The announcement that Tim Cook will be stepping down as CEO of Apple provides the perfect opportunity to take a look back at his 15 years. The company and its products are better than ever, but that doesn’t mean that his tenure hasn’t been without controversy. Brett and I start this week’s episode of the podcast discussing Tim Cook’s legacy. Next, we take a look at John Ternus, Apple’s next CEO. What changes might we see at the company when it is led by someone who has spent the last 25 years focusing on Apple hardware? We discuss all of this and more in this week’s episode.
In our In the Know segment, Brett and I share tips for taking handwritten notes on an iPad using either the Notability or GoodNotes apps. Brett discusses the Apple Pencil’s squeeze feature. I discuss locking objects on a screen.
The biggest Apple story this week (and this month, and perhaps this year) was the announcement that Tim Cook is ending his 15 years as Apple CEO, with John Ternus to become the new CEO on September 1, 2026. Cook has had incredible success as Apple’s CEO. Under his leadership, Apple has introduced major new products such as the Apple Watch, AirPods, and Apple Vision Pro, and substantially improved existing products like the iPhone and the Mac. Apple’s services offerings—Apple Pay, Apple TV, etc.—have also substantially improved under Cook. His focus on the environment, employee gift matching, accessibility (“I don’t consider the bloody ROI“), LGBTQ rights, user privacy, diversity, and more has made Apple a better member of the community. And if you are an Apple shareholder, the 1,000% increase in market capitalization has been astounding. He is leaving the CEO position at the top of his game. So let’s dig deeper into this story as we discuss the news of note from this past week:
I recommend that you read Tim Cook’s letter to the Apple community about his transition to a new role, which he posted on the Apple website.
Reflecting on one of his proudest moments at Apple, Cook mentioned this week that it was the first time he received an email from an Apple Watch owner saying that the device had saved his life. And as noted by Marcus Mendes of 9to5Mac, Cook says that he now receives those kinds of messages every single day.
John Gruber notes that the transition from Cook to Ternus is being handled with a lot of thought, and it is far less chaotic than the transition from Steve Jobs to Cook, when Jobs passed away sooner than many had expected. “It’s hard to imagine a more orderly, confidence-inspiring, exciting-but-not-at-all-surprising, this-feels-right way to do this.”
Tim Cook won’t be leaving Apple. He will become executive chairman of the board and will be the primary person at Apple engaging with policymakers around the world. In other words, Cook will deal with Trump, China, the EU, etc. These are skills that Cook is very good at—diplomacy—and this approach also takes those difficult tasks off the plate of Ternus, allowing Ternus to focus on Apple itself. As Jason Snell of Six Colors remarks: “Not only does Cook have the personal connections there, but it’s a messy business that perhaps Ternus is best insulated from—for now.”
Cook’s skill as a diplomat has not been without criticism. For example, so many of us cringed when Cook presented Trump with a gold plaque. But as Wesley Hilliard of HilliTech notes, the real blame here lies with an administration that forces a focus on adoration rather than what is best for the country. I agree with Hilliard that Cook did what he needed to do: “Trump gained one cheap plaque and some publicity while Apple saved itself and its customers countless billions in illegal tariffs. Also, the company still celebrates Pride month, utilizes DEI in its hiring, and leans into progressive opportunity and investment.”
In an article for the New York Times, Patrick McGee—author of the excellent book Apple in China—argues that one of the problems with Tim Cook’s leadership of Apple is that he focused so much on manufacturing in China that he boosted the Chinese economy and therefore helped China’s authoritarian leaders. I think that McGee has a point, but what was the alternative? The iPhone would not be the excellent device that it is today without Chinese manufacturing. The issue is not that it is cheaper to make the iPhone in China; the iPhones that we know and love could not have been made in the United States because we don’t have the infrastructure. In an alternate universe where the iPhone was always made in America, it would be far more expensive and have far fewer features. We live in an interconnected world where it makes sense for different things to happen in different countries. That doesn’t mean I like China’s leadership. (To be fair, I’m not the biggest fan of the leadership in the United States right now, either.) My point is simply that Cook had many difficult choices to make, each with its upsides and downsides. Focusing on the downsides of the choices that Cook made is a little unfair if you don’t set forth and weigh the downsides that would have come from a different choice. Big decisions have big consequences, and I believe that Cook was earnest in doing what he thought was best for Apple and its users.
Cook stepping down means that John Ternus is stepping up. Ternus is an Apple executive who has spent 25 years—half of his life—working at Apple. Apple is unlike any other company, and Ternus has a deep understanding of the Apple Way. He is also an engineer, and as the Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering, he has been responsible for the incredible hardware that has come out of Apple for so long now. With a hardware guy in charge at Apple, many speculate that this could pave the way for even better hardware from Apple in the future. For example, Jennifer Pattison Tuohy of the Verge predicts that smart home hardware could be some of the first new products that we see under Ternus.
In a presentation to Apple employees this week, Ternus stated that Apple is “about to change the world once again” thanks to an “incredible road map ahead, and I’m not exaggerating when I say this is the most exciting time to be building products and services at Apple in my entire career,” as noted by Ryan Christoffel of 9to5Mac. I suspect that many of the Apple employees he was addressing knew exactly what he was referring to, but for the rest of us, this is a big tease.
William Gallagher of AppleInsider notes that when Ternus spoke at his alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania, in 2024, Ternus joked that “I really appreciate you inviting me back to campus after I nearly destroyed Penn’s first and, at the time, only CNC milling machine my senior year.” But Ternus noted that every new challenge taught him to “approach problems from different angles.”
Kalley Huang and Tripp Mickle of the New York Times updated a story they published a few months ago about Ternus and his background. He was born in California, was a member of his college swim team, and, in the 1990s, one of his first jobs after college was working for a company developing an early VR headset.
David Sparks of MacSparky says that choosing for the next CEO the person responsible for the part of the business that is working best is a tried and true approach.
Max Eddy of Wirecutter explains why he believes the Authy app is the best app to use for two-factor authentication. I prefer to store my 2FA in 1Password, my password manager. Eddy says that it is slightly safer to use a 2FA app that is different from your password manager app. I agree that there is a slight theoretical increase in security, but I’m not aware of any circumstance in which that slight increase, achieved by using two different apps (a password manager and a 2FA app) on the same device, has ever made a difference to anyone in the real world. Moreover, Eddy acknowledges that to maximize security, you should use a 2FA method on a device separate from your iPhone, such as a YubiKey. But of course, that is inconvenient. Security is incredibly important, especially for lawyers, so whether you use only a very strong password manager such as 1Password or you use both a password manager and an authentication app, the key is to use something that is really good.
Zac Hall of 9to5Mac recommends adjusting the settings for the Apple Watch sleep score feature to make that feature more valuable.
Where do baby iPhones come from? No, not a high-tech stork. Marko Zivkovic of AppleInsider explains where Apple products are assembled and where the parts come from.
Ed Hardy of Cult of Mac reports that Apple released iOS 26.4.2 this week to fix bugs and provide security updates, including a bug that could allow a deleted message to remain on the iPhone. (I discussed that bug last week when I noted that the FBI discovered and exploited it.)
Christoffel also notes that you can now use an Apple Sports widget in CarPlay to keep tabs on the current score of a game while you are driving.
Here is a video taken using an iPhone 17 Pro Max on Artemis II that shows the Earth setting behind the moon. Wow. I often enjoy watching the sunset when I am on vacation at the beach. Watching the Earth set is a new one for me.
I recently wrote a very favorable review of the Anker Prime Wireless Charging Station (on sale for $119.99 on Amazon). This week, Ed Hardy of Cult of Mac reviewed it and liked it as well; his only negative was the MSRP of $149.99, which is a good reason to get it while it is on sale.
At the end of last year, Apple abruptly pulled the Apple TV series The Savant just days before the first episode was scheduled to air because the series explores extremism, and Charlie Kirk was assassinated just before the series was to begin. Marc Malkin of Variety reports that the series will finally air in July. After all of that commotion, hopefully it is a good show.
And finally, here is a fun video from Paul McCartney showing his recent appearance at Apple’s campus to perform for Apple’s 50th anniversary. People who were lucky enough to be there in person have reported that it was an amazing show:
After a week off for vacation, the podcast is back, and there is so much to talk about! We begin by discussing the product Apple is reportedly developing to compete with Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses. What may it look like, how many versions should there be, how could it work, and how might Apple make the product useful without being too creepy from a privacy perspective? We also talk about Apple’s vision product of today—the Apple Vision Pro—and the tragic story that occurred while filming an immersive video, as well as the new episode of Elevated that features New York. (After we recorded the podcast, I had a chance to watch that new video, and it is one of Apple’s very best!) We also talk about satellite and iPhones, iPhones in space, the new Anker Prime Wireless Charging Station, why it sometimes seems like your iPhone is listening to you and providing that information to advertisers, and more.
In our In the Show segment, we talk about the worst shows ever released for Apple TV and some of the best. We also mention the brand new show Margo’s Got Money Troubles, and I’ll mention that after we recorded the episode, I had a chance to watch the first three episodes (all of which Apple released this week), and they are excellent.
In our In the Know segment, we both discuss the Apple Pencil. Brett shares a tip for adding the Apple Pencil to Find My, and I discuss using the hover feature to navigate menus.
There was no In the News post or podcast episode last week because I was on a family vacation in Houston. While there, my son and I visited the Johnson Space Center. I used my iPhone 17 Pro Max to take pictures of the (nicely restored) historic Mission Control Center at the same time that, one floor below us, NASA was communicating with astronauts in space on the Artemis II crewed lunar flyby mission, who were using an iPhone 17 Pro Max to take their own pictures. As Kalley Huang of the New York Times reports, it was the first time an iPhone had been fully qualified by NASA for extended use in orbit and beyond. Ben Lovejoy of 9to5Mac reports that every spacesuit featured a pocket to hold the iPhone, although Malcolm Owen of AppleInsider reports that sometimes the iPhones were mounted to the ship using Velcro. The iPhones could be used to take pictures and videos, but all connectivity was turned off. As a result, the astronauts had to download pictures to a computer to share them with those of us on Earth while they were in space, and so far, I’ve only seen eight pictures shared, although they are great ones: Reid Wiseman and Christina Koch looking at Earth, all four crew members wearing eclipse glasses, and more (1, 2, 3, 4, 5). It is interesting to see a picture of Earth taken with an iPhone because a picture of Earth was one of the very first wallpaper images included with the iPhone, as I explained in this post from 2010. But we know there were more pictures taken with the iPhones; as Marcus Mendes of 9to5Mac notes, we also got a sneak peek at a great photo of the lunar service taken with an iPhone. Hopefully, now that the iPhones are back home and no longer in airplane mode—um, spaceship mode?—NASA will soon release many more photos along with videos taken in space with iPhones. And by the way, if you ever find yourself in Houston, I recommend visiting Space Center Houston. And now, the news of note from the past two weeks:
The Overcast app is my favorite app for listening to podcasts, and as noted by Ryan Christoffel of 9to5Mac, the app was recently updated to add a feature that was recently added to Apple’s own Podcasts app: transcripts for every podcast. The feature works really well, and I’ve already found it to be very useful.
It is widely believed that Apple will introduce a new version of the iPhone, perhaps as soon as this Fall, which can fold in half. A new rumor is that this device will be called the iPhone Ultra, and in twoposts, John Gruber of Daring Fireball explains why he thinks that would be a good name.
In a post on the education section of Apple’s website, Apple explains how a student who suddenly lost 95% of his eyesight due to a rare disease uses accessibility features on Apple devices to enlarge text so he can read it. Although my vision is far better than that, it is also far from perfect, and like many others, I depend upon my glasses to see the world clearly. I often use Apple technology to see things more clearly, whether I am pinching to zoom on my iPad or using the camera on my iPhone to zoom in on a distant sign.
If you use Express Transit Mode on your iPhone (which makes it much faster to pay for mass transit) and you use a Visa card to make that payment, you may want to change that. As John Gruber of Daring Fireball explains, there is currently a bug in the Visa system that a criminal can exploit to steal money from you.
All of us have watched videos of people performing incredible feats. This genre of video is even more stunning when it is an immersive video on the Apple Vision Pro because you feel like you are there. As I note on this webpage, there are currently five episodes in Apple’s Adventure series for the Vision Pro that put you right in the middle of awe-inspiring experiences. This week, it was reported that there were plans to have a sixth one by now. Apple took immersive video of paraplegic Claire Lomas as she took a microlight over the Jordan desert. Tragically, she crashed after landing and died from her injuries five weeks later, as reported by William Gallagher of AppleInsider. As Gallagher notes, nobody is saying that Apple’s cameras played any role in the tragedy. Nevertheless, it is a haunting reminder that the risks people take in videos like this are very real. The immersive video of Faith Dickey walking a tightrope 3,000 feet above Norway’s fjords was one of the first immersive videos released for the Apple Vision Pro, but it remains one of the most breathtaking videos that I’ve ever seen.
Apple released a new immersive video for the Apple Vision Pro today, the latest episode of its Elevated series. This one is focused on New York. “Glide above the Big Apple’s shimmering spires and down its iconic streets. From the neon sizzle of Times Square to the Statue of Liberty’s beacon of hope, let the voices of New York-and songs celebrating the city’s magic-be your guide.”
If Apple is indeed working on smart glasses, I’m sure that Apple is working to make them better than the ones currently being sold by Meta. Based on this article by Sam Anderson of the New York Times, that’s a low bar.
John Voorhees of MacStories reviews Hour by Hour, an app that can help you to plan your day.
Earlier this week, I reviewed the Review: Anker Prime Wireless Charging Station and concluded that it is the best 3-in-1 charger that you can buy. Andrew O’Hara of AppleInsider recently reviewed the product as well, and he agrees with me, concluding that this product “stands out in a crowded market as a premium device.” You can get it for $119.99 on Amazon.
I mentioned a few weeks ago that this might occur, but now it has. As Dan Moren of Six Colors reports, Amazon acquired Globalstar, the company that Apple uses for its satellite features on the iPhone and Apple Watch. Moren reports that Apple played a role in the purchase to ensure that Amazon will continue to support what Apple is doing now and will work with Apple on future developments.
What will those future satellite-related features be? Ryan Christoffel of 9to5Mac has some ideas.
If you have noticed that the Netflix app on the Apple TV device doesn’t work as well as it used to, it’s not just your imagination. As Chance Miller of 9to5Mac explains, Netflix changed its app to make it much less useful. Ugh.
Denise Petski of Deadline reports that later this month, Apple will host an interactive fan experience in Los Angeles for 28 shows, including Pluribus, For All Mankind, Slow Horses, Shrinking, and Your Friends & Neighbors.
I often talk about the best shows on Apple TV streaming service, but they are not all winners. David Snow of Cult of Mac lists the worst-rated shows on Apple TV.
The Signal app can be used to send private messages on an iPhone, but there may still be a way to see them. Marcus Mendes of 9to5Mac reports that the FBI recovered deleted Signal messages using iPhone notification data.
Apple’s 50th anniversary is now behind us, but Mark Spoonauer of Tom’s Guide just posted a fantastic video from his interview with Apple executives Greg ‘Joz’ Joswiak and John Ternus. They talk about specific products, like the new MacBook Neo and the Vision Pro, but also about what made Apple so special over the last fifty years and what we can expect in the future. Worth watching.
And finally, how many times have you talked about a product, a place, a show, etc., and then not that long later, you see an advertisement for it on your iPhone? Many people are convinced that an iPhone or Android device must be passively listening to what they say and sharing that with advertisers. David Pogue of CBS Sunday Morning investigated this and talked to the experts, and as he explains in this video, it simply isn’t true. The video explains what is really going on, and this follow-up article by Pogue on his Substack has a lot more information.
One of the best accessories that you can get for an iPhone is a wireless charger that supports MagSafe or Qi2 charging. The obvious reason is that it provides an easy way to charge your iPhone without having to connect a USB-C cable to the bottom of the device. But perhaps even more importantly, it means you can use StandBy mode, turning your iPhone into a screen that displays useful information (such as the time or upcoming calendar events) and/or enjoyable content (such as pictures). It is nice to have a wireless charger on your desk where you work and on a nightstand next to where you sleep. Better yet, if you use a portable charger, you can take it with you when you travel. Better than that, if you use a 3-in-1 wireless charger, the same device can charge your iPhone, your Apple Watch, and your AirPods. Last year, I reviewed the UGREEN 3-in-1 Foldable MagFlow Wireless Charger, which does all of this. I use that product almost every day. But now, I have found something better: the Anker Prime Wireless Charging Station (currently $119.99 on Amazon).
The Anker Prime Wireless Charging Station charges an iPhone using 25W MagSafe, which is the fastest MagSafe charging speed. And because it is a 3-in-1 charger, it can do more. It also features a spot for wireless charging AirPods or Powerbeats Pro. Plus, there is a spot to charge an Apple Watch.
When you don’t need to charge an Apple Watch, you can fold back the Apple Watch charger, and it clicks securely into place.
Push it again to pop it up.
Heat is produced when you charge a device wirelessly. As a result, most wireless chargers can sense when they are getting too hot and, if this happens, reduce the charging rate to compensate. This device does that as well, but it also has another trick up its sleeve: an internal fan. It is incredibly quiet, so you cannot hear it unless you really try. (Anker says it is 19 decibels.) The fan keeps the device even cooler while charging an iPhone, maximizing the charge delivered to the iPhone.
There are small rubber feet on the bottom to keep it in place on a surface.
This device works great if you leave it in one place. Just use the (included) USB-C cord and power adapter. And of course, you can use your own longer USB-C cord if necessary. Better yet, when it is time to travel, just close the Apple Watch charger and fold it down, and the device becomes small and portable.
With the exception of the fan, this device functions much like the UGREEN 3-in-1 device that I reviewed last year. But I vastly prefer the look and feel of this Anker device, especially when traveling, because it is shorter and has curved edges. And while the Apple Watch charger on the UGREEN device can also lift up or fold down, it doesn’t stay securely in place when raised. In contrast, the Apple Watch charger on this Anker device stays securely in either the open or the closed position.
The Anker device also has the feel of a more premium product than the UGREEN device. It just feels more sturdy and not as cheaply made. I’ve used the UGREEN device for many months without having a problem with the fit and finish, but after using the Anker device, I instantly noticed the difference.
Having used both devices, I definitely recommend paying for the Anker device. It is better.
Conclusion
The only negative thing that I have to say about the Anker Prime Wireless Charging Station is that it makes me jealous. I say that because I purchased this device for my wife, who wanted a 3-in-1 charger for her nightstand. She was kind enough to let me use it for the first two weeks so I could learn about the product and prepare this review. Now that I’m back to using the UGREEN device, I miss this Anker device. Sure, my UGREEN device still works just fine, but the Anker device was better.
If you own an iPhone, I strongly recommend purchasing a wireless charger. While there are countless MagSafe chargers for sale, a portable 3-in-1 charger is ideal for its versatility. And the best portable 3-in-1 charger that you can purchase today is the Anker Prime Wireless Charging Station. This is a fantastic product.
Brett and I begin this week’s episode of the In the News podcast by looking back at ABA TECHSHOW 2026. However, the bulk of this week’s podcast is devoted to Apple’s 50th anniversary. This includes discussing some of the great stories that were shared this week and discussing the ways that Apple itself celebrated the event. We then turn our attention to the heavens, discussing the use of iPhones on the Artemis II mission to the moon and how Amazon’s satellite plans intersect with Apple’s efforts to let the iPhone and the Apple Watch communicate via satellite when there is not a cellular connection or Wi-Fi. We also discuss the reviews of the AirPods Max 2 and more.
In our In the Know segment, Brett shares a tip for interpreting the colors on an Apple Credit Card, and I discuss taking full-screen screenshots of web pages.
When I was in middle school, I used every opportunity to spend time in my school’s computer lab, which featured Apple II computers. I eventually convinced my parents to buy me an inexpensive Sinclair ZX81 computer, but I always dreamed of owning my own Apple computer, especially after the Macintosh was introduced in 1984. In 1988, after my freshman year of college, I used the money I earned from a summer job to purchase my first Apple computer (a Macintosh Plus), and I’ve been using Apple products ever since. Like manyothers, I’ve been thinking about my history with Apple products this week because Apple turned 50 on April 1, 2026. Joe Rossignol of MacRumors notes the many ways Apple itself celebrated, including a concert featuring Paul McCartney on Apple’s campus for Apple employees. If you missed the really fun animation that was on Apple’s website on Wednesday, I encourage you to check it out now, thanks to this post from John Gruber of Daring Fireball. That same post from Gruber links to a great “rewind” video shared by Apple CEO Tim Cook. And as Lex Friedman figured out, if you watch the rewind video in reverse, you’ll hear a song that will be familiar to many people who have been paying attention to Apple over the years. It’s been a nice walk down memory lane this week, and Apple’s 50th dominates the news of note from the past week:
Kalley Huang of the New York Times interviews Chris Espinosa, the only person who has worked at Apple for its entire fifty years.
I’m really enjoying David Pogue’s new book Apple: The First 50 Years. You can currently get it at a deep discount on Amazon, only $34.09. The hardcover version is great because of all of the great pictures, but I also purchased the Audible version of the book because David Pogue does such a wonderful job reading it.
D. Griffin Jones of Cult of Mac created a great list of what he calls the most important Apple news stories from each of the last 50 years.
Here is a memo that Cook wrote to Apple employees to mark Apple’s 50th, as reprinted by Zac Hall of 9to5Mac. “As extraordinary as it is to reflect on the past fifty years, what excites me most is what comes next.”
When Apple introduced the iPhone 14 in 2022, which supported communicating with satellites, it worked with Globalstar, a company in Covington, LA (close to New Orleans). Two years later, Apple purchased a 20% interest in Globalstar. This week, Tim Hardwick of MacRumors reported that Amazon is now trying to purchase Globalstar to compete with SpaceX’s Starlink, and becuase of Apple’s 20% ownership, Amazon has to negotiate with Apple as well.
A collection of artists called Cosmic Perspective announced this week that it brought a Blackmagic Design URSA Cine Immersive camera to NASA Kennedy Space Center to record the Artemis launch in immersive video. No word yet on when the video will be released, but I look forward to watching that one. NASA: for your next trip, how about taking an URSA Cine Immersive camera to the moon?
If the Blackmagic camera doesn’t fit into the cargo hold, perhaps the astronauts could just take immersive videos using an iPhone. NASA is now letting astronauts bring a smartphone into space, and Roman Loyola of Macworld reports that there are iPhone 17 Pro devices on Artemis right now.
Tucker Reals of CBS News reports that Iran announced this week that, in retaliation for President Trump’s actions, Iran will target 18 U.S. technology and finance companies in the Middle East, including Apple.
And finally, Apple showed off some rare items from its archives on its campus in Cupertino, California, this week, and Ben Cohen of the Wall Street Journal shows off many of the items and interviews Apple CEO Tim Cook to discuss them in this great video:
If you are like me, 99% of the time that you listen to a podcast, you listen to the audio version. But this week’s episode of the In the News podcast is one I recommend you check out in the video version on YouTube—even if just for the first few minutes to see a few of the incredible costumes from C2E2. I had a surreal moment on Friday morning as I was walking to the room where I was giving a presentation on using wearable technology when I saw Darth Vader and Boba Fett cross my path. That’s not something that I normally see at a CLE. (Having said that, I suppose that I was a bit of a cosplayer myself based on the picture from my presentation that the ABA Journal used for an article.)
In this week’s episode of the podcast, Brett and I discuss some of the news of the week: iOS 26.4, the first announcement about WWDC 2026, ads coming to Apple Maps, AirDrop support coming to Samsung phones, and great updates to the Flighty app. We also discuss ABA TECHSHOW 2026. It was also fun to share tidbits from numerous TECHSHOW attendees including Bob Ambrogi, Seton Hengesbach, Joshua Lenon, Alan Klevan, Shawn Holahan, Kevin O’Keefe, Davide Cugini, Paul Lawless, Tad Pardue, Jim Nieset, Patrick Wright, Mike Dunham, Bill Vance, Mitch Zoll, and … for some comic relief … Mark Unger.
In our In the Know segment, Brett recommends the TwelveSouth PlugBug, and I share some tips for protecting your law firm or other company from cybersecurity threats.
I’m currently in Chicago at the ABA TECHSHOW conference. That means that I spent yesterday talking to lots of companies in the legal technology world and attending sessions focused on getting the most out of technology while staying safe amid the risks posed by cybercriminals. Today, I’m teaching two sessions: one called Practical Tips & Tools for Today’s Mobile Lawyer and another one called Wired for Justice: Wearable and Augmented Tech for a Law Practice. I’ve also talked to lots of interesting attorneys at the conference who read iPhone J.D. and/or listen to the In the News podcast, and it is incredible how much we all have to learn from each other. Speaking of the podcast, Brett Burney and I are working on a special edition of the podcast this week; it won’t be out until this weekend, but I promise it will be worth the wait! And now, the news of note from the past week:
This week, Apple released iOS 26.4 and similar updates for other devices. As noted by Juli Clover of MacRumors, the major changes are: (1) new emoji, (2) the new Playlist Playground feature in Apple Music (which uses AI to generate playlists based on your prompts), (3) a change to payment methods for shared purchases in a family group, (4) a Concerts feature in Apple Music to help you discovery nearby shows, (5) improved keyboard accuracy when typing quickly, and more.
Ryan Christoffel of 9to5Mac notes that iOS 26.4 includes changes to CarPlay: support for AI voice assistant apps and a new ambient music widget.
The new visionOS 26.4 adds support for something called foveated streaming. As Christoffel explains, it allows a developer to stream the highest quality content for the area where you are currently looking, with lower quality video in the parts that are in the corner of your eye (which doesn’t matter because you are not looking there anyway). The net result is a higher quality video stream that takes up less bandwidth.
Zac Hall of 9to5Mac notes that another improvement in visionOS 26.4 is better spatial audio performance. With this update, your Vision Pro starts Spatial Audio even faster when you are in a room that it recognizes because the device remembers the acoustic properties of the room. Fascinating.
iOS 26.4 may be the new kid on the block, but what is next? The next big update will presumably be called iOS 27, and Apple typically releases major updates in September and provides a preview of the major update at its WWDC developer conference in June. This week, Apple announced that WWDC 2026 will start on June 8. I presume that means that Apple will stream a keynote address at 10am Pacific / 1pm Eastern that day. Mark your calendar now!
The MSRP for Apple’s fantastic AirPods Pro 3 is $249, but you can occasionally get it on sale from Amazon. Amazon is having one of those sales right now, with a great price of only $199.
Another great deal: with Apple now selling the second generation of the AirTag (my review), you can get the first-generation model for an all-time record low price of only $59.99 on Amazon. Only $15 for an AirTag is a tremendous deal, and you don’t lose much by getting the original version of the AirTag.
At some point this year, Apple is going to start showing ads in its Maps app. My initial reaction to that was: BOO! However, Wesley Hillard makes the argument on his HilliTech blog that this might not be a bad thing if Apple does ads in a good and responsible manner. As he points out, in the old days, when we used to use the Yellow Pages to find a business, the ads were actually a useful way to learn about businesses. Plus, Apple is not going to use ads to invade your privacy the way that other companies do. He makes some interesting points, and I hope he is right.
AirDrop is a very useful way to transfer files from one Apple device to another Apple device. Google recently figured out a way to reverse-engineer this so that its Android phones could support AirDrop, and John Gruber of Daring Fireball reports that Samsung announced that it is similarly bringing AirDrop support to its Android phones. I’m in favor of this becuase AirDrop is so useful.
Ivan Mehta of TechCrunch describes a new feature in the latest version of the Flighty app called Airport Intelligence. It uses AI to analyze lots of information about different airports to provide real-time information on the conditions at different airports, giving you more information on what could disrupt your flight. It can also forecast airport delays.
I typically use my Apple Card when I shop at Walgreens because it is one of the few stores that gives you 3% Daily Cash. Joe Rossignol of MacRumors reports that, now through May 20, you can get 5% Daily Cash when you use your Apple Card at Walgreens and Duane Reade (up to $500 / $25 cash back).
Jason Snell of Six Colors reviews the Aqara UWB Smart Lock U400. It looks like it has all of the latest and greatest features.
And finally, here is an interesting video that Apple debuted when it recently unveiled the MacBook Neo. It shows this process of creating a MacBook Neo—not the realistic version, but instead, an artistic version. Fun video.
For the first time ever, we have a CarPlay app designed for lawyers: TranscriptPad. I’ve been using TranscriptPad on my iPad for over 14 years, and it is an essential app in my law practice. There is no better way to read and annotate a deposition transcript. A few months ago, this long-time iPad app was brought to the iPhone. It is nice to be able to review a transcript when all that you have easy access to is an iPhone. When I discussed the new iPhone app a few months ago, I noted that a perfect use case for its ability to read a transcript aloud was to review it while you are driving, such as when you are driving across the state to the next deposition in the case. Now that there is a dedicated CarPlay app, it is even easier to listen to a deposition in the car.
The CarPlay app shows a list of depositions. Tap one to play it.
When you are listening to a transcript, the display shows the traditional controls: a play/pause button and buttons that let you jump forward or backward. Note that the buttons let you jump backward / forward to the previous / next question and answer pair, not by a specific amount of time.
You can control playback speed to be more efficient when listening to a transcript. I found that the 1.5x speed worked well for me.
Listening to a transcript while driving is nice because it gives you an opportunity to think about things that came up during a deposition. If you hear something that you want to remember to go back to again when you are in front of your iPad, you can tap the icon with the finger at the bottom of the screen. This triggers the Marked Lines feature that I described in my previous post, marking the entire current question and answer. (If you tap a second time while listening to the same question/answer, it will remove the Marked Lines indication.)
This app works great. And using the CarPlay version of TranscriptPad is much better than using the iPhone version of TranscriptPad while you are driving because it is easy to see and interact with the screen.
I have to admit, though, that it seems surreal to see the icon for a legal-specific app on my CarPlay screen. I love it.
Kudos to the team at Lit Software for coming up with yet another way to make this app more valuable for attorneys.
