Jeff Richardson

Apple’s annual WWDC conference is just a few weeks away, and on June 6, 2022, I expect Apple to preview iOS 16, which should be released this Fall.  But that doesn’t mean that Apple is done with iOS 15 yet, and yesterday, Apple released iOS 15.5.  This update comes two months after Apple released iOS 15.4.  iOS 15.5 is much smaller update with fewer new features.

Use Wallet to send/receive money

An update to the Wallet app makes it easier to send and request money using Apple Cash. 

Just so that there is no confusion about what we are talking about, remember that Apple Cash is not the same thing as Apple Card or Apple Pay.  Apple Cash is a digital card stored on your iPhone in the Wallet app.  Once you connect a bank debit card to your Apple Cash card, you can easily add money to your Apple Cash account by transferring money from the debit card.  Apple Cash is an easy way to send or receive money with others, similar to what you can do with other apps like Venmo.  Apple Card is Apple’s credit card, and it uses the Mastercard network.  You earn up to 3% cash back on every purchase that you make, and that cash back is applied to your Apple Cash as you earn it (unless you haven’t yet set up Apple Cash on your iPhone, in which case it instead becomes a credit on your monthly statement).  Apple Pay is a way to make contactless payment with an iPhone or Apple Watch using lots of different payment methods such as a credit card (including, of course, an Apple Card), debit card, or Apple Cash.

Before yesterday, if you wanted to send or receive Apple Cash to someone else, you started in the Messages app and then you clicked the Apple Cash icon above the keyboard.  With iOS 15.5, you can now start in the Wallet app.  Select the Apple Cash card, and then right below the card you will see two big buttons to either Request or Send.  Select one of them, and then pick a person from your contacts.  Or, if you recently sent or received Apple Cash from someone, you will see them under Recents:

 

It looks like $10,000 is the most that you can request from someone.  Enter that amount or less, and then tap Request with Messages to send the request via the Messages app.  If you try to enter $10,000.01 or more, the app will not let you continue.

I’ll let you know when Brett sends me that $10,000.  I’m not holding my breath.

An even more minor change in the Wallet app is that when you are looking at information on your Apple Card, the app refers to the physical card as the Titanium Card, which makes sense since it is a rather thick and sturdy card made out of titanium.  Although I have the Titanium Card, I rarely ever use it.  Virtually every time that I pay for something with my Apple Card, I use Apple Pay on my iPhone or Apple Watch.

Check your HomePod’s Wi-Fi signal

If you own a HomePod mini or the (now discontinued) HomePod, my guess is that you selected its location in your home based upon (1) having easy access to an outlet and (2) where you want the music to come from.  For some houses, another important consideration could be (3) a spot with adequate Wi-Fi reception.  Once you update your iPhone to iOS 15.5, it will eventually update your HomePod to version 15.5.  (If you want to do so manually, open the Home app, hold your finger down on a HomePod for about a second so that the menu pops up, and then scroll down and select Update.)

Here is how you check the Wi-Fi signal strength in iOS 15.5.  First, open the Home app.  Next, locate the HomePod.  You might have it listed under Favorite Accessories on the home screen.  Or, you might have to select a specific room and then find the HomePod listed there.  Hold down your finger on the icon for that HomePod for a second or so until a pop-up menu appears.  Scroll all the way down the menu to the very bottom.  One of the last options will be the Wi-Fi Address.  Tap on Wi-Fi Address and the words will change to Wi-Fi Network and you will see an icon with up to three bars to indicate the signal strength.

If you have two HomePods or HomePod Minis working as a stereo pair, there is an extra step.  In the Home app, hold down on the icon that represents the pair of speakers.  Then scroll down until you see the word Speakers.  Tap on Speakers to see the devices in the pair.  Hold down your finger for a second or so on one of the devices in the pair until the pop-up menu appears.  Then scroll all of the way down the menu to the very bottom, and tap on Wi-Fi Address to change it to Wi-Fi Network.

Sensitive locations in the Memories feature of the Photos app

The built-in Photos app automatically creates Memories with photos that you have taken in the past.  One might feature pictures of your son from 2014.  Another might feature pictures with dogs over the years.  Another might feature a place that you visited.  In iOS 15.5, however, Memories will not create a memory based upon certain sensitive locations where you took pictures, assuming that the pictures have location information in the metadata.  Filipe Espósito of 9to5Mac provides a list of some of these sensitive locations, such as the Anne Frank House, former concentration camps, and the U.S. Holocaust Museum. 

Note that it is also possible to tell the Photos app that you would rather not see something in Memories, and this is a feature that existed even before iOS 15.5.  If you encounter such a Memory—such as a collection of pictures of a former spouse—tap the circle with three dots at the top right of the memory and then select “Feature Less…”  Next, you will see some options based upon the type of Memory, such as select this day less, select this place less, or feature a person less.

Safety for minors in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the UK

Last year, I described efforts that Apple was taking to protect children who use an iPhone.  One of those steps was to display a warning when a Messages detects that a child is about to send or receive a photo that contains nudity.  Apple provides lots of details on how this works on this page of its website.  iOS 15.5 brings this feature to iPhone users in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the UK.

One year ago today, Brett Burney and I recorded the first episode of the In the News podcast.  Brett and I both love listening to podcasts, so now that we are on the other side of the microphone, we have tried our best to create something informative and entertaining for you to enjoy every week.  A special thank you to all of you who have sent us feedback and encouragement during the past year.  

Yesterday, we recorded episode 51, and this week’s episode covers lots of interesting topics as the podcast starts its second year.  We start by looking back at the history of the iPod in light of Apple’s announcement this week that even the last remaining model, the iPod touch, is gone.  We talk about how the iPod had a huge impact on Apple, the music industry, and the consumer electronics industry.  Brett and I also pick our favorite iPod models, which was not easy because there are so many to choose from.

We also talk about great uses of the Shortcuts app, using an iPhone to call 911, why Brett and I both love the Solo Loop band for the Apple Watch, and more.  I also provide some additional details on some problems that I had this week with my iPad and iPhone.

In our In the Know segment, we talk about special modes on the Apple Watch: Nighstand mode, Theater mode, and even Schooltime mode.

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

Apple announced in a press release this week that the last remaining model of the iPod—the iPod Touch, which was essentially an iPhone without a phone—was finished.  Within days, just about all of the remaining models sold out, according to a report by Karen Haslam of Macworld.  It’s the end of the iPod era.  When the iPod launched in 2001 (shortly after 9/11), it was a breakthrough device: 1,000 songs in a tiny and easy-to-use device that could fit in a pocket.  Nowadays, I suspect that it has been quite a while since most of us used an iPod, but its impact can still be felt.  without the iPod, there might never have been an iPhone, not only because of the influence that the design of the former had on the latter, but also because the iPod was such a huge financial success for Apple that it gave the company the confidence and incentive to try to develop something like the iPhone.  As former Apple executive Tony Fadell, the father of the iPod, told Joanna Stern of the Wall Street Journal this week:  “If we didn’t do the iPod, the iPhone wouldn’t have come out. … The iPod brought us confidence. It brought Steve confidence that we could do something outside of the map and that we could actually continue to innovate in new areas.”  The iPod also revolutionized the music industry.  In the age of Napster, Apple showed the world that if you make it easy to pay for music—99¢ for a song with no need to buy the whole album—people will pay instead of downloading pirated music for “free.”  The iPod also made Apple cool again; the iPod “halo effect” convinced people to switch from Windows to a Mac.  As Apple says in its press release, the spirit of the iPod lives on today because we listen to music on our iPhones using an app that is now called Music but was originally called iPod.  Even the name lives on to an extent in the AirPod and HomePod family of products.  So when you pour your drink of choice this weekend, I say that we all give a toast to the iPod.  Gone, but certainly not forgotten.  And now, the news of note from the past week:

• I’m always interested to learn about some of the cool things that folks do with the Shortcuts app.  Even those of us without programming skills can use Shortcuts to put some actions together and create a useful automation.  In April, the MacStories website held a contest for people to submit their best automations.  Yesterday, Illinois attorney John Voorhees revealed the winners, and there are some great ones in there.  Check them out, and if any of them appeal to you, you can download each one with a single click.
• Voorhees also described some big updates to Adobe’s iPad apps.  For example, Photoshop on the iPad can now use AI to do content-aware fill (allowing you to make unwanted people or objects in a photo disappear), and using similar AI, you can remove and replace a background.
• I’m a big fan of the eero Pro routers in my home.  The model that I use gives me almost 500Mbps of Wi-Fi download speed, and up to a Gigabit for devices connected to the eero Pro’s Ethernet port, which seems incredibly fast.  But apparently, much higher speeds are on the horizon.  Scharon Harding of Ars Technica discusses Wi-Fi version 7, which will allow new versions of mesh routers to go to over 33Gbps, which is over 60x the incredibly fast Wi-Fi speeds that I’m seeing now.  I’m not even sure what I would possibly do with all of that speed … but I’m certainly willing to do my best to try to use it.
• Leander Kahney of Cult of Mac wrote a great illustrated history of the iPod in 2011 and has updated it twice since then.  It is a great way to walk down iPod memory lane.
• Stephen Hackett of 512 Pixels discusses the different versions of the U2 iPod.
• Allison McDaniel of 9to5Mac reports that AT&T is the first U.S. carrier to use location-based routing for all of its 911 calls in the United States.  In the past, AT&T would estimate your location using its cell towers.  Now, AT&T uses your iPhone’s GPS to provide much more accurate location information for first responders: a 50-meter radius instead of a 10-mile radius.
• In an article for Macworld, Glenn Fleishman reviews the Excitrus 100W Magnetic Wireless Power Bank and concludes that it is the best portable battery that provides both USB charging and wireless charging in a single device.  It holds 20,800 mAh, and it is $99.99 on Amazon.
• My “In the Know” tip-of-the-week on a recent episode of the In the News podcast was to use the Speedtest app by Ookla.  That app was recently updated to add a new map feature.  As Ben Lovejoy of 9to5Mac explains, you can use the map feature to find out how different mobile carrier networks compare in your area, or to identify problem spots if you are traveling to a different area.
• I had two problems with my iPad/iPhone this week.  First, the app that I use every day to work with PDF files—PDF Expert from Readdle—suddenly stopped syncing with Dropbox this week.  It was frustrating when it happened, but I reached out to Readdle’s support folks via the Readdle website, and within a few hours, they had it fixed again.  When I saw that the technician who solved my problem lived in Ukraine, I’ll admit that I felt guilty that she was spending time solving my problem with a war going on in her country.  Kudos to Readdle for looking out for its customers during this troubling time.
• My second problem this week was with my iPhone.  My son received an athletic award this week and I tried to record video using my iPhone.  I recorded most of the ceremony with no problems, but a few seconds before they announced his award, my iPhone suddenly stopped recording and wouldn’t let me hit the button to start recording again.  And then after a few seconds, the interface rebooted.  That’s not a good sign.  I noticed that my iPhone was getting sort of hot as it recorded 4K video, and while this should have never happened in the first place, there are two things that I will try the next time that I use my iPhone to record something important.  First, restart my iPhone before I start, just to give it a fresh start. Second, turn on Airplane mode.  My iPhone can get hot when it is having trouble holding a cellular (especially 5G) signal, and I suspect that was happening at the school.  I’m not sure if these two steps would have prevented my problem, but if you are about to record a graduation or other important event with your iPhone, you might consider trying these steps first.  It wasn’t a big deal for me to not have video of my son accepting his award—I was still able to take some great photos afterward—but I would have preferred to have the video.  And more importantly, it was annoying that I was distracted by my iPhone as he walked to the stage.
• A funny XKCD cartoon from this week has an Apple theme.
• And finally, now that you can repair the battery and screen on an iPhone by purchasing the parts and the tools from Apple, Quinn Nelson created a YouTube video to show you how it works.  Apparently, this is the same process that Apple itself uses.  Although I have zero desire to ever take my own iPhone apart, I thought it was interesting to see someone else do it:

In this week’s podcast episode, Brett Burney and I go deep into the subject of passwords and how they might become obsolete thanks to the FIDO Alliance.  We also discuss AT&T rate hikes for older plans, AirTag discounts, and two very fun videos that were released this week:  Apple’s Skywalker Sound video and iJustine’s look behind the scenes at Apple Fitness+.  I then follow up on something that I promised to do way back in Episode 9; better late than never!

In our In the Know segment, Brett talks about setting up TouchID on an iPad Air and why it is different from an iPhone, and I share a tip for copying just part of a message in the Messages app so that you can paste it somewhere else.

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

For a while now, Apple and other companies have been working towards a future in which we no longer need to use passwords.  Apple—and others, including Microsoft, Google, Amazon, MasterCard, Visa, and American Express—are part of the FIDO Alliance.  FIDO means Fast IDentity Online, and with this system, instead of you needing to remember a username and password, and instead of the service needing to know your username and password (creating the risk of passwords being leaked if the service is hacked), FIDO uses something called public-key cryptography.  The user has a secret key, something that you might store on your iPhone, and it matches one and only one public key, which the service uses. (The service does not need to worry about keeping the public key confidential because it is useless unless it is paired with your secrete private key.)  Yesterday, as we were all of course celebrating World Password Day, the FIDO Alliance announced that they are taking major steps towards this future without passwords.  As Corin Faife of The Verge reports, their proposal is that when you want to log in to a service, you simply authenticate yourself on your iPhone using Face ID (or Touch ID)—or other devices if you don’t use an iPhone.  No username.  No password.  Your web browser (or app or whatever you are using) talks to both the service and your iPhone (or other device) and then you are authenticated.  Although no specific timetable was announced yesterday, apparently their hope is to have the first implementations in about a year.  About two months ago, Lily Hay Newman of Wired wrote a good overview of how FIDO will work, and she says that it “will make phishing a thing of the past” which is great because the bad guys “have become masters at tricking users into unintentionally handing over their passwords, and even two-factor authentication codes or approval prompts can be exploited.”  Security is such an incredibly important topic for everyone—and especially for lawyers, who have a duty to keep certain information confidential—and thus I would love to see day when we will have an even more secure world without the headaches of usernames and passwords.  And now, the news of note from the past week:

• Illinois attorney John Voorhees of MacStories reviews The iOS App Icon Book, a book showcasing great app icon designs.
• For a good example of why the end of passwords cannot come soon enough, Adam Engst of TidBITS shares the stories of two friends of his whose email accounts were taken over by scammers because the bad guys figured out his friends’ passwords.
• Josh Hendrickson of ReviewGeek reviews Eve MotionBlinds, smart shades that work with Apple’s HomeKit technology.
• David Snow of Cult of Mac recommends accessories for your Apple Pencil, such as a cover that makes it look like a yellow #2 pencil ($11.04 on Amazon).
• Speaking of Amazon, a four-pack of Apple AirTags typically cost $99, but right now you can get them on Amazon for $84.55, which is as low as I ever remember seeing them priced.
• John Gruber of Daring Fireball reports that the European Commission may impose new rules on how Apple uses ApplePay.
• On May 4 (Star Wars Day), Apple released a fantastic video showing how the incredibly talented people at Skywalker Sound use Macs to create sound effects for Star Wars and many other movies and TV shows.  This video was great fun to watch.
• If you use an older AT&T plan, Chance Miller of 9to5Mac reports that AT&T is going to raise the plan price to encourage you to switch to an unlimited plan.
• Jennifer Pattison Tuohy of The Verge wrote a comprehensive review of the top-of-the-line Eero Pro 6E, which takes advantage of Wi-Fi using the new 6GHz band—which no Apple devices currently support, but I suspect that support will come soon, perhaps later this year in the 2022 version of the iPhone.
• Justin Meyers of Gadget Hacks has an interesting list of lesser-known iOS features.  For example, I didn’t know that when you are using the keyboard you can type a capital letter by tapping the Shift key and then sliding your finger over to the letter.
• And finally, if you use Apple Fitness+, you should enjoy this video from Justine “iJustine” Ezarik, who had a chance to visit the Fitness+ studio in Santa Monica, CA.  I wish that she could have shown even more behind-the-scenes shots, but the views of the control room showing all of the different screens are really interesting.  For example, one screen includes overlays for every different device that someone might use to watch a video — iPad, iPhone, TV, Mac — so that they can make sure that the action stays in an area that everyone can see.  It is also interesting to see the countdown timer and “up next” information that the fitness coaches see as they lead a workout.  Apple’s Fitness+ videos have always been incredibly well produced, in addition to having useful content, so it is fun to see a glimpse into how they produce the videos.  If you want to get even more behind-the-scenes access, check out this article by Robert Leedham of British GQ.

A few days ago, Apple released the results for its 2022 fiscal second quarter (which ran from December 26, 2021, to March 26, 2022) and held a call with analysts to discuss the results.  Unlike Apple’s Q1 which contains all of the holiday sales, Apple’s Q2 is usually not a particularly interesting quarter.  But this year, Apple’s Q2 was a big financial success.  Back in 2018, Apple posted record Q2 revenue of $61.1 billion.  This time last year, Apple set another Q2 record with $89.6 billion.  This year, Apple set another record, reporting $97.3 billion, up 9% year-over-year.  But as explained below, Apple also warned investors that Q3 will not be so rosy; supply constraints as a result of COVID shutting down factories in China plus industry-wide silicon shortages mean that Apple’s revenue in April, May, and June will be less than it would have been if Apple could sell all of the products that people want to buy.  If you want to get all of the nitty gritty details, you can download the audio from the conference call from iTunes, or you can read a transcript of the call prepared by Jason Snell of Six Colors.  Apple’s official press release is here.  Here are the items that stood out to me.

iPhone

• iPhone revenue for the quarter was $50.6 billion, a record for a fiscal second quarter.  This was a 5% increase from last year, and Apple CEO Tim Cook said that Apple saw strong demand for the iPhone 13 family of devices.
• As Jason Snell noted in an article for Macworld, the fact that iPhone revenue was higher in 2022 Q2 than 2021 Q2 is particularly impressive when you consider that the iPhone 12 was released later in 2020 than the iPhone 13 was released in 2021.  So a year ago, Apple’s Q2 saw a large number of iPhone sales that normally would come in Q1.  That didn’t happen this year, and it would have been reasonable for iPhone revenue in 2022 Q2 to be less than it was a year ago as a result.  But instead, iPhone revenue was higher this year.  That indicates that Apple is seeing even higher iPhone demand this year than a year ago.
• Cook refused to say whether demand for the iPhone SE 3 was better or worse than Apple had seen for prior iPhone SE models, instead simply saying that Apple could not be happier with its iPhone sales.
• Apple CFO Luca Maestri said that iPhones are selling very well compared to other smartphones: “When we look at top selling smartphones around the world, we’ve had pretty incredible results during the March quarter, the top six models in the United States are iPhones, the top four in Japan, the top five in Australia, five of the top six in urban China, and so on and so forth.  So the iPhone 13 has been truly a global success.”

iPad

• iPad revenue for the quarter was $7.6 billion, down somewhat from $7.8 billion one year ago. 
• Cook attributed the decrease in iPad revenue to supply, not demand.  Cook described the same problem three months ago.
• The 2% drop in iPad revenue as compared to this time last year was better than the 14% year-to-year drop last quarter, when Apple was also very constrained in iPad supply.  (But as noted below, I expect iPad revenue to go back again next quarter.)
• Maestri said that iPad demand remains strong:  “Customer response to our iPad lineup, including our new M1-powered iPad Air, remains very strong, and our installed base of iPads reach a new all-time high during the quarter, with over half of the customers purchasing an iPad during the quarter being new to the product.”

Other

• Although Apple does not reveal specific information about Apple Watch sales, Apple said that the entire category of Wearables, Home, and Accessories saw 12% revenue growth in the past year, setting a new record of $8.8 billion.  Maestri said that two-thirds of the people who purchased an Apple Watch in Q2 were purchasing their first Apple Watch.  That’s impressive considering that the Apple Watch has now been for sale for just over seven years.
• Apple services revenue rose to a record $19.8 billion in Q2, up 17% from last year.
• Tim Cook said that because of supply constraints caused by COVID and industry-wide silicon shortages, Apple will sell $4 to $8 billion less in Q3 than it would have sold without these issues.  Cook said that these shortages will affect most of Apple’s product categories.  The silicon shortages were something that Apple saw in Q1 as well, but the shortages due to COVID were new in Q2.  As a result of these shortages, some sales that Apple would have made in Q3 will not happen until Q4.  But Cook also believes that some customers will purchase non-Apple products in Q3 because of these shortages, which means that Apple will lose the sale completely as a result of the shortages.  Cook said that the good news is that the factories in Shanghai, China that had closed to COVID are now starting to re-open, but it could take four to eight weeks for the factories to get back to normal.

Brett Burney and I start off this week’s episode by explaining how cellphone companies are selling your personal information—what websites you visit, who you call, where you are located, etc.—and what you can do about it.  Then we talk about DIY iPhone repair and repurposing an old iPad or iPhone to give it a new purpose in life.  We talk about videoconferences on an Apple Watch, a new word game, and the last place you want your iPhone to end up.

In our In the Know segment, Brett shares a tip for adding travel time to entries on your calendar.  I recommend the Speedtest app from Ookla for troubleshooting network issues on your iPhone, iPad, computer, etc.

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

Another weekend is just hours away.  If you enjoy relaxing on the weekend (or any other time) with word games like crossword puzzles and Wordle, and/or puzzle games like Sudoku, you should check out a fun new game for the iPhone and iPad called Knotwords.  The app is free, but you can also pay to unlock additional puzzles.  It comes from the makers of Good Sodoku (an excellent app for playing Sodoku and learning how to become a better player).  Illinois attorney John Voorhees of MacStories explains how the game works, and Jason Snell of Six Colors interviews one of the developers, Zach Gage.  Click here to download the app and try it out for yourself.  I’ve only played a few games so far, but I like it, although I do wish it could sync games between the iPhone and iPad.  And now, the news of note from the past week:

• Yesterday, Apple opened a new store: an online self-service repair store.  Or more accurately, Apple hired someone else to do so.  As reported by Stephen Hackett of 512 Pixels, you can purchase all of the tools and parts that you need to replace an iPhone display, battery, camera, etc.  If you are just repairing one device, the amount that you need to pay to buy everything is likely more than it would cost you to have Apple repair your iPhone, plus you run the risk of damaging something and voiding your warranty.  On the other hand, if you don’t mind running that risk and paying more just to have a do-it-yourself project, go to selfservicerepair.com to see what you can buy.
• Tatum Hunter of the Washington Post (gift link so anyone can read the article) explained that your cellphone carrier uses your web history to target you with ads and explains the somewhat complicated steps that you can go through to turn off this feature.  I see that AT&T had this turned on for me by default, so I turned it off.
• Emma Roth of The Verge reports that Apple has alerted app developers that apps that have not been updated in a significant (but unspecified) amount of time will be removed from the App Store within 30 days.  I’ve certainly become frustrated with some apps that haven’t been updated in forever.  On the other hand, sometimes I have a use for an old app and it doesn’t much matter to me if the app is getting long in the tooth.  Overall, I support Apple’s plan to spruce up the App Store, but as Matt Deatherage of MDJ explains, updating an app to comply with Apple’s requirements to work with the latest operating system can take a lot of work, and for some developers, that work is just not worth it.
• Jason Cross of Macworld wrote an article for Macworld with the click-bait title 10 little-known iPhone features that will blow your mind.  My mind was not blown and I didn’t learn anything new, but I’ll admit that he mentions some good tips, so it is worth you checking to see if any of them are new to you.
• Jason Snell wrote a great article on Six Colors with his take on why Apple decided to start showing live MLB baseball games on Apple TV+.  His analysis seems very solid to me.
• If you have an extra iPad that you are not using, Bradley Chambers of 9to5Mac recommends using a wall mount to turn it into a HomeKit controller.
• If you have an extra iPhone that you are not using, Jason Snell of Six Colors recommends using the Camo app to turn it into a webcam for your computer, and he recommends another tip to make the iPhone act as nothing but a webcam.
• Rikka Altland of 9to5Toys reports that Anker has a new Nano II 100W GaN USB-C charger that is 30% smaller than Apple’s 96W charger.  Altland says that it is available for $76 but as I am typing this the product page on Amazon doesn’t seem to be ready yet.  That’s about the same price that you would pay for Apple’s 96W charger, but you can charge up to three devices with the Anker charger.
• Eric Slivka of MacRumors reports that you can now purchase Belkin’s Wemo Smart Video Doorbell, which works with Apple’s HomeKit Secure Video.  It is $259.99 on Amazon.  There are not many good video doorbells that work with HomeKit, and as a result when I bought one for my house last year, I purchased a eufy wireless doorbell that works well, but I would like it even more if it worked with HomeKit so that I could use the Home app to manage it, view the camera, etc.
• Evan Selleck of the iDownloadBlog reports that the Wristcam—an Apple Watch band with a built-in camera—has updated software that lets you make videocalls using an Apple Watch.
• Allison Sheridan of Podfeet Podcasts explains why she likes using the Apple Card credit card.  I have an Apple Card and I like it too.  I always use it when I can get 3% cashback—the Apple Store, Exxon gas stations, Walgreens, etc.—and I use it for some other purchases too.
• Nathan Pilling of the Kistap Sun (from the state of Washington) shares the story of a woman who tried to retrieve her phone after she mistakenly dropped it in a vault toilet (an outhouse structure) and … well let’s just say that it did not turn out very well for her.  She did recover the phone, but had to use it to call the fire department to rescue her.  The article doesn’t say if it was an iPhone or an Android, but I’m going to give her the benefit of the doubt and imagine that it was a brand new top-of-the-line iPhone, although I’m not sure even that would justify the experience.
• And finally, Joanna Stern of the Wall Street Journal published a great video this week in which she interviews Ken Kocienda, who invented the original autocorrect system on the iPhone, to talk about common autocorrect fails and what you can do about this, ahem, duckin’ problem.  Definitely worth watching:

At the end of every episode of the In the News podcast that I record every Friday with Brett Burney, Brett and I each share a tip in a segment called “In the Know.”  In the most recent episode, I shared a large number of my favorite iPad keyboard shortcuts.  If you listened to that episode the way that I usually listen to podcasts, then you probably heard it when you were in your car, doing errands around the house, or in some other place where you were not directly in front of your iPad.  Thus, I thought it would be helpful to share the full list of shortcuts in a post.  Of course, you can always read the podcast show notes in your podcast player of choice for more information on the tips that we share, or you can go to the website for the In the News podcast and read the show notes there.

Here are the shortcuts that I find most useful when I am using an external keyboard with my iPad.  If there are one or more on this list that you are not currently using, I encourage you to try them out to determine if they make sense for you.

• Command-Tab: Switch apps.  Most people use a similar keyboard shortcut on a computer, so this is one that you probably know.  On the iPad, it works the same way as on the Mac because it shifts to a different app.  On the PC, the Control-Tab shortcut is a little different than the iPad/Mac because it switches between each open window, and there can be multiple open windows from the same program.
• Command-Space: Show (or hide) the Search field.  The #1 way that I use this is to search for and launch a specific app without lifting my hands from the keyboard.  I can do Command-Space, then type a few letters (such as the “wo” in “Word”) and then I will see matching apps, such as the Microsoft Word app.  I can then hit return to launch that app.  If the first app listed is not the one that you want, use the arrow keys to highlight the app that you want.  This Search feature doesn’t just work for finding apps; it also works for finding information within an app.  You can control which apps share their existence or their data with Search by going to Settings -> Siri & Search -> [app name] -> Show App in Search / Show Content in Search.  So for example, if you often type “wo” to search for the Word app and the first option suggested is a different app that you never want such as the Wowowo app, you can tap on the Wowowo app in Settings and tell your iPad never to show that app (or its contents) when you use the Search feature.
• Command-F: Unlike the Command-Space shortcut, which searches across multiple apps, Command-F will typically perform the Find function in the app that you are currently using.  
• Command Key: If you hold down the Command key without pressing any other key for a few seconds, you will see a list of all of the keyboard shortcuts in that particular app. That is useful for learning new shortcuts.  It is also a useful way to find out what an app can do, with different functions often organized into sections like File, Edit, Format, View, etc.—not unlike the “File” and “Edit” menus at the top of a window on a computer.
• Command-H:  Hide the current app and bring you to the Home Screen.  You can remember this one either by thinking of the “H” as representing “Hide” or as representing “Home”.
• Command-Shift-3: Take a screenshot.
• Shift-Left-Arrow or Shift-Right-Arrow: Highlight text one character at a time, in the direction you press the arrow key.
• Shift-Option-Left-Arrow or Shift-Option-Right-Arrow: Highlight text one word at a time, in the direction you press the arrow key.

There are also some useful keyboard shortcuts that use the Globe Key.  Only certain keyboards have a Globe key, such as the Apple Magic Keyboard for iPad or the keyboard that Apple includes with some of the newest Macs.  If your keyboard doesn’t have that key and you want to use one of these shortcuts, you can tell your iPad to pretend that another key on the keyboard is the Globe key.  For example, if you don’t use the Caps Lock key on your keyboard very often, you can go to Settings -> General -> Keyboard -> Hardware Keyboard -> Modifier Keys and tell the iPad to map the Caps Lock key to the Globe key.

• Emoji picker.  The Globe key can help you to select Emoji more quickly.  This is helpful because one of the disadvantages of using an external keyboard is that it typically takes some extra steps to select Emoji. First, you can tap the keyboard button at the bottom of the screen and then tap Show Emoji.  Second, you can use the shortcut Control-Spacebar, which brings up a menu to switch between keyboards, and then you can continue to tap Control-Spacebar until the Emoji keyboard is selected.  The Globe key gives you a faster way to select Emoji: just press the Globe key and go directly to the Emjoi picker.  To enable this shortcut, you need to go to  Settings -> General -> Keyboard -> Hardware Keyboard -> Press GLOBE for Emoji.  If you prefer using Emoji more than you prefer using other Globe key shortcuts, then this setting is perfect.
  
• UPDATE:  In a comment to this post, John Whitley pointed out another easy way to bring up the Emoji picker: Control-Command-Spacebar.  I knew about that one in the past, but I forget about it over time.  Thanks for the reminder, John!
• Globe Key-A: Open/Close Dock.  If you have a keyboard close to the bottom of your screen, the keyboard might make it more awkward to swipe up from the bottom to display the Dock.  Thanks to this keyboard shortcut, you can show the dock without your hands leaving the keyboard.
• Globe Key-C: Show the Control Center.  Thus, this saves you the trouble of swiping down from the top right of the screen.  However, you will still need to touch the screen to select an item from the Control Center.

Of course, there are many other keyboard shortcuts that you can use on the iPad, and your favorites may be different from mine. For example, I shared a very large number of text selection keyboard shortcuts in this post from 2016.  My advice is to find some that seem useful and then use them frequently for a period of time so that they become second nature to you. Once you get to that point, you will be much more efficient when using an external keyboard with your iPad.

Brett Burney and I discussed lots of interesting topics in this week’s episode of the In the News podcast.  We start by sharing a warning that a mute button in a videoconference app might not give you the privacy that you expect.  Then we discuss Brett’s new iPad Pro and how Apple could update the operating system to improve the iPad for when you want to be productive.  We also discuss improvements to the Apple MagSafe Battery, efforts to circumvent Apple’s privacy protection efforts, Wordle, and much more.

In our In the Know segment, we talk about using an external keyboard with the iPad.  Brett shares a tip for using the trackpad Apple’s Magic Keyboard.  I share iPad keyboard shortcut tips.

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