Microsoft Word is one of the most useful apps for attorneys on the iPhone and iPad. There are currently two ways to use Word. You can use the app called Microsoft Word, or you can use the app called Microsoft Office which contains Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and more in a single app. The core features are identical, but there are some things that you can do in one but not the other. Brett Burney, my co-host on the In the News podcast, put together an informative (and high-quality) video to explain these differences along with lots of other useful information for using Microsoft Word on the iPad (and iPhone). If you use Word on your iPhone or iPad, you should check out Brett’s video. And now, the news of note from the past week:
Apple released a minor update for the iPhone this week, iOS 15.1.1. It fixes a problem with dropped calls on iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 models, as noted by Chance Miller of 9to5Mac. I know that Apple is also doing a lot of testing of iOS 15.2 and I expect that to come out soon.
Apple also released a minor update for the Apple Watch this week, watchOS 8.1.1. It fixes an issue with charging on the Apple Watch Series 7 that has been experienced by some users. Josh Centers of TidBITS offers more details.
One of the nice new features of the Apple Watch Series 7 is fast charging, if you use the cord that comes with that Apple Watch along with a USB-C charger. It works really well. Chance Miller of 9to5Mac reports that Belkin launched a new 3-in-1 MagSafe charger this week that can charge an iPhone, AirPods, and Apple Watch at the same time, and it supports fast charging, along with a stand-alone fast charger. I’m thrilled to learn about these products because they show that third party manufacturers can take advantage of fast charging on the new Apple Watch.
Apple’s new iCloud Private Relay and Mail Privacy Protection systems are not part of watchOS 8. Jason Cross of Macworld explains why this might make a difference to you.
If you own an LG smart television but you don’t own an Apple TV device, you can still watch the Apple TV+ channel using an app on the television. As reported by William Gallagher of Apple Insider, this week, LG added an Apple Music app so that Apple Music subscribers can listen to songs on an LG television, either using the built-in speakers or whatever external speakers you have hooked up to the LG television. Unlike the Apple TV 4K, the LG app doesn’t support spatial audio, but for the circumstances in which it makes sense to use your television without a streaming box, it is nice to have this feature.
Dan Moren of Six Colors describes a new service announced by Apple this week, the Self Service Repair program. Users of Apple products will be able to purchase official parts and tools directly from Apple to repair their own devices.
John Gruber of Daring Fireball offers some additional thoughts on Apple’s new Self Service Repair program. He notes that it may be great news for independent repair shops and the people who like the service advantages that come with those shops.
Jason Snell of Six Colors describes another new service announced by Apple this week, the Business Essentials program. The program offers small businesses Mobile Device Management (MDM) tools along with an AppleCare+ service that can serve as tech support along with iCloud storage. I can see this being useful for many small businesses.
Tweetbot is my favorite app for using Twitter. As Federico Viticci of MacStories explained, that app got lots of new features this week, in part because Twitter is now letting third-party apps do even more with the Twitter service.
And finally, Apple released a silly and fun Shot on iPhone video this week called A Dozen Eggs by Michel Gondry. Yes, that Michel Gondry, the Academy Award-winning French director and screenwriter known for films like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. It features clever special effects and … well, I’ll just stop there so I don’t spoil it. It’s only a minute long, so just go ahead and watch it and see for yourself.
New survey results indicate that a record number of attorneys are using an iPhone in their law practice: 80% of all attorneys in the United States. These numbers come from the ABA Legal Technology Resource Center, which has conducted a survey every year since 1990 to gauge the use of legal technology by attorneys in private practice in the United States. If you want to know what legal technology lawyers are using, this is one of the best sources for that information.
The 2021 report (edited by Sasha Goncharov) was just released, and as always, I am particularly interested in the statistics on mobile technology. For many years, the ABA reported on smartphone use every year, but for the last few years that data only comes out every other year. This is one of those years, and this is the twelfth year that I have reported on this survey. (My reports on the prior ABA surveys are located here: 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010.)
80% of all U.S. attorneys use an iPhone
When the ABA started asking lawyers about smartphone use in 2011, only 31% of attorneys were using an iPhone. But that use has increased every year, and in 2021, a record 80% of all attorneys in the United States are using an iPhone. The only other player in 2021 is Android, which is used by 19% of attorneys. (About 1% or less of all attorneys use both.) This year, the percentage of attorneys not using any smartphone in their law practice is 2%, which is frankly higher than I would have expected.
I traditionally show a pie chart to make it easy to see what smartphones are in use. That probably isn’t necessary at this point with only two platforms in use, but for the sake of tradition, let’s do it anyway.
80% is the overall number, and iPhone use is even higher in larger firms. In firms with 100 or more attorneys, 86% of all attorneys used an iPhone in 2021. On the other extreme, 61% of solo attorneys reported using an iPhone in 2021. In firms with 100 or more attorneys, 13% use Android, whereas 33% of solo attorneys use Android.
I always find the trends over time more interesting than the data from any one year. Back in 2011, when the ABA first started to ask attorneys what type of smartphone they used, the BlackBerry was still on top at 40%, but that was a decrease from prior years. The iPhone was at 31% in 2011, and it has increased just about every year since then. In 2012, the iPhone overtook the BlackBerry. In 2013, iPhone use crossed the 50% mark at 57%. In 2019, iPhone use crossed the 75% mark at 79%. And this year, it increased even more to 80%.
Android use started at 15% in 2011, increased to a high of 25% in 2018, and has been around 18%-19% since 2019.
Who is making the decision to use the iPhone or Android platform? For the most part, it is the individual attorneys. Over 80% of attorneys say that they are allowed to select their own brand, model, and type of smartphone. That percentage decreases somewhat as firm size increases, hitting 71% for law firms with 100 or more attorneys.
You cannot use a smartphone without paying a monthly service fee. Overall, 47% of attorneys say that their law firm fully pays the cost of the mobile phone service, and another 20% get some sort of stipend. But those numbers vary widely based on firm size. For example, only 34% of large firms (100 or more attorneys) pay the full cost, but that percentage increases as firm size decreases to a high of 67% for solo attorneys.
A smartphone is particularly useful for checking email, and this year, 53% say that their smartphone is the primary way that they access email while out of the office. That’s down from 70% when this question was asked in 2019. This year, 28% say that their work laptop is their primary way used to access email while out of the office.
Attorney tablet use
Before 2019, the ABA also asked about tablet use. From 2013 to 2018, about half of all attorneys reported using a tablet, and for those who did, between 80% and 90% reported using an iPad. But starting in 2019, the ABA stopped asking a direct question about tablet use.
In the 2021 survey, tablet use is addressed in a few questions. For example, the survey asks whether tablet devices are “available for use” at the attorney’s law firm. I interpret that question as asking whether the law firm purchases tablets for attorneys to use, which would not capture individual attorneys buying their own iPad to use in their law practice. Whatever that question means, the percentage is 38% in 2021. In 2017, the answer to that question was 61%, and it has declined every year since then. But again, I don’t think that question really captures how many attorneys are using an iPad or other tablet device because of the way it is worded.
Another question asked what type of devices are used to regularly conduct legal research while away from the office. The top seven answers are:
Laptop computer — 67%
Home desktop computer — 32%
Smartphone — 21%
Tablet device — 14%
E-book reader — 1.6%
AI assistant – 1.5%
Smart wearable — 0.4%
The first two responses are not surprising. The next two responses also make sense to me because while I think that it is easier to do legal research on an iPad than an iPhone, I suspect that the number of attorneys who use an iPad is about half the number who use an iPhone, and that alone would account for those percentages.
As for the sixth and seventh items on that list, I have a lot of questions. 1.5% of attorneys are using something like Siri to do legal research? I have an image of an attorney saying “Hey Siri, can you please Keycite or Shepardize this case” and that seems wrong. I’m having an even harder time wrapping my brain around the last response. There are over a million attorneys in the United States, so a 0.4% answer means that over 4,000 attorneys are somehow doing legal research on their Apple Watch? If any of those folks are iPhone J.D. readers, I’d love to hear what in the world you are doing, because this doesn’t seem like it would work for me:
The number on the newest iPhone is “13" and now this website has hit 13 as well. Thirteen years ago today, on November 17, 2008, I took a picture of the front of my iPhone on a legal pad to create a banner for this website, and I published the first post. I guess that means that iPhone J.D. is now a teenager. There have been over 2,100 posts here since 2008, and while lawyers are still using iPhones, so much of what that means has changed so much since 2008.
A milestone always seems like an appropriate time to step back and take a look at where you have been, so let’s do that.
Popular posts this year. Every year on the birthday of iPhone J.D. (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12), I find it interesting to look back and see which posts over the prior 12 months were the most popular. The fact that these posts were so popular often 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 the last 12 months:
Review: Apple iPhone 12 leather case — slim case to protect your iPhone. I would never have guessed that an iPhone case review would be the most-viewed post of the past year, but that’s what the numbers say. I suppose I shouldn’t be that surprised because I’ve always been a huge fan of the leather iPhone case sold by Apple over the years. It is slim, it feels good, and of course, it fits perfectly. And because it supports MagSafe, it is even more useful. I’ve been buying versions of this $59 case every year with every new iPhone for as long as I can remember. Because of the flat-edge design of the iPhone 12 and now the iPhone 13, I no longer use the case all of the time. I find that it is easier to slip an iPhone in and out of a pocket without a case, and the flat edge makes it easier to get a good grip on the iPhone when it is in my hand. But many times a week – and always when I travel — I use Apple’s leather case to get a better grip on the iPhone.
How to make your Apple Watch speak the time out loud — or not do so. I always enjoy sharing a good tip. Indeed, one of the things that I love about the weekly In the News podcast that I do with Brett Burney is that we always end with our “In the Know” segment in which we each share a tip, and I often learn something new from Brett. In this post, I explain how to enable the talking clock feature of the Apple Watch that you trigger by putting two fingers on the display, and also how to turn it off if you are worried about triggering it by accident.
Review: Solo Loop band for Apple Watch. I’m glad to see that this review got so much attention because I love the Solo Loop band. In fact, when I recently upgraded to an Apple Watch Series 7 and had to select a watch band to go with it, I knew instantly that I would get a different color of the Solo Loop. Because this band has no buckle, it is incredibly secure. It is also incredibly comfortable and easy to keep clean because you can just wipe it off. I have a lot of different Apple Watch bands, but this is one of my all-time favorites.
20 iPhone tips for lawyers in 2020. Technically, this post was not from the past year because it was posted the day before my 12th anniversary post. But so many folks read this one during the past twelve months that it is worth mentioning here. A year ago, I was invited by the Monroe County Bar Association in Rochester, NY to team up with the fantastic New York attorney Nicole Black, the Legal Technology Evangelist with MyCase law practice management software, to share some iPhone tips. We had a great time doing that presentation and I shared many of our tips in that post. Those tips are just as useful today as they were a year ago, so be sure to take a look at that post if you missed it last year or just want a refresher.
Review: Foam Masters Hybrid Silicone-Memory Foam Ear Tips for AirPods Pro — comfortable replacement tips that fit. As much as I love my AirPods Pro, the built-in tips are not great for my ears. I vastly prefer using these replacement ear tips. I see that the version that I purchased and reviewed has now been replaced with a new 3.0 version for $24.99, which uses upgraded memory foam, has new brackets, and has a new “NanoWeb Ultra-thin Membrane” that “coats each Foam Tip to improve hold in ear, sweat resistance, and drastically improves durability.” I may have to check those out. For the past few weeks, I’ve actually been testing a different replacement tip for the AirPods Pro: the COMPLY Foam Apple AirPods Pro 2.0 Earbud Tips. So look out for a review of those at some point soon.
Review: LIT SUITE — powerful iPad litigation apps. Lit Software has been producing top-notch iPad apps since 2010. Earlier this year, the company switched to a subscription model, and I used that post to explain what it all means.
Review: iPhone 13 Pro — better cameras, better screen, better battery life. It’s been about six weeks since I wrote my formal review of the iPhone 13 Pro. I started that review by mentioning the new 3x telephoto lens, and that remains one of my favorite features. I’ve also found the Macro camera very useful. I wrote in that review that I hadn’t had enough experience with battery life to comment on it. I can report now that the additional battery life is real and is very nice. The only time I’ve had to be concerned about iPhone battery life is when I’ve filmed a lot of 4K video.
Reivew: SongPop Party — compete to quickly name that tune. I don’t play a lot of games on my iPhone or iPad, and that’s why I rarely discuss games on this website. But I did enjoy SongPop Party quite a bit this past summer. And after typing that last sentence, I just played the game again. It’s still fun.
Subscription services that are worth paying for. This post gave me an excuse to talk about a lot of apps and services that I enjoy using so much that I consider them to be worth paying for, every month.
Visitors to iPhone J.D. Every year, I use this post to 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 52% of readers visited from a smartphone, and 90% of those were iPhones. It also reports that 44% of readers visited from a desktop computer and 4% visited from an iPad, but I think those numbers are wrong. As the Safari browser on the iPad has gotten more sophisticated over the years, I think that Google is assuming that some iPads are desktop computers. Across all devices, the most popular browser is Safari (62%), followed by Chrome (30%) and Firefox (4%).
I know that lawyers around the world use the iPhone and iPad. About 53% of iPhone J.D. visitors during the past year were in the U.S., which is the lowest percentage I ever remember seeing. Over 10% of readers are in the U.K. Canada (6%) and Australia (4%) make up another 10%. I’ve never before seen many iPhone J.D. visitors from China, but for the first time this year, China was the #5 country to visit this website. China is a huge and growing market for Apple, so I suppose it should come as no surprise that many iPhone and iPad users in China who can read English (or use translation tools) would be visiting sites like iPhone J.D. for tips and product reviews.
Every year, I also look at the top cities for the folks who visit iPhone J.D. New York has been #1 every year, except for 2015 and 2020 when London was on top. And this year, London is back on top for the third time, just barely beating out New York. But the most notable change is to see cities in China on this list for the first time: Tianjin and Beijing, two of the largest cities in the world.
London
New York
Singapore
Tianjin
Los Angeles
Sydney
Beijing
Chicago
Dallas
Melbourne
Other cities that have previously made the Top 10 list, but did not this year, include Toronto (#11 this year), Houston (#12), Atlanta (#13), and San Francisco (#14). I live in New Orleans, which was #41 this year. Salt Lake City was #100, Coral Gables was #250, Naples was #1000, and Beverly Hills was #4000. A number of cities had only a single visitor to iPhone J.D. last year, such as Powerview-Pine Falls, a town in the Canadian province of Manitoba with a population of 1,294.
Apple released the AirTag earlier this year, and for the reasons I explained in my review, it is a great device for finding lost items. When Apple designed the AirTag, it also thought about the possibility that they would be misused as a way to stalk someone. For example, have been incidents in the past in which tracking devices made by other companies had been hidden in a car or other object owned by a victim. I learned a little about how this system works when my wife recently took a trip and used a piece of luggage on which I still had one of my AirTags. Here is what happened.
Only a few minutes after I dropped off my wife at the New Orleans airport, I got an alert that my “Luggage” AirTag was no longer with me. (And that was the first time that I remembered that it was on the luggage.) If I had left my luggage behind by mistake, this would have been a useful reminder to go back and get my luggage.
I received that notification because in the FindMy app, I turned on an option to notify me when an item is left behind. Of course, I wouldn’t want to get an alert every time I left home without my luggage. Fortunately, you can also create exceptions so that you won’t get a notification if you are separated from your AirTag and it located at a specific location, such as your house.
When I got home, I could see in the FindMy app that my Luggage AirTag was at the airport.
Later that day, after my wife’s plane had landed, my wife’s iPhone gave her an alert that and AirTag belonging to someone else had been moving with her. The alert said: “The location of this AirTag can be seen by” and then it provided my Apple ID email address. When she tapped that alert, the FindMy app gave her a Safety Alert. It showed her a picture of an AirTag and then explained that the owner of the AirTag could see her current location:
The FindMy app also told her that an AirTag belonging to my Apple ID email address was first seen with her at a specific time — which was that moment that I left the airport with my Luggage AirTag near my wife and not me. It also gave her the option to play a sound on the AirTag, which would have helped to locate the AirTag if it had been in a hidden location. As Apple explains on this page of its website, the FindMy app can also be used to turn off AirTag detection notifications and to get directions on how to disable the AirTag.
What if a stalker places an AirTag near a victim who does not have an iPhone? After a period of time, the AirTag will start to play an alert beep. If the AirTag is held close to a smartphone that supports NFC — even an Android phone — the smartphone will provide additional device about the AirTag.
A dedicated stalker may be able to find ways around some of these protections, but it is nice to see that Apple designed the AirTag with privacy in mind.
I dress up, and Brett dresses down, for episode 27 of the In the News podcast, which is now available. Brett and I cover a lot of interesting topics this week. We start by discussing these fascinating charts prepared b y Jason Snell of Six Colors, which show where Apple is making its money, and which — I believe — provide lots of insight into what Apple is doing. Then we discuss the latest scams that hackers are using to try to hack you, an update to the Scanner Pro app, AirPods for only $89, Apple holiday templates for Keynote cards, and two SciFi shows that Brett and I are watching right now (Foundation and Dune).
In our In the Know segment, we discuss two useful apps: VoiceDream Reader and When Did I…?
When Apple introduced the third generation AirPods and said that it would continue selling the second generation AirPods for $129, I wrote last month: “That makes me think that those will eventually go on sale for under $100.” And sure enough, as reported by Christine McKee of AppleInsider, Walmart is now selling the second generation AirPods for only $89 as part of an early Black Friday sale. That is a fantastic price for a beloved product. The second generation doesn’t support Spatial Audio and lacks the longer battery life that you get with the $179 third generation AirPods, but they are only half the price. Whether you want to get AirPods for yourself or you are looking to get a great stocking stuffer, this Walmart price is a very good deal. And it wouldn’t surprise me to see similar holiday sales offered by others over the next few weeks. And now, the news of note from the past week:
Apple announced this week that Alex Gorsky, the CEO and chairman of Johnson & Johnson, was joining Apple’s Board of Directors. As John Gruber of Daring Fireball notes, this is further evidence that “Apple sees health as a major new frontier.”
The first graph shows that Apple revenue in fiscal 2021 was considerably higher than ever before. And the graph showing iPad revenue over the years is particularly interesting because the iPad hit a peak in 2013, then revenue dropped, and now it is back up again and better than ever.
Scanner Pro, my favorite app for scanning documents with an iPhone, added a new Smart Categories feature this week to make it easier to find something that you scanned in the past.
Mike Fleming, Jr., of Deadline reports that Finch, the new Tom Hanks movie on Apple TV+, is the most-watched movie on the service. My son and I watched the movie last weekend, and we both loved it. I recommend it.
Speaking of shows on Apple TV+, every week that I watch the Sci-Fi show Foundation on Apple TV+, I like the show more and more. It looks as good as any big-budget movie, and while it took me a few episodes to get engrossed in the story, now I’m loving it. Episode 8, The Missing Piece, came out last week and it is probably my favorite episode so far, and there are two more episodes to go.
If someone calls you and asks you for your two factor authentication code, of course you should not provide it to them. But as John Gruber explains in this report, which is based on a report by Joseph Cox for Motherboard, there are sophisticated bots that might trick you into doing just that. Be careful out there.
Oliver Haslam of iMore explains another scheme that iPhone thieves are using to trick you into helping them disable Find My after they steal your iPhone.
I’ve never thought of using Keynote to create a greeting card, but Apple did. If you visit the page on the Apple website dedicated to holiday gifts and scroll down to the Today at Apple section, you can download a Keynote template to “[m]ake a unique holiday card.” Given how easy it is to create shapes and add images to a Keynote presentation, it actually makes perfect sense to me to use that app to create cards.
And finally, here is a new “mobile phone” that you might want to purchase that is being sold by Fisher-Price. Yes, that’s right, I said Fisher-Price. The first telephone that you ever used now includes Bluetooth to work with your current iPhone. And of course, it still has the eyes and the wheels. This introduction video is cute, and you can get more information on the Fisher-Price website:
USB-C is becoming an increasingly important charging technology for Apple devices. Many devices, like the iPad Pro, have a USB-C port. Other Apple devices, such as the HomePod mini, come with a cord that has a USB-C connector on the end that connects to a power adapter. And some Apple devices that work with either USB or USB-C charge faster with USB-C. Apple calls this fast charging, and is requires a power adapter than can output 18W or more of power. For example, as I noted in my recent review of the Apple Watch Series 7, the cord that comes with that product has a magnetic charger on one end and USB-C on the other end. While you can use the older USB cord to charge it, you can charge the watch over twice as fast if you use the USB-C cord and a USB-c power adapter.
As a result, I’m seeing less of a need for USB chargers in my life and a greater need for USB-C chargers. And I know that I’m not the only one — even just in my own household. We recently gave my son an Apple Watch SE for his birthday, and even though that device doesn’t support fast charging, the charging cord included with the Apple Watch SE has a USB-C connector. All of this has resulted in me recently purchasing two new USB-C charging adapters, and today I’m focusing on the first one: the Anker Nano Pro (40W). I purchased that one for my son, but I can see anyone finding it valuable. (The other charger that I bought recently, which I will reviewing in a future post, is the Satechi 108W USB-C 3-Port GaN Wall Charger. Here is my review of that device.)
Nano
When Anker came out with the original Anker Nano, the elevator pitch was to have a charger that was about the same size as the 5W USB charger that Apple used to always include with the iPhone, but it supported 20W USB-C. Anker still sells the Anker Nano for $16.99, but it is being replaced by the 19.99 Anker Nano Pro, which does a better job of doing the same thing because Anker says that the Pro version intelligently monitors the temperature and output power to increase safety, and says that this device is perfect for the new iPhone 13.
Nano nano
Instead of purchasing the Anker Nano, I purchased the $35.99 Anker Nano Pro (4oW), which I’ve also seen called the Anker Nano Pro (Dual Port). It is a little bit larger than the Nano Pro, but it can provide 20W of power to two different USB-C ports. Thus, you can provide a fast charge to two different devices at the same time.
The Nano Pro is larger than Apple’s traditional 5W USB charger, but of course, these are two very different products. One provides 5W to a single device. the other provides 20W each to two devices.
A more appropriate comparison is to the 18W/20W USB-C adapter that Apple sells and has included with many of its USB-C products — although Apple is starting to move away from that practice so that you have to purchase a power adapter separately. The size is similar. The Anker product is more tall and less wide — which is an advantage because it hogs up less space on a horizontal power strip — but the overall volume is similar, even though the Anker Nano Pro (40W) provides twice as much power and can handle two devices instead of just one.
You can purchase this Anker charger in white, black, lavendar, or blue.
The Anker Nano Pro (4oW) works well. In just a small amount of space, you can use your own USB-C cords to recharge two different devices.
Unlike some competing products, the prongs don’t fold down, so this is a little less suitable for travel, although it is so small that you probably won’t mind the prongs. Also keep in mind that each port only provides 20W of power. That’s no different than the 20W charger that Apple provides with many of its products, like the iPad Pro. However, many Apple devices can charge faster when given additional watts. For example, the iPad Pro with a USB-C connector can use up to a 30W charge, so you can charge somewhat faster by using a charger that outputs more wattage. An iPhone 13 Pro Max can reportedly take up to a 27W charge. Apple has confirmed that an Apple Watch Series 7 can connect to up to a 96W USB-C Power Adapter, although I suspect that you don’t see much of a speed improvement after around 30W.
Conclusion
The Anker Nano Pro (40W) is a nice product for charging two Apple devices that support USB-C while taking up the minimal amount of space.
Episode 26 of the In the News podcast is now available. We start by discussing the new Apple Watch Series 7, which I’ve been using all week and I love. We then talk about possible interference between 5G and radio altimeters used by planes, and then we discuss putting your vaccination card in the Wallet app on an iPhone thanks to iOS 15.1. (I mentioned in the podcast that I had not yet used this new feature, but I subsequently used it when I went to a restaurant yesterday and had to prove that I was vaccinated to enter. It was fast and convenient, and is definitely what I will use going forward.) We then briefly discuss Apple’s holiday return policy and Apple’s new $19 cleaning cloth.
In our In the Know segment, we discuss two useful shortcuts, each of which is powerful but consists of only a single instruction, so you can create each one in the Shortcuts app in only seconds. Brett shared a tip for instructing your AirPods to connect to the device you are using, even before you start playing audio on that device. I shared a tip for quickly getting directions to a specific location, even if the Maps app normally has trouble finding that location when you use Siri. And the shortcut that I described also lets you name that location anything that you want when you say “Hey Siri…”
Many experts are advising folks to start holiday shopping early this year. COVID and other factors are causing product shortages and shipment delays, so you cannot wait until the last minute to get that perfect gift. Here is a tip if that perfect gift is a product sold by Apple. For example, I know that the new Apple Watch Series 7 is in short supply, and Alan Martin of Tom’s Guide reported this week that Apple appears to be cutting its iPad production in half so that the shared components can instead be used in new iPhones to try to keep up with large expected demand for the new iPhone 13. If you decide to purchase an Apple product now so that you are sure to receive it in time to give it as a present next month, you’ll be happy to learn that Apple is instituting a Holiday Return Policy, something that it has done in the past. This policy provides: “Items purchased at the Apple Online Store that are received between November 1, 2021, and December 25, 2021, may be returned through January 8, 2022.” Thus, you can buy something now, and you can return or exchange it for the next two months — much better than the normal 14-day return period for Apple. And now, the news of note from the past week:
Cat Zakrzewski of the Washington Post reports that AT&T and Verizon will delay part of the 5G expansion to address concerns that it may interfere with airplane safety systems. (Gift article, so anyone can read using that link.)
If you use the Apple Card credit card, you can share it with family members. And as Chance Miller of 9to5Mac reports, if you do so this month, that person will receive $10 in Daily Cash when they make their first purchase using their new Apple Card. (Somewhat of a gift article, because it is an article about a $10 gift.)
Miller also discusses the new Beats Fit Pro, wireless earbuds that are similar to AirPods Pro, but they feature wingtips to keep them in the right place in your ear.
Speaking of the Apple Watch, I’m surprised I haven’t seen something like this before. TwelveSouth introduced the ActionBand, a flexible terry cotton band that holds an Apple Watch and hugs your wrist while absorbing sweat as you work out.
Dan Moren of Six Colors raises some questions about the new feature in iOS 15.1 of storing your vaccine card in Apple’s Wallet app. I’ve been using an app called LA Wallet to show my vaccine status for a while now, but I like the idea of using Apple’s Wallet app. (If you launch the LA Wallet app and you are wearing a mask, you cannot authenticate using Face ID so you have to enter a special pin that is unique to that app, which is an obstacle, albeit a minor one.) I haven’t yet had a chance to use the vaccine card in the Wallet yet, but I hope to do so soon.
And finally, Brett Burney and I discussed this briefly on last week’s episode of the In the News podcast, but one of the useful features of iOS 15.1 and iPadOS 15.1 is that you can now share your iPhone or iPad screen with someone else during a FaceTime call, or you can have the other person share their screen with you. This video from Apple shows you how easy it is to use this feature. This would be a great way to provide tech support to a friend or family member. You can show them on your own screen how to do something, or you can talk them through what they need to tap on their screen. It’s a great feature.
Apple’s newest model of the Apple Watch, the Apple Watch Series 7, went on sale on October 8, 2021. Initial supplies were limited, but I finally received mine a few days ago, and over the next few weeks it will become easier to find the version of the Series 7 that is right for you. The model that I purchased is the larger size (45mm) with a Silver Stainless Steel Case. (All of the stainless steel models come with cellular.) I selected a Solo Loop band — a band that I really like, and it is also one of the least expensive bands sold by Apple — and my total price was $749. (I’m trading in a Series 5 stainless steel Apple Watch, which can result in a refund of up to $145.)
Here are my thoughts on this new model, which I’m sharing from the perspective of someone who is upgrading from an older Apple Watch model. If you think that it might be time for you to upgrade your Apple Watch, I hope that this review helps you to decide if the Series 7 is right for you. (And if you have never before owned an Apple Watch, it is one of my favorite Apple devices, so you are in for a treat if you buy an Apple Watch Series 7.)
Larger screen
The marquee feature of the Series 7 is the larger screen. And I’m here to tell you that it is a nice improvement.
On paper, the larger screen seems like it might not be very noticeable. The 45mm case of the Apple Watch Series 7 is only one millimeter larger than the Series 4, 5, 6, and SE. If I’m just looking at the body of the watch and not the screen, I really cannot notice the difference between 44mm and 45mm — which is a good thing because I wouldn’t be happy if this new watch seemed too bulky. And while the black bezel around the screen is also thinner, it wasn’t all that big to begin with after the bezel reduction introduced in the Series 4. Nevertheless, those two seemingly small changes give the Series 7 almost 20% more usable screen space than the Apple Watch Series 4 through 6, and almost 50% more screen space than the original Apple Watch through the Series 3.
In practice, the screen increase is noticeable and welcome. When you are doing something on the watch that takes advantage of the larger screen, everything is bigger and bolder, making it much easier to read the screen. Imagine having your eyes checked by an ophthalmologist and being asked to read line 5. If you are close enough, you can read P E C F D. But if you are then asked to stay in the same spot and read line 4, that’s a cinch because the font size of those letters is a little bit bigger: L P E D. That’s what it is like reading the larger text on the larger screen of the Series 7. Sure, you could also read the words on the prior screen, but it is easier to read the words on this screen.
What if you think the text is too big on this larger screen? On the watch, you can go to Settings -> Display & Brightness -> Text Size to make the text size a little smaller so that it is similar to what you saw on prior models of the Apple Watch. Apps that support the Dynamic Type feature will adjust the text size, and you will be able to see even more on the screen without needing to scroll.
Another advantage of the larger screen is that buttons in many apps are larger and thus easier to tap. The Enter Passcode screen provides a good example. I remember that when I first made the switch from one of the earlier Apple Watch models to the Series 4, it became much easier to tap those buttons because the screen size had increased. The size increase is less dramatic with the Series 7, but I always notice it, and I really like it.
Here is the Enter Passcode screen on a first-generation Apple Watch, a Series 5, and a Series 7:
Here’s a closer view of the buttons on the Series 5 next to the Series 7:
As you can see, the buttons are only slightly larger. But when you go to tap those buttons, the extra room is very nice. The larger passcode screen is something that I appreciate because I use it at least once every day, and typically multiple times a day because I often change my watch band when I come from work.
Another advantage of the big screen is that, in many apps, you can simply see more. The maps app is a good example of this. The Series 7 shows more than the Series 4/5/6/SE, and it shows considerably more than prior models of the Apple Watch:
There are a few Apple Watch faces that are specifically designed to take advantage of the larger screen. My favorite is the Modular Duo. The digits showing the time at the top right are noticeably larger than the similar-sized digits on other watch faces, so it is easier to see the time on this watch face than almost any other one. A small complication fits at the top left. And there is space for two large complications on the main part of the screen — something that was never before possible on an Apple Watch.
I’ve been using the calendar complication in the top large area and the Dark Sky weather complication in the bottom large area, and it is nice to see all of that information at a glance.
With the larger screen, Apple is also providing a new way to enter text into an Apple Watch: a swipe keyboard. Like the similar keyboard on the iPhone, you can put your finger on the first letter of a word, swipe to the second, third, fourth, etc. letters in the word, and then finally lift your finger from the screen when you reach the last letter. The watch does a very good job of understanding what word you intended, even with a relatively fat finger on such a small keyboard.
I’ve tried the new keyboard a few times, and it works. It seems to be less accurate than me speaking and letting Siri translate my speech to text, but if you are in an environment where you cannot talk but you can tap a screen, this keyboard is a nice way to type a few words, or perhaps a sentence or two. I don’t think that I will use the new keyboard very often, but it is nice to have the option for whenever I want it.
The larger screen is certainly not a necessity, but it sure is nice. It makes using the watch a much more pleasant and enjoyable experience. If you are upgrading from an older Apple Watch model, the larger screen will be the most obvious new feature.
Speed
The Apple Watch Series 6 is 20% faster than the Apple Watch Series 5. The Series 7 inherits that speed increase. Thus, if you are like me and you are upgrading from a Series 5 model to a Series 7, you will get a 20% faster Apple Watch. And yes, a 20% speed increase is very noticeable.
Apple also increased the speed considerably when the Apple Watch Series 4 came out—the first Apple Watch to feature a 64-bit processor, which was twice as fast as the Series 3. Thus, if you are upgrading from a Series 3 (or older) to the Series 7, the speed increase that you will experience will be phenomenal.
Although I enjoyed using the early Apple Watch models, they were sluggish, and you couldn’t help but notice it. The Series 4 and Series 5 were the first Apple Watch models that seemed to be fast enough to do what they were supposed to be doing. With the 20% speed increase that you get with the Series 7 (and Series 6), the watch now goes beyond “fast enough” and into the “fast” category. This makes a difference because a faster Apple Watch is a more responsive Apple Watch. I may not need the screen to refresh that much faster when I switch apps or switch screens within an app, but it sure is nice to have the watch keep up with me.
Although the larger screen is the most obvious difference from my prior Apple Watch, the speed increase is my second favorite feature. The Series 7 is the top-of-the-line Apple Watch right now, and with this speed increase, you really feel like you are using the best Apple Watch.
Faster charging
When it is time to recharge your Apple Watch, the Series 7 lets you do so faster than ever before. This is actually the second year in a row that Apple has done something to make the Apple Watch charge more quickly. Last year, the Series 6 added the ability to charge 20% faster than the Series 5 using the same USB cable that the Apple Watch has been using since the first generation. This year, with the Series 7, you can use the same USB charger if you want to do so, but you get another speed boost by using the included USB-C cable along with a USB-C power adapter. The USB-C power adapter is not included with the watch, and this page on the Apple website tells you what type of adapters you can use. (That page also says that fast charging is not available in Argentina, India, or Vietnam, although I have no idea why.)
If you are upgrading from a Series 5 or earlier, you should see an impressive increase in charging speed. I ran some tests where I charged my Series 5 with the regular USB cord at the same time that I charged by Series 7 with a USB-C cord connected to an Apple 29W adapter that I already had from one of my other Apple devices (perhaps my iPad Pro). From 0% to about 80%, my Series 5 added about 5% of charge every five minutes, but the Series 7 added about 12% of charge every five minutes. After it hit 80%, the Series 7 continued to charge, but at a somewhat slower rate (more like 5% to 7% every five minutes), which I know is something that Apple does by design to protect the watch.
Apple says that if you use the USB-C cord with the Series 7, you can go from 0% to 80% in about 45 minutes, and that is consistent with my tests. But I find it even more impressive that you can get a substantial charge if you have less than 45 minutes. For example, in only 15 minutes, I could increase the charge of my Apple Watch by 35%, which is much better than the 15% increase on my Series 5 in the same amount of time.
Depending upon how you use your Apple Watch, faster charging may not matter much. For example, if you charge your Apple Watch overnight, it doesn’t much matter if it takes one hour or two hours while you are sleeping. And a new Apple Watch will typically have enough power to last all day, after which you can again charge it overnight.
But there are circumstances in which you will want to charge during the day, and in these circumstances, the faster charging helps a lot. First, some folks like to wear an Apple Watch while they sleep. This allows for sleep tracking, makes it easy to check the time if you wake up during the night, and lets you use your Apple Watch as a silent alarm to tap you on your wrist when it is time to wake up (instead of a loud alarm that can wake up someone else in the same room). The disadvantage of wearing an Apple Watch at night is that your watch is not at 100% when you start your day. Faster charging makes it easier to find one or two times during the day to charge your watch, such as while you are getting ready in the morning.
Second, there are some uses of an Apple Watch that drain the power more quickly. If you are using cellular, working out for a long period of time, and/or using the screen more than normal, you may need to recharge before the day ends. On the rare occasions when you have one of those days, it is nice to add a little more charge during the day and do so as quickly as possible.
Third, although a brand new Apple Watch does a great job of lasting all day, after a year or two, the battery doesn’t last as long as it does when new. The same is true with the iPhone and other devices with a rechargeable battery. This was one of the reasons that I decided to upgrade from a Series 5; after two years of heavy, daily use, I was getting to 10% or less of battery life near the end of many days when I wanted to keep going a little longer. If this Series 7 watch starts to do the same thing in a few years, it will be nice to be able to recharge it quickly.
Although I’m very impressed by the fast charging of the Series 7, you don’t have to use it all of the time. If you already have one or more older Apple Watch USB chargers because you are upgrading to a Series 7 from an older model, you can still use those chargers. You won’t get fast charging, but you will still charge.
Sensors
Ever since the first Apple Watch debuted in 2015, it has had a sensor to monitor your heart rate. The Series 4, introduced in 2018, added the ability to check your heart activity by running a simple ECG test (sometimes called an EKG). The Series 6, introduced in 2020, added a blood oxygen sensor. Apple is careful to point out that the Apple Watch is not a medical device — a term that requires jumping through many regulatory hoops — but these heart and respiratory sensors can give you a sense of your health. I like that if the Apple Watch notices something that doesn’t seem right, it will give you an alert. There are numerous examples of folks going to see a doctor because of an Apple Watch alert and learning that they have a serious medical issue that needs to be addressed.
Another sensor in the Apple Watch provides fall detection — first added in the Apple Watch Series 4. Fall detection was improved in the recently-released watchOS 8 to do a better job of detecting falls during workouts, including when riding a bicycle.
The Series 7 does not add any new sensors, but it includes all of these sensors that have been added in the past, so you may get one or more new sensors, depending upon the model from which you are upgrading. For me, the blood oxygen sensor is new, and since that sensor can play a role in detecting COVID-19, I’m glad to have it, even though I’m not sure if I’ll ever need it.
A brighter dim
The Apple Watch Series 5 introduced a feature that I’ve really appreciated: even when you are not using the watch, the screen remains on, albeit in a dimmed state. That way, you can glance at your watch without moving your wrist to see key information on the screen such as the time. The Apple Watch Series 6 improved this feature by making the watch up to 2.5x brighter when it is outdoors in that dimmed state.
The Apple Watch Series 7 works the same as the Series 6 when you are outdoors. Indoors, and especially if the lights are low, the Series 7 is a little brighter than the Series 6 when it is in that dimmed state. Apple says that the Series 7 can be up to 70% brighter in this state.
In my tests, I see a difference, but it is not a major difference. Nevertheless, any increase in brightness results in some degree of increased legibility, so I’m glad that Apple is making these changes.
Cellular Service
Ever since the Series 3, you have been able to purchase an Apple Watch with cellular service. That way, even if you are away from your iPhone, you can still send and receive text messages, emails, phone calls, etc., and apps can get data from the Internet. The stainless steel model doesn’t come in a GPS-only model, so my Apple Watch has cellular whether I wanted it or not. To use the cellular features, you need to pay your carrier, just like you would for a phone. I use AT&T, which charges $15.50/month for an Apple Watch. (AT&T says that the cost is $10/month, and that is true, but the surcharges and fees associated with the line increase the total cost to $15.50.)
Do I get $15.50 of value every month from cellular? That’s debatable, but on balance, I still like it. It is pretty rare for my iPhone and Apple Watch to not be a part of the same WiFi network, and they are often even closer and within Bluetooth range. But it does happen sometimes. Sometimes I will walk or jog outside and I don’t want to take my iPhone with me. Sometimes, while on vacation at the beach, I would leave my iPhone in my room so that there was no risk of it being stolen off of a chair when I was in the pool with my kids. And rarely, I’ll rush out of my office during the day — such as to grab lunch — without remembering to pick up my iPhone. There is some security in knowing that I can still send and receive messages, calls, emails, etc. in these situations. And it is nice that I can stream music or a podcast from my Apple Watch to my AirPods without using the iPhone at all.
I’m glad that cellular remains an option on the Apple Watch. If you haven’t used it before, it is worth thinking about getting a cellular model, even though it is not essential.
Durability, Colors, Materials, and Prices
The Apple Watch Series 7 is more durable than prior models for all of the reasons that I discussed in this post. I don’t have anything new to add on that topic, so check out what I wrote previously for all of the details.
Similarly, check out that post to see pictures and descriptions of the different colors, materials, and prices. I’ve been using the stainless steel model since the very first Apple Watch. I like the way that the shiny exterior looks on my wrist, it pairs well with almost every watch band, and the screen is even more durable because it has a sapphire front crystal instead of glass. But if that doesn’t appeal to you, you can get the aluminum version to save some money and get a lighter watch. (The 45mm size is 38.8 grams in aluminum and 51.5 grams in stainless steel.) Apple also sells a premium titanium model, which also uses a sapphire front crystal (and weighs 45.1 grams).
I noted in that post that Apple is still selling the Series 3 and you should not buy it. I continue to believe that. As I also noted in that post, Apple is also still selling the Apple Watch SE, and it is worth considering for some users. For example, my wife and I recently gave my son his first Apple Watch for his 16th birthday, and even though I was willing to get a Series 7 if he really wanted it, he was very happy with the SE and I think that it was the right model for him. The SE is $130 cheaper, he decided that he wasn’t interested in an always-on display, the sensors other than the heart rate sensor (which the SE does have) didn’t interest him, and he didn’t think that the speed and brightness differences would matter much for him. And with the cheaper model, I’m less worried about him breaking it. Having said that, while the SE seems perfect for a teenager, I think that the substantial advantages offered by the Series 7 are worth the extra $130 if you have that in your budget.
Conclusion
If you think that it might be time to upgrade your Apple Watch, the Series 7 is fantastic. If, like me, you are upgrading from a Series 5, it is faster, brighter, easier to see, and adds an extra sensor. If you are upgrading from an even older model, then you will experience even more improvements. And all of the improvements add up to a watch that is a delight to use.
