Yesterday at its WWDC conference for app developers, Apple provided the first sneak peak of iOS 12, due out this fall.  This free update will bring lots of great new features to the iPhone and iPad.  It does not look like iOS 12 will include a heavy focus on iPad productivity features like iOS 11 did (the dock, multitasking, etc.), but there is still a lot in iOS 12 that lawyers and other professional users of the iPhone and iPad will love using to get things done.  Here are the highlights.

Performance

A common worry regarding iOS upgrades is that the new features will work well on newer devices but will cause older devices to run slower.  But the first thing that Apple said yesterday about iOS 12 is that it will increase performance.  iOS 12 should make every device that can use iOS 11 run faster at many tasks — including older devices like the iPhone 5s and iPad Air, which were released in 2013.  Apple says that on some tasks, the performance increase will be an impressive 40%. 

Better notifications

If your iPhone is like mine, then you are always getting notifications.  New emails, new text messages, various apps that want your attention, etc.  iOS 12 improves just about everything that there is about notifications.

First, when you get multiple notifications from the same app, they are now grouped together like a stack of cards.  The top card may tell you that you have 8 new emails.  Tap on that to get more specific information if you are ready to work with emails, but if not you can move on to the next stack.  You can even manage all of the notifications from a single app at once, such as marking all new emails read.

Second, you can now adjust the notifications when you get notifications.  If an app sends you a notification and no no longer want to hear from that app, swipe on it and tap Manage to turn off notifications without having to open the Settings app and then going to Notifications and then finding the settings for that particular app. 

Third, you can set some types of alerts to be “critical” alerts so that they always come on top, even when Do Not Disturb is engaged.  (I don’t yet know the details on this feature.)

Fourth, you can manage the notifications that you see during the night.  Apple has improved the Do Not Disturb features in iOS, and you can now turn on Bedtime Mode.  With this mode turned on, if you happen to look at your iPhone in the middle of the night (for example, to see what time it is) you won’t see any notifications on the lock screen.  Thus, you won’t be tempted to start looking at emails, only to realize that now you cannot go back to sleep.  In the morning, the first thing that you see is a friendly Good Morning message with the time and weather.  Once you are ready to move past that and start your day, then you see all of the notifications that came in during the night.

Fifth, you can use Do Not Disturb during the day, with new 3D Touch options.  For example, you can quickly turn on do not disturb for just the next hour or during the next even on your calendar to make sure that you are not bothered during an upcoming meeting, but then your notifications will return after the meeting is over.

Shortcuts

I am a big fan of the Workflow app, which I first discussed on iPhone J.D. back in 2015 after California attorney David Sparks crated a useful guide on using the app.  I’ve since expanded the number of automated tasks that I do with this app, but it always had inherent limitations because it wasn’t built-in to iOS.

Fortunately, those limitations may be going away.  In early 2017, Apple purchased the Workflow app and (more importantly) hired the team which created the app.  This team has been working in the Siri division of Apple.  Now we know why:  yesterday, Apple revealed the new Shortcuts app with Siri.  Individual app developers can now enable their apps to expose certain functions to Siri, and the Shortcuts app can now trigger one or more actions after a voice prompt that you give Siri. 

As an example of multiple steps, you can create a set of actions which occur when you tell Siri you are leaving work.  For example, that can trigger Siri doing the following:  (1) send a message to your spouse to say that you are on your way home, (2) tell you how long it will take to get home with current traffic, (3) start playing a song playlist in your car using CarPlay, and (4) tell the HomeKit thermostat at your home to adjust the temperature to something that will be more comfortable when you arrive at home.  The Shortcuts app comes with hundreds of workflows, and you can adjust them to meet your specific desires.

As an example of a single step, you can now interact with a single third party app using Siri.  Apple yesterday gave the example of an app containing your travel itinerary giving Siri access to the next item.  You might decide that every time you say “travel plan” to Siri it tells you what is next, without you even needing to open up that travel app.  That way, when your plane lands, just say “travel plan” and Siri will tell you the info on the hotel where you will be checking in so you have that information as you approach the taxi stand.

Siri will even recommend shortcut actions to you based upon your frequent activities.  If you start every day by using an app to order a specific type of coffee from a coffeehouse on the way to work, Siri can help you do so more easily.

The new Shortcuts app already looks like a big improvement on the Workflows app, and if Apple gives this app enough tools, it has the potential to be something really special.  I cannot wait to try this one out myself, and I look forward to Apple developing this app further over the next few years.

Screen Time

The new Screen Time tools in iOS 12 allow you to limit the way that you use your iPhone or iPad.  Do you feel that you spend too much time in Facebook, Twitter, reading the News app, etc.?  Screen Time will show you how much time you are spending using different apps on your device, and then you have the option to limit yourself.  Maybe you don’t want to use a certain app more than a certain amount of time every day.  Just set the limit, and your iPhone will alert you when you have hit that time limit.  You can choose to disregard the notification, but at least you’ll know that you should start to wrap things up.  The settings sync across your iPhone and iPad, so you cannot cheat yourself by looking at Instagram on your iPad instead of your iPhone.

If you feel that you are spending too much time on your iPhone or iPad on non-productive apps, the Screen Time app looks like a nice way to help you modify your behavior.

Note that you can use the same features to impose hard limits — which cannot be bypassed without explicit parental permission — on devices used by your kids.  No text messages after 8pm, only a certain number of hours spent on YouTube each day, etc.  Your child can request additional time or privileges, but you have to approve it.  As a father of a 12 year old boy and a 10 year old girl, I’m already a big fan of the feature by which a child has to request a parent’s permission before downloading an app from the App Store.  I look forward to having similar controls on many other aspects of a child’s use of a mobile device.

FaceTime

Currently, I only use FaceTime for talking with family members.  If I have to talk with attorneys in other cities or clients, I typically use expensive videoconferencing solutions that sometimes don’t even work very well.  With iOS 12, however, I will be tempted to start using FaceTime for my work-related videochat needs. 

Instead of being limited to you and one other person, iOS 12 lets you to have a FaceTime group videochat with up to 32 simultaneous participants.  Each person appears in a square tile which increases in size as a person is talking, and which moves the background or the bottom of the app when a person is quiet.  (But you can always tap on a specific square to bring that face to the forefront.)

I’ve used lots of multi-person videochat solutions in the the past, but after iOS 12 becomes mainstream and is used by a large number of folks, this free videochat solution might make it unnecessary to use other products, as long as you are talking with folks who have an iPhone or iPad.

Another nice feature — if you are in a Messages thread with multiple participants, you can initiate a FaceTime call for that entire group from within the Messages app.  Great idea.

New iPad gestures

In iOS 11, you need to remember different gestures for the iPhone X and the iPad.  A swipe up from the bottom of the iPhone X brings you to the home screen, but a swipe up from the bottom of the iPad brings you to the app switcher and control center.

In iOS 12, the gestures on the iPad will instead mimic the iPhone X.  For example, swipe down from the top right to see the control center.

There is nothing really inherently obvious about any of these gestures, so I think that it makes sense to have them unified as much as possible across the different devices.

CarPlay

If you have a CarPlay technology in your car, in iOS 12 you will be able to use third party navigation apps such as Google Maps or Waze.  It is nice to have more options when you are traveling to a deposition or a courthouse in a faraway town for the first time.

The fun stuff

Those are the primary new changes that will help you get more work done with your iPhone and iPad, but of course there are many other new features aimed at making the iPhone more enjoyable.  There are lots of improvements to the Photos app, including better search options.  For example, instead of just searching for pictures that include a dog, you can now search for pictures with a dog and a pig — or whatever other combinations are relevant to you.

There are new Animoji character, plus the ability to create “Memoji,” a cartoon character that looks like you, opens your mouth when you do, etc.  And you can even wear Animoji or Memoji cartoons like a mask when you are in FaceTime.  This reminds me of this classic clip from The Jetsons cartoon.

Improvements to ARKit will allow for even more sophisticated augmented reality on the iPhone and iPad.  For now, this is mostly just an entertainment feature, but as Apple continues to develop this technology I can see it being more useful for business applications in the future.

Conclusion

iOS 12 surely has other tricks up its sleeve that we haven’t heard about yet, but even based on just what we saw yesterday, I’m already eagerly looking forward to this software update in the next few months.

 

This week is the calm before the storm in the world of the iPhone, iPad and Mac.  On Monday, June 4, Apple begins its Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) in San Jose, CA.  The conference kicks off with a Keynote address on Monday at 10 Pacific / 1 Eastern.  Apple always uses this as an opportunity to preview the next version of the operating system for the iPhone and iPad, which I presume will be called iOS 12.  (This time last year, Apple previewed iOS 11.)  This is also an opportunity for Apple to make new hardware announcements, so perhaps we will see a new iPad Pro or a new Apple Watch.  With WWDC around the corner, there wasn’t much other iOS news this past week, but here is the news of note:

• About six weeks ago, I posted a review of the iPhone Field Guide by California attorney David Sparks.  It is a fantastic e-book (including tons of videos) with tips for how to make the most of your iPhone.  This week, David announced that he updated his book to version 1.1, adding new content and fixing some small typos.  David also announced that he plans to update this book “for a few years,” with the next update likely to come after iOS 12 is released.  If you think you might be interested and you haven’t yet purchased this book yet, I encourage you to do so now because David also announced that he is about to increase the price.
• Earlier this week, I discussed the new Messages in iCloud feature of iOS 11.4.  David Pogue of Yahoo provides much more information about how this feature works.  For example, he explains that photos, videos, and other large files in your Messages app are offloaded to iCloud, which means that turning this feature on can save lots of space on your iPhone or iPad, although it does use up your iCloud space.  But it is easy to increase your iCloud space by just paying a little bit more; you cannot increase your iPhone space without buying a new iPhone.  So if you are running low on iPhone space because of Messages, the new Messages in iCloud feature might be very useful for you.
• John Gruber of Daring Fireball notes that the Things app (a task management app) was updated to version 3.6 and adds tons of support for using a keyboard with an iPad.
• Gruber also encourages everyone to turn on the iOS feature that erases all data after 10 failed passcode attempts.  I have never enabled this feature on my iPhone because I was afraid that my kids might trigger it on accident.  John points out that it would take over three hours before there could be 10 unsuccessful attempts, which certainly does reduce the risk of it happening when you don’t want it, but I’m still on the fence.
• It’s now June, so one of the next special occasions to look forward to is Father’s Day on June 17.  Roger Fingas of Appleinsider recommends a dozen Apple-related gifts for dads.
• Guigherme Rambo of 9to5Mac discovered that a new Apple Watch face will go live on Monday, June 4 during WWDC.  It features strings corresponding to the LGBT pride flag, and it looks pretty cool.
• And finally, here is a short video from Apple with a few tips for using the on-screen keyboard on the iPad.

Yesterday, Apple updated the operating system for the iPhone and iPad to iOS version 11.4.  iOS 11.4 adds two more important features, plus it includes a few smaller features and bug fixes.

Messages in iCloud

We all know that you can check your email on your phone, your computer, or your iPad.  And deleting an email from one device will delete the email from all of your devices.  The system works because all of your devices talk to a single server to handle your email.  iOS 11.4 brings this same feature to your text messages.

Before iOS 11.4, if you deleted a message thread on one device it would still exist on other devices.  And while new text messages would normally show up on all devices, sometimes they would appear on one device but not another one.  And sometimes messages would display out of order on one device.  In iOS 11.4, once you turn on Messages in iCloud, iCloud acts as a central hub for all of your messages (both SMS text messages and iMessage messages) so that all of your devices can stay in sync.  And iMessage is encrypted end-to-end for your privacy.

To enable Messages in iCloud, open the Settings app, tap your name at the top, then tap iCloud and turn on Messages.

At least, that is how it is supposed to work.  Last night, the Messages app in iOS 11.4 worked great for me on my iPhone, but on my iPad the app seemed to get caught on the “Signing in…” screen, where it has been stuck for many hours.  I tried signing out of my iCloud account on my iPad and signing back in again, but that didn’t fix the problem.  I haven’t yet seen any other reports of something similar, so perhaps this was a hiccup unique to my iPad Pro.  I’ll update this post when I figure out how to get this working.

[UPDATE 6/6/2018:  It took about five days, but eventually the app started working correctly on my iPad.  I presume that there was some sort of bug on the Apple server that affected some devices such as mine, but now all is working great.]

Note that even though the messages are stored in iCloud, that doesn’t mean that you can see them at the iCloud.com website.  That website does give you access to other items synced via iCloud such as mail, contact, photos, etc.  But for now, at least, there is no Messages app on the iCloud website.

Also note the keeping your messages one the iCloud server uses up some of your iCloud data space.  If you are not paying Apple for additional iCloud space and if you have lots of pictures and videos in your messages, you might not have enough space on iCloud.

AirPlay 2

If you own an Apple HomePod, iOS 11.4 is an important update for you.  Especially if you own multiple HomePods.  With AirPlay 2, you can put two HomePods in one room for richer, stereo sound.  Or you can place them in different rooms and the music will stay in sync as you travel from room to room.

If you own a smart speaker from another company, it may also support AirPlay 2.  Apple has a page on its website listing dozens of devices from manufacturers like Sonos, Marantz and Devon that will also work with AirPlay 2.

Fixes and Security

Virtually every iOS update fixes various bugs and improves security in various ways.  iOS 11.4 fixes issues with CarPlay in which audio can be distorted.  I don’t yet know exactly what this means; I’ve noticed that CarPlay in iOS 11.3 would occasionally cause some popping noises for me, and perhaps this fixes this.  iOS 11.4 also fixes some issues that arose when accessing certain Google files in Safari including Google Drive, Good Docs, and Gmail.  Apple also fixed a bug that could cause Messages to crash if certain characters were sent in a text message.  And Apple will soon update this page with information on the security improvements in iOS 11.4.

Cybersecurity is never easy, and often there is a tradeoff between convenience and security.  That’s why I like services such as 1Password, which increase your security while also making it easier to use passwords.  This week, Eliana Johnson, Emily Stephenson and Daniel Lippman of Politico reported that President Trump uses at least two iPhones for Twitter and for making calls, but that he has resisted recommended security protocols such as swapping out his iPhone on a monthly basis because it is too inconvenient.  I that countless hackers are constantly trying to compromise mobile devices being used by world leaders, especially the President of the United States.  And now, the news of note from the past week:

• California attorney David Sparks of MacSparky discusses Gemini Photos, an app that can look for duplicate (or very similar) photos on your iPhone to streamline your collection.
• Joel Rosenblatt and Mark Gurman of Bloomberg report that a federal court jury awarded Apple $539 million against Samsung for copying the iPhone design.
• Michael Potuck of 9to5Mac discusses some of the new features in the Dropbox app.
• If you are on an airplane and you want to use your AirPods to listen to the in-plane audio (for example to watch a movie), Ben Lovejoy of 9to5Mac reviews AirFly from Twelve South, a Bluetooth transmitter that you can plug into a 3.5mm headphone socket. 
• Jesse Hollington of iLound also posted a review of the AirFly.
• If you want a direct connection from a 3.5mm headphone socket without using Bluetooth, Chance Miller of 9to5Mac reviews the Belkin 3.5mm audio cable with Lightning connectivity.
• Buster Hein of Cult of Mac discusses Camera+ 2, the new version of the one of the best third party camera apps for the iPhone.
• Andrew O’Hara of AppleInsider reviews Logetech’s Logi Circle 2, a home security camera that works with Apple’s HomeKit technology.
• There are complicated rules on when it is permissible to record a telephone conversation, and even if it is generally legal in your state it may be unethical for a lawyer to do it.  But if you are in a situation in which a recording is appropriate (such as when you have the consent of all parties to the conversation), Elizabeth Stinson and Josie Colt of Wired give advice on how to record a phone conversation on an iPhone.
• And finally, here is a colorful new music video produced by Apple using Animoji, featuring the song Citizen Kane by South Korean band HYUKOH.  (The lyrics are in English.)  Apple calls the spot Taxi Driver, which frankly seems like a better title for this catchy song:

What is your teenager doing on his or her iPhone?  Many parents looking for answers to this question have turned to services that promise the ability to monitor an iPhone.  For example, TeenSafe offers a service called TeenSafe Monitor.  For $15 a month, parents can access a web-based dashboard to review their child’s text messages (both SMS and iMessage, and even if the messages were deleted from the iPhone), messages sent through WhatsApp, incoming and outgoing calls, a full list of contacts on the iPhone, the history of websites visited on the iPhone, and the current and historical locations where the iPhone has been.  How does it get access to all of this information?  The iPhone has to be configured to backup to iCloud, two-factor authentication has to be turned off, and you have to give TeenSafe your teenager’s Apple ID username and password. 

Those requirements may make you raise your eyebrows and bit, and for good reason.  If you are going to give any third party a username and password, you have to trust them.  Not only do you have to trust that they are going to use the information responsibly, but you also need to trust that they are going to safeguard this secret information.

Unfortunately, Zack Whittacker of ZDNet reported this weekend that TeenSafe wasn’t very careful in storing this information.  TeenSafe stored a file which had all of those usernames and passwords and other information in a place on the Internet where anyone could access it.  Even worse, the data was not encrypted and was instead stored in a plain text format.  The reporter contacted some of the email addresses in the file that anyone could download, and confirmed that, sure enough, the leaked passwords were accurate.  Ugh.  As you would imagine, TeenSafe is now taking efforts to secure the data again and to inform its customers of the leak.

Did any bad actors get access to the usernames and passwords before the story was published on ZDNet?  Perhaps we will never know.

The ZDNet story came just one day after an article by Jennifer Valentino-DeVries of the New York Times.  She reported that while these services say that they are for parents to monitor their teens, they are heavily used by people to monitor their spouses, especially when infidelity is suspected.  The report goes on to explain that some stalkers are using them to monitor their victims. 

I’m reminded of an incident about four years ago, when a hacker was able to trick celebrities through a phishing attack into providing their Apple ID passwords.  Once he had the username and password, the hacker was able to access their iCloud backups, find nude photographs, and then leak them to the Internet. 

We live in a digital world in which many aspects of our privacy are often protected by little more than a username and password.  Every time you give a password to someone else — your spouse, a co-worker, or a third party — you need to be sure that you can trust that they are going to protect your privacy just as much as you yourself would.

Only two weeks ago, I started In the news by stating:  “It seems like every time we get one security disaster behind us, the next one comes along.”  Sure enough, two weeks after the issue with Twitter passwords, we now have the next one.  If you use PGP to encrypt your emails, the EFF reported this week that new vulnerabilities have been discovered, such that the EFF recommends not even using PGP anymore.  Sigh.  And now, the news of note from the past week:

• If you use GoodNotes for your iPad handwritten notes, the developer recently posted a helpful article with videos showing you how to make the most of drop and drag with the GoodNotes app.
• Rene Ritchie of iMore writes about how Apple has worked with a number of other companies to develop carbon-free aluminum smelting so that the aluminum used in future Apple devices can be made with less negative environmental impact.
• Good news:  Ben Lovejoy of 9to5Mac reports that the Logitech Crayon for iPad is now on sale, giving you most of the capabilities of an Apple Pencil for half of the price.  Bad news:  it only works with the 6th generation iPad, and you have to be a school to buy one.
• If you don’t subscribe to Apple Music but you want to watch Apple’s Carpool Karaoke show, Killian Bell of Cult of Mac reports that all 19 episodes of the first season are now available for free for anyone with an Apple TV.
• The iMac is 20 years old.  To celebrate, you can give your iPhone a case that looks like the early iMacs.  Leif Johnson of Macworld shows off the cases, made by Spigen.
• And finally, if instead of celebrating the iMac you want your iPhone to celebrate how much money you have to spend, the Russian luxury item company Caviar is selling an iPhone X in a custom case which includes a solar panel.  Caviar calls it the iPhone X Tesla.  The 64 GB version sells for 284,000 ₽ (about $4,500) and the 256 GB version sells for 299,000 ₽ (about $4,800).  Here is a video which shows off the device (with the voiceover in Russian):

Thank you to Bellefield Systems, the creator of iTimeKeep, for sponsoring iPhone J.D. again this month. 

You may talk to a client over the weekend, spend time working on a brief at night after you put the kids to bed, or handle something in a courthouse because you happen to be there on another matter.  iTimeKeep makes time entry so simple and accessible that you can easily enter your time no matter when or where you are working, and thus you don’t forget to record your time entries.

Forgetting to record a few 0.1 or 0.2 time entries may not seem like a big deal, but over weeks and months it can really add up.  This time that would have otherwise been lost is what Bellefield refers to as invisible time. With the iTimeKeep app on your iPhone — which is likely with you all the time — you can enter your time contemporaneously and before you forget about it.  As soon as you enter time, the app quickly talks to your firm’s time management system so that the activity is officially recorded.  By using your iPhone to record your time entries at the time that you do the work, you don’t have to worry about losing time that you forgot about as you try to reconstruct your activities at a later time.  It’s not unreasonable to expect that you will record some additional billable time every day by keeping your time contemporaneously with iTimeKeep.  Multiply that by 255 work days a year, and multiply that by your billable rate, and the value of iTimeKeep becomes obvious.

Contemporaneous time entry is good for another reason.  It is much easier to keep track of what you are doing while you are doing it than it is to try to reconstruct your time entries at the end of the day (or on a subsequent day).  We’ve all been there before — you are doing your time entries at the end of the day, and you find yourself staring blankly as you try to remember what it was that you worked on in the morning.  Eventually it may come to you, but you are wasting your own (non-billable) time as you attempt to remember what you did.  If you instead enter your time as you are doing tasks, you save yourself the agony of reconstructing your day.  And because iTimeKeep makes it so easy to keep track of your time contemporaneously, over time you will find that you do it more and more.

iTimeKeep works with law firms of any size, integrating with several time and billing systems:  Aderant, Elite, Omega, PC Law, TimeMatters, and many, many more which are listed here.

I started using this app in my own law practice last year, and I posted a comprehensive review in August.  I have used this app on more occasions that I can remember to record my time when I am out of the office, time that I might have otherwise forgotten about.  Thus, the app has helped me to get paid for the work that I am actually doing, plus it ensures that my timesheets accurately reflect all of the work that I am doing for my clients.

 

iTimeKeep validates your time against client billing guidelines, so you don’t have to worry about forgetting to add a needed issue or task code for a file, or entering time in 0.1 increments when the client requires 0.25 entries.  And you can use built-in timers to keep track of precisely how long you spend working on a task.

What surprised me about iTimeKeep is that it isn’t just a tool for avoiding missed time entries.  It is also a fantastic tool to use every day for recording all of your time.  The iTimeKeep interface is so incredibly well-designed and fast to use that I often prefer using iTimeKeep over the interface for my law firm’s time entry software.  And fortunately, it doesn’t matter which one I use — time that I enter in iTimeKeep shows up on my firm system, and time that I enter in my firm’s system shows up in iTimeKeep if I have to go back and edit an entry.

I cannot type on an iPhone as fast as I can type on a computer keyboard.  However, I can often enter time just as quickly using iTimeKeep on my iPhone.  Sometimes I use Siri dictation to speak a time entry, which is fast and easy.  Other times I use the iPhone’s keyboard shortcut feature to speed up time entry.  (In the Settings app, go to General -> Keyboard -> Text Replacement.)  For example, if I type “tcw” on my iPhone, it automatically changes that to “Telephone conference with ” so I just need to type the name and the “re” information.

But iTimeKeep is not just a product for your iPhone (and iPad and Apple Watch, and even Android).  You can also use iTimeKeep on your computer via a secure website interface.  Whether I am entering time in the office on my PC or at home on my Mac, I frequently use the desktop version of iTimeKeep to type my time entries in the clean and efficient interface.

No attorney enjoys time entry, but it is a necessary part of the practice of law for most of us.  With iTimeKeep, you significantly reduce the friction associated with entering your time, especially when you record it contemporaneous with performing the work for your client.  Thank you to Bellefield for sponsoring iPhone J.D. again this month, and thank you for creating this perfect example of an iPhone app that greatly improves the practice of law for attorneys.

Don’t waste anymore time.  Try iTimeKeep today.

If you have an older iPhone with a battery that no longer holds a charge for very long, you can go to an Apple Store and pay only $29 to get the battery replaced.  When Apple first started this program a few months ago, I heard many stories about how hard it was to get an appointment for this service.   Serenity Caldwell of iMore reports that Apple seems to finally have a sufficient stock of the replacement batteries.  If you were waiting for the line to shorten before giving new life to an older iPhone, now seems to be the time to do so.  And now, the news of note from the past week:

• California attorney David Sparks discusses Apple’s efforts to make the iPhone more secure.
• Debra Cassens Weiss of the ABA Journal reports on a federal Fourth Circuit decision holding that some form of individualized suspicion is necessary before the government can search a cellphone seized at the border.
• In an article for The Daily Record, New York attorney Nicole Black discusses iPhone use by attorneys.  Note that the title of the article mentions 2018 use, but the data she is discussing comes from the 2017 ABA Tech Survey released last November (my report), which is based on data collected from February to May, 2017.
• Luke Dormehl reports that Apple now has permission to use drones to improve Apple Maps.
• Benjamin Clymer of Hodinkee (a website and magazine devoted to expensive watches) interviewed Apple’s Jonathan Ive to discuss the creation of the Apple Watch.
• Matthew Byrd of The App Factor came up with a list of 20 iPhone apps that you might not know about but which are worth checking out.  There are some good ones on this list.
• Harry Guinness of How-To Geek explains how secure Face ID and Touch ID are on an iPhone.
• Olloclip has made external lenses for iPhones for years now.  Jim Fisher of PC Magazine reviews the new Olloclip for the iPhone X, and finds that while it can work well, there are tradeoffs.
• Peter Cao of 9to5Mac reports that starting in July 2018, all new apps and all updates to older apps must include support for the iPhone X’s display.
• And finally, Ed Hardy of Cult of Mac reports that at the recent 97th annual Art Directors Club awards, Apple won Best in Show for an ad that Apple created called Barbers which shows how portrait mode on the iPhone can make anyone look good.  I mentioned this ad almost exactly one year ago when it debuted, not only because I thought it was a great ad, but also because it was filmed right here in New Orleans.  (I also noted that Apple made some digital changes to the neighborhood, including adding a fake law firm.)  Perhaps this will inspire Apple to film even more commercials in the Big Easy.  Here is that award-winning ad again:

Unless you are using an older iPhone, I suspect that you are using an iPhone that can support 3D Touch.  This is a gesture similar to tapping, except that you push down a little bit more.  3D Touch was introduced with the iPhone 6s in September 2015, and also works on the iPhone 7, iPhone 8, and the iPhone X (and the Plus variants of those phones).  But even though 3D Touch has been around for many years, I talk to many folks who don’t even know that the feature is there.  Frankly, I forget about it sometimes too.  But there are tons of really useful things that you can do with 3D Touch.  Here are a few of my favorites.

Quickly jot something down

I often need to quickly jot something down, like a phone number, a name, a case number, etc.  The built-in Notes app is a great place to put that information.  Of course, you can open the app and then tap on the button to create a new note, but it is faster to use 3D Touch.  Just push down on the app icon on your home screen and tap New Note.

Perhaps even more useful is the option just below that:  New Checklist.  If you need to jot down a number of items, such as a grocery list, the New Checklist option after you 3D Touch will open the Notes app, create a new note, and then enter the checklist mode (normally accessed by pressing the icon of the check mark inside of a circle).  Using 3D Touch and tapping New Checklist is far, far faster that doing all of those steps one at a time.

 Compose a new email, without distractions

If you 3D Touch on the built-in Mail app icon, there is a New Message option.  Thus, using 3D Touch is a fast way to compose a new email.  But the real reason that I like this shortcut is that whenever I open the Mail app to compose a new email, the first thing I see when the Mail app opens is a list of emails, which probably includes some new ones that I haven’t seen yet.  Thus, I find myself distracted, and sometimes sidetracked, by those messages.  By the time I start composing my email, I may have even forgotten what I was going to say.  When I use the 3D Touch shortcut to compose a new email, I don’t see my Inbox until my new email is composed and sent. 

3D Touch cursor

When typing an email, or when typing virtually any other text, if you push down on the keyboard, the keys turn blank and the keyboard turns into a trackpad.  You can slide your finger around to move your cursor up a few lines to edit or add to text.  Not only does this save you the trouble of tapping to select a new location for the cursor, I also find that it is far more precise than just tapping on text you previously typed.

While you are moving the cursor around, you can 3D Touch again to select a word, and then drag your finger to select multiple words.

Message a specific person

If you tap on the Messages app icon, you will probably see your most recent text message conversation.  But if you 3D Touch on the Messages app, you will see a list of names of folks who have recently had text message conversations with you.  Assuming that you wanted to send a message to, or review a recent message from, one of those three people, this is a faster way to jump directly to the text message conversation with that person.

Beware of Contacts

This isn’t as much of a tip as it is a warning.  If you 3D Touch on the built-in Phone app, you see a list of four favorites.  Tap a name, and you call that person.  That makes sense.  What I don’t like is that if you 3D Touch on the Contacts app icon, you see that same list of Phone favorites, and tapping one of those names will also call that person.  That shortcut makes sense to me on the Phone app icon, an app used to call people, but not on the Contacts app icon.  It would make much more sense to me for a 3D Touch on the Contacts app to bring up the Contacts entry for that person so that you can review contact information.  And that might be the behavior that you were expecting as well, which can cause quite a surprise if you were intending to quickly bring up a person’s contact information to see some detail about the person and instead you find yourself calling that person’s phone.

Mark my location

If you 3D Touch on the Maps app icon, the first choice is to Mark My Location.  Tap this to drop a pin on the map at your current location.  This can be useful if you are parking a car or a bike and then you are going to walk somewhere else and you are worried that you might forget where your car or bike was located.

Bluetooth and Wi-Fi

I frequently have a need to open the Settings app and go to the Wi-Fi settings or the Bluetooth settings.  Both are located near the top of the list after you open the Settings app, but an even faster way to access these settings is to 3D Touch on the Settings icon and then tap Wi-Fi or Bluetooth.

Get this app first

Sometimes I want to start using an updated version of an app, so I will open the App Store icon, tap Updates, pull down from the top of the screen to see what updates are available, and then I’ll tap the button to update all of my apps.  Normally this works fine, but sometimes I find that I really want my iPhone to start by updating app X, and instead my iPhone is slowly updating apps Y and Z.  As I wait, I cannot even launch the app that most interests me because the app icon is gray.  Ugh.

To solve this, 3D Touch on the app icon on your home screen for the app in question, and then tap Prioritize Download.  This will tell your iPhone to put the other updates to the side and immediately start updating this app.

Speaking of the App Store, you can 3D Touch on the App Store icon to see a few choices, one of which is Search, which brings you directly to the search function of the App Store.

Adjusting 3D Touch

You can adjust how hard you need to press on the display to trigger 3D Touch.  Open the Settings app and go to General -> Accessibility -> 3D Touch to select Light, Medium or Firm.  You can also turn off 3D Touch, if for some reason you need to do that.

And much more

This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to 3D Touch.  For example, you can also use it to “peek” at a link or a file before you officially open it.  And many third-party apps offer interesting 3D Touch options, such as the Launch Center Pro app which lets you see miniature icons.  Click here to see a short video by Apple showing off the features of 3D Touch.

If you are looking for something to do while in waiting in line at the grocery store, on a train, etc., take a few minutes to play around with 3D Touch in different places to find other interesting uses.  3D Touch is a useful, but I suspect underused, feature on the iPhone.