Podcast episode 99: Messages, In a Bottle, and the Police

This week's episode of the In the News podcast is definitely worth checking out because we covered so much. We talked about the death of Drobo and how to preserve your digital memories for a long time. We discussed the upcoming Apple-Pepsi promotion and remembered the last time they worked together, 20 years ago. We discussed ChatGPT on the iPhone, tracking stolen AirPods, and the operating system updates released this week for the iPad, iPhone, and Apple Watch. We also explained how to catch someone's attention when you send a text message by using a subject line (in bold). And we talked about storing a driver's license in the wallet app.

In our In the Know segment, Brett discusses the option of displaying remaining iPhone battery life by using a number instead of an icon. I explain how to delete and then recover deleted text messages in the Messages app.

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

       

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In the News

The iPhone is a great videocamera. The quality is excellent and has virtually always been cutting edge. For example, I took 4K home videos with my iPhone for many years before I had a television or other device that could show the videos in 4K because I knew that in the future I would appreciate taking the best quality video possible. (I love that I have some digitized VHS-C videos from the 1980s and 1990s and some digitized Super-8 videos from even earlier, but the quality is poor by today's standards.) The one downside of taking lots of the highest quality videos with your iPhone is that they take up a large amount of space. As a result, for many years now I've moved most of those large videos off of my iPhone and on to my computer ... or more accurately, to an external drive connected to my computer. I was thinking about that this week when I saw Kevin Purdy at Ars Technica report that Drobo has stopped sales and is moving from a Chapter 11 bankruptcy to a liquidation-focused Chapter 7 bankruptcy. When I bought a Drobo in 2015, I considered it to be an amazing external storage device because it was safe and secure and easily expandable. I wrote about my Drobo when the company subsequently became a sponsor of iPhone J.D. in late 2015 and 2016, but I stopped using it last year when the future of the company become so uncertain. I moved to two Western Digital 18TB external drives (one for backup) which cost only $299—an amazing price for that much storage. In addition to that second drive for local storage, I also have an online backup on BackBlaze. I have no doubt that at some point in the future, I'll move from those 18TB drives to something better. We all know that no technology lasts forever, but it is important to keep that in mind when it comes to your important videos, photos, and documents that you want to retain for many decades. This means making backups today and being ready to move to new storage technologies from time to time. And now, the news of note from the past week:

• Twenty years ago, Apple and Pepsi announced a promotion where randomly selected Pepsi bottles had a code in the cap that would give you a free song on iTunes with 100 million songs given away. That resulted in me buying some Pepsi products to get some free songs. Evan Selleck of AppleInsider reports that there is a new Apple and Pepsi promotion this Summer: certain bottles will have a QR code you can scan for different prizes including three months of free Apple Music. Unlike twenty years ago when I got lots of free songs, this time there is a limit of one redemption per person.
• Tammy Rogers of iMore notes that the most-streamed song on Apple Music is Ed Sheeran's song Shape of You, which has been streamed 930 million times.
• By the way, Sheeran performed a concert that Apple live-streamed May 10. You can still watch the concert on Apple TV+. Sheeran sounds great, and the video quality is fantastic.
• Attorney John Voorhees of MacStories reports that Apple has added some new music-related features to Apple Music and to Apple Maps. In the Apple Music app you can now see information about major artist tours including a playlist of the set list. The Apple Maps app now includes guides for watching live music in some top cities—guides that you can also view in a browser by clicking here. Given how important music is to New Orleans, I hope the Apple adds a music guide for New Orleans when it next expands the list of cities.
• Erica Werner of the Washington Post reports that Montana became the first state to ban an app—specifically, the TikTok app. Obviously, legal challenges are expected.
• Everyone is talking about AI right now, and in large part that is because of the ChatGPT website. Yesterday, OpenAI launched a ChatGPT app for the iPhone, as reported by James Vincent of The Verge.
• Aaron Tilley and Miles Kruppa of the Wall Street Journal report that Apple has restricted the use of ChatGPT by Apple employees because Apple is concerned about confidential data being released. Remember, whatever you type in ChatGPT is forever known by ChatGPT; don't type anything that is private.
• Apple announced this week that its App Store security methods have prevented $2 billion in App Store fraud.
• Griffin Jones of Cult of Mac identifies some features in Messages that you may not have known about, such as the ability to write a message in bold text by turning on the Show Subject Field setting.
• As Apple announced it would do last week, Apple released iOS 16.5 this week. Michael Potuck of 9to5Mac reports that it fixes a number of security flaws, including three that had been actively exploited. Ouch.
• Chance Miller of 9to5Mac reports that iOS 16.5 also enhanced sports news in Apple News and fixes some issues in Spotlight, Podcasts in CarPlay, and Screen Time. It also includes Apple's new Pride wallpaper for the Lock Screen.
• Miller also notes that watchOS 9.5 was released, which supports the new Pride Celebration watch face.
• If a loved one has passed away and they gave you Legacy Access, you can access data on their Apple devices such as pictures. But if not, Glenn Fleishman explains in an article for Macworld how you may still be able to unlock a deceased person's device. You won't see the data, but you may be able to wipe the device clean and use it.
• Malcolm Owen of AppleInsider reports that this week Apple expanded its iPhone 14 Emergency SOS via Satellite feature to Australia and New Zealand. Based on what I saw of the New Zealand countryside in the Lord of the Rings movies, which I presume is 100% realistic, I can easily imagine getting lost there when I'm outside of cell tower range.
• Eric Slivka of MacRumors reports that Georgia is the fourth U.S. state to support adding a digital drivers license to Apple's Wallet app.
• I often link to stories in which people used an AirTag to find a thief. But Alex Cabero of KSL-TV in Salt Lake City reports that police were able to track down a thief to a Motel 6 because one of the items that he stole from a yoga studio was a pair of AirPods.
• In a somewhat similar story from Julia Backley of CNN from two months ago, a woman who flew from Tokyo to San Francisco discovered that her AirPods Pro were stolen from her jacket while on a United flight. Because of Find My and the assistance of the local police, she was able to track the AirPods Pro to a person's house—who it turns out was an employee of a company that loads food onto United planes. After CNN contacted United, the airline paid for her to get new AirPods Pro (because of the poor condition of the ones eventually returned to her) and gave her 5,000 miles as an apology.
• With all of that money you are saving thanks to three free months of Apple Music from Pepsi, you can consider buying the Hermès luxury leather AirPods Pro case, which costs only €780 (about $840). Felipe Espósito of 9to5Mac has the details.
• This October, Apple TV+ will release a movie written and directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro, along with Jesse Plemons, Brendan Fraser, John Lithgow and many other well-known actors. That's pretty much all I need to hear to know that this might be a movie that I want to see. It is called Killers of the Flower Moon, and it is a Western crime drama based on true events in Oklahoma in the 1920s. Apple will release this movie in theaters before the movie streams on Apple TV+. Mike Fleming, Jr., of Deadline wrote an extensive article about the making of the movie, and the article includes an interesting interview with Scorsese. Here is the trailer:

       

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Apple previews fascinating new accessibility features

Today is the twelfth annual Global Accessibility Awareness Day, a day aimed at raising awareness of people with disabilities and impairments. Apple is once again using the occasion to preview some of its upcoming accessibility features. And this year, Apple has some really fascinating announcements. Here are some of the highlights:

Live Speech and Personal Voice

For people who are unable to speak, Live Speech is a way that you can type words on an iPhone (or iPad or Mac) and have the words spoken out loud during phone calls, FaceTime calls, and in-person conversations. It's a simple idea that makes a lot of sense.

But wait ... there is more. For people who are at risk of losing their ability to speak, such as people recently diagnosed with ALS, Apple has created Personal Voice, a way to create a voice that sounds like your voice. To configure it, you read along with a randomized set of text prompts for 15 minutes. Then, your iPhone or iPad creates a voice for you to use.

You don't want someone else to take your voice, so Apple has some interesting built-in security and privacy. First, those phases are random, so you cannot just record someone else's voice while they are talking and then use that recording to create a Personal Voice because they would not be speaking the randomized text prompts. Moreover, the Personal Voice is created right on your device, so your voice is never uploaded to the Internet.

I'm very curious to try this out and see how it works. It sounds like incredibly cool technology.

Assistive Access

You may know how to use the iPhone, but the interface can be very confusing for some folks. When Assistive Access mode is turned on, apps like the Camera, Photos, Music, Phone, and Messages take on a simplistic interface with large, high-contrast buttons and few menus.

I know quite a few folks who didn't grow up with technology and who would appreciate this mode.

Point and Speak

For people with reduced or no vision, the upcoming Point and Speak mode in the Magnifier app allows a person to interact with physical objects that have text labels. Apple explains: "For example, while using a household appliance — such as a microwave — Point and Speak combines input from the camera, the LiDAR Scanner, and on-device machine learning to announce the text on each button as users move their finger across the keypad."

...and more

And that is just the tip of the iceberg. For example, for people with low vision, Apple is improving the ability to change text size. For people who have trouble hearing, more hearing devices work with the iPhone. For people sensitive to rapid animations, Apple is adding an ability to automatically pause images with moving elements in Messages and Safari.

These new features will be incredibly valuable for the target audience. But like most accessibility features, I suspect that they will also be appreciated by other folks for various reasons. For example, I'm sure folks will come up with some very creative things to do with Personal Voice. I look forward to seeing all of these new features rolled out.

       

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Podcast episode 98: Apple’s Canary Trap, The Final Cut for iPad, and Classical Music Magic

Who needs a good spy movie on Apple TV+ when Apple's own employees are providing stories of intrigue? We start today's edition of the podcast by discussing the technique that Apple reportedly used to catch a person leaking Apple secrets. Next we talk about the upcoming Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro apps for the iPad, apps that are interesting not just because of what you can do with the apps but also because what the release of these two apps suggests about Apple's future plans. We prepare for iOS 16.5, explain why you should get an Apple Pencil now that it is on sale, talk about how Apple technology is catching bank robbers and saving lives, and discuss Apple Music Classical. We also recommend some great shows to watch on Apple TV+ and elsewhere.

In our In the Know segment, Brett provides a tip for customizing the search results you get in Google Maps and Apple Maps. I explain how to adjust whether the Apple Watch shows words on the screen when you are talking to Siri and when Siri is responding to you.

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

       

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In the News

I don't discuss Apple rumors very often on iPhone J.D. You never know if they are real or just made up, and even if they were once real, you never know if Apple changed its mind. Of course, sometimes a rumor becomes so widespread that you cannot help but think it is true, such as the rumor that Apple will announce some sort of headset next month at its conference called WWDC. Apple hates rumors because it ruins the surprise and Apple's ability to control the narrative, so Apple takes many steps to discourage rumors and locate leakers. If you believe this story ... and I guess it could be false ... Ed Hardy of Cult of Mac reports that Apple was trying to identify a tipster called analyst941 who had leaked lots of information, including information about iOS 17 which will be announced at WWDC. Thus, Apple told different people at Apple that versions of its Final Cut Pro and Logic apps for Mac would be released for the iPad, and told different dates to different people who were suspected to be leakers. On May 2, the Twiiter account for analyst941 announced that the release dates would be 2024 for Final Cut Pro and 2025 for Logic, and apparently Apple provided those specific (false) dates to a woman who works at Apple. Before long, Apple learned that her brother owned the analyst941 Twitter account, and she was fired. For more details on how this all unfolded, check out Ed Hardy's post. And now, the rest of the news of note from the past week, including the real release date for Final Cut Pro and Logic for the iPad:

• Final Cut Pro and Logic for the iPad will be released on May 23, 2023. My source for this tip has a reliable track record: it's a press release from Apple itself. If you are a musician who uses a Mac, even just an amateur one, you may already know how powerful Logic is. For me, after moving from iMovie to Final Cut Pro on my Mac many years ago, I'm super excited about having the power of Final Cut Pro on my iPad. You need to have a newer iPad with an M1 or M2 processor, and the cost will be $4.99/month or $49/year for each app.
• Jason Snell of Six Colors raises some questions and provides some answers about the upcoming Final Cut Pro and Logic apps for iPad.
• Normally, we don't know precisely when Apple will release software updates. But this week, Apple confirmed that iOS 16.5 will be released next week. Chance Miller of 9to5Mac writes about the primary new feature, a "new dedicated 'Sports' tab in the Apple News app, as well as other enhancements to make it easier to follow along with games." It also includes some bug fixes.
• Amazon is currently selling the Apple Pencil (2nd Generation) for only $89, which is a fantastic a $40 savings. I use mine almost every day; as a lawyer, it is fantastic for taking handwritten notes, annotating briefs, highlighting cases that I download from Westlaw, and so much more. This second generation of the Pencil works with iPad Pro models introduced in 2018 and later, the iPad Air released in 2020 and later, and the iPad mini released in 2021.
• I mentioned last week that Apple and Google will work together to develop an industry standard to reduce the risk of devices like an AirPod being used for stalking. In an article for TidBITS, Glenn Fleishman provides tons of details on what is planned.
• Griffin Jones of Cult of Mac identifies some features of Apple's Maps app that you might not have known about.
• If you have the Google Nest Thermostat that was released in 2020—only that model, not the popular earlier versions—Ben Schoon of 9to5Google reports that Google is now rolling out an update to give that thermostat the ability to work with the Matter standard. And that means that it also works with Apple's HomeKit technology, so you can see and adjust the temperature on that model of the Nest product using Apple's Home app for the first time.
• Chance Miller of 9to5Mac reports that bank robbers stole $1.1 million from a Brinks armored truck. However, Brinks had hidden AirTags in some of the money bins, and as a result, Brinks was able to track the criminals to their home, where they were subsequently arrested by the police.
• Miller also reports on a woman who was staying in a hotel room on a business trip when she felt pain to her chest and then collapsed to the floor. She was eventually able to text a friend, who rushed to the room and then called 911, but it turns out that an ambulance was already on the way because of the Apple Watch's fall detection feature.
• Similarly, David Schuman of CBS News reports that a man in Minnesota was hit by a car as he was in front of his own house. Fortunately, he was wearing an Apple Watch, which noticed that he fell and automatically called 911 and texted his wife and kids. After the experience, the man sent an email to Apple CEO Tim Cook, and Cook responded to wish him a speedy recovery.
• If you need help identifying that classical song that begins "Da Da Da DAH," Joe Rossignol reports that the Shazam app was updated this week to support Apple Music Classical on the iPhone.
• If you use the Ivory app for Mastodon, it received some significant updates this week, as explained by Filipe Espósito of 9to5Mac.
• If you enjoyed watching Season 1 of the SciFi thriller Foundation on Apple TV+, Apple announced this week that the second season starts on July 14 and released this trailer.
• Oliver Haslam of iMore reports that Silo on Apple TV+ is at the top of the streaming charts. I've been watching it, and so far I love it. (By the way: #8 on that list is The Diplomat, a Netflix series starring Keri Russell, and it is also excellent.)
• Mariella Moon of Engadget reports that Disney announced this week that it will merge its Disney+ and Hulu apps later this year. That doesn't make much sense to me because I think of them as different services with different offerings.
• And finally, every year since 2016, Apple has released a Pride Edition band for the Apple Watch to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community. Proceeds benefit a number of advocacy organizations, so you can feel good about buying them, but I've always been a fan and came close to buying them many times in large party just because they are always colorful and fun. This week, Apple released the 2023 Pride Edition band, along with a special watch face that complements the band. Apple says that "the new Sport Band design showcases the original pride flag rainbow colors and five others — black and brown symbolize Black and Latin communities, in addition to those who have passed away from or are living with HIV/AIDS, while light blue, pink, and white represent transgender and nonbinary individuals." You can think of all of those things when you look at the band, but for me, the bold design reminds me of a birthday party, and I'm sure that it will appeal to many folks for that reason:

       

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Apple 2023 fiscal second quarter -- the iPhone and iPad angle

A few days ago, Apple released the results for its 2023 fiscal second quarter (which ran from January 1, 2023, to April 1, 2023) and held a call with analysts to discuss the results. Unlike Apple's Q1 which contains all of the holiday sales, Apple's Q2 is usually not a particularly interesting quarter. This time last year, Apple set a new Q2 record of $97.3 billion. This year, earnings were $94.8 billion, down 3% from last year, but that was still better than what Apple said it had been anticipating and it was the second-highest Q2 ever for Apple. If you want to get all of the nitty gritty details, you can download the audio from the conference call from iTunes, or you can read a transcript of the call prepared by Jason Snell of Six Colors. Apple's official press release is here. If you want to see some great charts that make it easier to put the financial information in perspective, check out this post on Six Colors. Here are the items that stood out to me.

iPhone

• iPhone revenue for the quarter was $51.3 billion, a record for a fiscal second quarter.
• Apple CFO Luca Maestri said that the strong iPhone sales were in part because of "very strong performance in emerging markets, from South Asia and India to Latin America and the Middle East." Apple CEO Tim Cook said that another factor was folks who wanted to purchase an iPhone in the prior financial quarter but because of limited supply deferred their purchase to this most recent quarter.
• Cook also said that there are well over a billion iPhones in active use. He also said that if you add the other Apple devices that are in active use, including Macs and iPads, Apple has over two billions devices in active use.

iPad

• iPad revenue for the quarter was $6.7 billion, which was less than 2022 Q2 ($7.6 billion) and 2021 Q2 ($7.8 billion). But last year saw a boost because Apple introduced the iPad Air with an M1 chip, whereas there was no new iPad announced in 2023 Q2.
• Over half of the people who purchased a iPad during the quarter were purchasing their first iPad.

Other

• Although Apple does not reveal specific information about Apple Watch sales, Apple said that the entire category of Wearables, Home, and Accessories saw revenue of $8.8 billion, the same as last year. Apple also said that the number of people using an Apple Watch increased to a new high this past quarter with two-third of the people who purchased an Apple Watch in the past quarter getting their very first Apple Watch. That is certainly consistent with what I see; I now see lots of people wearing Apple Watches almost everywhere that I go.
• Apple services revenue rose to a record $20.9 billion. That accounts for the App Store, Apple Music, iCloud, Payment Services, Apple TV+, etc.
• Maestri said that Apple's mobile gaming revenue, which was elevated during "the COVID years," is now in a bit of a slowdown.
• Apple opened its first two stores in India: one in Mumbia, one in Delhi. Cook said that in India there "are a lot of people coming into the middle class, and I really feel that India is at a tipping point, and it’s great to be there. ... But what I do see in India is a lot of people entering the middle class. And I’m hopeful that we can convince some number of them to buy an iPhone. And we’ll see how that works out. But right now it’s working out well." As Jason Snell of Six Colors noted, this is similar to what Cook was saying about China ten years ago, although Cook emphasized that each country is different.
• When asked about what Apple thinks about the emergence of AI, Cook said: "I do think it’s very important to be deliberate and thoughtful in how you approach these things. And there’s a number of issues that need to be sorted, as is being talked about in a number of different places. But the potential is certainly very interesting. And we’ve obviously made enormous progress integrating AI and machine learning throughout our ecosystem, and we’ve weaved it into products and features for many years, as you probably know. You can see that in things like fall detection and crash detection and ECG. These things are not only great features, they’re saving people’s lives out there. And so it’s absolutely remarkable. And so we view AI as huge and we’ll continue weaving it in our products on a very thoughtful basis."
• Cook said that Apple views its banking services as similar to its fitness services because much like Apple wants to help people live a more healthy life, it wants people to have better financial health.
• When asked of corporate use of Apple devices, Cook said that the enterprise business is growing and added: "We have been focusing a lot on BYOD programs. And we’ve seen more and more companies that are leaning into those and giving employees the ability to select, which is placed to our benefit, I believe, because I think a lot of people want to use a Mac at work or an iPad at work ... but we’re certainly primarily a consumer company in terms of our revenues, obviously."

       

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