Almost exactly one year ago, Apple released a new product: the MagSafe Battery Pack.  The initial retail price was $99.99, but you can now often find it for less on Amazon.  As I type this, it is on sale for $79.99.  I was intrigued by this product when it was released last year, but because I wasn’t doing much travel in 2021, I didn’t purchase one.  About six weeks ago, I took advantage of one of the sales on Amazon to purchase this product in anticipation of a vacation to Italy that my wife and I were planning.  We just returned, and we had a fantastic time in Italy—even though COVID did its best to interfere.  My wife and I originally planned this trip for the Summer of 2020, but obviously that trip had to be canceled due to COVID.  And when we finally took what was supposed to be a two-week trip while my kids were in summer camp, we had to cut our vacation short and come home early because my son got COVID, followed a few days later by my daughter getting it.  So as I sit here in my home, typing this review while wearing a mask, I cannot help but think that I should be in Venice right now.  Darn COVID!

My vacation didn’t turn out as planned, but what did perform like a champ was Apple’s MagSafe Battery Pack.  I really cannot say enough good things about this product.  If you are looking for a great way to extend the battery life of any iPhone that supports MagSafe, and if you use an iPhone that supports MagSafe, this is the product to get.

Get through a long day

During a normal day, the battery in my iPhone 13 Pro has no trouble lasting all day.  But on a normal day, I’m not using the phone non-stop.  And even when I am using the iPhone, I typically have easy access to a Lightning cord connected to a computer or a wall outlet so I can easily top off the battery during the day.

When traveling for work or pleasure, however, you often find yourself away from a power source for most of the day.  And you may also find yourself using your iPhone far more than normal.  That was definitely true while I was in Italy.  I frequently used the TripIt app and PDF Expert to keep track of my itinerary.  I made extensive use of Apple’s Maps app to guide me around cities in Italy (Milan, Verona, Bologna, and Parma).  When walking around cities that are over 2,000 years old, the street pattern can often seem chaotic for a tourist, so it is easy to get lost without GPS and a map on an iPhone.  I also used ApplePay on my iPhone to pay at restaurants and other establishments, used translation apps to read signs and menus and communicate with others, used train apps to get from town to town, used apps like Messages and WhatsApp and sometimes even the phone itself to make reservations or request information.  And of course, I used my iPhone to take hundreds of photos and many 4K videos.  Suffice it to say that I was using my iPhone all day long every day.  And because my wife and I would often start early in the day and not get back to our Airbnb or hotel until late at night, I had no easy access to traditional charging methods.

Fortunately, my MagSafe Battery Pack was with me at all times, so I had no trouble using my iPhone all day long.  The amount of extra battery power that you get depends upon the iPhone model that you are using.  Apple says that you get:

• Up to 70% additional charge with iPhone 12 mini or iPhone 13 mini and MagSafe Battery Pack
• Up to 60% additional charge with iPhone 12 or iPhone 13 and MagSafe Battery Pack
• Up to 60% additional charge with iPhone 12 Pro or iPhone 13 Pro and MagSafe Battery Pack
• Up to 40% additional charge with iPhone 12 Pro Max or iPhone 13 Pro Max and MagSafe Battery Pack

I use an iPhone 13 Pro, and about 60% additional charge seems about right.  Without this battery pack, my iPhone would have died most days in the afternoon, but instead, I was able to make it through the end of the day.  I never once ran out of power during my vacation thanks to the MagSafe Battery Pack.

By the way, the MagSafe Battery Pack is designed to stop charging your iPhone when it hits 90%.  This reduces the stress on your internal battery.  If you want to push pack 90% anyway, there is a way to do that.  First, make sure that the Lower Power Mode icon is visible in your Control Center—which you access on a Face ID iPhone by swiping down from the top right.  (If it is not there, go to the Settings app and add it.)  Second, hold down on that icon, which looks like a battery, for about two seconds.  You will now see an option to continue charging past 90%.

Small size and lightweight

The MagSafe Battery Pack is about 11mm thick and weighs about 114 grams.  When I slipped it into a pocket in my pants or shorts and walked around, I never even noticed that it was in my pocket, except for the times when it might bounce against something else in my pocket.  And frankly, that is the only test that matters.  Because you can easily slip it into a pocket, it is always with you without being annoying to you when you are not using it.

When you are ready to use the MagSafe Battery Pack, just put it behind your iPhone.  There are no on/off switches to flip.  There are no cords to get in the way.  It just works.

Of course, there are tons of ways to have portable power with an iPhone.  For example, I’m a big fan of the Anker PowerCore 10000 PD Redux ($49.95 on Amazon), which I can slip into my pocket along with a USB-C to Lightning cord to recharge my iPhone.  And the 10,000 mAh of the PowerCore provides far more power than 1,460 mAh of the MagSafe Battery, not only because of the difference in power capacity but also because transferring power over a cord is far more efficient than wireless charging, which can waste up to 30% of the power due to heat. 

It is also worth noting that Apple’s MagSafe wireless charging is better than other wireless charging solutions, such as Qi chargers, because Apple has a higher voltage potential, and also because the magnets put the charger in the best position to maximize efficiency—which is why you lose only about 30% of power during MagSafe charging but you lose about 50% using traditional Qi charging.  (This article by Simon Jary of Macworld provides more information on all of this.)  But even if you can get more power with a product like the PowerCore, I still think that the MagSafe Battery Pack is better because it is so small and lightweight.

When you add the MagSafe Battery Pack to the back of an iPhone, it does make the iPhone a little heavier, and enough to notice the difference.  Because of the curves on the sides, I didn’t find the iPhone to be much more uncomfortable to hold, but the additional weight does mean that you notice the iPhone in a pocket even more. 

On the other hand, the experience is far better than using an external battery such as the PowerCore along with a cord to connect the external battery to the iPhone.  I have had times when the PowerCore was in my pants pocket, my iPhone was in my shirt pocket, and a cord extended from my pants pocket to my shirt pocket.  That works, but I look silly, and I need to be incredibly careful that the cord doesn’t catch on something, especially if I’m walking around.  If I’m sitting at a desk, it works fine.  But if I’m walking around, an external battery+cord is a pretty miserable solution; in comparison, the MagSafe Battery Pack is a dream.

You can use the MagSafe Battery Pack when your iPhone is in a case that supports MagSafe.  For example, I sometimes use Apple’s leather case on my iPhone, and I used it pretty much all of the time that I was on vacation because it added some friction to side of my iPhone, reducing the chance that it would slip out of my hands.  This battery pack worked fine with that case.

Note that for the leather case, if the battery pack is attached for an extended period of time, it makes a small mark in the leather that, in my tests, went away a few hours after I removed the battery pack.  These are just imprints from the compression of the leather as a result of the magnets.

Useful information on charging

If the MagSafe Battery Pack was nothing more than a small and lightweight charging solution that avoids a cord, that would be enough to make me happy.  But what puts this product over the top is how versatile it is.  For example, I love the information that you can see on charging status.

If your iPhone screen is off, when you put the MagSafe Battery Pack behind the iPhone it quickly connects using the magnets.  Next, you see an indication on the screen of how much power your iPhone has and how much power the MagSafe Battery Pack itself has.

No third-party battery has the capability, and it is a great feature, making it very easy to see how much total power you have.

If I continue to make extensive use of my iPhone with the battery pack attached, I find that the iPhone’s battery percentage doesn’t change very much, neither adding nor decreasing the battery percentage.  In other words, adding the battery pack stops the drain of my battery percentage.  When my iPhone is turned off and in my pocket with the battery pack attached, then the percentage of power on my iPhone will increase at a pretty decent pace as power is transferred from the matter pack to the iPhone. 

To see the battery indicator again, I can quickly pull off the battery pack (to disconnect) and then place it on again (to connect) to once again see the current battery percentages.  Or, you can swipe to the right on your Home Screen to see a widget showing battery percentages, assuming that you have that widget enabled.

Multiple choices for charging

The MagSafe Battery Pack has a Lightning charging port at the bottom, just like the iPhone.  Thus, if I plug the battery pack into a Lightning connector, I can recharge it.

Additionally, when the MagSafe Battery Pack is connected to the iPhone, you can plug a Lightning Cord into either the iPhone or the battery pack to charge both.  If you connect the Lightning cord to the battery pack and use a 20W or higher power adapter, then the MagSafe Battery Pack can provide up to 15W of charging to the iPhone, first charging your iPhone and then recharging the battery pack.  Or, you can connect the charging cord to the iPhone, which will charge the iPhone and then charge the battery pack connected to the iPhone.  (When you use the battery pack on-the-go, without being attached to a power cord, it provides 7.5W or charging to the iPhone.)

There is a rumor that the 2022 or 2023 model of the iPhone will use USB-C instead of Lightning.  When that happens, perhaps Apple will release a new version of the battery pack that supports USB-C instead of Lightning.  I mention this because if you buy this product today and buy a new iPhone with USB-C in the Fall, it will be somewhat less convenient to use two different charging options for a future iPhone and this battery pack.  On the other hand, because you can use a cord that charges the iPhone and have the iPhone charge the battery pack, or you can use a cord that charges the battery pack and have the battery pack charge the iPhone, I don’t think that any transition to USB-C will have a big impact on the usability of this Lightning version of this product.

AirPods Charging Case

Apple advertises the battery pack as a way to recharge an iPhone.  Having said that, in my tests, if you put an AirPods Charging Case that supports wireless charging on top of the MagSafe battery pack, you can use the battery pack to recharge the AirPods Charging Case.  And Apple’s website does seem to acknowledge that this works on a page that address MagSafe charging in general, although not the MagSafe Battery Pack in particular.

Conclusion

The best part of the Apple MagSafe Battery Pack is how easy it is to use.  It is easy to carry around in a pocket.  It is easy to attach—just put it behind your iPhone and let the magnets do the rest.  And it makes it easy to get through a long day with your iPhone even if the built-in battery wouldn’t provide another power to do so.

There are countless other ways to use a portable battery to charge an iPhone, including options that try to mimic some of the features of Apple’s battery pack, and most of those options are cheaper than the $80 you will pay to get this device on sale the $100 normal price.  But what you save in up-front costs is, in my opinion, made up for in convenience.  If you have an iPhone that supports MagSafe (iPhone 12 or 13 line), there is simply no easier way to charge an iPhone when you are on-the go.

Click here to get the Apple MagSafe Battery Pack from Amazon ($99.99, but currently on sale for $79.99).

A new episode of the In the News podcast is now available, and this is a special one.  If you are a regular listener/viewer, I think you are going to really enjoy this one.  If you haven’t listened much in the past, this is an especially good episode for you to check out.

Why do I say this?  Brett and I normally end every episode of the podcast with an “In the Know” segment, in which we each recommend one tip.  Sometimes, that is the best part of the episode.  This week, the entire episode is one big “In the Know” segment, full of recommended products, apps, services, etc. that relate to the topic of travel.  Whether you are preparing to travel for work or for pleasure, domestic or international, by plane or by car, there is something for you in this episode. 

If you are like me, you typically listen to the audio versions of podcasts, only looking at the video every once in a while.  However, this is an episode for which it is worth checking out the video because Brett Burney did a fantastic job of creating an enhanced video version of this episode.  And whether you listen to the audio or watch the video, Brett also prepared a PDF file containing the slides that appear in the video—an interactive PDF file, so you can click on the buttons to get more information about the products that we describe.  Of course, you can also look at the podcast show notes for lots of links.  (A big thank you to Brett for all of the extra behind-the-scenes work on this episode.)

I hope that you enjoy this episode as much as Brett and I did when we recorded it!

Click here to listen to the audio podcast, or just use your podcast player of choice.  You can also watch the episode on YouTube:

When I think of the intersection of the iPhone and the law, I usually think about how lawyers can use an iPhone and related products like the iPad and Apple Watch in a legal profession.  But there are also legal implications of the data stored on an iPhone and other devices that must be considered by all iPhone users, regardless of whether they are lawyers.

Sometimes, the data comes from a victim of a crime.  For example, Christine Hauswer of the New York Times reported in 2018 that a man was arrested for killing his stepdaughter because while he claimed that he had an innocent visit with her that just so happened to occur shortly before she was killed, the victim was wearing a FitBit that recorded a spike in her heart rate when he was there, then a slowing and eventually stopped heart rate after he left the house.  Carol Robinson of the Birmingham News reported in 2021 that a man was convicted of killing his wife in part based on data from the Health app on her iPhone, which provided evidence of where she was and when she moved.

Sometimes, the data comes from the iPhone or other device used by the person accused of breaking the law.  For example, Samantha Cole of Motherboard reported in 2018 about a man in Germany who was arrested for raping and murdering a student in part based on data in the Health app on his iPhone, which showed that he climbed stairs at the time that the police knew that the victim’s body was brought down to a river embankment.  That defendant refused to give the police access to his iPhone, but they were able to use hacking software to bypass his passcode.

I’m not going to focus on the legal merits of the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which of course overruled Roe v. Wade and numerous other precedents and sets the stage for a large number of other decisions that will take away even more privacy rights.  Instead, I want to point out an important iPhone angle that I’ve seen mentioned in numerous news stories, such as this one by Cordilia James and Shara Tibken of the Wall Street Journal and this one by Geoffrey A. Fowler and  Tatum Hunter of the Washington Post.  For women who use an iPhone app to track their period, if they live in a state that has criminalized abortion, the data in that app could be used as evidence against them.  Prof. Danielle Citron of the University of Virginia School of Law was quoted in a CNN article by Jennifer Korn and Clare Duffy as saying:  “Let’s say you got your period, stopped your period and then got your period again in a short time …  It’s [potential] evidence of your own criminality, or your doctor’s criminality.”

As those articles note, some of these apps store the data online, so the police or others looking for evidence would not even need to access the woman’s iPhone, just the online data being stored by the developer of the app.  In response to this, numerous apps are now promising to anonymize the data to reduce this risk.

Women don’t need to use a third-party app to monitor their cycle.  Apple’s built-in Health app can be used, and as John Gruber of Daring Fireball noted recently, if you are using two-factor authentication on your iCloud account, the data is mathematically secure via end-to-end encryption.  But there is always some risk that the police could bypass the security on an iPhone just like those German police officers did in 2018, although today’s iPhone is far more secure than it was a few years ago.  Police might also try to force a woman to place her finger on an iPhone or use her face to unlock her iPhone against her will.  In another recent post, Gruber reminds all of us that you prevent that from happening by using the side buttons to lock your iPhone.

And of course, it is not just police who might try to access this type of data.  Texas, for example, has a law with a $10,000 bounty to encourage private citizens to sue any women who they believe may have had an abortion.  I’m sure that folks taking advantage of a law like that would see no problem invading a woman’s privacy by seeking access to confidential records on her iPhone.

I wish I could conclude this post by pointing to some easy answer for women trying to protect their digital privacy, but I don’t have one.  Using Apple’s own Health app seems more secure than third-party alternatives, but it is not without risk.

This week’s episode of the In the News podcast starts with a discussion of a new feature in upcoming iOS 16: the ability to stop some websites from forcing you to complete an annoying CAPTCHA.  We then discuss updates to Apple’s iWork apps (Keynote, Pages, and Numbers), why you should swim with an Apple Watch, power adapters, great shows to watch on Apple TV+, and a creepy feature that might come to Amazon’s Alexa.

In our In the Know segment, Brett and I both share Apple Watch tips.  Brett has a tip for listening to music on an Apple Watch, and I have a tip for listening to other beeps and boops that come from an Apple Watch.

Click here to listen to the audio podcast, or just use your podcast player of choice.  You can also watch the episode on YouTube:

Don’t you hate it when a website forces you to complete a CAPTCHA to prove that you are not a robot?  I especially despise the ones that make you click the squares that contain a [something], because there is invariably some ambiguity over whether that [something] is or is not in some of the boxes.  Plus, many folks say that these systems don’t actually prove anything … except that the Internet can annoy you.  Thus, I was thrilled to read a report by Joe Rossignol of MacRumors that iOS 16 will include a way to bypass CAPTCHAs and have your iPhone provide the confirmation that you are a real person.  It will only work on supported websites, but any reduction in that nonsense sounds like great news to me.  And now, the news of note from the past week:

• Juli Clover of MacRumors describes updates to the iOS and Mac versions of Apple’s iWork apps: Pages, Numbers, and Keynote. Keynote gets a new dynamic themes feature (which slowly animates the slide background and works across transitions), Numbers gets improved performance, and Pages adds mail merge and the ability to export as text files, and more.
• Dan Moren of Six Colors notes that mail merge used to be a feature in Pages on the Mac nine years ago, but Apple removed the feature when it brought parity to iPad/iPhone/Mac iWork apps.  It’s a little surprising that it took this long for this feature to return.  Nevertheless, overall, I’m happy with the capabilities of the iWork apps—especially Keynote.
• WatchTube is a new app for the Apple Watch (download it using the App Store on the Apple Watch) that lets you watch YouTube videos on an Apple Watch.  Filipe Espósito discusses the new app on 9to5Mac.  In my tests, I got a lot of error messages on a lot of videos.  But for the YouTube videos for which it works, it is pretty amazing, and unlike anything that I’ve previously seen on the Apple Watch.  Note that to hear the audio portion of a video, you need to either wear Bluetooth headphones that are paired to your Apple Watch, or you need to make sure that you turn off the mute mode on the Apple Watch before you start the WatchTube app.
• Zac Hall of 9to5Mac shares the story of a woman who was swimming in the Colorado River (with 56° water) when her foot got caught in rocks and she was trapped.  Fortunately, she was wearing her Apple Watch, so she was able to call 911 and get help just as she was nearing exhaustion and showing signs of hypothermia.
• Lisa Eadicicco and Jason Cipriani CNet have a good list of settings on the Apple Watch that you might want to change.
• I’m loving this season of For All Mankind on Apple TV+.  In last week’s episode, the show was set in the year 1992, but because technology is more advanced in the alternative universe of this show than in our real life, you see some things in this version of 1992 that were definitely not around in the 1992 that I lived through.  I won’t put any spoilers here, but if you want to see an Apple-related example of what I’m talking about, look at this tweet from Ben Nedivi, the co-creator and showrunner of For All Mankind.
• Baz Bamigboye of Deadline interviewed numerous Ted Lasso cast members to discuss tidbits about the show.
• Jason Snell of Six Colors speculates about the future role of CarPlay in light of the other work that we know Apple is doing on cars but that Apple has not yet announced.
• Apple recently released a 35W power adapter with two USB-C ports on it–two of them, actually.  Arin Waichulis of 9to5Mac reviews the new $59 product.
• Taiwan-based analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reports on Twitter that AirTag shipments have grown since the initial release, which he predicts could lead Apple to develop a second generation.  This tweet has me thinking about what new features Apple might add in a second generation AirTag.
• In what sounds like an episode of the TV show Black Mirror, A. Khalid of Engadget reports that Amazon showed off a new technology that lets a voice assistant mimic the voice of a real person, so instead of talking to Alexa, you can talk to your deceased grandmother.  Hey Siri: please don’t ever do that.
• And finally, William Gallagher of AppleInsider shares the story of an Australian man, Shane Miller, who lost luggage containing $4,500 of cycling equipment on a Singapore Airlines flight, but an AirTag on the luggage helped him to track down his luggage.  It turns out that Shane Miller has a popular YouTube channel, so he recorded his recovery of the bag.  Although I didn’t watch the entire 30-minute video, it was interesting to watch the middle part where he used the FindMy app on his iPhone to get closer and closer to his bag until he finally located it in a back office of the airport, where you can see lots and lots of other lost luggage that may not ever be reunited with owners. 

After last week’s big episode of the In the News podcast, in which Brett Burney and I discussed the highlights of Apple’s WWDC conference, this week Brett and I discuss some of the other Apple announcements from last week.  This includes the new features that we will see in a few months in watchOS 9 and tvOS 16, as well as Apple’s new Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) program.  We also report on the new Stage Manager feature for the iPad, HomeKit equipment that you can use as a renter, and the Passskey system that Apple will use to replace passwords.

In our In the Know segment, Brett shares a fantastic YouTube video featuring music from the the Floppotron 3.0, and I discuss pinning conversations in the Messages app.

Click here to listen to the audio podcast, or just use your podcast player of choice.  You can also watch the episode on YouTube:

One of Apple’s many announcements last week was a new Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) service.  When iOS 16 comes out this Fall, you will be able to pay for something using Apple Pay and break the cost of your purchase into four equal payments over six weeks.  Peter Butler of CNet has some details on how it works.  You can use Apple’s BNPL at all stores that work with Apple Pay.  At first, I thought that Apple might be doing this to charge high interest rates for people who miss payments (the way that other BNPL services work), but Apple won’t charge fees or interest.  If you don’t pay or pay late, Apple will just limit your ability to use the service in the future.  What’s in it for Apple?  First, it gets people to use Apple Pay even more, and encourages folks to make purchases that they might otherwise not make because they can pay off the purchase over a few paychecks.  Second, as pointed out by John Gruber of Daring Fireball, Apple wants to control the BNPL experience because when third parties offer the feature, they share a ton of personal data with all sorts of partners.  By handling the service itself, Apple provides a feature that some people want while maintaining the privacy that people expect with Apple Pay.  It’s fascinating to see Apple expanding its financial offerings.  Making payments on an iPhone, Apple Watch, etc., certainly makes a lot of sense nowadays, but I doubt I would have predicted this 10 years ago.  And now, the news of note from the past week:

• California attorney David Sparks has been trying out Stage Manager in the beta software.  He says that it can be nice on a Mac, but he says that it is a substantial improvement on the iPad.
• Matthew Panzaarino of TechCrunch interviewed Apple’s Craig Federighi to discuss Stage Manager on the iPad.  Federighi explains why you need one of the newest iPads with an M1 processor to use the feature so that the iPad is sufficiently responsive when you switch between screens.
• Lance Ulanoff of Tech Radar interviewed Apple’s Craig Federighi and Alan Dye to discuss the new Lock Screen coming to iOS 16.
• Federico Viticci of MacStories points out on Twitter that the Messages app in iOS 16 can convert temperatures, currencies, time zones, and more.  For example, if someone sends you their temperature in Celsius but you know Fahrenheit, you can hold your finger down on the number and convert it to a number that makes more sense to you.
• In an article for Macworld, Dan Moren explains how in the upcoming new operating systems, many of Apple’s devices are becoming more like each other. 
• What do you do if you want to take advantage of HomeKit home automation but you are a renter so you are limited in what you can install?  Bradley Chambers of 9to5Mac recommends HomeKit products for renters that are easy to install and remove.
• One of my favorite shows, and certainly one of my favorite Apple TV+ shows, is For All Mankind.  Season 3 just started.  If you are curious about what the buzz is all about, I see from the show’s account on Twitter that everyone can now watch Season 1 for free for a limited time, even if you don’t subscribe to the service.  You should check it out.  The first season was great, the second season was even better, and critics that have seen most of Season 3 have given it excellent reviews.
• Apple TV+ is moving into sports.  The service already offers Major League Baseball, and as Jason Snell of Six Colors reports, Apple TV+ now has a 10-year deal with Major League Soccer.  Note that you will need to pay extra for the MLS streaming service (although some games will be free for non-subscribers), but there will be no local blackouts.
• WhatsApp is a popular secure texting service in the U.S., but it is even more popular outside of the U.S., with around 2 billion users worldwide.  Until now, if you used WhatsApp on an Android device, there was no real way to switch to an iPhone without losing your text history.  Jason Snell of Six Colors reported that WhatsApp now works with Apple’s Move to iOS system, a way for Android users to migrate their data to an iPhone.  Given how important WhatsApp is to many people, this new feature could have an impact on the number of new iPhone users.
• Jeff Dengate of Runner’s World discusses the improvements coming in watchOS 9 for runners.  He says that the Apple Watch is best if you are running for five hours or less because of its battery life—for longer runs, he prefers a device like a Garmin—but that amount of time fits with your runs, he is a big fan of using the Apple Watch.
• Currently, you turn off water lock or sleep mode on an Apple Watch by spinning the Digital Crown.  José Adorno of 9to5Mac explains that this will change in watchOS 9 to a long-press on the Digital Crown.
• Although it wasn’t mentioned during Apple’s keynote address last week, Apple has also previewed the new features coming to tvOS 16.  Joe Rossignol of MacRumors reports on what is coming.  Note that initial reports were that Apple was adding HDR10+, a feature used by some TVs (such as I believe some Samsung models) that do not have support for Dolby Vision, but Joe updated the post to note that this is now uncertain.  If you are in the market for a new TV and you want to get the most from Apple TV hardware, I recommend that you look for support for Dolby Vision (and Dolby Atmos for your sound system).
• Speaking of an Apple TV, you can currently get the top-of-the-line Apple TV 4K for $129.99 on Amazon, which is about $50 off the regular price and an all-time low on Amazon.  That unit works great even if you don’t yet have a 4K TV; I used it for many months with a 1080p TV before I upgraded to an LG OLED C1, which I still love and highly recommend to anyone looking to get an amazing TV.  (You can now get the 77" model for $300 less than what I paid seven months ago.)
• Jovana Naumovski of Gadget Hacks explains that you can have the Mail app tell you when you are sending an email to a domain that isn’t one of your favorites, which may help prevent sending an email to the wrong person.  Set up the approved domains in Settings -> Mail  -> Mark Addresses, and the domains that you approve will be in blue and others will be in red.  I didn’t know you could do that.
• Brent Dirks of AppAdvice notes that the CARROT Weather app was updated with a new card layout style and with the ability to use two windows to better track storms.
• And finally, in a new video on YouTube, Rene Ritchie does a nice job of explaining what Apple (and others) are doing to try to get rid of passwords in the future using FIDO.  Apple is calling this technology Passkey.  I have high hopes for this new technology, and I think that it will vastly increase security and make us all much safer from hackers.

Apple recently provided a preview of new features that are coming in watchOS 9, which I presume will be released this Fall (perhaps along with new models of the Apple Watch).  The update will work on the Apple Watch Series 4 (released in 2018) and newer models.  Here are the new features that I am most interested in using in a few months.

Notifications

The Apple Watch has always been an incredibly nice way to receive notifications from your iPhone.  In watchOS 9, Apple says that “notifications have been redesigned to be less interruptive while still being impactful, arriving with new slimline banners when Apple Watch is being actively used.”  What this means is that when your wrist is down, you receive a full-screen notification, but when you are actively using your Apple Watch, the notification is reduced to an unobtrusive banner.

Workout app updates

The Apple Watch is a particularly useful device for improving and monitoring your health.  Thus, the built-in Workout app is a favorite for many Apple Watch users.

In the current watchOS 8, when you are working out, the Workout app shows one screen with workout statistics.  If you spin the Digital Crown, it simply changes what is highlighted.  In watchOS 9, spinning the crown will rotate between different workout views so that you can see different types of metrics.  For example, one new view shows you not only your heart rate but also a clear indication of what heart rate zone you are in to help you to monitor the intensity of your workout.  Another view can be used to help you track your elevation during a workout. 

 

 

watchOS 9 also gives you the ability to create a Custom Workout with work and rest intervals.

If you are a triathlete, a new Multisport workout type will automatically switch between swimming, biking, and running workouts.  I will never ever ever be using that feature, but kudos to you if you will be doing so.

New statistics for running include Running Power, Stride Length, Ground Contact Time, and Vertical Oscillation.  New features for swimmers include kickboard detection and a SWOLF score (a swimming metric that helps you to measure swimming efficiency).

When you are finished with your workout, the iPhone app will provide an enhanced summary of your workout with new statistics.

Fitness+ updates

If you subscribe to Apple Fitness+, the display at the top left of your TV / iPad / iPhone will provide new information, including on-screen guidance on how intense you should be working out during different segments of the routine.

AFib History

For a while now, the Apple Watch has had sensors that can help to detect and monitor health conditions.  However, Apple has limited what it said about these sensors because they lacked FDA approval.

That starts to change in watchOS 9.  People diagnosed with atrial fibrillation (AFib) will be able to turn on an FDA-cleared AFib History feature to provide an estimate of how frequently the person’s heart shows signs of AFib.  The Apple Watch will be a pioneer in this area because there are currently no easy ways to track the frequency of AFib over an extended period of time, which is especially important for folks modifying their lifestyle factors to try to decrease the amount of time spent in AFib.

I’m sure that this feature will be immediately useful for many people.  I’m also interested in this feature as Apple’s first real step towards the Apple Watch becoming an approved health device.

Medications

I mentioned in my iOS 16 preview that an update to the Health app lets you manage, track, and learn more about the medications that you take.  Wearing an Apple Watch makes this feature even better because your watch is likely on your wrist, even if your iPhone is not nearby, to provide medication reminders based on the schedule that you create.

Dock improvements

In watchOS 9, you can still access the Dock by pressing the button on the right side of the watch.  But now, apps that are running in the background are listed near the top, making it easier to quickly return to them. 

New faces

Every year, I cross my fingers to hope that Apple adds support for third-party watch faces.  That didn’t come this year, but we did get four new faces:

Lunar displays in a circle a lunar calendar, with phases of the moon, next to a traditional Gregorian calendar.  It can display the time in analog or digital, and has space for four complications in the four corners.

Metropolitan is a classic watch face.  The marquee feature is that you can change the font used for the numerals to make them thin and long, short and fat, or something in-between.

Playtime is a whimsical watch face featuring animated numbers that dance around.  There are no complications, but this is one of the interactive watch faces; tap a number, and it moves around in response.

Astronomy is not a new face, but Apple did significantly remaster the images, making everything look better.

Apple also updated some of the other existing watch faces.  For example, the Portraits watch face can now add a 3D-type effect not just for people but also for cats, dogs, and landscapes. 

On-screen keyboard

If you have an Apple Watch Series 7, which has a larger display, you can use an on-screen QWERTY keyboard to type messages.  I don’t use it often, but when I do, it always seems to work better than I would expect given the small key size.  In watchOS 9, this on-screen keyboard also works for French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese (Brazil), and Spanish (Mexico, Spain, Latin America).

And the rest…

Those are the highlights, but there are other new features that I can see being useful.  For example, there is as improved ability to edit the details of Reminders, and an updated Calendar app that lets you create a new event on the watch.  Also, sleep tracking is improved to provide more insights into your sleep patterns. 

Conclusion

watchOS 9 looks to be a nice, incremental update to the Apple Watch.  Many of the best features are related to health, and I think that is the right thing for Apple to be thinking about as it improves the Apple Watch.

The latest episode of the In the News podcast is available, and it is all about WWDC.  In fact, there was so much announced by Apple this week that we ran out of time before we could get to all of it, so we’ll have to save some items, like the Apple Watch announcements, until next week.  In this episode, Brett and I discuss the interesting way in which Apple handled the WWDC keynote address on its campus, the new hardware announcements, and what the next version of the Mac operating system means for iPad and iPhone users.  Next, we talk about the key new features coming in iOS 16 and iPadOS 16.  We also address Apple’s announcement on Passkeys—part of a future in which we move away from passwords thanks to the FIDO Alliance, which, as everyone knows (ahem), stands for “Fast IDentity Online.”  We also discuss interesting direction that CarPlay is going.

In our In the Know segment, Brett and I provide our big picture perspectives on what we take from all of the Apple announcements this week.

Click here to listen to the audio podcast, or just use your podcast player of choice.  You can also watch the episode on YouTube:

Monitoring the news from Apple this week has been a little like drinking water from a fire hose.  The keynote presentation on Monday was full of announcements.  Then, during presentations to developers throughout the week, Apple released more details.  Additionally, some folks are now running the earliest beta versions of iOS 16 and iPadOS 16, so we are now starting to see some of the initial first-hand reports on how the new features work.  Everything is subject to change between now and this Fall so if you don’t like the way that something looks or works right now, it may well improve before it ships.  But my sense is that, in the future, we will look back at iOS 16 and iPadOS 16 as among the more significant updates in the history of those operating systems.  In today’s post, I’ve collected some of the reports that jumped out at me the most and included them along with the other news of note from the past week:

• Let’s start with two law-related items unrelated to WWDC.  First, David Price of Macworld explains that the EU has approved a ruling that all new smartphones, including the iPhone, will have to support a USB-C connection starting in 2024.  I’m a fan of USB-C, and there are rumors that Apple was going to do this anyway.  But I’m not a fan of a governmental body telling a tech company which standard it is required to use.  What if there is a connector that is even better than USB-C, but no manufacturer can develop it because they know that they cannot sell phones using that better connector in the EU?  Would USB-C have even been invented if there was a prior EU ruling that everyone had to use the original version of USB?
• Second, Molly Quell of Courthouse News Service reports that Apple lost to Swatch in a court battle in the European General Court in Luxembourg over the Think Different slogan.  The court agreed with Swatch that Apple had not used the slogan in a number of years, and thus Swatch could use the slogan Tick Different for its watches without violating Apple’s intellectual property.
• Next, let’s talk about WWDC.  California attorney David Sparks shared his thoughts on the announcements in the keynote address.
• One of the most interesting upcoming new features that Apple showed off this week was changes to CarPlay to accommodate new cars with bigger and more screens. Illinois attorney John Voorhees of MacStories describes the new CarPlay.
• Similarly, David Price of Macworld explains that the new CarPlay can transform the in-vehicle experience.
• Federico Viticci of MacStories provides a comprehensive overview of iOS 16 and iPad OS 16.
• Jason Snell of Six Colors explains why iPadOS 16 paves the way for more sophisticated apps, similar to what you find on a computer.
• Last month, I discussed how Apple and other companies created the FIDO Alliance to move towards a future in which we no longer have to use passwords and instead can use an authentication method like Touch ID on your iPhone to log in to a website.  This week, Apple shared more information on how it will let you use passkeys instead of passwords, and Dan Moren of Six Colors did a great job of summarizing what Apple is doing with passkeys.
• Does FIDO mean that you won’t use a password manager anymore?  Maybe not.  Jeff Shiner, the CEO of 1Password, announced this week that 1Password has joined the FIDO alliance and that the 1Password app will be able to serve as an authenticator.  The idea is that if a site requires a password, 1Password would handle that the traditional way, and if the site works with passwordless authentication, 1Password can handle that too.
• Sami Fathi of MacRumors describes a small but interesting feature of iOS 16: a built-in currency converter.
• Juli Clover of MacRumors describes another small but useful feature: Contacts will provide an easy way to fix duplicate contracts.
• Similarly, Zac Hall of 9to5Mac discusses a new feature coming to the Photos app: duplicate photo detection.
• Jason Cross of Macworld discusses some of the interesting new features in iPadOS 16.
• Jason Aten of Inc. discusses Apple Pay Later, a feature coming in iOS 16 that will let you purchase something and pay for it over six weeks instead of all at once.
• I mentioned earlier this week that iPadOS 16 adds the ability to improve your penmanship.  Juli Clover of MacRumors explains that one way it does this is to straighten lines of text.  There may be other ways that you can use iPadOS 16 to improve your handwriting, but I’m not yet sure.
• José Adorno of 9to5Mac identifies the features that Apple said are coming to iOS 16 but which won’t be available at launch.
• Adorno also identifies the feature in iPadOS 16 that require an iPad with an M1 chip, including Stage Manager.
• One fascinating iOS 16 feature if you have both a Mac and an iPhone is Continuity Camera, which lets you use your iPhone as a webcam for your computer.  This makes sense becuase the iPhone’s camera is so much better, and as a bonus you can use the Ultrawide camera to show what is on your desk—a trick that seems almost too good to be true.  Jason Snell of Six Colors explains the Continuity Camera feature.
• Sami Fathi of MacRumors shows off some of the user interface changes in iOS 16, such as the new interface for FaceTime and the video player, but remember that we are still seeing a very early beta so these user interfaces may change substantially before iOS 16 is released later this year.
• You can control HomeKit even if you are not in your home if you have a HomeKit hub.  An Apple TV will work, as will a HomePod.  For now, an iPad at your home can also work, but David Snow of Cult of Mac reports that this will change in iPadOS 16.
• For a good read on the WWDC keynote event itself, as opposed to the announcements, Jason Snell wrote a great article for Macworld.  He has been attending WWDC for more than 25 years so he has seen it in many shapes and sizes, and he explains why this year’s format may be the best.
• Here is some Apple news that is not related to WWDC.  Apple TV+ reached an agreement to purchase the rights to a Formula One racing movie starring Brad Pitt, but David Snow of Cult of Mac says is interesting is that this is the first such agreement in which the movie will first run in theaters for at least 30 days before coming to Apple TV+, and the filmmakers will split the profits from the theatrical run.  We may see more of this in the future.
• I was also surprised to see this report by Joe Otterson of Variety that one of the cast members in a new show coming to Apple TV+ called Mrs. American Pie is Carol Burnett, who is now 89 years old.  The show will also feature Kristen Wiig, Allison Janney, Leslie Bibb, Josh Lucas, and Ricky Martin.
• Tatum Hunter of the Washington Post describes ways that your iPhone can help you to wake up in the morning, from simple alarm apps to a bracelet called Pavlok Shock Clock ($149.99 on Amazon) that administers a mild shock to wake you up and can even keep those shocks going until you do jumping jacks or solve math problems to prove that you are awake.
• In a video on YouTube, Andrew O’Hara of AppleInsider shows off the best door locks that work with HomeKit.
• And finally, the Lock Screen in iOS 16 will be very different.  This quick video released by Apple does a good job of showing off all of the new features: