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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Podcast episode 97: Rapid Security, Static Islands, and Skydiving iPhones

There were lots of things to talk about on this week's episode of the In the News podcast. We start by discussing Apple's new savings account service and how Apple is becoming a bank. Next, we discuss CarPlay adoption and shortcomings, Apple's new method of delivering security updates to your iPhone, new uses for the Dynamic Island on the iPhone 14 Pro, the demise of the Brydge Keyboard, and skydiving with an iPhone.

In our Where Y'at? segment, we discuss the City of New York's announcement that it was giving out 500 free AirTags to help combat carjacking and Apple and Google's announcement that they are teaming up to reduce the risk of improper use of tracking devices.

In our In the Know segment, we talk about ways to customize Siri. Brett explains how to control the way that Siri announces notifications, such as reading new text messages when you are wearing AirPods. I explain a way to speed up using Siri to respond to a text message by turning off the request for a confirmation before sending your reply.

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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Apple's first Rapid Security Response update

I saw something on my iPhone last night that I had never seen before: an alert that there was a special kind of iOS update available, a Rapid Security Response update. You may have seen it too. What was that?

Apple typically releases security updates when a new version of iOS is ready. Right now, the latest version is iOS 16.4.1, which was released on April 7. I'm sure that Apple is already working on the next iOS update—perhaps 16.4.2, or perhaps 16.5—but what if there is a need to encourage users to install a security update but the next iOS version isn't ready yet? In the past, we just had to wait, which meant that the iPhone was vulnerable to a known security flaw for a period of time. But thanks to Apple's new Rapid Security Response system, which was introduced with iOS 16.4.1, Apple can now quickly push a security update even if it is not yet ready to provide a feature update. And because these security updates don't contain feature updates, they are likely to be quick to download and quick to install. And while I'm focusing here on iOS, the Rapid Security Response system also works with iPad OS, so I updated my iPad last night too.

After you have installed a Rapid Security Response update, a letter appears after the version number when you check to see what version of the iOS you are running. For example, I now see that my iPhone is running iOS 16.4.1 (a).

Unlike a regular software update, this first Rapid Security Response update did not have any release notes. I don't yet know if that will always be true, and if so, we won't know exactly what Apple was fixing. But we will know that it was important enough that Apple wants to push the update out quickly. Frankly, that's all that I need to know. I guess it is possible that this was even just a test of the system, not a real security fix.

       

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Podcast episode 96: The Shoulders Apple was Built Upon and the Complications of Tim Cook

Brett and I start this week’s episode of the In the News podcast by looking back at some important events in history that resulted in the iPhone and other Apple technology that we use today, including Motorola's invention of the cellphone fifty years ago, Xeroc PARC, and SRI. Next, we talk about the complications that Tim Cook uses on his Apple Watch, Spatial Audio on Apple Music, iPhone security, and more.

We also introduce a new recurring segment of the podcast focused on finding items and people using Apple technology such as the Find My service, AirTags, and Apple's Emergency SOS via satellite system. We are calling this the Where Y'at? segment. If you have ever visited New Orleans, then you know that "Where Y'at?" is a commonly-used phrased in the Crescent City that doesn't really ask where you are located but instead is a way of saying hello and asking how you are doing. The origin of the phrase is a little murky, as Doug MacCash of Nola.com explained last month. Nevertheless, the phrase is as common in New Orleans as "Aloha" is in Hawaii, and it is even the title of a local magazine. In this week's Where Y'at segment, we discuss an example of why you should let the police track your AirTag to find a stolen car instead of doing it yourself and discuss the rescue of BYU students who decided to go hiking and rappelling at a difficult canyon in Utah called "The Squeeze."

In our In the Know segment, Brett explains how you can temporarily disable Face ID or Touch ID on the iPhone and iPad. I explain the Safety Check feature of iOS 16, an incredibly useful feature if you ever want to stop sharing your location and other information with another person (such as if a relationship ends or become abusive) or if you ever want to audit which apps can see which aspects of your private information.

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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Podcast episode 95: Recovery Keys, iPad Keyboards, and Lucky iPhones

Brett and I start this week’s episode of the In the News podcast by discussing recent iPhone security issues including protecting the confidentiality of your passcode and being careful about using public charging devices. We next discuss the new Apple savings account, choosing the best keyboard for an iPad, using your HomePod to listen out for a smoke detector alarm, opening up a $40,000 iPhone, and more.

In our In the Know segment, we focus on the Apple Watch. Brent describes how he uses his Apple Watch as a flashlight, and I describe how useful an Apple Watch can be when you are on the mend from a surgery or simply under the weather.

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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