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This past Friday, Apple started selling its latest new product, the AirTag.  An AirTag is the size of a small button, 1.26 inches in diameter.  And like a button, it weighs virtually nothing, less than half an ounce (0.39 ounce).  Place an AirTag in an object like a briefcase or a purse, and the AirTag can help you to locate that item if you lose it.  A single AirTag costs $29, or you can purchase a four-pack for $100.  I’ve been trying out four AirTags for the last few days, and I’m very impressed with how well this system works.

This post addresses four aspects of the AirTag.  First, how to store it with an item.  Second, how to find if it again if it is far away from you.  Third, how to find its precise location once you are close to it.  And fourth, how to use Lost Mode if you cannot find an AirTag.

Where to put an AirTag

An AirTag is a little larger than a quarter, about the size of a half-dollar coin.  It is almost as thick as an iPhone in the middle, but it seems much thinner because of the curved side and the fact that it weighs almost nothing.  It feels like a button on a jacket.

The point of an AirTag is to have it attached to, or somehow part of, an item that you might lose.  For something that has a compartment like a purse, briefcase, or backpack, you can just slip an AirTag into a compartment, and you are done.  I think that an AirTag is too thick to fit into a typical wallet that goes into a back pocket, but perhaps there are some wallets out there (or in development now) that could fit an AirTag.

I suspect one of the most misplaced items for many folks is keys, so adding a AirTag to a key ring makes perfect sense.  You simply need a case for the AirTag that can attach to a key ring.  Apple sells a $35 leather key ring case that comes in three colors. 

To attach an AirTag to other items, like the handle on a piece of luggage, you can use a loop.  Apple sells a polyurethane version for $29 that comes in four different colors and a similar version in leather for $39. 

Instead of the Apple key ring and loop, I purchased versions sold by Belkin, which only cost $12.95.  Both come with the same holder, two pieces of plastic (black, blue, or pink) in which you place an Air Tag in one half, place the other half on, and then twist the two parts to lock.  The Belkin key ring product comes with a key ring to connect to the holder.  The Belkin strap simply fits through the loop at the top of the holder and doubles around itself.

Creative folks are coming up with many other ways to attach an AirTag to an item.  For example, Moment has a Stretch Fabric Mount that uses an adhesive that attaches to any fabric.  Elevation Lab makes a waterproof case for an AirTag.  And I’m sure that we will soon see many more products that work with an AirTag.

For those who don’t mind paying top-dollar for a luxury item, Apple has long had a partnership with Hermès, and that partnership continues to the AirTag.  For example, Apple itself sells a $349 Hermès Key Ring and a $449 Hermès luggage tag.  And if you buy directly from Hermès, you can get a $699 travel tag:

A luggage tag that costs more than the luggage itself is certainly extravagant, but the point is that you can find a wide variety of products to connect an AirTag to an item.

Once you figure out how you are going to associate an AirTag with an item, put an AirTag close to your iPhone and you will be given the option to claim the AirTag as yours and give the AirTag a name and an icon.  Once an AirTag is affiliated with your Apple account, another person cannot pick it up and start using it with their account.

Note that the AirTag contains a standard CR2032 battery.  Apple says that the battery should last about a year.  I see that Amazon currently sells a 6-pack of Energizer CR2032 batteries for $7.99, so they are inexpensive to replace.

How to Find an AirTag when it is not in your vicinity

Each AirTag works with the Apple Find My service, which you can tap into using the Find My app.  I discussed the history and current version of that app almost a month ago in this post, and I recommend that you start with that post if you are thinking about getting an AirTag. 

Each AirTag has a Bluetooth radio in it, which means that it can talk to other Bluetooth devices that are within the vicinity (typically about 30-50 feet).  The AirTag sends out a number, that changes from time to time, and if another iPhone passes within Bluetooth range of that device, it will notice the AirTag number and notify Apple that a certain AirTag number was seen at a certain place and time.  That way, if you use the Find My app to search for an item, you can get the location if another iPhone has passed by it.  With over a billion iPhones now in active use, hopefully there is a good chance that an iPhone will pass by your AirTag.

For example, this past Saturday, I attended a championship middle school track and field meet with my daughter.  (She did very well, including getting first place in one of her events!)  I took the key fob for my car but left the rest of the key ring including the AirTag in my car.  About four hours after I last saw my keys, I asked the Find My app to find them.  It did so quickly, letting me know that another iPhone had passed by them just six minutes earlier — I presume someone else walking to their car in a parking lot who passed by my car, where my keys were in the glove compartment.  The app then gave me directions for getting to my keys.

If multiple AirTags are in the same location, you will see the icons associated with the first two AirTags, and then an indication of how many more are also located there.  Thus, when I was in my office in downtown New Orleans with four AirTags with me, here is what I saw:

The Find My system will not work 100% of the time.  If an item with an AirTag attached is located in a remote location such that no other iPhone would ever be anywhere near it, then the AirTag won’t be found.  The alternative would be to use a tracking device with GPS so that it could always be tracked, but this is more expensive and the tracking device needs to be somewhat larger.  For example, T-Mobile has just introduced a GPS tracking device called the SyncUP TRACKER.  You need to pay $5/month for the TRACKER service, and then you pay $60 ($2.50/month) for 24 months for each SyncUP TRACKER.  (It is unclear to me if you own the device after paying $60 or if you need to continue paying $2.50 every month.)  And perhaps most annoying, the SyncUP TRACKER only lasts for a few days before it needs to be recharged.

How to Find an AirTag when it is in your vicinity

What if you are reasonably close to an AirTag that you are trying to find, either because you found it on a map and then got close to it or because you know that the AirTag is somewhere close — such as in your own house — but you just don’t know exactly where it is located? 

First, you can make the AirTag play a sound.  (This tweet from Apple includes a short video with examples of all of the AirTag sounds.)  If you can hear it, hopefully you can find it.

Second, when you are within Bluetooth range of your own AirTag, your iPhone can direct you to the precise location of the AirTag using a large arrow.  This only works if you are using an iPhone with a U1 Ultra Wideband chip, such as the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max that Apple released in 2019 as well as most of the more recent iPhones.

 

Using one or both of these approaches, you should able to find your item with the AirTag, even if it is in a somewhat hidden location in your house or another location.

David Flynn of Executive Traveler wrote an interesting article about using an AirTag to locate luggage in an airport.  Some of the interesting points that he noticed:

• You cannot use an AirTag to find the precise location of your luggage on a luggage carousel because an AirTag needs to be in a fixed position for Ultra Wideband chip to work.
• You can use an AirTag to confirm that your luggage made it to the same airport as you.
• You can use an AirTag to determine the precise location of your luggage if someone has taken it off of a carousel and moved it to a specific location, which often happens after you go through customs and immigration.
• Putting an AirTag inside of luggage versus using a strap and putting it outside of the luggage did not make a difference for range or tracking accuracy.

I’m sure we will see more reports like this in the coming weeks and months.

Lost Mode

If you have lost an item connected to an AirTag and cannot find it using the Find My app, you can put the AirTag in lost mode.  Once in this mode, if another iPhone passes near the AirTag, you will receive a notification that the AirTag was located.  You can also choose to leave a phone number and a message so that if someone else finds the AirTag, they can hold it close to an iPhone or Android device to see the message.  Hopefully, this person will contact you and help you to recover your lost item.

This is the same system that Apple has used for years for a lost iPhone or iPad.  There are no guarantees that someone will find it and contact you, but at least with the AirTag you have a chance of recovery.

Conclusion

Do you have an item that you don’t want to lose, and are you willing to spend $25 to guard against that?  Then the AirTag may be right for you.  The hope, of course, is that you will never have a need to use an AirTag.  But if you ever do need it — either because an item is lost inside of your own house or is lost somewhere in the outside world — you’ll be glad that you have it.

Click here to get an AirTag from Amazon ($29, or four for $99).

This past weekend, I was delighted to give a short presentation as a part of a seminar with speakers from around the world hosted by two large organizations for lawyers in the Philippines:  Legal Hackers Manila and Abogadong Pinoy.  The title of the seminar was More Than Word:  Apps and other Legal Technology Tools for the Modern Lawyer.  The seminar was streamed on Facebook Live, and the recording is still available to watch.  Many of the topics of this seminar would be of interest to any lawyer, no matter where in the world you practice law.  For example, after I spoke about the iPhone and iPad, legal technology consultant Brett Burney of Apps in Law also gave some advice for mobile computing, and then two speakers talked about a product that uses artificial intelligence in contract negotiations.

The speakers and topics (with the approximate time-stamps if you want to jump to a particular section) are as follows:

0:00:00 — Welcome remarks by Joan de Venecia-Fabul (Manila), PLDT Deputy Chief Counsel and Vice President

0:01:55 — Results of Filipino legal technology survey of  by Jeifan-Ira Dizon (Manila), Dizon + Ross

0:09:53 — Speaker introduction by Quito Nitura (Manila), ACCRALAW

0:10:27 — iPhone and iPad Tips for Lawyers by Jeff Richardson (New Orleans), Adams and Reese • iPhone J.D.

0:33:32 — Mobile Apps in a Legal Practice by Brett Burney (Ohio), Apps in Law

1:01:43 — Artificial Intelligence in Contract Negotiations by Tracy Van Heer (Melbourne) and Mike Alford (San Francisco), LexCheck

1:28:27 — Digitization and Innovation in the Legal Services Industry by Alain Charles Veloso (Manila), Quisumbing Torres – Baker McKenzie

1:59:15 — Closing Remarks by Mars Veloso (Manila), Legal Hackers Manila • Apptitude

Thanks to all of the great folks with Legal Hackers Manila and Abogadong Pinoy for the invitation!

In a normal year, we would now be starting the second weekend of Jazz Fest in New Orleans, one of my favorite times of year in this city.  The live music is varied and excellent, there is fantastic food, and there is an interesting art market.  Of course, none of that can happen right now (although they are trying to do it this October instead).  But in the meantime, the New Orleans radio station associated with Jazz Fest, WWOZ, is doing its second year of Jazz Festing in Place, in which they are playing recordings of some of the best live performances at Jazz Fest from 1970 to 2019.  Artists include Dr. John, Henry Butler, Miles Davis, The Meters, Carole King, James, Taylor, Trombone Shorty, Richie Havens, Joe Cocker, Irma Thomas, Al Hirt, Kermit Ruggins, Willie Nelson, Allen Toussaint, and so many more.  Click here for a PDF grid showing who is playing and when.  Jazz Festing in Place started a week ago, but that doesn’t matter because WWOZ always offers a two-week archive, so you still have time to listen to any of it that you may have missed.  Or if you want to listen to the main stream as it is happening, you can do so from the WWOZ website or the WWOZ iPhone app.  If you are looking for something good to listen to this weekend, WWOZ has you covered.  And now, the news of note from the past week.

• It is hard to believe it, but we are getting close to the end of the school year for many students.  It’s been a school year in which mobile technology has been more important than ever — much like the last year of many law practices.  Jade Cunningham of WWL reports on a viral video showing how students at Loyola Law School in New Orleans thanked their environmental law professor, Rob Verchick, for making it through this difficult year.
• Illinois attorney John Voorhees of MacStories reviews the latest version of 1Blocker, which adds a firewall feature to block even more obnoxious ads.
• Today, Apple has started to sell the 2021 version of the iPad Pro.  After I wrote about this latest iPad, I heard from several of you who were upset that the Magic Keyboard for iPad wasn’t going to work with this newest iPad.  Not to worry; Jason Snell of Six Colors reports that the previous version of the Magic Keyboard for iPad will work with the new iPad Pro, but it will be a snug fit — especially if you use a screen cover.  The new version of the Magic Keyboard for iPad has slightly more space to accommodate for the slightly more thick new iPad Pro, but if you bought the prior version, it looks like your keyboard will still work with the new iPad Pro.
• If you ordered an AirTag when that product first went on sale last week, you should be getting Apple’s latest product at some point today.  And starting today, you can also buy them on Amazon, either a single AirTag for $29, or a four-pack for $99.  I ordered a four-pack.
• Harry McCracken of Fast Company reviewed the AirTag.
• Although the AirTag is not very expensive, if you feel the need to spend more on the product, Parker Ortolani of 9to5Mac discusses the $699 AirTag travel tag from Hermès.  When you are using a travel tag that is more expensive than the suitcase to which it is attached, you won’t want to lose it.  Good thing it works with AirTag.
• What might you want to track with an AirTag?  Kirk McElhearn of Intego came up with a pretty good list of 23 items.
• In an article for Macworld, Snell discusses how it was that Apple made so much money in its most recent financial quarter.  (Yesterday, I provided my report on that incredibly impressive quarter.)
• One of the new additions in iOS 14.5 that I did not mention earlier this week is that users can now report hazards, speed checks, accidents in Apple Maps, just like you can with other maps apps such as Waze.  Michael Potuck of 9to5Mac describes the new features in Maps.  I presume that when enough people report something, an alert will show up in the Maps app for other folks, but I haven’t seen this yet myself.
• Ed Hardy of Cult of Mac reviews the SanDisk 2-in-1 flash drive, which lets you transfer large files between an iPhone, computer, and iPad because it features both Lighting and USB-C.
• Juli Clover of MacRumors reports on a new HomeKit-compatible device called the Eve Energy Smart Plug, which can not only control a device (like a lamp) that it plugged in to it, but which also can act as a Thread router.  A HomeKit mini can also act like a Thread router.  My hope is that, in a few years, the cross-platform Thread standard will really take off, improving the capabilities of lots of different smart home products that you might use.
• Just in case you are curious, yes, there are Apple Watches in space right now.
• In an article for Macworld, Dan Moren speculates on some of the upcoming products that Apple may be working on.
• And finally, one of the features of iOS 14.5 that has been getting a lot of press is the App Tracking Transparency.  Here is a video from Apple that explains how it works and why you may want to take advantage of it to protect your privacy.

Yesterday, Apple released the results for its 2021 fiscal second quarter (which ran from December 27, 2020, to March 27, 2021) and held a call with analysts to discuss the results.  Unlike Apple’s Q1 which contains all of the holidays sales, Apple’s Q2 is usually not a particularly interesting quarter.  Apple’s best Q2 ever had been in 2018, when Apple posted revenue of $61.1 billion.  But I think it is fair to say that Apple beat that record this time, posting jaw-dripping revenue of $89.6 billion during the quarter.  That’s a number that you would only expect to see in a Q1 with holiday sales, such as Apple’s 2020 Q1 with revenue of $91.8 billion thanks to the holiday sales at the end of calendar year 2019.  Apple had a very, very good financial quarter.  If you want to get all of the nitty gritty details, you can download the audio from the announcement conference call from iTunes, or you can read a transcript of the call prepared by Jason Snell of Six Colors.  Apple’s official press release is here.  Here are the items that stood out to me.

iPhone

• iPhone revenue for the quarter was $47.9 billion, a record for a fiscal second quarter.  iPhone revenue was up 66% compared to this time last year. 
• Apple CEO Tim Cook said that the iPhone 12 model is the most popular, but the iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max are also very popular.  He did not specifically mention the iPhone 12 mini, and my sense is that it is the least popular product in the iPhone 12 line.
• People seem to like their new iPhones.  Apple CFO Luca Maestri stated:  “In the U.S., the latest survey of consumers from 451 Research indicates customer satisfaction of over 99% for the iPhone 12 family.”
• To give you a sense of how impressive the increase in iPhone revenue was this past quarter, here is a chart showing the year-over-year percentage change since Fiscal 2013 Q1, which is when Apple started reporting this type of revenue in this form.  There were some great quarters in 2015, but last quarter was even better.

iPad

• iPad revenue was $7.8 billion, which is 79% higher than a year ago.
• Maestri said that there are shortages in the semiconductor industry that have affected many companies, and these shortages are having an impact on how many iPads that Apple can make.
• Here is a chart to show the year-over-year percentage change in iPad revenue since Fiscal 2013 Q1, which is when Apple started reporting this type of revenue in this form.  As you can see, the increase in iPad revenue was even more impressive than the increase in iPhone revenue when you compare this most recent quarter to all of the prior quarters.

Other

• Apple Watch sales continue to expand, with 75% of Apple Watch customers during the quarter purchasing their first Apple Watch.  And Cook believes that there are many more Apple Watch sales to come, remarking that he thinks “we’re in the early innings on the Watch” and “this is a long way from being a mature market.”
• Apple TV+ shows have received 352 award nominations and had 98 wins.

Yesterday, Apple released iOS 14.5 for the iPhone along with similar updates for the iPad, Apple Watch, and Apple TV.  This was a major update with lots of new features.  If you want to go deep on every single thing that is new, I recommend this extensive article by Federico Viticci of MacStories.  But here are my four favorite new features.

Unlock your iPhone while wearing a mask

For the past year+ of the pandemic, I’ve envied my wife’s iPhone with Touch ID every time that I tried to unlock my Face ID iPhone while wearing a mask.  It is annoying to want to look at my iPhone in a grocery store, elevator, and many other places and needed to type in my (long) passcode to unlock my device.  Ugh.  But that is now over for folks with an Apple Watch (Series 3 or later, running watchOS 7.4 or later).

With iOS 14.5, you can turn on the option to unlock your iPhone automatically when you are wearing a mask and an Apple Watch.  But first, you need to turn this feature on.  Here is how you do that.

In the iPhone’s Settings app, tap Face ID & Passcode.  Next, enter your passcode.

 
That’s it.  Now that you have this feature turned on, here is how it works.

When you try to unlock your iPhone and the iPhone senses that you have a mask on — specifically, when it senses that your mouth is covered — your iPhone checks to see if you are wearing your Apple Watch.  If so, it checks to see if the reason that your Apple Watch is unlocked is that you did so by entering the passcode on the Apple Watch.  If yes, then your Apple Watch tells your iPhone that you are already authenticated, and the iPhone unlocks.  The whole process takes a second or less.  At the same time, your Apple Watch taps your wrist to give you an alert that the watch has just unlocked your iPhone:

There are lots of safeguards built-in to this process.  For example, if your Apple Watch taps you to tell you that it just unlocked your iPhone and that is not what you intended, you can quickly tap the button on your Apple Watch screen.  That will immediately lock your iPhone, and at that point, it can ONLY be unlocked by entering your passcode, not with Face ID — either with or without a mask.

Also, this whole process only works if your Apple Watch is on your wrist and your iPhone is fairly close.  My son tested this feature with me last night.  When he tried to unlock my iPhone by holding it on the other side of the room from me, it was too far from my Apple Watch to work.  But when he got within 6-7 feet of my watch, it worked.  So if you have this feature enabled, you do need to pay attention if someone is close to you and picks up your iPhone.  But if they steal your iPhone and run away, the Apple Watch won’t unlock it.

Another security feature is that if the reason that your Apple Watch is unlocked is that you used your iPhone to automatically unlock your watch, then your watch cannot also automatically unlock your iPhone.  It is only when you unlocked your watch with your passcode that this works.  I enter the passcode every morning when I put on my Apple Watch, so if you do it the same way, you are ready to go.

I’m very excited to have this feature, and in my tests yesterday, it worked great.  Of course, I look forward to a day when I don’t have to wear a mask at all, but this new feature will make it much easier in the interim.  I just wish that Apple had added this feature last year.

App Tracking Transparency

In iOS 14.5, if an app wants to track your activity and then share it with other apps, the app now needs to ask for your permission before doing so.  Facebook and some other companies have opposed this feature strenuously, taking the position that they ought to be able to track you without telling you about it, and they complain that if they have to ask for permission, people will say no.  But the fact that many people will say no when given the choice seems more like an argument for the Apple approach over the Facebook approach.

For an excellent overview of this feature, watch the video at the top of this article by Joanna Stern of the Wall Street Journal in which she discusses the feature with Apple executives Craig Federighi.

I haven’t actually seen one of these requests from an app yet, but I presume I will soon.  I like the fact that Apple is trying to do what it can to enhance privacy and put the control back in the hands of the user.

New emoji

There are a few updated and changed emoji in iOS 14.5.  For example, there are three new faces:  Exhaling Face, Face with Spiral Eyes, and Face in Clouds:

Also, the Syringe emoji no longer has blood in it, making it more appropriate to use to indicate vaccination:

On the iPad, it is now easier to search for emoji because you can do so by name on the iPad, just like you have been able to do on an iPhone.

Share lyrics

There are a number of new features in the Music app, but here is my favorite.  Apple Music already had the ability to show you the lyrics to most songs, but now you can share lyrics — the specific lines that you select.  When you are looking at the lyrics in a song, just press down on one line of lyrics.  You will then have the option to select additional lines of lyrics, and then you can share a card showing just those lyrics with someone else, such as via the Messages app.  The recipient will see the lyrics that you selected.  And if they tap the image, they will start playing the song at the point where those lyrics are being sung.

I presume that both parties need to subscribe to Apple Music for this to work on both sides.  Nevertheless, this is a very fun way to quote lyrics to someone else.

Support for items in the Find My app

I discussed the expansion of Find My to include items earlier this month.  And after I wrote that post, Apple introduced its own AirTag product, so there are now both third-party and first-party products that can work with Find My.  But you need iOS 14.5 to make it work.

I ordered an AirTag 4-pack this past Friday, and they are supposed to be delivered to me this Friday.  If you also have plans to use an AirTag or similar products from third-parties, make sure you are running iOS 14.5.

Conclusion

Apple’s WWDC conference is coming in June, and I’m sure that Apple will use that opportunity to preview iOS 15 before it is released later this year.  But even with iOS 15 now perhaps just four to five months away, I’m glad that Apple is still adding new features to iOS 14 so that we can start using these new features today.

It was a big week for Apple announcements.  I discussed the new iPad Pro pretty extensively two days ago, but there was so much more.  One of the best overviews I saw of all of Apple’s announcements on Tuesday was this article and accompanying video by Joanna Stern of the Wall Street Journal.  And now, the rest of the news of note from the past week:

• Brett Burney of Apps in Law reviews LawStack, an app that lets you access legal reviews and statutes on your iPhone or iPad.  At the top of his review, Brett provides an excellent video that shows you step-by-step how to use the app.  You can access some sets of laws (like federal rules) for free; others (like state laws) require a subscription.  LawStack has been around for a long time; I reviewed a recent version of the app in 2019, but I also reviewed an earlier version of the app all the way back in 2010.
• Apple updated the Apple TV 4K this week.  Illinois attorney John Voorhees of MacStories describes what is new.
• One of Apple’s big announcements this week was a new product:  the AirTag.  It went on sale this morning.  It is a small coin-sized device that you can place in, or attach to, an object so that you can find the object if you lose it — keys, a purse, a briefcase, a pet, etc.  If anyone else with a relatively modern iPhone passes by your object, your own iPhone can tell you where that object was last seen.  And when you bring your own iPhone (as long as it is a relatively new one) close to the AirTag, your iPhone can show arrows to help you find the precise location of the AirTag.  Apple gave selected members of the press a few AirTags to try them out, so there are now a number of AirTag reviews.  If you want more information on this new product, I’ll list the ones that I thought were worth reading. First, Matthew Panzarino of TechCrunch does a good job explaining the features.
• Dieter Bohn of The Verge also wrote an interesting review (and a good video to go along with it) in which he had someone else hide an AirTag someplace in a city and he was able to find it after a car passed by the AirTag — a car that presumably had an iPhone in it.
• Michael Grothaus of Fast Company interviewed two folks from Apple for his AirTag review.
• Marques Brownlee prepared a good video review of the AirTag.
• I also liked the video review of the AirTag by Justine “iJustine” Ezarik.
• In an interview with Andrew Griffin of The Independent, John Ternus and Greg Joswiak of Apple discuss the new iPad Pro.
• Apple also introduced a new color for the iPhone 12 this week:  purple.  Matthew Panzarino of TechCrunch describes it.  Spoiler alert:  it’s an iPhone that’s purple.
• Harry McCracken of Fast Company says that the hardware in the new iPad Pro is amazing, but it needs an updated iPad OS to go along with it.  I agree, and I hope that later this year, Apple adds new features to iPad OS to reflect how powerful the iPad Pro has become.
• In an article for Six Colors, Jason Snell describes similar feelings in an article titled The iPad Pro is a killer machine but its software is killing me.
• Over on Six Colors, Jason Snell describes the new version of the Brydge Keyboard, which all but turns an iPad Pro into a laptop computer.
• If you are looking for a new band for your Apple Watch, Parker Ortolani of 9to5Mac describes the new bands that Apple released this week.
• Alexandre Vallières-Lagacé of Hipster Pixel reviews the Material MagSafe Dock by Studio Neat.
• Luke Dormehl of Cult of Mac reports that a puppy swallowed some AirPods when they were in a charging case.  A vet had to perform surgery to remove them, but the AirPods still worked.
• And finally, here is Apple’s new ad for the 2021 version of the iPad Pro, which highlights the key features:

Yesterday, during a one-hour jam-packed (and beautifully produced) video presentation (that you can view here), Apple announced a number of new products:  AirTag, a new iMac, a new Apple TV, and more that I will be talking about over the coming weeks.  But today, I want to focus on the announcement that will interest many attorneys:  the new iPad Pro.  After many years of attorneys using an iPad Pro as a substitute for a computer, this is the first iPad Pro that is unquestionably fit for that comparison because it uses the exact same chip that Apple uses in its computers:  the M1 chip.  This looks to be an incredibly powerful device, and I cannot wait to get my hands on one.  Here is why I think that lawyers will love the new iPad Pro.

Size

Let me start with what has not changed:  the sizes.  The two 2021 models of the iPad Pro are the iPad Pro 11" (3rd generation) and the iPad Pro 12.9" (5th generation).  The 11" size is essentially the same familiar iPad size that folks have been using since 2010.  The larger 12.9" size was introduced in 2015. 

There is an important difference in the screen technology between the two models, which I address below, but other than that, size is all a question of personal taste.  The 11" size is one that people have known and loved for years, and it is small and light.  The 12.9" usually takes a week or two to get used to, but the larger screen makes it so much easier to look at exhibits, read caselaw, edit documents, etc.  I could get work done on an 11" iPad if I had to do so, but for me, the 12.9" size is so much better for getting work done.  And then when you want to use the iPad for entertainment, such as watching a movie or TV show, the larger size is glorious.

Power

Almost every time that Apple releases a new iPad, it is more powerful.  Sometimes the change from the prior generation is small, which was true just over a year ago when Apple released the 2020 versions of the iPad Pro.  But sometimes, Apple gives the iPad Pro a significant boost.  This is one of those years.

After many years of using Intel processors in Apple computers, on November 10, 2020, Apple introduced the M1 chip.  Apple took everything that it knew about making its own chips for the iPhone and iPad and then used that knowledge to create a powerful chip for a computer.  And I do mean powerful.  When Apple introduced its first three computers using the M1 chip — the MacBook Air, 13-inch MacBook Pro, and Mac mini — Apple made a huge splash.  Even though these are entry-level computers, the M1 chip is so fast that these computers finished many tasks faster than all but the highest-end and most expensive Windows and Mac computers using Intel and AMD processors.  As Chris Schodt of Engadget noted:  “Apple’s new M1 processors have shaken up the entire CPU landscape” because they are “some of the fastest laptop processors we’ve ever seen, and they deliver this performance with incredibly low power consumption.”

The new iPad Pro brings this same performance to a tablet computer.  Not just something similar, but the exact same M1 chip.  I didn’t expect Apple to do this — I always thought that the “M” in “M1" was a reference to Macintosh computers — but I’m thrilled to see this power in a thin device that you hold in your hand.

Whenever I talk about processor power in a device that lawyers will use, I always feel the need to pause and discuss why this matters.  The M1 will be especially useful for folks pushing their iPad Pro to the limit by editing videos and large photographs, doing augmented reality, performing AI functions, etc.  But lawyers do not do those tasks very often.  We are mostly working with documents.  Even so, a faster iPad Pro is a more responsive iPad Pro, so it is more enjoyable to use.  Indeed, you can make the argument that a faster processor is more noticeable in an iPad than on a computer because you touch an iPad screen and directly manipulate on-screen objects using your fingers.  Any lag in that process destroys the illusion that you are actually “moving” items on the screen with your fingers.  Additionally, modern web pages have so much going on that they can tax the limits of any processor, on a computer or a tablet.  I’ve heard people rave about how much better the Safari web browser performs on a Mac with an M1 chip, and I hope that we will see the same on the new iPad Pro.

I’ve been enjoying the 2018 version of the iPad Pro for many years now, and it has been fast enough that I wasn’t tempted by the 2020 iPad Pro, which offered only a minor speed bump on certain tasks.  But Apple says that the M1 provides up to 50% faster performance than the chip that was in the 2020 iPad Pro, and I look forward to finding out how that feels in real-world usage.  The new iPad Pro should have the power to tackle even the most complicated workflows involving the largest documents with ease.   I cannot wait to put it through its paces.

5G

I have 5G on my iPhone 12 Pro, and it honestly doesn’t make much of a difference for me as compared to LTE.  To be fair, part of that is because we have been living in a pandemic, so I spend virtually all of my time either at home or at my office, where I have fast Wi-Fi.  But even when I run speed tests to compare 5G and LTE, I rarely see much of a difference.

Nevertheless, I recognize that 5G is a better technology and that. at some point in the future, when you are in the right location, 5G will provide amazing speeds without WiFi.  For example, Joanna Stern of the Wall Street Journal ran some speed tests last year, and in one part of downtown Denver she saw download speeds of 1,800 Mbps.  That almost twice as fast as expensive Gigabit cable modem speeds that some folks pay for at their home, and it is probably 50 times faster than typical 4G speeds.  In the future, this speed will be available in more areas. 

I typically purchase the version of the iPad Pro that only supports Wi-Fi because I virtually always have access to Wi-Fi, and when I don’t, it isn’t a big deal for me to tether to my iPhone.  But if you are the sort of person who takes full advantage of cellular service on an iPad, I’m glad that the new iPad Pro supports 5G because it helps to future-proof the product.

Thunderbolt / USB 4

When the iPad Pro had its last major update in 2018, one of the big changes was to switch from a Lightning port to USB-C.  This gave the iPad Pro the ability to access many more types of accessories.

The new iPad Pro uses a Thunderbolt / USB 4 connector.  It is the same size as a USB-C connector and is backward-compatible with all USB-C devices.  But it is also four times faster and can support more powerful hubs and other accessories.

One of the big advantages of Thunderbolt is the ability to drive large external monitors.  But right now, external monitors have limited utility for an iPad Pro because even a large external display can only show either the same thing that is on the iPad Pro screen or a single window being controlled by the active app on the iPad Pro.  The iPad Pro would be more “Pro” if it could connect to an external monitor while also running multiple apps on the same monitor, much like you can have lots of programs with lots of windows open at the same time on a computer.  But this would require a substantial update to iPad OS.  I wonder if Apple is adding Thunderbolt to the iPad Pro now so that it can support this feature in an upcoming version of iPad OS, perhaps iPad OS 15, which I expect Apple to preview in WWDC on June 7?  We’ll see.

Display

The 11" version of the new iPad Pro uses the same display that has been used in all other versions of the iPad Pro, which Apple calls the Liquid Retina Display.  it is an excellent display.

The 12.9" version of the new iPad Pro uses something new for the display.  Apple calls it the Liquid Retina XDR Display because Apple says that it looks just as good as the high-end monitor that Apple sells for computers for $4999 called the Pro Display XDR.  In the industry, the display on this new iPad Pro is called mini-LED.  Other iPad Pro models use 72 LEDs in the screen.  This new display uses 10,000 mini-LEDs.  So, you know, more.

Luke Dormehl of Cult of Mac wrote a long article explaining why mini-LED is so good.  Click that link if you want full details, but suffice it to say that it is a significantly better display with brighter bright areas and darker dark areas.  It is almost as good as the OLED displays used on the newest iPhones, but it avoids screen burn-in, which can be a problem for OLED.

Thus, if you get the 11" version of the new iPad Pro, you will get a great screen.  If you get the 12.9" version, you will get an even better screen.

Camera

The cameras are better in this new iPad Pro, and the big change is that Apple added Ultra Wide cameras to the front and back.  The one on the back is pretty useless to me — if I want to take a picture, I use my iPhone, not an iPad.

For the one on the front, I had hoped that Apple was going to move the camera to the long-edge instead of the short-edge.  I virtually always keep my iPad in landscape orientation, especially on videoconferences, and it is awkward to have to look to the side to give the perception to the other person that I am looking right at them.  But Apple did not move the camera, and that bums me out.

What they did do is add an Ultra Wide camera to the front and pair it with a new software feature called Center Stage.  With this feature, the iPad take a wide picture and then crops in to where you are located, and then if you move the iPad creates the illusion of a camera tracking your motion by moving the cropped area within the wide picture.  On this page of the Apple website, Apple uses a video to show the feature in action, which you can click here to view.

It’s a neat idea, and I can see it being useful during casual videoconferences with loved ones.  For my work-related videoconferences, I’m always sitting still in one location, so I don’t think I will use this.

So in short, I don’t see the new Ultra Wide cameras being useful in many law practices, but they could be nice when using the iPad Pro at home.

Accessories

There were rumors that Apple might update the Apple Pencil and/or the Magic Keyboard for iPad yesterday, but that did not happen.  Well, there was one minor change to the Magic Keyboard for iPad — in addition to the prior black model, you can now purchase a white version.

Cost

The new 11" iPad Pro starts at $799 for the 128 GB model.  I think that the 256 GB model for $100 more is the better size for most attorneys so that you have plenty of space to store exhibits, which seem to get larger with each new case that I work on.  You can also get 512 GB ($1099), 1 TB ($1499) or 2 TB ($1899). 

The new 12.9" iPad Pro starts at $1099 for the 128 GB model, so you pay an extra $300 for the larger size with the better screen.  You have the same size choices:  256 GB ($1199), 512 GB ($1399), 1 TB ($1799), and 2 TB ($2199).

If you want to add 5G Cellular to any of these models, that adds another $200.

Note that when you buy from Apple, you can trade in your current iPad, which helps to reduce the overall price.  For example, it looks like Apple will pay me $535 for the iPad Pro 12.9" (3rd generation) with 256 GB that I purchased in 2018, and that goes a long way towards paying for a new model for me.  It also demonstrates how much iPad Pros retain their value over the years.

You can pre-order a new iPad Pro from Apple starting on April 30, and the models will start to ship about two weeks later in the second half of May.

Conclusion

As excited as I am to use the new iPad Pro, don’t forget about the iPad Air if you are looking at the 11" version.  On September 15, 2020, Apple introduced the excellent iPad Air (4th generation).  That latest version of the iPad Air added many of the traditional advantages of the iPad Pro, such as the edge-to-edge screen and support for the second generation Apple Pencil.  You can get a 256 GB version of the iPad Air for $749 or a 256 GB version of the iPad Pro 11" for $899.  The extra $150 gets you the much faster M1 chip, a slightly better screen, and a few other minor advantage that I mentioned in my post on the iPad Air.  For many attorneys, I suspect that the only difference that you would really notice is the M1 chip, which Apple says is up to 50% faster.  But the iPad Air is also quite fast, so you need to decide if the extra $150 is worth it to get a faster, more responsive, iPad Pro.  And remember, the Apple Pencil is $129, so you could put the extra $150 towards that instead of the M1 chip.  On the other hand, if you want the latest and greatest, go for the new iPad Pro.

If you are like me and you want the larger screen to make it easier to work with documents, to give you more space to take handwritten notes, and to have a better view of pictures and videos, then the new iPad Pro 12.9" is the one to get.  Again, I recommend 256 GB.  For myself, I may decide to spend the extra $200 to get the 512 GB version just to have room to grow.

Whichever model you choose, the iPad Pro is so incredibly powerful that I suspect that it will remain the high-end iPad for several years.  The last major iPad Pro revision was in 2018, so this new iPad Pro may be at the top of the heap until 2024.  If you have been in the market for a new iPad Pro, this is a good time to get one.

Today at 10:00 a.m. Pacific / 1:00 p.m. Eastern, Apple will hold its online “Spring Loaded” event to announce new products.  (That’s 6:00 p.m. BST in London and 3:00 a.m. AEST in Sydney, Australia.)  Last week, I discussed the rumors on what Apple may announce today.  The product that seems most certain is a new version of the iPad Pro, perhaps with an updated version of the Apple Pencil to go along with it. 

This will be the first Apple event over five months, and it has been even longer than that since Apple held an event to say anything about the iPad — September 15, 2020, when Apple announced the iPad Air (4th generation).  The current version of the iPad Air is actually very similar to the iPad Pro, so much so that I have been very curious what Apple would add to the iPad Pro in the future to make that device more “Pro” and to increase the gap between the iPad Pro and the iPad Air.  We should find out today.

If you want to watch the online event live, you can do so by going to this page of the Apple website.  You can also watch the event live on YouTube, on an Apple TV device in the Apple TV app.

I believe that we are on the cusp of some big changes in the world of iPhone and iPad.  We know for sure that Apple will announce new products in a few days on April 20.  I don’t know what Apple will announce, but I suspect that we will see a big step forward on the iPad Pro.  We are also about to see iOS 14.5.  I look forward to being able to unlock my iPhone while wearing a mask by virtue of the fact that I will be wearing an Apple Watch.  Also, the new App Tracking Transparency feature will certainly be interesting, for the reasons noted at the end of today’s post.  I look forward to learning more about all of this next week, but for now, let’s take a look back at the news of note from the past week:

• I’ve been using the TranscriptPad app from Lit Software extensively over the past few weeks to work with deposition transcripts, and that is an essential app in my law practice.  Thus, it has worked out well for me that the app received new bookmark features this week, as Lit Software explains on its blog.  You can use bookmarks within the app to make it easier to jump to a part of the transcript.  But what I find even more useful is the inclusion of bookmarks in the PDF file when I create a report; the app automatically places a bookmark every time a new issue begins.  Thus, I can work with a single report in an app like PDF Expert and use the Outline tab in PDF Expert to jump directly to a specific part of the report.  This is one of those features that I didn’t know that I wanted, but now that I’m using it, I can’t imagine living without it in the past.
• If you want to track the food that you eat, California attorney David Sparks of MacSparky recommends the FoodNoms app.
• I’m a fan of Apple’s Fitness+ service, and even my wife is now using it.  Illinois attorney John Voorhees of MacStories describes some of the new features coming to Fitness+ next week, including workouts for pregnancy and workouts for older adults.
• There is a fascinating story in the Washington Post by Ellen Nakashima and Reed Albergotti about the security firm that hacked the iPhone for the FBI that was used by the San Bernardino shooter back in 2016.
• I’ve often heard a Tesla car referred to as an iPhone with wheels.  Jason Snell of Six Colors used a Tesla for a week and wrote an interesting story about his experiences.
• Developer David Smith describes a new free Apple Watch app that he released called Ian’s Awesome Counter that could be useful for anyone who needs assistance maintaining focus.
• Zac Hall of 9to5Mac has advice for making an Apple Watch less intrusive.  I don’t go as far as Zac does, but I also like to limit how much my Apple Watch interrupts me.  I have all sounds turned off and very few apps can alert me — which means that when I do get alerts, I know that they matter to me.
• If you want a HomeKit-compatible device that is weather-proof and can be used outside, there are not many options on the market.  I use the iHome iSP100 Outdoor Smart Plug, which I reviewed in 2018, and it works very well for me.  Christopher Close of iMore discusses a new device called the meross Outdoor Smart Plug, which has three independently-controlled outlets and only costs $35, and thus looks like a better deal than the iHome device that I use.
• I love the Memories feature on my iPhone and iPad because it does a great job of surfacing fun pictures from my past.  I’ve had times when it surfaced a picture of a loved one who is now deceased, which can be a bittersweet memory, but one that I still find valuable.  But what if the Memories feature triggers a memory that you don’t want, such as an ex or a troubling part of your life?  This issue is discussed in two well-written articles.  First, Lauren Goode of Wired wrote this article, and then after that, Stephen Hackett of 512 Pixels shared this very personal story.  I recommend them both.
• Allison Aubrey of NPR discusses using an iPhone app as a COVID-19 vaccine passport.
• Congratulations to the folks behind the GoodNotes app, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary this week.  I use the app throughout the day in my law practice to take notes, I use it at night to help my kids with homework (e.g. I scan and then annotate a math assignment so I can work through problems on my iPad to help them work through the assignment on the handout), and I sometimes even use it on the weekend to do crossword puzzles that I find on the Internet or scan from a newspaper.  It’s such a great app.
• The penultimate episode of Season 2 of For All Mankind was released on Apple TV+ today and … O M G.
• When iOS 14.5 comes out (presumably next week), it will alert you when an app wants to track you and give you the option to opt-in or opt-out.  This has Facebook upset because they make their money by tracking users.  Joanna Stern of the Wall Street Journal always does a great job with her videos, but this week she outdid herself.  She does an amazing job explaining the controversy and what it could mean for the future with the aid of some little helpers in this video:

Apple is well-known for being secretive about its future plans.  Thus, nobody is surprised when we learn that Apple has sued a former employee who disclosed confidential information.  For example, just last month, Joel Rosenblatt of Bloomberg reported on a lawsuit Apple filed against long-time employee Simon Lancaster after he allegedly disclosed secrets to a reporter.  But it appears that the latest leaker at Apple is none other than Siri. 

Sami Fathi of MacRumors reported early yesterday, just after midnight Pacific time, that on some devices, and in certain instances, if you asked Siri “When is the next Apple Event,” ‌Siri‌ responded with:  “The special event is on Tuesday, April 20, at Apple Park in Cupertino, CA. You can get all the details on Apple.com.”  John Gruber of Daring Fireball tweeted a video to show that he got the same response when he asked the question of Siri on a HomePod mini.  About nine hours after Siri let the cat out of the bag, Apple itself announced that it was holding a special event on April 20th at 10 Pacific / 1 Eastern.

In an email Apple sent out yesterday, Apple used the tagline “Spring loaded” to tease the event:

Apple is having some fun with the logo for this event.  If you want to see a fun AR version of the invitation logo, go to this page of the Apple website on your iPhone or iPad and then tap on the picture.  Or if you want to see something similar, look at what Apple’s Greg Joswiak tweeted in this video.  Also, if you send a tweet and use the hashtag #AppleEvent, you will now see that logo as a custom hashtag graphic.

So what will Apple be announcing next week?  Only Apple knows for sure.  (Well, maybe Siri does too, but she isn’t spilling the beans … yet.)  Nevertheless, there are lots of rumors about what might be coming.  Listed in the order that I consider most likely to least likely, here are the rumors that seem to be getting the most attention right now:

New iPad Pro

This one seems very likely to me because the last major revision to the iPad Pro was in 2018.  Apple provided a very minor update a year ago, and the 2018 version of the iPad Pro is a fantastic device so it has been fine to keep it around for so long, but it seems like the time is right for something new.

Of course, I expect the next iPad Pro to be faster.  There is also a rumor that the larger version of the iPad Pro will use a new display technology called mini-LED, resulting in a brighter screen that uses less battery power.  And the new iPad Pro could feature a Thunderbolt connector, which would let you connect an iPad Pro to even more devices with greater speeds.

I love the second-generation Apple Pencil and I’m not sure what Apple might do to improve it further, but there are also rumors that Apple will release an updated version of the Apple Pencil to go with the new iPad Pro.

AirTags

As I noted a few days ago, Apple recently announced that its Find My feature would work with third-party devices, and there have been strong rumors that Apple has been working on a first-party device called AirTags.  The idea is that you attach a small AirTags device to something like a briefcase or purse or your keys, and then if you cannot locate that item, the Find My app can help you to find it again.

I actually thought that Apple would have released this product a year ago, but with all of us forced to stay at home for large amounts of time during the pandemic, the risk of losing items went down substantially.  Now that we seem close to the end of that, it seems like the right time for a new product like this.

Apple TV

Apple has been doing great things to improve its Apple TV+ streaming video service.  But for folks who want to watch that service on an Apple device connected to a television, it is getting increasingly difficult to recommend the purchase of an Apple TV considering that the product has not been updated since 2017.  It seems like it is definitely time for Apple to release a new version of the Apple TV.  And if so, I hope that it comes with a better remote control.

iPad mini

Apple last updated the iPad mini in 2019, so it might be a candidate for a refresh.

New AirPods

There is a rumor that Apple is developing a new version of AirPods that look similar to AirPods Pro, although they won’t offer noise reduction.  If true, this seems like more of a Fall announcement to me, shortly before the holiday season.

New Macs

I suspect that Apple will soon release a new version of the iMac that works with Apple’s new M1 processor, but I’m not sure that we will see that next week.  I think it is more likely to see this announced at Apple’s upcoming WWDC conference scheduled for June 7.

Apple Watch bands

Apple loves to come out with new band designs for a new season.  However, I don’t think that new bands for the Apple Watch are important enough to receive any attention during an Apple event — not unless they somehow add a new feature to the Apple Watch.  If we do see new bands this month, I think it is more likely that they will be announced in a press release, or perhaps they will just show up in the Apple Store without any fanfare.