I am always on the lookout for statistics on the adoption of iOS devices like the iPhone and iPad in law firms. We got one number this week from Good Technolgy, Inc. Good has been making enterprise software for mobile devices for a long time. Back in 2002, they even sold their own hardware device, the G100, which I used at my law firm for a while. Then Good gave up the hardware business and focused on making software for mobile phones like the Palm Treo, and now Good sells software for many mobile devices (including the iPhone) that provide a secure connection to enterprise servers. This week, Good released the result of a survey of its 4,000 enterprise customers which tried to determine what kind of companies are adopting the iPad. John Herrema, senior vice president of corporate strategy at Good Technology, said: "We found that the financial services sector dominated, accounting for 36 percent of Good's iPad activations to date. The technology sector came in second at 11 percent, followed closely by healthcare at 10 percent. We believe these industries are embracing the iPad because its unique design makes it easier to perform time-sensitive, mission-critical tasks." Fourth place was the legal market at 8.8%. You cannot read too much into this survey without knowing other information, such as how many of Good's 4,000 customers are law firms, but still this report provides some evidence of increasing acceptance of iOS devices in law firms. There is lots of other iOS news of note from the past week, so let's get to it:
- For those of you who (like me) are waiting for iOS 4.2 to appear, Serenty Caldwell of Macworld reports that Apple has been fixing some final, last minute bugs and that yesterday afternoon, Apple provided developers with a third proposed final version of 4.2. I'm sure that we are very close. Maybe before Thanksgiving?
- The cheapest version of the iPad retails for $499, but Joseph Flatley of Engadget reports that TJ Maxx stores are selling it for $399 in a pre-Black Friday sale. I'm not sure how they can afford to do this — I seriously doubt that Apple gave TJ Maxx a discount price — unless they are selling below cost to get people in the stores.
- Also, Joe White of AppAdvice reports that Sam's Club is selling iPads starting at $488.
- John Biggs of MobileCrunch reviews two iPhone scanning apps, SayWhat and Scanner Pro.
- Attorney Reid Trautz has created his 6th Annual Holiday Gift Guide for Lawyers (2010 Edition). Every year, the list is a great read. This year, the iPad tops the list.
- Ladies and gentlemen, The Beatles!
- Brian Tufo of TiPb reports that you can now edit a Google Docs document on an iPhone.
- I recently reviewed Calvetica, an alternative calendar for the iPhone that I really like. San Jose, CA attorney Greg Charles recently wrote to tell me about another calendar program for the iPad that he really likes called Pocket Informant. Charles writes: "It integrates tasks using Toodledo and supports Exchange calendars. Small firms can use the Google Exchange function to achieve the same result. It also can use the native iPhone calendar as its database and that eliminates a lot of double syncing." This looks like a really interesting and powerful app.
- David Pogue of the New York Times writes about the Google Voice app, which Apple finally approved after a VERY long review period.
- David Pogue also provided a list of his favorite iPhone apps.
- Correy Stephehenson of Lawyers USA reports on a proposed Florida ethics opinion discussing a lawyer's duty to protect confidential data on devices like the iPhone.
- CivilMap is an interesting iPhone app for process servers. The app records the GPS location of the service, can record audio when service is made, and allows attorneys to track service in real time. If you are an attorney who uses a lot of process servers, you might want to insist that they use this app.
- Dan Friedlander writes for TechnoLawyer about how to create a smartphone app that promotes your law firm.
- Do you have a need to manage a large number of incoming requests at your law firm such as requests for documents or potential clients? If so, Richard Felix is a software developer in Louisiana who created a program called Dispatch, and the software has an iPhone app with push notifications for new requests and replies quickly. Felix tells me that lots of lawyers are using the software, including the iPhone features.
- According to Elie Mystal of Above the Law, law firm Proskauer Rose is offering a free iPad to every associate.
- Pulse News Reader is a neat, graphical reader of RSS feeds for the iPhone and iPad, and Richard Gaywood of TUAW reports that starting this week, it is free.
- Did you know that companies can create iPhone apps just for their employees and distribute them outside of the App Store? Tom Kaneshige of CIO.com reports on the program and some of its shortcomings.
- What would happen if you crossed a technology blog with The Onion? The result would look something like this, the very funny Satiritron. One recent story: "Apple Annonces Addition of Single Defunct Band to iTunes."
- Here's a story that I wish was a joke. Andrew Jacobs of the New York Times reports that a Chinese woman was arrested, on her wedding day, and sentenced to a year in a labor camp because she forwarded a satirical tweet written by her finance. Unbelievable. If you want to read the tweet that sent her to jail (and you can read Chinese) it is here. The Times translates the tweet as follows: "The original message sarcastically goaded protesters to go beyond the smashing of Japanese products and express their fury at the heavily policed expo site. Ms. Cheng added the words: 'Charge, angry youth.'" By the way, Twitter is officially banned in China, although obviously tech savvy Chinese can figure out ways around that.
- And finally, here's something sort of neat. Artist Jitsuro Mase created a 3D device for the iPhone that he showed off at an Australian exposition. iSmashPhone provides some background, but I think that the video speaks for itself: