The announcement that the iPhone is coming to Verizon dominated the news this week. It also resulted in quite a few calls to me from law partners and friends saying that they are now ready to get a (Verizon) iPhone and asking what model to get. I even overheard a conversation about the Verizon iPhone by strangers in an elevator this week; it occurred to me that I could have interrupted them and referred them to my post from Wednesday, but I quickly thought better of that. Here is the notable iPhone news of the past week:
- A ChangeWave survey suggests that 16% of AT&T customers will switch to Verizon to use the Verizon iPhone. I'd be surprised if it is that high, but we'll see.
- Attorney John Wallbillich of the WiredGC blog considers what the Verizon iPhone might mean for attorneys.
- Electronista reports that Verizon activated 16 new 3G towers in New York City, presumably to prepare for the iPhone.
- David Pogue of the New York Times weighs the pros and cons of switching from AT&T to Verizon to use the new version of the iPhone.
- Zach Epstein of BGR explains that he is not switching to Verizon because the iPhone is faster on AT&T.
- An excellent article by Adams Satariano and Peter Burrows of Bloomberg Businessweek reports on the long history behind the Verizon iPhone. I was surprised, however, that the article did not mention that Apple first came to Verizon with the original iPhone, but when Verizon was unwilling to accept Apple's demands, Apple instead went to Cingular, which of course became AT&T.
- Jon Stewart of The Daily Show ran a long and funny story on the Verizon iPhone. You can watch it several places on the web, including here on Engadget. However, the video requires Flash, so if you want to view it on an iPhone, you'll need to use the Skyfire browser. Click here to get Skyfire for iPhone ($2.99):
Click here to get Skyfire for iPad ($4.99): - Apple provided a beta version of the next iOS operating system, iOS 4.3, to developers this week. The contents of that beta software are supposed to be confidential (and are subject to change before the final release of iOS 4.3), but apparently someone spilled the beans to (attorney) Jeremy Horwitz of iLounge, who wrote this extensive report on the new features.
- David Pogue of the New York Times wrote a report on last week's CES, noting that even though Apple didn't have an official company presence, its influence was felt everywhere.
- For example, Thomas Ricker of Engadget writes that speakers compatible with Apple's AirPlay are "set to explode in 2011." I recently wrote about using a speaker system with an AirPort Express; these new speakers have the Wi-Fi built-in, making it even easier to stream audio to them from an iPhone or iPad.
- Laurel Newby of Law.com writes about an IP battle between two iPhone drink apps.
- Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal reports on the update to the iPhone Skype app that allows videoconferencing over 3G.
- Attorney Dan Friedlander has been writing a number of great articles for TechnoLawyer, many of which discuss the iPhone or iPad. You need to subscribe (for free) to the TechnoLawyer newsletters to get these articles as they are written, but there is now section of the TechnoLawyer website collecting all of Friedlander's prior articles. These are worth reading.
- Speaking of TechnoLawyer, they introduced a new newsletter this week called LitigationWorld to discuss "tips from the forefront of today's litigation practice." The inaugural issue was pretty good this week. If you are a litigator, you should click here for information on subscribing.
- Also speaking of TechnoLawyer, Alabama attorney Clark Stewart wrote an article on how to start a law firm with $2,500 worth of technology. The iPhone plays a prominent role. You can read the article on Stewart's Soul Practioner blog.
- Marianne Schultz of AppShopper discusses an update to the Google Mobile app that allows the app to recognize ads and solve Sodoku puzzles.
- Last week I discussed the new Apple App Store for the Mac. The always funny Scoopertino announces an improvement: App Store Express.
- I haven't played the card game UNO since I was a kid, but the game is 40 years old this year, and Gameloft is celebrating by offering the app, normally $4.99, for only a buck. Click here for UNO for iPhone ($0.99): Click here for UNO HD for iPad ($0.99):
- If you want to read some of my thoughts on the impact of the iPhone on the practice of law, the attorneys at the great Abnormal Use blog posted this interview. Abnormal Use won the torts category in the 2010 ABA Blawg 100; if you practice torts law (like I do) make sure that you add Abnormal Use to your regular reading list.
- And finally, the always funny Joy of Tech comic has this take on the Verizon iPhone, which the creators gave me permission to repost here:
