Brett and I start this week’s episode of the In the News podcast discussing surprises. First, many folks are being surprised by Apple’s new 3D reactions while in video calls, so we discuss what will happen and how you can control it. Second, virtually everyone was surprised to see Apple announce a new product this week: the Apple Pencil (USB-C). We also discuss iOS 17.1 (expected to come out in just a few days), how Wi-Fi will soon change substantially because of the new 6 GHz band, using Generative AI to make pictures better fit an iPhone screen, and much more.
This week’s episode is sponsored by Lit Software, the company behind must-have apps for many lawyers such as TrialPad and TranscriptPad. I discuss a great new feature in Lit Software that lets you incorporate video with a transcript and why this can be truly game changing, a topic that I also addressed in this post. Learn more at the Lit Software website.
In our In the Know segment, Brett talks about one of my favorite features of TranscriptPad: the ability to quickly search across all of the transcripts in a case. I provide tips for what to do when you are using the Maps feature in CarPlay and your car has trouble figuring out where you are (i.e. the GPS doesn’t work correctly).
Both iOS 17 and macOS Sonoma bring new features to FaceTime and other video apps: 3D reactions. If you do a thumbs up or thumbs down, you will see a similar bubble on the screen. If you do a double thumbs up, fireworks appear behind your head. If you do a double thumbs down, rain appears. If you use two hands to make a heart, floating red hearts appear to come from the center of your hands. A peace sign from one hand results in balloons around you, and from both hands results in confetti. And finally, if you use both hands, palm forward, and fold down your third and fourth fingers to make the Sign of the Horns, lasers go off behind you. It’s cute, but you can turn it off if it is not for you. However, by default, it is turned on, and Jay Peters of The Verge reports that it is surprising some people. Sometimes that is a pleasant, amusing surprise. But in other situations, like a business meeting, you may be embarrassed if you create special effects by mistake. Even worse, some folks have reported being in a remote video therapy session when a hand gesture made during a difficult moment can result in special effects that are exactly the opposite of how you are feeling, interrupting the therapy. Yikes. Jason Snell of Six Colors suggests that Apple should provide more warnings to prevent this. If you want to turn these special effects off, you need to first be in a video call, then activate the Control Center, tap Video Effects, and tap Reactions to toggle the feature off. And now, the news of note from the past week:
iOS 17.1 is expected to be introduced next week. Chance Miller of 9to5Mac explains what will be new.
For many years, Apple and other tech companies have been asking the FCC to let them use the 6GHz band for wireless devices, and Wes Davis of The Verge reports that the FCC granted the request this week. These signals will not go far, but they are high speed, and this spectrum could be perfect for inside of a car or for augmented reality devices. I look forward to seeing what Apple does with this.
And finally, we are three weeks away from Season 4 of For All Mankind, one of my all-time favorite shows on Apple TV+. Here is the Season 4 trailer. If you haven’t started watching the show yet, I recommend that you watch a season each week for the next three weeks so that you are ready on November 10:
Apple introduced the first-generation Apple Pencil in 2015. That is the one that has a cap at the end covering a Lightning connector, and you plug it into the Lightning port of an iPad to charge it. Awkward, but functional. In 2018, Apple introduced the second-generation Apple Pencil. It was a big step forward because that flat edge meant not only that it was less likely to roll off of a table but also it attached magnetically to the top/side of an iPad. Not only is that a convenient place to store the Pencil, but it also charges the Pencil. The second-generation Apple Pencil also added a new gesture: you can double-tap the side of the Pencil to change what the Pencil does. Now that so many years have passed, I have been wishing that Apple will introduce a third-generation Apple Pencil with even more new features.
Apple has not yet done that, but it did introduce a new entry-level Apple Pencil yesterday called the Apple Pencil (USB-C). At only $79 (compared to $99 for the first-generation Pencil and $129 for the second-generation Pencil), it is the least expensive Apple Pencil ever. The new Apple Pencil works with every iPad model that has USB-C: the iPad Pro 12.9″ third-generation (released in 2018) and later; any model of the iPad Pro 11″; the iPad Air fourth-generation (released in 2020) and later; the iPad tenth-generation (released in 2022); and the iPad mini sixth-generation (released in 2021).
Unlike the other two models, this entry-level Apple Pencil lacks pressure sensitivity, so you cannot change the width of a brush depending upon how much pressure you apply on the iPad screen. Artists will miss that feature, but if you are just taking notes and annotating documents, that feature is not very valuable. I rarely ever use it myself.
The new Apple Pencil gets 50% of the design advantage of the side of the second-generation Apple Pencil. I say that because just like the second-generation model, this new model has a flat side and contains a magnet, so you can attach it to the side of an iPad for easy storage (plus that flat side makes it less likely that the Pencil will roll around on a table). That’s good. But it is just a magnet, so the new Apple Pencil does not charge when it is attached to an iPad, nor does it wirelessly pair to an iPad by being attached to the iPad.
Instead of magnetic charging, the new Apple Pencil charges at the end, but does so in a way that seems better than the first-generation Pencil. With the original Apple Pencil, you remove a cap to charge via Lightning, and the cap could get lost. With this new Apple Pencil, you slide back back the cap (so it stays attached) to reveal a USB-C port. This is still far less elegant than charging when attached to the side of an iPad, but that is one of the trade-offs for saving $50.
The new Apple Pencil does support the hover feature of the second-generation Apple Pencil that was introduced with the 2022 version of the iPad Pro (the one with an M2 processor). However, it does not support double-tap to switch tools, which I think most folks would use more than hover. Frankly, if you have already spent the money on an iPad Pro, you would be much happier spending the extra $50 to get the second-generation Apple Pencil with both magnetic charging and double-tap support. Nevertheless, by adding hover support to this new Pencil, Apple is indicating that hover support is coming in the future to less-expensive models of the iPad.
Indeed, I think that a primary reason that Apple developed this new Apple Pencil is that it is a better solution for the least expensive iPad: the iPad (10th generation) introduced in 2022, which starts at $449. That iPad uses USB-C instead of Lightning but doesn’t support the second-generation Apple Pencil. You can use the first-generation Apple Pencil but you have to use a USB-C to Lightning dongle to charge, which is an extremely awkward solution. All of this makes me wonder why this new Apple Pencil was introduced yesterday instead of on October 18, 2022, when the iPad (10th generation) was introduced. But hey, better late than never.
I love my Apple Pencil and use it almost every day to take handwritten notes, highlight and annotate documents, and more. But I frequently talk to attorneys and others who use an iPad and don’t see a need for an expensive stylus. If that sounds like you, then perhaps the $79 selling price will make this the perfect Apple Pencil for you. You don’t get the advanced features of the second-generation Apple Pencil (pressure sensitivity, magnetic pairing and charging, double-tap to change tools) but you do get a stylus that is made by Apple, so it is likely to work better than any third-party stylus, at the lowest price ever. I’m sure that this new Apple Pencil will do a great job for taking notes and annotating documents.
Meanwhile, I’ll continue to hope that Apple is working on an even better Apple Pencil (an Apple Pencil Pro?) with even more features.
The smart folks at Lit Software have been making top-quality apps for lawyers who use iPads since the year that the first iPad was introduced in 2010. My favorite has always been TranscriptPad because I often work with deposition transcripts. A recent update to the app adds the ability to work with video when that is available. I’ve been trying it out for a few months, and it is very impressive. Whenever you feed a transcript and a video into the app, the app can automatically sync the audio and video—a process for which video professionals will sometimes charge around $75/hour. Better yet, you can easily edit deposition excerpts to create the perfect edited video to present to a jury, to a judge, at mediation, to a client, etc. And you can do it all yourself, without having to wait for or rely on anyone else to make precisely the edits that you want.
Adding video to a deposition
After you have imported your transcript in the app, press the new icon at the top of the screen that looks like a monitor to import the video. The import process will link that video to the transcript that you are viewing. Follow the directions for the next few steps, and then you will see a circle with a percentage so you can see how much longer it will take to import the video:
What takes place during this import process is pretty sophisticated. First, the app transcribes the raw speech. Next, the app uses Natural Language Processing to further improve the accuracy in synchronizing the speech with the words in the transcript. Next, the app uses AI technology to account for similar words with the same meaning, just in case the person says something and the transcript gets it slightly wrong. (I’m amazed how often this happens; you assume that the written transcript is 100% accurate, but then you go back and listen to the video and hear that there are minor differences.)
All of this takes place on your iPad—not in the cloud—so newer and better iPads with more sophisticated processors will be faster than older iPads. On my fifth generation iPad Pro 12.9″ (the one that was released in 2021), the process took long enough for me to set aside my iPad and let it do its work while I turned my attention to something else, but not very long.
When this process is done, you can review your transcript just like you normally do in TranscriptPad with one big difference: you will also see video at the top.
At any point, you can tap the icon at the top that shows a monitor with a play button to play the video and have the transcript move automatically as the video progresses. While video is playing, you can scroll up and down to jump to another part of the deposition and the video will quickly jump to that point as well.
Even if this is as much as you do with this new feature, it is really nice. It gives you the ability to not just read the words in the transcript but also hear them spoken and see the witness say them. Sometimes, the manner in which something is said is just as important as what is said, and you don’t miss any of that thanks to this new feature as long as you had a video created at the time of the deposition.
Create video excerpts
When you are ready to show off the video to someone else, TranscriptPad has great tools for doing so. Perhaps you want to create a short video clip of a few questions and answers to share it with your client. Or maybe you want to select the most relevant parts of a deposition to show at a mediation or at trial. No matter what you need to do, TranscriptPad can handle it.
To create video excerpts, simply tap the line in the transcript for the start and the end of a clip—the same process that you do in TranscriptPad to highlight, assign issue codes, etc. Then tell the app that you want to create a video clip. You can follow step-by-step directions in this second blog post from the developer.
When you select the first video clip, you need to assign a name like “Mediation” or “Trial” or “Testimony on Causation.” Next, select the next set of question(s) and answer(s) that relates to that issue and assign the same name. Keep going until you have everything relevant designated.
Next you have two choices. The easy choice is to just export a video and save it in your Photos. Then, you can watch it and see how it looks. If everything is good, then you are done.
Although you can often stop there, I find that you get a better result if you edit, more precisely, where the video starts and stops. The app includes an easy-to-use editor that allows you to pick the perfect start and stop point for each video. There is even an audio waveform at the bottom so that you can see whenever there is noise, so your editing can be very precise—starting or stopping the video after a specific word, or even after an “umm” or a cough.
Once you have edited each clip as appropriate, you can export the total video that contains just the relevant parts. The quality of the video is excellent. The witness is shown at the top, and the words from the deposition are shown at the bottom as the witness is speaking.
Best of all, if you want to change anything, it easy to do so. Just add more designations (taking the time to precisely end the start and stop point, if you want) or delete ones that you no longer need, and then export the video again.
iPad and Mac
Although I primarily use these apps on my iPad, the Lit Suite apps also work on a Mac. Because I store my TranscriptPad depositions in iCloud, I can start working with a video deposition on my iPad, then work with it on my Mac, then go back to my iPad.
Pricing
There is no extra cost for this or any other new feature added to the Lit Software apps. When you pay for an annual subscription to LitSuite—which I believe is currently $399—you get access to all of the developer’s apps for your iPad: TrialPad, TranscriptPad, DocReviewPad, and ExhibitsPad. The company is currently working on its next new app that will be part of the bundle: TimelinePad.
If you want to pay for access for 10 or more users in a single law firm, you can take advantage of the Enterprise Program, with discounts of up to 50% for the first year with a three-year license.
Conclusion
The developer of this app notes that by syncing video/audio to a transcript on your own, you can save money. I’m sure that is true and will be a selling point for many. But for me, the real advantage is total control. I’ve been involved in many trials where late night changes needed to be made to video excerpts and it can be inefficient to have to wait for a graphics professional to implement the needed changes. With this new feature in TranscriptPad, an attorney or a paralegal can create the perfect edits right on an iPad or Mac, without the need to involve anyone else. It is the same reason that many attorneys prefer using TrialPad on their own iPad rather than hire a graphics professional to present evidence at trial.
Moreover, because working with video becomes so much easier thanks to this new feature, you may find that you will start to use videos for depositions in settings in which previously it was not worth the trouble. Favorable witness testimony comes to life even more when it is presented in a video format. And impeachment can be more effective as well, with video sometimes showing how a person was uncomfortable with their answer even though the words on a black-and-white transcript won’t show that.
Adding support for video is a great feature update for the already outstanding TranscriptPad app.
This article won the LitigationWorld Pick of the Week award on October 24, 2023. The editors of LitigationWorld, a free weekly email newsletter for litigators and others who work in litigation, give this award to one article every week that they feel is a must-read for this audience.
Your new iPhone comes with a USB-C cord, but how many watts should you use for your power adapter? Brett and I start today’s episode of the In the News podcast by tackling that question. We then discuss faster 5G in the new iPhones, how to clean any model iPhone, advanced video features in the newest iPhones, tips for using and changing the face on an Apple Watch, and more.
In our In the Know segment, Brett discusses sharing a virtual business card between two iPhones running iOS 17. I discuss Stage Manager on the iPad, including why it is worth giving this feature a second look even if—like me—you were not a fan in iPad OS 16.
The iPhone 15 Pro supports log video recording. If you don’t know what that is, then you don’t need to worry about it … it wasn’t designed for you. But if you are still curious about what this means (like I was), Stu Maschwitz of Prolost wrote a great post that tells you everything that you might want to know about log and LUTs. In short, the idea is that serious video professionals can now use the iPhone along with other, far more expensive, videocameras because it is now possible to sync up the color profiles. As a result, an item that looks a certain shade of blue when filmed with one camera will look the same way when it is filmed with an iPhone, so the editor has the freedom to switch back and forth between the different recordings. It also allows pros to make their videos look even better with more compelling colors. Even though none of this directly affects me, I have no doubt that as Apple pays more attention to the needs of professional users, good stuff will trickle down to folks like me who appreciate great pictures and videos but are just doing this for fun. And now, the news of note from the past week:
What to clean the outside of your iPhone? This page on Apple’s website explains how to do so safely.
Glenn Fleishman of TidBITS wrote a detailed description of the new Check In feature of iOS 17, the digital version of “call me when you get there so that I know that you arrived safely.”
If you select the right photo for your Apple Watch clock face, you can create some pretty interesting watch faces, as journalist Harry McCracken showed off this week on Mastodon. Check out these: Porky Pig Opera, TRS-80, Classic Mac, Newton, etc.
Chance Miller of 9to5Mac reports that if you have a smart garage door (and many models have this feature even if you don’t know it), you may soon be able to open and close the door via the Honda and Acura apps in CarPlay.
Director Ridley Scott’s new movie Napoleon comes to theaters on November 22, 2023. But after that, it will come to Apple TV+, and William Gallagher of AppleInsider reports that Scott is working on a director’s cut version that is about four hours long and will hopefully come to Apple TV+ as well.
And finally, if you want to get some work done but find it too quiet to work all by yourself, how about a virtual study buddy? Apple released a video this week called Study With Me featuring Storm Reid (who is a college student at USC). There is a brief introduction and then a 90 minute video in which you see Storm get her work done for 25 minutes (with background music), then take a five minute break, in three cycles. I guess the idea is that you might play this on your iPad or on your TV while you get work done on another device. Seems like a nice idea for people who like to have a little background noise while they get work done. The video is incredibly well produced, and it features a few surprises along the way. I suspect that if this one gets lots of views, Apple will release others:
We begin this week’s episode of the In the News podcast by discussing a recent update to iOS and what it means for the iPhone 15 Pro. Then we discuss what some of the pros think about taking pictures with the new pro iPhones, the USB-C port on the new iPhones, and StandBy mode in iOS 17. We talk about the very first Apple Watch (may it rest in peace) and the new double-tap gesture for the newest Apple Watch. We also discuss the latest version of tvOS, happy tears, and more.
This episode is sponsored by SaneBox. This week, Brett and I discuss how you can save significant time by using SaneBox and explain the different plans that are offered and provide advice on picking the plan that makes the most sense for you. Go to sanebox.com/inthenews to sign up for a free trial and get a $25 credit toward a SaneBox subscription.
In our In the Know segment, Brett discusses the new crosswords in the News+ app, including why they are especially appealing to people who do not do crosswords very often. I go deep on what is new in the People and Pets feature on the Photos app on the iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
Apple announced its 2023 models of the iPhone a few weeks ago. This week, Google announced its new Pixel 8. What interested me most about this introduction is something that also jumped out to John Gruber of Daring Fireball: Google’s heavy use of AI in the camera app. Of course, Apple also uses its powerful processors to take pictures; the reason that the relatively small lenses on an iPhone can take such great pictures is that Apple uses computational photography to bring out the best in every image. But I do wonder if Google has taken this too far. Google’s new Magic Editor lets you move around objects in a photo, so if you take a picture and realize that two people look too far apart, you can just move them together. Google’s new Best Take feature works when you take a number of pictures of a group of people; the feature takes the best face for each person (eyes open, smiling, etc.) and merges that into a single best photo. I’ve occasionally used Photoshop on my Mac or even apps on my iPhone to make these types of changes in the past, but there is something about making it a part of the process of taking pictures that seems somewhat bizarre to me. Are you taking a picture or creating a picture? And is there really a difference between those two? I’ve taken courses in photography and I’ve taken courses in Philosophy, but perhaps we need some photographic philosophers to provide some advice and help us navigate these issues. And now, the news of note from the past week:
Overall, I’m happy that the iPhone now uses USB-C instead of Lightning, but it does serve of a reminder that USB-C is a pain. As Dan Moren of Six Colors notes in an article for Macworld, some cords only provide power, some provide data, some provide different amounts of power or different speeds of data, and it is often impossible to tell what kind of cord you have by just looking at it. Ugh.
Christian Zibreg of iDownloadBlog notes that if you subscribe to Apple News+ you can now do daily crosswords in the News app. There are some aspects of these crosswords that I like, but I think that Apple needs to improve the interface.
Ross Trudeau, the Puzzles editor for News+, says that Apple is trying to make its crosswords “more welcoming to newcomers.” He also says: “We also intend to eliminate the opaque and coded language often seen in crossword clues. In an old-school puzzle, USSR might get a clue like ‘Erstwhile federation for Brezhnev, briefly.’ That won’t be us. We’ll use plain language: ‘Country that broke up in ’91.'” I suppose that I understand that, but sometimes I like the more opaque clues that are used later in the week in the New York Times crossword puzzles; it seems more satisfying when you figure out the clue.
I purchased the original Apple Watch in 2015, and at the time, I was a fan of that product. But any modern Apple Watch is so infinitely better than the first generation that I cannot imagine anyone seeing a reason to still use one … except, perhaps, if you splurged and paid up to $17,000 for the gold Apple Watch Edition (which Caitlin McGarry of Macworld reviewed in 2015). But as Steve Dent of Engadget reports this week, Apple has now placed all of the original models of the Apple Watch on its obsolete list, which means that is no longer eligible for hardware service and you can no longer order spare parts. So if you had plans to try to spend thousands of dollars on just a gold digital crown spare part, you may now be out of luck.
Andrew O’Hara of Apple Insider reports that the new Double Tap feature on the newest Apple Watch works much better than the similar accessibility feature that Apple made available in the past.
Now that your Apple devices can work with smarthome Matter devices without needing to worry about HomeKit support, Bradley Chambers of 9to5Mac discusses using inexpensive smart bulbs from OREiN. For example, I see that you can get a 4-pack of standard A19 60W equivalent bulbs that you can set to be any color for less than $24, so less than $6 a bulb.
Band of Brothers was an amazing series on HBO; I cannot believe that it has been 22 years since it first aired. A sequel is coming out, produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, and it is called Masters of the Air and will premiere on January 26, 2024 on Apple TV+, as reported by Benjamin Mayo of 9to5 Mac. This one could be really good.
William Gallagher of AppleInsider reports that a woman in the UK who works in a gym and is named Siri has decided to change her name because, well, you can probably guess why.
And finally, here is a powerful video released by Apple called Another Birthday:
You know how helpful an iPhone can be while it is in your hand and you are actively using it. With the new StandBy mode in iOS 17, your iPhone can also be useful when you are not actively using it—especially if you have an iPhone 14 Pro or iPhone 15 Pro that supports an Always-On Display. StandBy mode turns your iPhone into a device that displays glanceable information that is most relevant to you in a way that is designed to be viewed from a distance.
It took me a little while to figure out how to take advantage of StandBy, but once I did, StandBy became perhaps my favorite new feature in iOS 17. Here are some tips for making the most of it, along with recommendations for two fantastic stands that will let you get the most out of StandBy if you want to charge multiple Apple devices at once: (1) the Anker 3-in-1 Cube with MagSafe and (2) the Twelve South HiRise 3 Deluxe.
Entering StandBy mode
An iPhone running iOS 17 enters StandBy mode automatically once four things occur.
First, the iPhone is being charged. For reasons I will get into below, the most elegant way to do this is to use a MagSafe charger, but you can also just plug a cord connected to a power source into your iPhone’s USB-C or Lightning port. For example, if you are working at a computer and you have a charging cable connected to a port on your computer, just plug that cable into the Lightning or USB-C port on your iPhone.
Second, the iPhone must be on its side. In other words, in landscape mode.
Third, the iPhone must be still. If you are charging your iPhone while it is in landscape mode in a car, the iPhone won’t enter StandBy mode.
Fourth, the iPhone must be in its sleep mode. In other words, you are not actively using your iPhone. You can press the side button on your iPhone to enter that mode. Or, if you don’t use an iPhone for a while, the display will dim and go to sleep and eventually enter this mode on its own.
When all four of these conditions are satisfied, the iPhone enters StandBy mode. Once there, it displays useful information on the screen, typically using big numbers and letters that are easy to see from a distance.
The three modes of StandBy mode
Once your iPhone is in StandBy mode, you have three choices for what to display on the screen. The first mode, and the most useful one, displays widgets. Swipe your finger from the right to the left to enter the second mode, which displays photos. Swipe from right to left a third time to display a huge, full-screen clock. You can swipe left or right to move between these three modes.
When you place your iPhone on a MagSafe stand, the iPhone will remember the mode it was in when last attached to that stand and start with that mode again. For example, when I place my iPhone on the stand in my office, I typically see the widget mode, which I prefer to use during the work day, but when I place my iPhone in the stand on my bedstand, I see a full-screen clock, which I prefer to see when I am going to sleep and waking up.
While you are within one of these three modes, you can swipe up or down on the iPhone’s screen to change what is being displayed. For example, in the clock mode, swiping up and down will choose between five different clocks: analog, digital, world (with the time in the left corner on top of a map of the world, with an indication of what part of the world is experiencing sunlight), solar, and float.
If you place your finger on the display and hold down for a second or two, you will enter a settings mode where you can change what is being displayed. Before entering that mode, your iPhone will use Face ID or request a passcode to make sure that you are the one changing something on your iPhone—not somebody else who happens to walk into a room while your iPhone is in StandBy mode. Once your identity is confirmed, your iPhone will let you change various settings related to the StandBy mode that you are in.
For example, in clock mode, once you enter the settings mode, you can tap on the dot at the bottom right corner to change some of the colors on the clock. Tap Done at the top right when you are finished. Using settings mode can be tricky because if you move your iPhone too much, it will exit StandBy mode completely. It is much easier to work in the settings mode if your iPhone is on a stand that is holding it still.
The clock mode is fairly simple, but let’s dig deeper into the other two modes: photos and widgets.
Photos mode
In photos mode, your iPhone acts like a digital picture frame. A photo is displayed across the entire iPhone screen. The time is displayed at the top right. And when the picture changes, for the first few seconds, your iPhone tells you at the bottom right where and when the picture was taken.
By default, in the photos mode, swiping up and down will choose between five different sets of your own photos: featured, nature, pets, cities, and people. I’m fairly certain that the only pets or people that can be displayed are the ones that are identified in the automatic People & Pets album in the Photos app. If you don’t want one of those default choices on. your iPhone, you can enter the settings mode to change what appears when you swipe up or down.
Hold down on the screen for a second or so while in Photos mode to enter the settings mode. Here, you can tap the eye at the top right to turn specific sets of pictures on or off. For example, if you never want to see nature and cities, turn those two modes off. That way, swiping up and down will only switch between features, pets, and people.
When you enter the settings and select the people mode, there is an icon at the bottom right corner. Tap on that to select which people will appear in the photos.
Additionally, if you tap the plus sign at the top left, you can select any one of your albums (from the Photos app) to turn that into a mode in Photos. Thus, you can have many, many different sets of photos to choose between when you swipe up or down.
Widgets mode
The most powerful mode of StandBy is the first one: widgets mode. In that mode, two widgets are displayed side-by-side.
Hopefully, the widget itself will show you all of the information that you want to see. However, if you want more, you can tap once on a widget and an arrow will appear at the top right of the widget. Tap that arrow to launch the app that is associated with the widget. This works especially well for apps that work in landscape orientation.
Just like the other modes, in the widgets mode you can swipe up or down to change to another widget in the stack. However, in the widgets mode, you need to pay attention to the side of the screen on which you are swiping. For example, if you swipe up on the left side of the screen, you swill change the widget on the left side of the screen (only).
To change which widgets are available in a stack in StandBy, enter the settings mode. Hold your finger on either the left or the right side for a second or two to enter the settings mode for widgets on that side of the screen. If you don’t like one of the iPhone’s default widgets, you can tap the minus button at the top left of a widget to remove it from your stack. Tap the plus sign at the top left of the screen to add additional widgets.
If you have edited widgets on an iPhone or iPad home screen before, the process here is similar. First, you select an app that supports StandBy widgets. Second, you select which of the one or more widgets provided by that app that you want to use. For example, a weather app might offer different widgets that display different weather information in different ways.
When you are changing the settings for widgets, you will see two options on the right. The first option is Smart Rotate. If you have Smart Rotate turned on, the widget on that side of the screen will change automatically during the day depending upon which widget the iPhone thinks would be useful—based in part on when that widget receives updated information from its app. Of course, you can always swipe up or down to manually change what widget you are seeing. So far, I prefer to keep Smart Rotate turned off. That way, the left side of my screen always displays a very large clock and I swipe up and down on the right side of my screen to change between different calendar apps, weather apps, and a few others. I’m not a fan of the built-in clock widget because it is analog. I find a digital clock widget to be easier (and faster) to see when I glance at it. Thus, I used the fantastic Widgetsmith app to design a big clock that I find easy to read in a StandBy widget.
The second option in settings is Widget Suggestions. When this is turned on, your iPhone will automatically add widgets to your stack from time to time that you might want to use. It’s a nice way to discover additional widgets, but I prefer to keep this option turned off.
With countless different iPhone apps available, and with each app able to provide you with multiple different widgets, the number of possible StandBy mode widgets is seemingly endless. Indeed, if you use an app like Widgetsmith, you can create your own widgets with infinite possibilities.
Live Activities
I said above that there are three modes: widgets, photos, and clock. There is actually another mode too, but it works a little differently. If you have an iPhone that supports Dynamic Island, you know that certain apps can put information into the Dynamic Island so that you can see information (like a sports score or time until your plane lands) even while you are using another app. And if you tap on the Dynamic Island, that information floats up into a larger panel. There is another mode in StandBy that reminds me of when the Dynamic Island grows to a larger panel.
When you are using StandBy, if an app is ready to display a Live Activity that might normally go in the Dynamic Island while you are using your iPhone but your iPhone is in StandBy mode (and if the app supports StandBy mode) then the Live Activity will display on your iPhone.
For example, if you are playing music and then you enter StandBy mode, you will see a small indicator at the top center of the iPhone’s screen in StandBy mode. Tap that to bring up a full-screen display that shows the album art and buttons to control the music.
I love this mode. It is like the ultimate remote control for whatever music you are listening to in a room. But lots of other apps can take advantage of this mode as well. For example, if you receive a text message, the text message and picture of the person who sent the message can appear on the screen.
When your iPhone is in StandBy mode, if you ask Siri a question, such as the score of a football game, the display will change to show relevant information as Siri is speaking the answer to you.
(Let’s not talk about what happened in the remainder of the Saints game this past Sunday. Ugh.)
Always on display
StandBy mode works best if you have an iPhone that supports an always on display, such as the iPhone 14 Pro, 14 Pro Max, 15 Pro, and 15 Pro Max. That way, whenever you glance at your iPhone, it shows you something useful. In my office, for example, I have my iPhone on a stand that is just below my main monitor. I usually have the time on the left and my calendar with upcoming appointments on the right. That way, whenever I am working at my computer, I can just glance down and instantly see the current time and what appointment is next.
I find this to be incredibly useful—a way for me to get value from my iPhone even when I’m not actively using it. StandBy essentially turns my iPhone into a new smart device, similar to one of those Amazon Alexa Echo devices that have a screen and can display useful information all of the time. But then when I want to use the iPhone as an iPhone, I just pick up my device and start using it. (This is why it is more useful to use MagSafe, avoiding the need to unplug a cord.) And because my iPhone charges while in StandBy mode, I always have lots of power when my iPhone leaves StandBy mode.
Before StandBy mode, I’ve never found MagSafe charging to be all that useful to me. After all, I can charge more quickly using a cord. But with StandBy mode, I’m now using MagSafe charging every single day. MagSafe and StandBy mode were made for each other.
In addition to putting my iPhone in StandBy mode when I am using my work computer or my home computer, I also like to put it in StandBy mode on my nightstand when I go to sleep at night. This basically turns my iPhone into an alarm clock, with a big display of the time that is easy to see. Assuming that you have Night Mode turned on for StandBy in the Settings app (which is the default), when your iPhone senses that it is dark, the standby display changes to a red tint so that it is not invasive while you are sleeping.
When your iPhone is in this Night Mode version of StandBy mode, the screen will turn off after about 15 minutes even if you have an iPhone that supports always on mode. However, if your iPhone senses any motion, the display will turn on again. Thus, if you want to see the time in the middle of the night, you can just sort of wave your hand in the general area of the iPhone to see the clock (or whatever else you are displaying in StandBy mode).
If you are using an iPhone that does not support always on mode, you can still use StandBy. Once your iPhone has gone to sleep and the display has turned black, you can make the display come on again by tapping the screen, gently nudging the table your iPhone is on, or using Siri. It is nice to have a workaround, but it means that you cannot simply glance at the screen to see information, which is one of the best parts of StandBy mode.
StandBy is better with a stand
You don’t need to have a special stand to use StandBy mode. Just charge your iPhone and place it in a steady location on its side. But StandBy mode works much better if you have a dedicated stand with MagSafe charging. That way, the iPhone stays even more steady and is less likely to exit StandBy mode by mistake. Plus, MagSafe means that you can easily pick up your iPhone without having to unplug a cord.
There are many different MagSafe iPhone stands available now, and I suspect that even more will become available as more people start to use StandBy mode. Some stands only charge the iPhone. Others give you the ability to charge one or two other devices as well.
I’ve been researching the best stands for months, and just recently, I picked out two of them that I think are fantastic: (1) the Anker 3-in-1 Cube with MagSafe, which is $149.95 on Amazon and (2) the Twelve South HiRise 3 Deluxe, which is on pre-order for $149.99 but is starting to ship now. $150 may sound expensive, but with either of these devices, you get a product that charges three different products at the same time using the fastest charging speeds that are supported by Apple, and you only have a single cord coming out of the device—not three cords, like some other 3-in-1 chargers. Thus, consider that you are getting three top-notch chargers for the price of one when you think about the price. Both stands support landscape mode for StandBy or portrait mode.
As noted above, at my desk in my office, the best place for me to use my iPhone in SandBy mode is the small area between my keyboard and my monitor. After reading many other reviews and comments, it seems that one of the best, if not the best, small device that charges multiple devices is the Anker 3-in-1 Cube with MagSafe. It supports the fastest form of MagSafe charging supported by Apple (15W), plus it has a normal Qi charging area where you can charge AirPods or Airpods Pro (or anything else that supports Qi wireless charging), plus it supports Apple certified fast charging for an Apple Watch.
True to its name, when folded up, it is a cube:
Fold open the top and you can place your iPhone on the MagSafe charger at an angle (which you can adjust), which makes it easier to see your iPhone in StandBy mode.
If you want to charge your Apple Watch, pop out the drawer on the right side.
When the top of the cube is open, you can see a Qi charger on the back. There is also a USB-C connector hole on the back, which is how you charge the unit. It comes with a USB-C to USB-C charging cord and a USB-C power adapter.
What I love about the Cube is that it is small and compact. Thus, when my iPhone is connected to it, it fits above my keyboard and below my monitor.
The small size means that the Anker 3-in-1 Cube with MagSafe is also a good travel charger. It gives you a single device in your hotel room to charge your iPhone, Airpods, and Apple Watch. One downside of this product is that when you are using all three chargers, everything is sort of on top of each other because it is so compact.
Another downside of this product is that when you are charging AirPods, because they sit behind the MagSafe platform, they are somewhat hidden. There have been a few times when I walked away from my office desk at the end of the day to go home only to realize that I forgot to pick up my AirPods.
Overall, I’m incredibly happy using the the Anker 3-in-1 Cube with MagSafe as my office stand.
Another perfect place for using StandBy mode is a nightstand next to your bed. For my nightstand, I didn’t need something compact that fits in in a small area beneath a monitor, so I could select a stand that spaces things out a little bit more. After months of research, the one that I was hearing the best things about was the relatively new Twelve South HiRise 3 Deluxe, which is an update to prior HiRise stands. After using this device myself, I can confirm that it is excellent.
The stand is black with a vegan leather-wrapped base that feels substantial and nice. Your iPhone charges on a 15W MagSafe Charger atop an aluminum post, and you can adjust the tilt up to 30º.
You can charge your Apple Watch on a flat charger, or you can fold up the charger so that your Apple Watch can take advantage of Night Stand mode.
The back of the stand has a Qi-certified 7.5W wireless charger for AirPods, a second phone, or anything else that supports Qi charging.
The single cord that runs out of the Twelve South HiRise 3 Deluxe is not USB-C but instead a different type of cord, so you have to use the cord that comes with this device. Twelve South says that they did this on purpose; the stand needs 40 watts of power to simultaneously charge all of your devices as fast as possible, and the company was afraid that if it used a normal USB-C cord, some people might use an under-powered charger. The cord that it comes with is more than long enough for me at 59″ / 1.5m. The box comes with international adapters for the power supply, so in addition to North America, you can also use it in the UK, Hong Kong, Singapore, Continental Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan.
I love that I can have a fast MagSafe charge and the fastest possible Apple Watch charge on my nightstand. I also love that this is a perfect stand to hold my devices when I go to sleep, and then they are right there waiting for me when I wake up. When the lights are off in my bedroom, StandBy mode switches to the red tint I mentioned above, and it is a fantastic tint—dim enough that it doesn’t keep me awake, but just barely bright enough that I have no trouble seeing the big numbers to see what time it is any time that I glance at it before my alarm goes off in the morning.
Conclusion
With StandBy mode and one or more good stands, your iPhone becomes useful to you 24/7, even when you are not actively using it. The StandBy display is easy to see from a distance, and because you control what appears on it, the information displayed is the information that you have already decided is most relevant to you. There are already lots of great apps that support StandBy mode, and I’m sure that there will be even more in the future. Apple deserves high praise for coming up with this fantastic new feature in iOS 17. If you haven’t started using it yet, I encourage you to check out StandBy mode.
If you are in the United States, your iPhone is going to make a very loud noise tomorrow, Wednesday, October 4, 2023, at approximately 2:20 p.m. Eastern / 11:20 a.m. Pacific. If you are an attorney and you will be in court, a deposition, or any other official proceeding at that time, and if it would be obnoxious for your iPhone to play that noise at that time, consider turning off your iPhone before that time or putting your device in Airplane Mode.
Why is this happening? Every once in a while, the federal government tests its Wireless Emergency Alerts system, which is the cellphone version of the Emergency Alert System-style warnings that you have seen and heard for a long time on television and radio when there is a weather or other emergency. If your iPhone is turned on and connected to a cell tower in the United States, then you will receive the test alert tomorrow. Two years ago, I wrote a full post that explains the Wireless Emergency Alerts system, so click that link if you want more information about what is going to happen to your iPhone and the smartphones around you tomorrow. You can also learn more from this page on the FCC’s website.
[UPDATE 10/4/2023: In my office, the alert came early, at 1:18 p.m. Central.]
