Deadline:

> While Apple isn’t generally transparent about audience number specifics, insiders said that the Miguel Sapochnik-directed apocalyptic drama became Apple TV+’s most watch film by eclipsing Hanks’ previous Apple film, the WWII thriller Greyhound. Apple would not divulge specific numbers but sources said that Finch premiered in over 100 countries, more than doubled its opening day audience as the weekend progressed, and generated the largest opening weekend ever on the two-year old Apple TV+.

Tom Hanks and Apple TV+ were made for each other. Finch is worth watching on a number of levels, including the transparent perfection of Tom Hanks’ acting (he becomes the character, flaws and all) and the immersive special effects (the world is seamless and believable, great CGI).

Know going in that Finch is more a character study than a classic sci-fi action film, so if you’re cool with that, go watch it.

Juli Clover, MacRumors:

> When iOS 15 was first introduced in June, Apple outlined a new Digital Legacy feature that’s designed to let you set a person as your Legacy Contact, giving the person access to your Apple ID account and personal information in the event of your death.

And:

> The Legacy Contact option can be accessed by opening up the Settings app, tap on your profile picture and then select “Password & Security.” From there, choose “Legacy Contact” from the list and you can select a trusted person to access your account after you pass away.

Been waiting for this. My Mom died last year and, try as we might, we were never able to get Apple to give us access to her phone to get her pictures and notes.

I do appreciate the privacy protection, but if we had the legacy contact feature when she was still alive, we’d definitely have used it. Really happy to have this.

Howard Oakley:

> As it’s getting towards the end of the year, I’ve been on the look out for nominations for the title of the most improved utility of the year. I’m delighted to announce not just a nomination, but an outright winner: Disk Utility 21.0, bundled with Monterey. After four years in which it had offered frustratingly limited support for the new features of APFS, Disk Utility is now complete: this version has excellent support for snapshots, no matter which app created them.

If you’ve got Monterey installed, fire up Disk Utility (it’s in Applications > Utilities). Take a look at the various menu items, most importantly:

> To engage its new powers, select a volume and use the Show APFS Snapshots command in its View menu. This opens a new table view in the lower part of the main view in which the selected volume’s snapshots are listed.

Those snapshots will appear in a new section at the bottom of the main pane. Jump back to Howard’s walkthrough to get a sense of what you can do with these.

Benjamin Mayo, 9to5Mac:

> Following an Android launch last week, Netflix has now launched its new Games initiative on iOS. Netflix subscribers can now enjoy the following games on iPhone and iPad: Stranger Things 1984, Stranger Things 3, Shooting Hoops, Card Blast, and Teeter (Up!).

Interestingly, the Netflix PR implies that the games will be in the Netflix app itself, as shown in this tweet:

I just updated my iOS Netflix app and still don’t see a built-in Games section. But that said, the Netflix games are individually placed on the App Store, like so:

– Stranger Things 1984
– Stranger Things 3
– Shooting Hoops
– Card Blast
– Teeter (Up!)

The games did not require me to login to Netflix to get started, so guessing they somehow see my Netflix login validation somehow. It’ll be interesting to follow the growth of Netflix games, see how it changes over time.

Jay Peters, The Verge:

> Soon after the iPhone 13 launched, repair experts found that swapping out iPhone 13 screens would break Face ID unless you also moved over a tiny control chip from the original screen. It’s a complex process that makes one of the most common types of repairs prohibitively difficult for independent repair shops.

More to the point:

> Apple-authorized repair shops, on the other hand, have access to a software tool that can make a phone accept a new screen.

So what’s changed?

> Apple tells The Verge it will release a software update that doesn’t require you to transfer the microcontroller to keep Face ID working after a screen swap.

Perfect.