In the News

There was a fascinating story in the New York Times this week that I encourage you to read.  The title contains much of the story, researched and written by Kashmir Hill:  A Dad Took Photos of His Naked Toddler for the Doctor. Google Flagged Him as a Criminal.  (That's a gift link, so you can read it even if you don't subscribe.)  Concerned about pain and swelling in his toddler's private area, a father took a picture with his Android phone and sent it to the pediatrician, as instructed by the doctor.  But because an Android phone, like an iPhone, will typically upload every picture to a server, that means that Google's AI saw the picture and flagged it as child pornography.  (Apple doesn't do that right now, and the system that it announced a year ago but has not yet implemented will only scan pictures on your device by comparing them against known Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM), so this would not have happened if the father had been using an iPhone—at least the way things are working now.  It is ironic that Apple got negative feedback for its proposed system as a privacy invasion even though Google already does much more.)  Google immediately deactivated all of the father's accounts, which meant that the father lost more than a decade of contacts, emails, and his phone number.  It also resulted in a police investigation.  And while the police eventually cleared him, Google still has not—even though he clearly did nothing wrong, and even though this incident happened back in February 2021.  Of course, nobody wants to make CSAM easier, but this incident highlights how a user's personal privacy is often the last consideration.  There are lots of additional and interesting details in this story, so I encourage you to read it.  John Gruber of Daring Fireball also offers an interesting take on the story.  One of the lessons that you should learn is that the next time you take a sensitive picture with your iPhone–or especially with an Android phone–consider taking it in a way that does not add it to your regular Photos library (such as using a third party app that has its own photo library) because of the potential for unintended consequences.  And now, the other news of note from the past week: Apple CEO Tim Cook was interviewed by Popular Mechanics.  And if you don't subscribe, you can get some highlights in this article by Sami Fathi of MacRumors.  Jason Snell of Six Colors reviews the Encode Plus from Schlage, a smart look that works with HomeKit and is better than almost all of its competitors because it works with Apple's Home Key feature.  This means that you can simply tap your Apple Watch to open the door without needing to open any special app first.  It is sold on Amazon, but as I type this it is out of stock. Andrew O'Hara reviews the new honeycomb version of the Serena Shades by Lutron, which are HomeKit compatible.  I'm seriously considering getting Serena Shades for my home.  They are expensive, but I keep hearing good things about them, such as in this review. Brent Dirks of AppAdvice describes a new iPhone game called Pitch Black.  The twist is that nothing is shown on your iPhone screen.  The entire game takes place using audio, like an interactive, audio-only, Choose-Your-Own-Adventure sort of story/game.  I haven't heard of something like this before on the iPhone.  Neat idea. Speaking of games, I continue to love playing Wordle every day on my iPad.  Andrew Romero of 9to5Google notes that the New York Times Crossword app for iPhone now lets you play Wordle. Apple confirmed this week that iPadOS 16 will not release at the same time as iPhoneOS 16.  I presume that iOS 16.0 will come out soon after Apple's iPhone announcement on September 7.  But Brian Heater of TechCrunch reports that Apple announced that it will wait until iPad 16.1 before releasing the operating system update for the iPad, which I presume will be in October or possibly November. Last week, I linked to a story by Ed Hardy of Cult of Mac in which he announced the Adonit Neo Pro, a third-party stylus that can charge when it is magnetically attached to an iPad.  This week, Ed Hardy posts a review based on his own use of the Adonit Neo Pro. Benjamin Mayo of 9to5Mac notes that you can get three months of Apple TV+ free if you use a Samsung smart TV. If you haven't yet finished watching Season 3 of the amazing Apple TV+ series For All Mankind, skip to the next item now.  OK?  All good?  Jodi Balfour, who plays Ellen Wilson on the show, wrote a wonderful article for The Hollywood Reporter about coming out on that show and what it meant for her personal life.  I love that character on the show. And finally, as we contemplate what new features might be included in the 2022 version of the iPhone, why not design the new iPhone yourself?  Neal Agarwal created a great website called Design the Next iPhone.  You can drag-and-drop all sorts of features onto an iPhone mock-up such as cameras, a home button, and more.  And I do mean more.  When you are done, click the Present button at the top right and make sure that you have your volume turned up to hear the iPhone introduction.  This site is clever and fun.

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