The iPhone can hear you, swim and entertain monkeys, and the iPad can help you protect your client even more than you might think. It's Friday, so that means that it is time for another edition of In the news:
- On several different occasions over the last decade, I have tried Dragon dictation software on my computer. I has never been a good match for me, but I know that many other attorneys swear by the software. If you are one such attorney, note that Dragon Dictate version 2.5 for the Mac now lets you use your iPhone as a microphone. Just talk to your iPhone and the words appear on your Mac. California attorney David Sparks of the MacSparky blog has more information.
- By the way, New Orleans attorney Ernie Svenson tells me that he has also found that Dragon Dictate for Mac works great with his iPhone.
- Virginia attorney Rob Dean interviewed Malcolm Collingwood of the Proskauer firm to get more information on that firm's use of iPads.
- I wrote in 2009 and then again a few weeks ago about using the Gogo service with my iPhone and iPad to access the internet on an airplane. Ina Fried of All Things D reports that about two-thirds of all mobile devices using Gogo are iPhones.
- If you would rather use your iPhone at sea level rather than 30,000 feet, Bryan Wolfe of AppReviews mentions the Aqua Phone Case, a waterproof iPhone case.
- If you use ProLaw for document management as your law firm, you might be interested in iDocExplorer, an iPad app from Bellefield that allows you to use the iPad to access documents on your document management server.
- Guy Clapperton of BizGene provides tips for using your iPhone for e-mail.
- I am always interested to learn about unique ways that lawyers are using their iPads, but it never occurred to me that one such use is protecting your client from a cream pie until I read this story by Graham Bowley of the New York Times.
- Timothy Williams of the New York Times interviews the town manager of Cornelius, NC, where the local government is using iPads for town commissioners instead of printing meeting agendas and distributing binders with paper. Makes sense to me.
- Charles Arthur of The Guardian reports that according to a new report, "for every thousand page views by a tablet, 965 ... come from an iPad, 19 from a Galaxy Tab, 12 from a Xoom and 3 from a PlayBook."
- Ever since Apple announced its new MacBook Air computers last week, I've heard several attorneys tell me that they cannot decide whether to get a MacBook Air or an iPad to use when they travel. That is a tough choice; they are different, but in some ways address the same need. I was thinking about that when I read this review of the new MacBook Air from Tim Stevens of Engadget. I love this part of his conclusion of his review: "It's a supermodel with a law degree from Columbia, a hunky motorcycle racer who looks good in leathers yet is also a concert pianist -- whatever your passion it won't disappoint, all while making a lot more room in your bag."
- What would happen if Apple bought Twitter? The funny folks at Scoopertino (which I reviewed here) think it would look like this.
- Many people predicted that once the iPhone came to Verizon, tons of people would abandon AT&T. Jenna Wortham of the New York Times reports that, so far, that has not happened. But as John Gruber of Daring Fireball noted yesterday, a lot of people will be out of contract and ready to get the next iPhone model when it comes out (presumably this September) and it will be interesting to see how many switch.
- Come on, admit it, you really do want to watch a cute little baby monkey play with an iPhone.
- If you practice in Los Angeles, you might want to take a look at iLitigate, an app by attorney Pete Carr that provides information on several county superior courts in California, especially Los Angeles now that the app is free for a limited time. Click here for iLitigate (free):
- And finally, while I like to focus on how you can use your iPad in the office, that doesn't mean that you can't also be creative with it while having fun. One app that I love to use just to play around is GarageBand on the iPad, and this video does a great job of showing how you can create some pretty good music using this app:
