Month: September 2011

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.

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.

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.

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): 

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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!”