iPhone J.D.

In the news

Besides a lot of anticipation for the new iPhone to be announced next week, the other big iOS-related item in the news this week was that Amazon announced new versions of its Kindle, including a $200 tablet computer.  I don't think it really competes with the iPad because it does so much less, but I suspect that the manufacturers of Android-based tablets who were already having trouble competing with the iPad are a little concerned now that a low-priced Kindle that runs Android apps is in the mix.  Here is the other noteworthy items in the news this past week:

• We don't even know what the new features will be in the next iPhone, but I suspect that several of you are already planning to buy it.  Chris Smith of AppleInsider reports on a study finding that 40% of mobile users plan to buy an iPhone 5.  I hope that Apple is making lots of them.
• T-Mobile's chief marketing officer announced earlier this week that, unfortunatly, T-Mobile won't have the new iPhone that will be announced next week, as reported by Lex Friedman of Macworld..  Right now the iPhone is only on AT&T and Verizon; I wonder if T-Mobile felt the need to make an announcement because Sprint will get the iPhone next week?
• Jim Dalrymple of The Loop has a good analysis of why the Kindle Fire — the upcoming color tablet version of the Kindle — will be successful, but will not be major competition for the iPad.
• In related news, Jon Brodkin of Ars Technica wrote a good article explaining that the reason that the Kindle Fire is the first viable tablet computer besides the iPad is that Amazon didn't try to just copy the iPad but instead did their own thing.
• LawyerTechReview is a website about technology used by lawyers.  The site has apparently been around since January of this year, but I just learned about it recently.  About once a month, they run a feature called App Friday in which attorneys, paralegals or other law-related professionals recommend apps.  Click here to run a search of the blog and see the 20 App Friday articles that have been published to date.
• Speaking of lawyers who love their iPhones, John Cook of GeekWire reports that NFL great Lawyer Milloy loves his iPhone.  (See what I did there?  Ha ha... ahem.  Sigh.)
• Gavin McLachlan, an attorney in South Africa, tipped me off that this month, the Dutch Senate gave up on distributing meeting documents in paper form and instead every Senator will use an iPad.
• Utah attorney Peter Summerill reviews many of the different apps that you can use to take notes on an iPad on his MacLitigator site.
• There are a lot of iPhone apps that are so cool that they are almost magical, and Shazam has long been one such app.  Anytime you hear a song, you can just launch the app and have it tell you what the song is.  I've used it several times when trying to identify a cool song in a movie or on a TV show.  For a while now the app has been limited in the number of times you could use it for free, but Kevin Tofel of Gigahom reports that Shazam is removing its five song limit so now you can use the app to identify as many songs as you want.
• If you have owned several iPhones, iPods and iPads over the years, you probably have a lot of similar, but not identical, power supplies.  John Martellaro of The Mac Observer describes the differences and how to identify them.
• iPads can be used to do all sorts of interesting things ... including, apparently, fixing national monuments.  According to an AP article in The Daily, workers in Washington D.C. are using iPads to help them to fix the Washington Monument after last month's earthquake.
• Fortune compiled many of its Steve Jobs-related articles over the years into a new $8.79 Kindle e-book called All About Steve: The Story of Steve Jobs From The Pages of FORTUNE.  Philip Elmer-DeWitt includes some choice quotes from the book in his Apple 2.0 blog, hosted by CNNMoney / Fortune.
• Just in case you are looking for yet another reason for your kids to ask you for your iPad, Brian Heater of Engadget describes a new product from Disney called Appmates.  They are small cars based on the characters in the movie Cars that you can drive on virtual roads in an iPad app.  Honestly, I'm tempted to buy some for my kids just so that I have an excuse to play with them; they look fun.
• And finally, here is an iPad dock for those of use who have been using the Mac since 1984.  Get more information on "The Dockintosh" here.

Details on upcoming Lexis Advance for iPad and iPhone

I suspect that most attorneys know this is a time for next generation legal research.  Westlaw's new Westlaw Next product has been out for some time now and is a fabulous service that makes it much easier to find relevant authorities.  The Westlaw Next app for the iPad was released in August of 2010, and it is a useful, well-designed app.  At the same time, Lexis has been working on its next generation Lexis Advance product.  Lexis has been releasing the product in stages.  For example, in October of 2010, Lexis released Lexis Advance for Solos, a limited version of its next generation research product that was geared for — and only offered to — law firms with only one or two attorneys.  Lexis also released a version of Lexis Advance for Solos for the iPhone in 2010, but unless you are a solo practitioner or in the smallest of law partnerships, you haven't been able to use the app.

I recently had the opportunity to speak with some of the folks at Lexis who are responsible for the upcoming Lexis product releases including Marty Kilmer (VP of New Lexis Strategy) and Clemens Ceipek (VP and Manging Director of New Lexis).  Here are some details of what Lexis has in store for the iPad and iPhone.

The next major release of Lexis Advance was, until recently, called Lexis Advance for Associates.  The "for Associates" part meant that not every feature of the original Lexis.com was going to be ready for the next generation platform, including some of the company research tools that are most useful for partners interested in client development, but the core research tools such as searching for and finding cases and Shepardizing would be ready.  Because this type of legal research is how most associates use Lexis, the thinking was that the product would first be called "Lexis Advance for Associates" and then in the future as more features are added, the "for Associates" part could be dropped.  But apparently, many attorneys — including me — were confused and frustrated by the "for Associates" designation.  To be sure, many partners use Lexis for legal research.  Thus, Lexis now plans to call the next release of its product simply "Lexis Advance."  It still won't have every feature currently on Lexis.com, but those features will be added over time without changing the name.

Lexis recognizes that smartphone and tablet sales are now higher than desktop and laptop sales, so Lexis is very interested in releasing a top-notch product for the iPad and iPhone.  The goal has been to create an iPad app that feels like an iPad app, emphasizing what attorneys are most likely to use in an app on a tablet device such as pulling up cases and Shepardizing cases while on the go, whether it be in a deposition, in court, etc.  At initial release, the iPad app will not include every feature of Lexis Advance, but the key features will be there, such as research trails and the ability to store research results in work folders and annotate those documents.  Lexis is still finishing up the iPad app and is not ready to disclose all of the upcoming features, but did agree to share this one screenshot with iPhone J.D. readers to give you a taste of what is coming.  (Click the picture to enlarge.)

In addition to the Lexis Advance for Solos app that is currently on the App Store but can only be used by a limited group of attorneys, Lexis also currently has an app available for any attorney to use called LexisNexis Get Cases & Shepardize.  I reviewed that app in late 2009 and, frankly, I was not impressed.  Indeed, recently I've been having trouble getting that app to work at all.  Fortunately, talking to the folks from Lexis this week gave me the impression that they are much more serious about Lexis Advance for the iPad.  In addition to the 1.0 release that will come out soon, they are already working on features to be added later such as the ability to use the app when you don't have an online connection to Lexis (for example when you are in a courtroom without Wi-Fi or a good data signal), and the ability to share work folders between the website version of Lexis Advance and the iPad version.

Lexis was not able to give me a firm release date for the Lexis Advance iPad app or for the web version of Lexis Advance, except to say before the end of this year.  A few weeks ago, Evan Koblentz of Law Technology News reported that Lexis Advance for iPad will be out October 15.  The Lexis folks told me that this is incorrect; there is no specific release date for the app.  It could be finished by Lexis and then approved by Apple next month, but it could be November or December.  [UPDATE:  I talked to Evan Koblentz about this, and he tells me that the October 15 date is the date that the current version of Lexis will work in the Safari browser on the iPad, not the date that the new Lexis Advance app will appear on the iPad.  Now that I read his article again, I see that when I read his reference to the "flagship" Lexis product I thought he was referring to Lexis Advance.  Sorry about misreading your article, Evan, and I look forward to trying out the regular Lexis.com on my iPad on October 15.]

Lexis is also working an a Lexis Advance for iPhone app.  It will be an updated version of the current Lexis Advance for Solos iPhone app and will be a separate app from the Lexis Advance for iPad app.

Lexis is currently behind Westlaw with its great Westlaw Next product, but Lexis seems to be headed in the right direction.  The Lexis folks pointed out to me that five years ago, nobody would have predicted the current popularity of iPhones and iPads.  Lexis hopes that the work that they are doing now on Lexis Advance will meet not only the needs of attorneys today but also allow Lexis to continue to evolve to meet the needs of attorneys five years from now, even if we don't currently know what new technology we will be using then.  I look forward to seeing the upcoming iPad and iPhone Lexis Advance apps, and I hope that they are great products that help attorneys make the most of their iOS devices.

New iPhone to be revealed on October 4

Yesterday, Apple announced that on Tuesday, October 4 at 10am Pacific, Apple will hold an iPhone-related special event on its campus in Cupertino, California.  This will be the announcement of the new, 2011 version of the iPhone.  In other words, it appears that the rumor I discussed last week was true.

The invitation to the event includes this picture with the caption "Let's talk iPhone."

The pictures on Apple's event invitations often provide clues about the event itself.  This time, the picture contains four iOS icons, reflecting that this will be an iPhone event.  The first icon reflects that the event is on Tuesday the 4th, the second reflects that the event starts at 10am, and the third icon reflects that the event will be at Apple's headquarters, the 1 Infinite Loop campus adjacent to I-280 in Cupertino.

The fourth icon is somewhat of a mystery.  Why did Apple include an icon of the phone app, and then choose to put a 1 on it?  This is a representation of a single new voice mail, so perhaps it is simply indicates that Apple has something that it wants to tell us.  But could it mean something else?  As I was wondering this last night, I saw California attorney David Sparks tweet:  "Have the Kremlinologists started on the iPhone event announcement yet? I bet the little '1' over the phone will spawn many posts."  For example, Lex Friedman of Macworld speculates that the "1" might indicate that there will be only a single new iPhone model announced next week (and that post also includes a good discussion of some of the likely, possible, and unlikely features in a new iPhone).

And then there is the message below the icons.  Let's talk iPhone.  Dave Caolo speculates that perhaps this should be read as "Let's talk, iPhone" with a comma, reflecting Apple integrating Nuance technology into the next iPhone that will let you speak commands to the iPhone.  Andy Ihnatko of the Chicago Sun Times has a similar thought.  Whether or not this is reading too much into three words, I would really love it if the rumors are true and Apple will include advanced speach recognition technology in the new iPhone.

For more absurd interpretations of the picture on the event announcement, see this post by Steven Sande of TUAW, and this post in which Alan of Art of the iPhone wonders if the four square icons means that Apple is buying FourSquare.

What will the new iPhone include?  Will it be called the "iPhone 5" or something else?  When will it be available?  How much will it cost?  We'll know the answers to all of these questions in less than a week.

Chase to increase iPhone deposit limit this weekend

One of the most useful apps on my iPhone is the free Chase app that I reviewed just over a year ago.  Any bank app is useful when you want to do basic features like check your account balance, but the Chase app is particularly useful because it includes the ability to deposit a check on your iPhone.  Using a feature that Chase calls QuickDeposit, you simply use the iPhone app to take a picture of the front and back of your check, and after a few taps, your deposit is finished.  Not only can you deposit a check any time of day or night, you can deposit a check without having to actually go to the bank or an ATM machine.  It's like magic.

  

My only criticism of this app has been the deposit limit.  Chase has only allowed a deposit of up to $1,000 a day and up to $3,000 a month using the app.  Fortunately, according to a message that Chase recently sent to users of QuickDeposit (which includes not only users of the Chase iPhone app but also the Chase Android app), starting this weekend Chase is raising the limits to $2,000 a day and $5,000 a month.  The message that I received from Chase states:

Date: 09-24-2001  18:20:00
From: Chase Online
Subject: Important update to your Chase QuickDeposit(SM) Agreement

Dear Chase Customer: 

You are receiving this message because you are enrolled in Chase QuickDeposit^SM. We are increasing the deposit limits for this service effective October 2, 2011. 

As a consumer or business customer, you can deposit as much as $2,000 on any day and as much as $5,000 over any thirty (30) day period. 

We updated the Chase QuickDeposit Service Agreement (Single Check Deposit) to reflect this information. Your continued use of the Online Services acknowledges your agreement to the amendment. The updated agreement will be available online on October 2, 2011. You can review the latest agreement anytime by logging on and clicking the "Legal Agreements and Disclosures" link at the bottom of any page. 

We appreciate your business and look forward to serving all of your financial needs. Please call us at 1-877-CHASEPC (1-877-242-7372) if you have any questions. 

Sincerely, 

William S. Sheley
Senior Vice President
Chase Online Banking

The increased deposit limits starting this Sunday, October 2, 2011 will make the Chase app even more useful.  If you are a Chase customer and you don't already use this app, you really should.

Click here for the Chase app (free): 

In the news

I think that most people who own an iPhone or an iPad (or both!) know why people love these devices, but much of the news from this past week consists of surveys and studies finding that — hold on to your seat — people really like iPhones and iPads.  I know, crazy right?  Here is the news of note from the past week:

• People love Apple products.  Two weeks ago I mentioned that for the sixth year in a row, Apple was the #1 smartphone manufacturer according to J.D. Power's customer satisfaction survey.  Confirming those results, Harry McCracken reports on a new survey by The American Customer Satisfaction Index revealing that Apple customers are far more satisfied than customers of other technology companies.
• People prefer iPads.  Electronista describes a new report by Gartner Research estimating that 73.4% of tablets sold in 2011 will be iPads, i.e. 46.7 million iPads.  That's 5% more than Gartner was predicting just five months ago.  No other single platform is expected to have more than 5% tablet market share this year.
• People prefer iPhones.  Om Malik of GigaOm reports on a survey by USB Research finding that Apple has an 89% retention rate.  In other words, very few iPhone customers later switch to another platform, whereas lots of users of other platforms switch to the iPhone.
• Travelers prefer the iPhone.  Ed Sutherland of Cult of Mac reports that, according to Wi-Fi provider Boingo Wireless, iOS devices account for 83% of mobile devices using airport Wi-Fi.
• iPhone and iPad owners use Google.  Sein Weintraub of 9to5 Mac reports on Senate Judiciary hearings from earlier this week at Susan Michel, in-house counsel at Google, testified that two-thirds of Google's mobile traffic comes from Apple iOS devices, which is interesting considering that there are also a ton of smartphones running Google's own Android operating system.
• Peter Kafka of All Things D reports on a Citigroup survey of what people do with their iPads and other tablets.  There are lots of interest statistics there.  For example, almost two-thirds of iPad owners have downloaded 11 or more apps, the most common use of iPads is general web surfing and e-mail/instant messaging.
• Daniel Eran Dilger of AppleInsider reports on briefing by Gartner about the vast increase in iPhones in companies caused by employees preferring to use iPhones that they purchased themselves instead of whatever smartphone their companies try to give them.
• Mickey Meece of the New York Times reports on iPad apps that you can use to keep up with the news.
• Sam Grobart of the New York Times reviews the new SoundLink from Bose, a $300 wireless (Bluetooth) speaker for the iPhone or iPad.
• Bob Tedeschi of the New York Times reports on iPad apps that can help you make dessert.
• R. Chew of SimonBlog reviews Office 2 HD, an office suite for the iPad that competes with Quickoffice and Documents to Go.
• Rob Dean of WalkingOffice reviews FormConnect, an app that lets you create forms on the iPad.
• Yesterday I mentioned that one of the sources of confirmation for a new iPhone next month was Al Gore.  Jan Vermeulen of the South African site MyBroadband News has more information on Al Gore's reference to new iPhones at a conference in South Africa this week.
• And finally, I recently reviewed the BoomCAN, a small and useful external speaker for the iPhone and iPad made by Scosche.  Scosche makes lots of other accessories for the iPhone that many people would find useful, but I sort of hope that there isn't a lot of demand for this product — the RDTX pro Portable Radiation Detector for the iPhone.  This $329.99 device "empowers you to detect radiation levels with your iPod or iPhone so that you can take control of your well-being."  I hope that none of you have the need to feel this empowerment.

Credible rumor of new iPhone in October

It is rare that I comment on Apple rumors, and I don't think that I've ever devoted an entire post to one, but practically ever since the iPhone 4 was first announced by Steve Jobs on June 7, 2010, people have been wondering when we would see the 2011 version of the iPhone.  Now we have what I believe to be a credible rumor that the next iPhone will be announced on October 4, with the device itself likely available for purchase in mid-October.

It used to be that we would always see new iPhones in the summer.  The original iPhone was available on June 29, 2007.  The Phone 3G was available on July 11, 2008.  The iPhone 3GS was available on June 19, 2009.  The iPhone 4 was available on June 24, 2010.  You could predict that new iPhones would be available, or at least announced, every year in June.  Indeed, Apple's chief marketing executive, Phil Schiller, mentioned to David Pogue of the New York Times in early 2009 that Apple has a cycle for its products and that June was the key month for the iPhone cycle.

But a lot has changed since early 2009.  When Schiller mentioned June being the iPhone cycle, he also mentioned October being the key month for the iPod cycle, but nowadays iPods don't carry the excitement that they once did.  The only really exciting iPod is the iPod touch, which is of course just an iPhone without the phone.  As John Gruber of Daring Fireball pointed out in an article last night, the iPhone and iPad are the exciting products now, not the iPod, so it makes sense to feature iOS devices in a Fall announcement so that there are shiny new Apple toys to buy for the holidays. 

There are dozens of websites devoted to Apple gossip and rumors, but some of the most reliable Apple rumors come from the Wall Street Journal — so much so that I've often wondered if Apple purposefully leaks rumors to that publication, although Wall Street Journal reporters frequently deny this, so who knows.  Whatever their sources, they tend to be good sources.  Yesterday, John Pacakowski of All Things D (part of the Wall Street Journal Digital Network) published a report that the next iPhone will be announced at an event held on October 4, 2011.  Given that it now makes sense to expect an iPhone announcement in the Fall, and given the Journal's reputation for Apple rumors, when I first saw this article I thought that it sounded very credible.

And then we got further confirmation.  Perhaps the second most reliable source for Apple rumors is Jim Dalrymple, a former Macworld editor who now runs a site called The Loop.  Dalrymple frequently seems to have reliable Apple-related sources who whisper in his ear, and shortly after Pacakowski posted his report yesterday morning, Dalrymple linked to it with the one word confirmation "Yep."

And then, proving the old adage that a second thirds it, we got a third report yesterday of new iPhones next month from none other than former Vice Preident and current Apple board member Al Gore.  Gore was speaking at a conference yesterday, and in the context of talking about technology advances he stated "Not to mention the new iPhones coming out next month."  (I believe that the original source for this quote was this tweet by Toby Shapshak.)

So now we have the two most reliable sources for Apple rumors saying October 4, and an Apple board member also saying that the next iPhone is coming out next month.  Short of a statement from Steve Jobs or Tim Cook, that is about as solid as an Apple rumor as you are going to get.

If the next iPhone will be announced on October 4, when will it be available?  Philip Elmer-DeWitt of Fortune took a look at the last few years and reported that it tends to average about two weeks from the announcement of a new iPhone until the availability of the new iPhone.  Apple often makes new iPhones available on a Friday, so perhaps we will be able to purchase new iPhones on Friday, October 14, or maybe Friday October 21?

I am very excited for the next iPhone announcement.  While we know about many of the cool new features of iOS 5 software, and it is probably a safe bet that the next iPhone hardware will include a better camera and a faster processor, beyond that we really don't know what will be included.  Nor do we know the name:  iPhone 4S?  iPhone 5?  (I just hope that Apple doesn't call it the iPhone J.D., because that will make things very confusing around here.)

So for all of you who have been e-mailing me and asking me about my thoughts on when the iPhone will be out, based on the three reports from yesterday and Apple's historical desire to have a big Fall announcement before the holiday shopping season, it looks like early October for an announcement and mid-October for availability.  We'll see.

Review: FlexStand by M-Edge -- flexible iPad holder

I read a ton of documents on my iPad, and I find it very helpful to use a device that props up the iPad to make it easier to read, whether it be a device that you hold in your hand or a device that props up an iPad on a desk.  The FlexStand Bookstand is a product by M-Edge that attaches to the four corners of your iPad and allows you to prop up the iPad in an infinite number of positions in either portrait or landscape mode.  M-Edge sent me a free review unit of this product a few weeks ago, and I love it.

There is not much to this device, which is a great feature.  Three flexible steel legs are attached to each other at the middle.  Two of the steel legs have rubber holders at each end that you wrap around the four corners of the iPad.  The third steel leg has rubber balls at each end that you use to prop up the iPad. 

There are three things that I love about the design of the FlexStand.  First, it is incredibly easy to attach to the iPad.  Putting the four rubber feet around the corners of your iPad takes no time at all.  I've tried other devices that attach to the back of the iPad, and some of them are so tight that it is hard to put them on and off and you feel like you might damage the iPad.  Not so with the FlexStand.  For example, one of my very favorite devices for adding flexible feet to an iPad is the GorillaMobile Yogi by Joby that I reviewed earlier this year and which I continue to use all the time.  As good as the Yogi is, it does take a little time and work to attach the case to the back of the iPad and then clip the legs to the case.  Attaching the FlexStand is a cinch.

The second thing that I really like about the design of the FlexStand is that the two legs with the rubber ball feet are very flexible.  They make it easy to prop up the iPad in an infinite number of positions and angles.

The third thing that I love about the design of the FlexStand is that when you are not using it, it takes up very little space.  Just bend the three legs together into a straight line, and you can store the FlexStand anywhere.  It weighs just over 5 ounces, and is about 12 inches long when all the legs are straight.  This makes it very easy to take the FlexStand with you when you are traveling.  You can even curl it up if it is easier to put in your briefcase, purse, etc. in that position.

My only complaint with the FlexStand is that sometimes the positions don't stay; you put the legs in one position and then the legs slowly bends to another position.  This can also be a problem if you type or do some other activity on the iPad in which you poke your fingers at the iPad a lot.  Even with repeated poking, the FlexStand does a decent job of staying in place, but if you push to hard it is fairly easy to move the FlexStand, and this can sometimes be annoying.  The GorillaMobile Yogi, in comparison, is rock solid and does not move once you put it in a position.  I find that if you bend the end of the feet of the FlexStand so that they point straight down, this helps to keep the FlexStand in place.

The FlexStand works with either the original iPad or the iPad 2.  Who knows what the iPad 3 will look like, but unless it is a radical departure from the prior models, I suspect that the FlexStand will work with future iPad models as well.

The FlexStand is a very useful iPad accessory for when you are reading documents on your iPad or if you just want to prop up your iPad on your desk and watch some pictures on it. This product is very well designed and has quickly become one of my favorite devices for propping up the iPad.  I suspect that most iPad owners have an Apple Smart Cover which allows you to prop up your iPad in two positions, but it is much more useful to have the flexibility of picking any position – especially if you are in an office environment with overhead lights that produce a glare unless the iPad is at just the right angle. 

M-Edge sells the product on its website for $29.99, but you can get it on Amazon for less than $20, which is a bargain for a great product like this.

Click here to get the FlexStand by M-Edge from Amazon ($19.94).

Apple is the world's largest company

Apple Inc. shares closed at 411.63 on Monday, an all-time high for the company.  This gives it a market capitalization (number of shares times price per share) of about $382 billion.  I say "about" becasue I've seen conflicting reports; Mikey Campbell of the Wall Street Journal says that the number is $382.01 billion and Nick Bilton of the New York Times says that the number is $381.62 billion.  What is not in dispute is that this puts Apple above ExxonMobil, which has long been the largest company in the world.

Now I realize that the significance of this event is up for debate, and there are other ways to value a company besides market cap.  I certainly don't believe that the rise and fall of stock prices always reflects the quality of a company's products or is a true measure that one company is "better" than another company.  Nevertheless, this is a milestone for Apple, plus it demonstrates that a lot of investors are happy with what Apple is doing, something that many happy iPhone and iPad owners would not debate.

While acknowledging that this is a "dubious comparison," Campbell of the Wall Street Journal notes that "if market cap were GDP, Apple would have one of the world’s thirty-biggest economies, on par with Austria, Argentina and South Africa."

AAPL stock from 1981 to today.  Data from New York Times Markets Analysis Tool.

The most amazing thing of all, of course, is that Apple's stock price has risen after Steve Jobs retired from the company.  For many years, analysts predicted that Apple's stock would collapse after Jobs left.  I don't think it is an accident that this didn't happen, but instead is the result of careful planning by Jobs and the rest of Apple management.

I normally don't pay much attention to Apple's stock price or market cap.  I don't own any Apple shares, and my knowledge of Wall Street and finance is limited.  But I do appreciate high quality products made by Apple, and I believe that the good news on the business side of the company reflects that the company also has some really smart people on the product development side of the company who have great things in store for Apple customers in the future.

Congratulations to everyone at Apple.

Belkin products 50% off

Over 25 years ago, two guys in a garage in California started a company which has now grown to over a billion in sales.  No, I'm not talking about Apple or even HP, it's Belkin, a company that sells a diverse portfolio of products including networking solutions, power supplies and energy conservation devices, and a bunch of accessories for the iPhone, iPad and iPod.  Between now and the end of September, you can buy any Belkin product for 50% off.  Just go to their website and use the couple code FB50.

I haven't reviewed any Belkin products on iPhone J.D. yet, but there are quite a few that look interesting to me, such as:

• Bluetooth Music Receiver — add Bluetooth to any stereo so that you can wirlessly pay music on the stereo from your iPhone or iPad.  MSRP $49.99.
• AirCast Auto HandsFree — just like the Bluetoth Music receiver, but for your car.  MSRP $79.99.
• Headphone Splitter — connect two headphones to an iPhone, iPod or iPad.  MSRP $14.95.
• RockStar — connect five headphones to a iPhone, iPod or iPad.  MSRP $14.99.
• Headphone Adapter — add play/pause and volume up/down buttons to any headphone.  MSRP $19.99.
• Keyboard Folio for iPad 2 — case with built-in keyboard.  MSRP $99.99.
• MicroCharge 2.1 amp + ChargeSync — car charger for iPhone, iPad or iPhone.  MSRP $24.99.
• VideoStand + ChargeSync — stand that holds up the iPhone and charges it.  MSRP $39.99.

And in addition to those products, Belkin also has a large selection of iPad stands, iPhone cases, chargers, cords, etc.  Amazon typically sells Belkin products for far less than the MSRP, but rarely 50% less, so 50% off is a pretty good deal.

If you are looking to get an accessory for your iOS device, check out Belkin before this sale ends at the end of September.

In the news

The next iPhone — which it seems like most everyone is now predicting will be called the iPhone 5 — must be coming soon given the explosion of posting about it on the Internet.  I won't link to all of the rumors and supposed leaked photos of what it will look like; a lot of them look fake to me, just attempts to grab attention.  But I do suspect that we are now just a few weeks (or less) away from hearing from Apple.  And now, the news of the week:

• When the next iPhone does come out, John Paczkowski of All Things D reports on a recent study finding that there is "unprecedented" demand.  "In other words, we could see a very large iPhone upgrade cycle, come October — large enough that RBC has raised its estimate for fiscal 2012 iPhone sales to 110 million, up from 105 million."  I'll be one of those 110 million.
• My personal approach to writing briefs is to start with a basic outline in my head but to quickly jump right into the writing, and then later I edit and move paragraphs around so that everything fits into a tight outline.  However, if you prefer to prepare a full outline before you start writing, you'll want to read this article that California attorney David Sparks wrote for Macworld about his use of OPML, a file format for creating outlines, and iPad apps that work with OPML.
• Florida attorney Christopher Hopkins writes about using iPhone location data in discovery in an article for Trial Advocate Quarterly, a publication of the Florida Defense Lawyers Association.
• Maryland attorney Erek Barron writes about the rise of smartphone technology.
• There is nothing new about attorneys creating publications describing an area of law.  These documents can help clients understand the law, and they demonstrate to the client (and potential client) that the attorney has expertise.  What is new is for law firms to use iPhone apps instead of printed brochures.  McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP recently released Mergers & Acquisitions Quick Reference Guide, a free iPhone app that discusses the topics involved in a merger or acquisition.  Click here to get Mergers & Acquisitions Quick Reference Guide (free):    This app reminds me of the Book of Jargon series of apps produced by Latham & Watkins.
• Travel+Leisure magazine just proclaimed New Orleans the best city in the U.S. for Food, Drink and Restaurants and also the best city for Foodies.  No, that has nothing to do with the iPhone or iPad; this is just information that you should know.
• Galen Gruman of InfoWorld explains how the iPad has changed his life over the past year.
• Dan Levine writes an article for The American Lawyer about technology desired by law firm associates.  Here's my condensed version of the article:  give your associates iPads, and they are happy.
• I see that I've never reviewed the TripIt app for the iPhone and iPad, but it is actually one of my favorite apps for when I travel.  Kevin Tofel of GigaOm reports on data from TripIt gathered from all of its smartphone users, and apparently BlackBerry owners have more business trips than iPhone users.  So I guess if you find a BlackBerry owner complaining about all of the travel that he has to do, tell him to get an iPhone.
• And finally, this probably isn't something that many of us think about, but one of the advantages of the iPhone and iPad is that Apple has spent a lot of time trying to make them accessible to people with disabilities.  I'm always amazed when a partner of mine whose son is blind tells me how much her son loves his iPhone.  With the flat screen and minimal buttons it seems counter-intuitive for a blind person to use an iPhone or iPad, but Apple has spent a lot of time making it work by turning the visual interface into audio.  One of the YouTube videos making the rounds this week is of Stevie Wonder at the Echoplex in Los Angeles on September 11.  Wonder talks about 9/11, but also takes the time to complement Apple and Steve Jobs.  The video is below if you want to watch it, and here is what he says at around the 4:30 mark:  "I want y'all to give a hand to someone who, as you know, his health is very bad at this time.  For someone who, his company took the challenge in making his technology accessible to everyone, in the spirit of caring and moving the world forward, Steve Jobs.  Because there is nothing on the iPhone or iPad that you can do that I can't do.  As a matter of fact, I can be talking to you, you can be looking at me, and I can be doing whatever I need to do and you don't even know what I'm doing.  Yeah!"  

Review: Easy Calendar -- fast alternative iPhone calendar

Last month, I reviewed Calvetica, a nice alternative calendar app for the iPhone and iPad.  An iPhone J.D. reader wrote to suggest that I check out Easy Calendar, another alternative calendar for the iPhone.  Like Calvetica, it uses the regular iPhone calendar database so you can switch back and forth between the built-in app and this alternative app.  And like Calvetica, one of the main features is speed; it takes much fewer taps to enter a calendar event.  After using Easy Calendar for the last few weeks, I am really impressed with this inexpensive app and I find myself using it more and more.

Easy Calendar has one view, a week view.  The top of the screen tells you which week you are in, and you can tap that date to jump to a different week.

  

If your day has more entries that can be displayed in the box, you see an indication at the bottom that there are additional events.  Tap that indication (or, on any day, tap the line at the top of the box that has the day/date) to see a pop-up window showing additional information for that day.

Creating a new event is simple and very fast.  Just tap on any blank spot in a day and the day will turn blue, followed by a single page containing the most frequently used items for a new event — the time, the text for the event, and whether it is an all-day event.  If you want to enter additional information about an event, tap the More... button, but for a standard event that lasts an hour, you won't need to bother with that screen.  In other words, you can often enter a new event with just a few taps:  tap the day on the calendar, tap the start time on the wheel, tap the text field and type the event, then tap done.  This is far fewer taps that it takes to create a new event in the iPhone's native Calendar app.

  

  

This app also does a great job when you need to move an event.  In the normal Calendar app, to move an event you tap in the event to edit the event, then you use a calendar scroll wheel to select the new date, but you cannot look at your calendar while doing so.  In Easy Calendar, you tap and hold down on an event and the screen changes to indicate that you are in move mode.  Then you can flip through your calendar to find another day or another week, and when you are done just tap that day and the event moves there.

  

Easy Calendar focuses on doing the essential calendar tasks and it does them quickly and easily.  Seeing all of the events in a week at one time is very useful, adding or moving events is fast and simple, and jumping to a different date is much faster than on the built-in Calendar app.  The app is normally $3.99, but right now it is on sale for only a buck.  Even if you like the built-in iPhone Calendar app, I encourage you to take a look at Easy Calendar.  It is a elegant app that lives up to its name, making simplicity a virtue.

Click here for Easy Calendar (currently $0.99): 

iPhone tip: using an external speaker to create a louder speakerphone

Chris Mills, an attorney in the New Jersey office of Fisher & Phillips, wrote to me yesterday to say that he sometimes uses his iPhone as a speakerphone but wishes that the volume was louder so that it would be easier for others in the room to hear the speaker.  He asked me whether the Scosche BoomCAN that I reviewed yesterday might be solution to this problem.  It is, although there are some limitations.  I've been asked about making the iPhone speakerphone louder in the past so I'm using this post to share my answer to that attorney with all iPhone J.D. readers.

First, the basics.  Hopefully, you know that you can turn your iPhone into a speakerphone simply by pressing the "speaker" button on the phone:

Apple uses noise cancellation technology so that when the other person is speaking and that voice comes through the iPhone's internal speaker, that voice isn't picked up again by the iPhone's microphone and send back to that person (causing an echo).

If you find that your iPhone's internal speaker isn't loud enough when using your iPhone as a speakerphone, you can certainly use an external speaker to make it louder.  The Scosche BoomCAN that I reviewed yesterday and which you can pick up on Amazon for around $20 is a very portable and inexpensive option, but obviously you can use more expensive external speakers to get even better sound.

Unfortunately, in my experience, when you use an external speaker there is a greater chance that the person on the other end of the call will hear an echo when speaking.  I suppose the iPhone knows how to cancel noise when the source is the iPhone's own internal speaker, but once you add an external speaker into the mix, the iPhone will start to send back some of that same audio.  You won't hear anything wrong on your end, but the person on the other end will hear a slight echo.  It isn't horrible, but it might be enough to be annoying.  You can eliminate this echo by manually tapping the mute button on your iPhone.  The other person will still sound loud through your external speaker, and they won't hear any echo.  Of course, once it is time for you to talk you'll need to turn off mute and then press it again when you are done so that the other person is talking.  For some conversations this will be a real pain.  Other times, though, you may find yourself on a big conference call where you don't plan on speaking much anyway and you would normally stay on mute for most of the call, and in these circumstances, using the mute button is not a big deal.

There are more expensive solutions to this problem, such as an external Bluetooth speaker that has a speakerphone function.  Examples include the Soundmatters foxLv2 ($200), the Jawbone JAMBOX ($180) and the Uniden BTS200 ($100).  I haven't had the opportunity to test a speaker in the category yet.  They all advertise some form of noise and echo cancellation to eliminate the problem I noted above, but frankly I've seen both good and bad reviews of the speakerphone functions on these types of devices.

So if you find yourself wishing that you could get more speaker volume when you use your iPhone as a speakerphone, there are several solutions.  It really just depends on how much you want to spend.  If you are looking for something that is portable and inexpensive, and either don't mind the slight echo that it will cause or are willing to use your mute button to avoid it, then the BoomCAN that I reviewed yesterday is a good solution.

Review: Scosche BoomCAN -- portable speaker for iPhone or iPad

Yesterday I reviewed the iMainGo X, an iPhone case that doubles as a portable speaker.  But if you are looking for the ultimate in portability and aren't looking for premium quality sound, the new $25 BoomCAN from Scosche is just what you need.

Let's start with the most obvious feature.  This thing is small.  Seriously small. It is about 2.25" high and about 1.75" wide.  The press release calls this item "slightly larger than a film canister," for those of you who can remember the days when one had to wait to have pictures processed at a lab before viewing them.  (I know, crazy, right?)  It only weighs 2.25 ounces, less than half the weight of the iPhone 4.  You can easily toss the BoomCAN into a purse, a briefcase, or even a pocket.  It is the most portable iPhone or iPad speaker that I've ever seen.

The BoomCAN comes with a cord that has a mini-USB plug at one end that connects to the BoomCAN.  Two cords are attached to that plug.  One has a standard 3.5 mm headphone jack on the end that you can plug into an iPhone or iPad (or virtually any other audio device).  The other cord has a USB plug that you use to charge the BoomCAN. 

The BoomCAN contains a rechargeable 300 mAh lithium-ion battery that is advertised to last for 4 to 7 hours.  (I never had a need to use it for more than a few hours so I never tested the battery life.)  A light on the BoomCAN is red while charging and changes to blue when the charge is complete.  (When you are not charging the BoomCAN, the light turns blue when it is on.)  You can use the USB cord to charge the BoomCAN at the same time that you are using it.

A switch on the bottom of the BoomCAN has three settings:  off, Volume 1 and Volume 2.  Volume 2 is louder than Volume 1, but Volume 1 is still much louder than the iPhone or iPad's internal speakers.  The bottom of the BoomCAN also has a rubber ring that does a great job of keeping the BoomCAN in place:

The BoomCAN has a 3.5 mm audio out port on the side, so you could daisy-chain multiple BoomCANs together for more volume (but not stereo).

You can get a BoomCAN in black, blue, red or silver.

The trade-off for the small size is less audio quality compared to other external speakers.  The sound is nowhere close to a high-quality external speaker like my Bose SoundDock Portable, but of course that speaker is a foot by six inches and weighs five pounds, not to mention the cost of several hundred dollars.  As much as I love my Bose when I'm listening to music at home, I'll never be able to toss the Bose inside of my pocket.  The sound quality and maximum volume is also somewhat lower than the portable iMainGo X that I reviewed yesterday.  Keep in mind, for example, that the BoomCAN only has one speaker on the top, so you are not getting stereo.

On the other hand, compare the BoomCAN to the speaker inside of the iPhone itself.  I often listen to music or a podcast on my iPhone 4 by just tapping play and not using headphones.  Similarly, I've watched videos on my iPad 2 just using the internal speaker. I'm sure that you have done this too, and as you know the mono internal speakers on the iPhone and iPad are reasonable enough to get the job done, although not very loud.  The BoomCAN sounds a little better than the internal speaker on the iPad, and is many times louder, more than enough to fill a room.  So if you are in a room listening to something on your iPhone or iPad's normal speakers and you find yourself wishing that the sound was louder, the BoomCAN is a major improvement.

I really like the BoomCAN.  The small size and weight is great for travel, but also has an added benefit.  The compact size makes it easy to keep it nearby all the time by storing it in your briefcase, purse, iPad bag, etc.  That way, whenever you want to show off something with sound on your iPhone or iPad to someone else, you can quickly attach the BoomCAN and have a lot more volume.  You can buy the BoomCAN directly from Scosche for only $25, which is a good value for a useful product like this, but if you click the below link you can get it for even less at Amazon, a great value.  This is an inexpensive, useful and fun accessory for your iPhone or iPad.

Click here to get Sosche BoomCAN from Amazon ($20.70).

Review: iMainGo X -- iPhone case and speaker

There are tons of external speaker systems for the iPhone and iPod.  In my house, I've used the Bose SoundDock Portable for over three years and I love that device.  The sound is fantastic, and with the rechargable batteries and handle on the top it is easy to carry around from room to room or to the backyard.  But even though "portable" is in the title and you could certainly take it with you in the car, the Bose is too big to take with you when you fly someplace or want to put something in a briefcase.  For the last few weeks I've been testing two portable speakers for the iPhone that are small enough to take anywhere.  Today, I'm reviewing the iMainGo X.  (Thanks to RichardSolo for sending me a free review unit a few weeks ago.)  There is a lot to like about this device.  Tomorrow I'll discuss the Scosche BoomCAN.

The iMainGo X is an interesting device whose size reminds me of the 1980s version of the Walkman, except instead of putting a casette tape inside of it, you put an iPhone inside of the iMainGo X.  It is small enough to be very portable, but certainly isn't tiny.  (5.7" x 3.8" x 2.4")  And it has some weight to it — the iPhone 4 alone weighs about 4.8 ounces; the iMainGo X without an iPhone inside weighs almost double that at 9 ounces.  To use it you unzip the device.  The left side contains the speaker and a rechargeable battery.  The right side has a plastic lid that you remove to place your iPhone in the unit, along with one or more foam pieces (depending upon what model you are using) to keep it snug in the unit.  You attach a plug to the headphone port on the iPhone.

Once the iPhone is inside, you zip the iMainGo X closed.  One side of the device has a clear plastic window so that you can still touch the iPhone's screen. Touching the screen through the plastic worked fine, but it is a little difficult to press the iPhone 4's button when it is in the case; I wish the plastic screen was just slightly longer.

Once you start playing your music, podcast, etc., you flip the unit over so that you can hear the speakers.  Unfortunately there is no built-in way to prop up the speakers, so I often just left it sitting on a table with the speakers pointed up.  Sometimes I would lean the unit against something to prop it up somewhat.

There is no volume control on the unit itself; you control the volume on your iPhone.  I don't have any way to measure the loudness, but suffice it to say that this speaker is substantially louder than the iPhone's built-in speaker.  I found it way too loud (and distorted) if the volume was all the way up, but at around 50% the speakers were loud enough to fill a relatively quiet room.  Obviously, a device of this size is not going to rival a full stereo system or my Bose, but the music sounded very good to my ears, and obviously podcasts sounded fine.

I love that this unit is small enough to be so portable for travel, but I wasn't a big fan of accessing the iPhone through the plastic screen.  As a result, often when I used this unit, I would take the cord out of the iMainGo X but otherwise zip it up and keep the iPhone outside of the unit, making it much easier to access the iPhone's controls.  Also, there was one time a few weeks ago when I wanted to show off my iPad's GarageBand app to someone, and I found that the iPad's internal speaker was not loud enough to hear in a room with background noise.  Thus, I attached my iPad to the iMainGo X and it sounded great and was more than loud enough.

On the other hand, there will be times when having an iPhone inside of the iMainGo X is an advantage.  First, it is nice to carry around just one unit containing both your iPhone and the speakers.  Second, using the iMainGo X is a case could be useful when you want to protect an iPhone from the elements.  The device is not completely waterproof, but it is water resistent.  I can see using a device like this at the beach if you don't want sand getting in the iPhone.

Note that if you are just using the iMainGo X to protect your iPhone, you don't have to use the speakers and share your music with everyone in the vicinity.  The device has two headphone ports on it, so you can keep your iPhone protected in the case while you listen to your music in privacy or share with one friend.  There is also an audio input port that I didn't test but opens up the possibility of using this device to record to your iPhone using a microphone or using this device as an external speaker for an electric guitar (although you may have to use an adapter to work with the standard 3.5 mm headphone plug). 

This is the third generation of this product.  The original iMainGo was for the iPod.  (Here's an iLounge review of that product from 2006.)  The iMainGo 2 (which is still on sale for $40) works with the iPhone and is powered by AAA batteries.  This third generation iMainGo X uses rechargable batteries (it comes with a charger), which is much more convenient and saves money on batteries.  The iMainGo X also adds the headphone and microphone ports.  In fact, if you wanted to go louder, you could actually use the headphone port to hook the iMainGo X to an additional external speaker.

So in sum, I love the portability of the iMainGo X.  You can easily pack it in a suitcase or briefcase, although it is a little large for a smaller bag like the Tom Bihn Ristretto that I've been using lately.  The sound quality is very good.  What I'm not completely sold on is putting my iPhone inside of the iMainGo X.  There could be circumstances in which this is a big plus, such as protecting your iPhone from the elements, but I'm not sure that I like having my iPhone zipped inside of something that makes it three times heavier, and I find it a little cumbersome to use the iPhone controls through the plastic window, although it does work.  Still, if you are in the market for a portable speaker, you should consider this one.  It might be the perfect fit for your needs, and I've enjoyed using it.

Note that if you purchase this item between now and the end of this month (Sept. 30, 2011), RichardSolo was nice enough to give iPhone J.D. readers a 15% discount, so you can get it for around $60.  Just use the discount code "jeff" in the coupon code field during order entry.

Click here to get the iMainGo X from RichardSolo ($69.95).

In the news

Today is the last day for you to nominate your favorite law-related blog for the ABA Journal's Blawg 100.  You don't need to register with the ABA to nominate a blog, and the form includes only a few questions so it is quick and easy to make a nomination.  Click on this link if you want to tell the ABA Journal editors about one or more blawgs that you enjoy, whether it be iPhone J.D. or any other blog.  And now on to the iPhone and iPad news of the week:

• It seems like I report on this one every year, and I guess I do.  For the sixth year in a row, Apple was the #1 smartphone manufacturer according to J.D. Power's customer satisfaction survey, as noted by Jim Dalrymple of The Loop.
• Even though the iPhone 4 has been out for well over a year, Neil Hughes of AppleInsider reports that it is still the #1 phone sold by both AT&T and Verizon.  And on AT&T, the two year old iPhone 3GS is the #2 phone sold.  (Verizon only sells the iPhone 4.)  If the old iPhones are still selling this well, one can only imagine how many new iPhones Apple will sell when it releases the 2011 model — which I presume will be within the next six weeks.
• You will soon be able to use your iPhone from virtually anywhere.  Tim Greene of Network World reports that Iridium is coming out with a new device that will provide satellite-based internet access on your iPhone or iPad.
• Julie Cohn of The Daily reports on iPads in the White House.
• For the first time, the FTC has barred the sale of an iPhone app on the grounds that it makes an unsubstantiated health claim.  As Grant Gross of IDG reports, the FTC has reached a settlement that stops the sale of apps that claimed to treat acne by using blue and red lights.  Apparently there is some scientific support for treating acne with lights, but not at the intensity produced by an iPhone.
• NBC updated its iPad app so that it now streams full episodes of shows, much like the ABC and CBS apps, as reported by Sue Megrund of AppAdvice.  Click here for the NBC app (free): 
• Attorney Bill Latham of The Hytech Lawyer reviews and compares TrialPad, Exhibit A, and RLTC Evidence — three trial presentation apps for the iPad.
• Latham also analyzes whether it is ethical for lawyers to store confidential documents on Dropbox.
• Bob Tedeschi of the New York Times shares iPhone battery-saving tips learned from Hurricane Irene.
• I often write about people using the Find My iPhone feature to locate a lost or stolen iPhone.  Jesus Diaz of Gizmodo reports that Find My iPhone was used to locate the remains of a military plane that crashed over Chile.
• A few weeks ago, I reviewed the PowerSkin, an iPhone case that includes a battery.  Lex Friedman of Macworld reviews eight other iPhone cases with a battery.  
• MG Siegler of TechCrunch explains why the iPad is often such a good replacement for a PC.
• And finally, in an apparent attempt to prove that the iPad is universally loved, Jan Uebelherr of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that orangutans at the Milwaukee Zoo love their iPads.  Here is the video that accompanies the article:

iPhone tip: content of e-mail not displayed

Have you ever tried to look at an e-mail on your iPhone only to find that it seems to take forever to display the content of the message as you watch a wheel spin at the top of your screen, and then when something finally does appear, it is just an error message?  Sometimes your iPhone tells you that the message cannot be displayed because of the way it is formatted.  Other times it tells you that this message has not been downloaded from the server.  Here is an example of one such error message that I encountered yesterday:

Once you get an error message like that, even if you go to another e-mail and then come back, you'll still see the error message.

The solution:  restart the Mail app.  To force a restart of any app on your iPhone, hold down the Sleep/Wake button until a red slider appears, but don't touch that slider.  Instead, next hold down the Home button for a few seconds.  This will force the app to quit.  You can then tap the Mail icon to launch the app again and Mail will try again to download the content of that message.

In my experience, the most likely cause of this problem is a poor data signal.  I encountered this problem yesterday the same place that I encounter it most of the time — at the Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson Airport, right after my plane landed while taxiing to the gate.  I frequently have a hard time getting a reliable AT&T data signal on the runways of that airport, which means that it often takes a long time for new message to appear, and even when I finally see my list of new messages, I sometimes run into error messages like the one noted above.

Here are two related tips.  First, sometimes you will see the content of an e-mail message, but your iPhone will have trouble downloading an attachment.  After trying for a while, it will give up, and instead of seeing the correct icon for the attachment (such as Word file icon) you will see a blank box. Tapping that blank box does nothing.  The solution is the same; restart the Mail app, and then let the iPhone try to download the attachment again.

Second, when you are in an area with poor data coverage and you get tired of waiting and waiting for Mail to appear, I often have good luck putting the iPhone into Airport Mode for a few seconds.  (Go to the Settings app and then Airport Mode is the first option at the top.)  Then turn off Airplane Mode, and the iPhone will try to get a new 3G signal.  In my experience, I often have luck getting a better 3G signal for at least a little while, although sometimes in an area like an airport where there is heavy demand for limited resources, the signal will get worse over time.  When that happens, I just use this same trick again and turn on Airplane Mode for a few seconds.

By the way, for new readers of iPhone J.D., here are some of the prior iPhone tips that I've covered on this website:

1. My favorite iPhone shortcuts:  11/24/08
2. More iPhone Shortcuts:  12/12/08
3. Tips on iPhone Software 3.0:  6/23/09
4. More iPhone 3.0 tips and shortcuts:  7/6/09
5. Create an Apple folder:  6/30/10
6. Vanity mirror:  7/1/10
7. Create a folder with a color Emoji icon:  7/5/10
8. How many apps do you have?:  11/15/10
9. Zoom:  12/14/10
10. Invite out-of-town relatives to the party:  1/18/11
11. The iPhone as a boarding pass:  2/15/11
12. Track changes metadata:  5/16/11

Review: iPad for Dummies -- comprehensive, easy-to-read guide to using the iPad

I suppose it is book week here on iPhone J.D.  After yesterday's review of iPad in One Hour for Lawyers, today I am reviewing another great book for beginning iPad owners, iPad for Dummies (2d ed.) by Edward Baig and Bob "Dr. Mac" LeVitus.  I suspect that all of you are at least somewhat familiar with the For Dummies series of books — 1,600 titles that try to make just about any subject easy to understand.  The book's two authors are perfect for a subject like this.  Ed Baig writes about personal technology for USA TODAY, Bob LeVitus has written the "Dr. Mac" column for the Houston Chronicle for 15 years and has authored dozens of books.  Both men are experts at making complicated technology easy to understand.

The book is organized in five parts, each of which has multiple chapters.  Here is a list of all of the chapters.  The playful nature of many of the chapter titles gives you a sense of how this book was written to be a very approachable for all levels of users:

1. Unveiling the iPad
2. iPad Basic Training
3. The Kitchen Sync: Getting Stuff to and from Your iPad
4. Going on a Mobile Safari
5. The E-Mail Must Get Through
6. Surfin' the Web without a Board (or at Least without Safari)
7. Apply Here (to Find Out about iPad Apps)
8. Get in Tune(s): Audio on Your iPad
9. iPad Video: Seeing is Believing
10. You Oughta Be in Pictures
11. Curling Up with a Good iBook
12. The iPad at Work
13. Setting You Straight on Settings
14. When Good iPads Go Bad
15. Accessorizing Your iPad
16. Ten Appetizing (and Free) Apps
17. Ten Apps Worth Paying For
18. Ten Hints, Tips and Shortcuts

As you can tell from this list, unlike the book that I reviewed yesterday which is designed to be consumed in about an hour, this book is comprehensive.  It will take a while to read it straight though, and because of the way that the book is organized you can skip around — and this makes it a great resource.  Even if you don't read every page of this book, you'll still like having it so that when you are trying to figure out how to do something specific — such as get pictures on your iPad or use the Map app to get directions — you can find those topics in the table of contents or index and jump right to that section.  The text is easy to understand and presented in a straightforward format, plus the book is full of color pictures that help to walk you through exactly what you need to do.

In some ways, this book is like an owner's manual for the iPad because it tells you how to do everything, what buttons to press, etc.  The iPad is easy enough to use that there are surely many things that you can figure out on your own, but this book takes the guesswork out of those tasks, telling you for example exactly where you need to go in the Settings or Photos or Safari app to do a particular task and everything you need to tap to do so.  As you do so, you'll probably find yourself saying "oh yeah, this makes sense," but the book leads you down those paths that you might not discover on your own.

Note that while this is the second edition of this book, this version came out in May of 2011.  I was just sent a free review copy of the book a few weeks ago, and I find that even four months later, this book remains a great and timely resource for all of the basics.  Having said that, when iOS 5 (the next version of the iPad operating system) comes out — which could be this month or next month — there may be some parts of this book that seem a little dated, but I suspect that the large majority of it will remain quite relevant.

You can purchase this book in either a hard copy or an electronic copy.  I think this book is more useful in the hard copy format so that you can keep the book open to a page while you follow the steps on the iPad itself.  (Plus, when someone else in your life gets their iPad, you can loan them your book to get them started.)  Having said that, if you want to get more of a sense of this book before you buy it, take a look at the electronic version of this book in the iBookstore (link at the end of this review).  You can download a free sample of the book which includes the full table of contents and the first five pages of Chapter 1 (which in total is 14 pages).

iPad for Dummies is a great manual for new iPad users.  It covers tons of topics, it is easy to understand, and the writing style is casual and fun.  The retail price is $25 but you can get it for less than that through these links:

Click here to get iPad for Dummies on Amazon ($14.68).

Click here to get iPad for Dummies on the Apple iBookstore ($16.99): 

Review: iPad in One Hour for Lawyers -- great book for new iPad owners

I am constantly seeing lawyers get their first iPad.  The first question many of them have is:  OK, I have this iPad, now what?  I often point people to this post I wrote in June that has advice for new iPad owners, but what if you want more?  A great resource is the book iPad in One Hour for Lawyers by Tom Mighell.  Tom is an attorney but now spends his time as a consultant, helping companies with records management and e-discovery issues.  He is also the co-host of the Kennedy-Mighell Report, a legal technology podcast, and he publishes the website iPad 4 Lawyers, a great source for iPad tips and app reviews.

The aim of this book is to teach a lawyers the essentials of using an iPad but to do so in a book that can be consumed in just an hour.  And you really can read this book in about an hour.  There are six lessons in the book:

1. Navigating Your iPad and Browsing the Web
2. Setting Up Mail, Calendar, and Contacts
3. Managing Your iPad:  Multitasking and Folders
4. Adding Files to Your iPad and Syncing Them
5. Being Productive on the iPad
6. Doing Lawyer Things on Your iPad — Legal Apps

The first four lessons are essentially iPad basics, information that would be useful to anyone who uses an iPad, but information that all iPad owners should definitely know.  If you are coming to the iPad from an iPhone you may already know about much of what is in Lesson 1 (although maybe not), and if you work in a large law firm, you may be lucky enough to have some IT folks who can help you with much of what is in Lesson 2, but it is still useful to have a straightforward, short guide to these steps.

Where the book gets most valuable for any attorney using an iPad is Lessons 5 and 6.  This is where the book offers all sorts of tips for using the iPad as a lawyer, things like taking notes on the iPad, creating and editing documents, and using lawyer-specific apps to do things like pick a jury or do a trial presentation.  After the six lessons, the book then includes a "beyond the lessons" section that discusses some advanced topics like security, shortcuts, and advanced e-mail options.

The paper version of this book was released earlier this year, just as the iPad 2 was coming out, but the electronic version of the book just came out a few weeks ago and the ABA sent me a free review copy of the new electronic version.  While a lot has happened in the world of the iPad since earlier this year, I didn't come across anything in the book that is incorrect due to the passage of time.  This book provides a great foundation for attorneys who are new to the iPad, who can then get more advanced and up-to-date information at websites like this one, iPad 4 Lawyers, Tablet Legal, etc.  Any lawyer who is new to the iPad will get a lot out of this book.

You can purchase a hard copy of the book from the ABA for $35, or only $20 if you are a member of the ABA's Law Practice Management Section, but I discourage you from doing so.  [UPDATE:  The book is also now available on Amazon.]  Instead, you should purchase an electronic copy of this book to read on your iPad.  Just the simple act of reading a book like this on your iPad will get you even more used to using the iPad, plus it will give you a chance to use the iBooks app on the iPad so you can see what it is like to read a book on an iPad.  The ABA sells an electronic version of the book that works in the iBooks app for the same price as the hard copy of the book ($35 or $20), but you can buy this book in the Apple iBookstore for only $18.  I consider $35 to be substantial amount of money for a book that you will largely consume in an hour (although you may use it as a resource long after that), but $18 is a great price for all of this information. Plus, buying a book in the iBookstore from within the iBooks app on the iPad is by far the easiest way to get a book on your iPad — an important consideration for the new iPad users who are the target of this book.  Thus, while I am providing all three links below, I encourage you to use the last one:

Click here to get iPad in One Hour for Lawyers from Amazon ($23.07).

Click here to get a hard copy of the book from the ABA ($34.99, or $19.99 for Law Practice Management Section members).

Click here to get an electronic copy of the book from the ABA ($34.99, or $19.99 for Law Practice Management Section members).

Click here to get iPad in One Hour for Lawyers from the iBookstore ($17.99): 

In the news

The talk about Steve Jobs resigning as CEO continues, but what I find most interesting is how well Apple and Jobs handled this transition.  There has been no major drop in Apple's stock price and the consensus is that Apple is in good hands with Tim Cook.  I'll start today with three Steve Jobs-related articles that are worth reading, and then move on to the rest of the iPhone and iPad news of the week:

• First, Casey Newton of the San Francisco Chronicle interviewed some famous Apple alumni to get their take on Jobs.
• Second, Alan Deutschman (author of the book The Second Coming of Steve Jobs) wrote this cover story for Newsweek.
• Third, moving from big publications to tiny publications, Lisen Stromberg wrote an article in the Palo Alto Patch called My Neighbor, Steve Jobs which provides some insight into Steve Jobs not as the CEO of Apple, but instead as just a regular father.  You know, considering that Newsweek sold last year for only $1.00, the Palo Alto Patch may be actually worth more than Newsweek.
• South Carolina Attorney John Martin writes about e-discovery implications of company employees using iPads in this article for Corporate Counsel.
• The DOJ is moving to block AT&T's merger with T-Mobile, as reported by the Dealbook blog of the New York Times.
• As many folks discovered in unlikely places such as New York, Boston and Vermont, it is hurricane season.  Andy Ihnatko, a Boston resident who writes for the Chicago Sun-Times, wrote an article with disaster preparation advice for you and your digital devices.
• Amber Singleton Riviere of GigaOm recomends iOS apps to help you go paperless.
• New Orleans attorney Ernest Svenson describes Adobe's new iOS app in an article with a title that gives away the ending: "Adobe's new iOS PDF app is lame."
• Stewart Wolpin of NBC writes "It's an iPad World and We Just Live In It."
• Robert Frank of the Wall Street Journal writes that millionaires love the iPad.
• Eli Milchman of Cult of Mac reviews six different styluses for the iPad.  My current favorite stylus, the Kensington Virtuoso Stylus for Tablet, for some reason was not included in that stylus roundup.
• And finally, this video is about two months old, but there is something strangely mesmerizing about watching The Pope use an iPad.  It looks to me like this is the first time that His Holiness had either used an iPad or seen Twitter:

Review: MSBA -- Maryland rules of professional conduct, evidence, etc.

The Young Lawyers Section of the Maryland State Bar Association thought that it would be useful to create an iPhone and iPad apps for attorneys with the Maryland Rules of Professional Conduct and important rules for lawyers.  After a grant from the Maryland Bar Foundation, the result is the free MSBA app, which just appeared on the App Store this week.  Thanks to Erek Barron, chair of the YLS of the MSBA, for bringing this app to my attention.

The main menu of the app has two modes.  When the app starts you are presented with five buttons (the app calls them "tabs") that you can select:  (1) The Maryland Rules of Evidence, (2) The Maryland Rules of Professional Conduct, (3) rules on Attorney Trust Accounts, (4) the Maryland Ideals of Professionalism and (5) the MSBA Code of Civility.  Alternatively, you can display "list" mode which simply lists the chapters of all of these bodies of law in one long list.  I'm not sure why the "list" view would ever be easier to use than the "tabs" view.

  

When you tap on a chapter you see all of the rules in that chapter.  For example, tap on Rule 1 "Client-Lawyer Relationship" and you see a long list of every rule and comment, from Rule 1.1 to Rule 1.18, in one long list divided up into four different parts.  It is nice to get all of the text of the rules and comments in a free app, but I don't understand the thinking behind putting all of the rules together.  For example, if you want to review Rule 1.13 "Organization as Client" you need to first tap Rule 1, then scroll all the way down to the bottom, then tap a button to go the next part, then scroll all of the way to the bottom again, then tap a button to go to the third part, and then you can find the rule.  It would be so much faster to have all of the rules in an index so that you can jump straight to Rule 1.13.  The other bodies of law, such as the Rules of Evidence, are similarly grouped into long lists under each chapter.

  

There is a search feature which allows you to do a full text search.  Hits are highlighted in yellow making them easy to find ... except that you have to scroll through that long list of rules to find the hits.  You can also add bookmarks to each of the long sets of lists ... which once again would be a much more useful feature if you could add bookmarks to jump to a specific rule.

The app also includes a Links button at the bottom which provides links to parts of the MSBA website including the MSBA Hotline, MSBA Ethics Opinions (for members only) and Fastcase (for members only).  The inclusion of Fastcase is curious.  Lawyers in Maryland who want to use Fastcase on a computer need to first login at the MSBA website because (like many other state bars) the MSBA purchased Fastcase access for its member attorneys.  But if you are on an iPhone or an iPad, the Fastcase app is free to everyone, regardless of whether your state bar has a contract with Fastcase.  Why would anyone want to tap a link to the Maryland website on an iPhone to access the web version of Fastcase when they can instead just use the fantastic Fastcase iPhone / iPad app?

I love that the Young Lawyers Section of the Maryland Bar saw the need for an app and created something that is free for all attorneys.  This is even a universal app so you can use it on both the iPhone and the iPad.  I disagree with the decision to lump sets of rules together because it makes it harder to find the one rule that you need, and perhaps a 2.0 version of this app will address that.  Nevertheless, if you are a Maryland attorney, you should still get this free app in case you want to look up any of these rules.  For everyone else, perhaps this app can serve as an example and an impetus for other state bar associations to provide useful iPhone and iPad apps to their members.

Click here to get MSBA (free):