and discover security flaws that hackers might use.
• My top two recommendations for stands that work with StandBy and can be used to charge your iPhone, Apple Watch, and more are (1) the Anker 3-in-1 Cube with MagSafe and (2) the Twelve South HiRise 3 Deluxe. Tyler Hayes of How To Geek reviews the Twelve South stand and agrees with me that it is excellent. He also wishes that it would cost less than $150, but he notes that this is what other quality stands like this cost. Either of these stands would make an excellent holiday gift this year; they are just expensive enough that someone might resist buying it for themselves, but they are fantastic and will be appreciated every day.
• I’ve been curious to learn how Apple’s Roadside Assistance via Satellite system works so that I would understand it if I ever need to use it. Brian Tong created a video tho show off the system actually being used.
• I haven’t had a chance to watch this yet, but Filipe Espósito of 9to5Mac reports that Tim Cook sat down for a 45-minute interview with singer Dua Lipa.
• My wife and I are about halfway through the latest season of The Morning Show on Apple TV+, and we both like it. Yes, it is sort of a soap opera, but it is fun to watch, and I love the addition of Jon Hamm this season. Inkoo Kang of the New Yorker writes Why Can’t We Quit “The Morning Show”?.
• And finally, Apple released this year’s holiday video and it is called Fuzzy Feelings. I’ve heard some folks say that this year’s video isn’t as good as some of the holiday videos from the past, and perhaps that is true, but I still found it touching. After you watch it, don’t miss the short behind-the-scenes video that shows how it it was made (using an iPhone, of course).

In 2008, I took a picture of my iPhone sitting on top of a legal pad and published the first post on iPhone J.D. The topic was why I use an iPhone, and because the iPhone was relatively new at that time, that was a relevant question. Nowadays, it seems that almost everyone has an iPhone, so it is no longer necessary to answer the question of “why.” Instead, the question is what can be done to get more out of an iPhone and related Apple products such as the iPad, AirPods, Apple Watch, AirTags, etc., and that is what I try to address frequently now that this website has turned fifteen years old.

The top 10 posts. Every year on this anniversary, I take a look back at the past year. (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, and 14). Let’s do it again, first by looking at which posts over the prior 12 months were the most popular. The fact that these posts were popular sheds some light on what has been on the minds of attorneys and other folks using an iPhone or iPad. Here, in order, are the top ten most viewed posts published in about the last year:

1. AirTag battery replacement: avoid bitterant coatings. The most popular post is technically a little more than a year old and it is one that has recently become irrelevant. As I wrote just a few days ago, you can now get the best of both worlds by purchasing a battery with a bitterant coating that also works with an AirTag. Perhaps the real significance of the popularity of that post from July of 2022 is that the AirTag had been out for long enough at that point that lots of people were ready to purchase replacement batteries and wanted advice on what to get.
2. Review: Goodnotes 6 — take handwritten notes on your iPad. One of the key ways that my iPad helps me be productive is to serve as a place where I can take handwritten notes using my Apple Pencil. And my favorite app for doing so is Goodnotes. The update to version 6 a few months ago added a new interface and a ton of new features.
3. Checking in on the MagSafe Battery Pack from Apple. A few months ago, I wrote about how much I still enjoy using this external battery made by Apple. Unfortunately, when Apple released the iPhone 15 with the USB-C port this September, it also discontinued this product, presumably because of the Lightning connector. My hope (and prediction) is that Apple will introduce a similar version of this battery, with a USB-C port, in the near future.
4. StandBy mode: tips on using it, and what stands work best with it. I spent a lot of time working on this post, and for good reason: StandBy mode is one of my favorite features of iOS 17. I use it every night to turn my iPhone into a bedstand clock, and I use it every day to get useful information displayed on my iPhone while I am getting work done. To get the most out of StandBy, not only do you need to know how the software works but you also will want to have a good stand. Thus, I spent a lot of time researching everything that was available, and I still stand by (ahem) my two recommendations for the best StandBy stands: (1) the Anker 3-in-1 Cube with MagSafe and (2) the Twelve South HiRise 3 Deluxe. They both cost $150, and which one you should get just depends upon how much space you have. (The Anker product is more compact.)
5. Review: Camo — use your iPhone as a webcam. I purchased this software because I wanted a way to use my iPhone as a webcam on my computer. I still use the software for this purpose occasionally, but I’ve come to love Camo for a different reason: even when I am using my normal computer webcam, having Camo installed gives me lots of control over the camera such as the ability to crop, use backgrounds, use templates, etc.
6. The critical importance of protecting your iPhone passcode. This post described a scam being used in different parts of the country where one person would do something to convince you to enter your iPhone password while another person recorded the numbers (or letters) that you type to unlock your iPhone. The problem is that once someone knows your iPhone’s master password, they can get access to so much stuff—not only the confidential information on your iPhone but also other key information such as your bank account. Yikes.
7. In trouble — an easy and potentially life-saving shortcut. My son came up with a simple but effective shortcut that he can use if he is ever in trouble. Whether you use this exact same shortcut yourself or use it as inspiration to come up with something similar that works better for you, this is a good post to check out if you missed it originally.
8. GoodNotes adds audio recordings. Even before the app was updated to version 6, the app was updated to add a feature that I don’t use as a lawyer but which I can imagine using if I was still a student: the ability to record the audio while you are taking handwritten notes.
9. TranscriptPad update lets you sync video, edit clips, and export trial-ready videos. My favorite app for reading and annotating depositions became even more useful this year when it added support for video depositions. This is such a great feature.
10. Review: iPhone 15 Pro Max — titanium, 5x telephoto, and so much more. There is always a lot of interest when Apple releases a new version of the iPhone. This year, the 5x telephoto camera made the iPhone 15 Pro Max particularly interesting. Most of my pictures are still taken when the main lens, but on those frequent occasions when I have a reason to use a good telephoto lens (at least once a week), the 5x lens is fantastic.

Visitors to iPhone J.D. The other thing I have been doing this time every year is share some statistical information on iPhone J.D. visitors, to the extent that I can figure it out using the tools at my disposal—specifically, the Google Analytics service.

Google Analytics reports that, during the past 12 months, about 46% of iPhone J.D. readers were using an iPhone, about 24% used a Mac, and about 18% used a computer running Windows. Less than 5% used an iPad, and that number has been decreasing over the past five years. My sense is that a lot of readers own an iPad, but they use an iPhone or computer to read this site. There was a single person who accessed iPhone J.D. using a Playstation 4 in the past year, and I salute that person: who needs to play games when you could be reading iPhone J.D. instead?

About 61% of people accessing iPhone J.D. used Safari. About 33% used Chrome. Edge and Firefox were almost 2% each. Those numbers are also roughly consistent with the last few years.

Of course, the iPhone, iPad, and related Apple technologies of are interest to lawyers and others around the world. About 58% of iPhone J.D. visitors during the past year were in the U.S., which is up just a little bit from the last few years. About 7% were in the UK. The other countries with a large number of visitors were Canada, Australia, Germany, and India.

Every year, I also look at the top cities for the folks who visit iPhone J.D. In the past 14 years, London was the #1 city for three years (2015, 2020, and 2021), but every other year, New York has been #1. This year, London is back on top again:

1. London
2. New York
3. Ashburn
4. Chicago
5. Dallas
6. Los Angeles
7. Atlanta
8. Singapore
9. San Jose
10. Toronto

This is the second year in a row that Ashburn, Virginia has been in the Top 10. Ashburn is a relatively small city, but it is a major hub for internet traffic, so perhaps that explains the ranking: people who are actually reading from other locations are being considered residents of Ashburn by the Google Analytics service. Or maybe there are just lots of visitors from Loudoun County, which is in the Washington D.C. area, and they are all being counted as part of Ashburn.

This is the first year that San Jose, California has made the Top 10. Of course, San Jose is a major technology hub in California, and both San Jose and Apple’s home of Cupertino are in Santa Clara County.

Cities that just missed being in the Top 10 this year include Sydney, Seattle, Boston, Houston, Miami, and Washington, D.C. My hometown of New Orleans was #37. Kansas City was the #100 city on the list. Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania was #500. And there was just a single reader from Droitwich Spa, England, which Wikopedia tells me is an historic spa town in northern Worcestershire, England, on the River Salwarpe. Looks like an interesting place to visit.

In this week’s episode of the In the News podcast, Brett and I discuss batteries for AirTags, text messaging with Android smartphones, and why Google and Apple are not quite the smartphone competitors that you might have thought. We also discuss whether Apple will ever charge people for its Satellite SOS service, and taking spatial video that can be viewed in 3D in the upcoming Apple Vision Pro. Finally, we discuss the upcoming iOS 17.2, a new camera that supports HomeKit Secure Video, and the App Store Awards.

This week’s episode is sponsored by Lit Software, the company behind must-have apps for many lawyers such as TrialPad and TranscriptPad. In this episode, we discuss the advantages of the LitSuite Enterprise License. Learn more at the Lit Software website.

In our In the Know segment, Brett and I provide tips for using the Overcast app to listen to podcasts.

Click here to listen to the audio podcast, or just listen using your podcast player of choice.  You can also watch the episode on YouTube:

Today happens to be the 15th anniversary of iPhone J.D. (woo-hoo!), but let’s hold off on the fanfare for a few days; I’ll have more to say about that next week. Instead, today’s In the News post is focused on the news of the past week. Perhaps the most surprising news of this week was that Apple revealed to Chance Miller of 9to5Mac yesterday that Apple is going to support the RCS messaging standard by the end of 2024 to improve the quality of text messages between Android and iPhone devices—something that many people have been requesting for years. I know that for many people, text messaging is a top use for the iPhone, and getting all of the advantages of Apple’s proprietary iMessage network is a key reason to use the iPhone over Android: encrypted messages, stickers and effects, read receipts, the ability to send large photos and videos, live typing indications, support for long messages, group chats, etc. Plus, for some folks, there is a status associated with being a blue bubble person instead of a green bubble person. Apple’s upcoming support for RCS won’t change some of those differences. For example, the current RCS standard is not encrypted (although that could change over the next year), and when an iPhone receives an RCS message, just like a traditional SMS message, it will still come in a green bubble. But after the details get ironed out over the next 12 months, it will be nice for everyone to get at least some of the advantages of iMessage even when texting with green bubble friends. For example, I’m sure that it will finally become much easier to share large images and videos with folks using an Android device. And now, the rest of the news of note from the past week:

• As we talk about iMessage versus RCS, one cannot help but think about the competition between Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android operating system, as if Apple and Google are polar opposites in the smartphone world. But that’s not really true. This week, during the ongoing antitrust trial between the U.S. Department of Justice and Google, it was revealed that Google gives Apple a 36% cut of search ad revenue generated through Safari, as reported by Leah Nylen of Bloomberg. (Apparently, the witness wasn’t supposed to reveal that percentage in open court, and Bloomberg reported that Williams & Connolly antitrust partner John Schmidtlein visibly cringed when the number was revealed during testimony.) As Rohan Goswami of CNBC reports, one estimate is that this 36% cut will net Apple a staggering $19 billion in revenue in 2023. That means that Google, at 64%, stands to make almost $34 billion in search revenue from people using an iPhone. So you don’t need to lose any sleep over buying an iPhone and depriving Google of money; Google is still making plenty of money off of you even if you purchase an iPhone instead of Android.
• When Apple introduced the iPhone 14 last year, one of the key new features was the ability to contact emergency services using satellites even if you don’t have a cellular connection. This feature is also in the iPhone 15 models. Apple said last year that the service would be free for the first year. Dan Moren of Six Colors reports that Apple is now extending the iPhone 14 free access for a second year. That means that between now and November of 2024, all iPhone 14 and 15 users can access the satellites in an emergency. What will Apple do after that? Will Apple charge folks to continue to have access to a service that nobody wants to have to use but that can be life-saving if you do need to use it? Tune in this time next year to find out.
• iOS 17.2 is still in beta but will come out in the next few weeks. As reported by John Gruber of Daring Fireball, if you have an iPhone 15 Pro or iPhone 15 Pro Max, one of the new features of iOS 17.2 will be the ability to take spatial video that you will be able to view in 3D on the Vision Pro when it comes out in early 2023. Gruber got to test it out on a prototype of the Vision Pro, and he said that it was “astonishing.” When you turn on this mode, the iPhone takes video using both the main (1x) and ultra wide (0.5x) lenses to capture the perspective from your left and right eye. You can view the video on an iPhone or a computer and it looks like normal video (in 1080p, 30 fps format). But when you view the same video on a Vision Pro, you will feel almost like you are there again. I’m not sure that iOS 17.2 will be out for Thanksgiving, but certainly for all of the December holidays, people with an iPhone 15 Pro will be able to preserve memories of times with friends and family that will come to life in a brand new way starting next year.
• Other people who were able to record spatial video with an iPhone and view it using an Apple Vision Pro include Joanna Stern of the Wall Street Journal, Jacob Krol of TheStreet, Lance Ulanoff of TechRadar, and Scott Stein of CNet.
• The ability to record spatial video is just one of 43 new features coming with iOS 17.2 that are identified by Justin Myers of Gadget Hacks.
• One of my biggest gripes with watchOS 10 is that I cannot simply swipe left and right to change watch faces. Juli Clover of MacRumors reports that the beta version of watchOS 10.2 includes the ability to turn that feature back on. Which I will do so immediately, assuming that the feature is included in the final version of watch OS 10.2.
• Bradley Chambers of 9to5Mac reviews the Aqara E1 camera ($60 on Amazon), an indoor camera with an adjustable viewing angle that works with HomeKit Secure Video as well as storing to a local micro SD card so you don’t have to worry about video of the inside of your home ending up on a website that can be easily hacked.
• Apple announced the 2023 App Store award finalists this week. There are some great apps on the list that I know and love, and many, many more that I’ll have to check out.
• Do you like word games, like Scrabble or crosswords? (I do!) How about jazz music, like the Vincent Guaraldi soundtrack to a Peanuts movie? (Love it!) And are you OK with being a little silly? (That’s me!) Then you should check out a new game called Gubbins, which was reviewed by Brent Dirks of AppAdvice. I’ve only spent a few minutes with the game so far, so I haven’t yet figured out all of the features, but it definitely looks to have potential.
• And finally, Apple released a cute video called On with the Show to demonstrate that the iPhone 15 Pro is so powerful that it can be used to shoot a big budget Hollywood movie. There is so much going on in this video that once you watch it you’ll probably want to watch it again:

About sixteen months ago, I wrote a post warning that if you replace the CR2032  battery in an AirTag with a battery that has a bitterant coating on it, it won’t work. I learned this lesson the hard way when I traveled to Italy and discovered while abroad that I had the wrong type of battery. The bitterant coating makes the battery taste bad if you put it in your mouth, and thus it discourages kids from swallowing them, but they somehow also caused a problem with an AirTag.

I’m happy to report that you can now have the best of both worlds. The page on Apple’s website that previously warned you not to use these batteries now actually encourages you to use a battery with a bitterant coating as long as it says that it works with the AirTag:

To further discourage accidental ingestion, use a bitterant-coated CR2032 battery, like the Duracell 2032 Lithium Coin Battery with Bitter Coating. Look for packaging that states “Compatible with Apple AirTag”. Some CR2032 batteries with bitterant coatings might not work with AirTag or other battery-powered products.

I first learned about this change only recently when Schlick Jones posted a comment on my original post saying that the batteries were working great for him even though I had such trouble with them last year. That led me to check out the Apple website and find the above new language.

Thus, you can now purchase a CR2032 battery that is both child-safe and AirTag-safe, such as this pack of 9 batteries from Amazon for only $12.28. You can easily tell that you are using the right kind of battery by looking at the package. It will say at the top that it is Compatible with the Apple AirTag:

I presume that Duracell and Apple worked together on this solution, and it is great that they did so.

 

There were a few small but important software updates over the last few days, so Brett and I start this week’s episode of the In the News podcast by telling you what you need to know about that. We also discuss Barbra, the iPhone 15 Pro Max, HomeKit, Taylor Swift, and the best options for a budget iPad stylus.

In our Where Y’at segment, we discuss three examples of an Apple Watch being a lifesaver. We also talk about why you might want to get an AirTag for your car.

This week’s episode is sponsored by Lit Software, the company behind must-have apps for many lawyers such as TrialPad and TranscriptPad. I discuss a great new feature in Lit Software that lets you incorporate video with a transcript and why this can be truly game changing, a topic that I also addressed in this post. Learn more at the Lit Software website.

In our In the Know segment, Brett discusses the Veteran’s Day Challenge Badge, and I discuss using iKlear to keep all of your Apple products clean.

Click here to listen to the audio podcast, or just listen using your podcast player of choice.  You can also watch the episode on YouTube: