Jeff Richardson

Yesterday, Apple introduced the 2019 iPhone line with three new iPhones.  In the immortal words of Spinal Tap’s Nigel Tufnel, “these go to 11.” The iPhone 11 and the two sizes of the iPhone 11 Pro are better than last year’s models, with the main improvements in iPhone photography and battery life.  But these are incremental improvements, and it would be fair to think of them as representing the third generation of the iPhone X, introduced in 2017.  Having said that, if you are still using a pre-iPhone X model, then upgrading to one of these models will be a major advance for you.  Here are the main features of the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max that I think will most appeal to lawyers.

The screen

I want to begin with a feature that is only somewhat new:  the screen.  I mention this first because the feature that I most love in the iPhone X and iPhone XS, and I’m sure that I will continue to love with the iPhone 11 models, is the edge-to-edge screen.  As I explained in my reviews of the iPhone X and iPhone XS, you can be much more productive with a larger screen on a device that doesn’t take up more space.  Whether you are reading emails or trying to review a document on your phone while you are out of the office, the larger and beautiful screens that Apple first introduced with the iPhone X are fantastic for lawyers. 

The screen on the iPhone 11 is the same 6.1″ screen that Apple used last year with the iPhone XR.  It’s a very good screen.  The iPhone Pro models come with a 5.8″ or 6.5″ screen that uses a beautiful OLED display, which means that blacks are pure black and colors really pop.  And this year’s model is brighter than ever before and features a larger contrast ratio.  Whether you are using your iPhone 11 Pro to get work done, look at photos, or watch a movie on a plane, the iPhone 11 Pro screen is going to be fantastic.

Photography

The hardware of the iPhone 11 probably won’t do much more than the iPhone X or the iPhone XS in terms of making you a better, more productive lawyer.  (Contrast this to the software; iOS 13, coming out later this month, will add lots of features that let you be more productive with an iPhone.)  But when you use your iPhone as a camera. the iPhone 11 has lots of great new features. 

First, Apple is adding a new ultra wide camera.  On the iPhone 11, this means that you have two cameras on the back.  The iPhone 11 Pro models now feature three cameras:  ultra wide, normal, and telephoto. 

The new ultra wide camera has a 120º field of view, which lets you capture even more without having to step back.  The way that Apple has implemented the feature is interesting:  when you are taking a normal photograph, you see on the left and right edges a preview of some of what you will see if you zoom out by switching to the ultra wide lens.

I often find myself in situations in which my iPhone cannot capture everything that I want to include in the picture, so I switch to panorama mode.  That mode works well for a landscape when everything is still, but yields comical results when objects (such as people) in the panorama are moving.  With the ultra wide lens, you may be able to get the picture you want without resorting to panorama mode.

In an article for Macworld, Jason Snell notes that you can even decide to take advantage of the ultra wide lens after you took a picture with the normal lens:

You can optionally set the iPhone 11—for both video and stills—to capture data from both the wide and ultra wide cameras.  The iPhone retains both versions for an undetermined period of time; eventually, if you do nothing with the ultra wide version, it will get thrown away.  What’s really happening here is that the iPhone is stashing away a broader view of the image or video you just took, in case you end up realizing after the fact that an important part of the scene was cropped off the edges of the frame.

To fix that issue, you do exactly what you’d expect—open the image in the Photos app and tap Edit, then select the Crop tool.  You’ll discover that there’s more image beyond the crop marks!  This is image data from the ultra wide camera that has been seamlessly stitched into your photo or video, and if you want to use it, you can just change the crop to reveal more information.  It’s a very clever way to provide a safety net via the ultra wide camera.  Once you’ve tapped that Edit button, that extra off-camera information will continue to be available for later tweaking—iOS won’t throw it away.

Second, Apple has implemented a feature previously seen on some Android phones like the Google Pixel, the ability to take a night mode picture when there is almost no light.  Whether you are taking a picture at a dark restaurant or outside when it is night, night mode allows you to take pictures in environments in which you previously couldn’t take a usable picture at all.

Related to this feature, if you are in a dark environment, the iPhone will show you how long your exposure will be.  And if you put your iPhone on a tripod or other stable surface, you can increase the exposure time to let the iPhone suck in even more light out of the dark environment.  This should allow for some really interesting long exposure photography.

Third, it is now faster than ever to switch between taking a picture and taking a video.  If you are taking a picture and you hold down on the shutter button, you’ll immediately start recording a video as long as you hold down the button, or you can swipe right to lock into video mode.  (Holding down on the shutter button was previously used to bring up burst mode, which you can still access by holding down on the button and then swiping left.)  There are so many times that I am taking a picture of my daughter playing soccer and then I want to quickly start taking a video, but I cannot do so without wasting a few seconds to switch modes.  This will be a nice new feature.

Apple calls that new feature QuickTake.  That name has a history at Apple; back in 1994, Apple sold a $749 digital camera called the QuickTake 100, which could take eight photos at a time at 640 x 480 resolution.  After you took eight pictures, you had to download them to a computer.  My law firm purchased one of those to try out this fancy new technology called digital photography.  To get a sense of how far digital photography has come, here is a picture that my wife took of me using the QuickTake 100 on April 2, 1995, when I borrowed the camera from my law firm to play around with it for a weekend:

While this picture is old and grainy, I still love to play that piano as much as I can.

Fourth, if you are using an iPhone 11 Pro, a feature will be coming later this year called Deep Fusion which combines nine different images taken with the three cameras along with artificial intelligence to create a single, incredibly life-like and detailed picture, the sort of picture that traditionally would require an expert photographer using a high-end DSLR camera.  [UPDATE 9/11/2019:  According to John Gruber, Deep Fusion will also be available on the iPhone 11.  But with only two lenses, I’m curious if the results will be as good.  We’ll see.]

There are other new features too, like better videos, better selfie pictures (including slow-motion video selfies and a widescreen lens to fit more people in your picture), and other tricks that advantage of combining the normal camera with the ultra wide camera, such as better portrait mode pictures on the iPhone 11 versus the iPhone XR. 

Professional photographers and videographers are already using the iPhone quite a bit, and as Apple demonstrated yesterday, the results that these professionals can get with the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro cameras are phenomenal.  But even if you are just taking pictures of your vacation, a birthday, or your kids, you can create some really amazing photographs with the three new iPhone 11 models.

Battery life

From my colleagues at work to my kids at home, everyone I know wants better battery life from an iPhone.  The iPhone 11 gains one extra hour of battery life over the iPhone XR.  Even more impressive, the iPhone 11 Pro gets four additional hours of battery life over the iPhone XS, and the iPhone 11 Pro Max gets five additional hours of battery life over the iPhone XS Max.  For the pro models, that sounds like an incredibly impressive increase in battery life.  I’ve had days when I was using my iPhone extensively (often when traveling) and by 6pm my battery is starting to run low.  Having that deadline extended to 10pm or 11pm is a huge difference.

Perhaps to accommodate a larger battery, the new iPhones are slightly heavier than last year.  For example, the iPhone 11 Pro is 6.63 ounces, versus the iPhone XS, which was 6.24 ounces.

When you do need to recharge your iPhone, the iPhone 11 comes with the same Apple 5W charger that Apple has included with iPhones for many years.  But the iPhone 11 Pro models come with an 18W charger, allowing you to charge up to 50% in only 30 minutes.  Or you can purchase a 29W or 30W USB-C adapter (or third party options like the Anker PowerPort line) to charge an iPhone even faster.

Colors

The iPhone 11 is made of aluminum and glass.  It comes in six colors: purple, white, yellow, green, black, and red. 

The iPhone 11 Pro is made of stainless steel and glass, with a texture matte finish on the back.  It comes in four colors:  space gray, silver, gold, and a brand new midnight green.

To help you see the new colors, Apple is now selling clear cases for all of the iPhone 11 models.

Ultra Wideband

The new iPhone has a new U1 chip that takes advantage of Ultra Widebrand technology so that the iPhone knows where it is located in relation to other devices with Ultra Widebrand.  Apple said that you can use this feature with AirDrop, making it easier to send a file to an iPhone that is closer to yours.  But then after describing that use of this feature, the Apple website teases:  “And that’s just the beginning.”

Given the rumors, I suspect that what Apple is hinting at is that Apple is working on a new tracking device.  If you put one on your keys and you lose your keys, Ultra Wideband technology will let you use your iPhone to find the specific location in a room where your keys are hiding.  Hopefully, we will see this new device later this year.

Faster

Every new iPhone is faster than the year before.  This year, the iPhone 11 uses the A13 Bionic chip to do everything faster.  Apple also says that Face ID is 30% faster than it was before, plus it can recognize your face from even farther away and at new angles.

Etc.

Although Apple doesn’t encourage you to dunk your iPhone 11 in water, Apple does say that the new model is even more water resistant than before, with the iPhone 11 Pro even more water resistant than the iPhone 11.  Also, the glass is even more durable, giving you a little more protection if you drop the iPhone 11. 

The new iPhones also produce better sound, using something Apple calls spatial audio to create “a more immersive, theater‑like surround sound experience.”  And the new iPhones support Wi-Fi version 6, allowing you to download up to 38% faster if you are connected to a Wi-Fi router that also supports Wi-Fi 6.

Apple also removed a feature with the iPhone 11:  3D Touch.  All three models now instead use Haptic Touch, which Apple used last year with the iPhone XR.  The two technologies are similar; Haptic Touch works based on how long you touch the screen, whereas 3D Touch measures how much pressure you apply to the screen.

Pricing

Last year, there was a $250 price difference between the entry level iPhone XR ($749) and the entry level iPhone XS.  This year, the iPhone 11 is $300 less, starting at $699 for a 64GB model.  The iPhone 11 Pro starts at $999 for 64GB, and the iPhone 11 Pro Max with the larger screen starts at $1,099 for the 64GB model.  You can pre-order the new models of the iPhone 11 starting this Friday, September 13.

Conclusion

If you are still using an iPhone older than the iPhone 8 and iPhone X, you are probably ready for an upgrade.  If you want to limit how much you spend on an iPhone and/or if you still like the old design with a button and Touch ID, Apple is still selling the iPhone 8, starting at $449 (or $549 for the iPhone 8 Plus).  But keep in mind that the iPhone 8 is already two years old.  The iPhone 8 will be the right phone for many folks, but I strongly recommend that you also consider the iPhone 11.  Yes, it takes a little while to get used to Face ID, but the edge-to-edge screen of the iPhone 11 along with the better camera, increased speed, and other features make the iPhone 11 a better value.

If you want the best iPhone ever, the two sizes of the iPhone 11 Pro look great.  The two main improvements are photography and battery life, and those are two features that I know that I will really appreciate.

Today at 10am Pacific / 1pm Eastern, Apple will give a keynote presentation at the Steve Jobs Theater, part of Apple’s Apple Park campus in Cupertino, CA.  I’m sure that Apple will announce the new 2019 version of the iPhone.  I’m also sure that we will see more than that, but what else will there be?  I suspect we will hear something about the Apple Watch, such as perhaps new versions of the Series 4 Apple Watch or perhaps even a new Series 5 Apple Watch.  (Apple first announced the Apple Watch five years ago yesterday.)  I also suspect that we will hear more about Apple’s new services, such as its Apple TV+ streaming video service and its new Apple Arcade game service.  For the past few years, when Apple has had a new iPad to introduce in the Fall, it has not done so at the September event but instead at an event held later in the year, so I don’t expect to see new iPads today.  There are rumors that Apple has been working on a new tracker device to help you locate items, and it would be interesting to see Apple introduce that today.  And hopefully, there will be some surprises.

As always, you can watch the event live on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac on the Apple website at this page.  If you have an Apple TV, you can watch the live stream in the Apple special events app.  Additionally, and for the first time ever, Apple will stream its event live on YouTube on this page.  And you should come back to iPhone J.D. tomorrow when I will provide my thoughts on the new iPhones.

Every year in September, Apple announces new iPhones, and now we are just a few days away from this year’s announcement on September 10.   In an article for Macworld, Jason Snell provides his wish list of new iPhone features that he’d like to see, and on Six Colors he posted about other announcements he would like to see.  My own thoughts on the event are very similar to his.  For example, as I take more and more pictures with my iPhone instead of my DSLR camera, I’m always interested in improvements to the camera.  All will be revealed very soon.  And now, the news of note from the past week:

• If you like playing games with your iPad, iPhone, TV, and Mac, you’ll be interested to learn about vastly improved support for game controllers in the next version of the operating systems, including support for PlayStation and Xbox controllers.  Illinois attorney John Voorhees took a deep dive into this upcoming support and prepared this report for MacStories.
• In an article for Medium’s Elemental, Ashley Ladrer offers advice for avoiding hearing loss when you use earbuds.
• Benjamin Mayo of 9to5Mac discusses new HomeKit-compatible accessories from Eve, including a smart water detector that can detect, for example, if a room has flooded.
• Nick Guy of Wirecutter updated his article recommending the best Apple Watch chargers and stands.  I still use the Material Dock by Studio Neat that I reviewed in 2016.
• iOS 13 will feature vastly improved voice control technology, which will be especially useful for folks with accessibility needs but will likely be helpful to many other folks too.  Steven Aquino describes what is new in an article for MacStories.
• Dave Rees of The Gadgeteer reviews the Brydge Pro keyboard for the 2018 iPad Pro.
• Rich Mogull of TidBITS explains that Google’s Project Zero discovered that China exploited a number of iOS vulnerabilities to spy on Muslims.
• In another article for TidBITS, Josh Centers critiques Apple’s inconsistent use of the ellipses icon on the iPhone.
• Leif Johnson of Macworld reviews the Adonit Note stylus, and is frustrated by the same thing that I found frustrating in my review — it is too easy to accidentally press the power button.  That flaw is unfortunate because, otherwise, it is a very nice, less expensive alternative to the Apple Pencil.
• And finally, here is a video of Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano on the International Space Station using his iPad to act as a DJ in orbit, playing music to folks dancing on a cruise ship.  When asked to comment on the performance, the folks on the ship said that it was out of this world.  (I’m a father, so I believe that I have the constitutional right to make dad jokes.)

Wirecutter is one of my favorite sites for reviews and recommendations for almost anything that you can buy.  The site often reveals the most popular picks of the month (for example, here is one for August 2019), which I assume is based upon Amazon affiliates links, and this type of post is an interesting way to learn about products that others consider useful enough to spend money on them.  It occurred to me that I can also see the total number of items purchased on Amazon as a result of a link on iPhone J.D., and that provides some insight into products that I have reviewed here which lots of folks have found interesting enough to purchase.

This is a slow week in the world of iPhone news since everyone is focused on the new Apple announcements coming next week, so I thought that this would be a good time to follow Wirecutter’s lead.  Based on the Amazon data that I can see for the first eight months of 2019, here are the top ten most popular Amazon picks based on iPhone J.D. reviews:

1. Anker Lightning cables

I’ve reviewed lots of different types of Anker Lightning and USB-C cables over the years including the following:

• Anker PowerLine 10ft Lightning (review 8/15/19)
• Anker PowerLine+ C to C 2.0 cable (review 12/17/18)
• Anker PowerLine+ (review 1/3/18 and 11/22/17)
• Anker PowerLine+ II (review 1/3/18)
• Anker Powerline+ USB-C to USB 3.0 Cable (review 5/16/19)

They are good cables and they have held up well for me.  If I need to buy a new cable for my iPhone or iPad, the first thing I do is find out if Anker makes the kind of cable that I need and, if so, that’s typically the one that I end up buying.

2. Weego Jump Starter 22

I’ve purchased two of these.  I use the Weego Jump Starter 22 in my own car, and I like that one because it also provides power to a USB port so you can use it to charge an iPhone, iPad, etc.  My wife didn’t think that she needed that USB port for power, so she has a Weego Jump Starter 22s in her car.  I love these devices because they are compact, super easy to use, and can save your bacon if you ever have a dead battery.  As I noted in my review, that actually happened to me once after a business trip when my car was parked at the airport.  Finding someone to jump my car would have been difficult, and it would have been impossible to get another car close enough to mine to perform a jump.  But with the Weego Jump Starter, it took just minutes to jump my car.  What could have been a disaster ended up being only a very minor annoyance.

3. Canopy by Studio Neat

The Canopy by Studio Neat is a cover that protects an Apple Magic Keyboard, so you don’t have to worry about something knocking off one of the keys while you are traveling.  Better yet, it folds up into a stand to hold your iPad behind the keyboard giving you the same type of setup you would have with a laptop computer.  I’ve been using the Canopy several times a month ever since I first reviewed it in 2017, and as I noted in my 2018 post, you can also use it with the most recent version of the iPad Pro.  I was just using the Canopy this past weekend, and I still love it.

4. HyperDrive 6-in-1 USB-C Hub for iPad Pro

The HyperDrive 6-in-1 USB-C Hub for iPad Pro is a small device that looks great when it is attached to an iPad Pro and provides almost every type of connection that you might want to use with an iPad Pro:  3.5mm Audio Jack, USB-A, SD and Micro SD memory card, USB-C, and HDMI.  The only other connection I might want is VGA, although I have to admit that it has now been a few years since I was forced to use VGA when connecting to my iPad; pretty much every projector I encounter nowadays supports HDMI.  As I noted last month in my review, I’ve been using this device for much of this year, and it is really useful.  It’s like the Swiss Army Knife of connectors for the iPad Pro.

5. Fisher Chrome Clip

I reviewed the Fisher Chrome Clip way back in 2015, and I haven’t used it myself since I started using an Apple Pencil 2 almost a year ago.   But if you still use the first generation Apple Pencil, this tiny clip which usually costs about $5 to $7 on Amazon is fantastic.  The clip lets you put an Apple Pencil in your pocket and attach it to your pocket.  And when your Apple Pencil is on a desk, the clip prevents the Pencil from rolling across the desk (and potentially on to the floor).  When the folks at Fisher designed this simple chrome clip, I’m sure that they had no idea how useful it would be for an Apple stylus.

6. ADIRSports Acrylic Universal Treadmill Bookholder

To encourage myself to use my treadmill more, I purchased the ADIRSports Acrylic Universal Treadmill Bookholder soon after New Year’s (my review) so that I could place my iPad Pro on my treadmill and watch videos while I am on the treadmill.  It does a great job of making time go by much faster, and it even encourages me to stay on the treadmill even longer to get to the end of an episode.  If you have a newer treadmill, it probably already has a shelf to hold an iPad, but if you have an older treadmill like I do, this $20 purchase greatly increases the usefulness of the treadmill.

7. Apple AirPods

When I’m on that treadmill, doing chores around the house, taking a break from work as I have lunch at my desk, and a million other times, you’ll often find me using my Apple AirPods.  They are one of my favorite Apple products of all times.  I reviewed the first generation of AirPods in early 2017, and my only complaint was that after two years of heavy use, the battery started to wear out and wouldn’t last as long.  Earlier this year, I reviewed the second generation AirPods, and they add some nice new features.  Just a few days ago, I was using my AirPods connected to my Apple Watch as I was walking around the neighborhood, and it is fantastic to be able to just take those two devices and nothing else.  If you don’t own AirPods yet, you are missing out.

8. Lutron Caséta Lamp Dimmer

My favorite Lutron Caséta devices are the in-wall dimmers, which I reviewed back in 2015.  But this year, I noted that you can use a Lutron Caséta lamp dimmer not only as a way to turn one or two lamps into smart lamps but also as a way to extend the range of the entire Lutron Caséta system.  One lamp dimmer placed in my upstairs bedroom allows me to extend the Lutron Caséta system to cover my entire house.  As a result, I can control lots of different lights in my house using my iPhone or my Apple Watch, and I have rules so that certain lights go on and off automatically based on the time of day or other event, such as a trigger by a motion detector.  And you can share controls with other family members, so my wife can use her iPhone too — or she can just tap the buttons on the wall or on the dimmer to manually turn lights on or off.  It’s a great smart home system, and you can start small with just a few devices and then add more Lutron devices over time.

9. Apple Pencil 2

I loved my first generation Apple Pencil, so I was surprised how much more I would love the second generation Apple Pencil.  It fixed all of the minor problems with the original Apple Pencil and then added great new features, such as the ability to tap the side to switch between drawing tools.  I gave the Apple Pencil 2 a glowing review last year, and it continues to be a product that I use virtually every day.  I was just using it last night to annotate some briefs and take some notes as I was preparing to be a judge in a moot court, and I’m sure that I will be using it for other tasks today.  One of the main advantages of the iPad Pro over other iPads is that it supports the Apple Pencil 2.

10. AirFly by Twelve South

The last item on the top ten list is the AirFly by Twelve South.  The main use for this item is to create your own Bluetooth connection for the audio on an airplane, so that you can listen using your AirPods or some other Bluetooth headphones.  But you can also plug this device into any audio source with a headphone jack to provide it with Bluetooth capabilities.  As I look at my review again, I am reminded that I connected the AirFly to my Fifth Generation iPod (which I purchased back in 2005) to give that old technology the ability to work with my new AirPods.  It ended up being the last time I would use that iPod, which I really loved and used so much in the days before the iPhone, because the device died shortly after that. 

Each of these 10 items is incredibly useful, so I’m not surprised that lots of folks purchased these items after clicking a link on iPhone J.D.  I haven’t used the AirFly very much since I posted my review, and I no longer need to use the Fisher Chrome Clip now that I have the second generation Apple Pencil, but I still use every other item on this list, and I can still recommend all 10 of these items.

Apple got a lot of criticism when it was recently discovered that, in an effort to improve Siri, Apple had hired contractors to review recordings of people talking to Siri — or in some cases, people talking when the iPhone thought that they were talking to Siri but the voice assistant was actually triggered by mistake.  Imagine, for example, an attorney having a confidential communication with a client and one of them says a phrase like “way serious” and the iPhone incorrectly hears “Hey Siri – us” or something like that; the iPhone could record a few seconds of an attorney-client communication, and then third party contractors who are not even employees of Apple might find themselves listening to part of a confidential attorney-client communication.  Apple has realized the error of its ways, and this week announced significant changes to protect the privacy of users.  John Gruber of Daring Fireball shares what Apple said and provides his analysis (which I agree with).  As more and more of the devices around us are “smart” devices and connected to the Internet, this will become an even bigger issue for anyone concerned about privacy, especially attorneys.  And now, the news of note from the past week:

• Amanda Robert of ABA Journal discusses a resolution passed by the ABA House of Delegates to encourage courts to allow cellphones in the courthouse to improve access to justice.
• Apple will introduce a new iPhone — the iPhone 11? — on Tuesday, September 10.  Jason Snell of Six Colors reports that Apple sent out invitations yesterday, and he speculates that perhaps we will see new colors for the iPhone.  Apple has already created a page on its website where you will be able to watch a live video stream of the event.
• GoodNotes, my favorite app for taking handwritten notes on my iPad, used to have a feature called Presentation Mode whereby you connect your iPad to an external screen and the audience only sees a whiteboard without seeing the user interface of GoodNotes.  Many teachers use this in class, but an attorney could also use it in trial to, for example, have a witness draw something on an iPad that the jury could see displayed on a screen.  The feature was recently restored to the app in version 5.2, and it is described in this post on the GoodNotes website.
• If you get a LinkedIn (or other social media) request from someone you don’t know, be careful about accepting it; it could be a Chinese spy trying to establish a connection with you.  Edward Wong of the New York Times explains how Chinese agents have used LinkedIn to recruit assets.  I guess the next time that I send someone a LinkedIn friend request I’ll be sure to add a note saying that I am not a Chinese spy.
• David Chartier writes about some of the features he is looking forward to in iPad OS.
• Adam Engst of TidBITS provides advice for sharing vacation photos that you take with your iPhone.  When I have photos to share with friends and family members, I post them to a private, password-protected SmugMug page.  I’ve been using that approach ever since Apple shut down its MobileMe web gallery service in 2012, and it works well for me because SmugMug makes it easy for someone else to see the photos, and also provides the option to download full-quality versions of the photos.
• Geoffrey Fowler of the Washington Post discusses the privacy implications of using Apple’s new AppleCard credit card versus other credit cards.
• David Pierini of Cult of Mac reports that, according to a report in Financial Times, Apple is spending more for every episode of it upcoming TV show The Morning Show than HBO did for the episodes in the final season of Game of Thrones.  So I guess what I’m saying is, I expect to see Reese Witherspoon, Jennifer Aniston, and Steve Carell flying around on dragons.
• Zac Hall of 9to5Mac shares the story of a woman in Fairhope, Alabama who says that her Apple Watch helped to save her life.  Fairhope is just a few miles from Robertsdale, Alabama, where Apple CEO Tim Cook grew up.
• Sure, savings lives is nice, but Ed Hardy of Cult of Mac reports that you can also use your Apple Watch to tie your Nike self-lacing shoes. 
• And finally, here is an interesting video created by Apple for Korea showing different covers on AirPods:

It has been an interesting week for updates to the iPhone and iPad operating system.  For those of us who are not using beta software, iOS 12 was updated to version 12.4.1.  Apple says that this update “provides important security and stability updates, and is recommended for all users.”

Here’s a little more information.  Researchers recently discovered a flaw in Bluetooth.  If a bad guy was sufficiently close to two devices trying to make an initial Bluetooth connection, such as an iPhone or iPad and a Bluetooth keyboard, the hacker could break the encryption between the two devices and see all communications between the devices — which, in the case of a keyboard, means everything that you type.  This flaw was called Key Negotiation of Bluetooth, or KNOB for short.  If you want more information, you can read this article by Dan Goodin of Ars Technica.  Apple fixed the flaw a few days ago when it released iOS 12.4.

Unfortunately, there was a bug in iOS 12.4 that removed a patch Apple had previously implemented and, as a result, it was possible to jailbreak an iPhone or iPad running iOS 12.4.  You certainly don’t want a bad guy to get access to your iPhone and then have a way to break into it.  Yesterday, Apple released iOS 12.4.1 to restore that patch.  Thus, you should update to iOS 12.4.1 to protect yourself from both the KNOB flaw and the jailbreak flaw.

And there is more news in the world of iOS updates.  In just a few weeks, Apple will release iOS 13, a major update that I discussed in June.  Apple has been testing beta versions of iOS 13 for a while now, both with folks who develop apps and also with members of the public who sign up for the beta program.  Until yesterday, all of the betas were of versions of iOS 13.0.  But yesterday, Apple also released to developers a beta of iOS 13.1.  I cannot remember a time in the past when Apple has released a beta version of not the next version of the iOS but the one after that.

One interesting aspect of the iOS 13.1 beta is that it seems to confirm that some of the features that Apple announced as being a part of iOS 13 won’t be in the initial iOS 13.0, but instead we will have to wait for iOS 13.1 to be released.  According to Mark Gurman of Bloomberg, the features that we will have to wait for include: 

• The ability to share your live ETA with a friend using the Maps app, a feature described in this article by Benjamin Mayo of 9to5Mac.
• The ability to pair two AirPods with a single iPhone or iPad so that two people can listen to the same song or watch a movie together, a feature described in this article by Charlie Sorrel of Cult of Mac.
• The ability to have shortcuts run automatically when certain events occur, such as a certain time of day, when you arrive at your office, or when you connect to CarPlay, a feature described in this article by Brendan Hesse of Lifehacker.
• The ability to have Siri automatically read incoming messages if you are using AirPods, plus the ability for you to instantly respond using your voice, all without touching any buttons, a feature described in this article by Benjamin Mayo of 9to5Mac.
• The ability to limit when your kids can text, talk, or FaceTime via communication limits, a feature described in this article by Michael Potuck of 9to5Mac.

Of those five features that will apparently be missing when iOS 13.0 comes out in a few weeks, Gurman says that the first three are contained in the iOS 13.1 beta.  The last two are not yet in this version of the iOS 13.1 beta, but of course they could be added later.

We don’t yet know when we will see iOS 13.0, let alone iOS 13.1, but my guess is that the delay between releases will be about six weeks.  The prevailing rumor is that Apple will unveil new iPhones on September 10, 2019, so I presume that iOS 13.0 will come out the following week, around September 16, 2019.  Apple released iOS 12.1 on October 30, 2018, and released iOS 11.1 on October 31, 2017, so I presume that iOS 13.1 will similarly come out at the end of October 2019.

Earlier this year, I reviewed PDF Expert version 6 and said that it was my new favorite app for working with PDF files.  I didn’t realize at the time that Readdle was just a few months away from releasing PDF Expert version 7.  Although I have encountered a few problems with this new version, overall I like it quite a bit, and PDF Expert continues to be my PDF app of choice, although I still have other PDF apps on my iPad and I use them from time to time.  Here are my thoughts on what is changed.

Customize the Toolbar

My favorite new feature in PDF Expert is the ability to customize the toolbar.  One of the main things that I do with this app is read and annotate documents — such as briefs filed by an opponent, cases downloaded from Westlaw or Lexis, exhibits, contracts, etc. 

There are four main tabs in the middle of the top of the app:  Annotate, Draw, Insert, and Favorites.  Those first three tabs include the tools most often associated with those tasks, but I never use those tabs in the app.  That’s because the fourth tab, called Favorites, is far more useful than the other tabs.  In the Favorites tab, you can create your own toolbar. 

This feature has made up so much faster to use the app because every tool that I would ever want to use is right there at the top, and the tools that I never use don’t waste any space up there.  I currently have my tools set up so that the first three tools are fine point pens (black, blue, red) with a 1 point thickness.  Then, as a separator, I have the highlight tool — a tool that I use all the time.  Next, I have five medium point pens with a 1.5 point thickness, and I have five colors:  black, blue, red, green, and purple.  Toolbars in other PDF apps typically only give you two or three colors by default; to access more colors, you have to dig into sub-menus, which requires extra steps so I normally just skip it.  But now that green and purple are just as easy for me to access as black, blue, and red, I find myself using those other two colors much more often as I’m annotating documents.  And I’ll often use different colors to mean different things, so my annotations become even more valuable to me.  Also, the ability to have easy access to pens of different thickness is very nice.

My next tools on my Favorites toolbar are underline, insert a text box, erase, add a box, add a line, and add an arrow. 

My final two favorite tools deserve a little explanation.  The Photos tool can be used to insert a photo into a PDF file.  Why would I want to do that?  No, I’m not adding pictures from a family vacation to my work documents.  Instead, I’m often using this for a document-in-document feature.  Sometimes I want to take a part of another document and place it right next to something in this document.  For example, when I’m reviewing a Petition, I might want to grab a paragraph from a contract and place it right there next to the relevant paragraph in the Petition.  I can open the contract, take a picture of the screen, then insert that picture into the Petition document and crop the image so that it only shows the relevant language from the contract.

My final tool is a yellow marker.  When I’m working with files that are OCR’d, I instead use the highlight tool, which works much better.  But if I have a document that doesn’t have readable text, I can use the marker to highlight.

If I ever decide to customize this toolbar even more, it is easy to do so.  You can select which tools are there and change the order.

If the customizable toolbar were the only new feature in PDF Expert version 7, that alone would be enough reason for me to recommend this app to other attorneys.  The new toolbar makes it so much easier to annotate documents.  I love it.

Reduce PDF File Size

Sometimes you want to share a PDF file with someone else but the file is too large to attach to an email, and perhaps even too large to be a reasonable download using a file sharing service such as Dropbox or Citrix ShareFile.  PDF Expert version 7 gives you the ability to compress a PDF file.

You are given the option to use four different document quality sessions, and the app tells you how much smaller a file will be at each setting.  Lossless is often a great option to make a file a little bit smaller but just as legible.  High and Medium are also pretty good, depending upon the document itself.  I never use the Low setting because I find that it reduces the document quality too much, although it can give you a very small file size.

With some documents, the reduce file size option doesn’t help at all.  With some documents, you get the same file size reduction with two or more of the quality settings.  It all just depends upon the document that you are working with.  Nevertheless, it is nice to have this option, and I especially like that you can see what the new file size will be before you even perform the operation.  And if you don’t like how the document looks after you do so, just tap the undo button to go back to the prior version of the document.

User interface tweaks

Throughout the app, you’ll notice numerous changes to the user interface, most of which I think are for the better.  For example, the new Search interface is better, giving you more context when you search for words in a document and buttons that make it easy to jump to the next instance of a word.  You can also customize many aspects of the interface of the app, such as which options appear on the left when you are in the file browser mode.

Along with the improvements, however, I also see some bizarre behavior, which I suppose is a bug.  When I am looking at a list of files, if I tap an item in the list to open that document – such as the third item from the top — for a fraction of a second before the document opens the first two items in the list disappear and the other items in the list move up.  My document does then open, but that bizarre behavior often leads me to believe that I tapped on the wrong item in the list.  I hope that this can be fixed soon.

Convert to PDF

The app now gives you the ability to convert images, Word files, and Excel files into PDF files.  For Microsoft Office files, I typically just use the Word or Excel apps on my iPad to convert to PDF, but it is nice to have another tool that can do this.

Speed

Readdle says that PDF Expert version 7 is much faster because it takes advantage of Apple’s new Metal technology.  I agree that the app does a nice job of working with huge PDF files.

On the other hand, when I’m browsing through lists of files and folders that I have synced to the app from Dropbox, I find that the app sometimes hangs for a second or two.  I think that this might be part of the sync process.  It’s annoying, and I’ve alerted Readdle to the issue.  Again, hopefully this can be fixed in a future update because version 6 never did this.

Pricing

The app pricing has changed.  When reviewed PDF expert earlier this year, the app cost $9.99 and for an additional $9.99 you could unlock the ability to edit a PDF file.  Now, the app is free, but to enable many of the features I described above — design your own toolbar, reduce PDF file size, and convert to PDF — you need to pay for a PRO subscription, which costs $50/year.  I consider the cost of a PRO subscription worth it just for the custom toolbar feature; I use this app virtually every single day at work, so I see the benefit of a better toolbar multiple times a day, every day.  But if you are not sure whether you will want the advanced features, just download the free version of the app and try it out.  If you previously used version 6 of the app and paid to unlock some of the advanced features such as edit PDF text, when you upgrade to version 7 you will still have those features even if you decide not to purchase the PRO version to access the new features.

Conclusion

Aside from the two bugs that I noted above, I’m very happy with PDF Expert version 7.  The app makes it easy to organize, read, and annotate PDF files.  And if you pay for the PRO subscription to access the new custom toolbar feature, annotating documents is faster and easier than ever.  Every lawyer who wants to make serious use of an iPad in a law practice needs a good PDF management app, and PDF Expert is an excellent choice.

Click here to get PDF Expert by Readdle (free): 

 

If Apple takes the same approach that it has for many years now, we will see new iPhones early next month.  In prior years, new iPhones were introduced on Sept. 12, 2018, Sept. 12, 2017, Sept. 7, 2016, Sept. 9, 2015, Sept. 9, 2014, Sept. 10, 2013, and Sept. 12, 2012.  There are lots of rumors on what will be introduced, but typically one of the best source for these predictions is Mark Gurman, now at Bloomberg.  Yesterday, Gurman predicted that we will see three new iPhones.  Unlike the current lineup (iPhone XR, iPhone XS, and iPhone XS Max), Gurman predicts that next month we will see a regular iPhone and two high-end iPhones called the iPhone Pro.  “The main feature of the Pro iPhones will be a new camera system on the back with a third sensor for capturing ultra-wide-angle photos and videos.”  Gurman said that the iPhone will capture three images from the three cameras and will then combine them into one photo, and also predicts that pictures in low-light situations will improve.  Other features will include improved water resistance, better iPhone unlocking using the Face ID sensor, updated screens, and faster processors.  Gurman also predicts a refresh for the iPad Pro line with better cameras.  My guess is that we will know for sure what Apple is announcing in less than three weeks.  And now, the news of note from the past week:

• Will Apple announce a new Apple Watch along with the new iPhones?  In an article for Macworld, Jason Snell says that Apple certainly doesn’t need to release a new Apple Watch because the Series 4 is already very good and the software is about to be improved, although there are rumors that we will see new models of the Series 4 with ceramic or titanium in addition to the aluminum and stainless steel. 
• Ryan Christoffel of MacStories discusses the new Apple Card credit card.
• Josh Centers of TidBITS has advice for getting the most out of the Apple Card benefits.
• In a series of tweets, Apple CEO Tim Cook shows off a few amazing photographs taken with an iPhone.
• In an article for Macworld, Dan Moren discusses traveling with an iPhone and other Apple technology.
• We are getting closer to the day when Apple will have its own video streaming service, Apple TV+.  Ryan Christoffel of MacStories explains why Apple may well be successful, even though there are many competitors in this field.
• And finally, speaking of Apple TV+, this week Apple released a full trailer for one of its upcoming shows on Apple TV + called The Morning Show.  It stars Reese Witherspoon, Jennifer Aniston, and Steve Carell, and based on the trailer it looks like it could be pretty good:

When I was in law school in the 1990s, I used a credit issued by Apple.  You could earn points that could be spent on Apple products, and after using it to pay my rent and for other purchases, I earned enough points to purchase a Mac at an extreme discount.  Starting this week, if you live in the United States, you can now apply for a new credit card from Apple (in partnership with Goldman Sachs) called Apple Card.

Sign up

Signing up for the card couldn’t be easier.  Open the Wallet app on your iPhone and tap the plus at the top right to add a new credit card.  Then select the Apple Card.

Next, confirm some basic information about yourself such as your name and address.  Apple already knows all of this stuff you probably won’t have to enter anything other than the last four digits of your Social Security number and your annual income.

Apple will then tell you what credit limit and APR you are approved for.  I was instantly approved for $15,000, but I’ve heard reports of others being offered a higher and lower limit.  Apple says that the APR ranges  from 12.99% to 23.99% depending upon your credit history.  Apple offered me 12.99%.  And the whole process took just a few seconds to be approved.

Using the Apple Card

When you are at a store that accepts Apple Pay, you can use the Apple Card on your iPhone or Apple Watch just like any other credit card.  In the Wallet app, you can see the number, expiration date, and CVV associated with the Apple Card so if you need to pay a bill online, you can enter that information.  The Apple Card is a MasterCard, so it is widely accepted.

Apple will also ship you a physical card.  I saw one a while back, and it looks distinctive because it is made of titanium and is laser-etched with your name.  Notice that I didn’t mention your number; the number is not printed on the card itself as a way to reduce the risk of theft.  (If someone asks you for the number, you can just look it up in the Wallet app on your iPhone.)

Why use it?

Most of us select a credit card because of the rewards and benefits that the card provides.  The same is true with Apple Card.  Here is what you get:

Daily Cash. Every single time that you but something with the Apple Card, you get cash back.  If a store doesn’t take Apple Pay, or if you use the physical card, you get 1% back.  If you use Apple Pay to make a purchase, you get 2% back.  And for certain purchases, you get 3% back.  For now, the 3% applies to anything that you buy from Apple and for Uber.  I’m sure that Apple will add more 3% partners in the future.

If you spend $1500 on an iPhone or a high-end iPad, that’s $45.  Apple virtually never discounts its hardware, so this is a rare way to save money on an Apple purchase.  And if the rumors are true and Apple comes out with a car at some point in the future, I suppose you can save $1,500 on what is sure to be a futuristic vehicle.

Spending summaries. Apple is promoting the Apple Card as a way to improve the way that you manage your money.  Thus, the app shows you weekly and monthly summaries, color-coded by category.  

Maps.  The app can also show you where you were when you purchased something, which can be helpful if the name of the vendor is unclear and you are trying to figure out what a purchase was.

Payment aids. Of course, it is best to pay off the Apple Card credit card every month when due on the last day of the month.  But if you cannot, the app helps you to understand how much interest you will accrue making a partial payment.  The app also lets you pay multiple times a month, which keeps interest lower.

Fraud detection. The app alerts you instantly when there is a purchase, so if you don’t think that the purchase was legitimate you can immediately do something about it.  And by “do something” you actually text Apple, which means no long phone calls and being placed on hold.

Privacy.  Apple has implemented numerous steps to keep your use of the Apple Card private.  For example, your spending habits are not used for internal or external marketing.

No fees.  There are no fees associated with Apple Card.  Even if you go over your spending limit.  Even if you pay late.  Even if you have a foreign transaction.

Conclusion

The Apple Card isn’t right for everyone, and you may have another credit card that offers rewards that work better for your lifestyle.  But the Apple Card is very easy to sign up for, very easy to use, and seems very clear in the benefits that you get.  As you can see from the pictures above, I started the process of applying but then stopped before I got to the last stage, simply because I don’t really need another credit card in my life right now.  But I may reconsider and sign up for the Apple Card when I am ready to make a larger purchase of an Apple product to take advantage of the 3% discount.

Joanna Stern of the Wall Street Journal wrote an interesting article this week comparing three services that you can use to keep track of the location of a friend or family member:  Apple’s Find My Friends, Google Maps location sharing, and Life360.  She also put together a great video, which you can watch at the top of the article.  As she explains, Apple has the best privacy policy because location data is encrypted, it is only stored by Apple for two hours and then deleted, and Apple doesn’t use the data to try to advertise to you.  Stern notes that you can also use Find My Friends for someone who is just a temporary friend — you can share your location for just an hour, or just a day.  I’ve had a few instances recently in which another attorney I’m working with has shared location with me for just a short time period (and I have with him), making it easy to meet up and easy to know how far away someone is when they are running late.  Like me, you may already know how useful it is to share location with close family members, but don’t overlook how useful it can be to temporarily share location with someone just for a limited time period and purpose.  And now, the news of note from the past week:

• Illinois attorney John Voorhees of MacStories describes the new Sidecar feature coming this Fall to iPadOS 13 and macOS Catalina which will allow you to use an iPad as a second screen for your Mac — either to mirror the screen (helpful if you want to use an Apple Pencil) or extend the screen (if you just need more screen real estate).
• Xiumei Dong of Law.com reports on law firm cybersecurity based on a recent ABA panel discussion in San Diego with presenters Ruth Hill Bro of the ABA Cybersecurity Legal Task Force, Jill Rhodes of Option Care, Stephen Wu of Silicon Valley Law Group, and my law partner Lucian Pera. 
• Speaking of security, Brian X. Chen of the New York Times describes all of the information that a hacker can obtain just by knowing your cellphone number.
• Also speaking of security, Joseph Cox of Vice describes a presentation given at the recent Def Con hacking conference in which the presenter modified an Apple Lightning cable to incorporate a way that a hacker could access your computer whenever the cord is plugged in to your computer.  Yikes.
• There are lots of HomeKit-compatible devices that plug into an outlet turn a lamp into a smart lamp.  Just a few days ago, I purchased another Lutron lamp dimmer, which has two outlets so you can control two lamps.  But that device, like most in this category, control both lamps at the same time.  Lory Gil of iMore reviews the Satechi Dual Smart Outlet, which has two outlets that you can control independently.
• I cannot even imagine what kind of road warrior you would need to be to justify buying an Apple Watch in-car charging stand, but if that describes you, Killian Bell of Cult of Mac reviews the Elgato W Stand for Apple Watch, a stand you can use to charge an Apple Watch anywhere which also happens to fit in a car’s cupholder.
• Apple and the jeweler Tiffany & Co. are two companies that I would not normally think of working together, but Mike Wuerthele of AppleInsider explains how the two companies are working together to find new ways to locate gold in Alaskan rivers while also protecting the environment.
• Zac Hall of 9to5Mac wrote an article for the Clarion-Ledger about how parents can monitor how their children use an iPhone with the Screen Time and Family Sharing features.
• And finally, there is a rumor that Apple will offer a “pro” version of the next version of the iPhone, which I expect to be announced next month.  Apple has done well with the iPad Pro, so I can see having an iPhone Pro too.  In the latest episode of his Vector video podcast, Rene Ritchie speculates on what features we might see in an iPhone Pro, such USB-C, a larger size, Apple Pencil support, multi-tasking, a glowing Apple logo on the back, and more: