I started iPhone J.D. in November of 2008, and a few months later I realized that there was a lot of iPhone news that was worth sharing that did not deserve a long post by me — often because the article itself said everything that I could say, and usually much more. Traffic on iPhone J.D. was usually a little lighter on Fridays anyway, so on Friday, April 10, 2009 I titled my post "In the news" and collected some links of interest from the prior week. The title is a throwback to the 1970s when I was a little kid and my brother and I used to love to wake up as early as possible on Saturday mornings to go downstairs and watch cartoons. In fact, sometimes we would wake up so early that we would catch the TV that came on before the cartoons, reruns of shows like The Munsters and The Three Stooges. There was no cable TV back then so our cartoon choices were limited to the three major networks, and whenever we watched Channel 4 (WWL, the CBS affiliate in New Orleans) I used to enjoy their In The News segments, a two-minute summary of the news of the day, edited for a younger audience by CBS News. (And on ABC, of course, I loved the Schoolhouse Rock segments between cartoons.) If I close my eyes, I can still hear those distinctive tones from the In The News segment ... or I can just click here to hear them again without having to imagine a thing. Two years after my first "In the news" post, here we are with the 100th edition. So with no further ado, here is the news of note from the past week.
- One of the biggest stories this week was the announcement by a security research firm that your iPhone is tracking everywhere you go, and all you need to do is download a simple free program on your computer to see a map showing everywhere that your iPhone has ever been. The initial reaction was fiercely negative. Is Apple following us? Then people realized that every cell phone company has the same data on all of its customer's phones — not to mention all the other records that exist of where you go and what you do. Do you use a program like Quicken to keep track of your credit card expenses? That's another record on your computer of where you have been and the places that you have visited. Perhaps the best article that I have seen on this subject is this one by David Pogue of the New York times entitled Your iPhone is Tracking You. So What? I also enjoyed this similar analysis by Dan Moren of Macworld. Having said that, if there is someone who keeps up on technology news like this who has regular access to your computer (such as your spouse) and you are trying to hide the fact that you took that trip to Las Vegas, make sure that you tell iTunes to encrypt your backup file on your computer.
- Attorney Tom Mighell discusses giving presentations on an iPad using apps like Keynote on his new site for lawyers using iPads called iPad4Lawyers.
- Jim Calloway of the Oklahoma Bar Association discusses attorneys using iPads.
- For a contrary view, Seattle attorney Venkat Balasubramani says "bah humbug" to attorneys using iPads.
- Dan Moren of Macworld discusses the security of documents stored on Dropbox.
- Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal discusses buying a laptop computer and whether you should instead get an iPad.
- Edward Albro of PC World considers whether there are any real competitors to the iPad in the tablet market.
- According to an article by Tom Huddleston of AmLaw, the 700 lawyer firm Proskauer Rose is giving iPads to its attorneys.
- Nick Bilton of the New York Times explores the question of whether you should upgrade from an iPad to an iPad 2.
- Similarly, Art of the iPhone explores the speed of the iPad 2 versus the original iPad.
- I love my iPad 2, and the Apple Smart Case is great for when I am carrying my iPad around my office or my home. But what about when I travel to and from work every day? I rarely need to take a briefcase anymore since most of my important papers are digital nowadays, but I want something small to carry my iPad and give it some protection. If you know of any good solutions for your iPad 2 (and many cases that hold the iPad will also work with an iPad 2 with a Smart Cover), please let me know.
- Here is one example that looks intriguing to me, or at least it would if I was a female. Happy Owl Studios has a product called The Clutch. When you first see it you think it is just a nice clutch purse, but it holds a first generation iPad. A version for the iPad 2 is in development. While women are the target audience for The Clutch, the amusing commercial that they produced for The Clutch seems more aimed at men, although it does certainly answer the question of what would happen if the iPad and a sexy purse got together. This one might be mildly not safe for work, so be careful before you click the link to this commercial and this follow up.
- Every time you tap the Safari icon on your iPhone, Safari opens and starts to reload the last page it displayed. Sometimes that takes a little while. If you would instead rather open Safari directly into a blank page, read this tip from Dan Frakes of Macworld.
- In addition to watching Saturday morning cartoons as a child in the 1970s, I remember loving the Sesame Street book The Monster At The End of This Book. Now in 2011, it is one of my son's favorite apps on my iPad. Karen Freeman of AppAdvice posts a review.
- MG Siegler of TechCrunch predicts that the iPhone will soon be the most popular "camera" for photos on Flickr, and he has the charts to back up his theory.
- And finally ... this is usually the part of In the news where I discuss something silly in the world of iPhone or iPad, but here is something that started silly and turned serious. On April 1, 2010, one of the April Fool's Day products on Think Geek was a $150 device that turned an iPad into an arcade machine, and some people wondered if such a product could really be produced. The answer is yes, and a year later, Think Geek is now selling the iCade for $99. Just because it is funny doesn't mean that it can't come true.
