In the second episode of the In the News podcast being released this week, Brett Burney and I discuss the updates revealed by Apple this past Monday before Apple introduced the world to the Apple Vision Pro. And there were a ton of those updates, with new hardware, new operating system software for the iPad, iPhone, Apple Watch, and Apple TV, new apps, and more. And many of these are substantial updates, so I am very much looking forward to this Fall when we can start to use all of the new software.
In our In the Know segment, Brett provides a tip for getting even more information about everything new that is coming from Apple. And I explain why this is a great time to start using widgets on your iPad and iPhone so that you are ready when widgets begin to play an even bigger role this Fall.
Can you see it? Look to the horizon and you’ll find the next chapter in Apple’s history: spatial computing, made possible with the Apple Vision Pro. After Apple introduced the world to this platform on Monday, a small number of folks have now had a chance to try the device, and the initial reviews have been glowing, with many reviewers stating that they had high expectations that were exceeded by how impressive the device is. I think that the review by John Gruber of Daring Fireball did the best job of helping me to imagine what it is like to use a Vision Pro. I also enjoyed reading and can recommend this article by Jason Snell of Six Colors, this article by Joanna Stern of the Wall Street Journal, and this video from Marques Brownlee. Finally, this article that Michael Liedtke wrote for the Associated Press is quite good and is written for a less techy audience. We will need to wait until early 2024 before folks can purchase the device, but that’s good because at $3499, we all have lots of time to start collecting all of the loose change in the couch cushions. I’ve already told my family that I don’t want presents for Father’s Day, my birthday, and Christmas in 2023 to help to soften the financial blow next year. And now, the news of note from the past week:
Alex Heath of The Verge shares Mark Zuckerberg’s initial reaction to the Apple Vision Pro. Zuckerberg criticizes the price and the “design trade-off” as compared to what Meta is doing with its Quest 3 headset, noting that Meta has “sold tens of millions of Quests.” This is probably a good time to remember what Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said in 2007 when the iPhone was first introduced: “500 dollars? Fully subsidized? With a plan? I said that is the most expensive phone in the world. And it doesn’t appeal to business customers because it doesn’t have a keyboard. Which makes it not a very good email machine. … Right now, we’re selling millions and millions and millions of phones a year. Apple is selling zero phones a year. In six months, they’ll have the most expensive phone by far ever in the marketplace.”
Juli Clover of MacRumors explains that if you use the built-in Reminders app in iOS 17 to create a groceries list, the app will automatically organize the food items into categories to make your shopping more efficient.
I mentioned earlier this week that I’m excited to see Continuity Camera mode work with an iPhone and an Apple TV for videoconferences. But that’s not all. As Joe Rossignol of MacRumors explains, you can also use Continuity Camera so that you and others appear on screen while you sing along to the lyrics of your favorite songs. I’m not a big karaoke fan so I don’t know that I myself will use this feature, but I do love that Apple is looking for additional uses of Continuity Camera.
Zac Hall also shows off some of the biggest changes in CarPlay in iOS 17. For example, a passenger can now scan a QR code to control the music from their own iPhone.
Bradley Chambers of 9to5Mac reviews the Aqara Smart Lock with Home Key and explains that if you are considering a smart lock, don’t just get one that works with HomeKit; you really want one that takes advantage of Apple’s Home Key feature.
I’m impressed too. I had a family beach vacation late last month, and after taking some videos during the first few days of vacation, I used Final Cut Pro on the iPad to put them together into a fun movie that I shared with the family on one of our last nights. The final video came out great. I did encounter some bugs along the way. First, I had trouble getting some video clips from my Photos app into Final Cut Pro; as a workaround, I moved them into the Files app in a local folder on my iPad, and Final Cut Pro had no trouble with that video. Second, I had some difficulty exporting a 4K HDR final movie, so instead I just created a 1080p version, which was more than adequate for sharing with family on a big screen. So Apple has some work to do, but the foundations were very sound. Using a finger (and sometimes a stylus) to edit clips worked really well on my iPad.
And finally, here is a fun, quick overview from Apple of just some of Apple’s announcements this week:
Brett Burney and I just recorded the 100th episode of the In the News podcast, and it is great to hit that milestone. To celebrate the momentous occasion, Apple was kind enough to release a brand new hardware platform so that we would have something fascinating to discuss: the Apple Vision Pro. Indeed, there is so much to say about this brand new device that this entire episode is dedicated to that groundbreaking platform. The Apple Vision Pro introduced by Apple earlier this week includes lots of new technology that is impressive in its own right, but when you consider that this is just the 1.0 version and there are years of upgrades and updates in the future, the potential is really something special.
The major announcement from Apple yesterday was the Apple Vision Pro, the impressive new augmented reality headset. But even before Apple revealed the Apple Vision Pro, Apple announced tons of great new features for the iPhone and iPad. Here are the features in iOS 17 that I think that lawyers will love–as well as any other professionals who use the iPhone to get work done.
Continuity Camera for Apple TV
I love that you can use an iPhone as an external camera for a computer. With a PC, you need to use an app like Camo (my review), but on a Mac you can use Continuity Camera along with a mount, such as the one from Belkin. Yesterday, Apple announced that with iOS 17, your iPhone can also serve as a camera for your Apple TV, giving you the ability to use a huge television screen as a videoconference monitor. For now, Apple is announcing that it will work with FaceTime, Zoom, and Webex, but I have no doubt that Microsoft Teams will gain support as well. The iPad will also be able to serve as a camera for an Apple TV in iPadOS 17, although given the weight and size, it might be more difficult to get it propped up in the right position.
Thus, with an Apple TV, an iPhone, and a simple mount like the Belkin one, you can turn any TV in any conference room, hotel room, or living room into a great videoconferencing solution. This will be great for business video calls, great for family member video calls, great for everyone.
Speaking of Continuity Camera and Camo, I see that iOS 17 adds the ability to control the crop of an iPhone image in a video chat. This was one of the reasons that I have preferred using Camo on my Mac instead of Continuity Camera. Of course, on a PC, I’ll still need to use Camo for this feature.
Siri without the “hey”
Only time will tell whether this is an improvement or a hazard, but in iOS 17, you can just say “Siri” followed by a command. You no longer have to say “Hey Siri.”
One definite improvement is that you can issue multiple commands to Siri, back-to-back. Siri, turn on this light and turn on that light. Siri, text my wife that I’m running late and remind me when I get home to bring in the trash can. I can think of tons of uses for this.
Phone improvements
In iOS 17, you will be able to create a Contact Poster for yourself. Pick a photo (presumably a photo of yourself) or a Memoji, pick a font to display your name, pick a background color, and then you will have a personalized Contact Poster. Now, when you call someone else with an iPhone, they will see your Contact Poster, making it easy to see who is calling them.
With a new feature called Live Voicemail, if someone calls you and you send them to voicemail, you will be able to see a real-time transcript of the voicemail that they are leaving for you. That way, if you see the person calling you is someone that you want to talk to … or if the topic of the voicemail is something that you want to discuss … you can tap a button to join the call. It is the iPhone version of screening your calls. Note that if your phone carrier identifies the call as spam, the iPhone won’t show a Live Voicemail.
If you are calling someone using FaceTime instead of the Phone and they don’t answer, there has never before been a voicemail feature. But in iOS 17, you can now leave a video message for the person. Leaving video voicemails is something that I’ve seen in science fiction for an incredibly long time; I’m surprised that it never occurred to me in the past to add this great feature to FaceTime.
If you are using AirPods Pro (any model) or AirPods (3rd generation), you can quickly press the stem to mute or unmute yourself on a call. That sounds useful.
StandBy (iPhone) and Lock Screen widgets (iPad)
An iPhone is incredibly useful while you are using it. In iOS 17, it will also be useful when you are not using it. For iPhones with an always-on screen, you can put the iPhone on its side (in landscape mode) and then when the screen dims it can display useful information. It can show an alarm clock, which makes this feature similar to the Nighstand mode for the Apple Watch. It can show your calendar and upcoming appointments. It can show album art for music you are playing. It can show Memories photos and videos. And it can show even more useful glanceable information that is designed to be viewed from a distance.
Since 2008, I’ve been using an Apple dock to keep my iPhone on my desk in a vertical position, and as I’ve explained in the past, I love having an Apple dock on my desk. Apple no longer sells that dock, and in light of the StandBy announcement, it looks like I will want to purchase something for my desk to hold up my iPhone in a horizontal position starting this Fall. I think that the one that Apple used during its presentation yesterday was the Twelve South Forté for MagSafe ($39.99 at Amazon) and I’ve currently got my eye on that one.
The iPad won’t have StandBy mode in iPadOS 17, but it will have the ability to put widgets on the left side of the Lock Screen and Live Activities in the middle of the screen (at least I think that is how it will work) along with other personalization features like the font used for the time, similar to what was introduced for the iPhone in iOS 16. That way, if your iPad is next to you but not being used while you are, say, typing on a computer, the iPad can still show you useful information.
Notes improvements
The built-in Notes app has lots of improvements in iOS 17 and iPadOS 17. For example, you can now embed multiple PDF files in a note and annotate those PDFs.
Speaking of Notes and PDF files, much like you can already share a Note with someone else, you will soon be able to share a PDF with someone else and collaborate with someone else. As you annotate the PDF document, someone else will see the annotations appear in real time.
You can also link two different notes, making it easier to jump from one note to a related note. For example, you could use one note as a master index to a bunch of other notes.
Interactive Widgets
For over a year and a half, the first screen of my iPad has displayed only widgets. And I love that configuration today just as much as I did when I first described my setup in 2021.
In iPadOS 17 and iOS 17, widgets can be more interactive, a feature that I cannot wait to use. For example, using the Things app, I have a widget in the middle of my iPad screen that has my top “to do” items. I would love to be able to mark off items as done from the lock screen instead of having to tap the widget once to launch the Things app and then tap the item to mark it complete. You can also have a widget associated with a HomeKit light so that you can simply tap the widget to turn the light on or off. Thanks to interactive widgets, I suspect that I will need to rethink which widgets deserve to live on my first screen of my iPad and iPhone.
NameDrop and better AirDrop
There is a new way for the iPhone to replace sharing a business card. With the new NameDrop feature, you can hold your iPhone very close to someone else’s iPhone or Apple Watch and you can each choose the specific phone numbers or email addresses to share, along with the Contact Poster mentioned above.
This feature is not exactly new. Many years ago, when I was using a Palm device, you could beam information like a phone number to another user, as Palm showed off in this effective ad called The Train. But Apple’s implementation looks sleek.
The feature also seems like a natural extension of AirDrop. Speaking of which, AirDrop gets a great improvement in iOS 17. Right now, if you want to send a large file or set of files using AirDrop, you need to keep the two iPhone or iPads close to each other until the transfer is complete. But with the new AirDop, simply start the transfer when the devices are close and then you can move away. If you get out of AirDrop range, Apple will just use the Internet to finish the transfer. Apple says that this feature is coming “later this year” which likely means that it won’t be part of iOS 17.0 but instead part of 17.1, 17.2, or a subsequent update.
Better Autocorrect and keyboard
Apple says that it has greatly improved autocorrect so that the iPhone keyboard will do a better job when you type. And Apple has made it easier to go back to what you typed if autocorrect “fixed” something that you didn’t want to fix.
During the presentation yesterday, Apple VP Craig Federighi humorously remarked that the improved autocorrect feature will be great “in those moments when you just want to type a ‘ducking’ word” because the keyboard will learn the word that we all know that you intended to type.
Also, instead of just suggesting a word, autocorrect will suggest the rest of the sentence that you are typing, which you can accept just by using the space bar.
Share AirTags
If you have an AirTag (or another device compatible with Apple’s Find My technology), you can now share that AirTag with up to five people. I could have used this feature a long time ago. Whenever my wife takes my suitcase for a trip, she gets alerts about someone else’s AirTag following her. I’d love to be able to say that we have joint ownership of that AirTag.
Safari improvements
In Safari, you will be able to create different profiles, such as one for work and one for home, and search history and tabs can be different for the different profiles.
When you are logging in to a website and after typing your password the website texts you a verification code, Safari can now automatically enter the code without you having to leave the website.
Maps improvements
Google Maps has long has the ability to download a map area to use it even when you don’t have Internet access. Apple Maps is adding a similar feature. And when you download a portion of the Map, the iPhone itself can provide place information like hours or ratings and can provide turn-by-turn directions (driving, walking, cycling, or transit). And if your iPhone is in range of your Apple Watch, the maps downloaded to your iPhone can also be used by your Apple Watch.
If you use an electric car, CarPlay in iOS 17 lets you select your preferred charging network and see in real-time what chargers are available.
Health app on the iPad
Over time, the Health app on my iPhone has become increasingly useful. In iPadOS 17, you can also use the Health app on your iPad, giving you a much larger screen to browse through your information, review charts, track trends, etc.
News+ crosswords
I’m a big fan of the New York Times crossword puzzles, but so are my wife and daughter. If you find that you need more crosswords in your life, the News+ service will add daily crossword puzzles to the News app.
External cameras for the iPad
I mentioned above that an iPhone or iPad can serve as a camera for the Apple TV. Additionally, in iPad OS 17, if you connect your iPad to an external monitor that has a built-in camera, that camera can work as the camera for your iPad for FaceTime calls.
I would love to see Apple extend this feature further. Why not let me connect any webcam to my iPad so that I can put the webcam on top of my iPad when it is in landscape mode, freeing me from looking to the side when I want to look into the cameras? Why not use Continuity Camera mode so that an iPhone can serve as the external camera for the iPad? [UPDATE: According to Filipe Espósito at 9to5Mac, iPadOS 17 does add support for an external webcam plugged in to the USB-C port.]
Messages improvements
Check In is a new way to share your location. You can already use the Messages app to temporarily share your location with someone else (although it looks like this feature is beefed up in iOS 17). With the new Check In feature, one person shares their destination with a second person, and the second person gets a notification when the person arrives. And if the person stops making progress, the iPhone checks in, and if there is no response, it shares information with the second person like the location, battery level, and cell service status.
This feature seems aimed at family members and friends who are worried about someone else safely reaching a location, such as a teenager making it home at night. But even if you are just running late for a meeting with someone else, I could see this as a useful way to share your status and provide a notification when you are in the building, even if not yet in the meeting.
Another new feature is that you can more easily search messages because Apple is adding a feature that is currently in Photos. If you want to search Photos, you can first type a person’s name and then type a word like “dog” and you will see pictures featuring both that person and a dog. A similar search feature in Messages will let you search for a specific person and then a word that he or she said in a message.
Journal
Apple has a new built-in app coming later this year called Journal. It lets you jot notes to preserve memories about a day along with pictures and more. The app can even suggest items to remember such as music that you listened to that day or a workout that you did that day. I know many people who have used journaling in their professional and/or personal life for a very long time. Now that this is a built-in app, in an app that appears to be nicely designed, I can see journaling becoming even more popular.
Conclusion
These are all fantastic improvements for the iPhone and iPad, and there are even more new features that I didn’t mention above. I very much look forward to using these new features this Fall.
No, Apple itself hasn’t revealed that it will be introducing a revolutionary new headset device today, but the rumors of a new augmented reality device being released are so rampant that if Apple were not making such an announcement today, I’m sure that the company would have leaked that to some reporter. And given that this will be a rare example of Apple introducing a new hardware device with a new user interface and a new software platform, you can bet that Apple has come up with a way for it to be revolutionary. It will be fascinating to see what Apple announces.
As excited as I am to learn about Apple’s new product (and I suspect that announcement will be the main focus today), I also hope that Apple saves a little time to preview some great new features for the iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch.
In 2007, Steve Jobs took the stage and said: “Every once in a while, a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything. … One’s very fortunate if you get to work on just one of these in your career. Apple has been very fortunate. It’s been able to introduce a few of these into the world. [In] 1984, we introduced the Macintosh. It didn’t just change Apple. It changed the whole computer industry. In 2001, we introduced the first iPod. And it didn’t just change the way we all listen to music, it changed the entire music industry. Well, today … Apple is going to reinvent the phone.” And he then proceeded to introduce the world to the iPhone. There is a chance that this Monday might be another one of those moments when Apple introduces a revolutionary product. At 10 Pacific / 1 Eastern on Monday, June 5, Apple is widely expected to introduce an augmented reality headset device. And just like the first iPod only worked with a Mac and only held 5,000 songs, and just like the first iPhone used Edge for a painfully slow cellular internet connection, and just like the first Apple Watch was painfully slow, I’m sure that there will be plenty to criticize about aspects of the product that Apple shows us on Monday. But remember, that will be just the version 1.0. If Apple plays its cards right, we will see better versions in future years. Over time, the device will cost less and do more. And then, we might have something really special. Indeed, eventually, we may get to the point where the device is even more useful than the iPhone itself. Or, it will be a complete dud. You never know, and that is part of what makes it so exciting. Having said that, I cannot help thinking how much better the announcement might be if the master presenter Steve Jobs was still around to introduce the product on Monday. This was a short week due to Memorial Day, and most of what people are talking about right now is what Apple may introduce next week, so there isn’t much recent news, but here is the news of note from the past week:
Brett Burney and I will record the next episode of the In the News podcast after we see what Apple announces on Monday. We will probably record on Tuesday afternoon, so I expect that you will have a new episode late Tuesday or on Wednesday.
California attorney David Sparks says that even if Apple announced a new headset on Monday, it probably won’t be available until the close to the end of 2023. That makes sense to me. I would expect Apple to follow the playbook from the Apple Watch introduction: it was first introduced in September 2014, but it wasn’t available to buy until April 2015.
Apple announced in a press release this week that according to a new study, the App Store facilitated $1.1 trillion in developer billings and sales in 2022. And the iOS app economy now supports more than 4.8 million jobs in the U.S. and Europe. It is interesting that Apple is telling developers just how much money they can make by releasing apps for an Apple platform when we are (presumably) days away from Apple announcing a brand new platform.
Some people view the iPhone and Android as competitors. To a certain degree that is true, but I think that they largely cater to different audiences. One segment of the population—a major segment around the world—prefers Android because it has the cheapest phones. Another is at the opposite extreme; they want a powerful phone that they can manipulate in lots of different ways to make it perfect for them, much like one might build a gaming PC from scratch. Android is perfect for them as well. For most others, the iPhone is the phone of choice. Even so, there are still lots of folks who switch from Android to iPhone each year, and Michael Potuck of 9to5Mac discusses a study that purports to identify the top reasons for switching to iPhone.
If the car you are driving doesn’t have CarPlay, what are the best options for adding it yourself? Zac Hall of 9to5Mac answers that question.
What does watchOS 9.5.1 fix? Apple hasn’t really said, but Adam Engst of TidBITS helpfully reports that it “probably fixes some problem.” Well there you go.
And finally, this week Apple TV+ released the final episode of Season 3 of Ted Lasso. What comes next, if anything? We don’t know yet. But the first three seasons of Ted Lasso were something special, one of my all-time favorites. Thank you to Apple TV+ for giving us all such an amazing show. And that last episode doesn’t disappoint. After you watch it—not before, there are spoilers!—you should watch the following video, which is under seven minutes long. But bring a tissue because there will be tears.
Brett Burney and I had planned to record the 100th episode of the In the News podcast this morning, but as a result of an unexpected family issue that arose, we need to postpone that milestone for another week or two. Even though you are reading my words today instead of hearing my voice, I still want to take the opportunity to thank everyone who listens to the podcast or who watches the YouTube version for joining us for the last two years. Hopefully, the delay will build up the anticipation … not that we don’t already have a lot of that right now. This Monday is the Memorial Day holiday in the United States, and as Apple confirmed this week, just a week after Memorial Day, Apple is giving a Keynote address to start its WWDC conference. That means we should see sneak peaks at the next versions of iOS and iPadOS. And more importantly, the rumors are that Apple will provide at least a sneak peak of its upcoming headset device. I cannot wait to see what Apple has to show us. And now, the news of note from the past week:
The Lit Software blog has a great in-depth post about how Chicago attorney Paul Motz uses apps like TrialPad and TranscriptPad to work with a team to prepare for trials in complex cases.
Twelve South makes lots of great accessories for the iPhone and iPad. For example, I reviewed an older version of the AirFly about five years ago, and the new version is great if you want to connect your AirPods to a device that only has a headphone jack, such as the audio on many airplanes. Right now, the company is having a 20% sale on all items.
In an article for Fast Company, Harry McCracken wrote an in-depth article on Apple’s upcoming Personal Voice feature that lets you securely create and store a digital version of your voice that you can use in the future should you ever need it.
If you play music and own an iPad, then Apple’s release this week of Logic Pro for the iPad may be big news for you. Andrew Marino of The Verge reviews the app and was very impressed.
If you edit video and you own an iPad, then Apple’s release of this week of Final Cut Pro for the iPad may be big news for you. And I fall into this camp. I’ve been too busy at work this week to play around with the app very much, but I’m impressed with what I see so far. Jason Snell of Six Colors says that it is a great version 1.0, but it needs more: more gesture support, more Pencil support, etc.
Vjeran Pavic of The Verge says that Final Cut Pro for iPad gets the basics right but it still lacks many features that exist on the Mac version.
Apple announced the 2023 finalists for the Apple Design Awards. There are lots of well-done apps on the list that I have enjoyed using, such as Flighty, Duolingo, and Knotwords, as well as many other apps that I look forward to checking out.
Speaking of Flighty, I love the Live Activities and Dynamic Island support in that app, which is a great feature when you are traveling. But if you prefer to use an airline-specific app, Juli Clover of MacRumors reports that United is now the first U.S. airline to implement support for Live Activities.
Ed Hardy of Cult of Mac reports that a new power bank from Belkin can charge an iPhone while simultaneously providing a fast charge to an Apple Watch.
Apple is now selling the 2023 version of its Pride watch band. While not something that I would consider wearing to court, I know that the bold and fun look will be popular for many folks this year. Rikka Altland shares some pictures of the new bands.
This week, the HBO Max app on the iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, etc. was replaced with a Max app. And it was a serious downgrade. As John Gruber of Daring Fireball notes, the new Apple TV app removes a ton of features such as “up next” support in the TV app, support for the Siri remote’s jog controls, picture-in-picture, and the fantastic “What did they just say” feature that I use frequently. I really don’t understand what Warner Bros. Discovery was thinking with this update.
Chance Miller of 9to5Mac reports that teenagers who became stranded while hiking in California were able to use the iPhone 14’s satellite communication feature to call for help. They were lucky because the story reports that the ten teenagers were not prepared for the hike, failing to bring food, water, flashlights, and other items needed for a hike in the “Last Chance” area of the Santa Paula Canyon. Fortunately, a rescue team made up of volunteers was able to find them and lead them back to safety.
Like many iPhone users who have used mobile technology for a long time, I previously used a BlackBerry. Devindra Hardawar of Engadget reviews the new BlackBerry movie, which chronicles the rise and fall of the company, and he says that the movie is quite good. I look forward to watching this one.
And finally, this week, Apple released some very funny and incredibly well-done videos to emphasize how the iPhone respects your privacy. The first one surprised me because of where it was released: China, where expectations of privacy are very different in light of the government. Go to the Apple China website and there is a fun video at the top featuring Hong Kong-based martial artist Donnie Yen Ji-dan as a representation of Apple privacy. (Don’t worry, there are virtually no words in the video, so you don’t need to speak Chinese to enjoy it.) Second, here in the United States, Apple released a video featuring actress Jane Lynch as the announcer called The Waiting Room. This video emphasizes the privacy of health data that you store on the iPhone. Definitely worth watching:
This week’s episode of the In the News podcast is definitely worth checking out because we covered so much. We talked about the death of Drobo and how to preserve your digital memories for a long time. We discussed the upcoming Apple-Pepsi promotion and remembered the last time they worked together, 20 years ago. We discussed ChatGPT on the iPhone, tracking stolen AirPods, and the operating system updates released this week for the iPad, iPhone, and Apple Watch. We also explained how to catch someone’s attention when you send a text message by using a subject line (in bold). And we talked about storing a driver’s license in the wallet app.
In our In the Know segment, Brett discusses the option of displaying remaining iPhone battery life by using a number instead of an icon. I explain how to delete and then recover deleted text messages in the Messages app.
The iPhone is a great videocamera. The quality is excellent and has virtually always been cutting edge. For example, I took 4K home videos with my iPhone for many years before I had a television or other device that could show the videos in 4K because I knew that in the future I would appreciate taking the best quality video possible. (I love that I have some digitized VHS-C videos from the 1980s and 1990s and some digitized Super-8 videos from even earlier, but the quality is poor by today’s standards.) The one downside of taking lots of the highest quality videos with your iPhone is that they take up a large amount of space. As a result, for many years now I’ve moved most of those large videos off of my iPhone and on to my computer … or more accurately, to an external drive connected to my computer. I was thinking about that this week when I saw Kevin Purdy at Ars Technica report that Drobo has stopped sales and is moving from a Chapter 11 bankruptcy to a liquidation-focused Chapter 7 bankruptcy. When I bought a Drobo in 2015, I considered it to be an amazing external storage device because it was safe and secure and easily expandable. I wrote about my Drobo when the company subsequently became a sponsor of iPhone J.D. in late 2015 and 2016, but I stopped using it last year when the future of the company become so uncertain. I moved to two Western Digital 18TB external drives (one for backup) which cost only $299—an amazing price for that much storage. In addition to that second drive for local storage, I also have an online backup on BackBlaze. I have no doubt that at some point in the future, I’ll move from those 18TB drives to something better. We all know that no technology lasts forever, but it is important to keep that in mind when it comes to your important videos, photos, and documents that you want to retain for many decades. This means making backups today and being ready to move to new storage technologies from time to time. And now, the news of note from the past week:
Twenty years ago, Apple and Pepsi announced a promotion where randomly selected Pepsi bottles had a code in the cap that would give you a free song on iTunes with 100 million songs given away. That resulted in me buying some Pepsi products to get some free songs. Evan Selleck of AppleInsider reports that there is a new Apple and Pepsi promotion this Summer: certain bottles will have a QR code you can scan for different prizes including three months of free Apple Music. Unlike twenty years ago when I got lots of free songs, this time there is a limit of one redemption per person.
Tammy Rogers of iMore notes that the most-streamed song on Apple Music is Ed Sheeran’s song Shape of You, which has been streamed 930 million times.
By the way, Sheeran performed a concert that Apple live-streamed May 10. You can still watch the concert on Apple TV+. Sheeran sounds great, and the video quality is fantastic.
Attorney John Voorhees of MacStories reports that Apple has added some new music-related features to Apple Music and to Apple Maps. In the Apple Music app you can now see information about major artist tours including a playlist of the set list. The Apple Maps app now includes guides for watching live music in some top cities—guides that you can also view in a browser by clicking here. Given how important music is to New Orleans, I hope the Apple adds a music guide for New Orleans when it next expands the list of cities.
Everyone is talking about AI right now, and in large part that is because of the ChatGPT website. Yesterday, OpenAI launched a ChatGPT app for the iPhone, as reported by James Vincent of The Verge.
Aaron Tilley and Miles Kruppa of the Wall Street Journal report that Apple has restricted the use of ChatGPT by Apple employees because Apple is concerned about confidential data being released. Remember, whatever you type in ChatGPT is forever known by ChatGPT; don’t type anything that is private.
As Apple announced it would do last week, Apple released iOS 16.5 this week. Michael Potuck of 9to5Mac reports that it fixes a number of security flaws, including three that had been actively exploited. Ouch.
Chance Miller of 9to5Mac reports that iOS 16.5 also enhanced sports news in Apple News and fixes some issues in Spotlight, Podcasts in CarPlay, and Screen Time. It also includes Apple’s new Pride wallpaper for the Lock Screen.
Miller also notes that watchOS 9.5 was released, which supports the new Pride Celebration watch face.
If a loved one has passed away and they gave you Legacy Access, you can access data on their Apple devices such as pictures. But if not, Glenn Fleishman explains in an article for Macworld how you may still be able to unlock a deceased person’s device. You won’t see the data, but you may be able to wipe the device clean and use it.
Malcolm Owen of AppleInsider reports that this week Apple expanded its iPhone 14 Emergency SOS via Satellite feature to Australia and New Zealand. Based on what I saw of the New Zealand countryside in the Lord of the Rings movies, which I presume is 100% realistic, I can easily imagine getting lost there when I’m outside of cell tower range.
I often link to stories in which people used an AirTag to find a thief. But Alex Cabero of KSL-TV in Salt Lake City reports that police were able to track down a thief to a Motel 6 because one of the items that he stole from a yoga studio was a pair of AirPods.
In a somewhat similar story from Julia Backley of CNN from two months ago, a woman who flew from Tokyo to San Francisco discovered that her AirPods Pro were stolen from her jacket while on a United flight. Because of Find My and the assistance of the local police, she was able to track the AirPods Pro to a person’s house—who it turns out was an employee of a company that loads food onto United planes. After CNN contacted United, the airline paid for her to get new AirPods Pro (because of the poor condition of the ones eventually returned to her) and gave her 5,000 miles as an apology.
With all of that money you are saving thanks to three free months of Apple Music from Pepsi, you can consider buying the Hermès luxury leather AirPods Pro case, which costs only €780 (about $840). Felipe Espósito of 9to5Mac has the details.
This October, Apple TV+ will release a movie written and directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro, along with Jesse Plemons, Brendan Fraser, John Lithgow and many other well-known actors. That’s pretty much all I need to hear to know that this might be a movie that I want to see. It is called Killers of the Flower Moon, and it is a Western crime drama based on true events in Oklahoma in the 1920s. Apple will release this movie in theaters before the movie streams on Apple TV+. Mike Fleming, Jr., of Deadline wrote an extensive article about the making of the movie, and the article includes an interesting interview with Scorsese. Here is the trailer:
For people who are unable to speak, Live Speech is a way that you can type words on an iPhone (or iPad or Mac) and have the words spoken out loud during phone calls, FaceTime calls, and in-person conversations. It’s a simple idea that makes a lot of sense.
But wait … there is more. For people who are at risk of losing their ability to speak, such as people recently diagnosed with ALS, Apple has created Personal Voice, a way to create a voice that sounds like your voice. To configure it, you read along with a randomized set of text prompts for 15 minutes. Then, your iPhone or iPad creates a voice for you to use.
You don’t want someone else to take your voice, so Apple has some interesting built-in security and privacy. First, those phases are random, so you cannot just record someone else’s voice while they are talking and then use that recording to create a Personal Voice because they would not be speaking the randomized text prompts. Moreover, the Personal Voice is created right on your device, so your voice is never uploaded to the Internet.
I’m very curious to try this out and see how it works. It sounds like incredibly cool technology.
Assistive Access
You may know how to use the iPhone, but the interface can be very confusing for some folks. When Assistive Access mode is turned on, apps like the Camera, Photos, Music, Phone, and Messages take on a simplistic interface with large, high-contrast buttons and few menus.
I know quite a few folks who didn’t grow up with technology and who would appreciate this mode.
Point and Speak
For people with reduced or no vision, the upcoming Point and Speak mode in the Magnifier app allows a person to interact with physical objects that have text labels. Apple explains: “For example, while using a household appliance — such as a microwave — Point and Speak combines input from the camera, the LiDAR Scanner, and on-device machine learning to announce the text on each button as users move their finger across the keypad.”
…and more
And that is just the tip of the iceberg. For example, for people with low vision, Apple is improving the ability to change text size. For people who have trouble hearing, more hearing devices work with the iPhone. For people sensitive to rapid animations, Apple is adding an ability to automatically pause images with moving elements in Messages and Safari.
These new features will be incredibly valuable for the target audience. But like most accessibility features, I suspect that they will also be appreciated by other folks for various reasons. For example, I’m sure folks will come up with some very creative things to do with Personal Voice. I look forward to seeing all of these new features rolled out.
