Sorry for the failure to post yesterday; it's been a busy week for me at work. And now as I catch up on iPhone news, there are bright lights coming through the window in my study because they are filming an episode of the great new HBO show Treme next door to me. So in a few weeks, if you watch the show and you see a scene with someone writing a blog post in a house in the background, that's me. Hi Mom! Anyway, it's Friday, so that means it's time for another installment of In The News — indeed, the 50th such installment, the golden anniversary, for those of you counting at home. And yes I realize that we just did one of these. Here we go again.
- Minneapolis attorney Barry Edwards explains why lawyers will like iPhone software 4.0, a topic on which I also have an opinion.
- Gizmodo has some screen shots of the current developer build of iPhone 4.0 if you want to get a sense of how the new features are likely to look when the final version comes out this summer.
- John Welch writes for Macworld about what iPhone 4.0 will mean for large companies with IT departments. I count large law firms in that category.
- Gizmodo also has a review of the AT&T MicroCell, the $150 device that lets you use your broadband internet to improve AT&T 3G service, noting: "It's nothing short of revelatory, to suddenly have full reception where there was none, to make calls where one couldn't before." If you find that your law office or home has poor AT&T reception on your iPhone, this looks like a good solution.
- Tennessee attorney Mark Cowan wrote to me about a bizarre problem on his iPhone — suddenly, all of his third party apps started crashing when he tried to launch them. What to do? He finally located this comment on a blog post which explains that problems can happen if you lose Internet access while syncing your iPhone. The solution is to download another app — any app, even a free one — on the iPhone to restore your iPhone's ability to run any third party apps. A strange problem and an non-intuitive solution, but now if you experience it yourself you will know what to do.
I cannot count the number of times that people have written to me saying that they want to add an iPhone J.D. bookmark on their iPhone Home Screen but they are waiting for a nice custom icon. (My inability to count them is related to the complete lack of any such requests.) Nevertheless, the wish that you didn't even realize that you had is now granted. I've set it up so that when you are viewing the home page of iPhone J.D. on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch, just tap the plus at the bottom of Safari and select Add to Home Screen, and you will get a custom iPhone J.D. icon with a shortcut to this website on your Home Screen. Thanks to attorney Megan Erickson for the post on her great website, Social Networking Law Blog, which alerted me to this trick, and to Dan Dickinson for posting the technical information for how to make this work.
- For the Louisiana attorneys who read iPhone J.D., attorney Matt Miller is updating his iPhone apps containing Louisiana laws to version 2.0, adding the ability to change the font size and improving search and text readability. The Civil Code app was updated in late March and the Code of Civil Procedure app was updated last night. My review of the original version of the apps is here. Click here to get La. Civil Code ($6.99):
Click here to get La. Code of Civil Procedure ($9.99): - And now for the iPad news of the week. I had my first chance to play with an iPad earlier this week when attorney and app developer Dan Friedlander came to New Orleans and the three of us — me, Dan, and the featured guest, his iPad — met up for lunch. Dan wrote the useful law-related iPhone apps Court Days, Workdays and myMCLE. One of the most useful iPad apps that Dan showed me is GoodReader, and on his blog he explains why it is a must-have app for lawyers using an iPad.
- Jason Calacanis of Mahalo started a video podcast on the iPad, This Week in Pad (TWiiP).
- Attorney Brian Malcolm writes about the pros and cons of the iPad for lawyers on the Young Lawyers Blog.
- Utah attorney Peter Summerill bought an iPad and believes that is has potential, but recommends that lawyers wait to buy one: "Bottom line: wait to buy the iPad. There is no specific 'need' for attorneys to have this device at this time. While the future of the iPad may hold magical and amazing things in store for attorneys, the inability to do any significant work and the complete lack of applications which support the workflow of an attorney" are reasons not to buy today.
- And finally, if you are looking for a sleeve-style case for your iPhone with a fun picture on it, check out the designs of Etsy merchant Coolbeans717 who offers lots of choices that cost $20 each such as the ones pictured below. And for $26, she can even create a custom case for you with your own picture.
