In the news

The big iPhone story this week was the prototype iPhone purchased by Gizmodo for $5,000.  Heck, even I couldn’t resist talking about it twice.  But believe it or not, that wasn’t the only iPhone news of note.  Here is the other iPhone-related news that I came across and wanted to share with you.

• MacUser UK reports that Google announced yesterday that it plans to bring free turn-by-turn navigation to the iPhone, although it didn’t say when it would do so.  The free turn-by-turn directions that Google provides with its Android phones has gotten good reviews, so from that standpoint it would be nice to see it on the iPhone … unless you happen to be one of the developers of an iPhone app that does the same thing.  I imagine that the more expensive apps on the iPhone will continue to offer premium features, but it could make it difficult for some of the less expensive iPhone apps which have more limited features.  (Link via Chicago attorney Dan Saavedra.)  [UPDATE:  Now Google is saying that they didn’t really mean that it is coming to the iPhone, according to this report from PC World.  “We did not say we would bring it to iPhone, we said to date we’ve had
  
  it on Android and that in the future it may come to other platforms but
  
  did not confirm this will be coming to iPhone at all.”  Hmm.]
• If you are a tax attorney, you might be interested in two “Law ToGo” apps from Jade Nile, LLC that came out over the last month.  One contains the Tax Code and the other contains the Treasury Regulations.  You can see videos of each app on the Law ToGo website, and attorney Martha Sperry has a review on her Advocate’s Studio website that walks through the features of the app.
• Zusha Elinson writes for The Recorder / Law.com about Apple’s outside IP litigation counsel.  Weil, Gotshal is handling a counterclaim filed by Apple against Kodak last week, Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr is handling a dispute with Nokia, and Kirland & Ellis is handling Apple’s patent offensive against HTC over Google Android phones.
• Speaking of lawsuits, Charles Starrett of iLounge reports on a new class action filed against Apple alleging false-positive readings on the iPhone’s moisture sensors.  I once stood in line behind someone at the Apple Store Genius Bar who was quite insistent that her teenage son had NOT gotten his iPhone wet and therefore it was still in warranty.  I didn’t buy her story at the time, but who knows.
• Earlier this week, I discussed Apple’s last fiscal quarter in which it sold a record number of iPhones.  Those sales benefited not only Apple but also AT&T, which sold 2.7 million of the 8.75 million iPhones last quarter.  Electronista has more details.
• Apple added a support article to its Knowledge Base warning people that if you jailbreak your iPhone, it may become unstable.  I agree, and that is why even though I know that there are some interesting things that you can do once you jailbreak an iPhone, I have never done so and I don’t recommend that you do so unless you fully appreciate and accept the risks.
• If you want a really thin battery case for your iPhone, for a long time the Mophie Juice Pack has been the product of choice.  However, Engadget reports that MiLi has come out with a similar case that is a twentieth of an inch less thick.  So there.
• Apple has been running some new ads for the iPhone, continuing its theme of showing off great apps.  You can see all of the latest ads on the Apple website right here.
• Marco Tabini of Macworld looks at the feature currently in the iPad in limited fashion, and coming to the iPhone in 4.0 this Summer, that allows you select a document in an app such as Mail and choose to open it in a third party app.
• Greg Lambert at 3 Geeks and a Law Blog writes about Thomson Reuters offering prizes for app developers.  The focus of this contest is apps for financial professionals, but I hope that the company is also working on a useful Westlaw app for the iPhone.
• Paul Miller of Engadget writes a good report on what we know about the hardware features of the “lost” prototype iPhone that Gizmodo purchased for $5,000.  I imagine that we will see most if not all of these features in the next generation iPhone that I expect Apple to debut in June.
• Infamous bank robber Willie Sutton has been widely (and perhaps falsely) quoted as answering the question of why he robbed banks by saying “because that’s where the money is.”  You might expect that Apple puts Apple Stores in the areas of the country where there are the most people who buy Apple products, but as Gary Allen of ifoAppleStore reports, this is actually not the case.
• Tony Bradley writes in his Tech Audit column at PC World that the upcoming 3G version of the iPad could be the ideal mobile business tool.  I’m still trying to decide whether to buy an iPad, but my current thinking is that the 3G version makes the most sense for lawyers.
• On the other hand, the Wi-Fi version of the iPad will work just fine if you have a portable Wi-Fi hotspot such as the MiFi.  The MiFi, which gets great reviews, typically sells for anywhere from $50 to $250, but Amazon is currently selling it for ONE CENT if you get a two year Verizon contract ($40 a month for 250 MB of access, $60 a month for 5 GB of access).  Sounds like a great deal.
• Jeff Smykil of Ars Technica reports
  
  on data from advertising group Chitika which leads them to conclude that over half of
  
  all iPad users use Windows at home.  The data source sounds a little
  
  unreliable to me, but the conclusion may well be correct.
• Bill Gates on the iPad, as reported
  
  by Phil Bronstein of the San Francisco Chronicle:  “It’s okay. The
  
  scenarios aren’t that clear. But it’s good looking.
  
  [Steve Jobs] does good design, and [the iPad] is absolutely a good
  
  example of that.”
• And finally, would you like to turn your iPhone into a retro phone?  Then you’ll want to get the iRetrofone Base being sold on Etsy for $195.00.  (Link via iPhone Savior)