Happy Friday the 13th! The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) took place in Las Vegas over the last few days. Lots of products that work with the iPhone or iPad, or are inspired by their success, were previewed. History tells us that many of these items will never see the light of day, and many more will prove to be interesting ideas that never panned out. Nevertheless, there are always a few diamonds in the rough. I discuss a few CES announcements below, and I'll be talking about more over the coming weeks. And now the news of the week:
- Florida attorney Katie Floyd makes Apple predictions for 2012. I agree with almost all of them.
- Trial presentation consultant Ted Brooks wrote an extensive review for Law Technology News of ExhibitView, an iPad app that you can use to display and annotate exhibits at trial.
- Joan Feldman of Attorney at Work recommends 10 apps for attorneys.
- Martha Neil of ABA Journal writes about two Portland attorney who are trying to raise money through Kickstarter to manufacture a product that they call the Clutch, a handle and stand for the iPad.
- This article is dated June 6, 2011, but I just saw it a few days ago and it is worth noting. Jury consultant Dr. Ken Broda-Bahm reviews iJuror and Jury Duty, two apps that can help you pick a jury. His article includes a great video that shows the apps in action. I'm intrigued by apps like these, but the author notes that in their current versions, they are not quite helpful enough to replace traditional voir dire tools. Nevertheless, I suspect that in the future, apps like this could become essential in trial.
- Virginia attorney Rob Dean discusses using GoodReader and Dropbox to get documents on an iPad to use in court.
- Houston attorney David Bissinger discusses in Texas Lawyer what trial lawyers can learn from Steve Jobs regarding presentation skills.
- On January 19, Tom Mighell, the author of iPad in One Hour for Lawyers, Jim Calloway of the Oklahoma Bar Association, and Birmingham, AL attorney Jamie Moncus are presenting an online CLE through ALI-ABA called "iPads for Litigators." The course will showcase apps and accessories to help litigators get the most out of their iPads.
- Camille Reynolds, law librarian at the Nossaman firm, recommends iPhone and iPad apps for lawyers in an article for The Recorder at Law.com.
- Mike Scarcella of The Blog of LegalTimes discusses authenticity and admissibility of notes on an iPhone in a conspiracy prosecution.
- On Thursday, January 19, Apple is hosting an event at the Guggenheim Museum on Fifth Avenue in New York. Dan Moren of Macworld shows the invitation sent to members of the press, which states: "Join us for an education announcement in the Big Apple." Many are predicting that this will be an announcement related to textbooks on the iPad. Given the weight of the books that I carried around when I was in college, and especially when I was in law school, textbooks on an iPad sounds like a good idea.
- Do you like to read Kindle books on your iPad? The Kindle app works great as an e-book reader, but unfortunately it doesn't let you find and buy new books because Amazon doesn't want to pay Apple a percentage of every sale. Steven Sande of TUAW discusses a new Kindle website that is optimized for the iPad to make it easy to find and purchase books.
- On Monday, I noted that it has been five years since Apple announced the iPhone. Andy Ihnatko of the Chicago Sun Times was one of the few reporters to get to play with an iPhone five years ago, and he has a great post describing the experience.
- Ihnatko also wrote a great article about the new tablets announced at CES and how they compare to the iPad.
- If you have ever applied a protective screen to your iPhone or iPad, you know how difficult it is to do so without getting dust or bubbles under the screen. John Brownlee of Cult of Mac describes an interesting new device that is supposed to make it easy to apply a screen by using a roller.
- Nick Wingfield of the New York Times describes a new free iPad ap called OnLive that let's you run Windows on an iPad. It works similar to Citrix or LogMeIn.
- Warren Buckleitner of the New York Times reviews four iPhone cases designed to make the iPhone even more child-friendly.
- And finally, earlier this week I reviewed the Chef Sleeve, a solution for using your iPad in your kitchen. But what if you want to use your device in the shower? A new product was announced at CES in Las Vegas this past week that addresses this urgent problem. The iShower is a waterproof Bluetooth speaker that works when your iPhone or iPad is up to 200 feet away. That way, you can press play on your iPhone and leave it in your bedroom and then sing along to the tunes while you take a shower. It will debut in March and will cost $99.99.
