Media

Have you set up Medical ID on your iPhone? If not, take a look at the embedded video to learn more.

One of those things that only has value if you take the time to do it ahead of time.

Yesterday’s keynote and State of the Union were overwhelming. Jam packed. More detailed, value adding features than I could keep track of. Overwhelming in the best possible way.

Apple’s Serenity Caldwell does a great job walking you through all the new stuff. Hold on to your britches and press play.

Joanna Stern, WSJ:

Long ago, a gardener planted an iPhone. “It’s not good for a gadget to be alone,” he said. So he grew crops of iPads, Apple Watches and AirPods, and summoned an iCloud in the sky to connect and replenish them. Many people came to the garden to enjoy its delights. The gardener was happy, until he saw some people wandering out. So he stacked bricks, one atop another, with names like iMessage, Apple Photos, AirDrop, Apple Fitness+ and so on, until they formed a high perimeter. Then the people never left.

And:

Apple Inc. is known for making some of the best tech products but none may be better designed than its “walled garden,” its closed ecosystem of devices and services. And next week, at the company’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference, the walls will get even higher.

And:

Apple’s garden…consists of three areas: hardware, software and services. Whatever Apple devices you’ve got, they all just work in “magical” harmony—or at least they’re meant to. But this magic doesn’t work with Android phones or Windows computers.

And:

A few days with Samsung’s Galaxy S21 phone and new Galaxy Book Pro 360 Windows 10 laptop were all it took to show how Apple’s total control creates a superior experience.

(Watch Joanna’s video below)

John Gruber, from this reaction post:

The people who use the term “walled garden” in this context typically do so as a pejorative. But that’s not right. Literal walled gardens can be very nice — and the walls and gates can be what makes them nice. That’s been a recurring theme in the testimony from Apple executives in the Epic trial. Asked about rules and limits on iOS that Epic presents as nefarious — nothing but tricks to lock users in — Apple witnesses typically responded by presenting them as features. That iOS is wildly popular not despite the “walls”, but because of them.

When I think about the walled garden, I imagine what it would be like if I stopped all subscriptions, stopped paying monthly fees to Apple. For example, what would happen if I stopped my iCloud payments. How hard would it be to convert my iCloud data, my email, photos, video, Messages, etc., into an accessible, easy to navigate set of folders on my local drive?

And though it’s a bit piecemeal, Apple is quite good about supporting that export. For example, here’s how to download all your videos and photos from iCloud. You can do the same with your contacts as well.

As long as I can leave out anytime I like, and take my data with me, I’m good.

If you’ve not played with this before, watch the video and try this for yourself. A pretty amazing (and, IMO underrated) feature.

If you’re not aware of this part of iOS/iPadOS Accessibility settings, take a minute to watch the video. In a nutshell, turn on Sound Recognition to get a notification when, say, the doorbell rings and you’ve got headphones on.

Note that Sound Recognition disables Hey Siri.

Joanna Stern is on a roll. This was both interesting and fun.

This is a thoughtful exploration of Right to Repair, with a bit of a focus on Apple that widens to look at other companies as well.

Some worth-watching appearances by Louis Rossman and Simone Giertz. Riveting, all the way through.

I’m a fan of Apple’s Everyday Experiments series, and this one does not disappoint. Some solid inspiration, with some slow-mo, stop-motion, and time lapse experiments that you can most likely repeat, even if you don’t own an iPhone 12.

MKBHD offers his take on Apple and the companies that swim in Apple’s wake, making money building products that work within the Apple ecosystem. A fascinating, if cynical, look at the choice Apple offers: Use Apple designed product, with an insider’s edge, or a third party product without that edge.

Well laid out.

YouTuber AirTagAlex lives in The Netherlands, wrote an Automator action to grab screenshots from Find My as it tracked his AirTag through the mail.

This was an interesting experiment. Looking forward to the follow-on video when Alex does the same thing, but ships the AirTag from The Netherlands to Norway.

From Apple Support, the first video walks through the initial setup of the AirTag. It then walks through the process of using Find My to track the AirTag, calling out the need for Ultra Wideband in any iPhone 11 or 12 model for detailed tracking.

The second video talks you through the Welcome, Setup Complete, Find My repeating sound, and Battery Connected sounds.

From the video description, filtered through Google Translate:

Find new and hot topics in Manga on the Manga tab in Apple Books. You can enjoy the work you want to read anytime, anywhere.