If you are one of the hundreds of people in town for the 2010 Federal Bar Association convention, welcome to New Orleans! Please join me and Ernie Svenson at 10:50 this morning for our session “Social Media, Twitter, LinkedIn, Blogs: I am a Lawyer—Why Do I Care?” And afterwards, please introduce yourself. I’d love to hear about how you are using your iPhone in the practice of law. And now, the iPhone news items of interest from this past week:
- Dan Moren of Macworld reports that for the fourth straight year — so in other words, as long as the iPhone has been in existance — the iPhone topped the J.D. Power survey on U.S. wireless smartphone customer satisfaction.
- Philip Elmer-DeWitt of Fortune reports on a new study showing that while Apple makes only 3% of the mobile handsets sold in the world, it rakes in 39% of the profit. Wow.
- Thanks to all of this profit, Bloombert reports that Apple was briefly the second largest company in the world yesterday when its stock peaked at $292.76, putting it ahead of PetroChina Co. and behind only ExxonMobil. The stock then dropped somewhat, putting the company value at $263.9 billion, just behind PetroChina’s $265.5 billion valuation. But still. Wow. I bought Apple stock in 2000 when the stock was at $18 a share and sold it in 2004 when it was at almost $30. After that, the stock split in February of 2005 (so it’s like I bought it at $9 a share at current prices) and now it’s up to almost $300 a share, so that means that if I had held on to the stock I could have made, ummm… let’s just say that it’s a good thing that I’m a much better lawyer than a stock analyst. My only advice to you is that if you ever see me say something on iPhone J.D. that sounds like stock advice, IGNORE IT.
- Douglas Adams taught us that the answer to Life, the Universe and Everything is 42. Josh Ong of AppleInsider reports that it is also the rank of Steve Jobs on the Forbes 2010 list of the richest Americans.
- If you use Dropbox, did you know that there are now 57 different iPhone and iPad apps that can access your files? Visit this page to see all of those apps.
- One such app that works with Dropbox is the official Dropbox app. David Cartier of Macworld reports on the new features in version 1.3 of that app. Click here for Dropbox (free):
- Vlad Savov of Engadget discusses “Awareness! The Headphone App,” an app that lets you play music but also turns on the microphone on the iPhone. If a loud noise is sensed — such as someone talking to you or an oncoming bus (but not normal background noise) — then that noise is played through your headphones along with your music. That way, you can still hear what you need to in the outside world even while your headphones are blaring your music. Unfortunately, there is a valid reason for an app like this; WPIX-TV in New York (Channel 11) recently reported that a 12 year old boy was killed by a New Jersey Transit train. It appears that he was listening to his iPod, not paying attention, and walked across the tracks. The train engineer sounded his horm and pulled the emergency brakes, but it was too late. What a tragic tale. Click here for Awareness! The Headphone App ($4.99):
- Are you someone who knows nothing about computer programming but would like to learn how to write an app for the iPhone? Attorney David Sparks of MacSparky.com reviews Objective C for Absolute Beginners and says that it is a great way to get up and running.
- Nick Bilton of the New York Times wrote a fascinating article on Asians in New York City buying iPhones without a contract for $600 from the Apple Store and selling them for a profit to be shipped to China. The iPhone 4 debuts in China this weekend, which may put an end to this practice.
- Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal wrote that he went to Paris for 10 days and left his laptop at home, relying solely on his iPad and iPhone. There were a few things that he missed, but overall he says that it worked great. I’m hearing more and more about attorneys leaving the laptop at home and traveling with just an iPhone and/or iPad.
- Thomas Ricker of Engadget reviews the Mili PowerSpring 4 and the Mophie Juice Pack Air, two thin external battery cases that can extend your iPhone’s life for more than 16 hours.
- And finally, if you own an iPad and want to be fashionable, than clearly you need to spend hundreds of dollars on an iPad case from Oscar de la Renta, Gucci, Hugo Boss or Louis Vuitton. Stephen Williams of The New York Times tells you what you need to know to spend that money. For example, here are the Louis Vuitton iPad cases, priced at only $390:
